Reader-added tags include "The 'Hang in There, Kogasa-san' Figure Production Club", "I was aroused", and "¥160,000 at the cheapest".

The survey's exploring new dimensions:

What would you make with a 3D printer?
• Accessories
• Weird objets d'art
• Exchangeable parts for broken components
• Additional parts for plastic models
• Waifu

• Waifu

Onwards to PRIVATE HAREM!!

I really want to build a 3D printer myself now and again, but I keep realizing it wouldn't see much use anyway...

/\/\ao said:

Onwards to PRIVATE HAREM!!

Well, doctors are already working on ways to print cellular layers. Once that's advanced to a practical level, you just need a way to code working mind and potentiate the synapses to implant it in the printed brain...

Yeah, I don't think the ability to print a working human brain, much less customize it to exhibit specific behavioral traits (within reasonable limits), is something that will happen in our (in some cases figurative) grand-children's lifetimes, much less our own.

Then again, I'm more on the behavioral side than on the neurological side, so I could be way off.

Iruel said:

Yeah, I don't think the ability to print a working human brain, much less customize it to exhibit specific behavioral traits (within reasonable limits), is something that will happen in our (in some cases figurative) grand-children's lifetimes, much less our own.

Then again, I'm more on the behavioral side than on the neurological side, so I could be way off.

Heck, I don't even think printing complex cellular structures would be made practical in the next several decades. Eventually yes, but not for quite a while. I think for now, they're only able to print markers for cells to settle on, and even then it's a hit-or-miss...

What would you make with a 3D printer?

More 3D printers, so I can make even more 3D printers to sell. Ohoho, I'm gonna be rich~

• Exchangeable parts for broken components
• Additional parts for plastic models

Boring, but practical.

• What would you make with a 3D printer?

Some time ago I heard some British student posted 3D printer blueprints of a working handgun on the Internet. Though I don`t remember source at all and I myself think that this is a canard. Prove me right or wrong somebody.

My high school tech class bought a 3D printer (that teacher's funding sources were quite dubious, but we got cool stuff, so...) in my junior year, and being the head geek I got to preside over it. So much cool stuff was made, including plastic ball bearings that fit handily around fingers so as to spin, buzz, and annoy all the teachers...

IronFly said:

Some time ago I heard some British student posted 3D printer blueprints of a working handgun on the Internet. Though I don`t remember source at all and I myself think that this is a canard. Prove me right or wrong somebody.

I don't know about working guns, as most of the guns made by a 3D printer that I have heard of were too structurally weak to allow for rapidly moving parts, much less actually firing rounds.
I've also heard of someone printing ammunition (shotgun shells if I remember correctly), but I also heard the effectiveness of those shells being compared to the effectiveness of Silly Putty shells (which, apparently, work really well), so printing out ammunition probably isn't very practical just yet.

No idea if it's the same design IronFly's referring to, but the ATF tested a 3D-printed handgun recently. It blew up.

Iruel said:

I don't know about working guns, as most of the guns made by a 3D printer that I have heard of were too structurally weak to allow for rapidly moving parts, much less actually firing rounds.
I've also heard of someone printing ammunition (shotgun shells if I remember correctly), but I also heard the effectiveness of those shells being compared to the effectiveness of Silly Putty shells (which, apparently, work really well), so printing out ammunition probably isn't very practical just yet.

I've seen a 3D-printed AR-15, but that was only the lower receiver and butt that was printed, the actual mechanics and the barrel were still metal.

There was also a 3D-printed handgun made of metal that was tested successfully.

Especially the AR-15 raises an interesting question about the legality of such weapons, since it's the lower receiver that legally constitutes a weapon, which can be printed...

I actually have worked with a 3D printer when I was still a student at my campus (Cal Poly Pomona, go google it), and we are so cheap that we actually just used plastic that was used for weed whacking (machine), and it looks alright (requires a lot more for more precise objects, we use SolidWorks software). So I guess Kogasa-san needs to dig up more info on that part

ThunderBird said:

I've seen a 3D-printed AR-15, but that was only the lower receiver and butt that was printed, the actual mechanics and the barrel were still metal.

There was also a 3D-printed handgun made of metal that was tested successfully.

Especially the AR-15 raises an interesting question about the legality of such weapons, since it's the lower receiver that legally constitutes a weapon, which can be printed...

Thanks for the link on the printed metal gun. I was curious as to how 3D-printing with metal could work, as I thought that the metal would either be too solid to extrude properly, too hot to maintain it's printed shape, or would cool so quickly that any resulting crystal structure would be too brittle to withstand the necessary forces. But I had completely forgotten about sintering, which makes a lot more sense.

The 3D printed guns thing makes me sad.

"Hey! We can make pretty much anything from plastic now! Imagine all the possi-"

"Let's make guns!"

"..."

And so 3D printing was ruined for all.

budoka_azathoth said:
And so 3D printing was ruined for all.

In no way shape or form did printing a firearm ruin or even damage 3D printing at all.
Speaking to the professionals, one got 'boys will be boys' comments.
They've been working with 3D printing for quite some time now, the firearm part is relatively recent.
If they couldn't print firearms, there's no way that they'd be able to print similar high-stress components for use in space craft or any of the fields that could really benefit from the technology.
Really, it's just another step on the development tree.

Aside, Guns don't kill people, people do.

ThunderBird said:
Especially the AR-15 raises an interesting question about the legality of such weapons, since it's the lower receiver that legally constitutes a weapon, which can be printed...

In the US, barring respective state laws, anyone that isn't a felon can legally make a firearm.
I mean, the complete firearm. Milling/Stamping the receiver, what have you. They don't even need to put a serial number on it. They just have to meet all NFA requirements (so nothing over .50 cal and no full-autos) and the firearm can't legally leave their possession (it can never be sold... however, [from what I hear] they can technically let someone else use it as long as they are standing there supervising, but that's widely considered a gray area as some states prosecute that anyway).

So, it's entirely legal here in the US.

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