So now that Form 1 approvals are rolling in, I thought we should have a place to catalog what descriptions, build methods, pictures, etc are getting approved. I know it would be a help to me as a first timer on this side of things, so surely it would help others as well.
In my case I have my trust setup and I’ve submitted my Form 4’s for transferring existing items to it. I’m ready to move on to Form 1’s for Suppressors and SBR’s.
I started working on my first Form 1 for a printed suppressor and the first hurdle I’ve run into is what to put in description box, and what needs to be uploaded for the pictures of materials, build methods etc. I started looking around and it seems to vary wildly with what people have submitted, but most of those instances never included whether or not it was approved.
So, what have you submitted for your builds that actually resulted in an approval??
You really don’t need to provide much. In fact, too much info can actually slow things down since it’s more stuff for them to review. For suppressors, this section is very antiquated and didn’t anticipate 3D printing as a viable construction method. If you show you know what you’re making (there’s an actual design) and what you’re making it from, that’s really good enough.
If the model is already in the selection list, that means the design as already been through “research” and approved on another Form 1. For my FTN.5 Rimfire that I submitted Jan 1, I just said I was building the design as released and identified the brand and type of filament. I uploaded an image of the filament from Siraya’s website as “documentation”. Approved in 10 days.
When I did a Form 1 last year for a suppressor design not in the previously approved list, I loaded the STL into a viewer, turned up transparency so it showed the internal design, and saved that image. I annotated it to show how/where I would be applying the S/N and other NFA markings and submitted that as my documentation (along with filament info). That one went to “pending research” status and was approved in about two weeks.
Wow, thanks for your input! That is very interesting and great info you shared!
Let me ask this in the case of the FTN 5 Rimfire. What did you put as an overall length of the suppressor? The printed portion shows to be 6.29” in the slicer, but the design is to install a thread adapter. If you’re not allowed to possess the parts you are going to use for construction prior to approval, I have no way to know what the overall length will actually be…
I just put the length of the printed part. If you want to be really precise, add a quarter inch for the thread adapter. But I can assure you the ATF doesn’t actually care. I’m pretty sure there has never been a case of someone being charged with a violation because their suppressor missed the approved length by tenths of an inch.
Thanks again for the clarification. I will begin submitting some form 1’s today!
I had a FTN 4.5 PCC approved. I submitted a screenshot of some filament, the Breek Blast Shield, and an Aluminum tube. The descriptions were along the lines of “Aluminum tube from Amazon to be used for the serial number”
My description for how I build it was, “I WILL PRINT OUT OF PLA+, THEN EPOXY AN ALUMINUM TUBE FOR THE SERIAL NUMBER AND THEN A THREAD ADAPT THAT I BUY ONLINE”
I appreciate your info!
