3D Scan

I know a bunch of folks on the ShopBot forum claim to do this (laser scanners, etc. in that size range) but I haven't used any of them (I have the olde-fashioned one and they made the upgrades so expensive I gave up on keeping up, since I bought the darn thing as "affordable" among other things.) talkshopbot.com should get you there.

I looked at the David's Laser Scanner software. I even spent some time playing with the basic software and setup a laser and camera. I found it to be along the "look what I can do" lines rather than a real working solution to real time scanning. I have not talked to anybody who has bought his full software and coherent light setup to see how much better it is. Its not out of my price range, but I don't want to buy it just to find out. I'll have to check out the ShopBot fourm guys and see what they have done, but I've played with several hobby level methods and not been totally thrilled by results or time spent. I was just hoping to find a company I could hand this task off to.

Thanks for the tip. If I can find an in house solution that works and doesn't tie up a machine for too long like a touch probe routine does I am not opposed to doing it myself. Worse comes to worse I guess I could just dedicate the little Chinese noodle router to touch probing jobs.

Wow. Jon boy really has no redeeming qualities does he. If he wasn't a vitriol spewing fountain of excrement he wouldn't produce anything at all. Maybe he should consider a job in a fertilizer plant where what comes out of his mouth would have some use.

Sorry, Bob. Don't have a good answer for you. We have a small mill with good accel/decel we use for touch probing, but it still takes a long time to do the type of parts I think you are doing. Makes most of this type job to expensive for our customers. The only way it pays them back is if they have us make hundreds of parts from the results. For the most part if we can't get what we need with more conventional measuring instruments its not worth it. Have you tried the Autocad on-line photographic service?

ROFL

Yeah its obvious alright. You are a loser who burned any chance at any respect for any aspect about yourself here a long time ago.

Sigh. I have whatever you guys are replying to blocked.

I just wanted to know if anybody could suggest a company to do the type of work I asked about who was willing to give some kind of estimated price structure on jobs so I could determine which way I wanted to go to take care of these customers, or if it was even practical. Or even provide a simple process to get an estimate on a case by case basis.

What sort of precision or accuracy do you need?

Is buying a 3D scanner an option for you? 3DS and Makerbot have such machines for $800 or less but resolution seems to be pretty coarse,

0.02" or worse.

If you just want a service, you might try

- that's a company that brokers 3D print service for small, home business-type 3D printer owners. You should be able to find someone local to you and see if they can provide 3D scan services.

Or just search:

Mike

I have looked at the Makerbot. Seems to have much better loyalty than the cheaper Cubify, and reviewers claim better results. Buying my own upto a modestly higher price than that is certainly an option. The MakerBot as you noted does has a resolution of only about .02" which is in the better "look what I can do" category, but I feel its still in that class. Its also limited to 8" x 8" apx scan area. Based on how my video edge finder focuses I suspect it might also have some focus issues with larger objects that approach the camera too closely as the turn table rotates. I still might buy one just to play with, as the results I have seen do appear to be better than my own laser/camera scans attempt. Still it would just be a toy to play with I think.

I will check out that resource. Thank you.

I did use Google many times, and I emailed or used the contact forms for more than a dozen companies. Most seemed to be focused on building size scans or larger. None returned my contact.