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posted by LaminatorX on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the gun-without-a-bang dept.

When Cody Wilson revealed the world’s first fully 3-D printed gun last year, he showed that the “maker” movement has enabled anyone to create a working, lethal firearm with a click in the privacy of his or her garage. Now he’s moved on to a new form of digital DIY gunsmithing. And this time the results aren’t made of plastic.

Wilson’s latest radically libertarian project is a PC-connected milling machine he calls the Ghost Gunner. Like any computer-numerically-controlled (or CNC) mill, the one-foot-cubed black box uses a drill bit mounted on a head that moves in three dimensions to automatically carve digitally-modeled shapes into polymer, wood or aluminum. But this CNC mill, sold by Wilson’s organization known as Defense Distributed for $1,200, is designed to create one object in particular: the component of an AR-15 rifle known as its lower receiver.

That simple chunk of metal has become the epicenter of a gun control firestorm. A lower receiver is the body of the gun that connects its stock, barrel, magazine and other parts. As such, it’s also the rifle’s most regulated element. Mill your own lower receiver at home, however, and you can order the rest of the parts from online gun shops, creating a semi-automatic weapon with no serial number, obtained with no background check, no waiting period or other regulatory hurdles.
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/cody-wilson-ghost-gunner/

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @04:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @04:09AM (#100811)

    The problem here is that it is special purpose. Being designed to work around a law will just provoke a new law that narrowly targets devices that are primarily designed to build lower receivers. Its kind of like how google doesn't get shut down for indexing torrent sites but torrent-only sites have been shut down.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:25AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:25AM (#100826) Journal

      It's legal now (supposedly) and it can be done with other CNC mills. This one is just cheaper and faster, and smaller due to the focus on "80% lowers". I wouldn't be surprised if it could create other shapes without significant fiddling with the software.

      Getting a new law to ban this could be impossible in the short term. Republicans are projected to gain more seats in the House and probably the Senate. They don't entertain the notion of gun control legislation anymore.

      So Defense Distributed will continue to operate for years, while the federal government tries to harrass them with obscure or untested legal tactics, like the letter from the State Dept.

      Cody Wilson thrives on confrontation. He billed this as an "October Surprise". He's working on making Bitcoin more anonymous and a decentralized Silk Road possible. I wouldn't bet against him succeeding at whatever he attempts to do.

      As for customers for this $1200 CNC mill, he described it as orders of magnitude cheaper and faster for the intended purpose. The cost won't be a factor for some, and I'm sure militias and such would split the cost on a Ghost Gunner and churn out weapons just for fun/ideology stroking, and maybe profit. Wilson's legal troubles become theirs. Except as the Wired article noted, a bill to ban guns without serial numbers was vetoed by the California governor a day before this was launched. No action on the federal level, no action in what's considered the "nanny state".

      This will not get outlawed. If it did, it would be outlawed too late to prevent Wilson from earning the cash he is seeking to further fund DD. To prevent Wilson's vision from becoming reality, you would have to outlaw all cheap CNC mills, all 3D printers. CNC mills are getting cheaper, and 3D printers are getting more capable.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:45AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:45AM (#100830)

        > I wouldn't bet against him succeeding at whatever he attempts to do.

        Because the last one totally went his way. [bbc.co.uk]

        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @06:57AM

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 02 2014, @06:57AM (#100840) Journal

          That was a trivial setback that delivered a great reward: publicity. He ended up using a Stratasys anyway [forbes.com].

          Unlike the original, steel Liberator, though, Wilson’s weapon is almost entirely plastic: Fifteen of its 16 pieces have been created inside an $8,000 second-hand Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer

          Try again.

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          • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:10AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:10AM (#100842)
            • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:06AM

              by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:06AM (#100860) Journal

              US government seizes 3D-printed gun files, but still shared elsewhere [wired.co.uk]

              That design was put online on 7 May, and since then more than 100,000 downloads have taken place.

