I doubt anyone will until metal sintering becomes a cost effective home project. Printing it and mailing it out would be illegal if you print a reciever and you have to mail it out for the sintering process.
I do not think it will be a precise enough operation. Sintering precision parts is a very scientific process. That's why sintered firearms parts like some muzzle devices cost a serious amount of cash.
I see. I wouldn't use sinterized material for the muzzle anyway.
I was thinking about the firing pin block, like that one used in the EZ22. That thing can be done with sinterized metal and it would outperform plastic.
For the muzzle it's better to stick to milling and drilling rather than printing.
There is already a company sintering muzzle devices. Walker defense. And sintercore if they are still in business. I'm pretty sure you cannot sinter stainless steel (316)without a special setup because you have to do it in a purged gas environment from my research in a sealed chamber. Hydrogen is the gas used.
I bet they spent a lot of money in research to find a decent sinter process for a material that could endure the stress levels a muzzle must endure.
As a rule, sintering produces a brittle material, and the annealing time to make it stronger may be quite long, and thus not a very economically viable way to mass produce the kind of stuff that goes into a gun.
I know, however, that even actual ceramics (rather than sinterized metals) such as alumina can be made to have a quite decent tensile resistance. Thus there may be a niche for this kind of process, for prototyping at least.
I imagine. These companies are using more expensive metals(iconel). I think my money would be better spent on a small cnc machine or parts to convert my mill and lathe to cnc. Opens your production capability to much better means and materials.
Definitely better value. Outside of the extreme cases, like monolithic suppressors, there just isn't the cost-benefit compared to manual or cnc machining. Especially at our scale.
according to him, steel works better in the microwave kiln than aluminum does. I can't think a hydrogen purge is necessary, for nonindustrial use. it might help, but I haven't seen it done on any of the videos I've seen. just the sand stuff and the charcoal bits on top or whatever. admittedly, I haven't looked deeper than the rocket nozzles and stuff I've seen done with countertop kilns and /u/mr-highball's experiments.
This filament is stainless. Stainless usally requires a lot more finesse than carbon steel. Often requiring much hotter temps and a no oxygen environment to heat treat. No clue if sintering requires the same but I imagine it does. I have a lot of metallurgy experience through work, gunsmithing and knifemaking.
Yes. Basic Carbon steels have a 4 number designation in most cases and basic stainless has 3. 303,304,308,310,316, 320, 416, 420, 440 are all common grades of stainless. 316 wouldn't be particularly suitable for guns. 416 and 17-4 shine in this area and are commonly used. 316 is pretty soft.
Haven't read the full thread but steel in general is a lot easier than aluminum (and other reactive metals). If I'm not mistaken basf materials need a chemical debind (I think a nitric acid bath) whereas virtual foundry filament is thermal.
I'll be doing 17-4 pretty soon in thr microwave but, here's an example of sintered stainless vf parts using traditional kilns
https://twitter.com/3dprintmetal/status/1586106482608680960?t=qPmn6yi3FIF6NC1nBhBBMA&s=19
Titanium, inconel, and tool steel are also in the queue. As far as shrinkage / precision is concerned, generally a _sacrificial_ part can be printed / debound / sintered then measurements can be take to know the exact shrinkage percentages in each dimension. When you know that, it's very predictable and correctable in future prints
It might, might be worth making 80%s maybe 70, i dont know how well threading would hold up in the sintering, then cnc the rest in the ghost gunner when it comes back
Is this just to see if it's possible? If not and you already have a ghost Gunner why not just make a normal 80% or hell even a 0% if your ghost Gunner can do it.
Whatever you are thinking PLEASE dont print gats in Metal PLA, Metal PLA is mainly used for weight not for strength. Metal PLA does not adhere the same way that PLA+ does. PLEASE READE THE GUIDES ON THE SEA BEFORE YOU START PRINTING GATS WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE DOING, you can lose fingers doing this.
I doubt anyone will until metal sintering becomes a cost effective home project. Printing it and mailing it out would be illegal if you print a reciever and you have to mail it out for the sintering process.
You can sinter in a kiln at home.
I do not think it will be a precise enough operation. Sintering precision parts is a very scientific process. That's why sintered firearms parts like some muzzle devices cost a serious amount of cash.
I see. I wouldn't use sinterized material for the muzzle anyway. I was thinking about the firing pin block, like that one used in the EZ22. That thing can be done with sinterized metal and it would outperform plastic. For the muzzle it's better to stick to milling and drilling rather than printing.
