3D-printed AR-15 lower

[decodeddiesel]

From what I have seen of 3d printers (and this is in the $300,000 - $500,000) the material is either too weak to handle the forces of the weapon, or the tolerances are too sloppy, as in the case of sintered nylon.

I am sure there are printers out there that cost much much more money (laser set titanium for example) that could produce a receiver, but it is DAMN expensive ($1,000,000++)

There are certainly non-metal materials you could mill on a good precision CNC mill that you could build a weapon with Delrin comes to mind.

Thermoset plastics are the way of the future with these things.

[Scoby]

I'm sure this technology will only improve over time.

Simply amazing!

[northern1]

Just look at the leaps and bounds of the computer world in the last 20 years. This is going to take off.

I work for UPS. I have Chinese customers that will pay $350 to ship a tiny piece of plastic or styrophome cups back to China. Why ?..... So they can copy it and mass produce it cheap. We all know how the story goes.

I could see technology like this taking some of the guess work out of the more complicated projects of theirs.

Just like computers, DVD players and half of the other shit in the last 2 decades, this technology will become sunstantially cheaper and more availible. That's when it will get interesting.

Nothin for nothin though.... Star Treck 2000 cool factor through the roof

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

There was a thread about this technology a few months ago. I find it really interesting and I've been trying to make it to a Z-corp product demo, but haven't found the time.

I think it still in the infancy and 'Horseless carriage' stage where the technology is used to mimic what is made now. To me, the real strength of this technology is in making either totally new objects, or the same old object totally in a new way. Why make somethign solid when it is actually easier and cheaper to make it wth voids in it? Why make it out of one material when you can make it a composite material?

Some of the advances in ceramics are just amazing. If you could print the electronics into a device, how does that change everything?

Trully game changing technology if used to its potential- and a threat to UPS if you can't click and print instead of click and ship.

[armatac]

If this is new technology to you, hopefully you are not an engineer.

It is fun and really really helpful, there are so many companies doing this, once you have a design submit it to all of them and you'll get a real good deal. FDM is strong but surface quality is awful. SLS is pretty good and SLA is awful in strength but pretty(you can get clear).

In the end if you're proficient, you can crunch a CAM program and let the machine knock it out of aluminum that day and not the 3 to 4 day turnaround.

What's great is if it is a really rough model you can sand and even add surface to the models.

I got to use one of the first stratasys builds in about 1998 and it needed calibrating badly, but in the end the technology is quite simple, Printer+glue depositor+moving Z axis(paper going down and building up ink essentially).

The dumbass thing I saw about this on the firearm blog showed someone actually doing a magazine with spring, like why would you not use a normal type spring....doh.

[eternal24k]

this is definitely a game changer, can't believe how cheap the printers cost

[Schadenfreude]

There are all kinds of uses for these things they r printing medical scans so doctors can practice the actual operation before hand, they take sat scans of sandbox villages & print them for troops to study. & they are allready working with mim type materials.

[goteron]

We get prototype parts from a 3rd party printer. Dimensions are spot on, and generally the material is strong enough for functional testing.

They also make DMLS machines that print in Ti, inconel, casting grade aluminum and some other exotic alloys.

[Zhurdan]

Speaking of rapid prototyping, is this 3D printing stuff how the folks on Orange County Choppers (or whatever it's called now) make these custom body parts? Usually they are one-offs, it couldn't be practical to do it any other way that I can think of.

[armatac]

well you can, print a part, then you can use it to make a mold using somethign like silicone RTV (room temperature vulcanizing) rubber. This done properly (vented/parting line) then allows you to pour whatever substance you want to make it out of.