Bill - as it relates to the finish on those helmets; are they directly off the printer or was there post-processing involved?
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That is directly off the printer. Some are printed as multiple parts and glued together, but the only post processing was knocking off supports and cleaning up any strings.
(And installing shields for the eyes, and pads for the head.)
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Wow! I have a Creality K1 Max and thought the finish was pretty pretty good. I may just need to look into upgrading to Bambu Labs! Very impressive!
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You can really see the smoothness with the reflection on the black Tie Fighter helmet.
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Love the Star Wars helmets!
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These look great
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Those look awesome! Great job!
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If any of you are from Washington state, you may want to reach out to your reps.
Itās a whole thread of info but basically theyāre using the tiny risk of someone printing gun parts to try and take away private ownership/use of any sort of CNC device software. Everything would have to be run through a government database to make sure youāre not printing something they donāt want you to print.
Itās a horribly written law that makes you a felon for not complying and likely guarantees the death of right to repair.
You can contact your legislator free of charge by calling the Washington State Legislative Hotline at 1.800.562.6000.
Iām certain the first conversation about this started from a good place, but thatās not where theyāve ended up.
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Iāve been seeing a lot on this on Utube and yes it is whack! To me laws like this are a clear violation of the 4th amendment but as always that will only be considered down the road if it passes .
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Itās even worse actually since it applies to subtractive processes too. That means your Glowforge and any stray CNC machines like mills, lathes, etc. all fall under this.
That ādreamā of a standalone Glowforge is gone if this legislation goes through.
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I guarantee you a legislatorās brother in law owns a company that sells and has a patent on 3D model blocking software.
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I believe NY state is considering a similar bill.
3D printed guns are almost exclusively a novelty item, itās cheaper & faster to go to almost any pawn shop (or inner city alley) and buy a nice metal multi-shot capable firearm.
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This seems unlikely to deter actual criminals, who will use older devices, devices smuggled in from other places with more sensible laws, hacked firmware, hacked software, etc. Then, there is the reliability of the policing software. My guess is that the main thing it will accomplish is frustrating the heck out of (e.g.) cosplayers and prop makers, who will then resort to the methods in the preceding list. Another ineffective law from people who fundamentally donāt understand technology.
This keeps repeating in different niches. If the thought of 3D-printed āghostā guns makes you uncomfortable, look into gene editing tech. People are having similar discussions about how the equipment and requisite knowledge to produce unique pathogens is getting cheaper and more accessible. We need a better strategy than untenably demanding the tech people make devices that can only run āgoodā programs.
To the point from @jamesdhatch: this feels like a performative thing for politicians who canāt get traction on actual gun control laws to do.
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Check out a guy: Louis Rossman in Tx. He left NYC due to the cities terrible treatment of small businesses. Is mostly a laptop/small electronic repair guy but the last 5-8 years pushing heavily on Right to Repair stuff. If he hasnāt already heard, Iām sure heād wanna know.
His latest pet project is paying out bounties on breaking firmwares that lockout features people already paid for on devices they already own.
Also, been working on pushing back on the Ai flock cameras all these local governments are trying to put up everywhere to track everyone.
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Oh, he knows!
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Havenāt seen a rant pop up in a while. Last I saw he was on the warpath for his local parks installing the flock cameras.
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Phillip Torrone of Adafruit making the same points I made:
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Wow, amazing stuff. Makes me want to toss my Ender 3 and get a Bambu
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A bit of an aside, but this feels like whataboutismā¦Itās both possible and reasonable to be concerned about both of these things.
That being said Iām more worried about the estimayed 500-550 million guns that are already out there in the US. Regulating 3d printing seems like it might be a solution for a problem that isnāt really there yet?
As popular as 3d printing is I still view it as a bit of a niche hobby. Seems like the intersection of āpeople who want a ghost gunā and āpeople who are good enough at 3d printing and have the right materials and adequately precise 3d printersā is vanishingly small compared to the installed gun base.
Iām operating on feel though. Maybe I just donāt have my finger on the pulse of the 3d printing/gun world. Actually I definitely donāt.
EDIT: updated the estimated US gun count to be more accurate. Thatās even worse, around 1.5 guns per capita. Call me crazy but that seems like far more than enough. Ghost guns wonāt help the situation but they also wonāt move the needle; itās already so far off the gauge, as it were.
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You can have both!
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