A group of 3-D printing gunsmiths have taken another step toward making a gun you can download off the internet. This weekend, the desktop weaponeers took a partially printed rifle out to test how long its plastic parts survived spewing bullets. The result? Six rounds until it snapped apart.
But that was also the point, the group’s founder tells Danger Room. “We knew it would break, probably,” says Cody Wilson, who heads the Wiki Weapon project. “But I don’t think we thought it’d break within six [rounds]. We thought it’d break within 20.”
It’s the first live testing done by Wilson and Defense Distributed, the online collective that aims not only produce the world’s first fully 3-D printed gun, or “Wiki Weapon,” but create a clearinghouse for sharing weapons blueprints over the internet. But until these early prototypes can fire more than a few rounds without breaking, they have to be tested. The pressure from firing rapid-fire rounds is still too strong, though slowly firing single shots has apparently been demonstrated to last longer.
The gun tested this weekend was not fully 3-D printed, only partially. The only printed part was the lower receiver — or the gun’s trigger and grip — for an AR-15 rifle completed with off-the-shelf metal parts, which was first developed by Wisconsin-based engineer and hobbyist Michael Guslick. And the design works, technically, but is still far inferior to a standard rifle.
But Wilson learned a few things about how to improve it. For this weekend’s test, Wilson’s best guess is that the force of recoil destroyed part of the plastic lower receiver, causing it to come unhinged.
Wilson first fired one round to see if the gun worked, and then handed it to another member of the group. With 10 rounds in the magazine, the shooter managed to unload five. The recoil “pushes the ring back and down,” Wilson says, referring to the o-shaped ring attached to the gun’s upper receiver — which cycles the bullet — and shoulder stock, creating tremendous stresses.
One potential solution is reinforcing the o-ring, which the group detailed in a blog post. This might be done by just making it thicker, with more plastic material added to the ring’s sides where it won’t interfere with other components. The group also wants to reshape the trigger guard, boost the strength of interior pins and bolt bosses, and include custom markings — such as whether the gun is in the “safe” position — along with the printed product instead of laser-printing the markings afterward.
“We’ve been talking about this for months, so this is just a way of releasing some steam and doing something fun,” Wilson says. “We’ve been really heavy on the talking side of things, but we really just want to do things, you know?”
For weeks, they haven’t been able to even start. In September, Wilson leased a 3-D printer from additive manufacturing firm Stratasys that he planned to use to make the weapon. But it didn’t work out so well, at first. Stratasys’ legal representatives, after getting wind of Wilson’s plans — and citing the “Undetectable Firearms Act,” which outlaws plastic guns that can defeat airport security scanners — revoked the lease and promptly seized its printer back.
That stymied Defense Distributed, but it didn’t exactly stop them. Since losing their Stratasys printer, Wilson says he’s received help from two unnamed companies based in Austin and San Antonio, where his group can print and test their guns, and is waiting on a federal firearms manufacturers license, as the Undetectable Firearms Act provides an exemption for plastic gun prototypes designed by licensed manufacturers. (Stratasys does sell printers to licensed firearms manufacturers.) Wilson has also since incorporated Defense Distributed into a nonprofit corporation.
But another reason Defense Distributed ran into trouble is the group’s public nature, and their plans to distribute printable gun blueprints. That has gun control advocates worried. While Wilson’s group plans to print their gun officially, the same likely won’t be true for potentially anyone with a 3-D printer — which are becoming increasingly common — along with a few hours to spend downloading a gun off the internet.
The other question is whether you’ll be able to print a working gun, or a gun that can be used outside of testing it until it snaps apart. For now, that’s unsettled. But printed guns are becoming a reality, and they’re likely only to get better.
Poster Comment:
A good start. Isn't technology wonderful. Soon there will be people downloading weapons on p2p networks just like they download movies and music today.
They probably need to design a whole new firearm that works with the weaker material instead of just trying to duplicate an AR-15, which was obviously designed in part with consideration of the strength of steel.
They probably need to design a whole new firearm that works with the weaker material instead of just trying to duplicate an AR-15, which was obviously designed in part with consideration of the strength of steel.
Or add some metal to key parts during the process.
If the idea is to create a 3D printable gun, then I think they need to avoid any special construction steps like that.
I don't know a lot about this 3D printing. It sounds very interesting though. I was thinking that someone sometime would have a metal that could be printed as well as plastic. That is what I was thinking of.
I'm not an expert in metallurgy- only a couple of classes on the subject- but I can't think of any metal that would work as you are thinking...
The metal would have to flow in a liquid form, which of course requires it be melted. Looking at this chart, I don't see any metal with sufficient tensile strength to do the job. Of course, it'd have to have a sufficiently high melting point to flow, yet not flow when exposed to the hot gases from firing the weapon.
An interesting paradox...
Plastic has always suffered from low tensile-strength issues- leading to glass fibers being introduced (fiber-reinforced plastic, FRP, aka "fiberglass").
I've worked with plastics (though not printed, obviously) for 20+ years- both fiberglass, kevlar and (some) carbon-fiber applications... Nowadays, carbon fiber has replaced glass strands, so if the plastic can be reinforced with some sort of carbon cloth in the printing process, I believe that this would be a game-changer.
#8. To: Capitalist Eric, A K A Stone, Pinguinite (#7)(Edited)
I'm not an expert in metallurgy-
Me neither, but I believe that Powdered Metal tech is used in some firearms. I seem to recall that some aftermarket M1 Garand receivers are made from it and have a poor reputation for durability. From my brief research the past few minutes, it appears to be widely used in many products today. I wouldn't want it for a barrel/chamber, or bolt. KaBOOM! I predict if it ever gets to that, D&R polls will ban it. Hell, they'll ban everything if we let them get away with it.