              Pirate Bay Takes Over Distribution of Censored 3D Printable Gun [torrentfreak.com]
              Browse Other > Physibles [thepiratebay.se]

              September 20, 2013: DEFCAD Launches 'The Pirate Bay' of 3D Printing [torrentfreak.com]

              The worldwide release of the prints did not sit well with the State Department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls who kindly requested that DEFCAD remove the availability of the 3D printable gun documents, citing a possible violation of International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

              The files in question were removed, but at the same time DEFCAD was already working on a new project that would be harder to censor. Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson had started to raise funds for a separate meta-search engine, the first to focus on 3D print models.

              “In March of this year, seeing an opportunity to expand the DEFCAD concept to fight the prevailing ideas about intellectual property in the entire physible space, I split Defense Distributed and DEFCAD and turned the latter into another company,” Wilson tells TorrentFreak.

              “The idea was to move away from direct hosting to employ the first amendment victories won by Google in the courts and become a meta-search engine as a more robust way of spreading and preserving physibles. We hope to build a piece of infrastructure to help stem the next wave of the IP wars in advance, if you will.”

              DEFCAD raised a significant amount of funds and has now quietly rolled out the meta-search engine to the public on DEFCAD.com. While still labeled as an Alpha release the site already indexes more than 74,000 files, all stored on external sites.

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            • (Score: 2) by cafebabe on Thursday October 02 2014, @12:59PM

              by cafebabe (894) on Thursday October 02 2014, @12:59PM (#100919) Journal

              There are two responses to weapon CAD files being export violations. The first is Bernstein v. United States [1995] [wikipedia.org] and the second is Arkell v. Pressdram [1971] [wikipedia.org].

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      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:33AM

        by bradley13 (3053) on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:33AM (#100848) Homepage Journal

        Comments like the parent assume that it is obvious that this product should be banned? Why? It's a milling machine with a program, so what?

        - Laws are supposed to regulate illegal behavior, but creep more and more towards regulating intent. If killing someone is illegal, throw murderers in jail. No, let's outlaw weapons (UK) - throw anyone in jail who has a weapon. Outlaw parts of weapons (lower receivers). Outlaw the ability to manufacturer parts of guns. Etc. etc.

        - The US war on drugs is similar. Outlaw dangerous drugs, then outlaw component chemicals, then outlaw components of the components. Simple iodine is now a harshly regulated chemical, even though it's primary use is as a disinfectant.

        With every step along this path, the laws become less clearly enforceable and criminalize a greater range of perfectly acceptable activities. In the end, we are all criminals, living our lives at the mercy of government bureaucrats who could - any time they wish - find a reason to prosecute us. This is not a healthy society.

        So...why do people like the parent just assume that milling machines like this should be banned?

        --
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        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:45AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:45AM (#100851)

          > Comments like the parent assume that it is obvious that this product should be banned?

          No, my comment assumes that laws are passed with intent and when something comes along that is specifically designed to circumvent that intent then a new law gets passed to close the loophole. I make no judgement whether or not the law SHOULD be written.

          > The US war on drugs is similar.

          Indeed, It is the perfect example [wikipedia.org] of how the law gets updated to deal with loopholes.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday October 02 2014, @02:07PM

          by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Thursday October 02 2014, @02:07PM (#100950) Homepage Journal

          So...why do people like the parent just assume that milling machines like this should be banned?

          Because they're "thinking" with their emotions. Emotionalism and logic mix about as well as oil and water.

          --
          "Nobody knows everything about anything." — Dr Jerry Morton, Journey to Madness
          • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by BasilBrush on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:18PM

            by BasilBrush (3994) on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:18PM (#100985)

            You're confusing emotion with morality.

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            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:50PM

              by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:50PM (#101001) Homepage Journal

              I don't think so. People want to ban guns out of fear. What does gun ownership have to do with morality?

              --
              "Nobody knows everything about anything." — Dr Jerry Morton, Journey to Madness
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 03 2014, @12:35AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 03 2014, @12:35AM (#101206)

                Women and women-like men.

