Freepers, your Contributions make every difference!
Please keep ‘em coming! Thank you all very much!
Posted on 02/02/2013 8:44:42 AM PST by EXCH54FE
When the New York Times wrote of the improved technology of 3D printing this writer responded with a frivolous blog about it, scoring the concerns of anti-gun people about how the technology will allow everyone who wants one to have a gun without government oversight or knowledge. One of those in the anti-gun camp is Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, who said that 3D printing is “going to be a big concern. We don’t know how that’s going to come about and don’t know what technology.”
That technology is evolving before his very eyes. The RepRap Project aims to produce free and open source software for 3D printers, including software that allows the printer to produce its own parts. Two years ago RepRap allowed printers to create tiny plastic parts for small motors as well as circuit boards for computers. Today it allows hobbyists to build household items like fully-functional clocks, flashlights, iPad cases, watchbands … and receivers for rifles.
And it is this virtual explosion in technology that is making other gun controllers increasingly nervous, including Mark Gibbs, a contributor at Forbes, who wrote,
I’m in favor of tighter gun control and a ban on weapons that are unnecessarily powerful but I’m afraid that technology will soon make any legislation that limits the availability of any kinds of guns ineffective.
With the decrease in prices for 3D printers, and the improvement in the software to drive them, the capability to print weapons at home is coming into the reach of the average citizen. Gibbs warned,
Using either free or low cost computer aided drafting software you can create digital 3D models of pretty much anything you can think of and, with hardly any fuss, your 3D printer will render them as physical objects.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
“I can assure you that, should you replicate .... load and fire it, you would require a trip to the hospital or morgue.”
Sintering metal powder with a laser could produce very strong material with a 3-d printer. It would be a specialized printer, but it is doable.
ENOUGH! Quit posting idiotic articles about printing guns! Printing plastic parts is not printing a gun. And don’t tell me about printing metal parts - that process is beyond home based tinkerers and probably cannot create the critical gun parts either. Powder metallurgy has been around forever and I notice that it is NOT used to make gun parts subject to high pressures. If you want to make a gun, buy a decent milling machine and learn how to use it. Guns are not complicated but even at today’s prices and lack of availability they are much easier to buy than make from scratch. Since there are 300 million in circulation, whatever you want will be available (at some high price) in the US for the foreseeable future - legally or illegally.
“Quit posting idiotic articles...”
Many can make a workable, “real” gun in their home shop — what is at issue is grandma pushing a button and out plops a gun. There are many jurisdiction who’s definition of “gun” includes some pretty flimsy air guns — these can now be printed by “grandma”. In Australia, you can break the law making a practical “gun” with a 3-d printer.
So quit posting posts telling people to quit posting articles ....
Yeah, I’d be a little leery of firing a lot of rounds out of even a sintered part. It’s just asking for trouble. Then again, if you’re looking for something that only needs to fire 5 rounds or so (3 for target group, 1 for actual shot, and one just in case the first misses).......I think that’s what has the wannabe’s panties in a bunch, more than being able to print out a machine gun.
I like seeing the 3-D printer articles because the rate of advancement in both the printers and materials technology is so fast today, compared to the last 20 years.
Also of interest is the social impact of this technology. This article is a prime example.
If the owner of the site doesn't want articles posted, he can (and does) yank them down.
/johnny
“Mandatory registration of all 3D printers.”
Communist countries have mandatory registration of copiers and printers for the same reason. We must likewise oppose such registration for the same reason: freedom.
And what was the state of the art 2 years ago? This train is moving fast. ;)
/johnny
You answered my question before I even asked - FReepers are the best! :-)
Prices should start to come down soon if they don’t OUTLAW them altogether, I am going to get one if they get below $2000, the ones I was looking at were about $3500.
“The good SLA versions
I had to chuckle a little on the SLA, Shades of Patty Hearst lol!
And if you think the nervous nellies are having conniptions about 3-D printers in plastic. . . . wait 10-15 years, and nanotech-assembler “printers” should start showing up.
And then Grandma CAN press a button and out comes a gun. . .
This really requires another thread..
I am not enamored with this printing, did SLA files when it was cutting edge, and I know enough about Metallurgy, heat treating, plating, Normalizing etc to make me dangerous, I don't see it.....
But the for-mentioned thread for these below, and check out the other videos while on the page.
If you are handy building things, the RepRap project may be for you. RepRaps are the cheapest, (but lowest print quality) of any 3D printer. They are built from scratch. They have a side goal of trying to be as fully self reproduceable as possible. This means that a RepRap printer is designed to be created from RepRap printed parts. A RepRap printer can build about 75% of the parts for the RepRap printers, only things like the electronics need to be bought. So once you have one RepRap, you can keep building others.
If you don't want to do that, there are several models less than $2000 now.
The author states he is in favor of gun control. That’s where I quit reading.
The Roland stuff is pretty much bottom of the line compared to other tech available today. My company has an MDX-40 that we use a lot, but it is only good for relatively small part in relatively soft materials. Useful as heck, though.
QU-BD has a 3D printer/mill that will do additive fabbing (deposition) and subtractive fabbing (standard milling) under development. Their target is to hit about $2700 for a unit that does both. The milling side is specced to handle stainless steels.
http://store.qu-bd.com/product.php?id_product=45
Won't last. 3D printing in metals is available today (though quite expensive), yielding products that are as strong or stronger than those machined "normally" (better control of grain size, and spot-customized heat treatment throughout the part, etc). Quite soon, guns and other devices made by 3D printing will perform better than standard machined.
I love the smell of burning gun printing trolls, they must be the same crowd as the ones who hate Sarah Palin and any Orly Taitz birther threads.
A printed gun WILL work, allowing for the material weakness you just make a beefier component until you can get a superior printing material. A printed gun does not have to be a .357 Python or a Glock, it only has to be a zip gun.
Even after only a period of weeks the AR lower project has advanced farther than predicted and will continue doing so.
The 3D printer has left the station, and you naysayer folks are standing there in the rain, cold, wet, dejected that you are not on it.
I have some "special projects" that would only require one shot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.