3D-Printed Semiautomatic .22 Debuts. "If you take my gun, I will simply print another one."
Published at LiveLeak by Buck O'Fama (just possibly a pseudonym) is this video demonstration of a 3D-printed pistol version of a Ruger 10/22—a popular semiautomatic .22 rifle. The receiver is 3D printed and glued together, with metal parts added, including what appears to be the bolt (and, I assume, a synthetic after-market stock*).
The text reads:
The pistol version of the popular Ruger 10/22 rifle, the Ruger Charger comes standard with 10-round flush magazines and can accept high-capacity mags holding 30 rounds or more. As demonstrated, making one with a cheap small-format 3D printer and some parts purchased on the internet (with no paperwork) is trivially easy.
We don't see the printing process, so we'll have to take Buck O'Fama's word that the Ruger Charger was "printed in two sections on an inexpensive, small-format 3D printer, and those sections were crazy-glued together," and joined with mail order parts. But this seems a logical development of the 3D-printed firearms technology that we've seen evolve over the last year-plus.
Solid Concepts, an engineering firm, has fully 3D printed metal 1911-style pistols on high-end printers, but this is the closest we've come so far—and damned close it is, if this pans out—to a 3D-printed semiautomatice firearm being produced on an inexpensive machine.
O'Fama closes closes the video by pointing out, "If you take my gun, I will simply print another one."
*Commenter MegaloMonocle says that's a wood stock, not synthetic.
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Could he have made it any uglier?
Not if he tried. Maybe by accident.
Minor point; that’s a wood stock, not a synthetic stock.
Are you sure? I had a 22 rifle that the stock looked a lot like that, like wood, but it was plastic.
Maybe not. I’ve just seen wood stocks that looked a lot like that.
Could be either, hard to tell from the pic/video.
Well Tuccille went and edited the article, so you best be right boy.
didn’t see that exact stock in a quick search, but it looks a lot like this (wooden) stock:
http://www.midwayusa.com/produ…..-wood-blue
If I had a more trivial comment on this article, I can’t think what it would be.
Gun pedant.
No need to be clippy.
Trigger warning required.
Just so this doesn’t make it into the magazine.
For a sight called Reason…
I had hoped we’d guard against this kind of thing and not slide into a cheap pun war; so let’s get a grip and pull ourselves back on the rail.
Its called a laminate stock, wood treated in a special way.
Minor point; that’s a wood stock, not a synthetic stock.
Correct. I have a wood-laminate 10/22 rifle stock just like it, but in different colors.
Dude, awesome handle!
fwiw you are right. He used aftermarket 10/22 stock and 3D printed the normally serialized receiver. (the green part in the pic) The trigger is even a factory 10/22 trigger if you know 10/22’s.
“I’ve never fired it before, so hopefully it doesn’t explode in my face.”
Stephen Hawking has never sounded dirtier.
Ugh. Seriously? I’m all for common sense gun ownership because of teh second amendment, but why would anyone *need* this gun?
deserve need got nuthin’ to do with it.
Please submit a list here, immediately, of everything that you own, so that we may determine if you need any particular item, or not.
Hehe, check your sarc meters, fuckers! I’m just repeating what i hear progs spout at me on a daily basis. I’m also jacked on a large Peet’s iced coffee. Not bad.
*Golf clap*
You’ll have to pry my sarc meter from my cold dead hands.
Why would anyone *not* need this gun?
Bah, you wingnut bagger! That’s what the police are for. If a criminal breaks into your home and decides to shoot you, the police will be there later to file a report. Or else, if you aren’t already dead, the police will then shoot you dead, then file a report. What else do you want?, anarchist!
The gun is hideous, but I’m very much interested in being able to print out a lightsaber. Uh, to hunt, of course…
I always keep mutated anthrax for duck hunting.
One self-proclaimed socialist I was arguing with the other day kept saying “Guns should only be used for hunting, you just don’t need them for anything else.” Christ. WHAT IS THEIR FUCKING OBSESSION WITH DICTATING THE NEEDS OF EVERYONE ELSE. The only explanation I can think of is that they get physically aroused when fantasizing about the state beating citizens into their social contract.
