Meet The ‘Liberator’: Test-Firing The World’s First Fully 3D-Printed Gun
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/05/meet-the-liberator-test-firing-the-worlds-first-fully-3d-printed-gun/

Liberating?

um, looks around, who was saying, not possible.

more comments
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/05/defense-distributed-claims-wor.html

CrazyNeutrino said:

Meet The ‘Liberator’: Test-Firing The World’s First Fully 3D-Printed Gun
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/05/meet-the-liberator-test-firing-the-worlds-first-fully-3d-printed-gun/

Liberating?

um, looks around, who was saying, not possible.

Well, it is only a small calibre yet.

hehe, I was saying not that long ago that frigging around with arms regulations is probably

hehe, I was saying not that long ago that frigging around with arms regulations is probably

hehe, I was saying not that long ago that frigging around with arms regulations is probably

Bugger, I suspect that Mossad has got to Curve.

Umm yes, battery failure. I was saying that the new world of 3d printers will make any gun laws impossible to police when the plans can be downloaded and easily made.

• I was saying that the new world of 3d printers will make any gun laws impossible to police when the plans can be downloaded and easily made.

I think we are a long way off someone going on a kill crazy rampage with guns made on a 3d printer…

furious said:

• I was saying that the new world of 3d printers will make any gun laws impossible to police when the plans can be downloaded and easily made.

I think we are a long way off someone going on a kill crazy rampage with guns made on a 3d printer…

That is right. Someone will figure out that crossbows are easier to print first!

Skunkworks said:

Umm yes, battery failure. I was saying that the new world of 3d printers will make any gun laws impossible to police when the plans can be downloaded and easily made.

Require a licence for bullets…

Riff-in-Thyme said:

That is right. Someone will figure out that crossbows are easier to print first!

Most of a crossbow at least.

I don’t think it would be impossible to police, just much harder. We could make it illegal to have a 3D printable file on your computer. Just having the file on your computer would be the same as possession of an unlicensed firearm.

party_pants said:

I don’t think it would be impossible to police, just much harder. We could make it illegal to have a 3D printable file on your computer. Just having the file on your computer would be the same as possession of an unlicensed firearm.

Yes, bit of hyper-bowl on my part. I think the 3d printing thing has a long way to run and it will have some unintended consequences along the way.

FWIW someone sent me a copy of the files for that gun.
Anyone want a copy? :D

• Anyone want a copy?

A copy of the file or a copy of the gun?

furious said:

• Anyone want a copy?

A copy of the file or a copy of the gun?

Sorry a print of the gun – I have a 3D printer.

This morning I heard someone mentioning how many psi are in the chamber…plastic could cope with this?

And apparently you need a licence to have an item that can fire bullets. So, difficult to police, but it still makes such a device as a printed gun a licencable item. And therefore fineable at the very least if found without a licence.

buffy said:

This morning I heard someone mentioning how many psi are in the chamber…plastic could cope with this?

And apparently you need a licence to have an item that can fire bullets. So, difficult to police, but it still makes such a device as a printed gun a licencable item. And therefore fineable at the very least if found without a licence.

how many criminals do you hear of worried about licences?

Spiny Norman said:

FWIW someone sent me a copy of the files for that gun.
Anyone want a copy? :D

I’d need to borrow your printer too.

Spiny Norman said:

furious said:

• Anyone want a copy?

A copy of the file or a copy of the gun?

Sorry a print of the gun – I have a 3D printer.

:) and the bullets? can you print them too?

> Fifteen of its 16 pieces have been created inside an $8,000 second-hand Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer

I’ve been wondering about this for a while. A toy from China that I used to own was an all-plastic semi-automatic dart gun. I was thinking at the time that using the same action in plastic for a real gun would not be too difficult, and when 3-D printers first appeared realized that it could be made on a 3-D printer.

mollwollfumble said:

> Fifteen of its 16 pieces have been created inside an $8,000 second-hand Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer

I’ve been wondering about this for a while. A toy from China that I used to own was an all-plastic semi-automatic dart gun. I was thinking at the time that using the same action in plastic for a real gun would not be too difficult, and when 3-D printers first appeared realized that it could be made on a 3-D printer.

It all does depend on how much punch you want to put behind the bullet?

one thing about a plastic gun that we may think is safer is that if the breech does backfire, then plastic has less weight/mass than steel.

