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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: 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.

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  • (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.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (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"