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For those in the US with a combined interest in 3D-Printers, intersections of the 1st and 2nd Amendments, and legal precedents; Cody Wilson has been fighting the US Government for half a decade.
Short version: after Wilson uploaded his 3D pistol plans to his site, over 100,000 people downloaded it - this drew the attention of the US authorities, who tried to use the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to force a take-down.
The authorities argued that by posting the 3D printer plans for a firearm, Mr. Wilson was effectively exporting firearms, and subject to federal regulation. Eventually the Department of Justice dropped the case, paving the way for DIY'ers to publish such things freely.
The article cites 'promises' made by DoJ to move the regulations to another department.
Wired's article: A Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora's Box for DIY Guns (archive)
Related: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home
Japanese Gun Printer Goes to Jail
Suspected 3D-Printed Gun Parts and Plastic Knuckles Seized in Australia
FedEx Refuses to Ship Defense Distributed's Ghost Gunner CNC Mill
Man Who Used CNC Mill to Manufacture AR-15 "Lowers" Sentenced to 41 Months
Ghost Gunner Software Update Allows the Milling of an M1911 Handgun
(Score: 2) by mobydisk on Friday July 13 2018, @02:06AM (7 children)
How does that compare to renting access to a metal shop, or buying the CNC machines yourself? It sounds like that would be a cheaper approach than buying an expensive 3D metal printer. Haven't people been making guns for years using CNC machines?
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Friday July 13 2018, @02:13AM (2 children)
A $10k Tormach is more than capable of turning aluminum billet into a receiver. With a clever programmer you can pull one out every couple of hours.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday July 13 2018, @03:29AM (1 child)
I'd say a few per hour. And I have a 5 axis vmc I can use on the weekends, but I'd like the less fortunate to be able to arm themselves too.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Saturday July 14 2018, @03:13AM
Lucky! :)
I have a Sherline that was converted to CNC by an OEM called Light Machines in the 90's. I envy at the material removal rate of real mills.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 13 2018, @08:25AM (3 children)
If we're dropping the printer requirement, you can get Cody Wilson's Ghost Gunner. Although maybe ordering the 80% lowers online will become a hassle in the future.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Saturday July 14 2018, @03:18AM (2 children)
With a CNC mill the 80% thing isn't 100% necessary. You can start with a chunk of bar stock of your heart desires. The annoying thing about AR lowers is that they have geometry that has to be cut on every face. If you don't have a four axis machine you end up having to flip the part 5 or 6 times
#firstworldproblems :D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 14 2018, @05:35AM (1 child)
One can, by slicing an object to provide one totally flat plane, and then bolting the parts together later, make an AR15 lower in a manner where each machined part requires no flipping or reorienting. Here's a close example: http://weaponeer.net/forum/uploads/Weaponeer/files/2007-10-17_131429_AR_15_Scratch_Built_Receiver.pdf [weaponeer.net] Some of the parts in that design have cuts requiring flipping, but one can further divide those parts into additional slices with one flat side. This would make the process on even a 3axis CNC rather straightforward.
Pictures of completed plans linked above: https://www.guns.com/2013/12/06/bolt-together-ar-15-lower-receiver-3d-printer-necessary/ [guns.com]
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Sunday July 15 2018, @05:53AM
That's kind of a hack. If you were doing a production run you'd set up a jig that holds 5 or 6 parts in the 5 or 6 required orientations. Then you load it up and hit cycle start. The machine does it's thing and the light goes red at the end of the cycle. You walk over, pull out one finished part, move each unfinished part one jig to the right, and slide in a new billet on the first jig. Repeat.
A finished part comes out of the machine every n minutes, where n is largely dependent on the speed of the tool changer. The total material removed isn't huge, the whole billet is ~60 cubic inches. The slowest operations are plunge/spiral cutting in the internal pockets. If you have a fast tool changer, slots, and the HP to do it you can do the plunging with a large drill. That speeds up pocketing significantly.