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Post by auntym on Jul 9, 2011 8:56:38 GMT -6
.... WOW Look What's Been Invented ... ;D 3-D Printer/ ReplictorUploaded by life4nothing on Jun 23, 2011 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material. 3D printers are generally faster, more affordable and easier to use than other additive manufacturing technologies. 3D printers offer product developers the ability to print parts and assemblies made of several materials with different mechanical and physical properties in a single build process. Advanced 3D printing technologies yield models that can serve as product prototypes.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2011 9:36:24 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Jul 29, 2011 23:09:29 GMT -6
Bio-PrintingUploaded by ExplainingTheFuture on Apr 30, 2011 Bioprinting uses a 3D printing process to create synthetic human tissue. One day it could therefore be used to print replacement human organs. This video by Christopher Barnatt explores future medical and cosmetic bioprinting applications.
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Post by swamprat on Feb 12, 2013 7:54:34 GMT -6
Speaking of guns..... Making Homemade Guns On a 3-D Printer Becomes Real, So Engineering Expert Suggests Stronger Laws On GunpowderFeb. 11, 2013 — With controversy swirling over gun-sale background checks, limiting the size of weapon magazines and retaining Second Amendment rights, the problem of making homemade guns with 3-D printers has become a matter of public concern. Laws mean little if a determined criminal or a hobbyist teen wants to make plastic guns or extra-high capacity magazines, says Hod Lipson, Cornell University professor of engineering and a pioneer in 3-D printing. "With a homemade 3-D printer, you can print a gun using ABS plastic, the same material that LEGOS are made out of. You can even use nylon, and that's pretty tough," he says. "You won't be able to make a sniper rifle with a 3-D printer and it won't shoot 10 rounds a second, but the gun you can make could be dangerous. And a high-capacity magazine is nothing more than a strong plastic box with a spring. It's trivial to print." Lipson and co-author Melba Kurman just published a new book, "Fabricated: The promise and peril of a machine that can make (almost) anything." (Wiley, 2013.) The book includes a chapter on "3-D printing and the law," which addresses the legal and ethical challenges raised by 3-D printed firearms. The book also explores 3-D printing's impact on consumer safety, intellectual property, and ethics. As Lipson and Kurman detail, three-dimensional printers are intended to do the world good. In industry, 3-D printers can make hard-to-find spare parts and complex new devices. Researchers are developing techniques to 3-D print tailored and personalized body parts like heart valves. 3-D printers can even make food. Lipson explains that on the Internet, there are blueprints and designs available to 3-D print guns. As an engineer, he's seen dubious rogue designs online. "Some designs are not safe," he says. "More than criminals, I am worried about innocent kids making guns and injuring themselves. What happens if the design is faulty or if the plastic was printed at the wrong temperature, rendering the gun weak? When fired, it could blow up in its user's face. All kinds of parameters go into making 3-D objects and when you introduce an explosive such as gunpowder, that's when things can go wrong," Lipson says. The small footprint of new personal-scale manufacturing systems also makes it easier to fabricate firearms more discreetly than before. Lipson agrees that a more effective gun control solution worth exploring might impose legal limitations on gunpowder rather than gun parts and accessories such as magazines. Says Lipson: "If I were talking to lawmakers, I would encourage them to address the most basic part of a firearm -- the energy source. You must have gunpowder to fire a weapon. The law could regulate the explosives. To fire a bullet, you need high-energy propellant like gunpowder. After all, 3-D printed and arbitrarily shaped plastic firearms are going to be increasingly hard to detect using traditional screening techniques. A high-capacity magazine might look like something else. It may be more effective to control the gunpowder." www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130211162114.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Matter+%26+Energy+News%29
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Post by swamprat on Mar 3, 2013 10:06:31 GMT -6
More on "3-D printing" (See also theedgeofreality.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=268&page=26 ) Starting in the late nineties, we used 3-D printing, or "stereo-lithography" to produce engineering prototypes as well as masters for molding and casting. It is the computerized process of building an actual 3-dimensional object from a Cad-Cam engineering blueprint. The process deposits resinous material, layer by layer to create a perfect replica of the design. The technology has really exploded over the last few years. Now, folks are actually creating, "printing" functional components--even for fire arms. The process is moving from the lab, to the factory, and to the home!Science Daily3-D Printing Using Old Milk JugsMar. 1, 2013 — Suppose you could replace "Made in China" with "Made in my garage." Suppose also that every time you polished off a jug of two percent, you would be stocking up on raw material to make anything from a cell phone case and golf tees to a toy castle and a garlic press. And, you could give yourself a gold medal for being a bona fide, recycling, polar-bear-saving rock star. Michigan Technological University's Joshua Pearce is working on it. His main tool is open-source 3D printing, which he uses to save thousands of dollars by making everything from his lab equipment to his safety razor. Using free software downloaded from sites like Thingiverse, which now holds over 54,000 open-source designs, 3D printers make all manner of objects by laying down thin layers of plastic in a specific pattern. While high-end printers can cost many thousands of dollars, simpler open-source units run between $250 and $500 -- and can be used to make parts for other 3D printers, driving the