Just under a year ago, Solid Concepts gave the world its very first look at what a 3D-printed metal gun could do. And, to everyone’s surprise, the thing actually worked. Now, the metal 3D-printing firm have put out the 1911’s fancier successor — complete with Declaration of Independence inscription and all.
The original 1911 made waves when Solid Concepts released a video in which they successfully fired the pet project over 50 times. And this newest offering, dubbed the Reason, looks a hell of a lot more solid.
More than anything, the added detail and inscriptions are a testament to how far the company’s sintering tech has come. Using a technique called direct metal laser sintering, Solid Concepts is able to 3D print the gun by melting metal powder with a laser. In other words, these things take far more know-how than the plastic versions that came before them.
So far, the original 1911 has been successfully fired over 5000 times. And while we have yet to see this Libertarian’s wet dream in action, considering the level of precision needed to inscribe a portion of the Declaration of Independence on the handle, it’s safe to say that the Reason is even sturdier than its predecessor.
Thankfully, that level of necessary technical knowledge does give this particular gun a fairly high level of entry, meaning that people won’t just be able to download a CAD file and get to printing — at least for now. [TechCrunch]