[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm Doctor North.
[GUNSHOTS]
I'm flying in to
Tucson, Arizona,
to give the keynote to Additive
Manufacturing Users Group.
These are the best of
the best of 3D printing,
so you better believe I
have my camera with me
but with my travel schedule
these skies aren't always
friendly.
I'm sitting here with
cold chicken noodle soup,
all these business cards is
all the people I just met.
This guy-- check this out.
That's his card.
Made a 3D printed gun, and
shot a hole in his card.
I'm gonna go shoot
the gun tomorrow.
I enjoy guns.
I enjoy all the stuff
that goes into making
them work, because
it's a little machine.
It takes a spark.
It takes fuel.
It takes a little bit of air.
The miniature explosions that
happen, much like an engine--
being an engine, man, there's
thousands of little explosions
that go on.
That's cool stuff.
He just started doing it in the
company without anyone knowing.
Now it's turned into a big hit
and everyone loves him for it.
What could go wrong?
You're just printing a gun.
And it wasn't to produce
a better or cheaper 1911.
Its sole purpose was
to prove the process
for someone else's
design, not ours.
I mean, that's John
Browning's design.
That design's 100 years old.
Take his design and bring
it into manufacturing today.
I think John Browning would
have prototyped this way.
All right, we're
gonna test this thing?
Yeah, let's go the range.
You were in the service?
Yes.
OK.
What were you in?
I was in the Navy--
did four years.
I went to school to
fix diesel engines.
They're really big
on cross-training,
so the other
trainings that I went
for were the master at arms
training, which got me pretty
heavily into the firearms bit.
Fix an engine, put out a fire,
and then go shoot the bad guy.
[GUN SHOTS]
Now this gun was not made
with your everyday 3D printer.
This was made with a
half-million dollar
direct metal laser
sintering system.
With DMLS, objects
are made layer
by layer using a laser to
sinter a metal powder together.
Sintering is a process where
many small particles are turned
into one large
particle, or a solid.
In this case a laser is used to
heat up the particles, giving
the atoms enough mobility
so that they can rearrange,
and then form one large
particle, or a solid.
It's pretty cool.
It feels like such
an accomplishment
to hit 100 round
intervals with this thing.
I'll let Doctor North
put the round 4,500
through the 3D printed 1911.
All right.
No pressure, man.
No pressure.
[GUN SHOT]
Right through the "O."
That's impressive.
It's exciting to me.
I get wrapped up in when you
can start to combine technology,
and really advanced
ways of doing things,
with these old things have
been around for a long time.
Plus, that's a 45
caliber pistol.
Yeah, it's pretty
potent on the hand.
Yeah.
You got a little
mark, too, don't you?
A little love mark.
Looks kind of like a
hickey, but from a 45.
Guns and 3D printing:
what do you think?
Let us know in the
comments, and make sure
and click "subscribe"
so you don't
miss the next big
thing in the making.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