Pentagon scrubs 3D gun plans from Internet, says designer

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/09/dod-forces-3d-gun-printer-defense-distributed-to-pull-weapon-specs-off-website/#ixzz2SqaHJI8x

CrazyNeutrino said:

Pentagon scrubs 3D gun plans from Internet, says designer

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/09/dod-forces-3d-gun-printer-defense-distributed-to-pull-weapon-specs-off-website/#ixzz2SqaHJI8x

ha, way to publicise it and give it some Pentagon cred.

Skunkworks said:

CrazyNeutrino said:

Pentagon scrubs 3D gun plans from Internet, says designer

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/09/dod-forces-3d-gun-printer-defense-distributed-to-pull-weapon-specs-off-website/#ixzz2SqaHJI8x

ha, way to publicise it and give it some Pentagon cred.

The cat is out of the bag. And that is just the first cat.
I am impressed that they got the secondhand printer for $8000. I could use one at that price.

morrie said:

I am impressed that they got the secondhand printer for $8000. I could use one at that price.

FWIW the one I use is now $1500 brand new.
www.pp3dp.com

Spiny Norman said:

morrie said:

I am impressed that they got the secondhand printer for $8000. I could use one at that price.

FWIW the one I use is now $1500 brand new.
www.pp3dp.com

120mm cube is just a bit too small for me. But the price is impressively low.
What sort of resolution are you getting with it? Made anything interesting?

morrie said:

120mm cube is just a bit too small for me. But the price is impressively low.
What sort of resolution are you getting with it? Made anything interesting?

It’ll go down to 0.15 mm vertically and about 0.5 mm laterally.
Made a bunch of stuff and it’s working hard this week; I have been contracted to print a model Wally Lewis statue and also six spotlight surrounds.

Spiny Norman said:

morrie said:

120mm cube is just a bit too small for me. But the price is impressively low.
What sort of resolution are you getting with it? Made anything interesting?

It’ll go down to 0.15 mm vertically and about 0.5 mm laterally.
Made a bunch of stuff and it’s working hard this week; I have been contracted to print a model Wally Lewis statue and also six spotlight surrounds.

Thats not bad. There are times when I could use something like that if it could print in polyethylene, and it might be quite good at times for making blanks to aid the fabrication of complex shapes in Perspex.

They said that their design was modelled on the ‘Liberator’, a single-shot .45 pistol manufactured in the thousands, and air-dropped over Europe during WW2. Google for pics, if you wish.

That pistol’s purpose was to allow the firer to kill a soldier (German, presumably) ,and thus obtain his weapon – Mauser Kar98, MP40, whatever.

The depiction i saw of the ‘printed’ pistol showed a substantially larger weapon, doubtless because plastic isn’t as good as steel at containing expanding gases, but its elegance would surely improve with some work.

It may be a single shot, but then, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king (translate to ‘airliner’ and ‘one-shot pistol’).

As a one-shot pistol is essentially just a chamber, barrel, striker, spring, and trigger, the design won’t baffle anyone with average intelligence. Now that the concept is demonstrated as ‘confirmed’, the horse has not only left the stable before the gate was closed, but it’s come back, had a shower, got changed, and gone off again to a dance.

The only thing that got me about the publicised design was that it was claimed that the striker ( a nail), and the cartridge weren’t detected by airport metal detectors.

As one who’s had to remove his shoes because the eyelets were setting the detector off, i take THAT with pinch of salt.

captain_spalding said:

The only thing that got me about the publicised design was that it was claimed that the striker ( a nail), and the cartridge weren’t detected by airport metal detectors.

As one who’s had to remove his shoes because the eyelets were setting the detector off, i take THAT with pinch of salt.

Without going all wookie with the plans now out there, forums designing weapons will follow. In the above the striker could be incorporated into your shoes. It is now just amatter of imagination, pistols designed as various components of take on luggage.

Skunkworks said:

captain_spalding said:

The only thing that got me about the publicised design was that it was claimed that the striker ( a nail), and the cartridge weren’t detected by airport metal detectors.

As one who’s had to remove his shoes because the eyelets were setting the detector off, i take THAT with pinch of salt.

Without going all wookie with the plans now out there, forums designing weapons will follow. In the above the striker could be incorporated into your shoes. It is now just amatter of imagination, pistols designed as various components of take on luggage.

I agree.

morrie said:

Skunkworks said:

captain_spalding said:

The only thing that got me about the publicised design was that it was claimed that the striker ( a nail), and the cartridge weren’t detected by airport metal detectors.

