3-D Printer Company Seizes Machine From Desktop Gunsmith

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/3d-gun-blocked/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WiredDangerRoom+%28Wired%3A+Blog+-+Danger+Room%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

by sakai • 14 years ago

43 48 14 years ago

wired.com

rorrr• 14 years ago

That will surely stop him (and others).

krasin3• 14 years ago

surely not

although, I don't see the point to use a 3d printer there. an advanced CNC routing machine will make better gun parts.

mahyarm• 14 years ago

If this is about the affordability of 3d printers, couldn't a desktop CNC machine do something similar? You can buy one on amazon.com for $350-ish:

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Toolworks-CNC-Carving-Machine/dp/B...

I don't know if it would be adequate, but it has a working space bigger than some pocket pistols for sale today. Guns are relatively simple machines with forms existing for a century still sold new today. Such as bolt action rifles.

InclinedPlane• 14 years ago

To make something with a 3d printer you just need a volume model of it. To make something with a CNC router you typically need to create a routing program, which is a lot more difficult.

michaelt• 14 years ago

Stratasys doesn't care about stopping him - they just don't want their company's name on it.

objclxt• 14 years ago

There's probably legal concerns on their part as well: gun manufacturers get sued. A lot. By government departments, by victims of gun crime, lawsuits both genuine and spurious. If you're a manufacturer of 3D printers you can probably think of much, much better ways to spend your money than defending or settling a lawsuit against you.

If this guy wants to actually go ahead with his project he's probably going to have to accept he'll need to buy the printer rather than lease it.

sbierwagen4• 14 years ago

What a dumb project.

You could build a single-use .22LR pistol out of ABS, sure. The barrel would have to be three inches thick to contain the pressure, there'd be tons of propellant blowby as the barrel warped under pressure, it'd only work once, and the total lack of rifling would give you pathetic accuracy.

It would "work", but be totally impractical, as well as expensive. (Printing giant blocks of solid plastic on a FDM machine is spendy) It's like the actual goal of this project is to get the ATF to take an interest in regulating 3D printers.

Tichy5• 14 years ago

The printers might get better?

Also, is it conceivable that new gun mechanisms could be invented, optimized for plastic guns? Would the strain be less if you shot plastic bullets?

I don't know anything about gun physics (as is probably obvious).

stonemetal• 14 years ago

The strain is caused by the explosion of the powder in the round. There really isn't anyway around it. If you are going to accelerate a projectile to speed, then you are going to get equal but opposite force on the device(per Newton's law of physics). You might be able to print a low speed, low weight projectile item like a b.b. gun.

fein• 14 years ago

You would only make the lower with a 3d printer.

Here is an example: http://hackaday.com/2012/07/26/3d-printed-ar-15-lower-works/

You would still want metal for the barrel (of course) and trigger assembly. Pretty much anything taht routes hot gases or contains explosions has to be fabbed from steel. The lower is only a mount point for some comopnents and a guide for the magazine.

trotsky• 14 years ago

It's like the actual goal of this project is to get the ATF to take an interest in regulating 3D printers.

I agree, or just to cause trouble & get press. 2nd year law student.

ktizo8• 14 years ago

The main issue with restricting availability of 3d printers is an economic one. The potential for engineering improvements, cost savings, insanely tight development cycles and mass bespoke manufacture-to-order would seem to strongly favour the society with the least regulation on this.

Is not as though it is really going to widely cut the cost or massively increase the availability of handguns however.

The economics of established mass manufacture of simple mechanical items will have an edge over 3d printing for a while yet for any items that derive negligible economic benefit from uniqueness or short runs.

There is little economic benefit in 3d-printing basic guns, in the same way as there is little economic benefit in 3d-printing paperclips. People who really want guns can get them dirt cheap already. I think grips will start being 3d printed however and the existing high-end market for bespoke crafted guns will start using technology like metal laser sintering, if it doesn't already.

I am just hoping that a few idiots won't manage to completely hijack the public perception of this technology, just to play the violent-paranoia politics of gun rights, when there are far more interesting uses for this tech than adding more guns to a world that already has a massive surplus of the bloody things.

Tichy5• 14 years ago

I live in Germany and I have never held a real gun in my hands. I am not sure where to go to get one. I think there are some shops, but a gun permit might be required to buy one.

Printing one at home would lower the bar, I think. Not that I need a gun, but I mean in general. What about kids, for example?

ktizo8• 14 years ago

I grew up in the UK and did some cadet training, so I learned to shoot a small caliber rifle there. I also know some farmers, some professional hunters, and some folk who go on pheasant shoots so I know a few people who use guns professionally and for sport. Legal guns are pretty widespread. On the other side, there is an illegal gun market in most large cities, where prices are shockingly low. In the reports of the recent killing of police in Manchester, both guns and grenades were claimed to be being sold on the street for between £50 and £200.

As for the argument about kids, if your kids have easy access to bullets, then there are already problems long before they start trying to 3d print a gun.

condensor• 14 years ago

The real problem is getting ammunition. Even if you can print a gun getting bullets will be a far bigger problem. (At least in Germany.)

bloat• 14 years ago

Think of it like pornography. It may be available cheaply at any time at the store down the street. But having it available for download in the privacy of one's own home removes a significant barrier.

ktizo8• 14 years ago

But for the moment having the minus of time, material, equipment, accuracy, money, reliability, etc. Plus, people can already make guns at home using fairly simple metalworking tools that are much less likely to fail badly than using 3d printed plastic. Or you could make a crossbow or something really basic. Is not that I don't see how certain people could be drawn to this idea, but other than as a pure engineering exercise, I really don't see the practicality, even to nutcases. Admittedly, nutcases might not be looking at this completely clearly however.

antidoh• 14 years ago

Stepping up just slightly from the fact that this is about a gun, this is really just part of the movement to get access and production closer to people, with fewer intermediaries. Linux and other open source. Servers. Personal assistants. Music, books and other media production and consumption.

(And in that vein, if companies are intent on getting more done with fewer employees, then I'm fully on board with getting more stuff from fewer companies. But that's another rant.)

In the US, we have the unique atmosphere of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, and so this is also a way to make it easier for citizens to exercise their rights.

Finally, 3D printing and its effects have shown up here on HN a couple times recently. HN'er cstross's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_34_%28novel%29 is a great novel that features exactly that idea as a sub plot. I really enjoyed the book.

andyl• 14 years ago

The guy on the video seems like a sociopath. I think his goal is to raise his profile amongst gun-rights activists. Politician in training.

Thank god there isn't a 3d printer for viruses. (yet)

jasongullickson• 14 years ago

Shouldda used a RepRap...

3-D Printer Company Seizes Machine From Desktop Gunsmith

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