cost down ever further. "One impediment to even more widespread use has been the cost of filament," says Pearce, an associate professor of materials science and engineering and electrical and computer engineering. Though vastly less expensive than most manufactured products, the plastic filament that 3D printers transform into useful objects isn't free. Milk jugs, on the other hand, are a costly nuisance, either to recycle or to bury in a landfill. But if you could turn them into plastic filament, Pearce reasoned, you could solve the disposal problem and drive down the cost of 3D printing even more. So Pearce and his research group decided to make their own recycling unit, or RecycleBot. They cut the labels off milk jugs, washed the plastic, and shredded it. Then they ran it through a homemade device that melts and extrudes it into a long, spaghetti-like string of plastic. Their process is open-source and free for everyone to make and use at Thingiverse.com. The process isn't perfect. Milk jugs are made of high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, which is not ideal for 3D printing. "HDPE is a little more challenging to print with," Pearce says. But the disadvantages are not overwhelming. His group made its own climate-controlled chamber using a dorm-room refrigerator and an off-the-shelf teddy-bear humidifier and had good results. With more experimentation, the results would be even better, he says. "3D printing is where computers were in the 1970s." The group determined that making their own filament in an insulated RecycleBot used about 1/10th the energy needed to acquire commercial 3D filament. They also calculated that they used less energy than it would take to recycle milk jugs conventionally. RecycleBots and 3D printers have all kinds of applications, but they would be especially useful in areas where shopping malls are few and far between, Pearce believes. "Three billion people live in rural areas that have lots of plastic junk," he says. "They could use it to make useful consumer goods for themselves. Or imagine people living by a landfill in Brazil, recycling plastic and making useful products or even just 'fair trade filament' to sell. Twenty milk jugs gets you about 1 kilogram of plastic filament, which currently costs $30 to $50 online." Pearce's research is described in depth in two articles: "Distributed Recycling of Waste Polymer into RepRap Feedstock,"coauthored with Christian Baechler and Matthew DeVuono of Queen's University and published in the March issue of Rapid Prototyping ; and "Distributed Recycling of Post-Consumer Plastic Waste in Rural Areas," coauthored by Michigan Tech's Jerry Anzalone (CEE) and students Megan Kreiger (MSE), Meredith Mulder (MSE) and Alexandra Glover (MSE), which will appear in the Proceedings of the Materials Research Society. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130301153645.htm
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2013 11:02:38 GMT -6
It's a neat idea. It sounds like we still need to be concerned about the material we are using for things like milk jugs ;D. And, I see a lot of business for more recycling companies.
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Post by swamprat on Mar 3, 2013 16:51:35 GMT -6
To carry the 3-D printing thing a little further, for those folks who are interested, here is a 7 minute video that really illustrates the process and discusses some of the issues and growing pains this technology will probably undergo. And get this: They expect this printing technology will eventually be able to "Print" living tissue that can be used for repairing the human body--maybe even create ORGAN REPLACEMENTS! Using tissue from your own body, they may create a transplant organ that matches your DNA perfectly!video.pbs.org/video/2339671486
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CitizenK
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I'm Back Guys!!! I've missed you so much!!!
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Post by CitizenK on Mar 3, 2013 21:20:20 GMT -6
Swamp, I actually just read an article about a man who is growing his new nose in his arm that they used a 3 D printer for the graphing to put his stem cells on. Don't remember where it was he went to have this done but I'm pretty sure it was Yahoo news where I read the article. Thanks for the link above too .
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Post by randy on Mar 4, 2013 0:41:42 GMT -6
3D printing of fire arms parts would be a problem for receivers which would have to stand alot of pressure from the cartridge when fired. Low pressure cartridges for close range might work. I would have more faith in a water pipe and shotgun shell zip gun.
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Post by auntym on Mar 4, 2013 17:52:42 GMT -6
arstechnica.com/science/2013/03/giant-nasa-spider-robots-could-3d-print-lunar-base/ Giant NASA spider robots could 3D print lunar baseWould heat iron nanoparticles to create solid, ceramic-like blocks.by Ian Steadman, wired.co.uk Mar 3 2013, Architecture Unlimited The first lunar base on the Moon may not be built by human hands, but rather by a giant spider-like robot built by NASA that can bind the dusty soil into giant bubble structures where astronauts can live, conduct experiments, relax or perhaps even cultivate crops. We've already covered the European Space Agency's (ESA) work with architecture firm Foster + Partners on a proposal for a 3D-printed moonbase, and there are similarities between the two bases—both would be located in Shackleton Crater near the Moon's south pole, where sunlight (and thus solar energy) is nearly constant due to the Moon's inclination on the crater's rim, and both use lunar dust as their basic building material. However, while the ESA's building would be constructed almost exactly the same way a house would be 3D-printed on Earth, this latest wheeze—SinterHab—uses NASA technology for something a fair bit more ambitious. The product of joint research first started between space architects Tomas Rousek, Katarina Eriksson and Ondrej Doule and scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), SinterHab is so-named because it involves sintering lunar dust—that is, heating it up to just below its melting point, where the fine nanoparticle powders fuse and become one solid block a bit like a piece of ceramic. To do this, the JPL engineers propose using microwaves no more powerful than those found in a kitchen unit, with tiny particles easily reaching between 1200 and 1500 degrees Celsius. Nanoparticles of iron within lunar soil are heated at certain microwave frequencies, enabling efficient heating and binding of the dust to itself. Not having to fly binding agent from Earth along with a 3D printer is a major advantage over the ESA/Foster + Partners plan. The solar panels to power the microwaves would, like the moon base itself, be based near or on the rim of Shackleton Crater in near-perpetual sunlight. CONTINUE READING: arstechnica.com/science/2013/03/giant-nasa-spider-robots-could-3d-print-lunar-base/[/color]
