So.. I read about this in a magazine before it became popular.. The concept was fascinating, but I'd never thought it would take off like it has.. Anyone try this yet? I haven't really done alot of research on it yet, but there are a multitude of things that are being printed, such as guns.. Alot of the things I see,like guns, would seem non functional..more like a prop.. But apparently they do work, otherwise people wouldn't bring it to attention.

 

They could work . But the parts would all need to be printed separately and then assembled obv. But it's plastic.

 

All the parts don't need to be printed separately. Material is very limited.

 

Obviously you couldn't print a barrel or something that would be under a lot of pressure, but people have printed AR lowers that hold up for a while.

They're cool little machines. I have a little experience with them. I'm an EE major but we had a small mechanical build in one of our projects where I designed a couple pullies on autoCAD and printed them off on our makerbot. We used abs plastic, which seemed fairly durable for what it was, but I don't see how it's would hold up to the recoil of a .223 rifle cartridge. The pullies I made are hallow inside and it still took 45 mins for it to print out. So printing something solid (for more durability), the time would go up considerably.

Here's a few pics of my project.

Cad drawing


In progress


Finished




I

 

yeah, still definitely in its early stages.. im also interested in printing body parts such as fingers, or even limbs in the future with the correct technology.. ive seen it in sci-fi movies, but then again its only sci-fi for now.. I hope to one day live to see it if possible.

 

Printers such as the makerbot are great for simple prints, but if you want some quality stuff you'll have to bump it up to FDM, SLA, SLS, etc

 

Agreed. I've just been using Shapeways for my prints. I would need to make a heck of a lot of prints to offset the cost of owning my own printer. So far I've only used the prints to make small car parts like relay holders, mounting brackets and small radio controlled helicopter parts.

 

I would love to have one of these but don't know what I would make.

 

printing an Aston Martin based off a Skyline? we'll have to see how this goes..

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/guy-buil...193043575.html