Have You considered getting a 3D printer

There has been a bit of a pause on this thread.
There is an openscad file by buffcleb on Thingiverse for an index plate that is fully configuarble for size and hole patterns, even mountings. Just had to have a play with it.
I didn't want to try out a 5 hour print for a proper plate but then thought the best way to make a specific prime is often to start with that number - rather self defeating though in the old days. However a single row could be printed rathe more simply (hour and a half). As an experiment I have printed a 73 hole plate quite thin that could be mounted on an aluminium carrier plate perhaps. I don't actually need to make a 73 gear but this is proof of concept. 100mm dia or 4in for a BS0 dividing head, the holes just fit in. Still on printer so will need fettling. The holes are all the same just poor photo.

Spurred on by this thread, and an Amazon voucher from my employer for Christmas, I finally bit the bullet & invested in a Sovol SV01 printer. It only took a matter of days for Mrs Dave to go from "and what are you going to use that for?" to "magic has entered the house!".

After printing a few tool and collet holders from Thingiverse, I tried a dial gauge holder: not only is it too big for my dial gauge, but it didn't fit the QC tool post either... So, out with the CAD, measure up a standard Myford tool holder and a few hours later, this appeared:

The gauge is a nice push fit and it fits the tool post as-is. It just needs the screw for height adjustment (I printer an M5 thread to see how effective this would be.

Chuffed with the result!

Dave

Downside to this industry are muppets who print weaponry which could bring in regulation like what happened with drone technology

There are a lot of muppets out there

Spain dismantles workshop making 3D-printed weapons

We live in strange times.

I saw this photograph of a funeral on Saturday.and someone (lower left) was carrying a machine gun!

If I hadn't got myself an Ender3, I wouldn't be casting metal. I don't think I could ever have produced the patterns I use without my E3. I am now in the market for a resin 3D printer, a big one!

So are you saying that could not be done with a lathe and a mill?

Not really seeing the problem here.

regards Martin

3D printers can be purchased for a fraction of the price of either a lathe or mill, the raw plastic is far cheaper than the metal used in traditional weapons, and, unlike a machine tool, once the design files have been downloaded from the internet a 3d printer requires minimal skill and almost no training to operate.

So the problem is that for very little outlay any thug or potential terrorist with enough intelligence to drive a car has the ability to produce a continual supply of lethal weapons in the comfort of their own home,

Clive

That may be the case, but as I say similar things can be done with a lathe and a mill and no legislation has been enacted with regard to them.

The focus I would have thought would be on internet trafficking of the files.

regards Martin

Do the villains of this world need to traffic files via the internet? I doubt it. All they need is the contact and the files could even be distributed by snail mail!

As I understood it, these ‘printed’ weapons had a short operational life (still lethal, all the same), but improvements are likely continuing, with materials etc.

I usually download files for my simple 3-D prints, but once those files are on my computer, they are downloaded to a memory card which is then simply plugged in the slot on the printer. If I had more than one printer, more than one could be running at the same time from the same source. There lies the problem...?

Can they also print a continual supply of ammunition?

Rob

That's still highly complicated compared to nailing a couple of planks together and some rubber tubing to make a slingshot. The sort of thing that young kids could make after school with a hammer....

In the vein, a cook who can bake an edible cake is quite capable of using their equipment to make explosives.

Granted one could easily make a replica firearm with a 3D printer. However a real firearm is a whole different ball game. I would not want to pull the trigger of such an offering as it would likely do far more damage to me, than to any potential target.

Yes I know real plastic guns exist, but they are hardly in the same league as something made on a home 3D printer.

Andrew.

Edited By Andrew Tinsley on 21/05/2021 14:31:49

I tend to agree with Andrew T, plastic as used in 3D prints suitable only for toys or perhaps replacement grips

You mean like the regulation of Lathes and Milling machines which has been proposed repeatedly over the years by clueless politicians with no manufacturing or machining experience who don't realise that it's impractical and stupid to try to control illegal misuse with bans and regulation?

.

This nonsense reminds me of a time [back in the early 1960s] when I was a ‘Boy Scout’ :

Attending Church Parade one day; I was requested to hand-in my knife before entering the Church

I flatly refused … On the basis that my knife was a tool, not a weapon.

MichaelG.

I'm sure that was to stop the initials MG appearing in the back of a pew.

Y - but cost

Y - but space

Y - but time

Y - but other tool

Y - in future

All of the above. Select as applicable.