

Mini Cannon Firing and Destroying Targets - aaronbrethorst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxHW-QGMuZ4

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jrockway
No amount of Internet fame would motivate me to intentionally break a glass
next to my desk. Glass is pain to clean up, and when you miss a tiny shard,
you will know it... someday.

Also, how does this compare to a BB gun?

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bshep
I thought the same thing... also shooting at the egg right next to his
computer, not a good idea, what if it splattered on the keyboard.

Also, where do I get one?

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jacquesm
The egg splattering on to the keyboard would not happen because there is not
enough kinetic energy in that small bullet to make it splash back very far,
the lightbulb though for sure put some fragments in to his keyboard because
the shards bounce off each other and will cause some shards to go in the
opposite direction of where the bullet came from.

See here for some more 'bullet impact' video:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDoQwIAaXg>

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erikstarck
I wonder how the mass adoption of 3D printers will increase the availability
of guns. I mean, you can just download and print one (if the material used
when printing is strong enough, of course).

And it doesn't stop there. A friend of mine is a transhumanist philosopher at
Oxford. He ranks home made viruses as the number one threat to mankind this
century.

Anyway, cool video.

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PostOnce
So far as I know, no plastic guns exist, our plastics technology just isn't
there yet. Even if it were, it wouldn't be the same sort of plastic you feed
into a 3D printer, or at least any off-the-shelf one.

I too have wondered about this. I also wonder about machinists moonlight as
arms manufacturers :P

relevant plastic guns article:

[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1202/is-it-
possible...](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1202/is-it-possible-to-
make-an-undetectable-nonmetal-gun)

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Devilboy
Not all 3d printers use plastic, there are processes for most metals including
titanium. They work by depositing layers of metal dust and fusing it with
lasers. The resulting parts can be very strong depending on the process.

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PostOnce
Sounds ridiculously expensive and incredibly entertaining. Thanks for alerting
me to something I need to read about :)

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jacquesm
The amount of extra material needed because of the structural weakness of
sintered/deposited materials as opposed to machined materials would probably
make such a gun fairly bulky, unless you are willing to take the risk of the
breech portion exploding when firing the gun.

You could offset that to some extent by using less powder in the charges or
you could use the gun for what they're used most for anyway (threat, rather
than use).

Some companies are very far now in the production of single units or small
series of parts for prototype or one-off purposes, every year the field moves
ahead steadily and it is very impressive what can be done, but there is no
substitute (yet) for a single properly treated chunk of steel machined to the
right dimensions.

Parts made like this are rapidly replacing machined parts in places where
strength is not such a big issue, you'll find them in just about anything that
has a mechanical component to it. But they are not yet able to compete with
machined materials for the most demanding applications.

Especially tensile strength is rather low, and pieces tend to be brittle.

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mhb
Why is the ball going up?

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bad_alloc
Maybe he didn't drill straight.

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mambodog
When I saw the title of this post my brain brought up mental images of
'minigun' and 'autocannon' and sort-of combined the two, and as such this
really wasn't what I was expecting... neat, though.

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orborde
I'd be cagey about building one of these; that little charge of gunpowder may
well be enough to inject that little ball a nontrivial distance into me.

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hugh3
Sounds like a good reason to be cagey about _firing_ one of these.

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staunch
I wonder what how/if the ATF classifies these. I want one.

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sown
I was wondering that same thing myself. As the technology gets better the
chances of being able to "download" a gun and print it out become higher.

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pirko
Heavy smoker?

