The idea of printing directly in molten silver doesn't seem too promising. It doesn't have the same consistency as plastic when it's melted. The phase transition is rather abrupt: it's either solid or it's liquid, and would just run off the solidified part below. There would also be a layer of oxide between the solidified part and the liquid, so it won't form a bond. Also, in small quantities, liquid silver tends to form spheres due to surface tension, so it won't lay down smoothly.

Powder-bed printers don't have all these problems, although I'm not sure there are any that use silver, possibly because of the oxidation problem alluded to above. Gold and titanium are used, though.

If you really hate the idea of casting and want to print directly in silver, your best bet is to find a machine like the Hyrel, which has extruders for paste-like materials, and use PMC (Precious Metal Clay) in it. This material, when fired in a kiln, becomes fairly solid metal, although it shrinks quite a bit in the firing process. The PMC, though, is quite a bit more expensive than the same volume of solid metal.

Andrew Werby
Juxtamorph.com