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Comment by 300bps | Hacker News Reader

I heard the designer of the gun on the BBC today. He said he created the design because he is a Libertarian and is trying to hasten the time when all information is freely available. He rejects government censorship of information.

He also said that the printer used to make his gun costs about $8,000 but that people were reporting making a working gun with as low as a $2,000 printer.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22478310

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It's basically a fancy zip gun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improvised_firearm), something people have been making ever since there were cartridges to put in them.

Like a home-made zip gun it's quite dangerous to use, and liable to malfunction in all kinds of ways harmful to the user.

It's worth noting that with a basic milling machine (about $400) an individual in the U.S. can legally manufacture for personal use an AR-15 lower receiver from either a bare or partially machined forging ($50) in as little as a few hours. Some have done the job with only a Dremel or hand drill, making the investment much cheaper.

I share this only to illustrate that this technology is not enabling a radical new ability to produce cheap personal-use weapons, but more of an (expensive) prototype evolutionary step in the process.

In addition, possibly in contrast to this printed design, a home made receiver that is properly surface-hardened after machining is fully as capable and safe as any other receiver manufactured to the TDP.

I'm pretty sure a $2000 printer isn't necessary to print it. Printrbots are relatively cheap < $500, but you have to assemble it yourself.

PrintrBot+ printing + superfine resolutions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyrP4LWc0yk

Do they use the same raw material?

Yes, and they can use better material than the ABS used by Defense Distributed.

I'm not certain why he hasn't tried making them out of Nylon (of which there is filament widely available now), which has all-around better mechanical properties than ABS.

I can't imagine a $500 or even a $2000 printer can print a solid enough gun that could be reused over and over. A couple of shots, maybe.

So the same as the $8k printer then.

You would need a printer that can do selective sintering of metal dust. And I'm fairly sure you could build a gun that had an extended duty cycle.

http://gpiprototype.com/services/dmls-direct-metal-laser-sin...

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