It is an impact printer.  http://www.rolanddga.com/products/impactprinters/mpx90/
I'm off to do some stuff.  I'll check back this evening for more questions etc...

Also with the roland printer you can put anything you want on the metal.  Bitcoin stuff, names, pictures, it is a pretty cool machine. 

Here is a quick overview of the process so you can know better if you might be interested. 
1.  Get sheet silver from a jewelry supplier.  Costs spot plus a small premium. Riogrande is my favorite.   
2.  Roll it out with rolling mill if needed.  (almost never is necessary, only if it comes a little too thick.  Always a good problem)
3.  Cut into proper size with shears.  I get it in 6 inch by 2 inch strips and cut that into 3 pieces that are 2 inches square.   
5.  Stamp grid pattern with hydraulic press.  This involves a little muscle and is the most time consuming part.   
6.  Print lettering with metal printer. 
7.  I sold most of them in sheets of 50.  I cut off individuals to sell for feedback and free/slightly profitable advertising.  You can do it with the shears, scissors, or bend until they snap off.

You aren't going to get rich doing this but it is a nice little extra spending money.  I was able to pay off my tools and buy a couple guns with it.    If you are really motivated you can roll your own sheet from ingots with the mill and make some extra bucks.

Finished product is 2x2 inches and 50 bars. 

 

I am 5grainsilver on ebay.  I bought about 7.5k worth of metal working equipment and sold 5 grain bars I made with it on ebay.  In 3 months I made about 9k profit doing it about 10 hours a week.  I too busy with work(military) to do this anymore and I would really like to buy some nice woodworking tools for my new house.  I want to sell it all so it doesn't sit around and lose value.  I'm afraid to sell something this valuable via paypal.  I'm looking for somewhere around 7k worth of bitcoins.  I'm throwing in some extras you will need.  All told, with my equipment you can make 5 grain bars for about 38 cents each at current silver prices.

Heres what I'm selling:

Roland MPX 90 Metal Impact Printer sells for $4500 new
Bonnie Doon 20 Ton Hydraulic Press (gauge is broken but I never found to be of any use) sells for about $1000
Durston DRM F 140 Flat Roller No Extensions $920
Pepe 12 Inch Guillotine Shear $840 new

The metal printer is like new, with very little wear on the diamond head. The software is included, and I still have all the original packaging and paperwork. The Bonnie Doon is in great shape except for the pressure gauge which was useless to begin with. The rolling mill looks brand new and was barely used, still in original packaging. The guillotine shear has a little wear one small spot of the blade but is still very sharp.

I will also include the custom hardened steel die I had made to print the bars on the hydraulic press. That cost about $500 to have machined. This is everything you need to get started making these bars. I will explain the process step by step.

I'm not too familiar with options available, but am open to any sort of escrow we need to make this a safe transaction for both parties.  Please research this equipment before asking questions.  I think you will find this is a pretty good value. 

Bitcoin swings 50% like it is nothing.  It could be made worthless by government intervention.  That is not a safe haven lol. 

So how is the weather today in fantasy land?

Well, with no reason to use them instead of regular fiat, and real risk of government intervention making them worthless, and a continuing supply coming on the market daily, I would guess under 10 cents.  That worth comes from the very small chance this will take off.  A low probability, huge payoff bet.     

Imho of course, and I could be dead wrong.  So diversify.  I personally would start watching charts for a buy point under 1.00, just to see if it sets up.  I might buy some around 10 cents regardless of charts.

Difficulty will lower when miners quit.  People aren't gonna pay more just because 1000's of miners drive difficulty up. 

Just had to bump this lol.  Looks like the fundamentals are winning out now that the dumb money from the media exposure has dried up.  Classic bubble/pumpndump. 

You are correct.  I think my other point is much more important though.  I am referring to the fact that the bitcoin system can be replicated over and over again to create an identical product with a different name.  The only thing scarce about bitcoin is the name bitcoin.  Is that enough?  I find it on the edge of impossible for it to last long term, but I could certainly be wrong.  I honestly hope I am wrong but I just don't see it happening. 

They are not comparable.

Gold has industrial and aesthetic use.  It has real world use outside of just being a store of value. 
Bitcoin is nothing.  It has one use, and that is to exist and be exchanged. 
 
Gold is unique.  There is not a system or method that can be used to create another metal that is like gold with its properties and scarcity.
Bitcoins themselves are unique, but they method used to create them can be duplicated by millions of computer savy people around the world.  Just change the name and start over.  IE Namecoins.

A good metaphor here is my feces.  Every time I produce one it is unique(scarce), but that by itself doesn't give it value.  It also takes me some good healthy food and nutrients to produce it.  But guess what?  That is my problem.  I can't convert that feces back to food so why would anyone care that it took me a $50 filet mignon to make it.  Doesn't matter to them.  That is kind of how I see bitcoins lol.   

Trying to compare bitcoins to gold is living in fantasy land. 

Well now I am starting to wonder how long it can maintain this orderly gradual drop.  What do you guys think is the panic point that will start a faster selloff and complete the penny stock pattern?

ATMs and pos aren't exactly peer to peer.

Investing in ATMs etc would be pretty risky considering governments will shut bitcoin down if it starts looking too much like a real currency.  Look at what they did to egold.

Price will depend on demand, not cost of electricity.  If bitcoins could be converted back to energy that argument would make sense, but it can't.  Difficulty will respond to price.  We have already seen that happen on the way up.

Yeah but if you are going to use daily charts you need to use mtgox, because tradehill data only goes back like 30 days.  If you see the full picture on the long term chart, you see a parabolic run up from zero to 30, followed by a blowoff top, a triangle breakdown, and a pause with a downward drift we are in right now before the next leg which will probably be down to sub 10. 



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I made some mistaks in my analysis of bitcoin.  I was looking at it like a stock, but the difference is that my method of analysis is designed to track and piggyback on institutional order flow.  There is no institutional order flow in bitcoin.  Stupid mistake! 

Bitcoin is now behaving just like you would expect if you think about it.  The market is comprised of speculators and miners.  The miners regularly sell, and the speculators can only speculate to the long side.  That leads to the occassional speculative spike, followed by profit taking and selling off by the miners.  This is creating a pattern of the market stepping down price levels in an orderly manner as miners lower their standard of what they are willing to sell for.  This will continue to happen until we reach <$1.00.  If shorting was possible we would already be there IMO.  Of course it could blow up at any time if we get some more dumb money coming in from a media story or something.  And then it will crash again.  I think bitcoin has already seen its all time high though, and will go down soon as a unique piece of internet history.   

Let's see if $10 holds on this next push down.

I hate to be so negative on everything, but that is pretty much the perfect enviroment for scammers. 

You could very well be correct.  I hope it works out for you.