Now THIS is 3D printing!

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

http://blog.solidconcepts.com/industry-highlights/worlds-first-3d-printed-metal-gun/

[Captain Colonial]

Amazing yet depressing for me as an American that the first thing we think of making with such fantastic technology is a handgun.  I'm sure there are many other things that could be made that would be more useful or bring as much pleasure without being quite so lethal.  But pretty impressive technology nonetheless.

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

Great demonstration, I used to use the plastic version 10 years ago, to see it in metal take prototyping to another level. 1 off parts no longer the problem they used to be.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman)]

Have seen sintered metal parts done for a while; they'd been steadily creeping closer to actual "live" working parts, (as opposed to mock ups and patterns to take moulds off), this is the first report I've seen though showing just how far they've got with producing genuinely usable "finished" items.

 

Amazing stuff.

[fatbaldbloke]

I'm with Scott here, what a desperately sad statement that of all the metal things that could be made to show off this technology, it has to be a gun. 

 

[alexander72]

might have been nicer for them to make a hip replacement or an new hand/limb for a child blown up by mines or an injured serviceman perhaps - better on the PR front??

[Darrell O'Neill]

It's a Colt 1911 (a1) 45acp I believe ... Metal objects don't get any prettier than that...

Had a few in the past ...

[NVP66S]

Amazing yet depressing for me as an American that the first thing we think of making with such fantastic technology is a handgun.  I'm sure there are many other things that could be made that would be more useful or bring as much pleasure without being quite so lethal.  But pretty impressive technology nonetheless.

This technology is not that new. Here's a YouTube video of a NASA rocket engine injector being 3D printed and hot fired. The handgun just got more publicity.