              • (Score: 1) by BasilBrush on Friday October 03 2014, @01:12PM

                by BasilBrush (3994) on Friday October 03 2014, @01:12PM (#101369)

                You demonstrate your confusion well.

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        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:10PM

          by opinionated_science (4031) on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:10PM (#101031)

          the founding fathers anticipated a government using fear excuses to ban weapons and included the 2nd amendment...

          it is a turning point in history that the 1st amendment requires the 2nd to be effective...

          • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:38PM

            by Alfred (4006) on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:38PM (#101049) Journal

            Amen and amen.
            They lived under something oppressive, replaced it with something better and could not have done so without firearms and mortal force.
            They wanted this option available in the future for when their then better system went the way all governments go.

          • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday October 03 2014, @01:31AM

            by JNCF (4317) on Friday October 03 2014, @01:31AM (#101224) Journal

            it is a turning point in history that the 1st amendment requires the 2nd to be effective...

            And the beauty of printable weapon files that they wrap the 2nd amendment in the 1st, so that the 1st amendment protects the 2nd amendment which protects the 1st amendment which... well, you get the idea.

      • (Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:56AM

        by Sir Garlon (1264) on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:56AM (#100901)

        To prevent Wilson's vision from becoming reality, you would have to outlaw all cheap CNC mills, all 3D printers.

        Our you could just establish a stranglehold on mercury fulminate [wikipedia.org] and similar explosives through regulation. That fancy gun replicator can't make ammunition. Just take existing laws and sed 's/firearm/ammunition/g'. (Actually it would be slightly more complicated than that because of handloading; but my point stands that making modern ammunition requires a chemical plant and therefore there is another natural point of regulatory control over production and distribution of ammunition).

        From a practical point of view, I agree, the legislature is too fractious and too slow-moving to outlaw this technology. If Wilson thinks his genie can't theoretically be put back in the bottle, though, I am inclined to disagree.

        --
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        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:37PM

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:37PM (#100936) Journal

          Well if industry can make these things (the chemicals), enthusiasts probably can too (mercury fulminate was discovered in 1800). And from what I can tell, rounds for the AR-15 range from $0.30 [gunbot.net] to $1.50 [gunbot.net].

          Remember the various surges in gun/ammo purchases [forbes.com]? Even rumors [vice.com] trigger a flurry of ammo buying activity. Don't forget state-by-state efforts [latimes.com] to regulate guns in the aftermath of massacres.

          The industry portion of the gun lobby just grows more powerful as guns and ammo fly off the shelves:

          (Forbes) The increased demand has prompted ammunition makers in the U.S. to expand facilities, add new shifts and streamline production. Federal Premium says, “Our facilities operate 24-hours a day. We are continually making process improvements to increase our efficiency and investing in capital and personnel where we have sustained demand. We are bringing additional capacity online again this year.”

          Back to the Newtown massacre. Political will to regulate guns peaked around that time, Obama and other politicians were quite outspoken on the need for new laws. The public opinion shift as measured a year later? A small bump in desire to regulate, and a large bump in anti-gun control sentiment [pewresearch.org].

          The genie can't be put in the bottle fast enough, no matter what gun control regulation is being considered, and assuming the political will exists to pass it among Republicans. Rounds will be stockpiled. CAD files will become CAD torrents. 3D printers will get cheaper and escape attempts to regulate. The ideology will help to foster a cooperative black market. On Wilson's own CNC mill, I read more about it and confirmed that it could create things that aren't lower receivers. In the next couple of decades, if people can create printers that spit out ammunition or drugs, they will do it.

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    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:14AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:14AM (#100864) Journal

      https://ghostgunner.net/ [ghostgunner.net]

      More than Guns

      Ghost Gunner is capable of manufacturing more than just firearm receivers. With Defense Distributed's open source Physibles Development SDK (pDev), designers can distribute files via our '.dd' file format, which contains all installation and assembly instructions, any required jig files to hold the part in place (that users can print with a 3D printer), and all machine definitions and code to physically manufacture a particular design.

