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[sneakey pete]

The idea is that a more advanced 3D printer would be able to deal with issues like that.

Except... it can't. Its physics, you can't get around it. While power metallurgy can create strong metallic pieces, using 3d controlled laser sinterers, They simply cannot create pieces with the properties that are required to make many things in the world that we use and rely on today (particularly because of the fact that you have gaps in your metal).
Main example: Roller and ball bearings. To get the required hardness you need to forge the material that the race is made of (IIRC), and then apply heat or chemical treatments to it to greatly increase the surface hardness. IIRC, they usually heat treat them to turn the steel into martensite, which involves heating the metal upto 800C and quenching it. After which the races need to be machined for precision.

So... a more advanced 3d printer would be capable of say, making a bearing, would probably require the facilities to forge a race, something to heat the metal upto 800C, and the ability to precisely machine, not to mention the specialized equipment to correctly make the perfect sized round balls. I think that any 3d printer/automatic assembly machine advanced enough to do that would look exactly like bearing factories that already exist today. Not something that the average person would have in their back shed...

edit:

Some of this stuff is realistic, but 3D printing is one of those things people sometimes extrapolate far too much upon.

That's pretty much what i'm getting at, i guess.
I think one thing people have to realize is that its already quite possible to make stuff on your own, you don't need a 3D printer to do it. Go buy some sheet metal, a welder, and maybe a heat torch and tools, and you can cut, bend, weld and create a great amount of things. A lot of the fabrication in the world is done by small local shops who make custom things (particularly in the auto industry, for example. Hot rod makers, engine builders, etc do this all the time, eg making custom mounts for things). but that hasn't caused the entire economic model to collapse. I don't think more advanced 3d printers would either.

[Kogan Loloklam]

I actually hope I am wrong and slimey is right. One hacker posting a crack and any kid can print out a lethal untracable firearm. If a crack is even needed...

Gunpowder materials is one of those resources that are common to every household currently, and putting together a bullet is suprisingly easy. Machining a gun or bullet components isn't.

And that's just one tiny aspect of the drawbacks of this.

[SalmonGod]

I dunno if you guys are joking or not.

The opinions of SalmonGod and Kogan Loloklam do not necessarily reflect the opinions of MetalSlimeHunt.

Some of this stuff is realistic, but 3D printing is one of those things people sometimes extrapolate far too much upon.

I expect them to get a lot more sophisticated than they are, but I'm not sure I believe just yet that they'll get as awesome as Kogan is saying.  I still see Star Trek style replicators as pure sci-fi.

You know how they work at present, right?  Razor thin layers of material are built up on top of each other.  It's done many different ways, but the common thread is that the material needs to be something that can be liquified by the machine.  The biggest obstacle to more sophisticated applications of the technology is that it's difficult to incorporate many different materials into a 3d printing processes (especially, as pete pointed out, because those materials often require their own special treatment processes).  We're definitely getting there, though.  Being able to print out your own electronics isn't too far-fetched, especially since many emerging circuit and display technologies are manufactured by simply spraying the active material onto a substrate.

[Pnx]

My high school actually had a machine for making circuit boards, I don't remember exactly how it worked but it was something where you just drew the traces on a piece of paper (that may have been made of a special material, I don't remember) and then the machine would print the traces you drew on it, then you just drilled holes in it and soldered in the components and you bam, you have a fully functional circuit board... Although the one time our teacher talked about it he was looking over a board that didn't work on account of some of the traces being broken (I think this was because the person that drew it didn't press down hard enough).

We never used it, although I always wondered what the art club could do with it.

That was probably useless information.

[Kogan Loloklam]

For them that are curious, store.makerbot.com/replicator.html has a $2,000 dual head (two materials at once) plastic 3d printer.

It prints with lego kind of material. Anything made out of lego plastic that is the size of a bread loaf or smaller can be made with this.

Like little former presidential models for your wargame of choice.

Heck, even a scale presidential limo.

Kennedy assassination, the game

[SalmonGod]

Duke Energy CEO Bill Johnson resigns after one day, gets $44 million in severance

[Solifuge]

I do not understand how a rational human being can look at that... can make those executive decisions, and think it's okay. Where is the policing force for bullshit like that, and how can we replace them with an entity that actually gives a shit about anything?

[scriver]

Perhaps they just loose touch with reality. Most likely, everybody the hang around with is part of the same culture of extreme wealth, and over time, that kind of behaviour becomes not only "standard", but normal. Realistic. They probably don't even think about it. An interview with some Swedish burgeoise some year or so ago comes to mind; despite living in the richest part of Stockholm, having a summer house and boat in the right place on the west coast and all the new cool cars and appliances, he didn't think of himself as a "rich person" or anything out of the normal middly classly average life, because, as he said, "he had no money left at the end of the month". And it's completely beyond me how that makes up logic in his head at all.

[Sheb]

People tend to forget what the average really is. In Belgium, which is quite reach, over 75% of the workforce earn less that 1700 euros a month. If you earn 3500 euros/moth you might think of yourself as middle-class, but you're really in the top 10%.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

That's almost no money for anyone.

[SalmonGod]

People tend to forget what the average really is. In Belgium, which is quite reach, over 75% of the workforce earn less that 1700 euros a month. If you earn 3500 euros/moth you might think of yourself as middle-class, but you're really in the top 10%.

Being in the top 5%-15% IS middle-class, in my opinion.  Upper-middle-class, maybe, but still middle-class.  All this does is illustrate how much wealth has flown upwards.  The vast majority of the population is poor.  A small, dwindling portion enjoys a sensible quality of life.  A very tiny portion enjoys obscene luxury, while everyone else sacrifices for their privilege.

[Nilik]

Perhaps they just loose touch with reality. Most likely, everybody the hang around with is part of the same culture of extreme wealth, and over time, that kind of behaviour becomes not only "standard", but normal. Realistic. They probably don't even think about it. An interview with some Swedish burgeoise some year or so ago comes to mind; despite living in the richest part of Stockholm, having a summer house and boat in the right place on the west coast and all the new cool cars and appliances, he didn't think of himself as a "rich person" or anything out of the normal middly classly average life, because, as he said, "he had no money left at the end of the month". And it's completely beyond me how that makes up logic in his head at all.

"I have no money left after I spend it all on luxuries!"

I've been meaning to post this article here for some time, very much relevant.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-things-rich-people-need-to-stop-saying/

[Duuvian]

It's all money supply. Get the poor folks more money and tax the rich is the only way out. If the rich folks flee then devalue them somehow. There are a myriad of ways of ways to do this, and they'll fight every step of the way. The trouble is putting someone in power that understands this and is willing to crush their protests and tell them cya later; we'll take half of what you have when you leave.

The trick is that there are a lot more of us than there are of them; and not all of us are as dumb or of less worth as they seem to think.

EDIT: In America I mean, can't speak for other countries. The money supply stagnating at the top is holding back development substantially here.

[kaijyuu]

So, we need another FDR. Any necromancers available?

[Duuvian]

I'll do it in twelve years. Either that or Obama needs to do some thinking instead of golfing.