A guy made a lower receiver for an AR using a......................3D PRINTER!!!

[Partisan1983]

I knew it would only be a matter of time.

http://www.slashgear.com/man-makes-g...nter-25240293/

[btcave]

My work is going to get a 3D printer. I'm tempted to try it.

[Partisan1983]

I may be alone here......but



The first thing I thought of while reading this story was the Star Trek movie where Capt. Picard gets a 1928 Thompson from a replicator in the holodeck and kills a bunch of liber...err...Borg with it.

[FunkyPertwee]

I had never heard of 3d printing until this. I'm fascinated now that I've read about it. And good luck enforcing copyrights when people are producing patented/copyrighted goods at home using pirated blueprints.

[Dr. Gonzo GED]

They didn't give the particulars about what kind of metal he used. Is it safe?

Cool as heck though. I've only seen 3D prints in resin. Toys really. A functioning firearm though? That's aweseom!

[Sergi762]

call me what you will but how the heck is something made on a printer going to withstand the forces involved in shooting? an AR lower might be feasible but a viable barrel? Don't get me wrong I think if it would work; every home in the nation needs a 3d printer but I have my doubts.

[deth502]

pretty sure that was from a cpl years ago. not sure he did use metal, i think it was a polymer lower. i dont think 3d printers are yet capable of making metal parts yet?

[charger0122]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Px6...eature=related

[charger0122]

want to make your own? look here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11770 or here
http://www.thingiverse.com/derivative:34451 more here http://rommie.digitalcrowbar.net/wordpress/
blue prints here http://www.cncguns.com/downloads.html
printable ar15 mag with follower http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11636

[O.S.O.K.]

Back when I was starting my business, I had a local company in Austin make a prototype of my AK optics mount from the cad drawing that I had. The material was pretty durable - kind of like delrin. That was over 6 years ago - this technology has been around for a while now. I wonder what kind of choice of materials you have?

[NAPOTS]

Back when I was starting my business, I had a local company in Austin make a prototype of my AK optics mount from the cad drawing that I had. The material was pretty durable - kind of like delrin. That was over 6 years ago - this technology has been around for a while now. I wonder what kind of choice of materials you have?

We have been looking to get a 3d printer at work for a while.

Most of the ones you see are for raid prototyping and the end product is plastic. It seems they are starting to work in metals now days http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_...aser_sintering

I doubt you can get the strength up to higher strength steels .... yet, but I am sure it is only a matter of time.

Right now the technology is mostly for prototyping to be able to make your parts without expensive tooling and setup, I think you could also make casting molds this way too which would be a cheap way to make the masters but I imagine that in the near future this technology starts to transition from prototype work to production work.

Its pretty cool, I don't know if it will ever be efficient for large volume but for small production runs it should be much much cheaper, the fact that you can make shapes that can't be made any other way is a really cool bonus, for parts that arent highly stressed like say the intake manifold for an engine you could come up with some wild stuff and not be limited by manufacturability constraints.

[insider]

Now we have replicators! Eat a dick Chuck Schumer!

[AKTexas]

I need one to make me a fully functional machine gun.