General GunTuber thread

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Instead of having huge blocks of steel milled and precision ground to make v-blocks, this machinist prints what are essentially stands for carbide rods, which allows him to combine a cheap material to serve as structure and get the precision from something he can order online.
There's a lot of focus on 3d printing a final product, but just as important is how 3d printing can make the tools that assist a final product, which could still be made out of metal.
I was just watching that same channel today.

Really interesting concept using the dowel pins and 3d prints.
I can think of a number of of different applications other than v blocks. And if you built in some adjustment screws you could dial the pins in to any dimension with the right metrology tools.

I only have a lathe at home but do some light milling on it. A simple 3d print fixture like this saves hours trying to get 5 evenly spaced spanner slot cut in a suppressor mount with no rotary table.

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I was just watching that same channel today.

Really interesting concept using the dowel pins and 3d prints.
I can think of a number of of different applications other than v blocks. And if you built in some adjustment screws you could dial the pins in to any dimension with the right metrology tools.

I only have a lathe at home but do some light milling on it. A simple 3d print fixture like this saves hours trying to get 5 evenly spaced spanner slot cut in a suppressor mount with no rotary table.

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Well, this is interesting. What kind of dimensional tolerances do you get with those 3D printed parts? Or would you print them and then grind/mill them to size since the plastic is so soft?
 
Well, this is interesting. What kind of dimensional tolerances do you get with those 3D printed parts? Or would you print them and then grind/mill them to size since the plastic is so soft?
If you take a printer like a Prusa though all the proper calibrations you can hold .005"-.0075" in most dimensions. Plenty good for 90% of machining applications. Straight walls will be inherently more precise than radiuses, shorter parts are more accurate than taller ones, etc.

When I need something to be more accurate than that, I just face it off critical surfaces with an endmill or in the lathe.

You could certainly use a 3d printed part as a sheet metal form and a router jig to do a receiver. I'd trust a 3d printed jig or fixture to do a huge majority of operations on something like an AK.
 
If you take a printer like a Prusa though all the proper calibrations you can hold .005"-.0075" in most dimensions. Plenty good for 90% of machining applications. Straight walls will be inherently more precise than radiuses, shorter parts are more accurate than taller ones, etc.

When I need something to be more accurate than that, I just face it off critical surfaces with an endmill or in the lathe.

You could certainly use a 3d printed part as a sheet metal form and a router jig to do a receiver. I'd trust a 3d printed jig or fixture to do a huge majority of operations on something like an AK.
I do metal casting and have been experimenting with 3-d printing mold cores as an alternative to carving them out of wood. For experimenting and the small scale 1 of kind work I am doing it is great.

I’m surprised no one has looked at using a 3D printer as mold cores for cast receivers.
 
There was a chink on the 3D Print Nation telegram channel that was lost casting a steel slide for a Glock.

Also this is part of 3D Printed Gun "culture".
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Is there proof he's doing this? A lost PLA casting would only be suitable for lower melting point metals with the methods I'm aware of.... Steel? That's not happening.


I don't get the meme's take. Bragging about a cool thing you made is a human constant. It's not like the guys posting the guns aren't allowed to have them and make them.
 
Also this is part of 3D Printed Gun "culture".
While this is a fair criticism you must remember that sharing builds through media are the best things that ever happened to the 3D Gun Movement especially in its modern incarnation. For example

The Print Shoot Repeat Youtube Channel, 232k subscribers, 17.7M views, 1 year and 4 months old.
The Vice documentary on the AWCY Maker's Match, nearly 2.94M views released 9 months ago and is being viewed thousands of times every day, showcases some of the most modern designs in existence.
 
Is there proof he's doing this? A lost PLA casting would only be suitable for lower melting point metals with the methods I'm aware of.... Steel? That's not happening.
Lost Polystyrene (foam) casting is done industrially for tough castings like engine blocks, though I have no idea how good the resulting casts are or what the limitations are in terms of metallurgy. I'm sure it works well enough if you're doing it the right way with the right molding materials.
 
Is there proof he's doing this? A lost PLA casting would only be suitable for lower melting point metals with the methods I'm aware of.... Steel? That's not happening.
You'd have to get into the inner circle channel of this channel https://t.me/threepn and then search back a year or more and hope the chink didn't terminate his account. I searched my archives and couldn't find saved photos of it.
 
Lost Polystyrene (foam) casting is done industrially for tough castings like engine blocks, though I have no idea how good the resulting casts are or what the limitations are in terms of metallurgy. I'm sure it works well enough if you're doing it the right way with the right molding materials.
The at-home stuff I've done uses media that wouldn't be suitable for high temp. I wonder what you'd need for steel....
I would never cast a slide though. The finishing work would suck... I assume you don't have proper equipment or you'd just mill it, right?
 
The at-home stuff I've done uses media that wouldn't be suitable for high temp. I wonder what you'd need for steel....
I would never cast a slide though. The finishing work would suck... I assume you don't have proper equipment or you'd just mill it, right?
Maybe this is some hand-filing business. Who knows.
 
Is there proof he's doing this? A lost PLA casting would only be suitable for lower melting point metals with the methods I'm aware of.... Steel? That's not happening.
The process should be similar to lost wax investment casting. You use the PLA for the pattern, cover it in a ceramic refractory shell, then burn off the PLA with the pattern upside down. You can then stick the mold in a bucket full of sand or something.
I've seen the videos of 1.5kW induction heaters melting small crucible's worth of steel, but never of it being used to cast a finished product.
 
The process should be similar to lost wax investment casting. You use the PLA for the pattern, cover it in a ceramic refractory shell, then burn off the PLA with the pattern upside down. You can then stick the mold in a bucket full of sand or something.
I've seen the videos of 1.5kW induction heaters melting small crucible's worth of steel, but never of it being used to cast a finished product.
I haven’t touched doing gun parts cause I have a mill and lathe and can machine them easier on those. I’ve been experimenting with 3D printing mold core for sand casting cast iron. You really can’t get to the temps needed to melt steel with a backyard forge. It takes me almost all day to melt a crucible of cast iron using a forced air waste oil furnace.
 
I missed this initially but thought my fellow Farmers would like to know that Pew Pew Tactical also enjoyed Karl "The Kuck" Kasarda and Robert "I pronoun police for Chris Chan" Evans collaborating.
 

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