Writing about guns and 3D printing is difficult because, if you criticize them, you pass off as a hoplophobe. If you don’t, you seem like a gun-crazed cowboy. And, if you don’t take either stance, it means you wrote about it just for media hype. In the end, a little bit of all three may become true, especially when writing about silencers.
Although silencers don’t effectively shoot in themselves, these are serious weapons and the fact that any 3D printing service, with metal sintering or melting capability, could effectively manufacture them is something to be considered. Especially in light of an article appeared on “TheTruthAboutGuns.com”, which shows how easy it is to 3D print one (and how cool a personalized silencer looks).
Nick Leghorn, who authored the article, describes himself as a “gun nerd living and working in San Antonio, Texas”. In his free time, he’s a competition shooter (USPSA, 3-gun, and NRA High Power), private pilot, and enjoys mixing statistics and science with firearms. He got his hands on the silencer produced by an undisclosed 3D printing service (which specifically asked to remain anonymous) and tested it out with excellent results.
Not only that, but the direct metal printed silencer is a modified K-baffle model: the 3D modeler simply used the 3D model for the traditional (dull looking) cylinder and “twisted it” in SolidWorks. The result really does look a lot cooler (although it probably only does so, if you stand on the right side of it). In fact, 3D printing proved to be an ideal process even to mass produce an object that must be able (by outer strength and internal shape) to efficiently slow and cool the expanding gasses to quiet the explosion of a shot.
The added complexity of a personalized design puts no added costs or strain on the production process, which means that 3D printing companies could not only produce weapons, but also could create even better ones than traditional weapons manufacturers, which is not entirely news, since Stratasys-owned Solid Concepts, one of the largest 3D printing services in the US, is effectively registered as a weapons manufacturer.
However, the time for mass 3D printed weapons may not have arrived yet. Although the test done by Leghorn showed that the 3D printed silencer was effective, and only just slightly louder than the traditional model, the writer also expresses some doubts on its durability and long term reliability. Nevertheless, the time will arrive: famous movie cowboys always personalized their revolvers with initials, who wouldn’t want a personalized silencer?
