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3D Printable Pocket Pistols

7K views 77 replies 18 participants last post by  Parlour-Printer 
#1 · (Edited)
I've been designing and printing parlour pistols recently, and sharing my designs as I go. With the right materials I'm sure they could be made to work with .22s as well, but primarily they're made for Percussion Caps. I give the designs away freely, but frankly I'm poor and running out of materials.
So yes, this is me schilling, but I promise I'm not looking for an easy payday, I'll be designing things anyway, I have a compulsion to design things. If I don't design things I start to get an itch in the back of my brain, I eat too much sugar and consume an absurd quantity of pornography.
But getting some money for my work would be nice, and would allow me to keep improving, and eventually I'd like to work on directed energy devices.
If you'd like to try my designs out, they're all up freely on my Patreon Page, and if you don't know how to make a percussion cap nipple, or you don't have a lathe (like me) I have instructional videos on Youtube. Links to Follow.
Attached photos are of my 'Mosquito' design.
Thanks for reading this far, I look forward to comments and criticisms.
:revolver:

https://www.patreon.com/jontheinventor
https://www.youtube.com/user/jono3952
 

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#6 ·
Parlour- a note of legal technicality here- wit the disclaimer that I am NOT a lawyer- I'm a gun buff.

Yes, in the US it is legal to make our own firearm. However, there are a couple of "gotchas" you may want to check.

A system that uses loose powder and ball/ percussion caps- not a "firearm" under the Federal gun laws. A system that shoots fixed ammo (like .22 LR) IS a firearm. And if it does not have a rifled barrel, the barrels must be at least 18" long, and the overall length at least 26".

If you were to make a handgun that would fire fixed ammo, and it has unrifled bbls shorter than that, you have built a "Short Barreled Shotgun". That IS covered in the 1934 National Firearms Act. Do that without filing with the ATF, paying their fees, getting the paperwork back FIRST- is a serious felony. 10 yrs, all the spare cash you are ever likely to have, and loss of your girlish smile.

I mention this because I have not seen a 3D printer that can print a rifled barrel. Again- disclaimer- not a lawyer- but you should be aware of the hazards.
 
#7 ·
All my designs are meant to be used with either my percussion cap nipple/.177 barrel combo, or with a .22 barrel, which you can either get premade, or make yourself, and you can rifle it if you have to.
I'm Canadian, so the rules are a little different, and I'm not entirely familiar with American gun law minutia.
I'm really only interested in the art of small firearms design.
 
#8 ·
If you truly are Canadian, you should keep a much lower profile, considering the draconian laws north of the USA border.
Besides that, I don't believe you have the engineering knowledge to make any type of safe firearm, considering your comments so far. Simply having access to a 3D printer does not confer any special engineering knowledge. Not long ago there was a "celebrated" youtube video from someone who made a 3D printed firearm which literally blew up in their face.
 
#9 ·
Designing weapons is perfectly legal, percussion cap and primer-fired weapons aren't classified as weapons, and therefore don't require any permits whatsoever. My designs aren't final cuts by any definition, and if anyone wants to make their own, especially if they want to use cartridge ammunition, they really should modify it to their own needs.
Yes I am new to this, but in the last 6 months I've absorbed about 60 years worth of firearms engineering knowledge, which can only be truly understood through IRL experimentation, which is what I'm doing.
I was hoping for more positivity on this forum TBH...
 
#10 ·
Yes I am new to this, but in the last 6 months I've absorbed about 60 years worth of firearms engineering knowledge, ...
I have been using firearms for the last 61 years, and I would NEVER claim to have absorbed all the technical and engineering knowledge necessary to design and build a safe firearm. That's years being a both manufacturing and design engineer. You are beyond being new to this; you are way out of your league, but you don't know it. I'm sorry to throw wet straw on your expectations, but I believe one should know what they are striving for before they cause serious injury to themselves or others. A gunsmith (for example), with all the training required to be certified as such, would look long and hard before even considering creating a new mechanism such as a firearm (using unproven components).
 
#11 ·
So a weapons designer wouldn't design new weapons? Some holes in your logic there man. Progress can only be made by trying the unknown. And honestly I think the fact that you've been using firearms for 6 decades and haven't tried to build your own says more about your ineptitude than mine. Nobody's asking you to build an artillery platform, but you can make a parlour pistol, jeeze...
 
#12 ·
PP

I'm poor also, but if I had a 3D printer I'd try printing various real guns first.

I have a gun disassembly app on my cell phone that must have 3d models in it.
I can disassemble a 1911, Glock and a few other freebies.

