Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Just two years after the creation of the world’s first 3D-printed handgun, a design team has come up with a rifle crafted using additive manufacturing that is capable of firing a larger caliber round than any of the weapons that came before it, according to various media reports.
Back in 2013, a company called Defense Distributed created the first-ever 3D-printed handgun, the the .38-caliber Liberator, and followed that up with an AR-15 receiver that can fire hundreds of 5.56mm rounds, Engadget reported on Thursday. Now, a group called FOSSCAD has upped the bar by creating the AR-15’s “badass big brother,” the Colt CM901 modular battle rifle.
The website went on to explain that the CM901 is larger and heavier than the AR-15, and also was built to fire a larger-caliber round, the 7.62 x 51mm NATO. The 7.62mm rounds are capable of travelling father and striking with more force than the 5.56mm bullets used by the AR-15. In order to accommodate them, the weapon’s lower receiver needed to weigh more and be sturdier so that it was capable of handing the increased mechanical stress and recoil.
Where’s the government in all this?
According to the website War Is Boring, the makers of the CM901 conducted and created an animated gif of a live-fire test involving the 3D-printer rifle. The modular design of the lower receiver was reportedly crafted using an XYZ Da Vinci printer, which can be purchased for approximately $500 – relatively inexpensive when it comes to 3D printing technology.
Meanwhile, WT Vox reports that Defense Distributed is in the process of experimenting with 3D printed guns made out of carbon fiber, which can be used for parts of a manufactured weapon in order to make it more durable. High-caliber barrels, however, must be built out of metal in order to keep them from breaking. Only the lower receiver can be made from carbon fiber.
[STORY: New 3D printing process straight out of ‘Terminator 2’]
The website noted that “desktop weapons focus on printing lower receivers because they’re subject to federal regulations. You can’t make a working gun without a lower receiver and they usually come with a serial number stamped on them. As far as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) is concerned, a gun’s lower receiver is the gun. Everything else, including the barrel, you can buy over the counter with no questions asked.”
While using 3D printers to make guns might cause some people to cock an eyebrow and wonder about the legality of such activity, WT Vox states that private citizens of the US “have the right to make their own firearms… without any oversight from the federal government.” While the process is usually “complicated,” using a 3D printer “simplifies” thing and “could allow citizens to build their own rifles without registering them” or going through background checks.
On its website, FOSSCAD describes itself as a community that creates and releases open source computer aided designs, including many of the designs included in ‘megapacks’ offered through the DEFCAD search engine for 3D printable models. Machinists in the community make new 3D printer and filament hardware while those that own printers test out their creations.
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