If you haven’t read That Hideous Strength by CS Lewis, you really should. It is absolutely terrifying how exactly on-the-nose his characterization of the “socially scientific progressive” is.
I’ll put it on my amazon wish list. I tend to read multiple books at a time, but never actually get around to finishing any of them. I’ve been “reading” Sullum’s book on smoking for the past three or so months.
Its the only novel that has ever given me nightmares.
Funny that the 2A says nothing about hunting, just about the need for securing the free state.
Stop providing facts that don’t fit the narrative.
They don’t give a shit about the 2A. To them, the Constitution is just an old–and meaningless– piece of parchment that’s just barely constraining their noble quest to establish a total socialist state. For them, it’s just something to navigate around.
It’s not just the 2A. They feel that way about the entire document. To the extent that they can manipulate it to mean what they want it to mean it gives them legitimacy. To the extent that their opponents use it to check their advances it is old, anachronistic and irrelevant to modern society and the direct we should be progressing moving in.
Yeah, that’s what I meant. The best line is by far “i believe that the Constitution is a living document,” meaning I want to twist its meaning to fit my narrative. Fuckin slavers.
Funny that the 2A says nothing about hunting, just about the need for securing the free state.
Hunting is necessary to the security of a free state!
/sarc
“WHAT IS THEIR FUCKING OBSESSION WITH DICTATING THE NEEDS OF EVERYONE ELSE”
Because it’s an absolute necessity, imposed by their worldview. If you believe “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need”, then you have to be the judge of everybody else’s needs, because otherwise what’s to stop people from saying, “Hey, I need a Ferrari, a mountain of blow, and an estate in Spain”? So clearly you can’t trust people’s own statements about what they need…
Now, say I, uh, *hypothetically* wanted to get my hands on that holy trinity of a good time…do you have a newsletter to which I can subscribe?
It is the archetype of target shooting and varmint hunting. It is the firearm that everyone should have
Ban plastic!
Ban metal!
It’s the only way we’ll be safe!
/Bloomberg hysteriderp.
Ban 3D printers for home use! Who knows what you crazies will print next!
Fully automatic dildos and fleshlights!
Custom pick guards and custom tire valve caps!
See! You proved my point! Wiminz folk could become victims of those massive dildos that you extremists print!
I can just see it now, women showing up at emergency rooms around the country, saying things like ‘I didn’t realize how BIG that dildo really was, until it got stuck! If only the dildo had been made by a responsible government regulated industry, instead of crazed libertarians, it would surely have had a warning label’!
Don’t even need a new acronym – FDA – Fleshlight and Dildo Administration
I’ve got one word for you, my boy, just one word: ‘teledildonics’! Its the future.
Would that fall under the FCC’s regulatory umbrella?
It’s not all that much different than the old, “I was nude gardening and slipped and fell in the cucumber patch.”?
What if they beat you to death in a SWAT raid?
Or if they put you in prison for printing a gun? We all know that’s where this is headed. Only licensed entities will be able to manufacture guns. All produced models will have to be approved by the ATF. Anyone found making, possessing or selling an unapproved model will be committing a felony.
I’m afraid home 3-d printing will get strangled in the crib because people are rushing to print guns. Not that I think anything is wrong with that, but it would be better to let this tech become ubiquitous and then start sharing gun designs. Then it would be too late to regulate printers.
I’m afraid home 3-d printing will get strangled in the crib because people are rushing to print guns.
I’m afraid that 3D home printing of guns is internet and/or libertarian hype.
Guns, bows, and knives are stupid simple to make (depending on specific features and models, obv.). The original 3D printed gun was done on a rented $30K printer. If you invested $30K in equipment, parts, and training, it should get you pretty well towards being a master gunsmith and leave you with skills far more broadly applicable than just guns or off-the-shelf 3D printing. Even a $5K printer is nowhere near as ubiquitous as a $500 MIG setup.