As one who’s had to remove his shoes because the eyelets were setting the detector off, i take THAT with pinch of salt.

Without going all wookie with the plans now out there, forums designing weapons will follow. In the above the striker could be incorporated into your shoes. It is now just amatter of imagination, pistols designed as various components of take on luggage.

I agree.

It may lead to the situation where ANYTHING that presents a hole (9mm, .45, .22, 5.56mm, whatever) and is claimed to be ‘a gun’ wil have to be considered as such.

Thus, you won’t actually need to have a working weapon – just something which might be a weapon, and they can’t afford to risk it.

morrie said:

Skunkworks said:

captain_spalding said:

The only thing that got me about the publicised design was that it was claimed that the striker ( a nail), and the cartridge weren’t detected by airport metal detectors.

As one who’s had to remove his shoes because the eyelets were setting the detector off, i take THAT with pinch of salt.

Without going all wookie with the plans now out there, forums designing weapons will follow. In the above the striker could be incorporated into your shoes. It is now just amatter of imagination, pistols designed as various components of take on luggage.

I agree.

back to the Victorian era’s predilection for “gentlemanly” weapons disguised in your walking stick etc.

Riff-in-Thyme said:

morrie said:

Skunkworks said:

Without going all wookie with the plans now out there, forums designing weapons will follow. In the above the striker could be incorporated into your shoes. It is now just amatter of imagination, pistols designed as various components of take on luggage.

I agree.

back to the Victorian era’s predilection for “gentlemanly” weapons disguised in your walking stick etc.

Except with a decidedly trailer trash ambience!

captain_spalding said:

he depiction i saw of the ‘printed’ pistol showed a substantially larger weapon, doubtless because plastic isn’t as good as steel at containing expanding gases, but its elegance would surely improve with some work.

Chambers are easy to machine, its working parts that would benefit more from the printing techniques. You should also imagine other options like recoiless, ie no chamber as such, but maybe designing a large cartridge. Disguise is as a designer handbag?

Skunkworks said:

captain_spalding said:

he depiction i saw of the ‘printed’ pistol showed a substantially larger weapon, doubtless because plastic isn’t as good as steel at containing expanding gases, but its elegance would surely improve with some work.

Chambers are easy to machine, its working parts that would benefit more from the printing techniques. You should also imagine other options like recoiless, ie no chamber as such, but maybe designing a large cartridge. Disguise is as a designer handbag?

ammo might be harder to print

morrie said:

Skunkworks said:

captain_spalding said:

he depiction i saw of the ‘printed’ pistol showed a substantially larger weapon, doubtless because plastic isn’t as good as steel at containing expanding gases, but its elegance would surely improve with some work.

Chambers are easy to machine, its working parts that would benefit more from the printing techniques. You should also imagine other options like recoiless, ie no chamber as such, but maybe designing a large cartridge. Disguise is as a designer handbag?

ammo might be harder to print

But not harder to manufacture. Have look for the caseless ammunition that was made for the Heckler & Koch HK11. It’s a circular sort of thing – if you don’t consider ejection in your design, then caseless ammunition is the way to go, and if you have caseless ammunition, then you don’t need ejection.

captain_spalding said:

morrie said:

Skunkworks said:

Chambers are easy to machine, its working parts that would benefit more from the printing techniques. You should also imagine other options like recoiless, ie no chamber as such, but maybe designing a large cartridge. Disguise is as a designer handbag?

ammo might be harder to print

But not harder to manufacture. Have look for the caseless ammunition that was made for the Heckler & Koch HK11. It’s a circular sort of thing – if you don’t consider ejection in your design, then caseless ammunition is the way to go, and if you have caseless ammunition, then you don’t need ejection.

We have all the elements here. How about the Holiday Forum AK47HF?

captain_spalding said:

But not harder to manufacture. Have look for the caseless ammunition that was made for the Heckler & Koch HK11. It’s a circular sort of thing – if you don’t consider ejection in your design, then caseless ammunition is the way to go, and if you have caseless ammunition, then you don’t need ejection.

My thoughts entirely. The critical element is the projectile. How it is delivered is up to the imagination isn’t it?

Indeed, if the weapon is one use only that simplifies things hugely and you can upscale on strength where needed but still within a small “handprint” of materiel. End up looking like a circular flute I reckon.

morrie said:

We have all the elements here. How about the Holiday Forum AK47HF?

