3D Printing.

[elbows]

Once you have seen samples of what reasobaly priced 3D printers can currently produce, you would not dream of trying to make a real gun out of such parts.

There is a telegraph article somewhere ranting about what bullshit the 'oh noes, 3d printers are going to lead to piracy of real objects' stuff presently is. Its years away at best, and even then its questionable whether the costs will add up.

 

[Montgolfier]

The ammo section?

looks like shit that would blow your own hand off though. Any videos of a printed gun in use?

yeah you could be right, this is an actual printed rifle in use, but it falls to bits after the sixth shot!

 

[89 Til Infinity]

haha that was hilarious. I know the British army are trying to make cut backs but damn

 

[89 Til Infinity]

 

[Redeyes]

Working gun made with 3D printer

The world's first gun made with 3D printer technology has been successfully fired in the US.

The controversial group which created the firearm, Defense Distributed, plans to make the blueprints available online.
The group has spent a year trying to create the firearm, which was successfully tested on Saturday at a firing range south of Austin, Texas.


The gun was made on a 3D printer that cost $8,000 (£5,140) from the online auction site eBay.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22421185

 

[alsoknownas]

Presumably though you could get these into courtrooms, on planes, etc.

 

[weltweit]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygre...firing-the-worlds-first-fully-3d-printed-gun/

“Alright. One…two…”
Before “three” arrives, a shot reverberates across the overcast central Texas landscape. A tall, sandy blond engineer named John has just pulled a twenty-foot length of yellow string tied to a trigger, which has successfully fired the world’s first entirely 3D-printed gun for the very first time, rocketing a .380 caliber bullet into a berm of dirt and prairie brush.

 

[Redeyes]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygre...firing-the-worlds-first-fully-3d-printed-gun/

Maybe the BBC should amend their post to say the first 'hand held' 3D printed gun then?

 

[grit]

Presumably though you could get these into courtrooms, on planes, etc.

Zip guns and the like already make this possible. The only reason this 3d printing stuff is making folks nervous is it lowers the barrier of entry to home gun smithing.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Zip guns and the like already make this possible. The only reason this 3d printing stuff is making folks nervous is it lowers the barrier of entry to home gun smithing.

Yep. Now you won't need to be able to use a lathe and a mill, just to download a template programme into your printer.

 

[dylanredefined]

Still won't be able to print ammo yet which is something.

The idea that guns keep you free is a stupid American idea. Nothing wrong with responsible people owning guns the news from the US
puts them in a small minority unfortunately.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

I'm not sure I would trust a gun that had been 3D printed not to blow up in my face. Too many points at which there would be weakness in the material. Like every single point at which a new layer was printed, I would have thought.

 

[1%er]

Still won't be able to print ammo yet which is something.

The idea that guns keep you free is a stupid American idea. Nothing wrong with responsible people owning guns the news from the US
puts them in a small minority unfortunately.

It isn't if you believe the Federal Government will one day come along force you to change the way you live. Many Americans do believe that. It is no different to people in the UK believing the NHS is the only answer for public health. Americans look at the NHS and cry "Oh my god! they are all socialists".

If you grew up in many parts of American you'd hold a different view about guns, people are a product of their environment in the main.

I see it is a bank holiday in the UK, I was wondering why there wasn't loads of hysteria about printable guns on here from the usual suspects

 

[Corax]

yeah you could be right, this is an actual printed rifle in use, but it falls to bits after the sixth shot!

Won't that be more to do with the quality of the 3D printer than the pattern?

 

[dylanredefined]

It isn't if you believe the Federal Government will one day come along force you to change the way you live. Many Americans do believe that.

If you grew up in many parts of American you'd hold a different view about guns, people are a product of their environment in the main.

I

You think the ability to print a gun keeps you free when the government has these?
The militia failed in 1812 warfare has got a lot deadlier since then. A rifle will not keep you free.

