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Here’s a Recap of Glenn Beck’s Awesome New 3D Printer: The Implications and What He Plans to Make

Jan. 9, 2013 1:15pm Liz Klimas

Glenn Beck teased his acquisition of a new, MakerBot 3D printer on TheBlaze TV Monday, but it was on Tuesday’s radio show that he really that he really started getting into the implications such technology will have in the near future.

On the Glenn Beck Radio Program Tuesday morning, Beck talked of what such a machine would mean for patents, original artwork, currency and more. He asked whether the world is philosophically, morally ready for the capabilities of mainstream 3D printing, but went to say “it doesn’t matter,” because the tech is already here.

Glenn Beck Prints a Shark With New 3D Printer and Discusses the Implications of Such a Machine

Beck with the MakerBot 3D printer, one of the newest items added to his American Dream Labs.

“This is Napster. This is Napster for physical things,” Beck said, comparing the capabilities of the printers to the music pirating website that for a short time allowed users to illegally download music they hadn’t paid for.

During the program, the MakerBot replicator 2 was printing a miniature shark, the standard object it makes as a test print to show you that everything is working properly. The team scanned the skull that sits on Beck’s desk for 3D printing and a gun as well.

“Not a working gun,” Beck pointed out. “But you can make weapons with this. You can make anything with this. This is going to be highly, highly regulated. This changes everything. There are no patents anymore.”

Shark printed using the MarkerBot on the Glenn Beck Radio Program.

TheBlaze has reported frequently of late on the issue of 3D-printed guns. A group called Defense Distributed is working on a project called Wiki-Weapons that would create a workable, fully 3D-printed gun. Their plan is to test and refine the design and post the instructions for how to print it for free on the Web.

But, as Beck pointed out on his morning radio show, many websites where 3D printer designs are posted have begun banning gun and gun component designs. Defense Distributed, in response to such designs being banned on MakerBot’s Thingiverse, began hosting such files on its own website DEFCAD, which the founder told TheBlaze Tuesday has seen heavy traffic since its creation in December.

As for Beck’s printer, now that it is part of his American Dreams Labs, we can expect to hear more discussion about the implications of such technology, as well as see more of what he intends to make with it.

Watch Beck talk about the 3D printer on Tuesday’s show:

You can see Beck’s debut of the 3D printer in his American Dream Labs in this clip from Monday’s show on TheBlaze TV (skip to 1:28 to see it featured):

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (49)

ECOMCON
Posted on January 10, 2013 at 5:24am
Too I’ll never be able to get a laser-line done on Pelosi’s, Reed’s or Obama’s faces. I’d be stinking rich selling 3D printouts as gun range targets.

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- AJBrad
  Posted on January 10, 2013 at 11:14am
  and 3d urinal targets.
  
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Brokendrum
Posted on January 10, 2013 at 5:00am
The printer he has will use plastic and also wood (laywood). Higher end printers can use metal powders but the process changes a lot and is not for the home hobbyist.

They already are making objects using bio mass. One hold back that I have heard about is the ability to keep the tissue viable (alive) while the printing is accomplished and this means for several hours.

Regulation is already in place in a back door way. Making images has many venues. The 123Catch from pictures he mentioned is one. Using a Kinect for on the fly images is getting better. Basically anything that can be modeled in CAD is printable.
For real life objects though, the best by far image copy is when using a laser line scanner. These can be purchased for about $18,000 is you are heavy. There are do-it-yourself versions that can be tossed together for under 50 bucks. The cheap version works amazingly well so I can imagine the 18 grand one is worth the money.

BUT here is the regulation. Where I live it is a misdemeanor to paint a person or animal with a laser. The Feds already have vehicles covered. So even when I laser line myself for a Bot print (not **** Glen, sorry ) I am breaking the law. As good as laser line works I cannot go out into the world and make images of things with it without drawing a lot of attention. This law will be tested in this manner someday I am sure but I will not be the one to do so.

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HaploVoss
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 11:03pm
I think most people here are missing the point entirely. It’s not that these printers have been available for a while / diff materials / you can’t make an instant gun, etc. – it is that the technology is becoming readily available to the average user. As prices come down, printing out and creating a 3D abstract of your concept is now a reality. Printable hardware at a home users price-range and literal foot-print space allowance is now a realistic possibility. Even probability.

Also, what a lot of you with the gun / hardened steel items ideas are not considering is that this can be used to print out completed *forms* that can then be used to cast your own parts.

Still I think the main awesomeness of this is the subject of immediate idea testing and realization. My 2 cents.

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TemperBay
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 10:50pm
>>….“Not a working gun,” Beck pointed out….<<
Not a working gun…YET, Beck. But 3D printing is in its virtual infancy. The horse is out of the barn and there is really nothing Obama, Biden, Schumer, or any of the gun-grabbing twits can do about it. AINT' TECHNOLOGY WONDERFUL!!!

