DEFAD is back at it! This week we've got incredible projects ranging the full gamut of DIY Defense. Right out of the gate we have the Nylaug from Because2A and friends, which is a full receiver and hand-guard system for converting your surplus Steyr Aug kit into a great ghost gun! Designed to be printed with ease (minimal supports), with an emphasis on cutting edge 3D printing technologies (heat-resistant nylon filament), this nearly sci-fi build is sure to turn heads at the range.

Professor Parabellum returns with the publication of the second version of his Hybrid 9MM platform: Panther-9 MK2 SMG. This project takes the best of 3DP and hardware firearm design and trims all the fat. The good professor has delivered a simple and cheap design, assembly guide included, that only relies on hacksaws, drills, and an angle grinder.

Stubbs rounds out the week's more prominent new releases with his B40/B69 DIY Grenade Mega Pack. There are so many recent developments on the grenade front as of late, and this pack delivers with a variety of MILSPEC systems for fragmentation, smoke, and flash. You can download all these exciting projects at DEFCAD today!

Ghost Guns sells build kits, fixtures, uppers, stocks and lower parts kits to finish every 3D and DIY weapons system on the market. The items we carry are the ones we use ourselves.

Enjoy this week's sales across our line of Aves Rails kits. The most popular ghost handguns are based on the DD.2 series of frames, but they require machined components, and our Aves rail kits are currently the most deeply-disconted online. If you’ve been on the fence about doing your first Ghost Gun build, the time has never been better!

• DD17.2 Rail Kit
• DD26.2 Rail Kit
• DD43.1 Rail Kit
• DDXX.2 Rear Rail Upgrade

Ghost Guns also sells the popular FGC-9 Complete Build Kit at the best price on the Internet! Everything you need for the FGC-9 MK II (aside from printed components) is included, so pick yours up today and get printing!

S2 Underground is a prominent Youtube account which has been steadily posting intelligence updates and useful tips and guides for the coming troubles. He recently released GhostNet, which is an overarching term for a collection of communications networks set up to allow users around the world to exchange information without relying on pre-established infrastructure.

We recommend you watch the video, download the system, and get your amateur radio license ASAP. Remember that DIY Defense encompasses everything you need to be ready, not just innovative firearms. Click here to watch the video.

Cody Wilson, the founding father of 3D printed guns, delivers a speech on the uses of history, misreading and profile creation in 3D gun culture. He addresses Freeman's folly, the death of JStark, and how to overcome the creative exhaustion and impotence of 3D groups like The Gatalog. You can Watch the video here.

In DIY Defense it's important to study the techniques and tactics of modern war. Learning every piece of leverage we can puts the "asymmetric" in asymmetric warfare, and one of the largest pieces of leverage is being able to decide the time and place of engagement. If you can see in the dark, and your opponents can’t, someone has a leg up to say the least.

The designer Knack has improved projects in the DIY NVG space and has made both his own vision system, the PVS-69M, and an illuminator/pointer known as the GAL. There are extreme limitations to night vision at this price point, so it's imperative to have some manner of amplifying ambient light sources without working in the visible light spectrum.

These projects represent the tip-of-the-spear in the DIY NVG space, and its exciting consder what Knack will publish next. Both of his projects are fully documented and exacting in their instructions, and they set a meaningful standard in personal defense.

3D Printing is one of the easiest manufacturing methods for beginners to pick up and produce finished products, but there are still important details to get right if you want your parts to actually come out useable. Using UltiMaker Cura©, we're going to walk through how to set your print infill for post processing.

This is the start of a series covering the most relevant settings and considerations for 3DP as it relates to DIY Defense, ranging from material and printer selection to post processor settings and part treatment.

"Infill" refers to both the pattern of the print lines and how dense that pattern of print lines actually is. There is also some consideration for how many lines constitute the boundary of the part and how thick those lines are. Infill will determine just how strong and flexible a part is as well as how much material a print will require and how long it will take.

When we Open UltiMaker Cura© and import the part we wish to print, we can navigate to the 3rd category at the top (following your printer and your material choice/nozzle) and access that. We will find a "strength" dropdown menu where we can make these adjustments. The first consideration will be our "Infill Density."

In terms of DIY Defense there are essentially two options to consider. The first option is "30%-50% infill density" which is for parts that will not experience significant load (and if they fail there will not be a catastrophe). Think along the lines of grips, stocks or otherwise ornamental parts. This infill setting, or lower, is also good for rapid prototyping for testing the fitment of your designs.

Our second general option will be "90%-100% infill density", which we reserve for major components, and those designed to contain or absorb the shock of gun parts in contact with explosive forces. This setting will mean that most, if not all, of the space taken up by the part will be filled with filament. While this makes our parts much stronger, it tends to take 2-3x times longer and, similarly, 2-3x more material.

Now it's time for us to choose an “infill pattern”, which is the geometric shape that fills the empty space in a part. Note that the structural properties and print times will vary significantly depending on the chosen pattern. UltiMaker Cura© comes preloaded with 14 of these patterns. At "100% Infill Density", it's usually a safe bet to go with the "Concentric" setting since the non-intersecting lines tend to evenly distribute loads.

For everything else, a good rule of thumb is to use "Gyroid" (as illustrated in the banner), which has one of the best balances of strength, speed, and material usage. But feel free to experiment with “Tri-Hexagonal” or "Cubic Subdivision."

The final strength setting, thickness, will be decided by our nozzle size, but overall we can go with 0.4 mm as long as we're sure of oour wall settings. We can access these by navigating to "Show Custom" and accessing the "Wall" subsection. Set the Wall Line count to "6" in most cases and ensure wall thickness matches top and bottom thickness.

These general guides should help you get started with most 3DP projects on DEFCAD, and we hope you'll enjoy more in our coming newsletters. For more introductory material like this, be sure to check out the popular Quick Start Guide.

The DEFCAD Documents Collection is slowly becoming mountainous! While it is a small niche, in terms of engineering materials, our selections are of incredible quality.

The next additions to our collection come in the form of both volumes of Col. Whelen’s Small Arms Design and Ballistics. These texts were written in 1945, and its general coverage of design and function are clearly articulated. Featuring refreshingly clear diagrams and explanations, this 300-page exploration of American firearm design is a joy. Keep an eye out for updates to the library and feel free to contribute texts that you think every designer in our growing space should read.

• 10/07/2023 - Freeman's Folly and the Romulan Charger
• 09/25/2023 - GatGPT and the G22V4
• 09/16/2023 - New Reference Models
• 09/02/2023 - New Tech 22
• 08/10/2023 - Super Safety
• 08/05/2023 - The Partisan-9
• 07/27/2023 - DEFCAD Signal Launchers
• 07/15/2023 - DEFCAD Quick Start Guide
• 07/06/2023 - DEFCAD Leaderboard
• 06/30/2023 - Bullpup Designs at DEFCAD
• 06/22/2023 - Announcing BANB 2023
• 06/15/2023 - Experiments in Guncad
• 06/09/2023 - Announcing the G0 Family of Pistols
• 06/01/2023 - 3D Belt Fed is Here

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