On Mon, 5 Oct 2015 19:32:06 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 10/5/2015 7:22 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 05 Oct 2015 17:25:21 -0400,
wrote:

On Mon, 05 Oct 2015 17:05:51 -0400, wrote:

That might do something in 20 or 30 years but we need an answer now.
There are hundreds of millions of guns here now, if they stopped
making them tomorrow.

===

Before too long someone will figure out how to make an automatic
weapon on a 3D printer. Control that.

As soon as they make a 3d printer that works with steel "ink".
Right now all they can make are the parts that don't see the pressures
and the impacts. Guys have made the frame and some other parts.
OTOH those parts that can't be plastic are generally consumables so
they are not serialized or controlled. (barrels, firing pins,
extractors, springs and such)



There's at least one handgun called "The Liberator" that is completely
plastic and 3D printed except for one part. It uses a common nail as
the firing pin. Everything else, including the barrel, is plastic.



I saw that and I saw him fire a shot out of it but I bet up around
round 2 or 3 it is a musket and after that it is potentiality a
grenade. (even with a relatively wimpy round like the .380 this gun
shoots)
Barrel erosion will be a serious problem, even in a single shot gun
like this.
To make a real gun, you need a steel barrel, particularly an
"automatic" weapon like Wayne described. The physics of ejecting a
round and loading another one requires some mass too.

I made single shot "zip guns" when I was about 12-13 but I would not
try to make anything that was a repeater. You can make a very
serviceable single shot 12 gauge from stuff you get at Home Depot. The
best pipe is actually from the "monkey bars" down at the grade school.
You will have to trick someone into threading it tho. ;-)