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Post by auntym on Mar 9, 2013 16:28:34 GMT -6
www.technewsdaily.com/17191-3d-printed-skull-implant.html3D-Printed Skull Implant Ready for OperationJeremy Hsu, TechNewsDaily Senior Writer March 06 2013 3D printing technology has helped replace 75 percent of a patient's skull with the approval of U.S. regulators. The 3D-printed implant can replace the bone in people's skulls damaged by disease or trauma, according to Oxford Performance Materials. The company announced it had received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its skull implant on Feb. 18 — a decision that led to the first U.S. surgical operation on March 4. "We see no part of the orthopedic industry being untouched by this," said Scott DeFelice, president of Oxford Performance Materials. DeFelice's company is already selling 3D-printed implants overseas as a contract manufacturer. But the FDA decision has opened the door for U.S. operations using the implants. [Video: A 3D Printer of Your Own] www.technewsdaily.com/8637-a-3d-printer-of-your-own-when-will-you-have-one-at-home-video.html 3D printing's advantage comes from taking the digitally scanned model of a patient's skull and "printing" out a matching 3D object layer by layer. The precise manufacturing technique can even make tiny surface or edge details on the replacement part that encourage the growth of cells and allow bone to attach more easily. About 300 to 500 U.S. patients could use skull bone replacements every month, according to DeFelice. The possible patients include people with cancerous bone in their skulls, as well as car accident victims and U.S. military members suffering from head trauma. DeFelice envisions going beyond the OsteoFab™ Patient Specific Cranial Device to make 3D-printed bone replacements for all parts of the human body. His company has already begun preparing to submit other 3D-printed bone parts for FDA approval — a huge market worth as much as $50 million to $100 million for each bone replacement type. "If you can replace a bony void in someone's head next to the brain, you have a pretty good platform for filling bony voids elsewhere," DeFelice told TechNewsDaily. Oxford Performance Materials adapted EOS P800 printing technology to use a special polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) material that has proved suitable for human implants. The company runs a biomedical-compliant manufacturing facility in South Windsor, Conn., that can print bone replacements fitted for specific patients in two weeks or less. Such possibilities represent just one small part of 3D printing's potential to revolutionize U.S. manufacturing and innovation. Oxford Performance Materials is one of many companies and universities that helped found the U.S. National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute — a $30 million pilot institute funded by the U.S. government to help transform 3D printing into a serious manufacturing tool. You can follow TechNewsDaily Senior Writer Jeremy Hsu on Twitter @jeremyhsu. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @technewsdaily, or on Facebook. MORE: www.technewsdaily.com/17191-3d-printed-skull-implant.html
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Post by swamprat on May 6, 2013 10:41:22 GMT -6
Shots fired from world's first 3D-printed gunPublished May 06, 2013 The world's first 3D-printed handgun has been successfully fired in Texas, according to its creator Defense Distributed. All 16 parts of the controversial gun, called the Liberator, are made from a tough, heat-resistant plastic used in products such as musical instruments, kitchen appliances and vehicle bumper bars. Fifteen of those are made with a 3D printer while one is a non-functional metal part which can be picked up by metal detectors, making it legal under U.S. law. The firing pin is also not made of plastic, though it is easily crafted from a metal nail. The weapon is designed to fire standard handgun rounds and even features an interchangeable barrel so that it can handle different caliber rounds. The blueprint files are expected to be available online today for download. Read more: www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/06/shots-fired-from-world-first-3d-printed-gun/?intcmp=features#ixzz2SWqj2Zwi
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2013 20:11:16 GMT -6
hmmmmmmmm. I think I saw something about this at the "huffington post" today. . . . . Thanks Swampy!
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Post by skywalker on May 7, 2013 16:38:31 GMT -6
This technology has the potential to have a huge impact on the future. Imagine if everybody had one of these machines. They could potentially make just about everything they need instead of buying it.
Imagine also what is going to happen when the government tries to regulate it, which they will. If the government can't control who makes what they will lose huge amounts of power. I can see them fighting this (or taxing it) with everything they've got. I have already heard talk about 3D printers possibly being banned in the future...that might turn out to be true especially if people can make guns with them. They are already suggesting that gunpowder be outlawed, or at least more tightly controlled. I doubt that work either. It's not that difficult to make gunpowder. The Chinese were doing it 5000 years ago. If criminals can make cocaine and meth and other such drugs then they could make gunpowder and explosives.
It's going to be an interesting world we live in in the near future.
