Defense Distributed AR-15 Lower

These guys market this like they are doing the Lord’s work:

Watching that guy pull the trigger was painful.  Slappy Mc2ndKnuckleSlapperson.

Maybe I’ll eat my words when someone says they printed that out on a $200 RepRap, but my guess is they have some sort of fancy printer similar to the $20,000 one Stratasys yanked their lease on.  If that’s the case, color me unimpressed.  I had perfect 3D CAD drawings of the AR-15 lower 7 years ago… they didn’t invent that shit.  Oh what they reinforced it in a couple places? *yawn*

I do support the Defense Distributed concept/project as a whole, but using boutique equipment and then humble bragging about the results is the part that doesn’t impress me.  As people have pointed out before, printing an AR lower out of plastic is cute and all, but I’m sure a lot of people who are shitting a brick over this don’t ever realize that you can make machine a billet aluminum ar-15 lower perfectly well using <$1000 worth of equipment bought from Harbor Freight.  Sure it’s not quite as easy as “hit print and come back in xx minutes”… but it wouldn’t exactly take a tier 1 machinist to pull it off.

Defense-Distributed-3D-Printed-AR15-Lower

Thoughts?


Comments

21 responses to “Defense Distributed AR-15 Lower”

  1. MatthewJames Avatar
    MatthewJames

    IT was painful and embarrassing watching them finger bang that trigger :( They should get help making youtube their videos. Fail. Would not operate with. And I’ll operate with almost anybody.

  2. Tier 1 machinist. I lold.

    Even though the AR-15 lower isn’t under a ton of stress, it still has to be made out of something other than paper mâché or really bad plastic. Imagine that in Texas in a car on a summer day. 140*+ blast furnace cars are.

  3. LiquidFlorian Avatar
    LiquidFlorian

    I’m a poor IT bum so I’m going to print one of these rather than buy a lower right now. I have access to printers, and while learning machining would be fun, its a lot cheaper to “just hit print”. The skill set curve is way lower too, which is what makes printing a lower much more controversial then milling one. The tools are about equally priced, but just about anyone can print one of these.

    1. Crunkleross Avatar
      Crunkleross

      While the printers are getting all the attention there is a huge “make your own gun community” out there. Not to take anything away from the ingenuity of the geek side but it’s amazing to see what the gear heads can make out of nothing but a few hand tools and a few surplus parts. You don’t have to have huge mills and lathes.

      The only negative I see with the attention this 3d printing is getting, especially being portrayed as a completed gun coming out of a printer by the media, will cause the .gov put an end to all home built firearms by one of their decrees. It’s been pretty much under the radar until now.

      1. LiquidFlorian Avatar
        LiquidFlorian

        yup… To DefDist’s credit they’re going about the process the right way and obeying all the federal regulations.

  4. hnl.flyboy Avatar

    They also had the bipod backwards the whole time..

    1. Matt in FL Avatar

      If they put it on the right way, with the legs swinging forward, it might collapse under the incredible recoil of the 5.56 round.

  5. While they had their lease yanked, they outright purchased another model from the company. Dimension series.

    http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/02/defense-distributed-unveils-new-3d-printed-gun-magazine-cuomo-video.php

  6. bandroidx Avatar

    anyone else wonder if this kind of thing is going to cause the ATF to end up saying more than the lower is a regulated part?

    1. Crunkleross Avatar
      Crunkleross

      No and it wouldn’t matter if they did, Federal law allows you to home build anything you want except machine guns and certain others under the NFA. You can build your own suppressor or SBR, you still have to buy the tax stamp and the paperwork as if you bought it.

  7. Does the guy in the red shirt’s finger not work and the only way he can fire that weapon is to move his whole hand? That looked fully retarded.

    1. Matt in FL Avatar

      I think his hand was cramping up. He started out using just his finger (badly), but even with trading off with another guy, he got tired or something.

  8. I have a RepRap I could try this on, a MendelMax (1.5) specifically. Printing is much more complicated on the homemade printers. There is a lot of trial and error and continuous adjustments. Its still in its infancy in comparison to professional setups like we use for rapid prototyping in my lab. It’s not just “press print”.

    That being said, I will try and print out their new reinforced lower and test it out. Likely FDM printing (the process used by RepRaps) will not be strong enough.

    I’ve printed a 75% model of their first lower and it took 2.5 hours. I imagine the fullsize will take closer to 4 depending on the printer’s set up.

  9. I think You guys are failing to see the importance of all this.. Its information they are disseminating who cares about finger placement or bipod placement. We are talking about in the very near future being about to print out your own Lower, magazines and possible parts of your upper that will last you maybe a whole season of shooting. I personally think this whole concept is a complete GAME CHANGER in the world of weapons.. The dissemination of free information to the masses has always been meet with great resistance from the thought controllers… Please support groups like this and don’t be so negative as we all know our freedoms and liberties are at risk very day…… FREEDOM AND LIBERTY!

    1. LiquidFlorian Avatar
      LiquidFlorian

      Yeah, this is stuff that can’t really be taken away. The genie is out of the bottle more or less.

  10. They lose all credibility because they can’t shoot….

  11. Jon Hutto Avatar

    This is basically a second amendment for humanity in the 21st century. 20 years from now when so many homes have 3d printers as inkjets today, this will be looked at as a watershed moment.

    Expect in the next few years upper receivers to be labeled as weapons or other regulations to curve this concept.

  12. maybe they could print a SlideFire stock or something? their widdle fingers were getting tired.

  13. If I am not mistaken, the video indicates – and might even show – that a lower can be printed on an FDM printer now. They conveniently do not specify which one (I wish they would release the details better than they do, but I would imagine they are somewhat busy these days), but that means we are out of the realm of SLA and into the same technology that the at-home 3D printers use.

    Granted, I somehow doubt they have made a model that can be effectively printed on an at-home printer, but the point is that it will eventually happen.

    Y’all are basically bitching that Gutenberg cannot print a Playboy. Wait for it.

  14. Sivl32 (elvis) Avatar
    Sivl32 (elvis)

    that trigger seems horrendous

  15. cdreid Avatar

    You sound.. snivelling and jealous? The point is “screw the feds they wanna regulatr us to hell we’ll just print some”. Want a 30 round mag and the .gov is making it a pain? Print them out all day long. How about a 50 round? A drum mag? Need a part and dont wanna wait around for one to be shipped.. print it. Cant find that part for your parts kit build ? Print it .

    As far as the comment about “texas with 140 degree heat!” um we heat the beds to 110-120CELCIUS to prevent warping and the printhead runs from 240-270C. Look up the boiling temp of water. And that’s not to mention materials like polycarbonate and nylon that print at higher temperatures and are stronger (on certain ways)