Plans to print a gun halted as 3D printer is seized

EnglishLady · Oct 4, 2012

"Mr Goodman predicts that 3D printing could be the next battleground in the fight against organised crime and terrorism. And it won't just be weapons that will be printed online.

"It will be the next frontier in IP [Intellectual Property] theft when you are able to manufacture a Rolex watch, Gucci handbags, Nike sneakers," he said."

Full report

BBC News - Plans to print a gun halted as 3D printer is seized

layoutshooter · Oct 4, 2012

Here is a novel approach to crime and gun control, disarm EVERY government and police department world wide. Those two groups account for more crime and death than all the civilian criminals world wide, combined.

EnglishLady · Oct 4, 2012

layoutshooter said:
Here is a novel approach to crime and gun control, disarm EVERY government and police department world wide. Those two groups account for more crime and death than all the civilian criminals world wide, combined.

LOL good morning

What I found interesting was the last few paragraphs that I quoted above

layoutshooter · Oct 4, 2012

Good morning! Crime will NEVER be stopped. Passing more laws will always INCREASE the number of crimes committed and the number of people committing them.

BobWolf · Oct 4, 2012

Are they talking abbout illegaly printing bluprints? I think I missed somthing in this story.

Bob Wolf

asjssl · Oct 4, 2012

No...there are printers that can actually "print"/ make anything even mechanical ...the example i seen they "printed"/made a working diffrential (pig) for a rear end of a car..pretty cool...

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Turtle · Oct 4, 2012

Not sure what you mean by "mechanical". They can print things with moving parts that that already moving when printed, no assembly required. Adjustable crescent wrenches, this thing, lots of stuff. A gun is nothing more than an assembly of parts, so at the very least you could print the parts and assemble them into a working gun.

Rocketman · Oct 5, 2012

T

Turtle said:
Not sure what you mean by "mechanical". They can print things with moving parts that that already moving when printed, no assembly required. Adjustable crescent wrenches, this thing, lots of stuff. A gun is nothing more than an assembly of parts, so at the very least you could print the parts and assemble them into a working gun.

Those are some amazing machines. The last tool and die job I had was in a factory that did a lot of injection molding. Many of their prototypes were "printed". It is an amazing process to me. Ive operated a lot of cnc equipment and worked in tool and die for 15 years. Ive built large progressive complete dies from scratch, ran wire edm machines and cnc lathes and mills as well as conventional. I never, ever dreamed that I would see something "printed".... especially with the complexity and accuracy of some this stuff. Technology is truly amazing.

21cExp · Oct 6, 2012

For those wanting more info about these fascinating machines...

This months cover story in Wired magazine is all about 3D Printers and Makerbot, who has been making them affordable, and what we can look forward to in future. Pretty dang amazing:

http://www.wired.com/design/2012/09...or2-will-launch-era-of-desktop-manufacturing/