Ninth Circuit Lifts Ban on 3D-Printed Gun Blueprints

[SixFoot]

3D printed lower receivers are doing just fine so far, which is way more important than trying to print a barrel.

- YouTube

[Tguns]

For now, sure. Right up until the time the ATF decides it’s the barrel that makes the gun, not the lower receiver.

[Snow96]

If you have 10 grand or more to invest in that type of printer.
Then you have to have the knowledge of printer settings to get it to print right.

[Snow96]

@PeterGriffin

And probably never, if you are talking about the ability to 3D print something as common as a gun barrel.

Tech exists now to do that.

@PeterGriffin

I just looked since I didn’t know, the bore on a gun barrel is typically toleranced at ±0.0003”. That’s not going to happen or anywhere close with additive. That’s not a particularly easy tolerance to hold with CNC.

Take the width of a human hair., now, divide that hair width by 10. That’s 0.0003”.

Couple years ago, there was a video out of a 3D printed gun. Complete, working. First 6 rounds through it and hit a target.
Unfortunatly those 6 rounds took 9 hours to fire. They had to replace the fireing pin (5 cent nail) after each shot. After every 2 shots they had to replace the barrel. Then they had assorted other parts fail. Oh and they didn’t dare “hand shoot it”. They had it rigged where they pulled a string and it fired.
It did work. Larger rounds won’t work in 3D printed guns right now. They used I think a .22 and had these issues.
Now about your average joe blow printing one?
Well if you buy a $300 printer it ain’t going to work. You need to know what kind of plastic you have to use, you have to know a dozen different settings. Most importantly how the you are going to put all the parts together (printing a working 3D gun as a single piece is physically impossible in the universe we live in right now . . . and for the forseable future.)

[Snow96]

@Tguns

You’re not 3D printing a barrel…ever. Receivers, stocks, perhaps even triggers can be printed. But unless your going to print a lathe and a mill, you’re not going to build a viable gun solely with a 3D printer. Atleast not one that doesn’t have just as much chance at killing the user as it does the target.

It can be done now. 2 years ago a couple people printed every part but the fireing pin (was a nail from a hardware store). Did it have issues? Yes. Did it work? Yes.

[WuWei]

@Snow96

Complete

@Snow96

fireing pin (5 cent nail)

[Tguns]

@Snow96

It can be done now. 2 years ago a couple people printed every part but the fireing pin (was a nail from a hardware store). Did it have issues? Yes. Did it work? Yes.

Issues…as in having as much a chance of killing the user as the target.

Put aside the issues with the materials used in current printing technology and your still left with the issue of printing the bore and chamber within the tight tolerance between a loud pee-shooter and a much louder limb amputation device.