I’m really impressed by some of the advances they are making in 3D printing and it looks like this might end up being more than a development tool.

http://mashable.com/2012/12/10/3d-printed-guns-ban/

….If you can print a gun that’s some pretty tough stuff,

I have a couple dollars I like to “gamble” with in stocks (not smart enough to “invest wisely”). Do you think I missed the boat on buying stock?

If not what good companies would you recommend?

Anybody make/buy a printer?

An interesting philosophical discussion about this has recently occurred in my household.

We saw the video where someone had 3D-printed the "reciever" portion of a machine gun (the part of the gun that is legally considered the "gun", as opposed to the other parts that attach to it like handle and barrel) and it was able to get off several rounds before failing.

We came to the conclusion that, for those of us who want stricter gun control, we're quickly approaching an era where that point will become moot, and what we really should be asking for is bullet control. Bullets are harder to make, and won't be 3D-printed any time soon. (I mean, consistent, accurate, and deadly bullets are harder to make from scratch. I mean, any ball bearing can be turned into a bullet, but the gun that fires it isn't exactly the kind of thing that would be used to commit crimes frequently.)

This immediately reminded me of this.

<don flame retardant suit>
Sure has worked well in Belize...
</don>

EDIT: One of the highest per-capita murder rates in the world - top 10 for several years now and as high as 3 last year.

While a bit off topic, yes, I’ve been telling a friend of mine that for a long time. Luckily a shell casing can be resized and reused many times and all types of gun powder can be purchased easily. The bullet itself can be made at home from melting lead (if need be).

The recent price of ammunition has shown many others feel that way as well. Just about all online retailers are on backorder and most gun stores are sold out. Fortunately many gun types and styles use the same ammunition so it may be a bit difficult to ban a particular size of ammunition. But on the other hand there is no constitutional amendment saying the government can’t ban ammunition. After all you can’t buy LSD at Wal-Mart, well not inside the store.

The problem is that designing a gun isn't much harder than reloading your own ammo (Samuel Colt designed his first gun at the age of like 16). All you need is a shop and a basic understanding of the physics and mechanics involved and you can make a working firearm. Of course, tighter tolerances are always better, but it isn't some kind of arcane art.

That said, gun control is the absolute wrong way of going about reducing violent crime. We are at a homicide level comparable to the 60s (not rate, number) while having almost twice the population. Our violent crime levels are also at historically low levels.

The problem is, the media is magnifying every event, which it hasn't done in the past. It makes people think we are at an all time high, when we aren't.

I dare somebody to ask me what I think about Senator Feinstein's proposal

Calm down there big boy I’m “Wit cha.” Nobody is trying to pry anything out of your cold dead hands here, yet.

I just want input from you guys regarding if you think 3D Printing will morph into Star Trek replicators. If so, I want to invest in “iReplicator” stock now.

Exactly. If you can machine your own ammo down to working tolerances, you can make your own gun too, no 3D printer needed. It's just a different level of skill there.

The people who can make their own guns and ammo aren't who we're talking about. There will come a time soon when people without any knowledge or skill will simply be able to download a 3D plan file and print a working gun, then buy the ammo at wal-mart. At that point, the gun control argument is moot, it doesn't matter whether you're for or against gun control. So we should be arguing over bullet control, not gun control.

The technology has been out there forever. The difference is that a lot of people seem to be interested in it now, and ideas are everywhere (from building the tools required on the ISS as opposed to launching them, to 'printing' the building blocks for a moon base).

It is possible that some of the more robust/larger ones would take off. I really don't see something like the Cube becoming popular (5.5" x 5.5" x 5.5", or double that) seems too small to be really useful, even though the price isn't bad.

It couldn't hurt, after all it is only money

You how some high end color copiers refuse to copy US currency, and how operating systems are beginning to require signed software.

It could happen to RP printing. With unlocked printers only allowed into the hands of "Responsible" people.

- aside

Blacksmithing is not a lost art, not practiced as much as once it was.

What kind of smithing could RP be called. How about cybersmithing? Ugh, already in use, though I hadn't heard it before.

Perhaps we should just ban fingers or even entire arms. Then people couldn't even use a knife! But they could kick, I guess. We should probably ban legs, too. They could still bite, but we can't ban their mouths because that WOULD INFRINGE ON THEIR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS!!! At least they couldn't move around. Safest of all would simply be to ban people. Then we'd all be safe.

This idea that we can (or should) remove the *means* to act violently is stupid. We should logically focus on how to defend ourselves from the small minority of (inevitably) bad and violent people. Not that I expect even a countable minority on either side of this issue to be rational for one moment. But I would point out that only the *initiation* of violence against peaceful people is immoral and undesirable. Peaceful people have the moral right to defend themselves using violence against an aggressor. Any restriction of means restricts the means to defend one's self. Since most people are good, this kind of "control" disproportionately harms good, peaceful people.

Back to the OT: as a mechanical engineer who has used these tools since the earliest versions (when we called it stereolithography), I can say it is useful technology, but it will never fulfill the hype surrounding it today. This is because of the mechanical properties of the materials and the process used. The gun example is a good one. A quality gun receiver is forged, or perhaps machined, of high-strength steel, then heat treated to withstand the stresses involved. The tolerances aren't so much the issue, as the "printing" technology will eventually allow adequate geometric tolerance. The issue is the process and the materials. If all you're interested in making is plastic crap like toys or ikea-quality items, then "3D printing" will do it. But a deposition process can't provide the properties needed when strength is required (there is a weakness between each "level" of deposition). And for plastic manufacture at scale, injection moulding is dirt cheap per unit.