If a hard plastic projectile is incorporated – lethal at the close ranges found in an airliner, especially when the weapon is pressed to someone’s head or back – then most, if not all, of the elements are, indeed, obtainable.

Airport metal detectors will likely soon be found only in museums.

Skunkworks said:

Indeed, if the weapon is one use only that simplifies things hugely and you can upscale on strength where needed but still within a small “handprint” of materiel. End up looking like a circular flute I reckon.

plastic is great for single use systems!

Riff-in-Thyme said:

Skunkworks said:

Indeed, if the weapon is one use only that simplifies things hugely and you can upscale on strength where needed but still within a small “handprint” of materiel. End up looking like a circular flute I reckon.

plastic is great for single use systems!

Yes. And, you only have to kill someone once. No-one – with one possible exception – has come back from that.

captain_spalding said:

morrie said:

We have all the elements here. How about the Holiday Forum AK47HF?

If a hard plastic projectile is incorporated – lethal at the close ranges found in an airliner, especially when the weapon is pressed to someone’s head or back – then most, if not all, of the elements are, indeed, obtainable.

Airport metal detectors will likely soon be found only in museums.

I imagine that a compressed air weapon could be made entirely of plastic.

morrie said:

captain_spalding said:

morrie said:

We have all the elements here. How about the Holiday Forum AK47HF?

If a hard plastic projectile is incorporated – lethal at the close ranges found in an airliner, especially when the weapon is pressed to someone’s head or back – then most, if not all, of the elements are, indeed, obtainable.

Airport metal detectors will likely soon be found only in museums.

I imagine that a compressed air weapon could be made entirely of plastic.

This is actually starting to challenge the engineer part of my mind to find a more inventive manner to achieve the aim.

Riff-in-Thyme said:

“engineer part of my mind”

Least humanely discriminating part of my mind.

It occurs to me that there was always one thing that bothered me about those old .45 Liberator single-shots (and, you’d be as surprised as i was to discover how many are still ‘in circulation’ in various parts of the world):

they were (and are) hopelessly inaccurate at anything over point-blank range. It always baffled me as to why anyone would expect an armed soldier , who was therefore presumably in ‘field service dress’, in ‘duty mode’, and probably in company with other soldiers, to let a civilian close enough to deploy a single-shot pistol to lethal effect, and for that civilian to have their act go undetected and be able to make of with the soldier’s weapon.

Quite likely, it did happen, but i find the necessary combination of opportunity, guile, and gullibility to be most improbable.

there was a gun mentioned in one of the le carre novels. multi-shot but single use. pull the trigger, or push a button and all 5(?) shots would fire. details hazy as it was a while ago i read it.

Boris said:

there was a gun mentioned in one of the le carre novels. multi-shot but single use. pull the trigger, or push a button and all 5(?) shots would fire. details hazy as it was a while ago i read it.

Rings a faint bell…

something to do with smileys wife’s sister getting out of e germany. was quite a well known character who got shot i think.

Boris said:

something to do with smileys wife’s sister getting out of e germany. was quite a well known character who got shot i think.

Dunno. Never read any le Carre stories.

ahhhh. i’ll wait.

Boris said:

there was a gun mentioned in one of the le carre novels. multi-shot but single use. pull the trigger, or push a button and all 5(?) shots would fire. details hazy as it was a while ago i read it.

Anyway, it’d be poor fieldcraft, or at least an act of ultimate desperation, to try firing all five shots at once. Accuracy would be dubious at best.

First thing you get taught is to not produce a firearm unless you’ve definitely decided to shoot someone.

Second thing is that you have not more than three seconds to pull the trigger.

Third thing is that the first two things are null and void unless you can be sure you’ll kill with the first shot.

this one was used very close range, up against the victims stomach. press button and ziiiip all five(?) shots go in. low power and small calibre.

Boris said:

this one was used very close range, up against the victims stomach. press button and ziiiip all five(?) shots go in. low power and small calibre.

Small calibre pistols are ideal for assassinations. The Phoenix programme in Vietnam used Hi-Standard .22 pistols a lot ( i used to have one).

They’re ‘up close and personal’, all right, but shooting someone in the stomach with a .22 , even five times, is a bit silly. It may well prove lethal, eventually, but there’s likely to be a lot of hullabaloo and bleeding for some time beforehand.

