3d printers to make your own ar15 !!!

[74novaman]

I remember a cable TV show about 20 years ago which showed village "artisans" manufacturing AKs from scratch in a small Pakistani village

I'm curious, how did they rifle the barrels?

Maybe they didn't. The bullets will fly where Allah wills them, and all that.

[Dave2]

I remember a cable TV show about 20 years ago which showed village "artisans" manufacturing AKs from scratch in a small Pakistani village

I'm curious, how did they rifle the barrels?

Maybe they didn't. The bullets will fly where Allah wills them, and all that.

That actually sounds like something the terrorists' leaders would say.

[PUCKER]

For those that want to learn more about the technology and the equipment, and maybe even purchase the equipment/software, etc., this show would be of use, already happened this year but it will be around again:

http://rapid.sme.org/2012/public/enter.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[VMI77]

I remember a cable TV show about 20 years ago which showed village "artisans" manufacturing AKs from scratch in a small Pakistani village

I'm curious, how did they rifle the barrels?

Not a clue. I just know that they built the receivers from raw metal, over a fire pit, using tongs, a hammer, and an anvil.......and maybe a set of files and a hacksaw or something. I mean, it was really primitive. They could have been making their own barrels, or using salvaged barrels or something. I just don't really remember. And it might have been 30 years ago, not 20. It might have been at the same time that the USSR was still in Afghanistan or thereabouts.

OTH, it was also some channel like Nat Geo, which tends to not have a very libertine view of private gun ownership, and they may well have just been trying to scare the audience. As I recall, the show was about the "unregulated" arms trade in Pakistan or something like that. It has been a long time.

But I did see a program as recently as just the last 4 or 5 years about artisan gun-makers in India who are making essentially reproductions of old muskets, under similar conditions as those in Pakistan, and they were actually making their own barrels. But, I don't recall if they were rifled or not.

I was just wondering because awhile back I was reading about the practicality of someone with a good set of machine tools making their own guns, and the claim was made that rifling a barrel required a rather sophisticated machine tool. OTOH, since rifling was invented in the 15th century, it seems like a sophisticated machine tool shouldn't be necessary. I'd guess that more sophisticated machining means improved accuracy but it seems that if it was possible to rifle a barrel in the 15th century it should be easier to do it now....though probably with the expectation that accuracy will not equal a commercially produced rifle.

[WildBill]

I think if you have a proper mandrel you could forge the rifling by "heating and beating".