Assault Rifle Made With a 3-D Printer

Bet it'll be made illegal shortly. I fully expect Haveblue to have some men in black SUVs or his local Sheriff's office to pay him a visit real soon.

So ABS plastic is strong enough for containing the explosion of a .223? Barrel? It's impressive. Never would have thought it would be possible.
 
He made the lower receiver which was unserialized, ATF will be on him for that alone, never mind licensing, or tax.
 
Just the lower, which according to the ATF, is all that matters, rest was factory.
 
I'm not a gun expert, but what I'm reading is that he can only make some minor parts of the gun with the 3D printing. Would hate to see 3D printing make whole pistols/rifles, and see the plans shared like mp3s..but I'm thinking there may actually be no way to stop this. All depends on if the 3D printers can make all the parts, and my understanding is that you still need significant metal parts that 3D printers won't be able to make any time soon.
 
All he made was the lower... not the upper, not the barrel, nor the stock.
Could see the stock being made this way. But not much more with the currently available compounds available for 3D printers. The finished products can be pretty tough (depends on design). We have a couple here at work - WHEN they work right they are great for prototyping stuff. I could see a .22 weapon from some of the denser materials, with a good design that has no open spaces - 3D printers tend to have things rendered to them so that there are hollow spaces in the bits you don't see. You can over-ride this tho. Just takes longer to "print"
 
What a deceptive headline (from the original article, not really blaming [H]).

He made a working 22 LR handgun. Not that hard, since it's one of the weakest ammunition types.

Then he made a AR-15 *lower* receiver. All a lower does is strike the firing pin. The majority of the chamber stress will be on the upper receiver. Furthermore, his printed lower receiver doesn't even work properly (as the article described).
 
For those that arent AR or gun savvy. many stocks, uppers, and lowers are already made out of polymers and plastics. and although the ATF designates the lower as the "gun" itself, it really doesnt have anything to do with function. The lower is designated as the "gun" because an AR is a modular weapon system and you can swap out upper receivers, bolt carrier groups, and barrels based on what you want the rifle to do. So you can have many different configurations but only have to register one gun or lower receiver.

Im all for it, lowers are overpriced anyway
 
Eventually I'm sure it'll be possible to print a working gun. Just a matter of time.
 
rand4505 said:
He made the lower receiver which was unserialized, ATF will be on him for that alone, never mind licensing, or tax.
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As long as you don't sell it, and unless your state forbids it which most do not, you can manufacture guns for yourself until your heart is content. The federal government gets involved in firearms under the commerce clause. When you aren't buying or selling firearms or their parts, there's not much for them to do as long as you don't build anything that requires a tax stamp.
 
awsiemieniec said:
Bet it'll be made illegal shortly. I fully expect Haveblue to have some men in black SUVs or his local Sheriff's office to pay him a visit real soon.

So ABS plastic is strong enough for containing the explosion of a .223? Barrel? It's impressive. Never would have thought it would be possible.
Click to expand...

Depends, if he was a licensed gun manufacturer he is ok. Otherwise, it would be illegal for him to make firearms and the FBI would have showed up at his office already.
 
You could easily print the entire gun out of metal. But selective laser sintering is and electron beam melting are NOT cheap, but they are pretty precise. I got a quote for a part about 6" diameter, about .250" thick, $1500 - $3300 per part.
 
That's awesome, however can a printed gun take that kind of stress when it fires one or more rounds? What kind of material is used in a 3D-printer?
 
raz-0 said:
As long as you don't sell it, and unless your state forbids it which most do not, you can manufacture guns for yourself until your heart is content. The federal government gets involved in firearms under the commerce clause. When you aren't buying or selling firearms or their parts, there's not much for them to do as long as you don't build anything that requires a tax stamp.
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Yup. In the US at least, You can build your own firearms without any licensing or approval, as long as it is only for personal use.
 
rand4505 said:
He made the lower receiver which was unserialized, ATF will be on him for that alone, never mind licensing, or tax.
Click to expand...

