Solid Concepts Manufactures First 3D-Printed Metal Pistol 333
Zothecula writes "In a prime example of past meets future, a Texas-based company has used a century-old classic firearm as the blueprint for the world's first 3D-printed metal gun. Solid Concepts' use of a laser sintering method to create a fully functional Model 1911 automatic pistol is the latest demonstration of the potential of 3D printing techniques in industrial processing. The company's 'The gun proves laser sintering can meet tight tolerances. 3D Metal Printing has less porosity issues than an investment cast part and better complexities than a machined part. The barrel sees chamber pressure above 20,000 psi every time the gun is fired.'"
New possibilities (Score:5, Interesting)
As for making guns, well, its a good way to get attention.
Re:This is why we can't have nice things... (Score:4, Interesting)
Although if memory serves the South African kid who's father 3D printed his prosthetic hand did actually make the FP in here.
Re:New possibilities (Score:1, Interesting)
If it can hold up to what's needed to make a firearm work and maintain tolerances, it'd also be interesting for making small engines or custom engine parts. This could be a way to get a custom turbo made for a small displacement engine that would be too expensive to one-off otherwise (a way to get some nice power out of a scooter that would be cheaper to license) or have more possibilities in regards to what kind of engine can be put into RC models.
I wonder what the cost is per unit volume?
Guns are good (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been trying to sort out the "guns" issue from a scientific point of view. After some extended searching, I believe the answer is "more guns is better".
This is made enormously difficult by the vast ocean of misinformation put forth by advocates on both sides of the issue. It's an interesting exercise in clear thinking just to sort through the claims to come up with an opinion unfettered by bad logic. I've included some examples below.
In summary, the best measurable statistic appears to be "chance of death from all causes" at the national level. This statistic avoids most of the bad math and bad thinking, and it's easy to measure and verify. The US does not have good health care, and this [national] attribute has a large effect on the mortality rate unrelated to gun-related deaths, so you can't use the US for comparison purposes at the national level. A better comparison is made between two countries with similar national health care and different gun policies. England and Switzerland, for example.
Comparing England and Switzerland indicates that "more guns" is associated with "less mortality". This echoes comparisons made within the US at the local level, where areas with public access to guns have less crime and mortality.
It's pointless to debate the issues in this forum due to the enormous and convoluted "poor statistics" cited by people on both sides of the issue, and virtually everyone is cognitively dissonant and emotionally invested in the answer.
A good analysis of the issues can be found here [americanthinker.com].
Below are just a few examples of popular claims, and how they mislead the reader into one side or the other. There are misleading claims on both sides, so don't read too much into the choice of examples.
Example 1: "Guns do not make a nation safer, say US doctors who have compared the rate of firearms-related deaths in countries where many people own guns with the death rate in countries where gun ownership is rare." (source [theguardian.com]) (False comparison: when gun ownership goes down, deaths due to other causes rises.)
Example 2: England has fewer gun-related murders, but a much higher rate of beating murders. (Undecidable: In the US, a non-suicide gunshot victim is automatically a murder, in England it's not a murder unless there's a trial and conviction.)
Example 3: If you have a gun in the house, you're more likely to accidentally shoot a family member than a burglar. (Wrong statistic: Having a gun depresses the chance of crime for your neighbors, the overall gain in safety for the community may be more than the loss of safety for the individual. See Polio vaccine [wikipedia.org].)
Re:Because plastic is for pansies (Score:5, Interesting)
Well actually home invasions have been on the rise in upper class suburban areas for the last decade. Apparently robbing the poor isn't very profitable, so the criminals go where the money is. The fact is that a pretty upper class town in my local area has had 5 home invasions since September and several victims have been killed.
Sadly my neighbor a few years ago was nearly killed in a similar incident. He was stabbed numerous times even after he was tied up, blindfolded, gagged, and beaten numerous times for "not telling them where the valuables were." You are free to keep living in your fairy tale land where bad things don't happen, but please don't remove my means of defense simply because nothing bad has ever happened to you.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/8d55e96aa3124d178ecefc2f33637580/IN--Home-Invasion-Fears/#.Un0aUPnkvsg
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Double-Shooting-One-Person-Dead-Another-Injured-230483191.html
http://www.wthr.com/story/21649826/police-investigate-homicide-on-indys-northwest-side
http://www.wthr.com/story/18309693/fishers-police-seek-suspect-in-home-invasion-burglary
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB119508694182293480
Re:"Sensible" (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:CNC machines can do that already (Score:5, Interesting)
The thing is, people make their own guns all the time in gun fans' equivalent to makers meets. They use a combination of tecniques. You really want the barrel and receiver to be forged, not cast. But you can take roughed-out forged parts and them CnC mill them to perfection, and get the strength easily enough.
There's little point in trying to CnC mill the entire gun, but a combination of forged blanks, a rolled tube for a barrel, some milling, and simply buying all the other pieces mail order (they sell kits for this), and you have a perfectly serviceable AR15 with no serial number. In most places that's perfectly legal, as long as you've avoided any legal landmines along the way and especially that you never sell it.
That's the thing, legally. In most places in the US you can legally make your own gun, but making a gun for someone else makes you a firearms dealer. People are arguing over where selling the code to allow someone to make a gun automatically lands, legally (if you follow kit cars at all, you'll find this all familiar).
Outside the US, in places where you can't legally make your own gun, this is a much bugger deal.
Any other arguments out there? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm happy (indeed - eager!) to examine a better analysis. If I can't find flaws, it'll inform my opinions and I'll include it in future postings on the issue.
Please include references of statistics so that I can fully analyze the arguments of both sides. There is just so much disinformation out there that the first step can only be tossing out all anecdotes and un-cited facts.
Here's an example (posted above) of what doesn't serve to inform the debate (it's ad-hominem, anecdotal, and un-falsifiable):
The American Thinker article is worthless. It just gives more of the false comparisons that you're complaining about. (Yeah, if you remove a whole bunch of poor people from the crime stats for any nation, their murder rate will look way better.) The author also attempts to profit from the audience's ignorance by comparing with nations like Jamaica and Brazil and hoping the reader doesn't know that those are some of the most crime-ridden, gang-infested countries on earth, where gangs rule neighborhoods and police fight pitched battles with criminals.