3 D scanning gizzmo

always shaken

HI gang,in todays evening standard ,there is an article about this 3D scanning machine
basically you put an object or your self even and it scans you and then perfectly replicates your likeness
into a scale model in plastic, right down to the pimple on your nose ,apparently you book up, pay between £90 to £150
and they will make a model of you ,im sure our resident model/prop making expert MG could explain it better
just think you could pop on your favourite Bond out fit and hey presto a Bond/you model, look nice on the mantle piece

Charmed & Dangerous

Hi AS, I saw that too, and was wondering if they could take an image of Domino circa 1965 and reverse engineer it back to full scale.

Thunderpussy

I posted before on a story were the made a gun with a 3d printer.

Charmed & Dangerous

I'd love to have a 3d model of the U.N.C.L.E. gun :007)

minigeff

Hi guys,

AS has pointed out a cool little set up IMO.

There was a 3D printing service set up in New York I think using small machines like makerbot's or cubify machines.

Now you can have yourself scanned, or I guess any other object, so if you're not up to speed with the software, all that is taken care of for you, making it more accessible to people and non geeks.

To explain a little, these 3D printers work in layers. The 3D file you produce (or that's created by the scanner) is processes by the printer's driver software which effectively slices it up like a load of bread. Then each slice is printed out one by one, with the build starting at the bottom and each layer is printed on top of the previous one.

There are other machines that work in resin and as the price goes up, the layer thickness decreases, which improves the quality. Imagine a dome, and the surface would appear stepped. The thinner the layers (or steps) the less rough the finish is and the smoother the surface finish is.

The machine the 3D printed gun was produced on is know as an FDM, or a fusion deposition machine. It works by taking ABS plastic from a reel, melting it and squeezing it out through a very fine nozzle. The next layer that gets printed on top of the one before bonds to the previous layer as the previous layer hasn't cooled and totally solidified yet, so fusion (not in the nuclear sense thankfully) takes place.

The 3D printed gun was also treated btw, it couldn't be taken straight from the machine and fired. Before it was used, the printed gun was dipped in acetone. This effectively melts the ABS plastic some more, allowing it to melt together more, increasing the strength. Even then, the gun can only fire around 8 times before becoming unstable. The US government are becoming increasing concerned about this technology now as it allows anyone with access to this kind of machine the capability to create a working gun that's totally unregulated and unrestricted.

Hope this has enlightened people,

MG -{

minigeff

If anyone's curious, I think this is the article AS was referring to...

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/techandgadgets/small-but-perfectly-formed-the-3d-minime-created-by-hitech-printer-8674040.html