So where we at with this 3D printing tech?

Have a huge amount invested in WAAM research at work (welding arc additive manufacturing - 3d printing near net shapes with welding consumables, basically), and they've produced some amazing parts that have met the same quality requirements as forged equivalents.

Very impressive stuff, although I'm not convinced the microstructure is comparable to forged metal and although it's passed the quality tests for forged I remain suspicious that it is worse in some other ways that were not directly testing but could cause unexpected failure later (particularly with fatigue loads).

Any progress on your gun?

Client in heavy industry is supposedly using it to repair and manufacture critical parts for ... critical things. If the marketing is to be believed.

Good question!  I still have a job so I suspect it's not quite there yet, and I really haven't kept up to date on what's been happening with printing metals.  I wouldn't be surprised to see some really cool things happening, the world never sleeps!

I watch a channel on YouTube where a guy repairs stuff by spraying metal particles through a torch to repair damaged parts, that has to be very similar to printing!