      To a casual user, the .dd file is a one-stop solution to manufacturing any aluminum physible that the public can design to fit into the build envelope. Defense Distributed will be developing in and supporting this format, and we are happy to publish your own innovations and contributions.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by krishnoid on Thursday October 02 2014, @04:17AM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Thursday October 02 2014, @04:17AM (#100814)

    I read about something similar in a webcomic [schlockmercenary.com] a while back. Considering the comic is about mercenaries, though, I doubt this bodes well. I found the attached commentary on this strip pretty interesting, though.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:29AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:29AM (#100827) Journal

      Most of the gun can be bought anonymously. It's the lower receiver that is being created with the CNC mill, from a blob of metal already 80% on the way to being a lower receiver. The gun isn't going to explode in your hands. Wilson is exploiting a loophole that won't likely be closed anytime soon, due to obstructionism/gun culture. Wilson is very crafty.

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      • (Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:22PM

        by BasilBrush (3994) on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:22PM (#100986)

        Wilson is very crafty.

        He's a extremist troll. I look forward to him receiving a Darwin Award at some point.

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        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 03 2014, @12:39AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 03 2014, @12:39AM (#101207)

          Why, because he'll be murdered by the government?

          Fuck you.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday October 02 2014, @04:54AM

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday October 02 2014, @04:54AM (#100819) Journal

    How is this different than the thousands of guys who have metal milling machines in their garage? Small ones, big ones, depending on their hobby and money. I personally know a guy who has everything he would need for this, as well as the stock, and drilling the barrel.

    The government could just as well declare this little milling machine to be a munition. They could after all declare encryption to be a munition and got away with it for years.

    Given the wealth of weapons in the country, why would the government bother to do anything about the availability of this machine?
    Seriously, what difference does the presence or absence of a serial number make?

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @09:40AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @09:40AM (#100884)

      shh. you'll offend the democrats. they're sensitive you know... and they think guns can sprout arms and legs and go killing people on their own

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:19AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:19AM (#100899)

        they think guns can sprout arms and legs and go killing people on their own

        No, they mostly think that "bad" people go around killing others, and that easy access to guns allows those bad people to be much more effective killers. Some of them also think that perfectly normal people sometimes let their emotions get the better of them, and would rather see a fist fight than a gun fight.

        But you go on imagining that all gun owners are responsible, civic minded people who would never allow their weapons to be stolen and who would never sell their weapons privately for twice their retail value.

        • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:03PM

          by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:03PM (#100920) Journal

          and who would never sell their weapons privately for twice their retail value.

          That is also called "My weapon was stolen"

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:10AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:10AM (#100898)

      How is this different than the thousands of guys who have metal milling machines in their garage? Small ones, big ones, depending on their hobby and money. I personally know a guy who has everything he would need for this, as well as the stock, and drilling the barrel.

      The difference is that this is a turn-key solution for creating the most difficult part of a specific gun. You don't have to already own a $5-$15k mill. You don't have to know how to convert an engineering drawing into a physical object. You don't have to know how to set up and align fixtures in a general purpose mill. You do still have to know how to assemble the other parts to an extent greater than most gun owners would routinely do, but this is a small hurdle. It makes the gun manufacture more like replacing brake pads and less like resurfacing brake rotors.

      It also publicizes more widely (especially with the help of web sites like wired) the fact that it is actually possible to build your own gun. Many people consider any form of metal-working to be "professional" hard, and consider gun manufacture to require a level of precision far in excess of anything possible in a home workshop (at least partly because the set of gun enthusiasts and the set of home machining enthusiasts is rather disjoint). Gun manufacture is intimidating, and products/news like this reveals that to be not overblown

  • (Score: 3) by aristarchus on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:12AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:12AM (#100824) Journal

    Lower receiver of an AR-15? What a sucky gun! You know, any reasonably equipped gunsmith can make a whole gun, and probably an automatic if they have sufficient reason (money!) I mean, hillbillies used to make Kentucky rifles (even though they are more correctly called Pennsylvania rifles, and OMG here we go off into another ammosexual obsessive discussion, but at LEAST it does not involve the distinction between automatic and semi-automatic. ) My point is, if you are going to produce a one-off automatic assault rifle, why not improve the design instead of copying the lowest bidder to the US military industrial complex? What low depths hacking has fallen to. First systemd , and now this!

