3D Printed Bullet?

Ok so the Daily Mail (UK) posted this article about 'The First 3-D Printed Bullet'

Daily Mail - 3D Printed Bullet

Seems to me things are moving quite quickly in the printing of firearms and ancillary components arena.... Now as i understand it, its just the projectile they are printing - and it required ball bearings to weight it or its flight characteristics are not good - and we still arent at a place where we can print the propellant as well...... Though surely its only a matter of time for that too.....

Thoughts?

reply to post by Quadraphobe


I've seen 3D printing discussions where they talk about printing out bone and joints for people, or tailored chunks of skull to fix them up etc.

yet ATS is obsessed with printing out weapons.

how sad..

The casing I can see and the actual bullet I can see...but you cannot "print" the primer or propellent. It should be also noted that 3d Printing, or the term, has been thrown around loosely in terms of what it means.

reply to post by winofiend


Not obsessed with, more fascinated by. I agree it has many other uses - but humans are violent creatures and will always have a fascination with things that hurt people. To say its wrong is naive - survival of the fittest, the mechanism by which evolution operates - violence, in modern times, seems to be the vehicle for this.

Not right or wrong. There is no such thing as right or wrong. Only perspective and opinion and majority.
Just because the majority think something, doesn't mean it is right.

Perhaps a sad state of affairs - but quite in keeping with humanity.

reply to post by winofiend


Weapons rule my friend....

....weapons rule!

I'm not sure if anyone is aware of this... but the bullets are the easy part to make. All you need is a mold, a torch, and some scrap lead.

Simply put, making bullets can be done quicker, easier, and cheaper using traditional methods. Not only that, but the product will better.3d printers are a great advancement (when they came out like 10 years ago) but their capabilities and usefulness is greatly exaggerated by many people.

reply to post by James1982


I dont know if thats good advice seeing that the wrong amount of powder could be fatal to the operator. and so many other things.

Honestly, the technology involved is amazing, but, to be clear, they aren't printing bullets. They are printing out pointy plastic bits and firing them out of a shotgun.
The fact that they have to embed ball bearings in them to keep them from fluttering around like so much pvc confetti is telling.
They would be better off duct taping a roll of dimes together and firing them..

Shotguns operate on relatively low chamber pressures, unlike a rifle. I'd predict attempting to fire one of these through a high pressure, rifled barrel would either shred the projectile before it got to the muzzle, or blowing the center out of the projectile leaving a sad, hollow plastic obstruction just north of the chamber throat.
Finally, a metal projectile, at the moment of firing deforms at its base to seal the hot expanding gasses behind it, something like the piston in a car motor. This process, called obtration (man, I hope that's spelled correctly) also allows it to engage the rifling on the inside of the bore, causing it to spin on flight, stabilizing it in flight.


And, the B.C. on these things would be as close to zero as makes no difference...


I'll stop typing now.

Reading the comments on that article is hilarious. "We need to regulate 3D printing fast!" Lol. That's exactly why they're running all this 3D printing crap in the news. To stifle the possibility of the citizens having the power to make things. They can't have the power of regulating manufacturing stripped from them, so they go on and on about this 'scary' 3D printed gun in the media, so the public wants to ban 3D printers. The Liberator just explodes when you pull the trigger. Hardly newsworthy. Now 3D printed food... That's another story (more horsecrap).

3D printing of ammunition is somewhat possible. There is polymer-cased ammunition on the market. But they are not as reliable as metal cased ammunition.

While the casing is definitely a possibility, creating a plastic projectile is a waste of time and money. And you will still need powder, primer and a metal striking cap that will take the impact of the firing pin and not just put a hole through it.

Originally posted by txinfidel
reply to post by James1982

 

I dont know if thats good advice seeing that the wrong amount of powder could be fatal to the operator. and so many other things.

OK......?

And how would 3d printing a bullet and then loading it into a shell with powder be any different? Regardless of if the bullet and shell casing is made via 3d printed plastic, or cast metal, you will STILL need to add powder.

I think you have very little idea how a gun's ammunition works at all. The same exact risk is still there with 3d printed bullets, actually the risk is higher with 3d printed ammo vs store bought or hand reload.

reply to post by DC434L2A


Totally with ya' on this.

It's simply a hot button issue (see some of these comments). The nuts and bolts of making an effective cartridge by 3D printing is still out there a ways.

My questions (which follow yours)

1. Brass is used because it works very effectively in a dynamic process. This is probably the most simple thing to "print" provided the printer can "print" brass.

2. The bullet is next. A lot of modern bullets are an amalgamation of various materials, e.g. lead, copper, etc. in specific shapes/designs. This seems possible maybe, again if the printer can work metals.

3. The primer is beyond me. We might as well throw in powder too. Those are complex mixes of chemicals. Someone please explain to me how this happens in a printer since those chemicals are combined in various sequences to be effective.

Currently, the means to make good ammunition yourself are plentiful as well as purchasing complete ammunition commercially (shortages aside). Why would anyone want to go backwards? It sounds like fear mongering: your crazy neighbor is going to "print" a bazooka and destroy the town! We need control!