There is a lot of buzz floating around the internet right now about 3D printing of weapons. Those of us that actually carry and use weapons understand 3D modeled items will only be functional for certain applications. For example, a stock, or grip is a non-stressed component. The lower receiver of most weapons, to include the AR15, are also pretty low stress. If you think about what the lower receiver does, it is really just a shell for the fire control group, stock assembly, grip, and it needs to lock a magazine in place. Functional, but certainly nothing like what stresses a barrel and bolt go through.
http://defensedistributed.com/ understands the above, and has a website dedicated to this. For most of us, there are two problems once we get past the limitations of such a project. First, who has a 3D printer laying around in their garage. Second, even if we have a friend with one, where would we get the computer code to create it? The guys at Wiki Weapon are giving the code away at the following link http://defensedistributed.com/products/. While it is free, they would like a donation, and I can honestly say that if I can get this to work on a friends printer, I’ll throw them some coin for their trouble. I’ll also throw up a review to show how things did or didn’t work out for us in assembling and firing it.
If you have access to a 3D printer, please remember this. It is legal to build your own receiver, it is NOT legal to sell them. Build it up and give it to a friend, and you are good. Build it up and make a couple bucks, and you can look at spending federal time. As always, Rob and myself, nor anyone else at Military Times is going to give you legal advise (blah blah insert liability disclaimer here).