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:45AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:45AM (#100831)

      Wow, Aristarchus! I did not know that someone could weave a systemd rant into a post about the right to keep and arm fully automatic bears! My hat is off to you, Kudos, sir!

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:09AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:09AM (#100862) Journal

      https://ghostgunner.net/ [ghostgunner.net]

      Ghost Gunner is capable of manufacturing more than just firearm receivers. With Defense Distributed's open source Physibles Development SDK (pDev), designers can distribute files via our '.dd' file format, which contains all installation and assembly instructions, any required jig files to hold the part in place (that users can print with a 3D printer), and all machine definitions and code to physically manufacture a particular design.

      To a casual user, the .dd file is a one-stop solution to manufacturing any aluminum physible that the public can design to fit into the build envelope. Defense Distributed will be developing in and supporting this format, and we are happy to publish your own innovations and contributions.

      After installing the included software, you'll be ready to manufacture publicly available .dd designs. Defense Distributed is committed to releasing future firearm design files, from the AR-15 to the AR-10 to the 1911, and then continuing with our own designs.

      The .dd file format is itself open source and not constrained to the Ghost Gunner or Defense Distributed; any user can define any existing machine's specific parameters via the machine parameters list. A single file can contain specific code and installation instructions for any number of machines.

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    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday October 02 2014, @10:45AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 02 2014, @10:45AM (#100892) Journal
      The thing is, the AR-15 is an ASSAULT WEAPON. It looks really scary and military looking with lethal features like flash suppressors, bayonet lugs, and black paint.
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:07AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:07AM (#100897)

        /me hides his fully automatic assault cattle prod

      • (Score: 1) by infodragon on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:53PM

        by infodragon (3509) on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:53PM (#100942)

        If looks define what is an assault weapon then we are in a whole heap of trouble! An AR-15 is not an assault weapon, a 7mm rifle or a 3006 are both hunting rifles with a lot more lethal effect. The energy behind these are significant compared to the AR, in the event a bullet proof vest is used there will be tremendous impact damage compared to the AR. Not to mention the good quality 7mm mag and 3006 are more accurate than a good quality AR. Accuracy = more lethal.

        You may say the AR is semi-automatic. Both of these hunting rifles can be found in semi-auto variants. You may say the AR has larger magazines, same can be said for these others. In fact anything that can be done to an AR to make it "more evil" can be done to any other rifle, however other rifles have longer range, better accuracy and more energy behind the projectile. If the debate were rational typical hunting rifles would be demonized. In fact if the debate were truly rational we would be talking about what guns are used to kill people, tiny handguns. But the debate isn't rational, it's about "really scary and military looking weapons."

        What makes a weapon an ASSAULT WEAPON is an arbitrary definition, "In general, assault weapons are semiautomatic firearms with a large magazine of ammunition that were designed and configured for rapid fire and combat use." Almost any gun can be this! I wish we could all have a rational discussion but instead we have scary boogy monsters killing people with flash suppressors, bayonet lugs and disguised with black paint!

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    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday October 02 2014, @10:57PM

      by mhajicek (51) on Thursday October 02 2014, @10:57PM (#101182)

      The AR-15 can be significantly improved with a commonly available has piston system.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
  • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Thursday October 02 2014, @06:29AM

    by SlimmPickens (1056) on Thursday October 02 2014, @06:29AM (#100836)

    I'm curious what else I could make with it. I've been considering buying a colloid mill.

