A minor correction, 3D printed guns are fairly reliable nowadays when made in a way such that all pressure bearing parts are made with metal/factory made regular parts
All guns degrade after being fired, but modern production firearms are just plastic wrapped around metal tubes. 3D printed guns have always worked on the same principle but it takes time to develop them to the same safety standards.
Not if they’re made correctly, with good materials like nylon-cf, correct print settings, and good post processing. It’s a process that takes a day or two and requires a small amount knowledge and skill.
A handgun made like that will function for thousands of rounds.
The lower / reciever / frame is the part of a semi auto handgun that has the serial number, as this is the part that is legally considered ‘the firearm’.
If you 3d print the lower, you can just buy every other part, often without a background check, in many instances without any ID at all, and assemble the gun around your 3d printed lower.
What makes something a ghost gun is that it does not have a serial number that can be tied back to a purchaser, who would have had to be ID’d / NICS checked or w/e.
What makes it a ghost gun is not that it is entirely made of plastic that wouldn’t show up on a xray or something, its that it is untraceable to a point of origin if you have the gun and nothing else to go on.
The other way people do this is by destroying the etched in serial number.
…
I haven’t actually heard it confirmed that Luigi only had 3d printed the lower, though for a normal person, that would probably be the easiest way to assemble a ghost gun.
But, he’s an engineering graduate.
Its possible he did ‘3d print’ many other components by using metal machining tools.
A homemade gun can be, but is not necessarily a ghost gun.
You can purchase a serial stamped, legal, traceable lower reciever/frame, and then purchase all the rest of the components of a gun, and assemble the whole gun yourself.
This is fairly common amongst experienced gun enthusiasts who prefer specific brands or designs for various parts, and like to do their own custom builds.
The result is a totally legal, non ghost, homemade gun.
…
Long Explanation of all the metal FGC9 parts an average person cannot make at home, period, or metal parts you can make at home but would need to have a CNC machine and significant machine shop experience.
The FGC 9 that you linked an article about… yes, it does feature more 3d printed parts which are typically made of metal… but it still requires you to buy many various metal parts.
So even with this thing, here’s all the parts that are not 3d printed plastic, that you would be very difficult even for an engineering graduate to create on their own unless they had access to their own industial machining tool manufactory:
Fire Control / Trigger Mechanism;
Springs
Disconnector
Pin
… Phew. Ok, so, sure these parts are not that difficult to purchase, why bother listing them all?
Because you said you don’t need to be an engineering graduate to make the metal parts of a gun.
That’s not true for all the above parts.
You’d need to have an entire manufactory to make these things out of the material required, at the quality required.
…
The following parts actually could be CNC’d by someone with moderate experience with a CNC machine, and a CNC machine at home, but they’re not made of 3d printed plastic:
Bolt
Barrel
(Non Threaded, thus significantly innacurate at range)
Now, if you are even more experienced with machining, you may be able to produce a threaded barrel…
… But at that point we are talking about an experienced machinist with pretty uncommon equipment, which itself can be traced.
Either way, you can’t make the bolt or barrel out of plastic for the FGC 9, and while yes, a novice machinist could learn how to machine one at home, the vast majority of people who build FGC 9s purchase the bolt and barrel from someone who runs a small, often psuedo legal business of making them.
You just 3d print the lower reciever, most modern handguns use injection molded plastic for this part, and a good 3d printer (and operator) can get a pretty decent result.
But its not just the ‘pressure bearing’ parts that cannot easily be 3d printed.
Almost everything else still has to be either purchased or very, very carefully assembled by hand with skill and machining tools.
Here’s a Glock 40:
Its basically a pretty bad idea (impossible with springs) to try to replace any of the metal parts with 3d printed plastic, many more parts than the barrel and slide are made of metal, and many of those parts could easily fail, even after mag worth of ammo or less, and completely brick the weapon.
People who make or sell 3d printed weapons still have to include a parts kit (or shopping list) with the stuff you can’t 3d print… with the exception of weapons that fire basically .22 or smaller cartidges, and those ones that actually are all 3d printed plastic are not going to survive very many shots.
A minor correction, 3D printed guns are fairly reliable nowadays when made in a way such that all pressure bearing parts are made with metal/factory made regular parts
Yeah was gonna comment this. There are totally functional 9mm machine pistols with everything made from printed and standard hardware store parts.
some rifles too, saw a YouTube video of one and it was pretty cool.
Yeah chiming in here to agree, 3D printed guns are now nearly identical in performance to other polymer based guns (like Glocks for instance).
they don’t degrade after being fired?
