Defense Distributed, the infamous 3D Printing Gun Slingers who describe their mission as “…facilitating global access to, and the collaborative production of, information and knowledge related to the 3D printing of arms; and to publish and distribute, at no cost to the public, such information and knowledge in promotion of the public interest….” had an experiment with a reinforced 3D Printed AR-15 Lower Receiver from Thingiverse over the weekend…Sadly, it failed after six rounds.
From Defense Distributed:
This Saturday we decided to test the popular printable lower to failure. All this talk about printable guns and gun parts, and for months, despite being the fitful ecstatics of wiki weaponeering, we’ve been unable to actually experience them.
The lower was printed in Object ABS-like material. It’s only available on Connex printers, but it is designed to simulate ABS thermoplastic. And after reading about how it could do things like this, we thought we might end up with something a little better than an FDM piece. The print was completed in under seven hours, and looked beautiful. Note the pale, spectral glow.
http://youtu.be/wuDCW_Rn5JI
Be sure to check out Defense Distributed’s review of the piece and their supposed solutions towards reinforcing the breaking point. Also makes for a fascinating read regarding the state of 3D printed guns today.
