Solid Concepts uses 3D printing to make an M1911 pistol

[phantom power]

Apparently, everything except the springs. You can see how those would be more difficult, both due to shape and elasticity reqs.

Let me start out by saying one, very important thing: This is not about desktop 3D Printers.

Solid Concepts is a world leader of 3D Printing services, and our ability to 3D Print the world’s first metal gun solidifies our standing. The gun is a classic 1911, a model that is at once timeless and public domain. It functions beautifully: Our resident gun expert has fired 50 successful rounds and hit a few bull’s eyes at over 30 yards. The gun is composed of 30+ 3D Printed components with 17-4 Stainless Steel and Inconel 625 materials. We completed it with a Selective Laser Sintered (SLS) 3D Printed hand grip, because we’re kind of crazy about 3D Printing.

http://blog.solidconcepts.com/industry-highlights/worlds-first-3d-printed-metal-gun/

[aikoaiko]

1. Thats a very interesting exercise.

It will be even more interesting to see how it fares over the long haul.

[Blue_Tires]

2. I find it disturbing that with all the possible applications of 3-D printing

So many people are working around to clock to develop and test gun designs...

[phantom power]

3. I get the impression it was to demonstrate fine tolerance + strength

I imagine there are other kinds of demo that would also work. An internal combustion engine comes to mind, although that would have more parts, and be larger, etc.

I don't exactly disagree.

[Blue_Tires]

5. Maybe I'm lost or not getting the point:

What's the difference between an industrial 3-D printer and a CNC?

[phantom power]

6. A CNC mill removes metal from a larger starting piece. A 3D printer adds metal, point by point.

[Blue_Tires]

7. NOW I get it...thanks!

[SolutionisSolidarity]

11. They work in the opposite fashion.

A CNC starts with a solid block of material and removes part of it to sculpt a component. A 3D printer adds tiny droplets of material layer by layer to create the component directly. In this case, they bombard a metal powder with a laser to melt it into the desired form.

[Aerows]

29. One of, if not the first

concept of interchangeable parts, which revolutionized industry was the Colt pistol. Before that, you went to a blacksmith for a custom piece. Colt introduced widescale interchangeable parts. That is why we have so many advances in industry today. This is sort of the anti-thesis of that in some regards, in that it opens up a whole new way of making custom parts for anything on a specific, but small-scale basis without compromising the ability to interchange it with the same exact part provided you have the specs.


http://www.history.com/topics/interchangeable-parts

[MicaelS]

31. The point is to show the futility of gun bans.

Even if you ban certain types of gun, or all guns, people will still be able to make them with 3-d printers. The instant you tell people they can't have something, the immediate human reaction is to say "Oh yeah? Fuck you jack, I'll show you!"

[Blue_Tires]

53. I guess I missed the part where guns were banned in this country...

Of course it's not out of the realm of possibility that 3-D printers could be banned someday, since there's no constitutional right to those...

I just hope these people don't end up poisoning the well....

[Posteritatis]

49. Most people aren't. The media's just goddamned obsessed with that angle because OMG FUD. (nt)

[onehandle]

4. Good. Just more fuel for the return of sensible gun control.

Tick tock, gun nuts.

[NickB79]

8. How do you figure?

Once 3D printing takes off bigtime, these designs will be easily accessible online for anyone to make at home.

What gun control would you propose to combat this? I can see (and support) strict penalties for someone caught making illegal guns out of their home, but do you think that will be enough to deter someone from doing it?

Cheap, reliable 3D-printed guns are a horror story for anyone concerned about gun control and keeping guns out of the wrong hands. I don't see what's "good" about it, unless you want to impose strict controls on the 3D printers themselves, or let the NSA actively review your stored schematics on a regular basis.

[GreenStormCloud]

13. There will quickly be hacks to get around the required electronic locks on the printers.

One printer compasny tried to fix their printer to recognize when a gun design was being loaded and to refuse it. The electronic block was quickly hacked.

