3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
-
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
-
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
-
Do not create links to reddit
-
If you see an issue please flag it
-
No guns
-
No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is 
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
view the rest of the comments
Why don't they make firing chambers and barrels out of plastic? Are gun makers stupid?
There actually are some really cool proof of concepts where people have 100% 3d printed a gun. And "potato cannons" are generally a PVC firing chamber and barrel.
For legal purposes: Preface everything after this with a dozen "allegedly"s. A couple years back I went to a really cool event where people had built machine guns out of wood and plastic (FDM). No metal. Everyone went old school with leaf springs and the like. None had any issue with doing well over 100 rounds (5.56 or 5.45) each. That said, anyone with half a brain cell was literally hiding in a bunker nearby out of terror when the firing was going on. But... yeah. Also for legal purposes: I am sure every weapon was registered with the ATF prior to the event and completely destroyed on day two.
Like anything, it is about pressure, strength, and geometry. And, as The Troubles in Ireland can attest... you don't need THAT much skill to make something that will fire... once. Which is why there are so many shed machine guns and rifles with split barrels and completely exploded receivers in The Royal Armouries.
But if you want to make a barrel that can hold up to even a few dozen rounds? You need to understand what metal to use (hint: it isn't mild steel) and some pretty decent lathe skills.