Posted: 4/18/2026 11:35:40 PM EDT
| I’ve watched a few videos lately about a couple states wanting to ban 3d printers from doing gun stuff. If these states pass these laws, how do you think this will affect the industry as a whole? Myself, I think that even if just one state passes such a law then all commercially sold printers in America will phone home to see if you are printing an approved item. This could cause an upswing in the diy segment until the communist states go after that as well. |
Carpe diem - Seize the day
Carpe per diem - Seize the expense check
Carpe per diem - Seize the expense check
|
I don't think it will have a major impact on the 3d printing industry. What you will see is whole new ways to jailbreak printers, as well as offline printers. People have been home building guns out of metals for 100 years and government hasn't stopped it yet. Right now look how many 3d printable parts for 3d printers are out there. If I understand, Prusa's printers are mostly printed parts, there will just be more part prints. 3d print bans are just feel good legislation for ignorant masses and allow politicians to say "see we did something". The truth is more trans people kill then 3d printed guns. |
|
Originally Posted By RV8guy: I’ve watched a few videos lately about a couple states wanting to ban 3d printers from doing gun stuff. If these states pass these laws, how do you think this will affect the industry as a whole? Myself, I think that even if just one state passes such a law then all commercially sold printers in America will phone home to see if you are printing an approved item. This could cause an upswing in the diy segment until the communist states go after that as well. If this stuff happened 5 or so years ago when only the die hard enthusiasts were printing then I think it would've been a bigger deal than it is today. Now, 3D printers are so accessible that the average person can have one in their home pumping out flexy dragons with zero effort. Those people won't care either way if the printer is regulated or not. Think of how many people get a new piece of tech, whether it's a smartwatch, headphones, tablet, coffee maker, doorbell camera, alexa, refrigerator, TV, or whatever - and immediately connect the thing to wifi and download the app on their phones and give it all the permissions. You think they're going to care that their shiny new printer isn't going to let them print something that they never were going to print in the first place? I don't think so. To them there is no difference between the printer and all the other junk that they have connected. People are going to buy Bambu printers no matter what and they won't care (many won't even realize) that they are phoning home. The small percentage of enthusiasts who are concerned about privacy and data are most likely already using open sourced machines like Prusa and Voron. Since Voron doesn't actually sell machines and they use open source firmware already, I don't see the regulations affecting these users at all. My bet is that Bambu and others will ship all US printers with compliant firmware, Prusa will sell their printers with compliant firmware which the community will quickly jailbreak, homebuilt printers will see a very small increase in popularity, and life will go on. |
Easily irritated engineer of odd things
Joined:
Jul 2008
Posts:
31575
EE: 100% (5)
MN, USA
|
Depends on the law. If the printer just has to send the gcode to Big Daddy Gov't, then that is pretty easy. IF the law dictates some kind of local analysis, that just doesn't exist, and won't at the computing power of a 3D printer. Some of the laws also rope in CNC machines of all flavors, could get fun there. It isn't that you can't make your own printer, that you can't flash your own FW, and the obvious lawsuits that code is already SCOTUS deemed free speech, it is the fact that they WILL throw your ass in jail until some higher power a decade+ down the line says that the state went too far, you are free to go, sorry (not sorry) about taking those years away from you and your family. Anyway you can't sue us anymore because we make the rules, we deemed we owe you $100 for your trouble. Make sure to claim that on your taxes, BTW. |
Once you realize that all power comes from the credible threat of the use of deadly force, and the gov't hates you, most things become easy to understand..
|
The open source 3dp community is enormous and literally impossible to regulate because there are no serialized parts necessary. Any part you name I can have made and shipped to me based on my CAD drawings for very reasonable prices. My entire printer is made from parts, either open sourced, or designed by me and SLS printed. The printer is on a closed local network, what are you going to regulate? When I started reading teh 3dp threads here, I was molified that most of you use Bambu printers that are eschewed by most serious 3dp communities. Granted, the X2D is more capable for engineering filaments and LAN mode cuts it off from little brother but its speed and temps are still more limited than a well designed and built open source printer. Voron, RatRig (IDEX), VzBot, HevOrt are all very serious open source machines. At this point, its nearly impossible to regulate 3dp firearm printing. That ship has sailed. You may as well try to regulate the filament necessary, which would be patently absurd and counterproductive. $0.02 |
| I see newer printers have cameras inside them. They can verify if items are still on the build plate and they can do calibration too. I can only imagine some form of AI and those cameras will analyses what geometry is being printed and depending on where you are the printer will not let you print it. I think the bamboo labs printers have these cameras now. |
|
Originally Posted By ekg98: I see newer printers have cameras inside them. They can verify if items are still on the build plate and they can do calibration too. I can only imagine some form of AI and those cameras will analyses what geometry is being printed and depending on where you are the printer will not let you print it. I think the bamboo labs printers have these cameras now. |
"Fully-loaded, safety off. This here is a recipe for unpleasantness." - Malcom Reynolds
"He's a precision-guided asshole who only deploys on deserving targets." - Grok
"He's a precision-guided asshole who only deploys on deserving targets." - Grok