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- zapparules
  Posted on January 10, 2013 at 10:39pm
  Yea isn’t this great.
  Soon anyone – deemed mentally competent – OR NOT – won’t have to purchase a gun from any one else. They’ll simply be able to manufacture the weapon (or weapons) of their choice.
  
  Better arm up right?
  Because ONLY a good person with a gun can stop a bad person with a gun.
  
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Fink
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 10:18pm
I have been looking at these for a while.. (you can make your own as well as homemade CNC machines)

HAY do you gals and guys remember in 1998 (I believe) some Californian (cali -tech maybe) school was printing off frog parts… pieces of a frog liver or kidney out of a 3d type printer. A printer they came up with out old / odd computer parts.. They were hoping to advice to things as small as genes (scary a little)

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- JQuentinEvermann
  Posted on January 10, 2013 at 2:42pm
  I don’t remember that, but currently inkjet printers can be filled with stemcells and specific cells and print layers of an organ. Once the pages are all stacked together, these can be placed in a solvent to remove the excess “paper” and leave only and organ shaped/functioning object ready to be activated with a little jab of electricity to get it going.
  
  Of course, printing guns may save more lives than the above technology. If we don’t have guns, we’ll have to rely solely on government for everything from healthcare to food to a pot to pee in.
  
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LoVoltage
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 10:06pm
3D printers at home are awesome and will get better with time. Manufacturing at home CAN be a reality. Ask any large scale mass producer of physical items today and they will tell you that the most costly, time consuming and difficult part of bringing a creation to life is the prototyping and creation of the molds. The 3D printer covers both of these facets of manufacturing and is the reason that they have the potential to revolutionize the world as we know it.

Making plastic guns may not be practical, you can use the plastic to make molds and from the molds make castings and durable parts from metal. In this case plastic can be used in creating the casting (positive image) by occupying the shape and space molten metal is to be poured into. When the mold (negative image) is completed, you have a mold and molds are the key for mass production. The starting place for any mass production item is the creation of a prototype and in modern manufacturing this is done in part with rapid prototyping.

Apply this to an item such as a lower receiver production and you have the ability to mass produce at home in your garage.
Look at this video on how fire hydrants are made here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNXscFLDtco
Plastic injection molds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZqq1qxW30
Also you can look for videos for sand casting too
Alternately you can 3D print metal too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20R9nItDmPY

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YOURSENSEI
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 8:19pm
This is what you must know:

Conservatives are technology Luddites. 3D printing has been here for years.

It is so.

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- mzk1
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 2:42pm
  Clearly you don’t know what a Luddite is. It is the Greenies who are Luddite, wanting to take Humans back to the pre-industrial age. Conservatives are generally pro-technology.
  
  As far as knowing about them – well, it is hard to know everything that is going on.
  
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Bill813
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 7:34pm
Comedian Jeff Dunham uses a 3D printer to create his ventriloquist dummies.

http://www.3d-printing.net/tags/jeff-dunham

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Boardopopie
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 6:56pm
First, Glenn… why did you buy that Piece Of C makerbot rip-off. If you want a real 3D printer get a Stratasys or Objet printer. These print in ABS, PC, PPSF and PEI (Stratasys) or photopolymers (Objet). Meaning you can build a real part, not just a lil’ trinket like the shark. These printers have been used by NASCAR, Boeing, etc. to make real parts that can get used and abused. Joe Gibbs Racing uses a Stratasys printer to make custom brake ducts for the cars that can’t be fabricated any other way. Orthopedists can use it to make exact replicas of your skull, a replacement part, and the fixtures/jigs to work on you before they have to open you up. What you can make with them is only limited by the imagination and temporarily by material selection.

The makerbot technology is using tech from Scott Crump that’s over 25 years old. @symphonic the tech your talking about is SLA or stereolithography and it’s 30 years old and @salamander that idea is being worked on, proteins and collagen are simply polymers as well. This technology is revolutionary in the fact that you can go from idea to product in a matter of hours not weeks or months. You can do mass customization. It will only be a matter of time and material science that allows someone to be able to print and fire reliably a weapon.

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- TSUNAMI_22
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 7:50pm
  I’m going to use mine to reproduce non serial-numbered weapons parts. Oh, wait, that’s what CNC machines can already do.
  
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- steelpanther
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 9:44pm
  I know nothing about 3D printers, but I do know I’m starting to see that Glenn jumps on alot of things and stuff with out doing a lot of research first. *Cough*Grossman*Cough*
  
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media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 5:47pm
It’s fun watching Glenn speculate about things. I must point out that patent laws do not prevent people from making things. They are simply used to collect fines and fees from people that make stuff, or have their stuff confiscated by authorities (and the manufacturing equipment used to make the counterfeit products).

Be careful Glenn, they let you have that thing for a reason. LOL.

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- Patrick Henry II
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 6:43pm
  AR recievers!
  
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- TSUNAMI_22
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 8:25pm
  When the government got one of these machines they printed a never ending supply of blindfolds and earplugs. Of course, the elected officials got the first batch.
  