I don't have a link. I read it a few months ago in a magazine and don't remember which.

[GreenStormCloud]

10. It means that the gov't is losing the ability to control.

This 3-D printer is an expensive industrial model. Capabilities of printers will go up and prices will come down. Soon, a person who wants to make a gun won't need the skills of a machinist and a gunsmith combined. Just load the progam into the printer, load the printer with raw material, push "start" and go to lunch.

The U.S. is not the only country in the world with electricity. Specialized guns can be turned out anywhere.

Prices for guns will come way down as you won't need as much labor to produce them.

[XRubicon]

34. Yes the efficiency and economy of scale of

Low production.

Everyone will have a barrel of steel powder and a barrel of inconel powder and a venting system and their own 3-d laser sintering printer all in their garage. All to make themselves one gun...or maybe even two or three. Cost effective indeed.

Maybe they will set up shop and try their hand at selling them to recoup some cost.

Who's at the door... ATF shit...

The technology to make butter at home is readily available now, people don't for a reason.

[GreenStormCloud]

37. You are betting against the advancement of technology.

At today's level of technology, you are correct.

If the price drops to $5,000 it would become feasible for a person who wanted to have fully functional replicas of various guns - legally

Don't need entire barrels of material to make a few guns.

[XRubicon]

40. You should buy a cow

Keep it in your garage.

You could get milk, ice cream, butter, and steak when it gets old.

[NickB79]

44. And 40 years ago you needed a full studio

With high-end cameras and editing equipment to make a porno.

Now the internet is flooded with amateur video of college kids fucking, taken with the phone carried in their pocket.

Plus, you're betting against advances in materials science. If they could create a polymer with enough structural strength for firearms (and they are working on it), even current $2000 3D printers become viable gun makers.

With high-end firearms running $1000 and up, the break-even point is surprisingly low.

[XRubicon]

45. OK...

ahhh.... you may want to use some other example to make your point. Just sayin...


You idiots take any idea to make your stupid point. In your tea bagger world where your gun is taken away you could just make a prison zip gun for about a dollar to fight the evil guvment.

But you are so lost in your dumb fuckery that spending thousands of dollars to try to say "you cant ban guns" makes sense in your inbred mind.

Why are you here?

[GreenStormCloud]

46. So you think technology has frozen, and won't advance.

That isn't the way I would bet.

A few months ago numerous posters on here were saying that a metal gun could not be printed.

Now you are saying that it will always be to expensive to be practical.

Let us see what happens in the coming years.

[Bob Jones]

14. Confiscate all civilian guns and the tools to make them. NOW.

One year to turn them in...then life in prison if you're caught with one.

[phantom power]

16. The "tools to make them" are the same tools we use to make everything else.

Machine tools. I don't think we're going to just outlaw "making stuff"

[Bob Jones]

20. At the very least license and register such tools.

[NickB79]

24. So, hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, vises, etc

Every household in the US has "gun-making tools" by your definition, because something like a simple zip gun is really easy to make.

Google "Danao guns" or "paltik" and see what you find out.

[Aerows]

27. Wait for it -

we'll be assured that this poster is a high grade mechanic and machinist despite such a post.

[Aerows]

25. Um LOL

Sure, that will work well.

You would have to confiscate nearly every hand tool and power tool in the country and license them. Talk about using a bazooka to kill a fly ... my word.

I assume you don't work with tools much?

I patiently await you assuring me that you are a certified mechanic, machinist and were born in a log cabin built by your own hands despite the comments you just made. I'm none of the above, but even I know way better than such a statement, though I am indeed handier than many.

[Posteritatis]

51. Yes, I'm sure the government will get right on restricting the use of lathes.

[Lizzie Poppet]

17. Just who do you propose do the confiscating?

The police?

[Bob Jones]

19. Give gun owners one year to turn them in, then send in in the police, National Guard, whatever

it takes. Guns in civilian hands are weapons of mass destruction and cannot be tolerated.

