Consumer grade Liberator - Engadget News

[bogus]

It appears the Liberator 3-D printed gun is alive and well after the gov't crackdown. Check out the link. Consumer grade 3-D printer and $25 worth of ABS plastic. 9 shots. Rifled barrel. The comments thus far are entertaining.

Liberator gun made with consumer 3D printer, plastic pistol fires nine shots successfully (video)

 

[GunnerDan]

I absolutely love ingenuity over tyranny!

Gunner

 

[PMPORTER]

Neat Idea, but I have seen better made with a piece of pipe and a nail

 

[Classic]

Those who are quick to criticize have no idea what the "normal" R&D cycle is like. Having this "proof of concept" working model is a huge milestone in the process, even if it does have a few warts. This model does EXACTLY what it is supposed to do - it proves the printable gun is a workable reality. The rest is all about refining the design and execution.

Love the comments from the Democrat/Liberal side. Amusing.

 

[pudly]

Neat Idea, but I have seen better made with a piece of pipe and a nail

And the first successful powered flight travelled 120 ft. What's your point?

In under a month, this basic design has gone from a single shot gun with no rifling to a rifled design that fired 9 shots and could have gone more. The Liberator is an early prototype, not the end of the development trail.

 

[BogWalker]

Wonder how long before somebody figures out how to add a happy switch?

 

[apfroggy0408]

Must. Stop. So. Not. Buy. 3d. Printer.

 

[level0]

Consumer-grade 3D printers probably runs around two grand and are available off the shelf.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

And the first successful powered flight travelled 120 ft. What's your point?

Yet jet-pack technology is still where it was in the early 80's.

Some technologies improve, some wither on the vine and die. Until a proper barrel material is available, I don't see this concept mattering much.

 

[lucky4034]

Consumer-grade 3D printers probably runs around two grand and are available off the shelf.

I've seen them for as low as $1k... highly reviewed models too. As the technology picks up... so will the competition and the beauty of free-market economics.

Another 24 months and my guess is you will be able to pick models for $500-$800 and build full functioning Glock 7's with them

(that is until someone sneaks one through an airport and Big Brother puts a 10 years in prison fine for possessing an all plastic firearm)

 

[lucky4034]

Yet jet-pack technology is still where it was in the early 80's.

Some technologies improve, some wither on the vine and die. Until a proper barrel material is available, I don't see this concept mattering much.

There are super plastics that are much more durable than steel now... it isn't that the materials don't exist... it is that the demand for such materials isn't very high (yet).

But I would agree with you to some extent... For most of us... this probably isn't going to change the way we purchase guns.

I will say tho... I personally could give a **** less about the gun being all plastic.

So what? If I can fabricate everything except the barrel and hammer/sear out of $40 of plastic... don't think I won't I won't be sneaking my guns anywhere (hopefully)... I don't need a plastic barrel

 

[Car Ramrod]

Wonder how long before somebody figures out how to add a happy switch?

Not sure this would do much good on a single shot pistol.

 

[pudly]

Yet jet-pack technology is still where it was in the early 80's.

Some technologies improve, some wither on the vine and die. Until a proper barrel material is available, I don't see this concept mattering much.

Yes and cloth and wood airplanes aren't ideal for consumer transportation. 3D printing is also done in metal and other materials, but they are more expensive, so they aren't being done at home- yet. At this point, the Liberator is a prototype, not a general consumer product. People who want to experiment and try their hand at designing are the only ones who will likely be building these in the near future.

Not sure this would do much good on a single shot pistol.

This is a very early generation product. Early rifles didn't have "happy" switches and each round had to be loaded individually. Adding those additional features takes time and better materials than they are currently working with.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Yeah, the airplane is just silly. Who wants to fly around in that silly machine?

 

[Kirk Freeman]

*TIME PASSES, technology and design improve*

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Technology improving as a whole is a given, but individual products, ideas, and technologies die all the time. Do you have a color fax machine? No, although the technology to make it work obviously exists, e-mail and .pdf has rendered it obsolete. Have holograms improved like the airplane, or are they still a novelty? How much storage space will the new BetaMax have?

Remember all the hype about the Segway? It was going to change how cities were built, revolutionize urban travel, etc. etc. Then it delivered a way to get mall cops around. Maybe in 20 years we'll see if this is an airplane or a Segway, but the idea that a particular technology inevitably improves is demonstrably false.

 

[pudly]

This particular technology has shown considerable improvement in a single month. It has gone from a one-time use, non-rifled design to a gun capable of multiple shots (still only a single round loaded at a time) with rifled barrel.

It is possible that some other technology may come along that totally obsoletes this form of object building- like a Star Trek-style replicator. It is more likely in the shorter term that 3D printer technology continues to come down in price and gain in capability to allow additional materials for home use, such as metals, carbon-fiber, ceramics, etc.

 

[TRWXXA]

Technology improving as a whole is a given, but individual products, ideas, and technologies die all the time. Do you have a color fax machine? No, although the technology to make it work obviously exists, e-mail and .pdf has rendered it obsolete. Have holograms improved like the airplane, or are they still a novelty? How much storage space will the new BetaMax have?

Remember all the hype about the Segway? It was going to change how cities were built, revolutionize urban travel, etc. etc. Then it delivered a way to get mall cops around. Maybe in 20 years we'll see if this is an airplane or a Segway, but the idea that a particular technology inevitably improves is demonstrably false.

And firing a gun is still smacking a primer with a pin to ignite a powder charge contained in a metal cartridge. Been the same for about 150 years.

Seems like a gun you can practically e-mail to someone is a pretty good paradigm shift.

In a 1930s movie I saw a guy shoot a "ray gun". I'm still waiting on that.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

And firing a gun is still smacking a primer with a pin to ignite a powder charge contained in a metal cartridge. Been the same for about 150 years.

Yup. Despite the caseless ammo that was going to revolutionize modern firearms, reducing weight and simplifying design.

I'm not saying this won't eventually lead to greater things. I'm just saying its far from the inevitability that some seem to think it is. Some things, like polymer frames, shine. Others, like caseless ammo, die. I'd be real careful with my crystal ball, telling the future is notoriously difficult when it comes to which will be which.

 

[pudly]

Meanwhile, people continue to experiment. Here is a very interesting looking setup with an AR15 upper mounted on a clone of the FN PS90 lower.

AR-15 / PS-90 Combination | The Truth About Guns