But from your samples it looks like your printer has a size limit.

But I wouldn't try to shoot any, just want to see how various guns go together.
 
#13 ·
If I had the right materials I'd love to try printing replications, but IDK how well PLA plastic would handle the smaller flat pieces, or the locking blocks. The margin of error would have to be really tight. Sadly my printer's not up to that task. If you do get one that's up to that challenge I'd like to see the results.
 
#14 ·
So a weapons designer wouldn't design new weapons?
You're not a "weapons designer." You're attempting to print extremely crude parlor pistols. That's not weapons designing. It's hardly even firearms design.

Let's see there's John Browning, John Garand, Mikhail Kalashnikov, Eugene Stoner, and Gaston Glock - and none of them claimed to be "weapons designers." They all designed firearms.

I have a friend who works for Sandia National Laboratories. He's a "junior weapons engineer." He works on atomic weapons. That's a person that can claim he's a "weapons designer."

I'd suggest that rather than trumpeting about absorbing 60 years of firearms design - work on identifying what you don't know. When you begin doing that, then you'll start learning...
 
#18 · (Edited)
So a weapons designer wouldn't design new weapons? Some holes in your logic there man. Progress can only be made by trying the unknown. And honestly I think the fact that you've been using firearms for 6 decades and haven't tried to build your own says more about your ineptitude than mine. Nobody's asking you to build an artillery platform, but you can make a parlour pistol, jeeze...
This statement is beyond ridiculous. I have been taking medicine and driving cars for over 50 years, but I accept that have not gained the knowledge and skills to design and produce either. I think someone's maturity level is showing here.

I certainly would not discourage you from your experimentation. If you harm yourself it is on you. However, offering your projects to the public will probably lead you to injuring others and the repercussions that follow.

Commercial gun makers can draw on hundreds of years of knowledge. Their products are designed by the finest engineers. They work with the best tools and materials available. Their products are produced by skilled tradesman and their work is exhaustively tested before releasing a new product or component. Even with all of that they still, on occasion, release products that have to be recalled. To attempt to bypass all of the above is the essence of arrogance and ignorance.

You are designing toys, so stick to cap pistols.
 
#20 · (Edited)
blotters absorb knowledge, but they get it backwards

a parrot absorbs knowledge. a parrot can repeat "the longest river is the Nile." a parrot can repeat "the second longest river is the Amazon." if you ask the parrot which river is longer than the Amazon, the parrot may respond with either quote above, or "Polly want a cracker." absorbing is not learning.

there was a famous book about flying that was in every grade school library. very high picture to word ratio. I read it countless times, and absorbed it well. my flight instructor knew that I read it, because he had to educate it out of me. the information in the book was perfectly valid when the airplane was flying straight and level, less so in unusual attitudes. flight instructors had to wring this wrong knowledge out of a generation of students

I worked in high explosive testing for 22 years. there were times we had gages on the case of the gizmo ( we never use the "B" word, bad habit for frequent fliers to get into ). the pressure range of the gages we put on big big gizmos were in the range of gun barrel pressures. the chamber, which includes the breech face and the attaching mechanism, must be able to withstand those pressures

Igor Sikorsky - inventor of the practical helicopter and the designer of 312 airplanes - once said that aircraft designers should be required to test their own designs. that way bad designs would eliminate bad designers.

as my flight instructor was fond of saying: you go ahead. I'll watch.
 
#23 ·
Because you have little to no humility, and have the audacity to call yourself a "firearms designer."
There is nothing wrong with experimenting and learning.
This coming from the guy who can't tell the difference between wood and gold glitter 3D Printed plastic?:beatingdeadhorse:
I'm busy actually designing mechanical systems that operate in a way that fires projectiles. How am I not a designer of firearms? I may not work for Browning or some****, and IDK what you mean by humility, but don't start a semantic argument with me, I'll drag you down into thesaurus hell.:pot stirrer:
 
#25 ·
And we have them here. Please use them if that's what it takes to avoid personal attacks.
 
#26 ·
This coming from the guy who can't tell the difference between wood and gold glitter 3D Printed plastic?:beatingdeadhorse:
I'm busy actually designing mechanical systems that operate in a way that fires projectiles. How am I not a designer of firearms? I may not work for Browning or some****, and IDK what you mean by humility, but don't start a semantic argument with me, I'll drag you down into thesaurus hell.:pot stirrer:
Well now- you asked a question and I answered it.
It's obvious you don't know what I mean by "humility."
I'll be glad to match skill sets with you any time.
 
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