this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2026
178 points (98.4% liked)
Memes of Production
1345 readers
1448 users here now
Seize the Memes of Production
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the “ML” influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
Rules:
Be a decent person.
No racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, zionism/nazism, and so on.
Other Great Communities:
founded 2 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Even some parts that are normally aluminum are fine to 3D print. Definitely want to think twice and maybe consult with an engineer before replacing any steel parts with 3D printing, though.
Then again there is lost PLA casting, where the part itself isn't printed. I definitely don't have the materials science background to determine feasibility of using that method for parts that cannot be printed directly, but it's food for thought.
Well, there are firearms out there that use cast parts. Ruger, especially tends to use a lot of castings.
But casting is often a finicky process and can sometimes leave unexpected and invisible voids and weak spots in the metal. It's not something you'd want to use on the pressure-bearing parts of a firearm unless A) the firearm was designed with that in mind and those parts are overbuilt to compensate for potential weaknesses, and B) you have a lot of experience with casting and you're well able to examine the parts and determine if they have hidden weaknesses (such as with x-ray analysis to detect defects). And even then, you'd better proof test it in a very safe place, hiding behind a strong barrier.
Casting also usually leaves somewhat of a rough finish, so it usually needs finish machining done where mechanical parts need to interact with close tolerances. So casting is more of a starting point than a one-and-done manufacturing method. Casting can save you some effort when compared to starting with a solid block of metal.