Gun manufacturing

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>>33291750
>What is your opinion about 3D printed guns and gun accessories?
Poor.
Maybe for some rando little plastic bits that aren't easy to replicate by hand and aren't subject to much wear and tear?

If you want a bare-bones gun to kill someone with at close range, hardware store will give you better results.

If you want a receiver, you can cast a better one from epoxy, or have a machinist cut you a real one in a few hours.

It's just shitty quality and the printing equipment is MUCH more expensive than most alternatives, and some simple guns could be made even faster than a 3D printer could print them. Your only advantage is that it does complex things quickly.

pic related. Far more lethal, reliable, inexpensive and probably faster to make than any 3D printed gun.

>>33291946
What if your aim is to make one for more than a single shot?

You can use other materials than plastic. The whole weapon could be made lighter, easier to modify. Replacement of parts would be much easier.

The technology now is uite expensive, but in a few years time it could become the leading manufacturing process.

https://all3dp.c om/3d-printed-grenade-launcher-rambo/

>>33292217
I realize your goal here is just to jerk off about 3D printing. It will never be fast or cost effective enough to be used in any real production scenario, of which there are very few that cannot be filled with EDM instead. The idea of 3D printing as a dangerous form of weapons proliferation is an even bigger meme than "muh glock is invisible to metal detectors".

>>33292217
>in a few years time it could become the leading manufacturing process.

For plastic? I don't think you understand how easy it is to make a mold and squirt liquid plastic into it, brah. 3D printing will never be a mass production tool.

For metal?
Things made from metal are sposed to be strong, so no, they'll be cast, machined, or forged.

>>33292217
If I want to make a semi-auto gun, I'll look up plans online to build one in my basement over several days.

I'm not gonna blow a few thousand on a printer so I can plug it in and build an extremely shitty plastic gun in a few hours.

And no, there's not a mass production advantage. If I'm building dozens of guns it's for dozens of people, and those people can come help me mass produce actual good guns from scrap or fucking build their own.

>>33291750
The reality is that the printing material is not there yet and as such has to be used with some metal frame at least in point of friction and pressure.
I am looking forward to the day when people can print their own bolts at home since 3D printing only makes sense at complicated parts.

>>33292466
Well, I love how you so easily realized my goal. I guess by your authority I have to accept your prediction that it will never be fast or cost effective enough. What do you base that on?

Did you even read the article?

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>>33291750
Maybe when metal sintering 3D printing becomes cheap enough. As it is 80% frames are easier and more effective, pic related.

>>33292606
Not that anon, but I did. Your article is fanboying.

If you look up the actual press release that your article only cherrypicks a quote from, you'll see the military isn't considering using 3D printing for mass production. Instead, they think it's useful to quickly make a prototype - something for which the tooling doesn't already exist.

Once they start making the actual guns for use, they're going to use traditional (good) methods.

>>33291750
>3D printed guns
Stupid
>and gun accessories?
Potentially useful
>>33292640
Maybe you could make metal-impregnated plastic filament and use a conventional FDM printer to 3D-print "green" parts, which could then be sintered in a furnace or whatever post-print. Like MIM, but without the IM.

>>33292606
Fast or cost effective enough for what? At no point will it save any money to incorporate 3D printing into weapons manufacturing. I wish i had another older technology to compare it too but 3D printing is just that uniquely stupid. Even casting, typically the longest step of a manufacturing process for metal parts is much faster for the same bounding box, and increasing the rate of casting production requires very little additional equipment, whereas increasing the rate of 3D printing requires a whole extra printer.

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It's pretty okay.

>>33291750
Under current and predicted-near-future technology any 3D-printed firearm or firearm containing wear parts that were 3D-printed will be absolute shit.

Printers good enough to not leave that stringy cobweb of residue all over everything cost thousands of dollars and the filament itself is absurdly expensive currently, all the viable 3D-printed designs could be machined from billet stainless for cheaper and occasionally that will include the cost of a small or used mill+lathe and all the bits.
>cost of a good 3D printer: $3500
>cost of a 12x36 Grizzly "gunsmith's" lathe: $2650 new delivered
and
>cost of enough filament to 3D-print an AR lower: $115-$140
>cost of a billet of 6061 aluminum large enough to carve an AR lower from: $20
and
>cost of the computer and software necessary to load the CAD files into a 3D printer: $600+ (or $350+ if you can pirate the software)
>cost of a dozen blank 1/4" HSS lathe bits and a cheap bench grinder, plus a mediocre drill press and a 1/8" HSS end mill: $80

>>33292640
3D printing and 80% frames are jokes compared to casting them:

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_4/676733_Fruity_Ghost___DIY_100s_of_ARs_cheaper__faster__gentler_.html

brought to you by the AK-shovel guy.

