3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io
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A CNC mill seems much more capable of manufacturing firearms than some 300 buck printer.
Sure if you want a safe, durable, powerful firearm. Problem is, a new 3 axis machining center will cost over $50,000US, requires 3phase power, a large air compressor, specialized knowledge, tools, and skills far beyond a Bambu A1 combo. And running expenses are more than you make in a day. Plus they weight 10,000lbs/4500kg.
It's not bloody likely you are going to get one into your 3rd floor apartment. Let alone find and outlet to plug into.
Not really.
There are gun parts that just can't be printed in plastic (reliably. There are proof of concept "all plastic except the firing pin" guns). But... because of how lobbyists tainted what few gun control laws we have, most of what makes a gun a gun CAN be printed and the rest can be bought as after market parts. That is why an incredibly common "ghost gun" is basically "print this and then go buy this replacement barrel and this baggy of parts to repair a glock".
Whereas a mill is great for those metal parts and you can theoretically mill an entire gun, it isn't going to be a gun you "want" to use and, odds are, you are going to need a lot more technical skills. And for stuff like "ghost guns" and the bootleg mods used in stuff like The Troubles? A 3d printer is MUCH more accessible and MUCH easier to make.
The reality is that neither is going to be effective in the case of a militia/uprising scenario (yes, you can print an AR-15 and it isn't THAT hard to reinforce the plastic to handle intermediate rounds. No, you can't print a hellfire missile or a predator drone or a tank). And for the purposes of a school shooting? Why print a gun when you can just grab daddy's glock out of his nightstand or junk drawer?
I'll also add on the reason why additive manufacturing is so loved by Industry. Milling is subtractive. You get a piece of stock and you cut it until it is the part you want. If you can guarantee said piece of stock is approximately the same dimensions every time, you can automate that. But getting a piece to those dimensions has a significant cost. 3d printing? As long as you clear out the build plate and sort of control the environment, it is the same operations every single time.
So to 3d print a glock? You go to one of the naughty sites, get the STL, make a few tweaks to your slicer, and start it (old Vice actually did a really good video on this). After that you wait until it is done, remove the supports, file the ever loving hell out of it, and you are ready to go blasting.
To mill a glock? You go to one of the naught sites and get the gcode. You then adjust that gcode to fit the dimensions of your piece of stock (or put in the time to make your piece of stock the dimensions the gcode is expecting...). You then do one process, stop it, move and remount the part precisely to expose the correct surfaces, and do the next process. And so forth.
"Not really"
Yes, really. If you print something out of plastic and have to go out and buy a barrel and other hardware to put in it, you might as well just mold it out of paper mache.
A CNC can make a gun from start to finish that you wouldn't be worried about blowing your fingers off when you pulled the trigger, without adding outside hardware to.
You clearly didn't read anything I said after that first line but this is just too fun:
Mostly tells me you have no idea what is inside of a firearm outside of "magic".
Over simplifying, but modern firearms generally consist of
And the cheap steel problem? Go look up pictures of the "custom" guns used in conflicts like The Troubles. A lot have cracked or split barrels and the like because of that exact issue.
Which, like I said in the comment you refused to read, is why you just buy the hard parts online or in cash at your local gun store (... might need to go to a specialty shop instead of a Walmart). Because they are not controlled since they generally need to get replaced eventually anyway.
At which point? Mills and Printers both work great. It is just that the former needs a lot more machinist skill to be done. Whereas the latter is just downloading an STL.
Just because this topic really intrigues the engineer in me:
Even if you are REALLY anti-gun (moreso in the sense of absolutely zero meaningful gun control laws that don't predominantly target minorities and lower income folk) but can still appreciate an engineering problem:
Vice, back before it was a shithole content farm that talks about how right wing chuds are sticking it to the man, had a REALLY good video where a reporter went to a gathering of 3d printed firearms enthusiasts and even printed their own gun with the help of one of them. There are a lot of uncomfortable parts that kind of felt like fallon tussling the dipshit's hair back in the day, but it is also one of the very few (easily reached on youtube) videos that show what 3d printing a gun actually is.
inRange TV has a video that doesn't get too into the making of a 3d printed gun but does show some of the recent advances (and I believe one of the models shown is quite similar to a certain mario brother's favorite toy...) which is useful from the perspective of how 3d printed parts are coupled to off the shelf parts and so forth.
And while the owner of the channel is a real dipshit and it is explicitly NOT about 3d printed guns (because that would hurt his monetization), Forgotten Weapons did a sponsored video where he turned a common handgun into basically a PDW using a kit. And, in the process of doing that, it really highlights what part of a firearm is the legal and controlled part and what parts can be easily replaced... or purchased in a discount bin. And Forgotten Weapons, in general, is really good at actually disassembling/field stripping firearms to show the inner workings and the engineering. And it is a fun thought process to think through what processes were used to make those parts and what processes could be used to make those parts instead.
I do some amateur gunsmithing. The insides of a bog standard, single-shot 12-gauge blow my mind. As to how the internals work on my S&W Ez? No clue and I wouldn't dare try a full tear down.
Do you know how many hours I've spent hunting springs in my carpet?!
You've got it exactly right. If you can print the receiver, you can get every tiny part off eBay.
Pipe guns exist, you can build a device that fires a 12-gauge shell in a decent garage workshop. The fancy bits, like a break action that closes properly or a spring to eject spent shells/cartridges, are where the fiddly springs and such come into play. (Of course you know this, but for the sake of conversation.)
Those homemade submachine guns are properly crazy though.
It's not like you're smelting steel at home. Running a CNC machine requires a smidge more infrastructure than a 3D printer.