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Working Handgun Printed On a Sub-$2,000 3D Printer

Posted by timothy on from the liberator-lite dept.

Just a few weeks after Cody Wilson and friends successfully fired an instance of their own 3-D printed handgun design, Sparrowvsrevolution writes, "a couple of Wisconsin hobbyist gunsmiths have already managed to adapt Defense Distributed's so-called Liberator firearm and print it on a $1,725 Lulzbot 3D printer, a consumer grade machine that's far cheaper than the industrial quality Stratasys machine Defense Distributed used. They then proceeded to record their cheaper gun (dubbed the 'Lulz Liberator') firing nine .380 rounds without any signs of cracking or melting. Eight of the rounds were fired from a single plastic barrel. (Defense Distributed only fired one through its prototype.) In total, the Lulz Liberator's materials cost around $25 and were printed over just 48 hours."

11 of 521 comments (clear)

  1. Requires more metal by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Lulz Liberator uses more metal parts than the original Liberator...so at least this would be harder to sneak past a metal detector.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:Requires more metal by Bearhouse · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Both have a non-functional metal piece inserted in order to make them deliberately detectable, (and hence legal).
      The ungodly would leave that bit out, I assume.

      In addition, this modified version has bore rifling to escape restrictive legislation on smoothbore weapons.

      But, FTA:

      "After each firing, the ammo cartridges expanded enough that they had to be pounded out with a hammer."

      Keep your Semmerling for the moment, Jack...

    2. Re:Requires more metal by camperdave · · Score: 5, Funny

      Metal detectors contain metal parts!

      I don't know how they can stand it. If I was a metal detector that would drive me crazy.

      Yeah! It's like how I can't use a stud finder.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  2. so what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In 1994 a friend and I assembled a .22 from hardware store pipe, a hacksaw, a drill, some nails, and springs. It had a hammer and a trigger. We followed no plans...we just knew you needed a barrel, and something to smack the rim of the bullets we had...and we improvised. It worked fine, but you have to unscrew the barrel to to reload its single shot.

    1. Re:so what by arkhan_jg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In 1994 a friend and I assembled a .22 from hardware store pipe, a hacksaw, a drill, some nails, and springs. It had a hammer and a trigger. We followed no plans...we just knew you needed a barrel, and something to smack the rim of the bullets we had...and we improvised

      Ah, but you forgot something something Libertarian something something Internet something something Freedom!

      --
      Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
  3. It's not a gun by SupplyMission · · Score: 5, Informative

    It may be a fun proof of concept, but about the only things it is good for are generating political hype and drawing attention to the inventors.

    People fail to realize that it's much easier and cheaper to make a home made gun using existing tools and materials. Just because someone now made a [not very good] one using a 3D printer, everybody seems to be freaking out.

    Further well-grounded and thoughtful discussion on the matter can be found here:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/10/oh_no_its_the_plastic_3d_gun/

  4. Re:3D-Printed Revolver? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can't 3d print a spring with a plastics printer.

    Printing a Compression Spring on a RepRap / RepStrap 3D Printer
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHrlasCSa3U

  5. Paranoid? IRS? Fast & Furious? Seized Records? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Silly, paranoid people! Why, it's like they believe they live in a country where:

    Silly, paranoid gun owners!

    Thank God we live in America rather than that paranoid, nightmarish, Orwellian police state!

  6. Re:3D-Printed Revolver? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    *Gun control is about limiting the ease with which someone can engage in irrational acts.*

    Then maybe, just maybe, we ought to be working on helping the irrational rather than banning inanimate objects that can do nothing at all on their own.

    But you know what? It will never happen, because the gun banners DON"T CARE about addressing the base cause of violent crime, they just want to ban guns. Period.

  7. Re:3D-Printed Revolver? by darkwing_bmf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then maybe, just maybe, we ought to be working on helping the irrational rather than banning inanimate objects that can do nothing at all on their own.

    That's like saying we can end war or hunger. What are you, some kind of hippie?

  8. Re:3D-Printed Revolver? by nbauman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a lot easier to take away guns from irrational people than it is to get them to control their impulses. When you figure out how to get irrational people to control their impulses, let me know.

    I don't know where you get the idea that gun banners don't care about addressing the base cause of violent crime. The people who led the effort were doctors who got tired of having people dying from gun wounds in the emergency room. They were happy to reduce violence any way they could do it. The easiest way was to start by taking away the guns.

    They're the same people who are trying to reduce poverty, increase education, etc. but that's a long, indirect path.