>>33291750
>What is your opinion about 3D printed guns and gun accessories?
meme

>Is there any future to it?
Not for the next 100-150 years.
It took 70 years for CNC to not be niche as fuck and/or literal punch cards.
It will take even longer for 3d sintering to become mainstream enough for a 'consumer' model.

>Which parts or accessories would be better built by 3D printing?
Literally nothing.

>With 3D printing you could build a gun or a replacement part in a day or less.
With subtractive manufacturing you can replace your entire rifle a few times over in a day or less.

>>33294492
>cost of a good 3D printer: $3500
Top kek you don't know shit about shit

>>33292740
That wouldn't work because the metal particles would clog the extruder, and you'd have problems with keeping the particle content uniform throughout the print. Not a bad idea if you could solve those problems tho.

>>33296050
Have you ever owned a cheap 3d printer? Can't reproduce tolerances for shit.

>>33296137
See
>>33294398

>>33296206
>>33294398
What parts of that are 3d printed?

>>33296050
Sure, small cheap ones are like $300. But one that's both large enough and accurate enough to do more than just small parts for a gun is fucking expensive.

>>33296228
Stripped receiver.

>>33296240
Too big to be printed on the cheap printers a lot of people have

I happen to belong to the local hackerspace. We have members who build their own 3D printers from scratch, because the commercial ones aren't good enough. Their opinion on this is that the current technology might be able to produce a decent set of custom grips, but not a lot beyond that.

On the other hand, Fusion 360 (for design work and tool path generation) is about $300. A Tormach 1100 CNC mill is about $18,000 new, and is far more capable for manufacturing actual metal wear-resistant parts.

>>33296267
Nope.

>>33296321
I'm sitting in front of a shitty 3D printer right now. Couldn't print anything that large.

Unfortunately, the low cost 3D printers are all kind of crappy. However, people I know who are seriously good at this tend to either build their own printer, or heavily modify an existing one. For example, one hackershop member is building a printer with an extruder temperature of 900 F, instead of the usual 430 F. This allows him to use materials like carbon-fiber ABS and nylon. It will be interesting to check out the parts coming out of this thing.

>>33296365
That's yours then, mate. A 1022 receiver is only like 7" long.

>>33296634
But my point is that 7" is bretty large for a 3d printer, especially a cheap one.

>>33296687
Granted, yes, but it doesn't take anywhere near $3500 to achieve that

>>33296704
And how many sub-$3000 3D printers are capable of 12"x12"x12"? Or even 12"x6"x6"?

Because that's what would be necessary to print the vast majority of firearms frames.

>>33291750
3d printed plastic is a non-starter
laser sintered metal or ceramic parts now...

>>33291750
What's the best cad program to use to design a gun?

>>33296807
Solidworks or Inventor. You can get Inventor free as a "student"

>>33296843
What's a good source of getting it?

>>33296807

I know a number of people who like Fusion 360. But it ain't cheap. Also, some people like FreeCad. Basically, anything that also has a CAM feature to generate your CNC toolpaths.

>>33296872
Just go to the Autodesk website and lie about being in highschool (for Inventor that is. Solidworks is owned by a bunch of tightasses).

>>33296904
Is solidworks better? If so how much is it? I'm quite serious about making my idea into a functioning blueprint.

This may be a stupid question, but is there any of them with functioning physics?

>>33296913
I've honestly not used Solidworks for long enough to give fair advice, but Inventor is pretty great.

CAD can't do the kind of physics you're probably thinking about; computer simulations aren't really accurate enough to meaningfully model machines without shitloads of work on your part. Accurately modeling a firing gun would be nearly impossible without manually calculating everything yourself and basically animating the gun by hand.

You can check how parts fit together and run strength tests on models though. That's about the extent of what physics CAD can do.

>>33296913
Forgot to mention, Solidworks (and Inventor, for that matter) are stupid expensive if you want to actually buy them. I'd recommend the student version of Inventor. If you're actually a student, just use whatever the engineering department at your school uses. They can probably get it for you free.

>>33291750
>using plastic crap replacements
why

>>33297090
OR just fucking pirate them like a sane person

>>33297110
Meh that's an option, but lying about high school is arguably easier.