I keep hearing this and it’s really silly to just label the ‘master metal worker’ as some trivial detail. Most people don’t know one end of a lathe from the other so cheap 3D printing absolutely increase gun access for all.
Most people don’t know one end of a lathe from the other so cheap 3D printing absolutely increase gun access for all.
I don’t think ‘master metal worker’ or ‘top flight gunsmith’ is a trivial detail either. That’s why I think it’s stupid to act like everyone will suddenly be 3D printing weapons on every street corner.
The overwhelming majority of people who don’t know the headstock from the tailstock aren’t going to care if the gun was printed by a 3D printer or if it rolled off the assembly line in China.
The one’s bedding their own barrels and debating whether barrel-lapping is beneficial or not aren’t going to overwhelmingly adopt a 3D printing (they’re still debating barrel-lapping for Christ’s sake).
The ‘rapid prototyping’ technology has a niche and neither ‘fine-finished product’ nor mass production are it.
Silencers and n-round magazines are often even less legal than the firearms they attach to and are even easier to produce (esp. by 3D printing) why aren’t we up to our eyeballs with stay-at-home Dad’s printing (or even just making) those?
Thankfully, the cops aren’t, as a group, smart enough to start printing their own drop-guns, so it will be hard to start the hysteria.
And thrown in rape cages with the marijuana smokers.
OT: Balko’s latest nutpunch
So, one set of cops tell this guy to shoot intruders, then cops intrude over $2 of marijuana, he grabs his gun, cops murder him. Justifiable, of course. Because reasons.
Drug suspects simply aren’t worth the time it takes for that sort of due diligence.
They’re not even human.
Come on now. Drug-users don’t have rights. And their drug-use makes them less productive members of society. Your productivity determines your right to live in America, therefore, if your productivity is less than optimal, you may be killed at any time by our valiant Warrior Caste.
I don’t think he was talking about the drug users.
The comments are mostly good, and then there’s this:
crashtx1
9:35 AM MDT
So imagine for a moment if he had followed the law and not had illegal substances in his home?
Imagine we lived in a free country, where the absurd phrase “illegal substances” didn’t exist.
He’d still be just as dead if he hadn’t had any pot in the house, yes?
And, I’m far from willing to concede there was any pot in the house before the cops stepped in.
So imagine for a moment if he had followed the law and not had illegal substances in his home?
Then they would have tossed a grenade into his baby’s crib.
“So, imagine for a moment if you weren’t an insufferable cunt.”
“Mostly good” convinced me to scroll down. Almost immediately I came upon:
After having read the report from the Tampa Bay Times I would say that Westcott was more a victim of the gun culture and the idea that a gun is the best thing for self defense than a victim of the war on drugs.
I’ll give up my 3-D printer when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Somehow “By the Time We Got to Syntheticstock…” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, but maybe it will grow on me.
I like the fact that it looks like a child’s toy. Can you print it with the plastic orange tip?
Yes, as a matter of fact, that’s the easy part.
Or print one to fit on the metal barrel.
I still don’t understand using the term “print”. It should be called molding or fabricating.
Isn’t this infringing on Ruger’s patent? (assuming they have one for this model)
Re: Francisco d’Aconia,
It would certainly make any intruder shit his pants the moment this “toy gun” starts spraying his belly with real bullets.
I was thinking I might not get shot by the cops for answering my door at 3AM with my gun if it had an orange tip.
Nah…who am I kidding?
Maybe if you modified the fun heavily such that it was strapped to your arm and hidden underneath your housecoat, fired by applying pressure by palm squeeze.
Nice to see you officer…it’s my privilege to present a laurel and hearty handshake…
If we can’t have Mega Busters, that might be the next best thing.
I’m not sure I would personally want to test fire a gun held together by crazy glue.
Now some gorilla glue and some duct tape on the other hand…
By the way, the fact that Tony is not posting his opinions here is because he pretty much agrees with everything that is being said here because, you know, he’s the truest libertarian there can be. He said so himself.
