There seems to be a swell of concern about making guns with 3d printers. It is without a doubt a fascinating technology. Curre

[jay]

There seems to be a swell of concern about making guns with 3d printers. It is without a doubt a fascinating technology. Current prices are between $1000 - $2000 for a machine would be in reach for many that wanted this technology. As far as uses for guns, I could see a person being able to create stocks for rifles and shotguns; maybe even polymer bottoms for AR platforms and handguns and magazines. How do you envision this kind of technology use in the future with an emphasis on guns and shooting sports?

[Carl Huber]

A tempest in a tea pot is an apt description. Injection molding is cheaper and quicker for grips and stocks. As far as making a viable firearm. Anyone who got a B in metal shop can put a frame and parts kit together.

[Edward J. Palumbo]

While I see a use for the 3D printer in terms of accessories and possibly a model, the metallurgy involved in producing a working firearm is (at this point) well beyond a 3D printer. As you've mentioned, it may produce grip panels or other accessories but, as I understand it, these parts and components will not come close to withstanding the pressures required of a firearm. This may be the threshold of other capabilities, such as the production of molds for castings, but I doubt we'll see a firearm from a 3D printer in the foreseeable future.

[Grassroots89]

There has already been a gun made from a 3d printer Edward.

www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/05/meet-the-liberator-test-firing-the-worlds-first-fully-3d-printed-gun/

[GERG]

Not that it has anything to do with guns but I saw a snippet about this kind of technology being used to reproduce human organs. Think its pretty interesting.

[Ncarl]

I've used a 3d printer. There is now way the material they currently use can last with moderate use. I can't see this going past stocks accessories.

[RockySquirrel]

Designing and making your own fishing lures. Crank baits would be a piece of cake. Parts around the house for plastics that have cracked or broken. I see one of these in event home. Like a microwave.

[Edward J. Palumbo]

Dallas, I was unaware they developed a working prototype! I am impressed! Other than the nail (firing pin) there seems no metal parts.

[99explorer]

Instead of a six-ounce cube of non-functional steel, the inventors could be using a steel barrel and receiver, but then the gun would not really be made by a 3-D printer.
This reminds me of the zip guns that kids used to make, using car radio antennas for barrels.

[ozarkghost]

It is an interesting theory but I don't think it would be practicable in practice. I do not see it going into mass production, then again I didn't think the horseless carriage had any future either.

[Ncarl]

I would like to add that using one of these is nothing like using a standard home appliance. These are not simple machines. It takes a lot of skill and training to use one of these. Some people do this for a living. It's not like you can just pull up a picture on any old computer and make it in the printer. You have to be able to create a 3-d drawing in a special computer program and then download it onto the printer and that's just the beginning. Like I said I've done this before and I could hardly draw the model on the computer program.

[Treestand]

99:Your Dating your self "Zip Guns" Really!
Some Gun Manufacturers have used 3/D for 2Yrs on small gun parts molds for a CNC Machine. I've been Told.

[Dcast]

There is no future in this. Although it was done it was done at a extreme cost considering you could go by a top end any handgun for far less than what it took to produce this one gun. As Ncarl said not everyone has the program to do this or the ability to do so even if they had the program which costs at minimum $4995. Then they have to have the printer which is not cheap and I think Jay's pricing is on the ultra low end (maybe missing a zero), considering a paper printer that I use here at work cost $15,000.

[Carl Huber]

I see the real thrust for 3D printers is in the Medical Field. Mainly to build dental and facial matrix's. They can have the patients own cells grown over them minimizing rejection. Also artificial limbs can also be more patient tailored.

That being said I would ask you to look back between the link of scientific break through and science fiction. Godzilla started out as a Iguana and the Nuclear Explosion on the Bikini Islands. Frankenstein started when Doctor's started doing dissections. Dracula followed when Syphl!ss was discovered to be blood born. In fact Bram Stocker died from it. So it's not that much of a leap to plastic guns gone wild.

[99explorer]

I'll be impressed when they develop a program to produce gold on a 3-D printer.