>>33297090
is the student version going to fuck me on patents or just randomly not reopen or anything like that? Because I'm assuming I have a thousand hours of designing ahead of me and I'd really not want to fuck myself over.

>>33297135
>dealing with a license every 2-3 years
>not dealing with a license

You're prolly right

>>33297104
It won't be plastic crap in the future, anon.

>>33297139
I don't think the patent office will care. If you're worried when you go to get the patent, it should be easy to buy the full version (or pirate it) and transfer your files if you want to look more legit.

>>33297182
I think it's a fair tradeoff not to worry about bitcoin miners and having the feds breathing down your neck. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I try to avoid pirating any kind of software when I can.

>>33297135
It's literally easier to pirate than to get through official channels.

>>33297110
Just do this and get SolidWorks 2015

How hard would it be realistically to semi-mass produce sten guns and provide a group of people with those?

>>33298006
You could do it on a small scale for a "reasonable" amount of money. 1 mill, 1 lathe, 1 foundry: $8000. Additional equipment like endmills, drillbits, cutting tools, etc. easily $2000 (and probably more). Materials would also be a nice chunk of dough. Machining can take quite a while too.

If you really want to make a gun, I suggest finding a makerspace, watching some videos and taking some classes.

>>33298006
You basically need an angle grinder a way to weld(doesn't have to be a welder) and a drill.

You'd need a torch probably too but you could also use that for welding.

It's super easy

>>33291750
Personally, I think that it would be more effective to make a zip gun or something in your garage. It would last longer.
I downloaded all of the files from that group just a day before the DOJ made them take it down. There are some plans for 3d printed AR lowers and what not in there.

>>33298743
Read: >>33294501
>http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_4/676733_Fruity_Ghost___DIY_100s_of_ARs_cheaper__faster__gentler_.html

There is no reason the make any final part 3d printed. I don't get why the 3d printed gun memers don't just advocate making gun models to mold and then cast. They already assume you have fucking thermoplastic...
So why not advocate something that isn't retarded?

>>33292529
This

3D printing is great for rapid prototyping. You can design something in a computer, print it, test the shape, make modifications to the shape, and print version 2.0 in very little time. 3D printing is great for developing mockups and prototypes of a finished product out of cheap materials.

Then once you get everything figured out you can make it out of a superior material using more expensive methods.

Molds are expensive. But once you have a mold they are far cheaper and faster than 3D printing in the long run. 3D printing is great if you want to make a very limited number of something. If you want to make hundreds or even thousands of something 3D printing sucks compared to molds.

>>33298006
These camel fuckers can do it with basic tools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRte65F_KRk

This is fine and all, but what options do you have if you live in a pozzed country where not only getting a gun is close to impossible, but you also need a (very hard to get) license to buy ammo? Can you diy bullets?

>>33301184
australia?

>>33291750
>3d Printed
Enjoy them stubs you use to call hands.

>>33299837
>These camel fuckers can do it with basic tools.
Yes, basic tools. After using machinery like mills and lathes. Like the video demonstrates.

This 'two hand files and a hacksaw' meme needs to stop.

>>33292640
Shit that Glock frame is sexy.
Where do I get one?

>>33291750
I really need to buy a house so I can start filling my garage with shop tools.

Homemade guns give me happy American Pioneer feels.

>>33301184
>Can you diy bullets?
>bullets
I think you mean chinese taipei...


Yes. It's annoying, but you can manually form, draw, and anneal your own cases from brass plate with reasonable enough tolerances.

And if your country has farms, then you can make your own propellant.
And if you are willing to collect piss and chicken shit, you can do so even if your country is a desert.

And if your country has rocks, you can make shit bullets.
And if your country lets civilians own metal, you can make bullets.

Primers are annoying, so see if you can't make electrically ignited caseless primers from plastique or something.

>>33291750
I have a 3D printer, alertly a fairly cheap one. I also have machining equipment, and between the two I obviously picking machining. 3DPs in their current state are too expensive to mass produce weapons or even most custom parts.

3DP's current hot spot is in terms of weapon tech is prototype parts.

Shit like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS5-5hPkkrY from Picatinny Arsenal is good for prototypes, and hopefully one day will be affordable for a hobbyist like me (though very unlikely).

>>33303361
https://www.rainierarms.com/polymer80-80-glock-19-23-32-pf940cv1

Or your gun store of choice. Seems like it's out of stock everywhere.