    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday October 02 2014, @06:46AM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday October 02 2014, @06:46AM (#100838) Journal

      Almost anything! Remember, milling and most tool operations are subtractive. You start with more than you need, and then take away everything that does not figure in your design. Sculpture, really. 3-D printing, on the other hand (and such much older tech such as welding, casting, and growing trees) is additive! That means you can build something without all that waste of taking things away! And if you are interested in assault weapons, you definitely do not want to have to take stuff away, because the means there are actual human beings getting in the way of your ammosexual fantasy and causing you to crap your pants and run. Real machinists make their own tools, refine and cast their own raw materials, and tend not to be libertarian survivalist nut-jobs. Just saying.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:02AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:02AM (#100841) Journal

        Real machinists make their own tools, refine and cast their own raw materials, and tend not to be libertarian survivalist nut-jobs.

        With the notable exception of Lenna...
        NO! STOP!! Don't shoot, I promise not to utter anything about anymore.

        --
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      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday October 02 2014, @06:46PM

        by Freeman (732) on Thursday October 02 2014, @06:46PM (#101078) Journal

        Your description of milling vs 3-D Printing, etc reminded me of Zedd explaining how different types of magic work.

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:25AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:25AM (#100845) Journal

      I've been considering buying a colloid mill.

      Careful, even with a colloid mill you still do have a point of touch [google.com.au] with the guns [remington.com].

      (ducks)

      --
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      • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:42AM

        by SlimmPickens (1056) on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:42AM (#100874)

        Holy shit, I thought that Remington website was a joke at first. I'm scared now.

  • (Score: 1) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:50AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:50AM (#100854) Homepage Journal

    Those will set you back more than $1200, but if you bought just one milling machine, a milling machine can make lathes, shears and brakes, as well as other milling machines.

    If you have a lathe, a shear and a brake, my understanding is that you can make a fully-automatic AK-47 out of a square foot of sheet metal and a piece of hardened bar stock. That's among the reasons that Kalashnikov was regarded as a hero of the Soviet people.

    As for the other comment saying the government will banninate the lower-receiver machine... CNC mills are very easy to get, and have boundless legitimate uses. So no one will ever attempt to ban CNC mills.

    They are automated tools, that use a very simple computer program to guide the cutting head and the table to which your work is clamped, so if you were to just post the program online, there's not a whole lot you could do about regulating it. It would be like trying to force HelloWorld.c back into the Genie Bottle.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:47AM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:47AM (#100875) Journal

      Any gun you can make by folding metal is really not worth making. Otherwise we would be up to our elbows in origami guns, or Uzis. Drop forged, machined, heat treated, and polished, especially Browningized, that is the way to go. And as a side note, all these hipsters who think you can replace good solid craftsmanship (preferably actually trained: Union!) with software, there is a whole 'nother level of reality that can't wait to meet you. LTP1: Printer is on fire! And randomly firing all around the workspace. Duck, you suckers.

      • (Score: 1) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 02 2014, @09:50AM

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday October 02 2014, @09:50AM (#100885) Homepage Journal

        The idea behind the AK-47 is that it is cheap and easy to make.

        One requires an expert to make the barrel, but anyone who can handle a screwdriver can be taught how to operate the bending brake and shear.

        Thus you can equip an army with very minimal expenditure of resources. The Soviets didn't have a lot to spend on weapons when the AK-47 was invented.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 2) by Spook brat on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:09PM

        by Spook brat (775) on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:09PM (#101030) Journal

        Any gun you can make by folding metal is really not worth making.

        The maker of the Shovel AK [northeastshooters.com] disagrees with you.

        Not only does he find the shovel's handle to be of comparable comfort to a conventional stock, its accuracy rivals those of many commercially built guns. From his write-up:

        Shit shovel: $2
        Romy sans-barrel AK kit: $200
        Barrel blank: $30
        Compliance parts: free from Martha Coakley . . .

        The look on your competitor's face with an expensive AR when he finds out that he have been outshot by a $2 shit-shovel .... priceless!

        There's your statement of worth, I couldn't have said it better myself.

        Ultimately, the worth of a firearm is its ability to reliably put rounds accurately on the point of aim. If the folded-metal firearm fulfills that purpose then the build was definitely worth it.

