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Comment by wolfretcrap | Hacker News Reader

But a CNC mill can also make a gun barrel, whats so sensational about 3d printed barrel?

For a lathe, CNC or not, you need 10's of thousands of $ worth of equipment and specific skills and experience; several months worth, at the very least. Plus you need a space where you can put a workshop.

To 3d print a gun, you need a sub $200 3d printer, $50 worth of filament, a desk and a computer, and another $100 worth of tools to be able to ECM barrels in your bathtub.

If that is not a sensational leap in capabilities, I don't know what is. It the same leap as going from needing $50k Onyx workstations to being able to program advanced 3d applications with $500 worth of computing equipment and a bunch of free software from the internet.

Yeah this has always been my point. Why would you use a 3d plastic printer to make a gun when it's as easy to get a CNC machine and make actual guns.

Have you ever tried using a lathe or mill, CNC or not? I have, and I did some summer jobs in metal working businesses, and I can tell you that making a metal part vs 3d printing one is nothing alike. You need highly specialized skills to operate a mill or lathe, even on CNC ones (the skills are a bit different but it's not 'easier' to become a CNC operator than it is to become a manual lathe operator).

Becoming a sufficiently experienced 3d printer operator takes two weeks if you can spend an hour in the evenings tinkering with it, or a day if you spend a whole Saturday.

Jupp have done a bunch of CNC work and it does require a fair bit more knowledge than a 3d printer for sure. But then these kind of things have started showing up https://ghostgunner.net so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before anyone can buy something closer to a 3d printer in simplicity.

Right, but a ghostgunner is not a CNC machine in the common meaning of that word. It was made specifically for cutting 80% lowers (even if the GG website claims it's a 'general purpose' CNC), and even then, only the lowers from GG themselves. And yes, there are initiatives like the GGFlex, but none of that takes away from the fact that it's vastly harder to machine a gun than it is to print one. Like, even with a GG you still need a premade barrel, FCG, magazine etc. In the US, you can buy those off the shelf (for now), but most places in the world you can't. Maybe someone some day will build a GG-like device that can cut all of those parts with the ease the GG can do it. But until then, there are 3d printed guns for those willing to take the risk.

We should also clarify here for those who might not be in the know: while it is possible to 3D print metal parts, it's a lot harder, requiring lots of expertise, and it's more expensive than 3D printing plastic parts.

I think every reference to 3D printing in this discussion is to 3D printing plastic parts.

Same thing that makes 3D printers in general a sensation: you don’t need to be very well trained to make something that looks interesting.

They’re the Visual Basic (or possibly the Excel) of machine tools, for good and ill.

You can not make a gun barrel with a CNC mill. You can however make one on any old lathe.

Or just buy some pipe! Can't argue with tradition.

Better make sure your pipe does not have a welded seam or you're going to be in for a surprise. The proper name I think is 'technical tubing'.

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