Last week Tony declared that he loves liberty. Being more enlightened that we low-brow libertarians, he expands liberty to mean being free from things like getting sick. Of course this means he wants to use government coercion to pay for universal health care. So as a lover of liberty he loves government coercion, because being forced to pay for things we neither want nor need makes us free!
Ow. My head hurts.
Of course. See, when the New Man is fully realized, there will be no need for coersion, because everyone will be right thinking. Until then, fuck you, pay me will be the bywords of the noble government man.
As a mechanical structures engineering who’s been conversant in 3D printing technologies for the past 14 years, I’ll stick with cast and machined metal over layers of plastic threads as the primary material in my firearms, thankyouverymuch.
That being said, as a supporter of the 2nd amendment and individual rights, I fully support your right to blow your damn fool hand off by firing a gun constructed of layers of plastic threads.
Seems like a 10/22 receiver shouldn’t be subject to huge strains, except maybe at the barrel lug/mounting point. Maybe use a stronger recoil spring than stock?
Seems like a 10/22 receiver failing wouldn’t be catastrophic to the user.
Carbon-fibre printers: a solution…?
The way I’ve seen carbon fiber used is it is layered like cloth onto a mold and treated with epoxy resin to give it rigidity. Don’t see that happening with a printer.
3-D metal printing makes more sense, though I don’t know how the average person would heat treat it.
The way I’ve seen carbon fiber used is it is layered like cloth onto a mold and treated with epoxy resin to give it rigidity.
And, last time I checked, you could make a carbon-fiber mould of pretty much anything, with a kit, at home, right now, for less than the price of a spool of plastic to feed a 3D printer.
Unless you plan to compete with HK or Glock, probably best to forego the 3D printer; and if you do plan to compete with HK or Glock, probably best to rent the prototyper while you get an actual assembly line together.
“And if you take my 3D printer, I’ll… be really sad.”
They’ll just take your printer. They won’t regulate them, they’ll just ban them outright.
Seems pretty legit, but I would have liked to see the entire process.
Beat your shovels into AK-47s.
It should be easy enough to print an AR lower. Most of the stress is on the upper, but the lower is the serialized part.
Beat your shovels into AK-47s.
See, reading stuff like this makes 3D printed stuff look ‘shop class for hipsters’ to me.
O’Fama closes closes the video by pointing out, “If you take my gun, I will simply print another one.”
Hahahaha… Maladjusted nerd thinks Obama is coming for his guns, cobbles together something that will probably blow up in his face if he uses it with any regularity, and then brags about it on the internet. I’d be afraid, O’Fama, The NSA have their laser beams pointed at your basement computer lab as we speak.
Wouldn’t it have been easier for this desperate attention seeker to buy a gun for $100 at Walmart, travel to DC, and “start a revolution” like that hilariously desperate narcissist on youtube. Oh… What’s his name (looks it up) Adam kokesh. Ha… What a fucking imbecile.
Having a reliable 3D printed Ruger 10/22 receiver is a big deal.
The 10/22 is the most popular rifle in America and one of it’s advantages is how modular it is. There is an absolute boatload of third party accessories that you can get, as long as it’s not the receiver itself from Ruger with the serial number.
He had to add
trigger assembly
bolt and firing pin
magazine
barrel
stock
various bits and bobs
On all of these there are literally dozens of choices for each item. All available via internet/mail order. The world is a fantastic place.
The stock is not synthetic, but it IS composite, as in composite wood, ergo, plywood.
amerikan Socialist, best keep that “desperate attention seeker” talk to yourself lest people think you are projecting. Typical troll with a brilliant non-sequitur gets right to the revolution talk too. Are you on paid troll leave like ICE.
From a friend: “That does look like a laminated wood stock, which I’m familiar with because so many knife companies use it. Trademarks are Dymond Wood and Pakkawood. It is resin-impregnated, and can take many colors. It has the beauty of wood, but the toughness of plastic.”