Posted on 09/10/2014 8:37:43 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
While we have seen so many incredible life-changing applications for 3D printing, there are still many concerns which remain on the table when dealing with the possible negative implications of the technology. Whether you believe that the ease in which practically anyone will eventually be able to fabricate a firearm is a good or bad thing, just the thought of 3D printed firearms will send shivers down the spines of law enforcement agencies around the world. There has been an incredibly fast progression of the technology behind the methods of manufacturing guns with 3D printers in the last two years alone. Imagine what the next five to ten year will have in store for us.
It seems like it was only yesterday when Defense Distributed’s Cody Wilson 3D printed the very first known gun. Maybe that’s because it was almost yesterday. Believe it or not, it was only about 17 months ago when Wilson unveiled the 3D printed ‘Liberator’ gun, which he created on a Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer. What many people don’t realize though, is that several different firearms as well as gun parts have been 3D printed in the short time since Wilson’s creation was revealed. I have provided below, a short history of the various 3D printed firearm models that we have seen to date.
May, 2013 – Cody Wilson’s Liberator .380
This pistol was initially printed on a Stratasys Dimension SST 3-D printer, which utilizes fused deposition modeling technology, by Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed. It is a single shot pistol which uses .380 ACP cartridges. Since the files were released, hundreds of thousands of individuals downloaded the entire blueprints, and numerous individuals have printed this gun out prior to the Justice Department demanding that Wilson remove the files from the internet. By this time it was much too late. The gun has since been printed on a variety of different 3D printers including those priced at under $1000.
August, 2013 – Grizzly .22 Caliber Rifle
Months after Wilson’s gun was publicized, a Canadian man going by the name ‘Mathew” 3D printed an actual rifle. This firearm was tested, and pretty much exploded in his arms. Mathew went back to the drawing board, and this time thickened the walls of the barrel. The Grizzly 2.0 was printed on a Stratasys Dimension 1200e machine, and was able to fire off 14 shots prior to it developing a crack.
September, 2013 – Reprringer Pepperbox .22 Revolver
Just a month later, Hexen released the blueprints for their Reprringer Pepperbox revolver. The weapon which can hold 5 bullets at once, is a small firearm, with a relatively poor aim. There are three versions of this weapon, all of which are easy to find and download online. It was initially printed on a variety of consumer desktop 3D printers. The gun was designed by a man going by the name of Franco, and unlike the other weapons we covered, this one does have stainless steel liners for its barrels. Hexen continues to improve upon the gun, with a 3rd version currently available for download.
November, 2013 – Browning 1911 Metal Replica
In November of last year, Solid Concepts, now a Stratasys company, blew all these other firearms out of the water, by using a direct metal laser sintering printer to create a replica of a 1911 Browning .45 pistol. To date this weapon has fired over 600 shots successfully. Solid Concepts plans on producing more of these firearms in the months to come. It is important to note that a machine capable of printing this weapon would run close to $1 million, and printing such a gun to resell is not currently economically feasible.
May, 2014 – Zig Zag .38 Revolvera-zig
This May, a Japanese man, Yoshitomo Imura, was arrested after he had posted a video online of himself firing a 3D printed Zig Zag revolver. The man who is believed to have printed the weapon months prior, also was found in possession of four other 3D printed guns, which he reportedly printed on a sub-$500 FDM 3D printer. Imura did fire the revolver, which has a capacity of six bullets, however, he stated that blanks were used.
I’m sure that in the coming months and years ahead, this list will continue to expand. Make no mistake, 3D printed weaponry is here to stay. It will be up to law enforcement to figure out a way to protect the public without stepping on their civil liberties. These guns are only the beginning.
Let’s hear your thoughts on what, if anything, should be done by authorities to make sure these weapons do not fall in the hands of crazed maniacs. Discuss this story in the 3D printed gun forum thread on 3DPB.com.
Just tech writers. Real techies are printing the new guns.
Political power grows out of the nozzle of a 3-D Printer.