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Post by swamprat on May 9, 2013 18:36:17 GMT -6
Pentagon scrubs 3D gun plans from Internet, says designerBy Perry Chiaramonte Published May 09, 2013 The world's first 3D-printed handgun, The Liberator, has had its liberty taken away by the government. Plans for the working handgun were posted online Monday by Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, potentially allowing anyone with access to a 3D printer to make a firearm from plastic. The plans, which had been in the works for months, caused alarm among gun control advocates but were seen by some Second Amendment advocates as a breakthrough. More than 100,000 copies of the plans were downloaded before the federal government took the files. “Defense Distributed's files are being removed from public access at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense Trade Controls," read a banner atop the website. "Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.” U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., has already called for national legislation to ban 3D-printed guns. Read more: www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/09/dod-forces-3d-gun-printer-defense-distributed-to-pull-weapon-specs-off-website/#ixzz2SqSnyacq
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CitizenK
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I'm Back Guys!!! I've missed you so much!!!
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Post by CitizenK on May 10, 2013 1:14:19 GMT -6
And it should! (in my humble opinion) No one needs a printer making weapons when we already have too many carrying unregistered guns around trying to be thugs or gang members... I say good going on this call!
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Post by plutronus on May 10, 2013 1:33:42 GMT -6
And it should! (in my humble opinion) No one needs a printer making weapons when we already have too many carrying unregistered guns around trying to be thugs or gang members... I say good going on this call! We pay them to think like that? Since when does the Federal Gvrnmnt have the right to ban plans for something that's not intellectual property? Remember, I've been warning everyone about the NetPolice, well they are here and they are beginning the politically correct censorship of the InterNet. How long will it be before they come after US? The FartBuk Investigators are on the hunt.
And then, to illustrate just how clueless they are, trying to prevent unregistered gun making....take a look around YouTube, use "home-made shotguns" for a search key, and then consider the mindless knee jerk politicians that censored the 3D printer plans (that don't work because the thermo-plastic can't withstand the over-pressure of the gunpowder ignition, but those dumb-*bleep* politicians don't know basic physics), and those gvrnmnt morons & NetPolicia are on our payroll, funded by the 9/11 passage of the InterNet tax. The ONLY bill passed on 9/11 was the InterNet tax law.
plutronus
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Post by bewildered on May 10, 2013 2:41:26 GMT -6
We pay them to think like that? Since when does the Federal Gvrnmnt have the right to ban plans for something that's not intellectual property? Remember, I've been warning everyone about the NetPolice, well they are here and they are beginning the politically correct censorship of the InterNet. How long will it be before they come after US? The FartBuk Investigators are on the hunt.
And then, to illustrate just how clueless they are, trying to prevent unregistered gun making....take a look around YouTube, use "home-made shotguns" for a search key, and then consider the mindless knee jerk politicians that censored the 3D printer plans (that don't work because the thermo-plastic can't withstand the over-pressure of the gunpowder ignition, but those dumb-*bleep* politicians don't know basic physics), and those gvrnmnt morons & NetPolicia are on our payroll, funded by the 9/11 passage of the InterNet tax. The ONLY bill passed on 9/11 was the InterNet tax law.
plutronus You hit the proverbial nail on the head, sir. I used bold type on the part of your post that strikes me the most, plutronus. The buffoons that serve on both "science" congressional committees leave me wondering who ties their shoelaces for them in the morning, because they certainly aren't doing it. It's just too darn complicated!
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Post by auntym on May 10, 2013 10:50:29 GMT -6
And it should! (in my humble opinion) No one needs a printer making weapons when we already have too many carrying unregistered guns around trying to be thugs or gang members... I say good going on this call! i agree ck... this will end up being a nightmare if the public gets there hands on it... i have read so many wonderful articles about the 3D printer and what it can do to help humanity... many of those articles are on this thread... unfortunately, there is a dark side to everything and building weapons with a 3D printer is one of them... i hope the powers-that-be can keep it out of the wrong hands too...
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Post by skywalker on May 10, 2013 13:16:10 GMT -6
Weapons can be built out of just about anything. You don't need a 3D printer to do it. The terrorists who blew up the marathon made their bombs out of pressure cookers. Timothy Mcveigh made his bomb out of gasoline and fertilizer. Explosives can be made out of chicken poop, bleach and a variety of other very common things. Once the knowledge to build these things exists it exists permanently. It's not going to go away.
Over a hundred thousand copies of the plans for that plastic gun were already downloaded and since the Feds outlawed them I guarantee they will start being developed and sold illegally on the black market. Not even the government with all of their gazillions of dollars can erase knowledge once it exists. They would be better off going after the criminals who use that knowledge to commit crimes rather than trying to stop law abiding citizens from obtaining it.
