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Building A Ghost Gun
Image Credit: ghostgunner.net
Wired’s Andy Greenberg decided to try his hand at building off-the-grid AR-15 lower receivers (i.e., the legally-important part of a rifle) using different methods: finishing a nearly-complete one with a drill press, 3D-printing one out of plastic, and using the Ghost Gunner to 3M-mill one out of a block of aluminum. Do read the whole thing, but the description of the latter one is particularly interesting:
For one hour-long stretch in that process, I was given nothing to do but simply admire the Ghost Gunner as its blurred, cylindrical blade cut away the gun’s trigger well with inhuman precision. At other times it seemed to alternate between carving aluminum and assigning me tasks like changing the lower receiver’s position, tightening and loosening bolts, switching the end mill to a drill bit, or even vacuuming up the aluminum shavings that piled up in and around the machine. Eventually, it felt much more like the Ghost Gunner had programmed me to be its gun-making tool than vice versa.
Published in Guns
Careful, you don’t want to make Skynet angry.
Forget “make a new AR lower.”
The design challenge is “design a new pistol and/or rifle that a lot of people can make and use from scratch.” Most firearm designs are fiddly, and require better machining than most can handle.
The “Ghost Gun” machine takes about six hours to make one receiver. How about a design that takes about one or two hours to put out a finished, firing rifle? Start with a boring/rifling jig to turn a standard piece of good steel tubing into a barrel, and work from there.
Ghost guns–suitable for the modern ninja.
Eric Hines
Been doing that in the ‘hood for decades. Zip guns, among other builds. It’s a simple matter to scale those up to longer range weapons.
Eric Hines
Spoiler: The article ends with the creator destroying his creation, like Frankenstein killing his monster.
Dude, it’s an AR15, not an atom bomb, and you’re not Robert Oppenheimer. Get over yourself.
I came here hoping for DIY Ghostbusters proton pack instructions.
Somebody very close to me has completed several 80% AR lowers. All you need is a drill ( drill press works better) and a hand held router. Finishing them is a simple process and the parts kits are readily available. They work perfectly. Next up is an 80% Colt 1911 pistol. So I am told…
The guy who built an AK-47 from a shovel (look it up) built a Glock out of sheet metal.
To borrow from a classic Internet meme, guns treat gun control as damages and routes around it.
Also, AR-15 lowers (What the ATF considers to be the gun part of an AR because it holds the trigger group) are available for $60 or less (plus transfer fee from your FFL of choice).
The only reason to build an 80% lower right now is because you want to. Whether or not that’s true under a Hillary Clinton dictatorsh… err, administration remains to be seen.
I was talking to a guy the other day who cheerfully – and seriously – went on and on about how “all we need to do is implement bullet control, then we don’t need gun control.”
When I told him that wouldn’t work, and he got upset, because it was “such an easy thing to do!”
To all you gun controllers: Good Luck with that.
Sigh. I mean, it’s not like there’s ENTIRE COMPANIES dedicated to equipment that can reload ammunition, or something…
Oh, wait.
(Side note: Oh thank $DIETY, Dillon re-did their site. Springfield Armory was the worst (they had a Flash-based website up until last year), but Dillon was a close second.
From the article:
What the heck does “practically as strong” mean? Is it as strong as the stuff used in industrially manufactured weapons or isn’t it?
If it’s “as strong as”, why not say so? If it’s “almost as strong as”, then say that.
Oh, the grabbers would certainly try that, too. Something like “lead and heavy metal abatement programs.” Outlaw primer manufacturing, too.
Give them time, they’ll try it.
The climatistas can get involved, too–limit the carbon footprint of gunpowder expenditures.
Eric Hines