Quote from: Edvard on October 14, 2012, 06:02 AM

Time to start printing handguns.

Oh, wait...

The truth is that it is much cheaper and more effective to just buy a real gun. 3D printed guns right now aren't comparable to hundreds of years of gunsmith engineering. So 3D gun plans & printing really have no significant effect on anything. Except for paranoid governments that don't understand tech. Oh, wait. That's all of them~!

But really - I think it's great having that info out there. It gives the govt's 1 more reason to be afraid of the people, which is the way it should be, and not like it is now with people being afraid of their govt's.

The results of Wiki Weapons gun testing

The first run of testing a 3D-printed gun wasn't flawless but it wasn't a complete failure either.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/the-results-of-wiki-weapons-gun-testing/7268

Sorta changing topics, 3D Printing is the ultimate attack on Everything. (Except for industrial grade processes. Those will last a little longer.) Being able to buy a "75 pound lump of 50 compounds" at YourCostBulkClub (CostCo, BJ's are East Coast USA examples), 3d Printing lets you make (almost) ANYTHING with just a software routine, and you know the Open Source movement will be all over that.

Hence the desperate moves to block the tech at this early stage. Need a kitchen knife? Print one. Need a Cereal Bowl? Print one. Need a plastic tin for laundry? Print one.

But wait. It gets WAY worse. Need a toy for your 4 year old? (Non-Genius.) PRINT ONE. I bet you will be able to print a cheap car-thingy soon. Your 4 year old won't care. He can zoom it around. Toys 'R Us and Hasbro/Mattel/whoever will NOT be pleased that their "cheap plastic crap" business model will be sunk.

And more, but I'll let y'all imagine how disruptive it can be.

Interesting knee-jerk reaction to nothing:

http://boingboing.net/2012/12/09/congressman-calls-for-ban-on-3.html

Congressman calls for ban on 3D printed guns

Well, that was predictable: days after a 3D printed gun fired a few rounds, Rep Steve Israel has called for a ban on of Wiki Weapons. The congressman points out (correctly) that all-plastic 3D printed weapons would not be easy to spot using traditional methods, such as metal detectors.

However, what Rep Israel doesn't say is how he hopes to accomplish his goal. Firmware locks for 3D printers? A DMCA-like takedown regime for 3D shapefiles that can be used to generate plastic firearms (or parts of plastic firearms?). A mandate on 3D printer manufacturers to somehow magically make it impossible for their products to print out gun-parts?

Every one of those measures is a nonsense and worse: unworkable combinations of authoritarianism, censorship, and wishful thinking. Importantly, none of these would prevent people from manufacturing plastic guns. And all of these measures would grossly interfere with the lawful operation of 3D printers.

Quote from: Renegade on December 10, 2012, 11:56 PM

Every one of those measures is a nonsense and worse: unworkable combinations of authoritarianism, censorship, and wishful thinking.

  And this has stopped our police state how?

Good point. Logic and reason aren't a part of the mentality there.

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Oh well, there goes my idea of starting a company to print giant realistic guns made of chocolate.

Shit! ..I'd of loved to get one of those ... Just to see the look on the security guards face when I started licking it as they frisk me.

Quote from: app103 on December 13, 2012, 04:57 PM

Oh well, there goes my idea of starting a company to print giant realistic guns made of chocolate. 

  Well your about a day late and a dollar short.  I was just looking at realistic guns made of chocolate in a magazine the other day.  The Thompson machine gun and the .45 Auto did look pretty real too.  lol

Did they look like they were made for King Kong's hands? Giant was the keyword here. Nothing so realistic as something made to actual size scale would do.

Another cat let out of the bag through 3D printing:

http://defcad.org/ar-15-magazine-30-round-mag/

Except they're all just making a fuss cause this is relatively new technology.

Did you know that you can melt metal using ordinary hardware store materials, and make pretty much anything you want?

Only requires a small amount of effort and a little brains to assemble the required materials into a viable furnace and sand bed, allowing technology dating back to the dawn of society to be used by anyone willing to create metal objects in any shape they want. Why make a plastic gun when you can make an aluminum one that might actually last a little while before self destructing?

The only advantage a 3D printer has is that it is easier to do it indoors as it doesn't come with the risk of setting nearby objects on fire or producing large volumes of fumes.

This kind of technology will be a big help to the hobbyist and engineer, people who already make things on their own rather than buying them. They'll be able to try out new innovations faster and cheaper.

In the long run it will probably cost more to 3D print an object than it will to just buy a mass produced one, so at worst you have an effective price limiting in the marketplace wherein manufacturers cannot raise their prices beyond where it is economical to 3D print the offending object or people will make their own. And that is already true- contract manufacturers like where I work will gladly produce objects in any shape and size they have the capability of doing, the question is does the item you need cost more to make than it does to just buy.

The technology seems to be really improving:

http://www.3duniverse.org/2014/04/19/jose-delgado-jr-compares-his-new-3d-printed-hand-to-his-more-expensive-myoelectric-prosthesis/

JOSE DELGADO, JR. COMPARES HIS $50 3D-PRINTED HAND TO HIS $42,000 MYOELECTRIC PROSTHESIS

...
It turns out, this simple, mechanical design provides Jose with more day-to-day functionality than his far more expensive myoelectric prosthesis.  If a part does break, I can easily print a new one for him in a matter of hours.

More at the link.

The technology seems to be really improving:

http://www.3duniverse.org/2014/04/19/jose-delgado-jr-compares-his-new-3d-printed-hand-to-his-more-expensive-myoelectric-prosthesis/

Quote

JOSE DELGADO, JR. COMPARES HIS $50 3D-PRINTED HAND TO HIS $42,000 MYOELECTRIC PROSTHESIS

...
It turns out, this simple, mechanical design provides Jose with more day-to-day functionality than his far more expensive myoelectric prosthesis.  If a part does break, I can easily print a new one for him in a matter of hours.

More at the link.

Yeah I saw Slashdot's copy.

Way down in the comments a prosthetics expert posted a note that in this exact case the $50 hand worked better, but that across the board they do tend to be that expensive because the cost includes custom fitting and rehab therapy appointments.

NSFW news report...

Tokyo Artist Arrested For 3D Printing Her Vagina