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Post by auntym on May 10, 2013 13:47:03 GMT -6
www.stumbleupon.com/su/2D1LrB/www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/04/three-dimensional-animals-painted-in-layers-of-resin-by-keng-lye/ Lifelike 3-D paintings[/color] Alive Without Breath: Three Dimensional Animals Painted in Layers of Resin by Keng LyeBy Christopher April 11, 2013 Singapore-based artist Keng Lye creates near life-like sculptures of animals relying on little but paint, resin and a phenomenal sense of perspective. Lye slowly fills bowls, buckets, and boxes with alternating layers of acrylic paint and resin, creating aquatic animal life that looks so real it could almost pass for a photograph. The artist is using a technique very similar to Japanese painter Riusuke Fukahori who was featured on this blog a little over a year ago, though Lye seems to take things a step further by making his paint creations protrude from the surface, adding another level of dimension to a remarkable medium. See much more of this series titled Alive Without Breath over on deviantART. (via ian brooks) Update: I have some additional details from the artist that I’d like to add here, as this post seems to be getting a lot of attention. Via email Lye shares with me: I started my first series in 2012 where all the illustrations were “flat” and depth was created using the layering of resin and acrylic over the different parts of the illustration. This year, I started on the octopus and it was purely an experiment; I just wanted to see whether I could push this technique to a higher level. After applying acrylic paint straight onto the resin, I incorporated a 3-D element in this instance, it was a small pebble for the ranchu and octopus. For the turtle, I used an egg shell for the turtle shell and acrylic paint for the rest of the finishing. The whole idea here was to give the art work an even more 3D effect therefore you can have a better view from any angle. I think there are still many other techniques to explore. So to be clear the elements that extrude from the top of the resin are actually physical pieces that have been painted to match the layers of acrylic and resin below. MORE PHOTOS: www.stumbleupon.com/su/2D1LrB/www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/04/three-dimensional-animals-painted-in-layers-of-resin-by-keng-lye/
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Post by randy on May 11, 2013 21:26:38 GMT -6
having completed reading an article on 30=D printers i am impressed with the potential there to forever change society and retailing. Not too far off people will be able to print out simple kitchen utensils, tools and parts for a vast array of things. The current models print in ABS plastic but printers are being developed that will print out in metal. Factories that produce simple items will face competition from printable items. It is amazing to consider that we will have star trek replicator capacity before long. this could also some day be used to produce a warm dinner We are only limited by our selves. Mush ado is raised about printable guns but I would have more faith in a water pipe nailed to a 2x4 Once this gets going much of the China trade will be obsolete when you can print it
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Post by plutronus on May 14, 2013 1:20:10 GMT -6
3D printers by their very nature, currently, are extremely limited in what can be produced. What purpose for instance would a housewife have for a 3D printer? Make a skillet? How about curtains? Some clothing hangers? What about a fella around the house, what would he use a 3D printer for? A hammer? A pipe wrench? Replacement handle for a weed wacker? Or a new toilet seat?
Few if any of the above items can be 'printed' and actually be used, as the printed articles are printed using fragile plastic 'ink' which renders the 'printed' article impractical for most home-owner's applications. In time, that may change. While a few of the $1,000,000 versions of 3D printers can produce a few of the above cited items and be useful, how many in the public can afford such a machine? But article writers don't mention any of this. The reason is simple, when it comes to emerging technology, they are optimists, futurists and most, it seems are presuming a future technology product usefulness. Unfortunately (because I'd really like to own one) 3D printers are not the fictional replicators seen on episodes of 2nd Gen Enterprise, 'Earl Grey', --they don't configure boundless energy directly into usable practical matter.
The primary purpose of 3D printers today and the reason they were developed, is for rapid prototyping of engineering developmental mechanical parts. With the exception of one or two industrial 3D printers, all 3D printers use some form of plastic for their 'ink'. Those few 3D printers that print using 'metal-ink' are mainly experimental machines, often costing millions of Dollars, are temperamental, costly to operate and to maintain. But those are on the horizon too.
Of the plastic 'ink' type 3D printers, there are three usage sectors today. Research, industrial, and hobbyist. In the research sector, which is really not too different from the hobbyist sector, is the ongoing development of new and interesting strategies to print physical articles, with a primary difference being that the 3D printer researchers are funded and well educated, while hobbyists and niche' entrepeneurs are tinkerers and usually have little or no money.
In the commercial sector, 3D printing is mainly used for mechanical component engineering visualization, and engineering part dimension verification, of mechanical components prior to the part's actual intended fabrication process. The produced prototype parts include objects such as, --injection molded products mold verification; prototyping of intended metal machined components visualization; custom mechanical assemblies with odd or unique and difficult to machine (co$tly) shapes, and again, simply to see if the mechanical assembly will fit a gadget being engineered, etc.
Another emerging industrial application, and the basis of the US Gvrnmntl hysteria surrounding gun printing, is the direct fabrication of low force plastic components for one-off or small volume production factories. But these printers are mainly used for small plastic parts, such as gears that might be found in video-disc-players, or plastic scanner lens bearing supports, things that are employed in the interior workings of other gadgets.
Then there is the hobbyist/experimenter robotics sector. These are people who fiddle with gadgets for fun. The tech-nerds, like me. Instead of making and flying model airplanes, some of these folks are home-brewing, home constructing RepRap 3D printers, and are making 'stuff' for hobbyist and crafts applications.
In recent employment with ITT Aerospace Comm Div, we owned a 3D printer, which was located in the ITT Ft. Wayne facility. All of the ITT ACD engineering divisions would simply send a 3D Inventor (an AutoCAD program) mechanical .dxf file via e-mail to Ft. Weenie and a mere 24 hrs later, via Overnight FedEx, we'd have the prototype part in our sweaty little paws, --a Teflon 3D printed component for testing in our engineering gadgets. This local ITT inter-department 'service' was very timely, useful and inexpensive. If there was an engineering mistake, this service facilitated easy, inexpensive and timely correction, compared to the exorbitant costs of machine-shop lead-time prototyping which often expended many weeks, just to determine if a part would fit.
