Cheap 3D printer works with steel

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/09/cheap_3d_printer_works_with_steel/

Cheap 3D printer works with steel
Next: a printed gun that's dangerous and affordable
By Richard Chirgwin, 9th December 2013


The one thing that made 3D printed guns tolerable to the non-gun-owning community was that they were made of plastic, because metal 3D printers were costly. Now, a bunch of scientists from Michigan Tech are showing off a cheap 3D printer that fabricates in metal.

Metal 3D printing isn't new, but it's been expensive until now. The open-source Michigan project, here, offers a bill of materials costing just under $US1,200 to build the 3D printer, controlled by a Linux computer.

The printer, described in detail here, produces steel components, and while its creators describe it as “a work in progress”, they've already successfully produced simple shapes like sprockets.

Steel is melted for printing using a low-cost gas-metal arc welder under the control of a simple open source micro-controller, and models can be created in Blender or OpenSCAD, or anything else that can output an STL file.

Described here:

http://www.appropedia.org/Open-source_metal_3-D_printer

Details here:

https://www.academia.edu/5327317/A_Low-Cost_Open-Source_Metal_3-D_Printer

I wouldn't trust a barrel made by this method, but it looks like it could print a workable receiver

[Eleanors38]

1. Excuse the expression "Saturday Night Special," but their cheapness

Derived frim using zinc-based metal; too weak for high cal. rounds, but strong enough for .25s & .32s. The present tech. might work for these arms.

Couldn't powderized bar stock of chrom-moly be used for high cal? I believe Ruger uses this method in its lost wax production of firearms.

[friendly_iconoclast]

2. If I understand the technical paper correctly...

...parts could be made strong enough for use in high-caliber firearms by using
low-magnesium feedstocks.

[sir pball]

4. How precise is it though?

Producing a workable sprocket requires a lot looser tolerances than printing a 1911; I doubt a homebrew welder-strapped-to-a-stepper-motor can meet those specifications. For now. But still, the water is rising and when the dam finally bursts it's going to require rethinking laws globally, not just here.

(If crime is limited by supply, at least. I've personally heard from three UK residents that it's easy enough to find an illegal handgun, no harder than drugs, just that nobody terribly WANTS one. But anecdotes doth not data make.)

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. Imagine where we'll be in 10, 20 years.

Gun control issue aside I think it's an exciting technology to allow more entrepreneurial endeavors.

[jeepnstein]

6. I'm really looking hard at printers now.

No, I'm not into building my own firearms. Even though that is perfectly legal it just doesn't excite me. Besides, my department would never ever in a million years let me qualify with a home brew weapon.

I'm thinking more for parts for old house restoration work, one-off mounting brackets, reproduction car parts, stuff like that. The plastic printers are dropping in price and I see one in my future.