        --
        Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by strattitarius on Thursday October 02 2014, @02:32PM

      by strattitarius (3191) on Thursday October 02 2014, @02:32PM (#100961) Journal

      So no one will ever attempt to ban CNC mills.

      Maybe not ban, but if you purchase one with enough accuracy (not sure the limit) you will be required to register it and sign a form stating you won't sell it to anyone on a list of banned countries. The form goes to, of course, Homeland Security. True stuff... had to sign one myself so Mitsubishi would send me a replacement part (controller I think...).

      --
      Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.
      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:22PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:22PM (#101038) Journal

        Except if people with printers print out new printers for their friends & family, then the horses are firmly out of the barn. I think more about material inputs, myself. We live in a society drowning in cast-off objects of every variety. If we can build matter decompilers to turn those objects into feedstock for the printers, then we're cooking. At last year's Maker Faire Bre Pettis hinted at something like that in the works at MakerBot, but now that he's moved on who knows what will happen to that.

        Me, I'd love to mine pure carbon from the atmosphere and spin it into graphene and carbon nanotubes and build whatever I want from there. Alas, I am several advanced degrees in chemistry and nanotechnology shy...

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 1) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday October 03 2014, @07:03AM

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday October 03 2014, @07:03AM (#101294) Homepage Journal

        Yeah you're right I had forgotten that.

        Back during the Cold War someone was fined $100,000,000.00 for selling a large four-axis CNC mill to (I think) China. That's just what you need to make the cleverly designed propellers on submarines, that are shaped so as to drive the sub really fast while staying really quiet.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:59AM (#100858)
    When i was 12 i built a repeating 10 shot black powder revolver that fired bolts thru a cement block wall.
    I even had to hide it from my parents. They'd have beat my ass i bet.

    Did it look nice? No.

    Was it functional and lethal? Yes.

    If a 12 year old can make one because he's bored and stupid. Making a lethal weapon is really easy.
    Trying to regulate it. Or the machines that make them. Or the machines that make the machines...
    Is only going to get silly and stupid and a pointless waste of time and money.

    I bet we're going to go for silly and stupid tho. We always do.
    • (Score: 1) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:09AM

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:09AM (#100861) Homepage Journal

      ... a rubber band and a piece of copper tubing when he was a teenager.

      He took it out in the woods, tied it to a tree then fired a 0.22 round with it.

      He emphasized that I should not try it myself, as it is profoundly unsafe, however he was a military officer. Throughout my childhood we all expected I would one day join the Navy as well, so he often encouraged my interest in guns and explosives.

      I know how to make a high-explosive detonator that will detonate spontaneously, without a timer or anything. It is a chemical preparation that, after some period of time, will detonate violently. I also know how to make a whole bunch of high explosives that this will detonate. For the most part I learned how to make all these things by reading books I found in University libraries.

      Now I'm a real peaceful guy so I'm not going to blow anyone up. But if someone is not peaceful, and they know how to do literature research and they are handy with tools, there isn't a whole lot you can do to stop them.

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:25AM

        by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:25AM (#100869) Journal

        Oh yeah? Well I know how to make a . . . wait, I see what you are trying to do here. I know how to make lemonade out of lemons! Yeah! That's the ticket!

        • (Score: 2) by metamonkey on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:45PM

          by metamonkey (3174) on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:45PM (#100939)

          Oh yeah? Well I know how to make a . . . wait, I see what you are trying to do here. I know how to make lemonade out of lemons! Yeah! That's the ticket!

          And I'm sure you have it ready to squirt in someone's eye. We're going to need to outlaw weaponized lemonade.

          --
          Okay 3, 2, 1, let's jam.
          • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Thursday October 02 2014, @02:23PM

            by Alfred (4006) on Thursday October 02 2014, @02:23PM (#100959) Journal
            You skipped the part with paper cuts. The lemons of greatest effect always follow paper cuts.
            • (Score: 2) by metamonkey on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:25PM

              by metamonkey (3174) on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:25PM (#100987)

              Yes, yes, billions of Americans each year are victimized by lemon violence. We need to enact a 3-day waiting period on lemons and a two-lemon per person limit. Assault lemons are right out. We respect the right of Americans to bear lemons, but won't you please think of the children?