But our $1,000,000 3D printer could not fabricate a skillet, we could prototype it, tune up the drawing specs, and be able hold it our hands, to see it, look for the flaws, if any? But it would not be very useful on a stove, same thing is true for a hammer but not for the wrench. We could actually make a reasonably useful plastic spanner wrench. However, generally speaking, plastic is just not strong enough or heat resistant enough for most practical home-use applications. But as a designer's prototyping tool, its hard to beat.
The publicly available hobbyist versions of these robots, 3D printers work a bit like an ink-jet printer, where, ink is sprayed onto a printing surface, in the 3D printer, the 'ink' is a small diameter plastic 'wire' or fishing line like filament which is rolled onto a dispensing spool.
"Fused Filament Fabrication from materials such as ABS plastic filament"
The basic principal of these 3D printers, un-spools, and simply heats the thermo-plastic filament until a small, portion of the plastic filament becomes liquid, and a drop of it is 'gated' through a small diameter pipe onto a flat 'printing' surface. One drop per spot.
Ink-jet printers are 2D printers, that print in two dimensions X is the row dimension, and Y is the column dimension. 3D printers print in three dimensions, X is row, Y is column, and Z is height. In addition to moving (X) back and forth across a printing 'page', and doing (Y) line-feeds, the print head, can move (Z) vertically, up and down.
To print a rectangular drinking glass, (easy to describe) one would create an 3D CAD drawing/file, import the file into the 3D printer software.
The bottom of the 'glass' need be one solid piece, a filled in rectangle. The print head would position to the far upper left corner, squirt a drop of plastic, move to the next column to the right, squirt a drop of molten plastic, (which runs-together, merging with the first drop), and the process is continued until the row is printed, then the print-head, does a line-feed, dropping down to the next row down position, squirts a drop of hot liquid plastic, and continues across the page, repeating the process until the entire bottom is filled with a thin layer of cooling, returning to solid plastic, thereby forming the bottom of the rectangular plastic drinking glass.
Then, the print head returns to the upper left corner of the printed bottom, only this time, the head is raised just a tiny bit over one drop's height. The print head, squirts a drop of plastic there, and prints a one row line of plastic, finishing the row. Then print head does a line feed, squirts one drop, then moves all the way across the printing area to position over the far left wall of the glass, squirting one drop of plastic, positions down one row, squirts another drop, moves all the way to the right, over the far wall, squirts a drop, etc.
It does this until a five inch tall rectangular plastic drinking glass has been squirted into physical existence. And yes, one can actually use this plastic printed 'glass'.
Here are some typical public 3D printers. There are three types available, 1) construction plans + software (free), 2) partial parts kits, full parts kits (for lazy hobbyists who enjoy a more engineered 'project') and the fully assembled hobbyist 3D printers.
There is a distinction to be noted that exists between that of hobbyist 3D printers and non-hobbyist 3D printers. Namely cost & functionality.
High-end fully assembled hobbyist 3D printers sell for upwards of $5,000. One does not see too many of these being used. While low-end fully assembled 3D printers sell for around $1500, mainly owing to the usage of wood structural parts in lieu of expensive T-Slot metal structures. Kits and partial parts kit, which are the mainstay of the 3D printer MakerFaire mechnician cultural movement are available starting from around $40 upwards to around $1500. The average 3D printer seen today in the hobbyist world, is a home-built RepRap machine which typically costs the constructor around $500. All of the hobbyist 3D printers require a fair amount of futzing-around-with to be able to generate physical objects. The quality of the finished 3D print articles are quite variable depending on many different things, and there is nothing produced that is of commercial grade quality. While non-hobbyist 3D printers, in other words, commercial and light industrial 3D printers, prices begin around $7,500 going upward to around one million US Dollars.
Putting 3D printing in a plastic-nutshell, simply stated, its an engineering prototyping tool. From the hobbyist perspective, there's many kewl plastic things that have been out of the hobbyist-home-craftsman's reach that can be done, like printing custom cooking-cutters or fancy 'scrolled' picture-frames but printing useful guns are not one of them.
Incidentally, "RepRap" is the open-source origin of the 3D printer hobbyist movement, engineered by University of Bath, UK Ph.D. roboticists professors, who designed and fabricated a series of experimental home-brew level 3D printers. After 'copylefting' their designs, to protect hobbyist's right to replicate the printers legally and their own rights, from the greedy American corporations, they released the full engineering plans and software into the InterNet public domain. Be sure to visit their wiki page and watch THEIR video, as they are the de facto fathers of the 3D printer hobbyist movement!!
