this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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lathes are much more complicated to use than printers. The reason this confuses me is that there's not a lot of real barriers to getting a gun if you want one.
CNC lathes are definitely less complex than 3D printers. They operate in 2 dimensions and as a result the G-Code is simple enough to write by hand in many cases (while there is NO practical way to program a 3D printer without CAM software). They're just a lot more expensive than an Ender 3.
You can get mired in selecting appropriate tooling and work holding, but there are a million things which can go wrong with a 3D print also. 3D printers typically don't eject projectiles in case of an operator/programmer mistake though.
Yes, this is what my claim was based on. Also I find selecting tooling to be much more complex than it initially seems and it is incredibly significant.
cnc is much more involved and expensive to have though.