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World's first 3D printed gun test fired

m.bbc.co.uk

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Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#21

Post by biot »

TheBiv wrote: post #2

Call me a simpleton or luddite if you will, but I don't even have a regular printer at my home and I don't see a good reason to have a 3D printer either. Also, a non-techie like my brother (who probably wouldnt use this anyways) can barely install Microsoft Word, so telling him to print off a gun is an aggressive leap forward. I just don't understand what good these types of articles play or what practice purpose the…

The day will come when every house has one of these built in. You can then install and run an app on your home computer/tablet/smartphone, then search/browse from hundreds of products. You choose a product, the app downloads it and sends it wirelessly to your home 3D printer, and a few minutes later out pops a new protective case for your smartphone. Or a new set of knobs for your kitchen drawers. Or a lamp for your newborn son's bedroom. When your son grows up, he may print you a mug on Father's day saying "World's #1 Dad".

That you can print a gun is simply a byproduct of the fact that you can print anything, and it makes for a more compelling story than "3D printing is still improving".

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#22

Post by DanBC »

mikemoka wrote: post #19

The only control possible might be included by law in 3D printers themselves I think, just like modded car can be fined buyers and sellers of non-limited 3D printers could be fined/prosecuted as well, given that such control is possible. I am against control in general because it limits creativity and innovation but I am not sure it is in everyone's interest to let weapons flow freely and without any possible limitat…

Putting controls on a printer may increase friction and thus slow down the number of people who have access to a 3d printed gun. This might help with deaths from violence - England is more violent than the US but you're more likely to die from violence in the US.

Some forms of DRM (XBOX360, for example) are tricky enough that it prevents a few people from bothering. Some forms of DRM are so obnoxious that they encourage people to pirate so they can make use of the content.

I can't see 3D-Printer-Controls being anything but cumbersome, easily circumvented, annoyances.

It's important to note that people who want guns can easily make bad guns already (or, with a bit of decent machinery, they can make good guns) or they can buy illegal guns.This is true even in the UK with our strict laws.

Controls on 3d printers may just shift the problem somewhere else. Scanners and photocopiers have controls about scanning / copying money. This makes it tricky to copy banknotes. A photocopied / laser printed bank note is a lousy forgery. It's really obviously fake. And criminals in England tend to forge £1 coins - about 2% of these coins are forged. Some of them are obvious slugs, coloured tin. Others are better quality - using the same planchets and thus they work in machines.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#24

Post by geon »

arethuza wrote: post #12
ghshephard wrote: post #8

I always wonder why these articles don't mention that the ability to personally make a gun with a CNC machine has existed for quite a few years. There isn't a lot of new ground being broken in terms of "Freedom to create firearms in your home" with 3D printing.

I managed to make a "gun" when I was about 14 with some scrap metal parts, home made explosive and hand tools. Mind you, I only ever test fired it while it was safely held in a vice, but it certainly worked.

Someone I know converted a model cannon to an actual cannon and loaded it with blackpowder from firecrackers and a marble. It worked very well and almost hit an unsuspecting passerby.

My uncle built a similar cannon from some pipe and shot holes through sheet metal with it.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#25

Post by _delirium »

cturner wrote: post #16
ghshephard wrote: post #8

I always wonder why these articles don't mention that the ability to personally make a gun with a CNC machine has existed for quite a few years. There isn't a lot of new ground being broken in terms of "Freedom to create firearms in your home" with 3D printing.

I think it's a big story. 3d printing opens many possibilities that CNC doesn't offer. A CNC requires specialised skill. Downloading and printing 3d doesn't. Building guns with a CNC requires a lot of labour. Whereas you can imagine having a lab full of 3d printers being operated by a single pensioner. 3d printers look like they'll be generic and mass-produced. If so, in ten years there will be 3d printers everywhere…

CNC machines do take skill to operate, but the amount of skill required to make a single-shot gun out of metal by conventional means is really low. It's something you can do with very rudimentary metalworking skills, using low-tech equipment.

