An internet show called Barnacules Nerdgasm tries it out:
Cool look at the process, and problems associated with it. It was really neat seeing the receiver rise out of nothing while being printed.
Interesting that the one he printed without support material looked way better hahaha.
He kept emphasizing that the lower is “the least important part of the gun”… well not according to the law, which he did finally say at the end how the lower was the only controlled part.
People often smooth out home 3d printed abs parts with acetone vapor, I don’t know if there is an equivalent solvent for PLA printed parts.
Some of his facts were wrong, but still a decent vid.
Hat tip: Mattv2099
Comments
8 responses to “3D Printing An AR-15 Lower”
Not a bad video. Most people don’t understand that hobby printers like the MakerBot and MakerGear aren’t the same as industrial 3D printers. We bought a MakerGear M2 about a year ago for rapid prototyping of parts and after you get over the learning curve it’s pretty great at cranking out new designs. Of course we had to print some lowers and blow them apart for the pure joy: http://instagram.com/p/gREXcNGdyK/#. These were ABS lowers, good for about 5 rounds.
He was saying it really shows with all of the comments like “you don’t strike me as the gun owner type especially an assault rife owner” it shows how the media has taken control and tells you who the ar-15 owner is. Because it really often is the average Joe.
Good to see the nerd / gun owner nexus. I think guys like this are helping to build the size and strength of GunCulture 2.0.
He said he keeps his firearms in a safe because he doesn’t want his children touching them? According to the media, gun owners aren’t that responsible!
But seriously, good to hear that he’ll teach his kids gun safety.
So what about 3d printing mags, granted they are not going to be high quality “go see the elephant” mags. For at the range, Crapco useablity, it might be a decent alternative. If you can figure out the scale for shrinkabilty.
Defense Distributed had their AR and AK mags for sale at one point. Now they have them available for download at DefCad but they seem to work pretty well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGTriDDUpUk
another thing iv done with abs/pla is to print out the gun take out the support material and smooth some edges. Pack it with clay inside and out really firmly then heat it up just past the plastics melting point so it becomes 1 solid piece not a layered object. The end result comes out as if it was direct injected molded making it countless times stronger
That’s a really neat idea, and awesome that it works so well!!!!