Home printing an assualt rifle

[JasonD]

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/working-assault-rifle-made-3-d-printer

Get ready. It's now possible to print weapons at home.
An amateur gunsmith, operating under the handle of "HaveBlue" (incidentally, "Have Blue" is the codename that was used for the prototype stealth fighter that became the Lockheed F-117), announced recently in online forums that he had successfully printed a serviceable .22 caliber pistol.
Despite predictions of disaster, the pistol worked. It successfully fired 200 rounds in testing.
HaveBlue then decided to push the limits of what was possible and use his printer to make an AR-15 rifle. To do this, he downloaded plans for an AR-15 in the Solidworks file format from a site called CNCGunsmith.com. After some small modifications to the design, he fed about $30 of ABS plastic feedstock into his late-model Stratasys printer. The result was a functional AR-15 rifle. Early testing shows that it works, although it still has some minor feed and extraction problems to be worked out.

[Drastic]

Don't have time at the moment to look, but the whole thing can't be plastic. It has to have some steel parts.

[dogboy]

Getting a machine gun isn't that hard in the States. Granted, it takes lots of time and money - but if you are an upstanding citizen, I believe you can still acquire them legally, after about a year wait for the first one.

You can also get them illegally as well. I guess you can print them now too, although I'm with Drastic... you need at least a few metal parts in there. But even if you can make them, you will still go to jail if you dont go through the right paperwork to own the finished gun.  And if you are going to do that, just bring a semi-auto to a machine shop and have them machine out what's needed to accept an auto seer, and end up with a real (aka 'metal') gun...

[JasonD]

I was thinking more about countries other than the US and especially states that may have an uprising similar to the Arab spring.

If there is no access to weapons then all it would take is a printer a lump of plastic (and from what youve said above) a little bit of machining a couple of metal parts

[dogboy]

Yeah, I hear you but I'm a little dubious...

First, you can't print ammunition, which will be the next hurtle. And second, as someone who has shot thousands of rounds through a variety of full auto weapons, those 'minor feed and extraction problems that need to be worked out' is where the devil lives... and a gun that jams in battle is a surefire way of getting a first class ticket to meet him, quick:)

But I like the idea, in theory, and you're right - a barrel, receiver, firing pin and maybe a few of springs, and you got yourself a 'rebel special'.

[dogboy]

Wait, he didn't make the whole gun; he just made this thing...



...that said, he made the most important part; the lower receiver.  In short, this is the part you need to take to the machine shop for them to drill out so you can put in the parts that essentially turn it into a fully automatic M-16.  This guy just made it out of plastic.  From here you just drop in a trigger assembly and other odds and ends and then fit this sub-assembly back into the frame of the rifle. 

As far I know, he may be breaking the law right now.  Or maybe he needs to put all the pieces together, I'm not sure, but I can tell you the lower reciever is the important part.  The rest you can buy in any magazine.

[dogboy]

BTW, just to orient you in the pic above, the pistol grip would be on the left... the clip would fit in the right... there is even a little oval hole for the button that would drop the clip just forward of the trigger guard.  The part you would need to alter is the empty space above the trigger housing, and the other side where you have the safety.

A semi has 'safe' and 'fire'. The full auto version has 'safe', 'fire', and 'full auto'... and you need to grind off one of the stops so the selector can rotate one more click. (see below)

Semi:


Full:

[JasonD]

> as someone who has shot thousands of rounds through a variety of full auto weapons

My experience is much much less. I shot a cap gun once

[dogboy]

I got my first .22 at 7 years old.

[Chunkford]

Having just come back from Prague and went shooting using a Glock, M-16, AK47 and a sniper rifle I can't imagine (or feel safe) shooting any gun with any part of it being made out of plastic.
But then I'm from the UK and the gun culture is a bit different round these parts.

[dogboy]

uh, didn't that Glock have a polymer frame, like that new Sig I just bought? I'm not a Glock owner but I thought they all have metal slides and barrels but the frames are 'plastic'.  The M-16 uses a synthetic stock too.

[Chunkford]

Dogboy, I have no idea and presume that they were all made out of metal - The closest thing I can get my hands on in the UK are replica BB guns that shoot plastic or metail ball bearings - http://www.justbbguns.co.uk/home (the joys of being in the UK )

But I'm glad I didn't know that before I had a go. I probably would have had second thoughts and would never of experienced the rush of shooting them!!

[dogboy]

No, it's cool, most people aren't familiar with guns.  I'm not an expert but I grew up around them.

Like I said, I'm not positive but Glock pretty much invented polymer framed guns, so there is a good chance you were holding onto a 'plastic' gun and didn't realize it.  Here is one that helped make them famous...



...the bottom half (aka lower receiver) is 'plastic'.  Which means you could possibly print that part, then buy the trigger assembly, barrel, slide, hammer, etc. and assemble it yourself. But I don't know if the plastic you print with is nearly as strong as the polymers used in gun making.  I'm sure it is not.

[dogboy]

But no matter what the plastic crowd says, they just dont dry in an oven like they used to...

[littleman]

When I first saw a Glock (decades ago) I thought 'huh, a plastic gun'.  After firing a few I have to say that they work incredibly well.

This could be the new zip-gun.  The frame made out of printable plastic with a bit of pipe from a hardware store.  Being a .22 it won't have the stresses of a larger bullet.