Now if you can 3d-print a reliable rifle like an AK-47, that could get interesting.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#26

Post by shabble »

jacquesm wrote: post #18

If the social consequences of 3D printing and their more capable cousins (molecular assemblers) interest you then I can high recommend Charles Stross's 'Singularity Sky'. It's a study in disruption.

The more mundane current variety (well, slightly advanced) make something of a showing in his 'Rule 34'[1] as well.

Doctorow's 'Makers'[2] is another, at a similar level.

Programmable molecular assemblers, if they're even possible (see: the various critics of Drexler), are so far beyond our current tech as to have almost unimaginable potential consequences, socially and otherwise.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Rule-34-Charles-Stross/dp/1937007669

[2] http://craphound.com/makers/

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#28

Post by cturner »

_delirium wrote: post #25
cturner wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a big story. 3d printing opens many possibilities that CNC doesn't offer. A CNC requires specialised skill. Downloading and printing 3d doesn't. Building guns with a CNC requires a lot of labour. Whereas you can imagine having a lab full of 3d printers being operated by a single pensioner. 3d printers look like they'll be generic and mass-produced. If so, in ten years there will be 3d printers everywhere…

CNC machines do take skill to operate, but the amount of skill required to make a single-shot gun out of metal by conventional means is really low. It's something you can do with very rudimentary metalworking skills, using low-tech equipment. Now if you can 3d-print a reliable rifle like an AK-47, that could get interesting.

    Now if you can 3d-print a reliable rifle like an AK-47,
    that could get interesting.
The team that made this gun are already doing the most difficult bit from the AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle that has been used in several massacres in the west (including the one that sparked heavy gun regulation in Australia in the 90s).

That's why I thought this was news. First they made the lower-receiver of a powerful gun. Now they've also succeeded in producing all the parts of a not-powerful gun. As I see it, they've got a piece of string over the chasm and will iterate from here to build a bridge.

I expect the barrel will be difficult (need a big machine and the rifling is probably tricky as you get to the top). The gas-reloading mechanism will take some work. But the lower-receiver is where most of the pressures where you might have doubt that plastic would work, and that's the bit they've already done.

And that's just reimplementing an existing gun with a design that was optimised for metalwork. After that we'll see a bunch of development in designs that are optimised for plastics and printing. That'll be your AK-47 equivalent.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#29

Post by fungi »

ghshephard wrote: post #8

I always wonder why these articles don't mention that the ability to personally make a gun with a CNC machine has existed for quite a few years. There isn't a lot of new ground being broken in terms of "Freedom to create firearms in your home" with 3D printing.

indeed home made guns have a very long history. the serious gun violence that they fuel in Papua New Guinea has been known about for years.

extremely detailed paper: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/B-Occasional-p...

for something a little less dry and with pics of the guns see: http://www.vice.com/read/port-moresbys-little-raskols

the 3d printer angle is interesting from a tec perspective, but i cant help feel that this is more about a guy building himself in to the linus of guns then gun policy.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#30

Post by _delirium »

cturner wrote: post #28
_delirium wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CNC machines do take skill to operate, but the amount of skill required to make a single-shot gun out of metal by conventional means is really low. It's something you can do with very rudimentary metalworking skills, using low-tech equipment. Now if you can 3d-print a reliable rifle like an AK-47, that could get interesting.

Now if you can 3d-print a reliable rifle like an AK-47, that could get interesting. The team that made this gun are already doing the most difficult bit from the AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle that has been used in several massacres in the west (including the one that sparked heavy gun regulation in Australia in the 90s). That's why I thought this was news. First they made the lower-receiver of a powerful gun. Now the…

the most difficult bit from the AR-15

As far as I understand it, the lower receiver on an AR-15 is actually a pretty trivial housing component, subject to almost no operational pressures, but interesting legally because it's where the gun's serial number happens to be stamped. (But I should note I don't really know much about AR-15s, just stuff I've read.)

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