Did he actually make money?
“Did he make money”
True. The article talks about the revenue but the only expenses mentioned are the $200 3D printer and a 12 hour driving round trip. It takes lots of consumables to print things.
I presume his printed guns were not operable. Why would they buy them back?
Yes, he made a lot of money. The filament to make 100 comedy-grade lower receivers (not actually safe to use for more than a few rounds but good enough to fool a government clerk), is about one hundred bucks. The time to take to print that comedy grade receiver costs maybe a dollar per receiver on the upper end for electricity, and maybe five bucks per for checking in and babysitting the start of the print.
On the other hand, with new ATF rules (which are unconstitutional if we held to precedent but unchallenged in court and who knows what the Supreme court will look like when it gets there) his stunt could turn him into an unlicensed firearms dealer and treated like a terrorist by the ATF. Guaranteed, he is on a list now. Not sure what list, but it would be surprising if he doesn have problems getting on an airplane or doing his taxes for a long time, much less actually purchasing a real firearm if he so desires. If the deep state hates anything more than someone showing their incompetence to the world, I have yet to see it.