3D Printers making your on handguns

[Judan_454]

Ive been seening alot the news about 3D printers and making your own handguns. Is it possible to make a handgun strong enough out of the plastics in 3D printers to make it technology possible?

[nhrifle]

Parts of it maybe, but the parts that handle the actual firing of the cartridge will still need to be metal.

[Bulldogger]

Here is a link to a fella working on it slowly. As nhrifle notes, bearing surfaces are still metal, but if you impregnate steel and carbon fibre, etc., you can end up with a very polymerized final product.
http://www.weaponeer.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19584&PN=1

I like the concept from a DIY standpoint, but when it comes down to it I have owned featherweight guns before and no longer do. Lightweight, but still trying to use as a defensive weapon means punishing recoil and instead of the frame absorbing it, your hand and arm have to. My carry piece is a colt detective special clone, heavier than the original. Doesn't twitch when firing .38 SP HP.

Still, I follow this work with great interest, and I don't mean to knock it in my above statements, it's very neat.

Bulldogger

[PB234]

There are firms building 3D printers that print in metal. XONE (market ticker symbol) and a Swedish (?) firm are the ones to look for. The equipment is not cheap. The Swedish firm uses a laser (?) to fuse layers of powdered metal to build up the product. While probably possible to produce it would just be a lot cheaper to go to your LGS and but whatever you want. The Swedish firm prints aircraft parts and medical parts. I forget what system XONE uses. Maybe in a decade or sooner the technology will be common enough for the cost to have really come down. When I had an old car with parts no longer easy to get it would have been really nice. Now it would just be nice to print parts for things that break rather than order them and wait for delivery. Waited 6 weeks for a part for a dishwasher (out of stock and back ordered) that could have been printed out of plastic in no time.

3D printing is also being used to print human body parts out of cells harvested from the person who will receive the part solving the supply and rejection problems. Heart valves now and soon kidneys, etc. Replacement teeth, parts of skulls, all have been made. Some guy is working on printing meat. Makes me want to become a vegetarian or go hog hunting. Some physicians printed and installed a jaw bone. Artificial legs for our wounded warriors cost about eighty thousand dollars as are commonly made. Printed better ones that fit right can be cleaned in the dishwasher and replaced easily cost about eight thousand dollars.

This is the future.

[wolfe28]

3D printing is also being used to print human body parts out of cells harvested from the person who will receive the part solving the supply and rejection problems. Heart valves now and soon kidneys, etc. Replacement teeth, parts of skulls, all have been made. Some guy is working on printing meat. Makes me want to become a vegetarian or go hog hunting. Some physicians printed and installed a jaw bone. Artificial legs for our wounded warriors cost about eighty thousand dollars as are commonly made. Printed better ones that fit right can be cleaned in the dishwasher and replaced easily cost about eight thousand dollars.

This is the future.

Yep. I first heard about the idea of 3D printing, or rapid prototyping (as they called it then) about 20 years ago. It is definitely the wave of the future (particularly in terms of medical replacements). As for firearms, the one bit I saw was using the cheaper plastic printers to build a working firearm as an exercise. The group I saw was originally planning a hybrid firearm with an electronic firing mechanism, and the ultimate goal was to have a fully functional, plastic firearm (firing pin and all). Their goal was for it to fire one round safely. Kind of like the "liberator pistol" for the 21st century.

In the case I saw, practicality wasn't the goal; they just wanted to show that it could be done.

D

[PB234]

Bill, it is being done for teeth now. Go in with a broke tooth and they have to place a temporary in after they take a mold and send it out for manufacturing and then you come back in a week or two to have the replacement part installed. With 3D they can make it there in a little time so that there is no need for a temporary replacement. One visit and it is done.

Check out the kidney that has been developed and printed on Youtube. It is not yet ready to go, but if you needed a kidney and could not wait for a donor it might be nice to print one up. If it is printed using your cells then rejection is not an issue. I think heart valves are already being printed. Skin for burn victims. Jay Leno prints parts for cars in his collection where they are no longer available. Currently a 3D printer for home use (not great) is about $1300 and expected to come down to $500 soon. People are also selling printers that can print almost all of the parts for another printer and another printer making it a self replicating machine. I am guessing a couple hundred dollars or less for the parts not able to be printed.

Kids are already developing data files for things to print and services are reselling the files. Soon there will be service centers to print your file if it is too big to print at home or you want it printed in metal or some other output requiring an expensive printer. Sort of like Kinkos.

80 parts within the Boeing 787 are printed. Many products that can't be easily manufactured are now printed. Even homes may soon be printed out of concrete.

It is the future. Print a kids toys at home and what happens to China's toy industry? Like the idea?

[Love Life]

Wow. My mind is officially blown.

[FergusonTO35]

Ok, who's itching to start printing boolits? I know I am!!

[Hickory]

Ok, who's itching to start printing boolits? I know I am!!

What! And give up casting. Never!!