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Comment by brntn | Hacker News Reader

Isn't that the whole point of the reprap projects?

You're going to be waiting a while if you're hoping for a 3D printer that you can buil at home and can churn out steel rods, bolts and belts.

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Pwdr can do aluminum oxide and likely also other sinter metals.

A step in the right direction. I've always felt that home 3D printers will truly become a game changer only when they can make metal items, like DMLS[1] does.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_metal_laser_sintering

Not all valuable parts are made of metal. You can do plenty with plastic already. Just look around you.

A machine that can make metal parts from a blueprint can also make all kinds of weapon. Do you think such a 3d printer would be legally available to the general public?

They already are. They're not cheap though.

That's interesting. I would think that a machine capable of making arbitrary metal parts would very quickly be subjected to heavy government regulations?

The parent poster is probably referring to CNC milling machines. AFAIK, gun parts made on them are subject to the same regulation/registration as if they were purchased in a store or made in a machine shop. Also, using CNC machines takes skill -- they're not "set and forget" -- and I would imagine that the kind of people with said skill are smart enough not to tempt fate and make illegal gun parts.

Yeah, that's what I thought. My surprise was at the notion of set and forget machines for arbitrary metal parts.

Why the downvote? I was just pointing out something that the gov't is sure to latch on to.

Actually, there was a big kerfuffle on Thingiverse when someone published, as proof of concept, a design for a plastic rifle magazine: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11636

People have also done the lower receivers for the same rifle (an AR-15): http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11770

Indeed, I've tried alumina, but any other powder materials should work. Creating a solid part is done by sintering or fixating (e.g. with resin)

what type of laser do you use for the SLS process?

The SLS process hasn't been implemented for the Pwdr machine yet, but a small IR Laser has been used by others for SLS: http://builders.reprap.org/2010/02/first-tests-building-powd...

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