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Salamander
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 5:31pm
How about a 3-D printer that can replicate an organ, like a kidney or a liver, or maybe a bone, using biologicals? Now that would be a hoot–custom spare parts, made to order! What if you can use tissue from the patient being ‘reconstructed’? No rejection!

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- nobummer12
  Posted on January 10, 2013 at 3:55pm
  Hey have done it a few times already.
  
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Minnaloushe
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 4:53pm
Yawn
Wake me when it uses nanotechnological molecular assemblers.

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TheCalmOne
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 4:51pm
This technology has been around for at least 15 years and, no, you can’t make guns with it.

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- media-bias-steals-elections
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 5:43pm
  They are making single shot shooters with these, so you are right, you can not make a traditional gun with one, and I would not want one even if you could. I don’t want parts of my face or pieces of my hand end up missing, which can happen when you manufacture your own weapons.
  
  The buzz revolves around these things being plentiful, cheap, and accessible, to anyone that wants to use one, which is probably wishful thinking, but fun to speculate about.
  
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- Letthebulletsfly
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 10:13pm
  ummm, yeah you can. I’ve seen several videos of a group who made AR lower receivers. In their first test firing it failed after 7 or 8 rounds.
  
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shortnsweet
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 4:48pm
For more inspiring uses or 3-D printing check out the following:

http://www.wired.com/design/2012/11/coolest-3d-prints-movies-art-environment/

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shortnsweet
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 4:35pm
Boys and their new toys! Remember the old adage “Garbage in garbage out! ”

I have read about this on tech sites,and artists who are trying to do creative things with this technology.
As Glenn says, “Do your own research”, and you’ll find far more interesting info elsewhere.

Last thought; Remember the sewing machine. The house wife was able to make clothes quicker at home……….and fast forward to today where these machines fill sweat shops in 3rd world countries sewing clothes cheeper than we can buy the fabric.

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- myrwo6
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 5:37pm
  Okay Debbie Downer.
  
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watashbuddyfriend
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 4:22pm
Ok, you said: “The team scanned the skull that ‘sits’ on Beck’s desk for 3D printing and a gun as well.” But, if you put it there it SETS, however, if it can get there on its own, then it SITS!

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- Melika
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 6:22pm
  You are wasting your time with this one, buddy. The article was written by Liz Klamas, the poster child for Affirmative Action on the Blaze. Not the brightest bulb in most drawers. Did you miss the big obvious repeat text at the top?: “…show that he really that he really started …”
  
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bts61240
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 4:03pm
These things have been in the Plastics industry for 20 years now. Used to make rapid prototypes and samples.
The material they use to make parts with is very brittle and not much heat resistance, I doubt they would make a effective gun.
But then if your good you only need one shot.

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Eastinfection
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 3:20pm
Let me know when they come up with the Star Trek style Food- replicators.
You can find me on the Holo-deck.

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Conservative2
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 2:17pm
Hmmm maybe we Really can print our way out of Debt!

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symphonic
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 2:15pm
I thought it was going to learn something new here. Three-dimensional printers have been around for over a decade, or rather I saw one personally a decade ago and it was far more sophisticated than the fishing line model. In fact it was done by forming a solid inside of liquid using light to harden it, so far much more sophisticated than what I saw here on this video today. Not to disparage Glenn, but he talked about making ceramic molds and pouring metal into a ceramic mold like that was high-tech, um, no. No, that’s the old way. That’s the old way where you can’t pour metal into a mold and have the inside still be hollowed out somehow. Glenn also called the heating apparatus a KILM, and maybe I’m just ignorant but I think it’s called a KILN.

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- BasketFullOfPuppies
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 2:48pm
  Haven’t you heard? The “old ways” are making a comeback, and in a big way. As for 3d printers, there are hobbyist groups out there, that are developing their own technologies and then using the printers that they build, to print parts for the next gen of printers. Sure, it’s not as sophisticated as something that the government or a large corporation might come up with. But, it doesn’t come close to $100K or so in price, either. When technologies become the property of the common man, you can’t put it back into the box. Whether it is used for good or evil, becomes the prerogative of the user. THAT is what the government will want to control. And, that is where they will fail, by stifling innovation, instead of just punishing those that misuse it.
  
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Landon410
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 2:03pm
Glenn Beck needs to pair up with Uncle Ted and start a gun company…… make nothing buy scary looking black guns!

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Top_Contributor
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 1:57pm
OMG, technology bad!

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pwatkins
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 1:51pm
Thanks for all you do Glenn and my prayers go out for you and all of your partners, including myself.

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Slowman101
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 1:45pm
How about we print a working president?

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G man
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 1:36pm
Can super models fit in that thing?

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- marvlus
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 2:08pm
  Perhaps, piece by piece.
  
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- Boardopopie
  Posted on January 9, 2013 at 7:08pm
  The Smithsonian had a life size replica of Thomas Jefferson made. Only 3 pieces. Printed out of PC/ABS and then plated bronze.
  
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