Printable Lowers and mags, does this make gun control obsolete?

Yes. People are making all kinds of molded stuff like jewelry, fishing lures, figures, etc. I've even had a dentist want a machine for making teeth. A customer in Seattle area casts bronze RC boat propellers among other things.

An ABS part can be dipped briefly in acetone, which will smooth the surface even more. This is a great trick for preparing a part for a molding process or just improving the finish of a printed part.

I have multiple friends who want to test the printed magazine. While I made the first magazine with ABS, we stock a Nylon grade filament too. The Nylon will be plenty durable enough for long term use, but likely melt some if it gets too hot.
 
Printed Magazine, assembled using metal spring from existing magazine.
 

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Very interesting technology. Seems it has come along some since I first looked into it. Now from what I understand, 3D printing came along as a quick way to make a model of a part. Allowing it to be tangible and not just on a computer screen. There now seem to be newer versions of this technology that could make things that can actually be used. But cost would be a factor to most of us. As of right now, they I do not think they can print a part that would need to of a certain rockwell hardness to perform any function inside a firearm or be a barrel. This seems to be far off yet and will not replace machine shops just yet. Now, I am not saying that it will one day not happen. But not today for the average person. Dollar for dollar, I believe a simple CNC machine is still the best machine for this purpose. Still within the average person's grasp and much more reliable.
 
3D printers are an advancement, but don't help our ban problems. You can make a zip gun from pipes and rubber bands right now and it would shoot in a pinch but if you have one assembled in your home without proper paperwork you're going to jail for a long time when caught.
 
Technology doesn't matter. Look, any idiot with some very basic tools can make a DIAS. The law still says it's illegal to make one. And, you don't even need any fancy technology to make one. Magazines would be the same thing - if they are illegal, then they are illegal - doesn't matter if you can make one out of chewing gum and paper.
 
That's right, illegal would be illegal. A 3D printer is just another tool. Perhaps it's an issue because it's easier to make something? Download, slice, print. Perhaps it's the convenience? Or requires a lower skill level?

Keeping an optimistic view, 3D printed parts are something else that forces the real issues on the table, and it's not gun control. Among many things, it's a social problem. Yet the (supposedly) well educated leaders of our great country can't make common sense decisions. Any laws or regulations that may get passed will demonstrate their ignorance or intelligence.
 
It would be very different if the ability to manufacture a thing verifiabliy happens before said thing is banned.


1. "Oh these 1000 mag tubes and 50 AR15 lowers? My cat sat on the "Print" button - years ago, before the ban. Oops silly cat"

2. Despair working against those who would otherwise support. Would the casual participant so ardently want a ban on something a "criminal" could really so easily reproduce?


Going off on another tangent. . . with viable accessible 3D printing we would face a renaissance of incredibly cool designs and the ability to trivially digitally share them. The guns you buy are designs limited by turn of the (19th) century machining, or later stamping, casting or mass production molding. The next set of designs based on "printable" enthusiast boutiquey one-off components is in front of us.
 
You can make a zip gun from pipes and rubber bands right now and it would shoot in a pinch but if you have one assembled in your home without proper paperwork you're going to jail for a long time when caught.
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If an NFA tiem yes, but in most of the country you can manufacture other firearms without doing any paperwork whatsoever as long as it is not for resale.


I suspect someone will make one with stock included similar to CAV arms and that will be far more successful that the others. The one that went 20 rounds was made with the wrong material on the wrong machine from what I gather. The 80+ round one was made months before it.
 
Some of the things on the warrant against the Branch Davidians included statements about them owning the tools for making automatic weapons conversions for their otherwise legal guns. Listed tools included milling machines and lathes.

Future warrants will include 3-D printers and CNC machines.
 
Some of the things on the warrant against the Branch Davidians included statements about them owning the tools for making automatic weapons conversions for their otherwise legal guns. Listed tools included milling machines and lathes.
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That's not unusual for warrants. If the FBI had other reasons to believe that they were illegally converting semi-auto guns to full-auto, then the machinery and tools are naturally going to be seized as potential evidence.

It's no different from executing a warrant on a drug lab - the police are going to seize scales, baggies and other paraphernalia in the lab as potential evidence, even though they may all have other, legal uses.
 
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