DIY gun project misfires as 3D printer is seized

DIY gun project misfires as 3D printer is seized

Who would have thought it? Printing guns is frowned upon. Even in the US.

Cody Wilson, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, found this out last week when Stratasys, the company that made the uPrint SE 3D printer he was leasing, got wind of his plans to design a 3D-printable handgun and took back their equipment.

"The company is less than thrilled with what we're doing. They're trying to prevent me from breaking any laws with their product," Wilson told New Scientist. With several friends, he has founded a group called Defense Distributed to promote ideas about universal gun ownership.

If you build it…

In a letter to Wilson, lawyers for Stratasys cited his lack of a federal firearms manufacturer's licence as their reason for the repossession, adding that it does not knowingly allow its printers to be used for illegal purposes. Wilson countered that his group's aim is to disseminate a printable gun design online, not print guns per se.

Stratasys wasn't buying that, and with good reason: Defense Distributed's stated aims include the building of two prototypes of differing complexity that can be printed on a uPrint SE. If the guns work, the group will modify the designs for use on entry-level 3D printers like RepRap, which cost less than £1000.

So far, the plans are limited to computer-drawn designs – no physical prototype exists. But if Wilson and company manage to build the first fully printable gun, they will risk more than just running afoul of the law. Bullet propellants can create temperatures of up to 1000 °C. The powdered nylon that entry-level 3D printers use for construction, called ABS, cannot cope with that.

"The gunpowder explosion will probably be too much for ABS and other plastics in low-end printers," says Stuart Offer of 3D-printing firm 3T RPD in Newbury, UK. In all likelihood the gun would be destroyed, perhaps even blowing up in the shooter's hands, after firing no more than a few rounds.

Fire when ready

3D printers exist that fuse metal powders using laser or electron beams to produce sturdy, solid objects. But those machines cost around £500,000, says Offer, who uses them to make driver roll hoops for Formula 1 cars. And assembling a gun isn't like snapping together Lego pieces – each part must fit and move precisely.

3D printers that fuse metal could make gun components, but those parts would not make ready-to-fire guns, says Dan Johns, an additive-manufacturing engineer based in Bristol, UK. "The parts would need final, expert machining."

Still, as prices for more sophisticated printers fall, printing functional weapons is likely to become an affordable prospect. When that happens, governments will be faced with a decision. Could they lean on internet service providers to seek out and delete gun design files as they circulate online, as some ISPs are now asked to police music and movie file-sharing?

That wouldn't work, says Wilson: "We know that such efforts will be totally futile, with only random and disproportionate enforcement."

Another possibility would be to more tightly regulate ammunition, as a few US states have done, so that shooters must get a license before they can purchase bullets. But Wilson sees a way around even this: print your own ammo. If the gun project has even modest initial success, he says he expects to get working on this too. "3D printable ammunition would be a joy to pursue."

Would It Even Work?

Tue Oct 02 19:41:31 BST 2012 by Nathan

I'm curious, if someone really would want to build their own firearms - likely in their garage, in preparation for a take of the country by the U.N. that will never happen - what would they use to make the bullet fire.

I guess that, even though traditional bullets no longer use blackpowder, which can easily be made, they could still print out designs for older models, like muskets, dueling pistols, etc.

The more expensive printers could probably include some sort of oxidizer in the metallic lining, but it would probably be more effective to build guns out of old car parts and scrap metal, and simply use the 3D printer design as a general blueprint.

Gunpowder

Thu Oct 04 13:58:00 BST 2012 by Eric Kvaalen

"The powdered nylon that entry-level 3D printers use for construction, called ABS, cannot cope with that."

ABS is not a type of nylon.

New Scientist Doesn't Understand Us "gun" Definitions

Wed Oct 10 06:21:40 BST 2012 by Chris P

These people are not building "guns". For certain firearms, because of the interchangeability of parts, the gun identity is established by a number on a part called a "receiver". Typically this is for a semi-auto gun like an AR15. The receiver is a part that holds the trigger mechanism and provides a mounting location for some other parts. By itself it has no capability of firing anything. You can buy what are called 80% receivers where most of the work has been done for you. You can make such a gun for yourself using this approach but you cannot sell it to anybody.

New Scientist Doesn't Understand Us "gun" Definitions

Wed Oct 10 07:05:53 BST 2012 by Eric Kvaalen

Isn't that a distinction without a difference? The question is whether someone can "print" something like this and use it to shoot someone.

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Coming to a 3D printer near you (Image: Imagebroker/Alamy)

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