See the RepRap Wiki: reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page
Here are just a few of the hobbyest printer movement links:
A few RepRap 'hobbyist' 3D printer photos:
1st generation RepRap reprap.org/wiki/File:All_3_axes_fdmd_sml.jpg
2nd generation RepRap "Mendel" 3D printer reprap.org/wiki/File:Reprappro-Mendel.jpg
A $2000 hobbyist home-built RepRap printer and the German hobbyest who made it kuehlingkuehling.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_5690.jpg
A few typical 3D printed hobbyist 'stuff':
Various 'bracelets' www.thingiverse.com/categories/fashion
Customized Camera Lens Case www.thingiverse.com/thing:43781
A gear imgur.com/G9RXUeB
A (20mm) 5/8" cube with a (10mm) 7/16" hole, but printer needs a bit of futzing-around: imgur.com/fjuVIcu
Expander flange with holes thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders//09/83/28/b7/P1154324-_preview_featured.jpg
Hobby Sail Plane www.thingiverse.com/thing:86982
Vendors who supply parts for making 3D RepRap printers www.a2aprinter.com/index.php?route=common/home shop.seemecnc.com/main.sc
A $450 full parts kit www.a2aprinter.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=20
And if you are still reading this, I **know** you....a tech-nerd fer sure heh heh heh, (guys like Bewildered, SwampRat, Spotless38, SkyWalker and of course, Cliff!! as well as a few others and mayhaps a few gals too?) so here's the good stuff, the plans!!!
The body lives baybee!...
The lean, mean, machina
reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_frame_assembly
X Axis reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_x_axis_assembly
Y Axis reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_y_axis_assembly
Z Axis reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_z_axis_assembly
The hot-plastic print engine plans
reprap.org/wiki/RepRapPro_Mendel_hot_end_assembly
Ok...that should whet your appetites, here's the remainder of the RepRap Pro plans.... reprap.org/wiki/Build_instructions
plutronus
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Post by skywalker on May 14, 2013 20:09:06 GMT -6
If these 3D printed guns are useless why are the Feds getting all hysterical about them? To keep people from blowing themselves up? I wouldn't want to shoot one of the cheap plastic things.
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Post by plutronus on May 15, 2013 20:27:11 GMT -6
If these 3D printed guns are useless why are the Feds getting all hysterical about them? To keep people from blowing themselves up? I wouldn't want to shoot one of the cheap plastic things. >..why are the Feds getting all hysterical about them? Exactly!! **Why?** And as our own Bewildered says, 'ya hit the nail on the head', SkyWalker.
As we all know, its not about the guns, its about the perception that the US Public can do something outside of the gvrnmnt's police-mentality control....without their exalted explicit permission. That was entire point of the website, in my opinion. The website author was challenging that point with the gvrnmnt and to prove his point, he very cleverly manipulated the dumba.ss grvnmnt, who knee-jerked a mindless response, the FaceBook Investigators (FBI) yanked down the website without court-orders. I don't remember voting to have that website shutdown, do you? Since when did the American Public lose our civil liberties, to express our thoughts, in a civil public forum? Simply that its in the digital domain? That's our current knee-jerk on the IRS (the other criminals operating without public oversight, doing as they phkn please, targeting whoever they please) public payroll politician dictators at work.
Submit! Or else...
Yep.
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Post by skywalker on May 15, 2013 21:40:12 GMT -6
Are you saying that the crazy plastic gun was never even meant to be built? That it was all just a scam to trick the government into making fools of themselves?
If that is the case then I just have one word to say...
HA! ;D
The article says the plans have already been copied and are being distributed by other websites. Since anybody on the internet can copy and distribute them that should keep the Feds busy for a while.
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Post by plutronus on May 15, 2013 23:32:44 GMT -6
Re; 3D printers, the subject of this thread....
Here is a 3D printer that is very popular within the hobbyist 3D printer community. Check it out, it is a median cost unit, which can produce nice articles, (with a bit of futzing around) but its fairly well made, and it employs wood/melenmak(sp?)-pressed-particle board construction, it costs around $1500.
www.makerbot.com
plutronus
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Post by auntym on May 20, 2013 23:09:45 GMT -6
www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/20/25-gun-created-with-cheap-3d-printer-fires-nine-shots-video/www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/new-3d-gun_n_3308533.html$25 Gun Created With Cheap 3D Printer Fires Nine Shots (Video)Andy Greenberg, Forbes Staff 5/20/2013 When high tech gunsmith group Defense Distributed test-fired the world’s first fully 3D-printed firearm earlier this month, some critics dismissed the demonstration as expensive and impractical, arguing it could only be done with a high-end industrial 3D printer and that the plastic weapon wouldn’t last more than a single shot. Now a couple of hobbyists have proven them wrong on both counts. One evening late last week, a Wisconsin engineer who calls himself “Joe” test-fired a new version of that handgun printed on a $1,725 Lulzbot A0-101 consumer-grade 3D printer, far cheaper than the one used by Defense Distributed. Joe, who asked that I not reveal his full name, loaded the weapon with .380 caliber rounds and fired it nine times, using a string to pull its trigger for safety. The weapon survived all nine shots over the course of an evening, as you can see in the YouTube video below. (The clip was filmed by Michael Guslick, a fellow Wisconsin engineer who helped Joe with his tests and who is known for printing one of the first working lower receivers for AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.) www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/08/man-3d-printer-rifle_n_1753513.htmlThe Lulz Liberator, a working handgun printed on a $1,725 LulzBot 3D printer with $25 in plastic. Click to