In the wake of Luigi Mangione’s alleged killing of a health care CEO with a partially 3D-printed pistol, we built the exact same weapon ourselves—and test-fired it.
I did a p80 build and would consider it more reliable than anything made in layers, and it is still collecting non existent dust in a safe cause of its issues. But Glocks are considered the gold standard of reliability and they are plastic lowers.
Strictly speaking, if you want a reliable firearm you are much better off getting one made out of steel than composite plastics.
Most 3D printed guns use commercially available parts for the pressure bearing components.
A 3D printed Glock uses a slide and barrel bought from Glock. The only 3D printed part is the frame, which is the only part that has to be serialized.
I did a p80 build and would consider it more reliable than anything made in layers, and it is still collecting non existent dust in a safe cause of its issues. But Glocks are considered the gold standard of reliability and they are plastic lowers.