Posted on 07/27/2012 7:05:04 PM PDT by drbuzzard
Then when your kitchen knives get dull and nicked you just toss them into the hopper for full remanufacturing ~ and your pistols? Grip gets worn, rebuild!
This sounded pretty unrealistic to me. So I read the comments. It turns out that the article is extremely misleading. The guy did not make a whole gun.
They'll just start operation "Gun Printer"
It’s a plastics printer, not metal.
Sintering can “print” metals and ceramics, but I believe you still need a source of heat for tempering purposes, and even then I don’t know how strong the results are.
But still. Imagine the day when a high percentage of daily tools and objects can be made at home, just by running the right printer file.
Along with local power (solar or Mr. Fusion), preppers would only need a garden - and who knows how fast we’ll develop portable biolabs!
How many coke cans do I have to feed it in order to print out a B 29?
With a laser and a powder metal feed, you could probably make the whole gun, so it’s not that far out.
Just dial it up on the replicator.
Call it 30,000 of aluminum.
I figure about 2,142,857 cans should get you close.
You are going to need to chunk some other stuff into the hopper, though. ;)
/johnny
My predictions.
In 5 years you will be able to print an entire gun.
In 10 years you will be able to get a body part constructed with a biological 3D printer...need a new bladder? A new finger? Let me take a scan and a tissue sample and I’ll have it for you in a few weeks.
In 15 years China exports will drop to nil since people can just print most desired small objects..even ones with integrated electronics.
In 25-40 years mobile systems that control small armies of nano bot assemblers will build large objects like homes and bridges...sometimes by using the materials at the site (sand for instance) Homes will become so cheap people will simply move away and abandon them when they want to relocate.
In 100 years it will be possible to 3D print an entire human body.
Probably by 2050 the technology for self-replicating nano bots will exist. It is uncertain if this will be legal or not as it could be a dangerous technology.
My predictions are actually quite restrained considering the exponential way this tech is beginning to expand.
Many here on FR today will live to see the age where almost everything is created by 3D assemblers. Even the precision machining of metal objects will pass into history.
/johnny
When, not if, humans learn to replicate DNA and insert it to change an already adult huamn, for ‘designer purposes’, I think God will stop the show right there and end this phase in order to begin the next. And that ability is very very close already. Years ago, a Japanese firm kept a goat fetus laive to term in an artifical womb. We already have cloning being done, perhaps on human replicants, so when the DNA sequencing and duplicator tech reaches ‘production quality’, gather your sandals it’s all about to end.
I think you’re right, at least about the gun and body parts. They’re already doing both, I’d be willing to bet, in labs and out of the public eye. It’ll just take incremental improvements, not some new disruptive technology...better materials, stronger designs. I thought stereolithography was magic 25 years ago when I first starting getting parts made that way, now it’s cheap enough I can have one in my own shop.
Any person who can legally own a firearm can construct one for his/her own use and the ATF can’t do a thing about it.
As far as the ATF is concerned, the lower receiver on the AR-15 is the gun.
In the year 2525, if man is still alive If woman can survive, they may find
In the year 3535
Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth
, tell no lie Everything you think, do and say Is in the pill you took today
So when can I print me a Ferrari?
At this point, those home machines can really only produce toys, etc. The plastic used is not particularly strong, temperature resistant, and so on. It isn’t cheap either. But someday, mass produced, who knows?
I think that the military actually has an operational system that can produce tank parts in the field from sintered powder. They may not be as good as the original parts but they will work.
Added that as well as ‘For The Win’ by him to my Amazon Wish List.
I read it online, and then bought my dead-tree copy. I like the way Cory writes.
/johnny
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