First all-metal 3D printed gun?

[dairydog91]

Looks like someone was able to print up a fully-functional semiautomatic pistol.

Link

[hollysmom]

1. weel the idea before was to have a non-metalic gun to get through the scanners.

So this is not the biggest deal, if it is metal, Iwould imagine the machine to print it out is in the tens of thousands of dollars, just go buy a gun already.

[dairydog91]

2. Hundreds of thousands, at the moment.

A fully functional metal firearm is a lot more impressive than a plastic gun. It's clearly holding up to pressure levels that would destroy plastic printed guns.

[GreenStormCloud]

9. No, that wasn't the idea.

The idea was to freak out the DOJ, BATFE, Homeland Security, and various other gov't agencies and let them know that they were losing control. They were upset, but since the gun was a weak plastic gun, limited to .380 caliber, they weren't too worried.

Now the cat is well and truly out of the bag. Yes, the printer is expensive - for now. Prices for printers will come down and capabilities will go up. The plans for the gun are open source, especially since the basic design is 102 years old. And the U.S. isn't the only country in the world that has electricity for a printer.

[hollysmom]

13. still cheaper to buy guns - but maybe an anti-aircraft thingie would be more effective

I don't see the price of these machines coming down that much. printers are cheap because they make their money on ink. If you read the process, it is not all that easy or that perfect, great if you do not need fine honed work, How much longer until we have the thing that manufactures what we want on a wish?

In 1950, I remember reading and saving for some years the Life magazine story about the future in 50 years. Mom threw it out, she was not a pack rat like me. anyway, they predicted stores would not have doors and houses windows because they would have the heat curtain to contain weather by the pressure of air. We would commute in our private helicopters and jet packs. or not. I can barely remember the rest but I was a small kid trying to save something that fascinated me and these are all I can remember now, Will try to remember more.

[GreenStormCloud]

14. The internal parts of a semi-auto pistol have to be precision parts.

If they aren't, the gun won't work. Their gun worked, repeatedly, therefore the parts were finely honed.

The general trend of technology is to become better and cheaper, after adjustment for inflation.

[quadrature]

3. why bother?...barrels are easy to buy on the internet...nt

[GreenStormCloud]

10. Takes more than a barrel to contain the pressure and operate the gun.

The bolt needs to contain pressure and the frame needs to be able to handle to recoil of the slide.

[ileus]

4. Someone has some class...

A nice hunk of 1911.

Very nice...before long we could see some new firearm companies out there producing quality pistols for consumers.

[krispos42]

5. I bet the first mass-produced item...

...will be customized slides with fancy scrollwork and other decorations.

Imagine... you could have a slide made for your gun that had exactly the gripping serrations you want, with whatever artwork you wanted on the side. Hunting scenes, personal mottos, even engravings of loved ones.


Mass customization. The next level after mass production.

[Eleanors38]

6. Or as Jack O'Connor said, "Venus at bath" engraved on your Model 70.

[GreenStormCloud]

11. Predicted by Alvin Toffler in his book "Future Shock" in 1970.

Mass customization. The next level after mass production. The future is arrivng faster than ever before.

[BigAlanMac]

7. Custom Engraving

has been available in shopping malls throughout the country for decades.
I was told by a young lady at a "Things Remembered" kiosk over 20 years ago she had no problems with engraving things like my 1911 slide.
You don't need a 3D printer for that kind of work.
For years there have been inexpensive computerized engraving machines that could work on 3D surfaces.

[Eleanors38]

8. The use of powdered metal in the ancient lost-wax process...

is most notable in many Ruger firearms. I don't know if Ruger still employs the process, but my Police Service-Six .357 is made by molten (first powdered) chrome molly melting then displacing a wax form within a sprayed-on ceramic shell, all within a sand mound or block. The revolver is quite strong, accurate and durable.

It is claimed that the process results in parts which require little or no finishing. Oddly, the similarity seems to be in the layered spraying of ceramic over the wax form; that shell us broken away in the final fabrication step.