All guns degrade after being fired, but modern production firearms are just plastic wrapped around metal tubes. 3D printed guns have always worked on the same principle but it takes time to develop them to the same safety standards.
Not if they’re made correctly, with good materials like nylon-cf, correct print settings, and good post processing. It’s a process that takes a day or two and requires a small amount knowledge and skill.
A handgun made like that will function for thousands of rounds.
thanks, I had no idea.
I think it was also clarified that the gun was a Glock with 3d printed lower, which is basically a normal Glock with different plastic.
sauce? i’m seeing that he just got a purely-
ghost(edit: homemade) gunThe lower / reciever / frame is the part of a semi auto handgun that has the serial number, as this is the part that is legally considered ‘the firearm’.
If you 3d print the lower, you can just buy every other part, often without a background check, in many instances without any ID at all, and assemble the gun around your 3d printed lower.
What makes something a ghost gun is that it does not have a serial number that can be tied back to a purchaser, who would have had to be ID’d / NICS checked or w/e.
What makes it a ghost gun is not that it is entirely made of plastic that wouldn’t show up on a xray or something, its that it is untraceable to a point of origin if you have the gun and nothing else to go on.
The other way people do this is by destroying the etched in serial number.
…
I haven’t actually heard it confirmed that Luigi only had 3d printed the lower, though for a normal person, that would probably be the easiest way to assemble a ghost gun.
But, he’s an engineering graduate.
Its possible he did ‘3d print’ many other components by using metal machining tools.
as i’ve said elsewhere, i meant purely homemade, not ghost.
and you don’t even need to be an engineering graduate to homemake the metal parts of a gun
Well, you said ghost gun.
A homemade gun can be, but is not necessarily a ghost gun.
You can purchase a serial stamped, legal, traceable lower reciever/frame, and then purchase all the rest of the components of a gun, and assemble the whole gun yourself.
This is fairly common amongst experienced gun enthusiasts who prefer specific brands or designs for various parts, and like to do their own custom builds.
The result is a totally legal, non ghost, homemade gun.
…
Long Explanation of all the metal FGC9 parts an average person cannot make at home, period, or metal parts you can make at home but would need to have a CNC machine and significant machine shop experience.
The FGC 9 that you linked an article about… yes, it does feature more 3d printed parts which are typically made of metal… but it still requires you to buy many various metal parts.
https://www.hickoryhillarms.com/post/building-the-fgc-9
So even with this thing, here’s all the parts that are not 3d printed plastic, that you would be very difficult even for an engineering graduate to create on their own unless they had access to their own industial machining tool manufactory:
… Phew. Ok, so, sure these parts are not that difficult to purchase, why bother listing them all?
Because you said you don’t need to be an engineering graduate to make the metal parts of a gun.
That’s not true for all the above parts.
You’d need to have an entire manufactory to make these things out of the material required, at the quality required.
…
The following parts actually could be CNC’d by someone with moderate experience with a CNC machine, and a CNC machine at home, but they’re not made of 3d printed plastic:
Now, if you are even more experienced with machining, you may be able to produce a threaded barrel…
… But at that point we are talking about an experienced machinist with pretty uncommon equipment, which itself can be traced.
Either way, you can’t make the bolt or barrel out of plastic for the FGC 9, and while yes, a novice machinist could learn how to machine one at home, the vast majority of people who build FGC 9s purchase the bolt and barrel from someone who runs a small, often psuedo legal business of making them.
That functionally is a ghost gun in the US because only the lower is registered. Everything else is off the shelf, theoretically untraceable bits.
yes, and i’m saying that all the sources I see say it was completely homemade
Oh, rog! I misread that. I’ve seen a bunch of mixed BS, so hard to say.
You just 3d print the lower reciever, most modern handguns use injection molded plastic for this part, and a good 3d printer (and operator) can get a pretty decent result.
But its not just the ‘pressure bearing’ parts that cannot easily be 3d printed.
Almost everything else still has to be either purchased or very, very carefully assembled by hand with skill and machining tools.
Here’s a Glock 40:
Its basically a pretty bad idea (impossible with springs) to try to replace any of the metal parts with 3d printed plastic, many more parts than the barrel and slide are made of metal, and many of those parts could easily fail, even after mag worth of ammo or less, and completely brick the weapon.
People who make or sell 3d printed weapons still have to include a parts kit (or shopping list) with the stuff you can’t 3d print… with the exception of weapons that fire basically .22 or smaller cartidges, and those ones that actually are all 3d printed plastic are not going to survive very many shots.