3D Printed Metal 1911

[MikeBjerum]

TAB,

Your an idiot!

That said, they picked a firearm that is well known and easy to make.  If you read, they said the printer can crank out a gun within five days (if a qualifying customer needs a gun in five days).  The gun has shot over 50 rounds of factory ammo. 

This was a test of the sintered metal printing with a lasar, they made all of the metal parts with the printer, the gun is tight, it handles factory ammunition, and it WORKS.  They proved it can be done!

What else do you want?

If you have watched the growth and of these machines over the years you would know that they can produce very intricate items with several moving parts in an assembled configuration.  The first one I saw at our State Fair several years ago was cranking out a cage with I believe it was seven gears on shafts.  As you spun the cage six gears on shafts worked around a central sun gear.  Very similar, but more complex, than the spider gears in a differential.  This item was printed compete.  When the printer was done they pulled the cage out of the powder, blew it off with compressed air, and it spun freely with out slop and backlash.  They had several printers running on different things, and the were each making several items per day.

This shows great promise for the years to come in not only prototyping, but for production as well.

[TAB]

3d printing is rapid prototyping.( it just sounds cooler)   it will never be anything other then that or very low scale production.  5 days is not 5 working days but rather 5 24 hour periods.     its nothing more the a cool fad.  I have worked with many rapid prototypers over the years.  Ask any one in the industry what they think about the gun.   you will get " cool, what a waste of money." i know several and every single one has said that.    you have to understand, all it is adding layers, for structural strength, thats not a good thing.  At some point, you just can't get any smaller of a layer.   even if the layer is .0005"   its still got a long way to get to that magic "star trek" level of being able to lay atom by atom.   ask tom just how small .0005" actually is.   ask him how hard it is even to measure down that far, let alone shape something to that level.

[MikeBjerum]

But yet, the gun works, and works well.

What do you think blacksmiths, and operators of forging machines said about investment casting once upon a time?

[bodean87]

What i am saying, is this was only done becuase they could.  Is it cool, yeah, useful, not really.  Is it every going to be viable, no.   physics comes into play.   

This is why men do a lot of the things we do.  We do it because we can and if it makes money that's even better. Why did we go to space the first time.... because we can. Why did Columbus cross the ocean because he could. Why did cave men learn to make fire because they can and for the women. Sometimes men do stuff just because we can and no one else can.

[TAB]

THats all fine and dandy, but taking something that can already make complex parts and making another complex part and expecting me  jump for joy is not going to happen.    now if it was something like going from manuel machines to cnc i would be excited.   this is like taking a cnc machine building gadgets and building wedges on it. 

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

Did your left coast public education fill you in on the Liberator young man?  Think of the possibilities when a person can quickly turn out a weapon in a time of need. 

In this day and age not many are capable of pounding their garden tools into instruments of war.  However, our keyboard accomplished youth could some day be our armorers, and provide us with the tools we need to liberate weapons from an enemy.

Food for thought 

[PegLeg45]

For God's sake TAB, everything has to start somewhere. Look at computers, tvs and most modern things. They were expensive as hell in the beginning but according to your thinking because the price wasn't immediately gratifying to you then all the projects should have been scrapped. What will you be saying in 20 years when you have a 3D printer sitting on your job site spitting out parts you need for that job?

+1


I remember the first calculator my dad bought in the 70's..... A Rockwell....ran on a 9-volt battery.....was about 3" wide by 6" long by 3/4" thick...... It performed five functions: +, -, /, x, %......and cost nearly $50..... (a lot of money then).



Now, $20 calculators (sold in the check-out line at wal-mart) have more power than the computers that put men on the moon.

But some folks want the world to remain flat...... I mean, we already have machines to make guns, why build new ones, right?   



It may take a while, but this technology will be the norm someday....may be ten years, may be fifty. It works now, but may not be cost effective yet.....after further research in production, metallurgy and possibly heat-treating to 'set' the properties of the metal, it will get cheaper to do.

[TAB]

m58.  Thats just it, this will never be faster, cheaper, easier or even something that can really be done at home.    you can make a gun out of pvc pipe that will work for 1 shot.  And litterly all you need is the pipe, glue  a means to cut it( dental floss even works) and a way to make a small hole.    hell i can make a decent single shot shot gun with some black iron pipe, end cap, drill, duct tap and a staple gun.  Shooting real ammo.   

[MikeBjerum]

TAB,

You are not paying attention!  The technology is there to build the gun at home!  This test proves it!  There are many of these polymer printers in cottage businesses already, and the sintered metal printer is just another level of the polymer.

I don't know what you are smoking these days, but please quit!

[1911 Junkie]

m58.  Thats just it, this will never be faster, cheaper, easier or even something that can really be done at home.   

How the hell do you know this? Once again, I'm sure a lot of people said the same thing about computers.