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Worthless: 3D printing is nothing but a nerd fad that won't leave hobbyist workshops.

6 (3%)

Unimportant: 3D printing will become common but won't be useful for much other than tiny full plastic objects.

8 (4%)

Minor Importance: 3D printing will function as a light industry that will coexist with existing manufacturing methodologies.

43 (21.4%)

Moderate Importance: 3D printing will challenge and slowly replace a large number of existing manufacturing businesses.

104 (51.7%)

Major Importance: 3D printing will completely flip the table on conventional manufacturing and quickly destroy existing business for anything you can make with them.

20 (10%)

Critical: 3D printing will disrupt conventional ideals of work and money so much that they collapse and are replaced in a paradigm shift.

20 (10%)

Total Members Voted: 199

[Sheb]

Well, "soldiers" kinda imply an organized army, which by definition can only happen in civilized place. But you always had warriors.

[DrPoo]

You can make a fully functional gun from a 3d printer.

A really shitty, inaccurate, one shot gun that is more likely to explode in your hands than pose any real threat to anyone.
No fear factor at all, might as well pull out a water pistol. The burglar would laugh at you.

[Yoink]

Could always throw the printer at 'em.

[Max White]

Well if your printer prints printers then your printed printers could print printers to throw at people who don't print printers.

[MonkeyHead]

3D printed flamethrower, anyone?

[Max White]

So question: How feasible is the home 3d printer that can print metal objects?

[SalmonGod]

So question: How feasible is the home 3d printer that can print metal objects?

It's actually not too different from ones that print plastic.  They deposit layers of metal powder, which are then fused with heat.

[DrPoo]

That kinda metal dosent sound very durable. Though if we one day can have metal printers that can print metal strong enough for use in guns, i might be afraid of nerds that would do that

[forsaken1111]

The problem with the metal deposition is that it never gets tempered and never forms a good crystalline lattice. Its like a bunch of welds on top of other welds rather than sheets of metal welded together. The welds are usually the weakest point (unless you use friction stir welding I guess). The current metal printers we have just weld on top of welds on top of welds which as I understand makes for a very brittle material.

[Eagleon]

On the other hand heating to a temperature to drop into a temper is a lot easier than heating to cast. It's not undoable. It'll probably happen when regular 3D printing is a mainstream, commercialized thing, and the market for it is a sure thing - I'm thinking a little butane or propane torch attachment to do the final heat, and then the printing platform would drop away and the object would fall into the quenching medium, and lots of frivolous lawsuits when people set it all next to their futon.

[DWC]

Yeah, metals will always have this problem of fracturing along their welds, which would be everywhere on a 3d printer. Not really sure how this could be mitigated considering how a 3d printer functions.

[Mech#4]

Could you create alternating layers of metal? Kind of like what they do with plywood. Or... you could create a form that dissipated stress evenly across the entire object by an internal structure. It's interesting to think of what shapes a 3D printer could create which the current methods of industry can't achieve.

I remember seeing some pens that were all spindly and twisted, too complex for a mould to create.

[misko27]

Peopel will only return to the purpose of the thread if the thread's purpose changes, appearantly...

[Eagleon]

Could you create alternating layers of metal? Kind of like what they do with plywood. Or... you could create a form that dissipated stress evenly across the entire object by an internal structure. It's interesting to think of what shapes a 3D printer could create which the current methods of industry can't achieve.

I remember seeing some pens that were all spindly and twisted, too complex for a mould to create.

There are all kinds of workarounds to poor materials that mechanical engineers have in their toolkit, yeah. They really only go so far. Bootstrapping your equipment by just making furnace and molds might honestly make the most sense if it's a part that gets stressed, but metal isn't cheap, and neither is the heat used to work with it. It would be incredible for everyone if other materials could supersede more metal parts, and that might happen once it actually becomes desirable to do the materials engineering needed for reproducible home use. I think it will help tremendously down the line that someone figured out a way to make graphene using cheap equipment (the lightscribe DVD thing), and in a printer-friendly way too.

[DWC]

I forgot about how much stress would be in the form with 3d printed metal, since the layers would cool at different rates, you'd have stress on the welds. You could layer them however you like on however many axes, but it'd be something like cast aluminum, it'd be extremely prone to fracturing along it's layers.

I'd think maybe they could 3d print a metal part and then reforge it somehow? Or maybe find an alloy or material best suited for this kind of manufacturing. The more I think about it, the more inherit problems I see with 3d printing.