barnbwt
member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2011
- Messages
- 7,340
I think this all just goes to show that try as they might, there is no way to keep firearms from anyone. Something like this just about nullifies gun control.
Even the gunnies who want him to stop can't do a thing about it
Honestly, this tech couldn't come at a better time. Yes, you can machine your own gun, but the number of privately-owned Bridgeport Mills-per-capita is probably as low as it's ever been in this country. Economics and short-sightedness have moved heavy industry--and the expertise to wield it--overseas, and we have orders of magnitude more guys who know how to program a spreadsheet than work a manual lathe. Since CNC shows no prospect of ever coming down in price (it's climbing in capability, but the capital investment on these rigs is still enormous) we're left with the prototypers, if we are going to have robots make our stuff (since we no longer know how).
Anyone who remembers (I barely do) early tape and inkjet printers knows they jammed constantly, required maintenance and tweaking, and were generally a pain to deal with. Prototypers are no exception, and unless you get a model from someone who's already set theirs up and calibrated/debugged everything, it's not anywhere close to simple plug and play (especially if you are building your own). The parts still have to be finish sanded and fitted to eachother if FDM plastic extrusion is used. The closest thing to what most folks envision is SLA printing which is pricier (the Formlabs Form 1 printer coming out is 5000$) but comes out looking injection-moulded and is much stronger than FDM extrusion-forms.I's nearly as simple as sending a Word file to your inkjet
And all that is assuming a person knows how to use CAD software or design things in the first place. It's more akin to programming, than playing a video.
TCB