AR 15 for $45 ?
 

How long will it be before someone prints themselves one of these ?



https://3dexport.com/3dmodel-rifle-m...r15-225677.htm

That file is the wrong format for printing.

But AR15's have already been printed.

The question is how functional are they?

I would have no problem to make the investment in a high-end 3D printing set up if I could be reasonably certain that what I printed would be 100% functional.

Of course I would do all the proper legal paperwork prior to printing a gun. It just would be nice to be able to print copies of rare guns.

Exactly.

You can print the lower receiver and the rest of the plastic parts. I wouldnt print an upper receiver, too much stress and too much heat... plastic doesnt like either one. I wouldnt even trust a lower receiver to be honest with you, but I have seen them molded from polymers but even those arent very popular.

I've been 3d printing for almost 4 years and I have 6 printers here at my house, and I would still consider a printed gun to be a one shot survival type tool.

They will convert that file type to STL for a small fee then you would need to import it into Meshmixer to slice it up then into Cura to get the machine g code. The barrel could be printed but probably quicker to just buy a suitable barrel ?

Honestly, I wouldn't have a problem printing an entire gun if all I wanted to do was hang the thing on my wall. But that kind of defeats the purpose of being a collector.

And I agree with you on the one shot survival situation.

You'd still need a gas system, trigger parts, buffer spring, bolt assembly, etc. It's much more complicated than just printing something that looks like a real rifle.

Agreed! but as you will have seen 3D printing has come a long way over the past few years and metal printing machines are becoming more affordable. I just took delivery of a Studio System, along with the furnace and cloud-based software, costs around $120,000.

They have a Production System which also uses the furnace for post-processing, and costs around $360,000

Yes there is a lot involved but it won't be long before every home has a multi material 3D printer supplied free by Amazon and all we have to do is order something from them online and within a few hours it's printed out on their machine in you own home ?

Shades of Star Treks replicator !

Here is a replica I did of Agent K's blaster from Bladerunner 2049.

This straight off the printer, no post processing done.

https://mrpheer.com/pics/3d/agentk1.jpg

https://mrpheer.com/pics/3d/agentk2.jpg

You're going to burn your house down with a sintered metal printer :1orglaugh

Ha Ha Ha It's in my workshop i am going to use it for industrial prototypes !

The 3D printers i use in my business are a little different from the Chinese machines, for example most low cost machines ( under $6000 ) can only heat up to 250-285 C Nozzle temp. The machines i use can reach 600C enabling me to extrude PEEK and PEI materials I also use a very special diamond nozzle in place of the std brass- stainless steel -ruby nozzles which erode quickly. Its an amazing process which is getting better almost daily !

Very nice print :thumbsup:thumbsup