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.
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Rules
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
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No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
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Do not create links to reddit
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If you see an issue please flag it
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No guns
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No injury gore posts
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A CNC mill seems much more capable of manufacturing firearms than some 300 buck printer.
Not really.
There are gun parts that just can't be printed in plastic (reliably. There are proof of concept "all plastic except the firing pin" guns). But... because of how lobbyists tainted what few gun control laws we have, most of what makes a gun a gun CAN be printed and the rest can be bought as after market parts. That is why an incredibly common "ghost gun" is basically "print this and then go buy this replacement barrel and this baggy of parts to repair a glock".
Whereas a mill is great for those metal parts and you can theoretically mill an entire gun, it isn't going to be a gun you "want" to use and, odds are, you are going to need a lot more technical skills. And for stuff like "ghost guns" and the bootleg mods used in stuff like The Troubles? A 3d printer is MUCH more accessible and MUCH easier to make.
The reality is that neither is going to be effective in the case of a militia/uprising scenario (yes, you can print an AR-15 and it isn't THAT hard to reinforce the plastic to handle intermediate rounds. No, you can't print a hellfire missile or a predator drone or a tank). And for the purposes of a school shooting? Why print a gun when you can just grab daddy's glock out of his nightstand or junk drawer?
I'll also add on the reason why additive manufacturing is so loved by Industry. Milling is subtractive. You get a piece of stock and you cut it until it is the part you want. If you can guarantee said piece of stock is approximately the same dimensions every time, you can automate that. But getting a piece to those dimensions has a significant cost. 3d printing? As long as you clear out the build plate and sort of control the environment, it is the same operations every single time.
So to 3d print a glock? You go to one of the naughty sites, get the STL, make a few tweaks to your slicer, and start it (old Vice actually did a really good video on this). After that you wait until it is done, remove the supports, file the ever loving hell out of it, and you are ready to go blasting.
To mill a glock? You go to one of the naught sites and get the gcode. You then adjust that gcode to fit the dimensions of your piece of stock (or put in the time to make your piece of stock the dimensions the gcode is expecting...). You then do one process, stop it, move and remount the part precisely to expose the correct surfaces, and do the next process. And so forth.
"Not really"
Yes, really. If you print something out of plastic and have to go out and buy a barrel and other hardware to put in it, you might as well just mold it out of paper mache.
A CNC can make a gun from start to finish that you wouldn't be worried about blowing your fingers off when you pulled the trigger, without adding outside hardware to.