Criminals Find Novel Uses for 3D Printing

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We post plenty of "stupid" criminal stories here, so why not a crafty criminal of the day story? How "crafty" you might ask? How about making a handcuff key using only a photo of a key hanging from a policeman's belt?

For instance, a member of a German lock-picking group, Sportsfreunde Der Sperrtechnik – Deutschland e.V., used his 3D printer to create a key to unlock handcuffs carried by the Dutch police. Startlingly, he was able to measure and reproduce the key accurately by using nothing more than a photograph of the key hanging from the belt of a police officer plus some basic math to gauge its size.
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What's a lock picking group? If he has the wherewithall to calculate the dimensions from a picture, i'm sure he's capable of getting the same results the old fashion way with a file and a template. cool though.
 
Magazines that hold more than 10 rounds aren't illegal in most states - not to mention cheap. And don't forget the spring, follower, and baseplate.

And I'd like to see how long a lower receiver made on one of those non-professionally rated units with substandard material would hold up under real use.

Inflamatory reporting at it's best.
 
Unless they use special handcuffs, I don't see how that is so special. Handcuff keys are very basic and usually pretty universal with the premise that you're tied up, so you can't do anything.
 
jahcs said:
Magazines that hold more than 10 rounds aren't illegal in most states - not to mention cheap. And don't forget the spring, follower, and baseplate.

And I'd like to see how long a lower receiver made on one of those non-professionally rated units with substandard material would hold up under real use.

Inflamatory reporting at it's best.
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Weird that it turned into a political piece halfway through.
 
jahcs said:
Magazines that hold more than 10 rounds aren't illegal in most states - not to mention cheap. And don't forget the spring, follower, and baseplate.

And I'd like to see how long a lower receiver made on one of those non-professionally rated units with substandard material would hold up under real use.

Inflamatory reporting at it's best.
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Isn't this in Europe, though?
 
pigpen said:
What's a lock picking group? If he has the wherewithall to calculate the dimensions from a picture, i'm sure he's capable of getting the same results the old fashion way with a file and a template. cool though.
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A lock picking group is a group of people who as a hobby pick locks. There are literally thousands of such groups all over the world. At the HOPE (Hackers Of Planet Earth) conference, they do a bunch of lock picking workshops every year... always has a good amount of interest im told...I believe i read an article about this years or last years, where they had children competing for prizes to pick locks in the least amount of time... ive been meaning to go to one, but just havent had the time off... maybe next year...

You can find all sorts of information just by searching for lock picking on google... or youtube to watch some workshops and stuff... lots and lots of videos out explaining how to do this.. its quite fun... but can be very very annoying until you get the whole "feel" of each lock down pat to consistantly pick it with whatever tool you prefer...
 
Spidey329 said:
Unless they use special handcuffs, I don't see how that is so special. Handcuff keys are very basic and usually pretty universal with the premise that you're tied up, so you can't do anything.
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Ive seen all kinds of weird handcuff keys in my line of work. From plastic ones that basically fit underneath your watch (to hide when arrested)... to ones that are in the tongues of shoes that are also plastic... pretty ingenious stuff indeed...and dont show up on metal detectors... :)
 
Nice that he was able to make one with a 3D printer, but this is nothing new. It's long been an "issue" that you can take a picture of any generic key and understand the bittings (the rise of the key teeth).

The biggest challenge is usually the scale, which is easily done by placing a coin or other uniform object next to the key in question. Pose, snap photo, go home and cut your own key.
 
jahcs said:
Magazines that hold more than 10 rounds aren't illegal in most states - not to mention cheap. And don't forget the spring, follower, and baseplate.

And I'd like to see how long a lower receiver made on one of those non-professionally rated units with substandard material would hold up under real use.

Inflamatory reporting at it's best.
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In the United States its perfectly legal to manufacture your own firearm anyway, you just aren't allowed to sell it to anyone unless you pay the proper taxes.
 
jahcs said:
Magazines that hold more than 10 rounds aren't illegal in most states - not to mention cheap. And don't forget the spring, follower, and baseplate.

And I'd like to see how long a lower receiver made on one of those non-professionally rated units with substandard material would hold up under real use.

Inflamatory reporting at it's best.
Click to expand...

Double post.

Found the AR-15 magazine on their site. Includes the baseplate, spring, and follower. May have to try this.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11636
 
I didn't read anything but the last few glancings at this title I read it as "Novell" and I was thinking how long it had been since I heard anything about them.

only to "doh" after reading more than a cursory glance.
 
I'm glad the person admitted they're not very knowledgeable about firearms, because there's some glaring problems with everything they've said. First, possessing a magazine with greater than 10 rounds was never illegal under the AWB. You could walk into just about any gun store or order through the mail 30 round AR or AK mags and even 100 round drum mags all during this time. Second, trying to construct a lower receiver to an AR-15 using a 3D printer is not necessarily a sound idea. Firearms have to withstand some serious stresses and if the material the printer makes does not have proper thermal and shock tolerance properties then the receiver will eventually fail, which can result in injury or death to the user depending on how it fails. In addition, there's no legal requirement to "register" an AR-15. The only Federal requirement is for the person to pass a NICS background check at the time of purchase if they are purchasing from an FFL holder. You can sell privately from one individual to another without any government involvement so long as you are not knowingly selling to a convicted felon or other individual prohibited from legally owning a firearm. Some states or cities have laws that require registration or prohibit possession of an AR-15, but there's no Federal requirement. Now if the person is thinking about a fully-automatic machinegun, yes, it has to be registered, but a fully-automatic M-16A2 and a semi-automatic civilian AR-15 use the exact same lower receiver. It's the fire control group that determines whether it's fully automatic or capable of burst fire, not the receiver.

As for handcuff keys, you can get them just about anywhere, and most handcuffs can be picked with a paperclip or bobby pin. If you really want to keep someone from picking cuffs, use the zip-tie kind that have to be cut to remove them, otherwise do proper police work and search the person, and when you find a hidden key you add possession of criminal tools to the list of charges, which is SOP for law enforcement. Stupid inflammatory scare tactics is all this article is. :rolleyes:
 
Phoenix333 said:
...You can sell privately from one individual to another without any government involvement so long as you are not knowingly selling to a convicted felon or other individual prohibited from legally owning a firearm.....
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It is also illegal to sell to someone from another state.
 
You are correct. I should have worded that as "prohibited from legally purchasing a firearm", and that would have covered that condition.
 
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