3D Printing file share your illegal weapon downloads

In a ever changing world the use of 3D printers may increase in numbers, Rep rap machines have been around since 2007, their ugly designs of miniature scaffolds without the buildings have been exclusive to Boffins, engineering students and nerds. Though intentionally open sourced the complex range of components and software has been exclusive, for people who can under stand this level of mechanical, electronic and software engineering.

At the heart of the of RepRap is a thermoplastic extruder, early attempts at controlling the plastic flow to the extruder was to us a Dc motor which proved inaccurate. The stepper motor allowed precision timing for the drive assembly to give the right amount of plastic to the area for printing. The whole complex operation requires full knowledge of X,Y and Z axis. RepRap's electronics based on the popular Arduino mini micro processor board platform. with additional boards to control the stepper motors. The current version uses an Arduino derived Sanguino motherboard, this architecture allows expansion to additional controls.

There are many different versions 3D printer Cubify came to light at CES 2012. Also Makerbot, which is similar to the Darwin or Mendal models of RepRap designs. Though Makerbot uses laser cut milled parts  that encases the printer into a more acceptable appearance. Makerbot's website, sells small accessories and electronic kits as well as replacement parts and printers fully assembled. This seems limited as the number of makerbot projects listed are 5 in total. Compared to Cubify's website which has a small library of files to download similar to itunes store, where each item has a small fee. the website encourages a small community to design their own products to add to the library.

Despite the online community of RepRap and Cubify's efforts of its 3D printing library, there seems to little in the way of obtaining 3D designs to download and print. Until recently Pirate bay has been a file sharing company that allows the simple sharing of mp3 and movie files, which have been controversial due to the copyright restrictions of music and film studios. Pirate bay has now added a new torrent category Physibles, which is the 3D printer plans or possibly the STL files of any virtual model to be made real by a printer. 

This will open up a new area of file sharing physical items such as toys machine parts or other peoples designs. Hopefully the use of 3D printing will eliminate the need to buy most toys from the shops, or cheap items from china. In a ideal world this will be the end of expensive packaging for toys and simple gadget products too.

There is a danger to this type of illegal downloads as it will be very easy to manufacture 3D prints of gun parts to be made as a untraceable weapon. "Haveblue" documented in a blog post that using a Stratasys 3D printer to craft the parts to a .22 pistol and fired 200 rounds with it. He also tried to assemble parts for a .223 AR-15 rile which didn't work, though it was down to the compatibility of actual gun parts and the lower receiver 3D print.

3D printing has yet to be popular.  Sales have increased and will eventually lower in price, which will probably turn the manufacturing industry on its head. Though 3D prints are not easily available, people will be turning to the internet, Pirate bay in particular for free designs. Examples in 3D print designs include clothing, shoes, toys, musical instruments and now lethal Guns. Considering that the possibilities of 3D printing can be limitless. There is a slight possibility that this new technology will be used for evil purposes.

3D Printers, the start of cool homemade manufacturing

I am no stranger to home made things, or do it yourself projects. I like making DIY electronic circuits and placing them in a box which I either crafted my self or using rotary tools to craft holes into a pre-made project boxe. My last blog was the exciting world of molds and trying to come up with a design for a iphone bracelet holder thing to test my limits on home manufacture. It's a unfinished project as I am looking to find a right flexible material similar to silicone to replace the size and form of a Pip-boy 3000 limit edition clock.

As I dabble into mold making I find myself looking into other areas. We are certainly not at a stage of technology, to clone everything to get a spare copy of something. If we was, I would of borrowed a Mac book pro and returned it the same day. Knowing I have a unlimited supply of disposable laptops, I would have less sentiment for the machine.
Instead we are at a point where we can replicate solid forms and produce complex forms with or without the use of mold technology. I must admit I find the wonderful world of 3D printing a fascinating and exciting subject.

The idea of 3D printers have been around about 30 years, a industrial commercial printer would typically cost more then £16,000. The Rep-Rap Project created by Adrian Bowyer of Bath University, was an initiative that started in the summer of 2005. Rep-Rap short for replicating rapid prototyper fuses molten plastic to a fixed base. In the same principle of a 2D laster printer, a Rep-Rap machine would draw the cross section and add layer upon layer until all 3 dimensions are complete. To date the rep rap project has released  3d printing machines Darwin in  March 2007, Prusa Mendal, in October 2009 and Huxley in 2010.

As an open source project it was to share designs and free to make copies, it was to hoped that each machine would make plastic parts of the 3D printer itself which would self replicate most of the parts need for a complete copy.

The use of 3D designs would allow the use of virtual drawing forms Computer Aided designs (C.A.D.) or animation modeling software to be constructed by printer. This would allow complex designs and intricate work or even miniaturization of image file. there are two possibilities of having a design ready for printing.
The first is to draw your design with the use of CAD software which might be too complex for the average consumer. The second is to use a 3D scanner, this uses a laser and camera configuration which triangulates the object and builds up a picture through special software.

Most 3D scanner products use a this method along with sophisticated software to filter out unwanted noise and object. Though not widely used by the general public, it has been used for scanning objects into the virtual world for second life. A good fast way of making money by selling objects of desire in a virtual world for those people who built them selves a home.
Despite scanners costing thousands of pounds there are ways around by using a web cam and demo software which would work in the same way. lasers can be brought cheaply from Ebay and webcams and software can be obtain online too. Though more effort is needed to clean up the image, A STL file (Standard Tessellation Language file) can still be obtained for a Printer to make. A STL file describes a raw unstructured triangulated surface, it specifies both ASCII and Binary representations. There is also a Kinect hack where by a camera end of a kinect device connected to a computer, can scan and collect 3D data in real time.

The consumer electronics show in 2012 showcased a new product from Cubify, which is a user friendly 3D printer along with a kinect device to scan 3D images of people. The printer has a cartridge that can be easily changed and a overall design much more pleasing to the eye the a Rep-Rap machine.
It would seem the next step is to have a user friendly machine, Cubifys web site has a design section for people to upload their own design and sell their product  Visitors have the option to buy pre-made items or the print files to use on their own machines they have brought from the website. Consumables are available for the printer itself and comes in many colors. The designs included are from simple Iphone coves, to shoes, to flexible material used for gloves and clothes. the possibilities are endless, though it is still early from CES. It looks like a possible that 3D printing will be a popular as this user friendly device hits the markets. The printer has a limited build  dimensions of 5 by 5  by 5 inches a single cartridge is $50 and a printer is $1.299.
It's not cheap to buy but if success carries on it might come down in price, considering early models have cost thousands of pounds.
Personally I would like to like to see if prices will fall, or if the company will develop a 3D scanning technology that will go hand in hand with the printer. It is still too early but with features like a design library to pick and choose items to print. This community based idea to sell 3D designs similar to the app store from Apple, will help push open the doors for designers and for the printers itself. Printing times might take a while to manufacture depending on print size, though it might improve in the future. I am hoping future machines will allow a mix of colors, or that flexible material can be used instead of plastics.