First (Almost) Entirely 3D-Printed Gun

    Cody Wilson has completed his 3D printed handgun. Forbes reports

    All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS plastic with a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company Stratasys, with the exception of a single nail that’s used as a firing pin. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.

    Technically, Defense Distributed’s gun has one other non-printed component: the group added a six ounce chunk of steel into the body to make it detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act. In March, the group also obtained a federal firearms license, making it a legal gun manufacturer.

    The gun appears to fire a very low powered pistol round. It looks like a .25 ACP to me. The gun can probably only fire one shot. A gun like this can be easily built out of a pen, a spring and a nail using nothing more than a drill and a hacksaw. It does not require a $10,000 3D printer.

    Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

    Steve Johnson

    I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!


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