Printed AR-15

[CHenry]

Anyone heard of this?
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_118/579913_3D_printed_lower___yes__it_works_.html

 

[JesseR]

I've heard of the technology. Several have talked about making guns but this is the first tested gun. Very cool!

 

[03on22s]

I've seen some crazy stuff printed with modern equipment. Are the polymer lowers running around molded or printed? I'm guessing molded for production times.

 

[poopgiggle]

This has been going around the Internet for a little while.

I don't think 3D printing is advanced enough yet that you could build an AR lower that would actually hold up to any kind of use, but it's still neat.

IDK if this is significantly different from buying an 80% receiver and finishing it since you need a 3D printer and everything.

 

[been]

Someone really needs to ban those printers.

 

[poopgiggle]

After actually reading his posts, note that the material he used is durable but it requires a fancy, expensive 3D printer. A MakerBot, what that guy calls a "low cost" printer, is like $2000 and uses a much less durable plastic.

 

[Vamoose]

Someone really needs to ban those printers.

Don't let Bob Costas get wind of this.

 

[NikatKimber]

After actually reading his posts, note that the material he used is durable but it requires a fancy, expensive 3D printer. A MakerBot, what that guy calls a "low cost" printer, is like $2000 and uses a much less durable plastic.

Yeah. Basically.

Also, the cheap printers also are much less precise. The material is also relatively expensive.

It's also completely legal to make a gun for yourself. You just can't do it for profit.

03on22s, the current production ones you can buy are injection molded, which can be done with a much stronger result.

 

[aestus]

The 3d printed lowers works for .22lr. There's a recent video trying the 5.7 round and after about 6 shots, the threaded ring portion of the lower that holds the buffer tube breaks off after 6 rounds.

Simply printing out a lower with the same exact dimensions as the aluminum lower will result in fail until the materials used in the printer gets stronger. The best bet is to build a lower. Shoot and abuse it until it breaks. Reinforce the broken area and repeat. Keep doing it until it's reliable, then design a new lower design with all the reinforced pieces as a new reliable 3d printable lower design.

Some buds of mine have access to a 3d printer, so I'm anxiously trying to get the time, materials, and money to go through this process myself.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

There's a process to reinforce the printed material with stronger than steel resins. Saw the process on Sci. Pretty bitchin to say te least. Wasn't there a youtuber that did this, and the ATF confiscated his printer??? Wild ideas.