Really dodgy or really cool...

[ReconRabbit]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

There is a chap across the pond already trying to 3d print a real firearm, or at least parts for them and from what iv seen they all seem to fail. As the materials used are to weak and brittle to handle the recoil so I personally don't see that this will be too much of a problem as long as the chap has a defence or uses a coloured plastic for his nutty creations

[Fizzy]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

There is a chap across the pond already trying to 3d print a real firearm, or at least parts for them and from what iv seen they all seem to fail. As the materials used are to weak and brittle to handle the recoil so I personally don't see that this will be too much of a problem as long as the chap has a defence or uses a coloured plastic for his nutty creations

If has a defence, then I don't see it being an issue.

However, it won't stop people with no idea claiming they can be converted to fire live rounds, just as (amongst others) Mothers Against Guns (MAG) ranted on about airsoft being evil because airsoft guns could be converted to fire bullets, so wanted it banned

[tackle]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

Personally I think its great, I'd like to see a lot more like this, the only condition being that its ONLY used to further Airsoft gameplay, nothing more.

You can guarantee that there are nuts over here trying to manufacture live firing kit using this process, for either criminal or Looney intent.
If the powers that be ban 3d printing, the nutters will just try other methods to make "real" guns.

[RitchieTheBrit]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

There is a chap across the pond already trying to 3d print a real firearm, or at least parts for them and from what iv seen they all seem to fail. As the materials used are to weak and brittle to handle the recoil so I personally don't see that this will be too much of a problem as long as the chap has a defence or uses a coloured plastic for his nutty creations

The first working 3D printed gun hit the news last year, using a laser singer technique. It's reliable, accurate and looks great! Only things not printed were the springs for obvious reasons. But... it was a very expensive and large machine, out of the budget of terrorists and gang bangers.

Edit: My mistake, it was 2013

http://www.businessinsider.com/3d-pr...n-2013-11?IR=T

[LukeCDC]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

On thingiverse there is all the files needed to print what looks like a scorpion evo that takes MP5 mags, it still needs all the internals obviously.


L.

Sent from my GT-S5830i using Tapatalk 2

[PureSilver]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

It's a can of worms best left unopened... [...] But legally I think this is a grey area and personally I feel it's best not to go down this road...

Let me resolve the difficulty you appear to be having. This is not a 'grey area', and 'Gaz George', whoever he is, is charitably described as 'underinformed' and uncharitably described as 'having no idea what he's talking about'.

The person who manufactured the 3D printed gun committed an offence (manufacturing a RIF) under the VCRA. If he is a regular skirmisher, he has a defence to prosecution for that offence. That's it; open and shut. No different from me buying an aluminium slide and frame for a GBB pistol and assembling it into a gun in my own home.

Casting aspersions about 'able to be converted into a real gun' (pull the other one, it's got 3D-printed bells on it) is scaremongering, stupid, and liable to draw the attention that you are so keen to avoid. The 3D printed guns that exist in America are either unbelievably crude (Defense Distributed Liberator), require a large number of parts that would be considered firearms in their own right over here (Defense Distributed AR-15 lower receivers, WarFairy AR-15 lower receivers etc., which require literally every other part of the gun to be purchased separately), or require a multi-million-dollar laser sintering printer (Solid Concepts 1911). All of them require me to additionally illegally access ammunition, too, since gunpower can't be 3D printed.

There is no panic here apart from yours.

[tackle]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

The laughable thing about the DD liberator, designed & manufactured at great cost initially, is that its in a country where even legal firearms are virtually ten a penny, so to hope to market a 3d printed as a possible retail item needs to have a hook that other pistol manufacturers don't have, defence distributed appear to have gone with :
"BUY OUR 3D PRINTED PISTOL, ITS FUGLY LOL".
Seriously, why bother ?

[dave38x]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

All of them require me to additionally illegally access ammunition, too, since gunpower can't be 3D printed.

There is no panic here apart from yours.

This is my favourite thing about ALM manufactured firearms. In a world in which everyone has a 3D printer, no one has ammunition. Everyone seems to bloody forget that one!

[HitmanNo2]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

You can make primers and gun powder from coke cans and matches

What's concerning people in the US is that 3D printed guns lack serial numbers. Each one is a ghost gun. Nothing to do with cost.

[PureSilver]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

What's concerning people in the US is that 3D printed guns lack serial numbers. Each one is a ghost gun.

What's concerning some people in the US is, as usual, fear generated by their staggering ignorance of guns and gun legislation. For 'ghost guns', you might as well substitute 'plastic pistols undetectable by metal detectors' (GLOCK 17, in clear ignorance of the GLOCK's substantial metal content), 'silenced assassin weapons' (suppressors, in clear ignorance of the actual limitations of suppressor technology) or 'assault weapons' (AR-15s etc., ignoring their pathetically low use in gun crime). People are afraid of what they don't understand, not things that are legitimately problematic (e.g. cheap and readily available handguns).

I am one of the most pro-gun-control people you're ever likely to encounter on a gun forum, and even I think the furore over 3D-printed guns is totally misplaced. AFAIK, in the US it's always been legal to make your own guns at home, whether that's bending up receiver flats (Kalashnikov, G3, MP5, FAL etc.), milling out forgings or castings (AR-15, 1911) or even screwing together bits of pipe (12-gauge shotgun), and it's never been a requirement that you etch a serial number onto the weapon at any stage. I am all for the requirement to register firearms - I find it bizarre that the US doesn't have a national firearms registry - but starting with 3D-printed guns is the wrong place.

[HitmanNo2]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

Yeah. It's weird. I think the legal to make guns in your home thing is just for personal use, though I'm not 100% on that. I think the anti-gunners are thinking criminals are going to be printing loads of disposable guns. If they are recovered after a crime, they have no history. Depending on who makes the classic home made guns, criminals might prefer the 3D printed ones. Of course this is just speculation on my part. I do know that 'clean' guns have a fairly high price tag where 'dirty' ones used in numerous crimes are cheap as chips. If I were so inclined, I think I'd rather carry a clean 3D printed one which is way cheaper (and can only get even cheaper) than a clean proper gun. Of course we are not quite at the stage of 3D printed guns matching the firepower of a regular automatic with the exception of the 1911 mentioned. Who knows what will happen to the technology and what leaps and bounds are to be made in the area.

[WH_JAY_91]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

imagine the amazing body kits he could make for the VSR or similiar rifles. Always wanted a mean looking body on my gspec

[dave38x]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

Said DLD 1911 (DLD stands for Direct Laser Deposition) was manufactured using Inco nickel superalloy. It would most probably feed pretty badly and not have a very long life due to the surface finish of DLD'd parts.

Also if you were to order the printing of those parts (and do all the hand finishing yourself) you'd be paying for over 100 grands worth of parts*

*I know this because this is what I do at work, but with brackets not handguns. Wish it was handguns some days!

[Rich83]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

Is it going to far off topic to ask if the Snow Wolf Pulse Rifle is a RIF? Like it's not a replica of a firearm its totally invented like the laser print gun.

[RitchieTheBrit]

Re: Really dodgy or really cool...

We had this conversation on here a while back, some say no, it's not a RIF. I am on the other side of the fence. Rule of thumb, if you pointed it at Granny when she's cashing her pension, would she feel alarmed. In this case I think she would.