              --
              Okay 3, 2, 1, let's jam.
        • (Score: 2) by etherscythe on Friday October 03 2014, @11:18PM

          by etherscythe (937) on Friday October 03 2014, @11:18PM (#101547) Journal

          Someone tried to burn my house down with lemons once... Still Alive.

          --
          "Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday October 04 2014, @03:41AM

            by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday October 04 2014, @03:41AM (#101615) Journal

            Evidently you never faced a fully-automatic, Remotely-operated, and Highly-Lethal Lemon Gun. You have heard of spud guns? Imagine the same thing, of slightly lesser caliber for the most part, but with the projectiles filled with citric acid!!!! Especially just after you have cut yourself on some paper! And auto-reload and fire (that is what "auto" means, all you ammosexuals out there, not just a "fire once" type of thing which is good enough for most people, but that "sticking it back in and going again!" Like many times per seconds. If that happened with lemon-rounds. . .. ) That could burn your house down, especially if there was an Tequila involved.

            And I just want to say, yes, anyone could jerry-rig some kind of zip gun, single use, throw away, more likely to kill the user than the target: But that is not important now. What if ISIS gets ahold of lemons? What if it is a lot a lemons? And what if they obtain Lemonator technology? We are all doomed, I say! And this has nothing to do with systemd or Ebola breaking out in third world countries like Texas!

  • (Score: 2) by Ellis D. Tripp on Thursday October 02 2014, @12:47PM

    by Ellis D. Tripp (3416) on Thursday October 02 2014, @12:47PM (#100914)

    It isn't a general purpose CNC mill that could take a raw chunk of metal and completely machine a lower receiver from it. It is a specialized machine that needs to start from a premachined piece that is already 80% of the way to a finished part. This machine is only capable of drilling a few pre-defined holes and milling a few slots. Making a complete receiver from raw metal stock still requires machining skills, tools, and fixturing that are far beyond most of the target market for this thing.

    If this machine were to catch on, I would expect the ATF to tighten the laws on the availability of the 80% complete receivers. Much more feasible for them to attack the "problem" that way than to try to enact new laws restricting CNC machine tools.

    --
    "Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you end up with a lot of scum on the top!"--Edward Abbey
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:47PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:47PM (#100940) Journal

      Actually it is a general purpose machine in that it can create anything that is dictated to it by a ".dd" file format and can fit within the volume of the device.

      In fact, the process of legally milling a metal lower receiver is easier than it sounds. Using the Ghost Gunner to carve a lower receiver from a raw block of aluminum would be a lengthy, complex process. But the firearm community has long traded in so-called “80 percent lowers,” lower-receiver-shaped metal pieces that sell for as little as $80 and are roughly 80 percent finished—They only need to have a few holes and cavities milled out to become the body of a working gun. The bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms has defined that 80 percent line as the closest an object can come to a regulated rifle without legally qualifying as one. But precisely finishing the last 20 percent of a lower receiver has still required access to a milling machine that typically costs tens of thousands of dollars.
      ...
      Defense Distributed’s machine can’t carve pieces as large as its competitors, but its small size makes it more rigid and precise, allowing it to cut an aluminum lower receiver from an 80 percent lower in around an hour.

      The article is a bit ambiguous on whether the Ghost Gunner could carve from a 0% lower - aka a block of aluminum. It may be that doing so would just take a lot longer. As long as the 80 percenters are legal, you would just buy those. But it is clear that this mill can print more than just lower receivers [ghostgunner.net] from .dd files. It's not clear to me whether the software for it is so specifically tuned to carving 80% lowers, that it would result in legal posturing similar to the State Dept. letter. See the following line:

      Ghost Gunner automatically finds and aligns your 80% lower receiver to the machine, with simple installation instructions, point and click software and all required tools.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]