3-D Printed Gun

[youtube:2jiutq8h][/youtube:2jiutq8h]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/weaponeers/

Pssst. I've heard Obama is going to ban 3-D printers.... pass it on.

I've been following rapid prototyping deposition technology for several years. I predict within 5 years they will be as common in the house as your inkjet printer (basically the same technology). there have been a few attempts at forming the stock and a few components of guns on these printers, but the materials available would not be strong enough for a barrel or combustion chamber. LE has fears that criminals could create a one off gun, then destroy it to get rid of the rifling. But any material that would be easily destroyed would not be strong enough for a barrel (might as well use a zip gun).

There have been great advances in 3D printing recently. Hobbyist kits are available for under $1000. The real primo systems that can do precise, multi-material, multi colored shapes are in the $30,000 range though. A spin off of MIT is working on a precise system for under $3000 that I am following closely. Also, industrial systems can make objects in ceramics and metals, there is a huge system in Japan that makes large concrete structures using this technology. Scientists are also looking at using this technology to deposit tissue to make human organs.

I predict within five years, most households will have a 3D system. I am investing in technology that will be able to render a 3D CAD file from photographs so that you can simply take a photo of a shoe or other object, add your customization to it, and print your own.

Need a car part and don't want to go to NAPA, simply print your own part. A real life Star Trek replicator in your own home.

Guns will matter not, and shooting will be no big deal with this invention.

People won't give a crap about killings when we have even less jobs. This thing will kill more jobs and industries than the internet and make our world better just like drones will.

I pointed that out on here a while back - do you know any craftsmen....not for long. This technology will replace the few people that still make things. Think it was bad when the jobs went to China, at least the Chinese still buy things and function in the economy. Soon, when the mfg jobs go to these printers and even less programmers are needed as we teach the printers how to program themselves.

Anyone watch jungle gold on discovery. The scene were the african miner will not let the American dude rent him his gold processing machine even though it would make him more wealth? The african dude just pointed out how they are working to ALL feed their families, not just for one of them to get rich. That aint us. We don't even seem to care if we are the one's loosing the jobs, until after we loose them. That African crew boss is a better person than most of us, his actions are better.

By the way, every Amish man I know is independently wealthy, every one, by keeping their utility in stead of giving it away. Their kids will do well, if we don't get them blown up, how are your kids going to fair in the future, will they be one of the few printer programmers.

This is bad, and has little to do with guns. Just seems kinda backwards....you job gets replaced by this awesome printer, which so many less people can use because they no longer can work, so they can't buy the stuff. This thing will f*** us like most other inventions, which typically benefit the inventor more than society. Inventions are job killers, by design and intent. Everyone once and a while one of them keeps someone alive long enough to invent another way to screw others...like the ACA (thanks Romney camp).

Unlike OTN, I think this will make business much more productive. My company sells a product that measures the the torque required to fit bottle caps, there are thousands of different bottle caps out there we have to create special holders for. With our printer, lead times have gone down from six weeks to one week on our deliveries. Plus our machine shops hated this one-off work and charged us a premium so the printer has also improved our margins.

A home printer? I would buy one of those, lose a gun part after taking it apart for a cleaning? Just print a new one up.

FredHayek wrote: Unlike OTN, I think this will make business much more productive. My company sells a product that measures the the torque required to fit bottle caps, there are thousands of different bottle caps out there we have to create special holders for. With our printer, lead times have gone down from six weeks to one week on our deliveries. Plus our machine shops hated this one-off work and charged us a premium so the printer has also improved our margins.

A home printer? I would buy one of those, lose a gun part after taking it apart for a cleaning? Just print a new one up.

You missed my point. Businesses will be much more productive, at the expense of everyone that currently produces for them. Your business may do much better....AT THE EXPENSE OF SOMEONE ELSE. I understand this is the way things work. But on average, we will not win. Some will win, I hope you and I are in that group, we likely will be. We are currently the winners in this country at the expense of other countries. We are currently the winners via our time shifting tax system (where we make future gens pay our way), that is a very effective technology.

This is what technology is about, being selfish, getting rid of your need for help. So you are right. I agree with you. I did not say that businesses would be less productive, the ones that survive will consume all production using these machines. Just like the last generation of machines did and shipping all the work oversees to lower labor markets did. The companies never loose, at least not the biggest ones.

If I take a club and hit you over the head and take your money or your woman, I come out ahead, the club is a great invention....for me, not for you. The printer works the same way. Sometimes you don't even need to use the better tool to get folks to give up.

.

Yeah that makes sense, it would be next to impossible to take such a machine and scale it up or make it faster.

I mean there are plenty of people that can do math faster than computers, oh wait, that was only the first few minutes of computing.

These devices will only be of value to those that own them and pretty much only if they have the most current one, like a computer. By the way, drones will only be used for information gathering, not killing people in your name, wait, that's BS too.

Remember the secretary? There used to be so many people in this job we had a special day for them. Now many have no secretary or one with a computer in stead of a bunch. That is one of 1000's of professions practically gone due to technology. Technology is good, for those that have it.

Craftspeople are the best people on the planet, we will be worse off when we loose more of them.

This is another one there is no need to debate. Just look back at this thread in 5-10 years, if you can afford to and we can talk about it then.

Ever heard Forbes story about shovels versus spoons? Look at farming towns, now one guy can do the work of hundreds of 19th century farmers. Sucks to be one of those of those unemployed farmers, but the consumer benefits who is paying the same per bushel today as the 1930's.

I know a bunch of those unemployed farm family kids. Too bad about their meth habits.

Amish families can have 10+ kids, live on 100 acres in 5000 sf homes and still undersell the big corps pricing and quality with their crops....and we are better off?

Fred you are full of it, we just don't want to work. But we will need to face sooner or later, that no work comes with no food...but if you have TV still, you can watch the rich people eat on TV.

This printer will not get all the wrongly imprisoned out of their holding cells, will not feed more people and will not make more opportunity for people, it will do the opposite in all these categories. It will make a few people very rich, just like all other major advances in technology, it will help us ruin the planet quicker at the expense of our neighbors and even more so, our children, the people we claim to care about the most, but then work hard to screw every day.