this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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If you wanna get really crazy, last I heard was that people were working on 3d printed 9mm ammo.
So not only are the guns FOSS, but the bullets are too.
im struggling to imagine how a plastic bullet would work
I'm going to assume they don't include the gunpowder
Gauss guns don't need gunpowder, only gigantic capacitors.
For those you need to look at DIY channels, not 3D printing. Besides, I wouldn't be surprised if gun nuts were all "Ewwww, gauss guns? Where's the explosion? More like GIRLY GUNS, amirite?"
I’m presuming printed cases. Factory made polymer cased ammunition has been proven, so the logical next step is figuring out how to DIY it.
i can see that, but 3d printer plastic necessarily has to have a much lower melting point no?
im sorry if this is dumb, im not a big gun connoisseur, isnt it very easy to manufacture the metal casing anyway? and im also assuming you would need to make the lead thing too.
I’m not looped into any possible home attempts to make DIY casings, but I would presume you’d need to do some problem solving with the material. It just seems like the most plausible angle to work on to me. The point of thermal issues is relevant, not just in the material standing up to heat but also for cooling the gun itself. It’s imagine that successful DIY printed casing would be more feasible with single shot or bolt action type firearms.
With traditional home reloading, no people normally don’t produce their own casings. You can buy them, or you can reuse already fired casings.
It depends on the level of 3d printer you're talking about. Your average $300 at-home printer is basically the hot end of a glue gun on stepper motors, though you might be surprised at some of the materials they're capable of printing in. Everything from basic ABS plastics to Nylon and Carbon-Fiber reinforced filaments are easily available.
If you're talking commercial grade, $10k+ printers, that's an entirely different story. Commercial printers are capable of printing objects out of steel. There's been a lot of work in that area to print all kinds of things from guns parts in military grade polymers to entire engine blocks, no assembly required.
On the 3d printed gun end, supposedly people have figured out the issues to the point where you can print 100% of the parts out of super basic plastic (the most commonly used plastic in 3d printing is PLA, which has a melting point around 200 degrees Celsius), though the stuff I've seen online is more about using internals from cheap guns and 3d printing the external "furniture" of the gun either for custom cosmetics or aftermarket parts like handles and grips, or to create an expensive gun out of cheaper components. As for the ammo, I've only heard that "people were working on it." I don't know any of the specifics.
I couldn't tell you myself, I think it's crazy too, but NATO trialed caseless ammo during the Cold War, and if that's possible, I don't see why plastic ammo (at least cases) couldn't be.
Though you sure as hell won't see me jumping in line to try it out.
Caseless is an entirely different branch of innovation than polymer cases, but both have been shown to work.
There are multiple examples, but one that sprang to mind was the Textron NGSW submission, if you want to see what was being floated to the military recently.
https://soldiersystems.net/2020/10/13/textron-systems-next-generation-squad-weapon-update/
No need for a 3D printer to make your own ammo, when there are reloading presses already designed for that that will make reliable and safe ammo much more easily. People also make their own lead bullets from tire weights and fishing weights, just by melting it in a crucible and pouring lead into molds
If I had to guess, the two most likely reasons are: for the challenge of it, and to reduce the amount of required tools.
I feel like the people who work on 3d printed guns largely fall into 2 camps - the people who just like to build things, and the people who look at a 3d printer as a valuable tool in the whole "become ungovernable" concept.
I know the second group are responsible for designing a fully 3d printed gun that's currently being used to fight against a genocidal military regime in Myanmar, for example. The people there are getting zero international aid, and can't get their hands on guns. But, they can get ammo, and they can get 3d printers. So they've set up 3d printer assembly lines to make guns that are at least good enough to kill a soldier and take his gun. It was designed for exactly that kind of situation - basically the Liberator one-shot pistol the CIA designed to be air-dropped into occupied France during WW2, except as a modern semi-auto SMG chambered in 9mm.
Crazy, I saw a lot in the shotgun realm for 3d printing slugs and shot and sabot shells, but nothing else yet. I'll have to do some digging. Honestly moving away from lead sounds great to me.