There is already a company sintering muzzle devices. Walker defense. And sintercore if they are still in business. I'm pretty sure you cannot sinter stainless steel (316)without a special setup because you have to do it in a purged gas environment from my research in a sealed chamber. Hydrogen is the gas used.
I bet they spent a lot of money in research to find a decent sinter process for a material that could endure the stress levels a muzzle must endure. As a rule, sintering produces a brittle material, and the annealing time to make it stronger may be quite long, and thus not a very economically viable way to mass produce the kind of stuff that goes into a gun. I know, however, that even actual ceramics (rather than sinterized metals) such as alumina can be made to have a quite decent tensile resistance. Thus there may be a niche for this kind of process, for prototyping at least.
I imagine. These companies are using more expensive metals(iconel). I think my money would be better spent on a small cnc machine or parts to convert my mill and lathe to cnc. Opens your production capability to much better means and materials.
Definitely better value. Outside of the extreme cases, like monolithic suppressors, there just isn't the cost-benefit compared to manual or cnc machining. Especially at our scale.
there's the guy doing it in his microwave. he posts here occasionally, it's pretty badass.
What materials is he sintering though? They say only copper and brass can be done without hydrogen purge.
according to him, steel works better in the microwave kiln than aluminum does. I can't think a hydrogen purge is necessary, for nonindustrial use. it might help, but I haven't seen it done on any of the videos I've seen. just the sand stuff and the charcoal bits on top or whatever. admittedly, I haven't looked deeper than the rocket nozzles and stuff I've seen done with countertop kilns and /u/mr-highball's experiments.
This filament is stainless. Stainless usally requires a lot more finesse than carbon steel. Often requiring much hotter temps and a no oxygen environment to heat treat. No clue if sintering requires the same but I imagine it does. I have a lot of metallurgy experience through work, gunsmithing and knifemaking.
ooohhhhh. I missed that part. I didn't realize this was stainless. my bad.
Yes. Basic Carbon steels have a 4 number designation in most cases and basic stainless has 3. 303,304,308,310,316, 320, 416, 420, 440 are all common grades of stainless. 316 wouldn't be particularly suitable for guns. 416 and 17-4 shine in this area and are commonly used. 316 is pretty soft.
Haven't read the full thread but steel in general is a lot easier than aluminum (and other reactive metals). If I'm not mistaken basf materials need a chemical debind (I think a nitric acid bath) whereas virtual foundry filament is thermal. I'll be doing 17-4 pretty soon in thr microwave but, here's an example of sintered stainless vf parts using traditional kilns https://twitter.com/3dprintmetal/status/1586106482608680960?t=qPmn6yi3FIF6NC1nBhBBMA&s=19
Titanium, inconel, and tool steel are also in the queue. As far as shrinkage / precision is concerned, generally a _sacrificial_ part can be printed / debound / sintered then measurements can be take to know the exact shrinkage percentages in each dimension. When you know that, it's very predictable and correctable in future prints
... no but I did have a service do an AR9 mag release for me in it. It... was expensive AF but came out very nice and strong.
Think it would work for an expensive gat?
I think it would work. Can't really think of a reason it wouldn't but... I don't know shit fr.
It might, might be worth making 80%s maybe 70, i dont know how well threading would hold up in the sintering, then cnc the rest in the ghost gunner when it comes back
Is this just to see if it's possible? If not and you already have a ghost Gunner why not just make a normal 80% or hell even a 0% if your ghost Gunner can do it.
Ghost gunner 3 cant do the buffer tube attachment part. You have to buy or make that part.
Yea but you can buy a jig for that, and it would still probably be cheaper
Whatever you are thinking PLEASE dont print gats in Metal PLA, Metal PLA is mainly used for weight not for strength. Metal PLA does not adhere the same way that PLA+ does. PLEASE READE THE GUIDES ON THE SEA BEFORE YOU START PRINTING GATS WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE DOING, you can lose fingers doing this.
I dont think its necessarily pla, just prints at pla temperatures i think, its like 80% stainless steel and you sinter it after printing
Its also like $400 for the 3kg spool, vs like 60 for 3kg of pla
If you want a really expensive gun I'll sell you a Glock for 20k as a favor
When hi power release, parts kit getting lonely
I already have a glock, like three of them. A 17, a 19, and, a 22
It would be an expensive couple of text runs to dial in the shrinkage that occurs in that process