[NickB79]

22. And you assume the police, Nat. Guard, etc would follow those orders?

You do realize that most police and military personal own private firearms as well, right? And they would be required to turn in their own personal firearms under your proposal? AND they'd be risking retaliation for the rest of their lives for following said orders, from the MILLIONS of pissed-off citizens they just kicked doors in on?

The only way your idea would have any semblance of reality would be if we lived in a dictatorship.

[NickB79]

21. Hey, sounds simple enough

All you need is to overturn about 3-4 different US Supreme Court rulings, then get 60% of all US states to vote to abolish the 2nd Amendment, THEN get all the states with gun ownership clauses in their state constitutions to overturn those.

Then you have to ban 3D printers as well, since we now see they can be used to make guns in the privacy of your own home.

If we get started today, my great-great-great grandchildren might live to see it become reality

[GreenStormCloud]

38. Correction. Needs 75% of states to ratify an Amendment. Otherwise, excellent post. N/T

[Ranchemp.]

35. You forgot to add this.

[rrneck]

36. You're funny. nt

[sakabatou]

9. This tech is not going to be abused whatsoever

[HereSince1628]

12. I had no idea a printer could "print" steel.

Making a gun, rather than, say roller skates with precision ball bearings, is a disturbing choice.

But I had no idea such metallic printing was possible.

[GreenStormCloud]

39. Which gets bigger headlines? N/T

[LittleBlue]

15. Incredible. It's like a science fiction

coming to life in the real world.

How long before we can print ourselves a car?

[phantom power]

18. I'm sure we could print most of the parts now, with the caveat...

that currently you can't print with any kind of metal or plastic, with any desired physical properties.

But you could print the parts, with the same shapes, in some choice of metals and plastics.

[Taitertots]

23. Print a car.... Already happened

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/industry/urbee-2-the-3d-printed-car-that-will-drive-across-the-country-16119485

[Aerows]

26. Already happened :)

it's really cool!

[Taitertots]

28. Making guns is not particularly difficult

This is actually MORE complicated and expensive than using traditional manufacturing methods.

[petronius]

32. Printing guns is great, but why don't they print a 3D printer?

Spread the wealth! Make that technology so cheap that everyone can share...

[yawnmaster]

33. That is a slippery slope. Once you have printers printing other printers...

who is to stop them?
Who knows when they will become self aware?

[ScreamingMeemie]

41. Call Stephen King!!!11!! Right F*cking Now!!!1!11

[dionysus]

42. i'd want one of those science fiction replicators to instantly make good food, booze, and drugs ;)

[Eleanors38]

43. Ah, there is no life after Forbidden Planet. "Smooth!"

[Posteritatis]

50. That's one of the goals for a lot of people working on them

The main bottlenecks are materials - a self-replicating 3D printer would probably need to work in both metals and plastics, and parts like the print head itself would be especially difficult to make. Then there's the electronics, of course - circuit boards, wiring, etc.

Most of them right now can do just about everything except metallic or highly specialized parts. Think of someone able to put together a car from scratch in their garage, but they'd still need someone else to handle the tires and specific parts of the engine.

[dembotoz]

47. every now and then technology out paces the law-the quest then becomes to make sure the new law

is not stupid.

Being that one of the parties hates science i think it is fair to assume that stupid will win.

Innovation has always been one of this country's great strengths. To limit innovation puts us at a competitive disadvantage.

And we have enough competitive disadvantages--lets not go out of our way to find more.

[ileus]

48. Using new tech to a build 102 year old design.

Not the best choice....maybe the classiest but not the best.

[NoOneMan]

52. Watching Vice, they showed people in sheds making handguns out of scrap metal

So, you know, its sorta funny how much money and time people inefficiently throw at something that could be skillfully crafted or simply bought (or avoided since last thing the world needs is another gun)