Author Topic: 3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.  (Read 746 times)

Perd Hapley

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3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.
« on: May 22, 2013, 05:20:36 PM »
Home CNC milling, coming soon:

 http://otherfab.com/
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AZRedhawk44

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Re: 3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2013, 05:32:44 PM »
Additive, subtractive, who cares?

As long as it makes DiFi and other control freaks go into a screaming conniption fit, it's all good.

Self defense is a human right, and no words can contradict that.  We will always find a way, whether it's $500 on the credit card for a precision firearm of professional grade craftsmanship, or $500 worth of hobbyist electronic hardware and $25 worth of plastic to either cut or extrude into desired shape.


I think both additive and subtractive have their places.  Take the shavings from the subtractive CNC machine and melt them down, reforming them into wire spool for your additive machine.
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
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Perd Hapley

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Re: 3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2013, 06:27:39 PM »
Well, I didn't know I was starting an additive vs subtractive controversy, but OK.

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?
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AZRedhawk44

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Re: 3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2013, 07:58:28 PM »
Sorry, didn't mean to come acoss so strident, fisty.

Folks from the RepRap/Makerbot community have been playing with desktop lightweight CNC, but they focus mostly on additive techs... because when you create from additive techniques you can reproduce the original machine (in theory) as long as you have raw material.  When you create from subtractive techniques you need someone else to create the block(s) that are to be subtracted from.

First thing I thought of when I saw the pic/link though, was "hey! somebody put a dremel head on a makerbot!  Cool!"

Problem with subtractive on such a small scale is the mass of the platform versus the mass of the material to be cut.  Subtractive requires contact and force, which brings newton into play.  Additive does not require that, though inertia of the print head can be a problem in a rickety RepRap.
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
--Lysander Spooner

I reject your authoritah!

AJ Dual

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Re: 3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2013, 09:08:50 PM »
Yes.

CNC-subtractive still has more bottlenecks that big.biz or big.gov can potentially control. Namely large blocks of cast or forged raw materials that can't easily be made in the home.

The additive spools can be made from home, from ground up plastic scraps of the desired polymer.

http://www.gizmag.com/filabot-plastic-recycling/25848/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anqKC0i0a7Y&feature=related

This is making plastic "mulch" for DIY hydroponic/gardeners, but straight round cross section filament is probably even easier. I've seen other projects just can't find the bookmarks.

Metal powders for laser sintering and other 3D additive technologies are certainly more challenging, but still probably easier for the individual to tackle eventually due to the sheer raw energy/infrastructure that the raw billets that CNC-subtractive need.

Here, found some more examples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JebhbxgjBgA
« Last Edit: May 22, 2013, 09:15:05 PM by AJ Dual »
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Hawkmoon

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Re: 3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2013, 11:33:50 PM »
Too small to make eeven a handgun. Lemme know when it'll handle a 1911 receiver or slide, and an AR-15 lower receiver.
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MicroBalrog

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Re: 3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2013, 11:37:14 PM »
Does this require you, like old-tech CNC machines, to know CNC stuff?

Or can I just put metal blocks into it and pull out parts I want?
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AJ Dual

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Re: 3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2013, 12:40:47 AM »
Does this require you, like old-tech CNC machines, to know CNC stuff?

Or can I just put metal blocks into it and pull out parts I want?

You need to know "CNC stuff".

Of course, the additive manufacturing/3D printing, you need to know quite a bit too. But the one huge advantage, besides the ability to make shapes and voids that CNC/subtractive can't is that it does not require absolute accurate positioning relative to the feedstock, the printing only needs to be accurate relative to it's own starting point and nothing else.

Within reason of course, you can't have your part start so off center the print extruder runs out of room in the printable volume it can work in, but you get the idea.

The CNC process, the fitment of the blank or block of raw material matters. And depending on the complexity of the CNC mill and that of the part you are trying to produce, you may have to rotate the part and position it accurately in the machine several times to give the milling bits extra access to remove material from different direction.

The seeds of the 3D printing revolution were really sown way back when cheap 1000+ DPI ink-jet printing became a commodity product. All it's really doing is using a different print material, and adding a third axis of operation.  Multi-tool, multi-axis CNC mills with extra degrees of freedom for the tools and the mounting for the work-piece being made that reduce the needed input from a human operator are certainly out there, but they are expensive, and require precise tolerances and clearances in their parts, lots of strong parts etc.
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zxcvbob

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Re: 3D-printed guns are sooooo last week.
« Reply #8 on: May 23, 2013, 12:55:44 AM »
The Old Ways still work and can never be legislated away -- they are just slower and require more skill to do it right.  (Khyber Pass guns, made from little more than a hunk of railroad rail or truck spring and some hand tools.  File away everything that doesn't look like a gun)
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