Political power grows out of the nozzle of a 3-D Printer.
Posted on 08/17/2015 6:30:34 PM PDT by marktwain
As we have expected to happen for some time, and as the initial Cody Wilson “Liberator” first demonstrated, 3D-printed firearms made of common addititive-manufacturing plastics like ABS or PLA inevitably had to diverge from common steel firearms practice to take advantage of those plastics’ strength — and overcome their weaknesses.
That means that, while early prints were nothing but, for example, a plastic version of an AR lower dimensionally identical to its aluminum forbear, but destined for a short life (especially in PLA), more and more designs are innovating in different directions.
This series of videos shows the Shuty, a 9mm pistol based on kitbashing the designs of British homemade gun pioneer P.A. Luty and the AR-15 together. It uses several metal parts, including the barrel (which comes from a Glock 17), the fire-control group (AR), and the bolt (home-made). On the other hand, the magazine, upper and lower receivers, and bolt carrier, are all printed from a polymer generally thought unsuitable for firearms parts. Turns out, you can design around materials deficiencies (as the Japanese did when they used chrome bores for strength, to offset the suboptimal alloys they had for rifle barrels, decades before other nations adopted them for durability, and when their aeronautical engineers designed assemblies built-up of 7075-equivalent alloy sheet where every other skyfaring nation would use a 7075 forging).
Here is Derwood’s working Shuty, redesigned from the original, as of 1 May 15:
He says:
After several failed attempts with the Shuty, I decided to beef it up to handle the stress. The combination plastic/steel bolt works very good. After several test fires, the frame and lower is holding up well and no damage has occurred.
(Excerpt) Read more at weaponsman.com ...
Another Weapons Shops of Isher reminder. Good stuff.
Political power grows out of the nozzle of a 3-D Printer.
That is just amazing.
many parts can be purchased
over the counter...
why bother with 3D ?
It was simply a “proof of principle”.
I hope that someone with actual firearms design experience comes up with a 3-D printer design. Virtually ALL of the screws in this one were in tension. And it looks like they were selftapping into plastic. It won’t last long before they strip out and it comes apart.
I think hybrid designs such as this will continue to improve. I can see where the designs would allow for inserts to take the brunt of the wear, while doing the hard to machine shapes on 3D printing.
These items do not have to last as long as conventional firearms. If they work to fire 100 rounds, that is plenty. There purpose is to prove that regulatory control of firearms, by controlling manufacture and sale, is totally impractical.
If you want to keep guns out of criminal’s hands, you have to concentrate on the criminals, not the guns.
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