Posted on 10/06/2012 7:46:27 PM PDT by marktwain
Printing Wealth, Not Dollars
Over the next few weeks Cody Wilson was going to make his own gun from scratch.
Developments in high-end design and manufacturing processes have brought the cost of doing this way down.
For a few thousand bucks, you or I can design and manufacture pretty much anything we want in our workshops, sheds, and garages.
The most important thing you need is called a 3D printer.
Once you have one, you can find designs on the Internet and print out almost anything you'd like.
Cody Wilson leased one. He planned to print out a pistol and share with others the know-how to do so. You know, because the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, and is necessary to the security of a free state.
But free no longer, you can imagine what your rulers and their enforcers thought about this idea. (Of course they knew about it: Civilian surveillance is up 64% under Obama after Bush opened up the rights-squashing gate with the (un)Patriot Act.)
Now, Cody is a second-year law student, so he's got a good grasp on his rights...
He knew he was well inside the law as long has he didn't try to sell his printed firearm. And it's certainly legal to share specs on how to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at wealthdaily.com ...
Gene Rodenbury was definitely a visionary futurist.
So much of the technology he only imagined has actually come to pass.
Now the replicator (3D printer).
3D printing .... oh how I hate that term. This is what has been known as rapid prototyping for years now.
Though there is an actual printer that can 3 dimensionally print now.
Good grief. I am a machinist. I could make a servicable gun in a couple of hours in any machine shop.
Color me highly skeptical.
While I don’t doubt that many parts can be printed out and even work, I very much doubt the receiver and barrel and other parts that must withstand the pressures of ignition will have the strength to do so. Just because something is in the right shape doesn’t mean it will have the physical characteristics needed.
Now when we get to the stage on personal nano-material assemblers it will be a different story...
Wired magazine had a cover story on 3D printers and plastic gun pieces are already showing up. Printing metal is already being done.
3D printing will be amazing, when it becomes cost effective for the masses. It will be even cooler as the speed increases. (FYI: Two public companies big in this space are DDD and SSYS)
I’m wondering if they will be outlawed... kinda like DAT recorders awhile back ago.
Right up there with "font" instead of the correct word "typeface."
Stereolithography or SLA since 1986
Probably good enough for a .22 revolver.
Check out the pallette of available materials.
Stainless steel, titanium, scores of alloys.
Ability to strengthen the resulting parts by sintering, annealing, infusing them with bronze, heat treating, etc.
I’d venture that current materials could use many of the less aggressive center fire rounds.
I’d also guess that parts can be beefed up to compensate for less robust materials.
And as long as I’m getting out to where the limb is starting to creak and groan, high enough strength materials will be available next year...
Just to let you know ... you don’t have to print in plastic or epoxy. There are “printers” aka rapid prototyping that work with metal. Also, the receiver in an AR platform does not really undergo that much stress. Barrel and chamber - yes. But the receiver, not so much.
What has the libs collective panties in a knot is that the “gun” (actually the receiver according to the ATF) can be owned and manufactured by anyone WITHOUT REGISTRATION. Their panic is that everyone could have a gun the the government does not know about!!!!
Actually, there are MANY varieties of 3D printers now. You can buy one for under $2000., or buy a kit and build one yourself.
Heck, one, the RepRap, is capable of making all its’ own parts. All you need to add is hardware and electronics.
This isn’t so much NEW, as it is just popping up all over. . .
You can only “print” the low stress parts. Barrels and bolts, firing pins and springs must still be metal.
” This is what has been known as rapid prototyping for years now.”
Yes. And no.
These 3D printers go well beyond producing prototypes, to facilitate the design process. They have become machines for custom, or small-production-run manufacturing. In a real sense, they are becoming replicators.
The article describes the key differences. Once the design of this printable gun was finalized (i.e. once the prototyping had been completed); the next step would be to distribute the design electronically. People would be able to download the data necessary to cause a new gun to be printed. People could share their designs far and wide.
Rapid prototyping shortened design cycles. 3D printing will completely change what we mean by “manufacturing”, and “distribution”.
There’s metal printing out there. Here’s one example:
http://www.exone.com/materialization/what-is-digital-part-materialization/metal
There are AR barrels that are being made from 420 stainless, as well as other gun parts. Machines about as well or a bit less smoothly than 416 stainless, which is the most common grade of stainless for stainless rifle barrels. For receivers and bolts, there’s some other grades used - 17-4PH is one.
Springs are a hot area of research in “additive” machining. The issue that interests me the most in this area is how they handle the heat treatment. Spring steel has to be hardened, then tempered, to make an effective spring. The additive machining MechE’s are looking at this from a different angle - creating a spring that’s very different than what we’re used to.
Another place to look: There’s a company out of Germany called “EOS” who is making laser sintering machines that can make for-real metal parts that can handle some real stress - think “gears” and such.
http://www.eos.info/en/products/systems-equipment/metal-laser-sintering-systems.html
I think we will see a for-real 3D printed gun - barrel, receiver, pins, springs, the whole thing - within 5 to 8 years from now. The economic winds that are howling through the manufacturing sector are making “additive machining” the next revolution - and it will be a bigger revolution than CNC machining was, IMO.
I have no doubt that it would be dimensionally accurate but only about as solid as pot metal, if that.<<<
Probably good enough for a .22 revolver.
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Kids in the 1950s were making .22 zip guns using all kinds of materials. (Don’t ask me how I know)
Their panic is that everyone could have a gun the the government does not know about!!!!
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How funny! I’ve never had to “register” a gun and I’m sure people in States other than Texas haven’t either. ...It’s not the government’s business to possess such info, yet some States and Cities still require such documentation.
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