This is the next video phone or 3D television. It's also already a bubble, so it's the wrong time to jump in as an investor.

But great speculation opportunities exist in gold mining stocks right now, and also in shorting the US stock and bond markets. Consider a double- or triple-short ETF.

Jim

By the way, I could be completely wrong. I mean, look at the tremendous success we've had with "drug control"!

I agree that a dedicated manufacturing process and machines will make a better quality “thing.” I think the hype, and why I’m hyped, is the flexibility of the printer (I agree it shouldn’t be called a printer). Say you’re at the South Pole, or out in the sticks where I live, and you need a new volume knob for your Empeg. You just download the code, put in some plastic stock and presto you have a knob. It may not have the strength to shoot a bullet, or stop one, but a volume knob does not need to do that.

I also agree with the bubble, but you never know, sometimes bubbles can get real big.

One place I tend to disagree is that with some applications layered materials can be strong – plywood.

I really think the technology will take off when you get put in elements like oxygen, helium and carbon and it makes some earl grey tea, hot.

I’m going to take your advice and look into US stock and bonds.

There was an article yesterday (didn't get it in the referrer until today) about using a 3D Printer to 'print' food.

I don't know if they are talking about a blender or what, it just sounded bizarre to me.

Yes, laminated composites can be very strong indeed, in certain directions. Plywood is very weak in tension perpendicular to the laminates (causing the layers to pull apart).

But these printers aren't making anisotropic composites, they are making isotopic substances in layers (though this could change).

The empeg knob example is right on, though.

Just to clarify, I am suggesting a leveraged speculative bet *against* the US stock and bond markets, or even against stupidly overvalued individual companies like Salesforce.com (CRM), who could take the kind if spanking that Apple recently took any day. Great company and product, but waaaaay over priced. But predicting when the bubble will burst is impossible. George Soros himself, master of betting against bubbles, claims to have lost over $100M by betting against the dot com bubble too early. The craziness can continue for a long time. He was eventually right, but had an awful lot of options expire before the trade paid off.

The people who predicted the housing bubble crash and the subsequent financial crisis of 2008/9 are predicting a similar event imminently.

I also hope you're being conservative with most of your savings, and just speculating with some of your money. To me, "conservative" is also somewhat unconventional these days (though not historically): no US dollar denominated assets and savings in "real" things like gold and silver bullion coins, hard assets that don't depreciate, etc. An actual "thing" has value no matter what we're heading into...

Forgings are not needed to make a firearm, only to make them as light as possible.

This last week I visited our internal shop. We have two large laser sintering machines. One is set up to to fuse tool steel. The other sst. Only the functional surfaces need to be fine finished. I expect either would be easily able to make a receiver.

--------

I suspect this business of requiring gun insurance will fall by the side. And will be discriminatory. Live in the wrong neighborhood you won't be able to afford it. I'll bet it could be argued that failing to have it would unenforceable. That pesky 2nd amendment again.

But the bigger problem, it's essentially a form of gun registration. Enlisting a NGO to do far more than what the government, can't and shouldn't do.

Yes this is just a few thousand set aside for gambling. I have most of my money in my 401k and “things” (classic cars, land, etc…) I do need to look into how to investing negatively (like I said I don't even know the correct term here) because I feel a lot of companies are way over priced and set to go down the tubes.

I think you mean shorting. It is when you borrow a number of shares, and have to pay the shares back, so you hope the share prices drop and you can pay off the loan cheaper than you took it for.

Yep, you want to be "short the market". The easiest way to do that is with the "short ETF" funds, which take all the effort out of it. They use derivative instruments to let you be double or triple short (or long - the opposite). Google for "S&P triple short ETF" for an example.

Now, one problem with this, in my mind, is that prices are up due to all this money printing we've got going on. That could continue indefinitely, so that the market could keep soaring higher in dollar terms because those dollars are worth less for every one they print. So the *real* value of the market can go down while the *nominal* value goes up. That's what's been happening the last several years, in fact. Since market shorts are based on *nominal* value (that is, dollars) you can be double screwed. That's why I like the double and triple gold ETFs (long - betting that gold will continue to rise) for "gambling" and physical gold and silver for what's coming.

Jim

Thanks for the advice guys. I will definitely do some more research. Investing and money management in general has always been of interest to me but I’ve never devoted the time to learn or had any money at all to invest.

I’m sensing a lot of negativity in US growth from you guys, I’m on board as well.

I recommend "Crash Proof 2.0" and "The Real Crash" both by Peter Schiff, as well as his commentary and materials at europac.net

The guys who got it right are the "Austrian" economists, a school of economics founded by Ludwig Von Mises. They guys who got it wrong (and continue to get it wrong, and are in power) are the Keynesians, championed and popularized today by the moron Paul Krugman.

If you want to learn about economics, then mises.org is your place, starting with "Human Action" by Mises, or "Man, Economy and State" by Murray Rothbard (I am a huge fan of Rothbard).

Now, this is controversial, but the fact is that guys like Tom Woods, Peter Schiff, Ron Paul and others (all of the Austrian school) got it right, while the rest of America went into foreclosure. For some examples f this, check YouTube for "Peter Schiff was right" compilations of him warning about sub-prime mortgages causing a financial crisis in 2005 - and being mocked and laughed at.

I'm not making a political point (in this post), but IMHO if you want to profit in the marketplace, you want to be familiar with these Austrian economic principles. :-)

Jim