so is the laser

A joy I wish to share with the citizens of Athens

more structural rigidity

and when you print with molten metal via lasers

there's always gaps left behind

you'll see people machining steel after it's been stamped with water cutting systems

if only for the width of the laser beam lol

Could I hire my local steel mill to craft a metal component for me?

@Seven Proxies but they do, lol

typicall the metal 3d printers that use wire as a feedstock cost more in wire than traditional welding

@ubermensch if you don't know someone there, doubtful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiUUZxp7bLQ

99% of steel mills are constantly on contract with constant deadlines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlyuFskhZ6M

yep

A buddy of mine worked a lot with water jet cutters.

Far superior to laser cutters, because A they'll cut anything, regardless of thickness, and B. waterjet cuts far more cleanly.

I love how 3D printing just took off

I love Fraunhofer

waterjet is pretty good ngl

They have some smartypant people there

waterjets are a bitch to maintain though

efficient, cheap

and they don't perform well with soft materials

constant pump failure if you buy a shitty model

I'm still not very impressed by 3D printing.

It's all still very gimmicky and prototyp stage in my view.

I have a friend in the steel business in michigan

additive construction fundamentally is less durable than making a thing out of a bloc of material

he had to basically replace all of his units

it's what you make out of it

Right now I’d like to make components for old rifle designs. Like some straight pull stuff. Nothing too fancy.

at least for now

because they all shit the bed after a certain amount of hours

Remember when there was a fear people would 3D print guns lmao

they have, they were shit

😛

I know

what is really useful is a plasma cutter mounted to a cnc table

@ManAnimal But who the hell wants to cut soft materials anyway? :P

Much more fun cutting 5 inch thick slabs of solid rock with water jets 😄

Water jets are scary

for what purpose though?

@JackH670 You can 3D print guns... Can't print the ammo though.