The 3D printer probably spells the end of gun control. FGC-9 and 3D printed Glock frames seized in Ottawa | Impro Guns
“#FrontenacOPP, #OPP Street Crime & Provincial Weapons Enforcement have charged 3 people in @NorthFrontenac after a search of a residence located firearms and prohibited devices that were in the process of being manufactured at the location using a 3D printer.”
Now if we can 3D print ammo....
OK - mild freakout. The printer pictured (top left) appears to be the same printer I just added to my shop, the Creality Ender 3 V2.
ReplyDeleteThey won't post details, but I didn't think the PLA plastics it's good at printing was good enough.
I haven't looked too closely at it. Though ABS is probably a little stronger. And I haven't looked at the 3D printed GLOCK frames at all.
DeleteFor pistol frames, that have to support a slide, the sheet-metal pistols seem more practical. I just don't see how the frame can support a slide, unless some metal in the form of a support it added somewhere in the mix.
The FGC-9 really only uses plastic to hold various bits of metal together. (F- Gun Control 9mm)
And that one is interesting because you 3D print a mandrel, add copper wire, and use a power-supply to electrically machine rifling into a barrel. Though it doesn't look hard to produce the cut-rifling machine you can find out there.... It is Civil War technology, after all.
Funny you should say that about sheet metal. I just retired and am thinking about learning some gunsmithing. I hope to enroll in a local machinist training program in the fall. I don't speak from experience, but just from reading -- but from what I've read, you can buy a cheap metal press for just a few hundred bucks and a die set for another couple hundred bucks. That plus a good drill and a rotary tool will allow you to build a metal AK receiver. I don't know about Glock pistols. It seems that this would be cheaper in the long run than 3D printing...
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