The movie ‘JFK’ portrays a good example of what might be called the right way. A character, David Ferrie, i think (played by Joe Pesci) assassinates a lady. She’s seated alone at her kitchen table, near her back door. Ferrie steps in through the back door, and before she can say more than “wha…?”, he’s pressed a .22 to her head, bang bang bang, and he’s off again out the door. Neighbours hear nothing, no complications.

captain_spalding said:

Boris said:

this one was used very close range, up against the victims stomach. press button and ziiiip all five(?) shots go in. low power and small calibre.

An assassin firing a gun point blank into a persons stomach would have it pointed up towards the chest cavity. 5 bullets simultaneously would be a mess.

Riff-in-Thyme said:

captain_spalding said:

Boris said:

this one was used very close range, up against the victims stomach. press button and ziiiip all five(?) shots go in. low power and small calibre.

An assassin firing a gun point blank into a persons stomach would have it pointed up towards the chest cavity. 5 bullets simultaneously would be a mess.

Good point, and, you’re right, it is a valid technique for avoiding the obstruction of the rib cage. May hit the heart, almost certainly punctures lungs, death by pulmonary exsanguination/suffocation.

captain_spalding said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

captain_spalding said:

Boris said:

this one was used very close range, up against the victims stomach. press button and ziiiip all five(?) shots go in. low power and small calibre.

An assassin firing a gun point blank into a persons stomach would have it pointed up towards the chest cavity. 5 bullets simultaneously would be a mess.

Good point, and, you’re right, it is a valid technique for avoiding the obstruction of the rib cage. May hit the heart, almost certainly punctures lungs, death by pulmonary exsanguination/suffocation.

If the victim messed with the wrong person the gun would be pointed towards the groin. :(

Riff-in-Thyme said:

captain_spalding said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

An assassin firing a gun point blank into a persons stomach would have it pointed up towards the chest cavity. 5 bullets simultaneously would be a mess.

Good point, and, you’re right, it is a valid technique for avoiding the obstruction of the rib cage. May hit the heart, almost certainly punctures lungs, death by pulmonary exsanguination/suffocation.

If the victim messed with the wrong person the gun would be pointed towards the groin. :(

Now we’re getting into fictional gangster stories,

captain_spalding said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

captain_spalding said:

Good point, and, you’re right, it is a valid technique for avoiding the obstruction of the rib cage. May hit the heart, almost certainly punctures lungs, death by pulmonary exsanguination/suffocation.

If the victim messed with the wrong person the gun would be pointed towards the groin. :(

Now we’re getting into fictional gangster stories,

probably. I don’t know too many assassins these days. :)

Riff-in-Thyme said:

captain_spalding said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

If the victim messed with the wrong person the gun would be pointed towards the groin. :(

Now we’re getting into fictional gangster stories,

probably. I don’t know too many assassins these days. :)

Me either. What i know is, of course, second-hand at best, but the sources were reliable, and i have no reason to doubt its accuracy. As i understand it, it’s all about precision, speed, and, if the idea is at all applicable, being discreet.

This is why people like the late and not-much-lamented Christopher Dale Flannery were and are quite contemptible – anyone who’d stick a shotgun through a kitchen window and blithely pull the triggers is (or was) nothing more than a messy hack.

captain_spalding said:

Me either. What i know is, of course, second-hand at best, but the sources were reliable, and i have no reason to doubt its accuracy. As i understand it, it’s all about precision, speed, and, if the idea is at all applicable, being discreet.

This is why people like the late and not-much-lamented Christopher Dale Flannery were and are quite contemptible – anyone who’d stick a shotgun through a kitchen window and blithely pull the triggers is (or was) nothing more than a messy hack.

Not all parts of the world have the same mentality but you’d probably be pretty close anyway.

Shown on tv about the Bougainville resistance movement describes how they made guns out of water pipe and anything else that they had to hand. Same with the Vietnamese I believe.

morrie said:

Shown on tv about the Bougainville resistance movement describes how they made guns out of water pipe and anything else that they had to hand. Same with the Vietnamese I believe.

Some of the earlier Viet Minh and Viet Cong weapons were quite crude, and probably as much of a risk to the firer as to the target. Expertise increased with time and experience, and field workshops were ultimately able to produce quite sophisticated and efficient copies of modern weapons, particularly pistols, and of a perennial favourite, the Thompson .45 sub-machine gun.

The VM and VC weren’t the only ones involved in the ‘back blocks’ manufacture of weapons. Some religious sects, especially the Cao Dai, produced a lot of good quality firearms copies, too.

