Three decades ago, I made a four shot, .45 caliber pistol for 12 dollars worth of hardware store parts and 12 hours of labor.
This is a good reminder to technocrats that freedoms reinforce each other.
Guns kill things. What is the threat from unnecessarily powerful guns, killing someone twice? I'm guessing that if the author knew he was about to engage in a gun fight for his life, he would never consider getting a gun that was just adequate.
I doubt very seriously a printed gun barrel could withstand the pressure of a fired round.
Better have some good safety glasses.
The technology to create guns has almost always been in private hands, but newer technology drastically cheapens the price and makes it more affordable to everyone. If you can print all the metal parts on the same printer, it become much more available to hobbyists, rather than those with a full machine shop.
I see Forbes feel for it.
“Firearm manufacture started with 15th century technology. “
Years ago along the Kenya-Uganda border there was a major problem with the deep boreholes (water wells with hand pumps) being broken by the local semi-nomadic pastoralist warriors. The hand pumps used 1/2” galvanized water pipe as pump rod, connecting the pump handle to the piston located a hundred feet or more below.
It turned out the warriors were using the 1/2” pipe to make gun barrels. They spend a lot of time raiding each other, often stealing 20k-30k cattle on one raid.
The solution was to switch to 3/4” water pipe for the connecting rods. So far, no one is man enough to fire a .75 caliber rifle.
Of course, later, when Idi Amin fell, the local tribe broke into the district armory and stole 12,000 AK-47s and 2 million rounds of ammo.
“Yeee ha!, talk about a cattle raid!” More like major firefight or minor war!
( I’m in favor of tighter gun control and a ban on weapons that are unnecessarily powerful)
What is unnecessarily powerful?
Who decides that? The Government ?
And do you really care if the bullet that enters your brain pan is a 45 caliber or a 22 cal hollow point?
bump
You can fabricate any metal part you need with them.
You can buy one on eBay.
You’re right - there’s no “need” for 3D printing. I could turn out guns from truck axles that work quite nicely.
But I couldn’t do it *quickly*. A small shop with a lathe, mill, deep hole drilling expertise, etc... might be able to (if the plan is very simple, like a Rem700) make a rifle start to finish in a man-week per rifle. Even if I broadcast the plans and BOM far and wide, I’d have to assume that, to make firearms the “old school” way, you’d have someone with some machine tools and some skill to make guns from plans I might lay out in detail.
If Uncle Sugar wanted to shut this activity down, they could snatch up guys like me by the 100’s and be done with it. Most people don’t know how to run machine tools and they’re not about to learn how any time soon, much less devote the space in their garage or shop to thousands of pounds of precision iron. There’s only eight gunsmithing schools in the nation (that I know of), and perhaps only three where someone coming out really has the chops to build a rifle/pistol from scratch. These classes are full beyond their capacity, but that’s only about a dozen guys per semester per school that are coming out of each of these programs. In other words, the net total of new gunsmiths per year who have the chops to build a rifle from scratch might be 100, schools and apprenticeships taken together. The real trick is the deep hole drilling of the hole in the barrel. Everything else is pretty easy.
Add in a dozen more machine tool technology programs at community colleges and you can shut down an illicit gun business that can produce serious guns (not zip guns, but guns capable to take a head shot at 300 yards) without appearing any more stupid or draconian than what we see today in the rampantly stupid “war on drugs.”
But a 3D printer? Feh. Any one of these hacker-type twerps can run a 3D printer. There’s hundreds of thousand of hacker-types who can run a 3D printer. There’s 10’s of thousands more every year. DefCon used to be small and “cool,” and now it’s like some huge hacker “Us” festival.
If I’m putting together a 3D printed gun, I can ship the CNC program over the ‘net to... everywhere in an hour. The 3D “ink” will likely be controlled in distribution, but that will win about as well as the controls on prescription narcotics and fertilizers - in other words, the Feds won’t be able to control it worth a damn. Kids will be able to score a barrel of 3D/MIM goo with no great feat. With 3D printing, the cat is out of the bag in a way that even dipstick liberal arts majors scribbling for major east coast newspapers can finally realize... because the technology is so simple, even a dipstick liberal arts major can run it and make a 1911 on their desk, from the same computer that is used to author their idiotic screeds.
At most, they might need a heat treat oven. OK, so that’ll be about another $1300, and they’ll need to wait a few hours. Ovens have programmable controllers now too. The instructions can be as simple as “put in the part, press ‘go’ on the oven controller.” The stooge running the oven won’t need to know jack about heat treatment. Just use an air quenched metal and give them a pair of tongs to pull it out of the oven. Done deal.
This thread completely underestimates the power of Government. Worry about that not gun size, power and availability.
If ignorance was bliss this author would be one happy man.
The AK-47 is no more powerful than a 30-30- Winchester.
The M-1 carbine is no more powerful than a 32-20 Winchester rifle.
The M-1A with military ammo is less powerful than a bolt action rifle with .308 hunting ammo.
The AR-15 is more powerful than a .222 Remington varmint hunting cartridge, but LESS powerful than a .222 Magnum Remington varmint cartridge, and 5.56 MM ammo should not be fired in .223 chambers. Same for reverse.
To understand what I am saying, check your warranty info. If you use HUNTING AMMO in some military style rifles it voids the warranty as there is a minor but serious difference between military and hunting ammo.
Here is a thread with a picture of a functioning printed lower in .22LR based on the AR form.
LLS
I still have my “FirePower” magazines from the early 80’s. One of their writers (legally) made a STEN type 9mm submachinegun from scratch. Only took him 2 or 3 days, as I remember. I think a welder and a drill press were the extent of his power tools.
BTTT
Looks like the site is is still up: