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Reinforced AR-15 Lower Receiver
Description
[edit] I see KingLudd has now credited Justin's site as the origin of the solid model - thank you.
Instructions
Justin's original IGES file actually has the buffer tube threads as modeled features, so I output the STL at a very high resolution (hence the 46 meg file). Much to my delight, when I printed the receiver on my Stratasys, a buffer tube could be screwed right into the rear of the receiver with no touchup of the threads needed (a good thing, as the special 1-3/16"-16 tap for the threads is rather expensive).
As this is a rather complex part, I recommend printing it out at 75% scale first (you can see my original 75% stock lower next to the final full size reinforced lower in one of the pictures). You'll save a lot of time and material this way and get a good idea of how well features will be preserved on a full size print. I used PP3DP UP! filament for the 75% model and switched to black Bolson ABS for the full print. I'd love to try a polycarbonate/ABS blend for this part, but I have no idea if my printer will handle such material.
I have not yet tried fitting the receiver with the trigger group and other components - I may need to ream some of the holes and then sleeve with brass bushings to maintain the needed accuracy. However, I'm very pleased with the receiver thus far and have a .22 conversion kit that I'll be using once I'm ready for live fire tests. For zombie extermination, I hope to use crank's excellent AR magazine: thingiverse.com/thing:11636
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“Thousands of years ago tribes of human beings suffered great privations
in the struggle to survive. In this struggle it was important not only
to be able to handle a club, but also to possess the ability to think
reasonably, to take care of the knowledge and experience garnered by the
tribe, and to develop the links that would provide cooperation with
other tribes. Today the entire human race is faced with a similar test.
In infinite space many civilizations are bound to exist, among them
civilizations that are also wiser and more "successful" than ours. I
support the cosmological hypothesis which states that the development of
the universe is repeated in its basic features an infinite number of
times. In accordance with this, other civilizations, including more
"successful" ones, should exist an infinite number of times on the
"preceding" and the "following" pages of the Book of the Universe. Yet
this should not minimize our sacred endeavors in this world of ours,
where, like faint glimmers of light in the dark, we have emerged for a
moment from the nothingness of dark unconsciousness of material
existence. We must make good the demands of reason and create a life
worthy of ourselves and of the goals we only dimly perceive.”
―
Andrei Sakharov
Yay, first going closed source on the Software and the Makerbot2, then changing the ToS of Thingiverse and now deleting files. Congrats, Makerbot, Congrats Bre.
F... you Makerbot, for jumping on this national panic bandwagon to ban all the evil "@ssualt W3apons" and removing this object. I cannot support a company that is in line with a political agenda built on the backs of the dead. You have lost a customer for life. I wish nothing but the worst for your company.
F#$k You Makerbot, for jumping on this national panic bandwagon to ban all the evil "@ssualt w3apons" and removing this object. I cannot support a company that is in line with a political agenda built on the backs of the dead. You have lost a customer for life. I wish nothing but the worst for your company.
Ethier I can't see the files or Thingiverse took them down. They were up about an hour earlier though...???
Unfortunately, Thingiverse removed my files for the lower as well as the trigger guard. I got this message:
-------------
Regarding Thingiverse Content: Reinforced AR-15 Lower Receiver by HaveBlue
AR-15 Enhanced Trigger Guard by HaveBlue
As
a Thingiverse User, you have agreed to accept and abide by our Terms of
Use (the "Terms"). Our Acceptable Use Policy in section 3.3 of the
Terms describes use of the Site "to collect, upload, transmit, display
or distribute any User Content... (ii) that...promotes illegal
activities or contributes to the creation of weapons..." as a violation.
In exercising our policy enforcement discretion, we have decided to remove the above-captioned content as of today.Please contact me with any questions.
-- Rich McCarthyCorporate CounselMakerBot Industries LLC
87 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11217347-391-2736
Cool stuff HaveBlue.
Can you (or anyone else for that matter) comment on the Bolson Materials? I've got a uPrint SE Plus and am thinking of trying some Bolson B30ABS. So far, you're the only project I've come across that mentions Bolson Materials. Specifically, I'm wondering how interchangeable is their material and does it give you a consistent print every time?
Judging by what I see here, I'm thinking they offer a pretty good product.
First off, I'm not sure if Bolson is able to supply correct EEPROMs for the uPrint series machines (from what I hear, uPrints use a variant EEPROM that includes MAC authentication, so normal EEPROM re-write hacks won't work (but it Bolson can supply you with a working EEPROM along with the filament, it's no big deal)).
As far as the material itself goes, the standard Bolson ABS seems ever-so-slightly 'rubbery' compared to standard Stratasys ABS. However, I understand that Bolson's B30ABS is exactly the same as Stratasys ABSplus (which itself is SABIC MG94 to the best of my knowledge). My own next revision of the AR lower will be made out of MG94, which should certainly provide improved qualities over the standard ABS.
Is there a model that does 5.56?
It's been tested with .223 Rem, but there's enough flex in the buffer tower to make cycling problematic. I'll try thickening the buffer tower and doing a print with methyl methacrylate ABS to see if that helps any. Even so, the best route is to use oryhara's thumbhole buttstock so that the buffer tube is fully supported and remains as co-axial as possible with the reciprocating bolt/carrier group: http://www.thingiverse.com/thi...
Of course, if you reload, you could also try adjusting the powder charge to give the system 'just enough' gas to cycle (oh, how I wish the AR-15 had an adjustable gas block...)
most oils dissolve abs plastic. what lube do you use to lube your printed abs ar 15? vegetable oil? silicon grease? thanks :0)
Hi HaveBlue. Nick Bilton here, I'm a technology columnist with The New York Times. I've written extensively about 3-D printing. I have a few questions about this particular part and would love to chat more. bilton@nytimes.com - thanks! Nick.
Not familer with the ABS material. From what I read the burnout process seems to have what could be two potential drawbacks for hobbyists like me. Specifically the need for very high temperatures to melt the ABS and seperate rinse process that's not done with wax. I also saw that there were issues with anticipated shrinkage that is greater than normally found in more traditional investment casting with wax molds.
Has anyone printed this lower receiver in wax for investment casting? I have access to a small aluminum foundry and would like to experiment with this.
what does the print need to be scaled by to be printed and what should the object infill layer height and number of shells be also should i use a raft and full support
Dear HaveBlue.
I am not interested in discussing weapons legislation etc, but do you anticipate problems with the socalled "agreed user content" of this site?
From the "Acceptable Use Policy":
&
lt;snip
&
gt;....(a) You agree not to use the Site or Services to collect, upload, transmit, display, or distribute any User Content (i) that.......... contributes to the creation of weapons.....
&
lt;snap
&
gt;
I know that Thiingiverse let it slip early with rubberband guns and boomerangs but anyway :)
Michael
That's a good question - I uploaded the file back in September, when there was no mention of weapons in the Acceptable Use Policy. The terms were modified in February, I believe.
As such, I don't know if I'm in a gray area, if my upload is 'grandfathered' in, or if the lower receiver is considered to be only a weapon part, and not a full weapon as such. I suspect the Thingiverse admins are also unsure of exactly where the upload stands.
Michael - the issue was discussed last year quite a bit.
Scroll down to read up on the comments for this specific file from back when this receiver was posted nearly a year ago.... and this wasn't even the 1st AR receiver to be posted on this site - the first AR parts were posted a little over a year and a half ago.
Summing up: the issue has been settled for a very long time.
WOW, This is fantastic. Would one of the makerbots be good enuff for this. Is there any other forums were I can learn more about this topic. ie cad software running on linux. I am so excited.
I know a Replicator is big enough to make one, but I don't know about older models. oryhara is leading the way with a 2-piece lower that should allow the receiver to be printed on slightly smaller machines, as well as making it easier to tweak the buffer tube threads: http://rommie.digitalcrowbar.n...
So. It's time to go ahead and start filing paperwork on this. Trust me, an ounce of prevention is beeter than a poud of cure. What you are making here is the one piece of the weapon the ATF actually cares about - the lower receiver. It appears you don't have a serial on it either - that's a big fat no-no.
You need a type 7 FFL for manufacturing, and you will have to file for everyone of these you make and pay tax if you exceed a certain amount (50 IIRC) per year. Don't let the internet "freedom" yahoos fool you, if the ATF makes you a test case it will go very badly. Even if you prevail in court
, which is doubtful because you've publicly stated your intent is to manufacture a working weapon, you'll take a huge financial hit from the lawyers.
A serial number and other markings are only needed if the firearm is transferred down the road. Anyone can build one of these without a manufacturing FFL unless they're making them for the purpose of selling them.
"Even if you prevail in court, which is doubtful because you've publicly stated your intent is to manufacture a working weapon"
You're talking out of your backside. It's completely legal to make a working firearm in your garage with no paperwork and no permission from the US government. You do
need all of the paperwork you mention to make a working firearm with the intent to sell it, but that's not what's being discussed here.
I made the lower for personal use, with zero intent to sell or transfer the firearm. As such, I do not need a type 7 FFL, and the laws in my state do not require that it be engraved with a serial number.
This has been done thousands of times before by many other home gunsmiths.
Love this, just printed it at 50% size, had some minor issues with the supports but once it was complete it just looked perfect.
Thank you, excellent work.
HB... hmmm... that's a familiar name from the past ;)
Great job on the article and blog!
This is very interesting work and dialog gentlemen. Has anyone done this for the M1A1 receiver? I have the 2D but was hopeful of scoring big with the solid already being available...life would be good if it was in a format other than STL. Thanks for all the info and the links...I followed those and when I stopped I was wondering when it got dark outside!
http://www.weaponeer.net/forum...
&
amp;PN=1
&
amp;TPN=3
This guy mills and tests a homemade plastic AR-15 lower.
Actually, a plastic lower receiver is entirely plausible. I recall Cav Arms selling a single unit lower and A2 butt-stock made from plastic. The Lower actually has relatively little stress applied to it during operation.