 

[Pickman's model]

You think the ability to print a gun keeps you free when the government has these?
The militia failed in 1812 warfare has got a lot deadlier since then. A rifle will not keep you free.

pls engage brain before posting. just because something happened 201 years ago doesn't mean it would always under all circumstances happen now. i'd refer you to cuba, to nicaragua, to ireland: two examples where guerrilla movements toppled dictatorships and one where a guerrilla movement played a significant part in getting the government to the negotiating table. but hey if you want to use utterly crap historical examples which make you look a pillock be my guest and carry on.

 

[1%er]

You think the ability to print a gun keeps you free when the government has these?
The militia failed in 1812 warfare has got a lot deadlier since then. A rifle will not keep you free.

It doesn't matter what I think, it is what they think, a sort of comfort blanket

Peace through Superior fire-power, its the American way

 

[dylanredefined]

None of which relied on privately owned small arms to defeat tyranny. It is a stupid American myth which kills a lot of Americans every year.

 

[mauvais]

You might be able to print your own My First Handgun, but the US has the fearsome power of ITAR, and I don't suppose you can shoot your way out of some Sep prison with a one-shot Duplo pistol.

 

[1%er]

The blueprints/software for this gun were downloaded over 100,000 times before the US State Department ordered that they be removed from Defense Distributed's website because of a "potential infringement of export controls".

They are still widely available on the web

 

[yield]

The U.S. Army 3D-Printed a Grenade Launcher and Called it R.A.M.B.O.
Of course it's called Rambo.
Mar 8, 2017

In a blend of pop culture showmanship and high tech, the U.S. Army has revealed a grenade launcher made almost entirely from 3D-printed parts. Even better, it fires 3D-printed grenades. The project highlights the Army's interest in integrating new manufacturing technologies, ideally lowering costs and easing supply demands down the road.

What could go wrong.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

The U.S. Army 3D-Printed a Grenade Launcher and Called it R.A.M.B.O.
Of course it's called Rambo.
Mar 8, 2017

What could go wrong.

That's some pretty serious hardware they used though. It's not like it it would be cheap and easy to set up in your front room.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

There are several companies who will print you out a little sculpture if you send them a model in standard 3D formats - they do things like print out people's WoW or Second Life characters, or in the case of the company I work for, we got a little metal model of a character we made for a pitch (which failed but was cute). The quality of the model we got was certainly pretty decent, better than the ones you could get a couple of years ago - though it's small - and it wasn't that expensive. That would indicate to me that the tech isn't that expensive these days and is developing.

I understand there was some interest in them for use by NASA, so that components could be printed out in the middle of space on an ad hoc basis.

There's a shop in Barcelona that will 3D scan a customer and then make a model of them. No idea what the price was. I doubted there'd be much of a market for it but he hasn't gone out of business.

 

[Ralph Llama]

Got one in the mail ... at least the parts. Probably take me a day or so to put it together . Anyone else here experementing?

 

[electroplated]

Got one for Christmas, can't wait to put it together! Not sure yet how hard it'll be to design my own items from scratch versus printing other people's designs

 

[Ralph Llama]

Google sketchup can be used i belive I`m already working on a design for a lithium ion battery holder . Lets hope Marx was right

 

[Ralph Llama]

Construction started.
The circuit board printing looks very interesting.
Printing electronics - RepRapWiki

 

[lefteri]

Google sketchup can be used i belive I`m already working on a design for a lithium ion battery holder . Lets hope Marx was right

google sold sketchup years ago

as far as I know you need a solid modeller like rhino to output stl files for 3d printers but things might have moved on from that

 

[Ralph Llama]

Yep. 3-11 in :

 

[dervish]

Sketchup is not recommended for creating .stl files. It often gets confused and creates corrupted files.

For simple stuff tinkercad is pretty good. But before you start creating your own stuff I strongly recommend that you go to thingiverse and print some of their better models, they are all free. It will give you a better idea of how the printer works.