re: #38 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

Even if they developed a 3-D printer that worked with steel, fabricating a gun layer-by-layer is not going to work.

The Crosley Hotshot was a car that came out in 1947. Its engine block was made of many layers of sheet steel laminated together like a transformer core, then drilled out for cylinders, etc.

Turned out it was like an engine with hundreds of head gaskets—a predictable reliability disaster. Now picture gunpowder exploding in the cylinders instead.

The best-laid plans of mice and men…

Reminds me of the Chevy Vega. I remember reading about the clever casting process for the aluminum engine block that was supposed to obviate the need for steel cylinder liners.

It didn’t.