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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis Is The World's First Entirely 3D-Printed Gun
Eight months ago, Cody Wilson set out to create the worlds first entirely 3D-printable handgun.
Now he has.
Early next week, Wilson, a 25-year-old University of Texas law student and founder of the non-profit group Defense Distributed, plans to release the 3D-printable CAD files for a gun he calls the Liberator, pictured in its initial form above. Hes agreed to let me document the process of the guns creation, so long as I dont publish details of its mechanics or its testing until its been proven to work reliably and the file has been uploaded to Defense Distributeds online collection of printable gun blueprints at Defcad.org.
All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS plastic with a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company Stratasys, with the exception of a single nail thats used as a firing pin. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.
Technically, Defense Distributeds gun has one other non-printed component: the group added a six ounce chunk of steel into the body to make it detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act. In March, the group also obtained a federal firearms license, making it a legal gun manufacturer.
MORE...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/03/this-is-the-worlds-first-entirely-3d-printed-gun-photos/
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This Is The World's First Entirely 3D-Printed Gun (Original Post)
Purveyor
May 2013
OP
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)1. Looks like a spud gun
Buns_of_Fire
(17,183 posts)10. Or a bubble gun, or some other toy.
There's a reason toy manufacturers make super-soakers and the like look so outlandish -- partly so they won't be mistaken by LEOs as an actual weapon. What happens when real weapons start looking like toys?
Bay Boy
(1,689 posts)2. Interesting choice of names for it...
...The Liberator was the name of a cheap gun made during WWII and dropped behind enemy lines for partisans. It's main use was to be a one shot weapon to be used to secure another more powerful weapon.
ileus
(15,396 posts)3. Finally something uglier than a Hi-Point.
Needs a better trigger...
petronius
(26,602 posts)4. Wonder if he got the name from the WWII concept:
MineralMan
(146,318 posts)5. I would assume so.
Bannakaffalatta
(94 posts)6. What the world needs more of...
... another lethal weapons any 12-year-old can manufacture.
But at least it doesn't require anything illegal, like Drano, to make it go bang.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)7. Does this mean the TSA will invoke Keyster Searches this summer?
Or were they going to do that anyway?
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)8. OMG! Talk about a facebomb!
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)9. it's ugly
jazzimov
(1,456 posts)11. Um, safety?
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)12. Yay, more fuel for the panic-and-ban-this-technology crowd. (nt)