Prototyping

You've probably heard about those evil men with 3D printers who are printing those 3d guns. Well I gotta say, that has to be the coolest technology in the world. And after like 60 hours you can produce fun stuff like:




Total length is 600mm. Inner barrel is 230 mm, though you could slap a silencer on it and extend it. Runs an M249 gearbox and M4 hopup. No guts in it yet though, we'll have to see how she works once I get around to installing everything

How much does the 3D printing plastic(?) cost?

Depends on what you print it in. Thats printed in PLA which is cheap, but not overly strong; probably cost around $100. I'm gonna be printing it again in Nylon which will probably run me $200 or so. You can get all kinds of different materials though: PLA, ABS, Polycarbonate, Nylon, PETT, Wood (yes that's not an error, its some sort of wood by-product) and some others. Some are more expensive and more of a pain to deal with.

Oh okay, I just looked up some of the materials that can be used. I think that would be useful for making parts.

Useful yes, cost effective... Not so much since you have to factor in the cost of the machine.

Yeah, I was thinking more for proprietary parts or hard to get parts. Is it your machine?

Ya I finally broke down and bought one. Tis an ultimaker: https://www.ultimaker.com/. Good machine, well designed, though it came fully disassembled and required a whole lot of time getting it up and running.

That's cool, how detailed can it get mm's?

Supposedly it can print at a resolution of 0.04 mm. I have yet to test that theory

[Pinoy]

Very nice. I remember the first AEG you built years ago. Now, I have something that I need you to do for me.. PM sent.