Q+A: Cody Wilson Of The Wiki Weapon Project On The 3-D Printed Future of Firearms | Popular Science

Interesting idea and philosophy.

__________________
"A gun is like a parachute.



If you need one, and don't have one,



you'll probably never need one again!"

The reader's comments were interesting as well. I can't imagine that these products would have the precision of one machined out of steel. Will the ammo be printed as well?

We have a 3d printer at work. Trust me, no danger to anyone. The plastics used are extremely fragile.

You could, of course machine the parts using a cnc lathe/mill; its much cheaper to buy than build.

I don't see what this could possibly have to do with magazines and periodicals.

__________________
"A gun is like a parachute.



If you need one, and don't have one,



you'll probably never need one again!"

The original post was yours? "Interesting idea and philosophy"

Uh, yeah, and............?

__________________
"A gun is like a parachute.



If you need one, and don't have one,



you'll probably never need one again!"

I just found this statement confusing, because you started the thread.

Yeah, well I am the confused one I guess. I posted a link to an article about 3-D "printing". This is an article, like many others linked to here on this site that deals with guns in an esoteric and therefore interesting way. It was moved to a part of the forum titled Books, Magazines and Periodicals. FYI, this part of the forum is devoted to discussions of (wait for it) Books, Magazines and Periodicals! This is an article about manufacturing guns. In no way did I infer that I was discussing the medium and that it was a book, magazine or periodical. The typical thread here will mention the name of a published piece of material, like a magazine or book. If this belonged here it would name a (get ready) book, magazine or periodical! If it needed moving, it would probably fit best under the gunsmithing heading, since it is about building guns. So, not that it matters a great deal, but now that it is here, it will probably be overlooked by anyone who doesn't have an interest in discussing written literature by name. I was hoping to review the reactions to this article and see what opinions cropped up, and now it's buried. Therefore, I made a comment about where it was moved to, as both a statement, and an unstated question about whether this was an appropriate place for it to reside. I hope this fleshes things out for you.

__________________
"A gun is like a parachute.



If you need one, and don't have one,



you'll probably never need one again!"

Ahhhh, I aplogise. I didnt realize you had posted it in a different location initially. I was confused and thought you felt our comments were detracting from the thread.

I looked back up there and I see you thought I was responding to you. Oh well, it was an interesting article and I enjoy a dialog for it's own sake so we didn't strike out on that account.

__________________
"A gun is like a parachute.



If you need one, and don't have one,



you'll probably never need one again!"

This technology has been used to some extent in model making. The products are on the expensive side due to the cost of equipment and the rather long time to produce a part.

The more traditional approach has been resin casting. This process starts with a "master" or original part to be duplicated. You pour a silicone rubber mold around the original and use the resulting mold to cast parts from two part polyurethane or epoxy resin. Some of the resins are pretty tough but like 3-D printing, they will probably never match metals. Some resins have "shrinkage" while others are more dimensionally stable. Advanced techniques are used to produce highest quality parts.

Resin casting is relatively fast once the mold is made. Around 5 minutes per part. The more complex the part, the trickier the mold design becomes. An AR lower would not be easy but probably do-able. More food for thought.