Fantastic work, and a really great looking print.. Who will post the first M1911 I wonder? :)
A 1911 wouldn't be hard to print - Justin has the IGES file for the frame on his site, and you can even get a full SolidWorks model of the complete pistol from Rio Benson for $50 (http://riobenson.com). The solid model is superb - even if you don't have an interest in firearms, browsing through the feature tree to see how it was constructed teaches you a great deal of insight into how a pro approaches modeling a reasonably complex part.
However, given that the 1911 frame receives a lot more punishment than an AR-15 lower, it won't exactly be usable! It might serve as a reasonable master for investment casting, but even then the part would need a lot of cleanup.
Once again I feel compelled to point out that US law, the ATF and indeed the 2nd Amendment is utterly irrelevant to more than 95% of the world's population.. I can print out AR-15 Receivers until i'm blue in the face and the ATF couldn't care less. 8-)
Could hard points be embedded during the print? Wouldn't even need to be metal carbonfibre might help.
Yes! This is precisely the idea I've been pondering - specifically, using plates on either side that have been pre-drilled with the hole locations. With cavities added to either side of the part, the print could be paused near the end of the build, the plates inserted, and the print could then be completed, capping off the top of the receiver and sealing the plates inside.
For the moment, though, I'll try running with just the part 'as-is'. It turns out that the holes are just slightly undersized, and need to be reamed out just a smidge to allow the pins to be inserted.
I wouldn't actually use this to fire anything. I'm sure most everyone here knows better, but just in case you really are thinking about using this receiver...
I'm not familiar with type of plastic being used to create this, but firing a weapon with a plastic receiver that is not of the same quality as the polymer used to create the lower halves of mass produced weapons would be terrible. I can't imagine this would maintain its integrity for very long a
ttached to a fully funtioning upper.
The AR lower receives little stress, and the ABS should hold up just fine for use with .17HMR, .22LR and .223 uppers.
You may be interested to know that orions_hammer has successfully built lowers out of both wood and HDPE: http://www.orions-hammer.com/
This should work just fine for an AR lower. orions_hammer has made homebuilt AR lowers out of both wood and HDPE (certainly softer than the ABS I used), and both have functioned just fine: http://www.orions-hammer.com/
exactly what failure do you think is going to occur? worst i can see is that the holes retaining the firing group will fail and allow the hammer to strike without a trigger pull, and the safety on.
next worst is that the stock will snap off during a firing cycle and permit the bolt carrier group to exit the main body of the firearm and impact your shoulder. since it is about an inch across, round, and chamfered, that does not sound likely to cause more than bruising.
How long before politicians and then the ATF starts looking around here
â¦
I'm sure the ATF is much too busy forcing legal firearms dealers to illegally sell rifles to know criminals.
and its not even illegal in the US for christsakes.... All the people whinning about "weapons," dont worry, the big bad ATF wont come over here and mess with your little plastic toys...
Dont you see how "mala prohibita" type laws have warped your mind a little? Are you scared the government is come down on you for prinitng out a piece a plastic? Thats legal in the first place? The proliferation of arms among lawful people can only be a good thing. This country was founded on that
idea. We kicked the damn British the hell outta here for it.
Besides, I think the ATF and Obama's DOJ may be a little busy at the moment, you know, that whole arming mexican drug cartels thing/congressional investigation.... I wouldnt worry to much.
If you could sort of duplicate the shape of the Magpul trigger guard, that would be great. The extra width on the grip end, and that little bit of bulge out makes it a lot easier and more pleasant to heft the rifle with the middle finger of your firing hand during magazine changes. At the same time, that little span also has to be strong enough to take the weight of the rifle.
Yes, the Magpul trigger guard is what I wanted to do originally, but I decided to leave the bottom flat, as I've had mixed results when using breakaway support material on non flat-bottomed parts. (I printed it with the magwell broach axis aligned with the Z-axis)
Ideally, I'd like to do a lower with an integrated grip as well - maybe something like the old Pachmayr 'Vindicator' grips.
im waiting for the upper and other parts so we can print out a full size non functioning AR-15
some of the parts can be functional, just not in a full plastic print
Reprap really needs some support material. That looks awesome.
With the new Mk7 extruder, I'm hoping Reprap/Makerbot will have support material before too long. Ideally soluble support, as trying to clear breakaway support material from the long, small diameter holes in the receiver is quite tedious.
I have been pondering a more Reprap/Makerbot friendly lower as well - there have been several 'built up' lower receiver designs such as the KT-15B (http://www.ktordnance.com/kto/... and elmgrove1765's scratchbuilt receiver (http://web.archive.org/web/200...
ties.com/elmgrove1765/project6.... It may be possible to print support-less parts and then assemble them, but the additional joints might make everything too sloppy to work.
Wow! Awesome lower. I'm interested to see what calibers above .22 this can handle.
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hey if you printed this with abs, then did an acetone vapor bath, it would greatly improve the strength of the reciever.