enlarge. (Credit: Michael Guslick) Joe’s proof-of-concept could raise the stakes another notch in the growing controversy over 3D printed guns, an idea that threatens to circumvent gun control and let anyone download and create a lethal weapon in their garage as easily as they download and print a Word document. The first successfully fired 3D-printed gun that Defense Distributed revealed to Forbes earlier this month, dubbed the Liberator, was printed on an $8,000 secondhand Stratasys Dimension SST printer, a refrigerator-sized industrial machine. In testing, that prototype has generally only been fired once per printed barrel. The gun printed by Joe, which he’s nicknamed the “Lulz Liberator,” was printed over 48 hours with just $25 of plastic on a desktop machine affordable to many consumers, and was fired far more times. “People think this takes an $8,000 machine and that it blows up on the first shot. I want to dispel that,” says Joe. “This does work, and I want that to be known.” Eight of Joe’s test-fires were performed using a single barrel before swapping it out for a new one on the ninth. After all those shots, the weapon’s main components remained intact–even the spiraled rifling inside of the barrel’s bore. “The only reason we stopped firing is because the sun went down,” he says. CONTINUE READING: www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/20/25-gun-created-with-cheap-3d-printer-fires-nine-shots-video/
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Post by plutronus on May 21, 2013 7:47:42 GMT -6
www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/20/25-gun-created-with-cheap-3d-printer-fires-nine-shots-video/www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/new-3d-gun_n_3308533.html$25 Gun Created With Cheap 3D Printer Fires Nine Shots (Video)Andy Greenberg, Forbes Staff 5/20/2013 When high tech gunsmith group Defense Distributed test-fired the world’s first fully 3D-printed firearm earlier this month, some critics dismissed the demonstration as expensive and impractical, arguing it could only be done with a high-end industrial 3D printer and that the plastic weapon wouldn’t last more than a single shot. Now a couple of hobbyists have proven them wrong on both counts. One evening late last week, a Wisconsin engineer who calls himself “Joe” test-fired a new version of that handgun printed on a $1,725 Lulzbot A0-101 consumer-grade 3D printer, far cheaper than the one used by Defense Distributed. Joe, who asked that I not reveal his full name, loaded the weapon with .380 caliber rounds and fired it nine times, using a string to pull its trigger for safety. The weapon survived all nine shots over the course of an evening, as you can see in the YouTube video below. (The clip was filmed by Michael Guslick, a fellow Wisconsin engineer who helped Joe with his tests and who is known for printing one of the first working lower receivers for AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.) www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/08/man-3d-printer-rifle_n_1753513.htmlThe Lulz Liberator, a working handgun printed on a $1,725 LulzBot 3D printer with $25 in plastic. Click to enlarge. (Credit: Michael Guslick) Joe’s proof-of-concept could raise the stakes another notch in the growing controversy over 3D printed guns, an idea that threatens to circumvent gun control and let anyone download and create a lethal weapon in their garage as easily as they download and print a Word document. The first successfully fired 3D-printed gun that Defense Distributed revealed to Forbes earlier this month, dubbed the Liberator, was printed on an $8,000 secondhand Stratasys Dimension SST printer, a refrigerator-sized industrial machine. In testing, that prototype has generally only been fired once per printed barrel. The gun printed by Joe, which he’s nicknamed the “Lulz Liberator,” was printed over 48 hours with just $25 of plastic on a desktop machine affordable to many consumers, and was fired far more times. “People think this takes an $8,000 machine and that it blows up on the first shot. I want to dispel that,” says Joe. “This does work, and I want that to be known.” Eight of Joe’s test-fires were performed using a single barrel before swapping it out for a new one on the ninth. After all those shots, the weapon’s main components remained intact–even the spiraled rifling inside of the barrel’s bore. “The only reason we stopped firing is because the sun went down,” [/size] he says. CONTINUE READING: www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/20/25-gun-created-with-cheap-3d-printer-fires-nine-shots-video/[/quote] Yep, that looks a lot like an AR-15, hah hah! And notice all the metal parts? Especially the clip (likely what they are using for combustion chamber, 'cause its made of metal). And that stubby Howitzer appearance barrel, hah hah. Can't make it any longer else the friction of the bullet racing down the barrel will cause it to melt the thermoplastic of the barrel. It'll work that time, but the next few times, things become dicey, 'cause the barrel becomes warped. They don't tell any of those details. And the 'engineer' really trusts it, 'cause he's pulling the trigger from behind a concrete wall, hah hah hah. Yep, that is a really practical serious gun right there. Stubby, plastic barrel with rifling, I wonder if it can reliably hit a target at five feet? And its good for nine shots too, before it explodes, maybe?!!
One of these days somebody will figure out how to make an all plastic gun that works AND is able to hit intended targets reliably.
All the laughing aside, I do tip my hat to the catz, and I desire them good luck in their efforts. Why not printed plastic guns? At least they wouldn't be registered and the guns wouldn't be traceable in any case, and very easy to destroy too. Simply toss it in the barbeque and in five minuts, all the evidence is up in smoke. The perfect killing weapon.
plutronus
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CitizenK
Full Member
I'm Back Guys!!! I've missed you so much!!!
Posts: 562
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Post by CitizenK on May 21, 2013 12:40:05 GMT -6
Personally, I am just not really that interested in the printers. It isn't my "thing". That being said I think it's great that you're sharing this info with the rest of the of the folks.
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