Would you be shocked if I told you it's completely legal to make your own gun, you can just never ever sell it and it has to be destroyed upon your death?
 
rand4505 said:
He made the lower receiver which was unserialized, ATF will be on him for that alone, never mind licensing, or tax.
Click to expand...

you can build your own lower

hell, you can buy an 80% lower online and finish the last few cuts yourself

just can't sell it
 
BBA said:
Depends, if he was a licensed gun manufacturer he is ok. Otherwise, it would be illegal for him to make firearms and the FBI would have showed up at his office already.
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incorrect FUD
 
These types of files have been available for some time in the 3d community. It takes virtually nothing to translate these files to .stl files. If you look hard enough, there are 3d files for just about anything you can imagine. Totally not a surprise
 
Vicinity said:
Would you be shocked if I told you it's completely legal to make your own gun, you can just never ever sell it and it has to be destroyed upon your death?
Click to expand...

That's the problem, and why you don't want to make one. You could get your relatives who inherit it in trouble.

So how long before we hear politicians demanding printer control laws?
 
awsiemieniec said:
Bet it'll be made illegal shortly. I fully expect Haveblue to have some men in black SUVs or his local Sheriff's office to pay him a visit real soon.

So ABS plastic is strong enough for containing the explosion of a .223? Barrel? It's impressive. Never would have thought it would be possible.
Click to expand...

The barrel contains the "explosion" (not an explosion) of a .223. I'll bet the bolt and carrier are not ABS, only the receiver, and I'll let anyone who wants an ABS receiver have it.
 
okashira said:
You could easily print the entire gun out of metal. But selective laser sintering is and electron beam melting are NOT cheap, but they are pretty precise. I got a quote for a part about 6" diameter, about .250" thick, $1500 - $3300 per part.
Click to expand...

Using an electron beam to make gun parts is like commuting to work in an F1 car.
 
Didn't they print out a .22 rifle a few months ago on national TV? The metal the barrel and action were metal but the rest was printed out (Sons of Guns, Zombie Gun). Would filling in the hollow parts get it to withstand a 7.62?
 
When you're starting with a metal barrel and action, you can't really say you're "printing a gun" anymore.
 
devil22 said:
Would hate to see 3D printing make whole pistols/rifles, and see the plans shared like mp3s..but I'm thinking there may actually be no way to stop this.
Click to expand...
I doubt it would hurt gun development at all, as the big money comes from big legal entities that would not be able to pirate gun designs such as anything military/police/security/etc.

And since only a very small portion of even the small civilian market would bother with an illegal copy, I don't see the problem.

With regard to gun ownership, it shouldn't be serialized in the first place. Criminals can get guns regardless, and if I have a want or have a gun and I don't have a criminal record then there should be no issue at purchase or if I have it on me.

Well, for us Americans at least since its an expressly guaranteed right in the constitution.
 
And btw, not to nit-pick, but if that rifle isn't capable of firing fully automatic, its not an assault rifle, its just a rifle.
 
devil22 said:
I'm not a gun expert, but what I'm reading is that he can only make some minor parts of the gun with the 3D printing. Would hate to see 3D printing make whole pistols/rifles, and see the plans shared like mp3s..but I'm thinking there may actually be no way to stop this. All depends on if the 3D printers can make all the parts, and my understanding is that you still need significant metal parts that 3D printers won't be able to make any time soon.
Click to expand...

You can 3D print anything. Even unmanufacturable parts.
 
Thank goodness we have those backscatter X-Ray machines and TSA at the airports to keep us safe!
 
Ducman69 said:
And btw, not to nit-pick, but if that rifle isn't capable of firing fully automatic, its not an assault rifle, its just a rifle.
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People mix up assault rifle and "assault weapon" which is media lingo for anything that looks combat oriented.
 
Vicinity said:
Would you be shocked if I told you it's completely legal to make your own gun, you can just never ever sell it and it has to be destroyed upon your death?
Click to expand...

Truth. I researched this after I got out of the military....I had my reasons :p
 
BladeVenom said:
That's the problem, and why you don't want to make one. You could get your relatives who inherit it in trouble.

So how long before we hear politicians demanding printer control laws?
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Wouldn't be surprising. Theres those codes on money which tells the printer to stop scaning/printing.
 
Gun laws even more pointless...

Oh and you can buy fucking rocket launchers and heavy weapons on the internets darknet shipped to you in parts so anybody can get what they want.

Now you can even print out the plastic parts and only have to ship the metal parts.
 
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