Of course, as the country became flooded with American weapons for GVN forces, with the opportunities to capture them, and with supplies from China and Eastern Europe in the 60s, the need for home-made weapons faded away, but their production ever entirely ceased.

I saw a Bougainville home-made only a few weeks ago.

Helmet, eye-protection, and kevlar everywhere before i’d even think about pulling that trigger.

and a good length of string.

Boris said:

and a good length of string.

a VERY good length of string.

captain_spalding said:

I saw a Bougainville home-made only a few weeks ago.

Helmet, eye-protection, and kevlar everywhere before i’d even think about pulling that trigger.

I can imagine. But they won their battle it seems.

I saw a docco on home made guns in the Punjab region.. or did I read it in a national geographic?

roughbarked said:

I saw a docco on home made guns in the Punjab region.. or did I read it in a national geographic?

probably both.

captain_spalding said:

I saw a Bougainville home-made only a few weeks ago.

Helmet, eye-protection, and kevlar everywhere before i’d even think about pulling that trigger.

so what you are saying is that theres a potential opportunity there?

sprinkles pixie dust around forum

captain_spalding said:

Good point, and, you’re right, it is a valid technique for avoiding the obstruction of the rib cage. May hit the heart, almost certainly punctures lungs, death by pulmonary exsanguination/suffocation.

I wonder if anyone ever thought “aah, so this is what death by pulmonary exsanguination feels like”?

you could make 3d printer body armour

polyethylene does very well, it seems to melt and then set meaning the round gets stuck in it

wookiemeister said:

you could make 3d printer body armour

polyethylene does very well, it seems to melt and then set meaning the round gets stuck in it

Vigilante heaven!

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

you could make 3d printer body armour

polyethylene does very well, it seems to melt and then set meaning the round gets stuck in it

Vigilante heaven!

then you’ve got the aerial drones and home made SAMs and antitank weapons

you could print out a robot army out in one night

wookiemeister said:

then you’ve got the aerial drones and home made SAMs and antitank weapons

you could print out a robot army out in one night

one night is pushing the limits but the question of how much of the above could be made entirely from plastic is a fair one.

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

then you’ve got the aerial drones and home made SAMs and antitank weapons

you could print out a robot army out in one night

one night is pushing the limits but the question of how much of the above could be made entirely from plastic is a fair one.

The reality is that printed plastic distorts, limiting the size of things that you can print.

morrie said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

then you’ve got the aerial drones and home made SAMs and antitank weapons

you could print out a robot army out in one night

one night is pushing the limits but the question of how much of the above could be made entirely from plastic is a fair one.

The reality is that printed plastic distorts, limiting the size of things that you can print.

I would expect that will be overcome with a little ingenuity.

Riff-in-Thyme said:

morrie said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

one night is pushing the limits but the question of how much of the above could be made entirely from plastic is a fair one.

The reality is that printed plastic distorts, limiting the size of things that you can print.

I would expect that will be overcome with a little ingenuity.

It isn’t good enough for me to use instead of fabrication, though it would be extremely handy if it was. Fabrication wins hands down.

morrie said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

morrie said:

The reality is that printed plastic distorts, limiting the size of things that you can print.

I would expect that will be overcome with a little ingenuity.

It isn’t good enough for me to use instead of fabrication, though it would be extremely handy if it was. Fabrication wins hands down.

I’m mostly referring to it being a newly developed practice which is bound to be improved greatly upon. Carbon might be employed as a strengthening component and possibly manipulation of the EM field to align atoms?

Riff-in-Thyme said:

morrie said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

I would expect that will be overcome with a little ingenuity.

It isn’t good enough for me to use instead of fabrication, though it would be extremely handy if it was. Fabrication wins hands down.

I’m mostly referring to it being a newly developed practice which is bound to be improved greatly upon. Carbon might be employed as a strengthening component and possibly manipulation of the EM field to align atoms?

It has been around for 20 years.

morrie said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

morrie said:

It isn’t good enough for me to use instead of fabrication, though it would be extremely handy if it was. Fabrication wins hands down.

I’m mostly referring to it being a newly developed practice which is bound to be improved greatly upon. Carbon might be employed as a strengthening component and possibly manipulation of the EM field to align atoms?

It has been around for 20 years.

fair enough

Printable deadly nanobots are a much scarier prospect than crappy plastic guns. A single person with a few $ worth of raw materials could print and unleash vast numbers of them over the course of a week or so.

I’ll start worrying when someone figures out how to 3-D print nuclear weapons.