Bump
Could someone please explain the technology to me. A “normal” 1911 is made by forging steel, that is a piece of steel is taken, smashed under a press to create the rough part, and then machined down to the correct measurements. Some companies, like Ruger, make guns by casting them, and then machining. Old school gun-guys claim these are not as strong as forged guns. But I believe this is incorrect. Certainly Rugers have a reputation for ruggedness that is well known. But, it’s also true that Ruger guns are more chunky than similar caliber old-school designs. Compare the Smith and Wesson Model 29 to the Ruger Redhawk, for instance. It’s hard to say if this chunkyness is required by the manufacturing technique, or just something Bill Ruger wanted because he wanted to sell indestructible guns.
What exactly does a 3D printer do? Obviously plastic barrels and such are a novelty, but the 1911 looks legit. “Fired 600 rounds” isn’t a very compelling claim though. How about 10,000? I’m sure companies like Springfield Armory, Kimber and Colt do that all the time.
Is the printed gun as good as a decent standard production 1911, or is it a weak look-alike?
Most pistols never fire 1,000 rounds according to an industry expert.
Can't imagine why anything need be done. Making your own firearm (and much better ones than these) has always been possible (and legal). Not even our government thought that justified controls on milling machines, so why would are 3D printers any more of an issue?
You're right. Authorities are trying to make people paranoid, in order to enact restrictions. Decades ago, it was commonplace for kids to take shop classes in middle schools. They learned how to make items out of metal or wood. Anything was possible, and a kid could take that knowledge home and build anything. Now, they threaten kids for drawing a crude image of a gun, or to even mention the word "gun". Carrying a bullet is a crime. In the old days, kids could openly play with them and display them as jewelry. The crazed maniacs are the ones stripping away our rights.
I'd like to know too. Most of the articles I have read about metal printing can't get past the "Isn't amazing that this works at all!" stage to tell you how well the printed components actually function in the real world.
This article isn't about guns, so it doesn't answer your questions, but at least it has a few specifics about the performance of printed metal parts:
Making it strongIn addition to durability and corrosion resistance, titanium alloys have a high ultimate tensile strength when processed using additive manufacturing. With near-perfect densities-greater than 99.7 percent—the process is better than casting and the small, spherical nature of additive-part porosity has little negative effect on strength. The seat post bracket was tested using the mountain bike standard EN 14766, and it withstood 50,000 cycles of 270 lb. ft. Testing continued to six times the standard without failure.
3d printers aren’t all plastic. There’s a wide variety of materials that can be used including stainless steel. They are basically a high fidelity CNC machine that eliminates the operator and have a 360 degree of operation vice the vertical/horizontal of your typical milling machine. There’s still a long ways to go but the technology is getting better daily.
Two blocks of wood nailed at right angles to each other; a small nail front and back to hold a rubber band in place; a rubber band a pieces of linoleum - presto, a zip gun.
OR,
A cap pistol, a small nail soldered in place acting as a hammer and .22LR bullets - presto, zip gun II.
Both were used by my classmates in gang fights - white, Catholic school in the late ‘40s, early ‘50s.
"...what, if anything, should be done by authorities to make sure these weapons do not fall in the hands of crazed maniacs..."I would be interested to hear how the author would even begin to accomplish that impossible, ill-defined, ever-changing, never-ending task.
And I rather doubt the author would entertain the suggestion that we instead promote and encourage individual self-defense, armed or otherwise?
Is the printed gun as good as a decent standard production 1911, or is it a weak look-alike?Well, it's certainly not a modern, robustly manufactured pistol, but I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. I'm looking at this as "step 1" and happy to see it survived the first shot without failing structurally.
As with all new tech, you have to start somewhere and this is a fairly successful start. The thing went *bang* without blowing up! Now, they just have to figure out how to improve it with each successive generation. I'm rooting for them!
Laser sintering is accomplished by dispensing a VERY thin layer of powdered metal on a plate (see that plate that looks like it “grew” those parts in post 3) and then lasers sinter, or melt/weld the metal powder together.
To make it easy to see, just take a cylinder standing on end, sort of like the barrel of that 1911 on that base plate in the picture.
Layer the powder on the plate, and have the laser heat up an area between two circles. After a few passes, it might look like a flat washer, or a ring, after many more passes, it will look like a tube standing straight up. The laser will not melt nearby powder, which will be eventually removed, leaving the hard part.
You do the same for all the other parts, but the shape changes, depending on what the part looks like at various heights/depths.
See post 16.
The "authorities" ARE crazed maniacs. If we can keep this technology from their meddling, grubby fingers, it's a start.
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