iTulip consensus on 3D Printing?

[LazyBoy]

Re: iTulip consensus on 3D Printing?

A clever design for a $100 printer!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskat...cash-1.2417416

[LazyBoy]

Re: iTulip consensus on 3D Printing?

1911 style pistol made with Direct Metal Laser Sintering

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=535_1383848670

[Fiat Currency]

Re: iTulip consensus on 3D Printing?

1911 style pistol made with Direct Metal Laser Sintering

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=535_1383848670

Like others here I'm sure, I am an experienced competitive pistol shooter. My favourite instrument of choice is my Kimber 1911 Gold Combat RL II - which I consider among the finest machined pistols you can own.

I must say ... that printed 1911 in the video looked pretty darned good. Of course I'd like to touch one and shoot it - but at a cursory glance I would say that's one nicely printed pistol. 3D printing has come a long way in a short period of time.

[jpatter666]

Re: iTulip consensus on 3D Printing?

Materials Science will be the key to the progress of this technology. Software, design, and the development of the machine itself can progress rapidly, but new materials and/or modified/adapted materials that enable the output to solve a greater range of problems will need to be developed, and that will take the greater amount of time and research. Thus the consumables will come to limit the applicability of 3DP since they will be patented to protect the expensive R & D required to develop them. As the patents expire or are superseded (or widely licensed) and the advanced materials are widely available at a reasonable price we will see 3DP become ubiquitous. More people will have a home unit but they will not become near as popular as the home computer. Instead you will go to the nearest Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, or some local store to use their 3DP. And just as today when you have a key duplicated the quality will be determined more by the operator of the machine than the machine itself. I wonder if the store will redo the printed part for free if it doesn't fit or work properly like most stores do today for duplicated keys.

With even more advanced designs and materials we may finally see some Manufacturing on Demand systems set up for relatively low cost applications on a widespread basis. This will offer a previously unavailable level of customization to the average person. When 3DP is taken for granted it will have arrived as a mature technology, of course, but will it be a wholesale change in the way we live or just one more technology that improves our lives incrementally?

Think of today's 3D printers as the current version of an Apple II (1980s).

Now think forward 30 years.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: iTulip consensus on 3D Printing?

Like others here I'm sure, I am an experienced competitive pistol shooter. My favourite instrument of choice is my Kimber 1911 Gold Combat RL II - which I consider among the finest machined pistols you can own.

I must say ... that printed 1911 in the video looked pretty darned good. Of course I'd like to touch one and shoot it - but at a cursory glance I would say that's one nicely printed pistol. 3D printing has come a long way in a short period of time.

Very interesting…...

I'm thinking that if I didn't know it was printed I wouldn't be able to notice much in the way of differences, but that trigger group looks really weird.

Is the barrel printed as well?

Outside of the barrel and the rest portion of the slide under repeated and considerable pressure……..the rest of the pistol doesn't need to be built to the same specs.

I'd like to see the printing/manufacture of the high pressure/stress parts in detail.

There's a very popular "how to" on how to build a pistol from scratch using some genuine pistol parts(slide/barrel) with sheet metal and a spot welder.

There's also the 20th century version of printing firearms in the form of Pakistani market made firearms(I've seen quite a few of these up close and personal):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FinRqCocwGE

What I recall with the Pakistani stuff is: while it may LOOK like an H&K MP5K(or any myriad models), it may not actually hold together like the real thing.

Very interesting developments none the less.

[LazyBoy]

Re: iTulip consensus on 3D Printing?

There's a very popular "how to" on how to build a pistol from scratch using some genuine pistol parts(slide/barrel) with sheet metal and a spot welder.

Backyard gunsmiths in the Philippines, using scrap metal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fna9WEO6BjE

[Polish_Silver]

Can't Print the important parts

Very interesting…...

. . .

I'd like to see the printing/manufacture of the high pressure/stress parts in detail.

I think the 3d printers work by cutting out planar pieces, then putting them together .

That places severe constraints on what can be produced.

I don't think you can print the barrel. How are you going to print the rifling grooves?

AT one point he says "all DMLS except the springs" but earlier, the guy said the frame and grip were DMLS.


I don't think the firing pin, chamber, or recoil spring can be printed either.

What can be printed:

the frame, magazine, trigger.

[LorenS]

Re: Can't Print the important parts

http://www.ecnmag.com/videos/2013/11...nted-metal-gun

On second thought the looks like the one in the previous video.

[Polish_Silver]

Re: iTulip consensus on 3D Printing?

Very interesting…...


There's also the 20th century version of printing firearms in the form of Pakistani market made firearms(I've seen quite a few of these up close and personal):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FinRqCocwGE

What I recall with the Pakistani stuff is: while it may LOOK like an H&K MP5K(or any myriad models), it may not actually hold together like the real thing.

Very interesting developments none the less.

I once talked with someone from Bangladesh. He told me that many of the village "smiths" can make firearms.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: iTulip consensus on 3D Printing?

I once talked with someone from Bangladesh. He told me that many of the village "smiths" can make firearms.

Yeah, if they're anything like the Pakistani ones I've seen, they certainly LOOK pretty good.

At a distance, or without inspection by someone knowledgeable of firearms, many of them can easily pass muster…..quite ingenious copying.

But it's common practice for buyers(at least western buyers) to test fire from a safe distance in case of catastrophic failure from poor quality materials or incorrect bore/chamber measurement.

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I wonder if the 3D printing craze is really just removing a portion of the local to ultra local fabrication talent required?

For example, let's look at beer……I have been looking at two options:

www.williamswarn.co.nz

http://picobrew.com

And I just bought my first "home brewing appliance" the Picobrew Zymatic via the Kickstarter…hopefully it actually get delivered.

Anywho…….why would I make beer at home?

Because I can(and did at uni……very very poorly….and stopped as my talent was lacking).

It's simply a case of me putting in the raw materials, choosing the recipe, and shazam! Beer! The talent/skill is programmed into it.

It will take a whole lot of nearly automatic beer brewing to justify it instead of buying from the store….or brewing manually(much like Pakistanis manually making dodgy copies of Remington shotguns).

Is 3D printing not so much a fad, but maybe filling a PORTION of the space currently filled by local to ultra local machine shop type business sector?

In the semicon equipment business we called the in house department the model shop….and I remember the rather uber expensive stereo lithography machine.

Will there be a want/need for every house having a cheap 3D printer?

Or is it more likely to see a franchised/network small business having a high end 3D printer(s)?

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One thing I wonder about would be a major manufacturer designing products with considerations towards using 3D printed spare parts.

I wonder if there would be considerable scope to keep spare parts inventory to nearly zero and just print on demand regionally/globally?