On the other hand, it’s a proof that, for the apparent US legal definition of “a gun” you *can* print one.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/133514-the-worlds-first-3d-printed-gun

One thing’s for sure, there will be repercussions. I hope they’re not mad ones.

See this article over at the Schneierblog: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/07/making_handcuff.html

My guess is that more classes of key will be getting transponders.

Other folks might get a lot more mileage out of the David scanner, but for my personal ROI, I need off-the-shelf solutions that fit a *very* modest salary.

I saw a link to it and tried it out on a lark. WAY toned-down compared to 3dsMax or Blender (what I have experience with), let alone real CAD programs like LLama and folks use. But by that token, very fast to use — fast enough that I did a half-dozen models in roughout, which I then took to 3ds for polishing prior to kicking out models.

Currently have “options” for the 3dspainting, and a guy with a 5-axis waterjet who’ll look into cutting costs on that front, too.

I’ll keep you updated — while 3d printing may be a huuuuuge thing, I suspect that tools putting 3d modelling within reach of Clueless Liberal Arts Grads like myself may be the real enabling factor.

Down the road, if it were done in an institution with a large artifact base, Tedd, I think you’re dead on the money. In my case, as an experimental archaeologist, I take the replicas and do ugly tests with them to try to answer historical questions (think Mythbusters, but academically rigorous rather than built-for-entertainment).

I don’t know anything about your field, but it’s possible that the scanned data might be useful to you in other ways, too. Perhaps you can categorize items by dimensions or physical features? Engineering experience has been that 3D models revolutionize the design process by becoming a database of all engineering information about the component, and the set of all models becomes a meta database for the entire product line. It’s possible that the scanned models may be more valuable than the replicas.

For a report on Contour Crafting:
http://www.countingcats.com/?p=347

Have a look at some of the animations on the Contour crafting site, the music is so inappropriate to the imagery I can’t help but watch them over and again.

I saw some articles about printing medicinal tablets etc. Nice blue sky thinking but not practically feasible even at the pharmacy and the pharma companies won’t let that golden goose out in the open.

Sorry for the previous double post.

For any of the metal technologies – I would suggest that you wait a bit. I don’t see them as yet being ready for what you describe without a lot of post-processing.

If you are looking for 99%-realistic replicas of historical metal artefacts, I think I would suggest that you see if you can find a good powder-metal processor, who will almost-certainly be in China these days. These folks have some technologies for making short-run parts that are almost-as-good-as-machined for surprisingly-little money.

You can also exploit some of the really-snappy scanning techniques now coming into wide use, and simply export a 3D scan to a 5-axis milling machine, which will make a perfect replica.

For plastic materials, for the high-end amateur or the low-end professional, I would recommend the U-Print desk-top 3D printer. This machine is made by Stratasys, which makes a lot of much-larger and higher-end machines, but it is sold under several licensed named, including one version by HP. This is a full-function filament-fusion machine that uses the latest and best soluble-support technology. I believe the latest models can be bought for less than U$14K. The range of available materials is limited at present but expect it to expand, just as it has for their higher-end ‘Dimension’ machines. This is a kick-*ss little machine that will take files directly from your better CAD systems and handle all of the processing in a simple, user-friendly GUI format. The filament material is a little spendy, but I guess that’s their business model – razors and blades.

With one of these and a little imagination, it’s just stunning what you can make. The ‘party piece’ for this machine is an 8″ Crescent wrench, grown in a single build (no assembly), that works. I have built complete, working inkjet printer mechanisms on this very machine. I think it’s the most-advanced and most-accessible machine on the market right now. But wait 5 minutes . . . .

llater,

llamas