3D Printers Are Now As Inexpensive As A Microwave Oven

[Punch The Clown]

I'm loving this. $250 gets you in the 3D printer business. Programs to build firearms are free to download. The democraps must be having a stroke. I'm sure legislation is pending.

[canes7]

I bet the government (not just D or R) is looking at this as a potential huge revenue stream. Just imagine the licensing and training that they can make you take just to own something like that. The item may cost only $250 but I see thousands of dollars worth of potential licensing and taxing requirements. Almost like gasoline......

[Shug]

Those cheap printers aren't particularly good. The finished products are limited in size, require more finishing steps than a cheap sand casting, and are only as strong as the thermoplastic they're made of. Anywhere that's high stress requires metal bushings if you want any longevity out of the part.

SLS printers that can "print" using metals are still >$500k and cost thousands of dollars per year to maintain. And surfaces that need to be smooth, such as bearing surfaces, still require post-processing. I've had plenty of engineering prototypes made on SLS and SLA machines, and love the processes for what they are. We're still not at the Star Trek "Replicator" stage, though.

[ShootingSight]

Guns from 3D printers is fake news. Anyone old enough to have taken shop class in high school can use a drill press to finish up an 80% lower, and the rest of the parts on a gun are unregulated. Further, if your goal is to make a 100% plastic gun, a basic lathe/mill will do a much better job than a 3D printer.

Net, the capability to make plastic and/or unregistered guns has always been there, it's just that the Main Stream Media who took Home Economics versus Shop don't have the skills, so the concept of using a 3D printer seems like it is a sensation worthy of news.

If you want a cheap, unreliable, unsafe, and unregistered weapon, do it the old fashioned way: get a piece of pipe, a couple of nails, a rubber band, and a hacksaw and make a zip gun. They have been doing it since bullets were invented.

[Orlando]

They are real, they can and have been built and fired

[ShootingSight]

Sorry, you misunderstood. I didn't mean you could not do it. I'm aware they have been built. I meant that making a plastic or unregistered gun is nothing new. The capability and practice existed for a long time before 3D printers came along.