Laser Scanning

[GJMATHEWS]

One of my many other talents is Laser Scanning parts to produce working 3D models for milling on CNC machines. I know there are other companies out there that do this, but for some strange reason, I never see the initial scans of these companies.

A member of this forum sent me these chess pieces. This is a quick scan of the bishop, using my hand held scanner. Tomorrow I will set up studio lights and produce a 3d Scan of the entire piece. Total scan time was 4 minutes start to finish. From the basic scan, I can make a watertight .STL ready for milling as you can see in the second photo. Total time to do all this was less then 20 minutes. This basic scan file has holes in in it right now, however they are so small, you could mill with a 1/16 inch ball nose and not pierce the surface. All laser scanners have faults. I know someone will email in the next day or two telling me that their scanner is perfect and you can scan and mill with no file manipulation whatsoever other then Axis placement and tool paths. In some cases you can, but the detail is lacking, such as the owls that I scanned and milled. However, the proof is always in the pudding.

This piece stands 3 and 3/8 inches high. As you can see the detail is pretty pronounced for a hand held scan.

Would love to see the work of others, start to finish. I think Brady Watson could give me a run for my money. I have seen his finshed scans on his website but not the inital work. So far, I am only aware of myself and one other person that is scanning and milling in under 1 hour. I am open to all challenges. :)

Anyway, my point is, we are only limited by our imaginations and our wallets. We are living in an incredible time right now. The technology to change just about anything is at our fingertips. Davids scanner looks pretty cool from what I saw and I do not think the file manipulation would be too hard for anyone with basic computer and CAD skill, however it does take time. Lots of time depending on level of detail. Artcam or Aspire can definately handle the cleanup detail.

Anyhow, looking forward to seeing more people posting there work in this area. More to come as I scan the chess set.

[Angus_Hines]

Nice scan....Can't wait to see this "project" when its done. You guys have all the good brain storms.:D

[GJMATHEWS]

Nice scan....Can't wait to see this "project" when its done. You guys have all the good brain storms.:D

Only brainstorm I ever had was light drizzle that resulted in a heavy fog for three days.

The result of some drug in my glory days no doubt!!! [lol]

[james mcgrew]

guy show them what you have done!!! i am amazed

jim

[GJMATHEWS]

guy show them what you have done!!! i am amazed

jim

You have to show them Jim, I am at home and my work computer is shut down so I can not connect to it to grab files.

Besides, my cocktail is getting warm![lol]

[pescado_loco]

Only brainstorm I ever had was light drizzle that resulted in a heavy fog for three days.

The result of some drug in my glory days no doubt!!! [lol]

So that's why I have CRS[lol]

[james mcgrew]

here is the skinny and this is all i show right now, but i gotta do this

Guy you are the man!!!![fantastic]

[fantastic] your model work it is perfect and i am very happy and amazed at your work, for the rest of you there will be more on this later

jim

[james mcgrew]

slowly he turns

jim

[Joey Jarrard]

Nice work.

[Russ Revels]

Is the cutting done with cut3d in layers?

Russ

[GJMATHEWS]

here is the skinny and this is all i show right now, but i gotta do this

Guy you are the man!!!![fantastic]

[fantastic] your model work it is perfect and i am very happy and amazed at your work, for the rest of you there will be more on this later

jim

Jim,

That means a hell of a lot to me. My sincerest thanks.

Guy

[james mcgrew]

guy and i will post more of this as time goes on and the project comes more to fruition, the model you see is a front back model set 4" round at the base and machined in two 1/2's in 2" sign foam, i am using aspire for machining.

jim

[james mcgrew]

here is the effect of "slicing a very thick file into 2" thick "slabs for reglueing together

[Russ Revels]

The carving is looking great. Jim, you better watch out, you won't have time for cabinets just playing around. The capability of the machines opens up a world of possibilities.

That is a really neat capability. Not much limit on how thick a part you can assemble with that method.

Russ

[pescado_loco]

Guy,
Are you using the Cobra or Scorpion Fastscan. I talked to Fastscan today on pricing. Guess I'm going to have to start saving & selling more if I wont one of those. & believe me I want one. For now I'll have to have scans done outside:D

[GJMATHEWS]

Guy,
Are you using the Cobra or Scorpion Fastscan. I talked to Fastscan today on pricing. Guess I'm going to have to start saving & selling more if I wont one of those. & believe me I want one. For now I'll have to have scans done outside:D

FastScan Scorpion. Our company also uses an LDI Surveyor 3500 for for extreme detail work. It cost a lot of money to get us to turn that one on!!! :D

We are considering taking a look at the Nextengine Scanner. I am going to send them an email and see if they will do a demo in house.

To be honest, I do not believe the Jay Leno video is showing you all the work that is involved. Jim's pieces were scanned with our scorpion, but since they are so small a lot of detail is lost. I have to clean them in CAD and detail them in Virtual Carving. There will be more on this coming up.

When you buy a laser, be sure to tell them that I sent you looking to Polhemus, I need the finder fee referrals to pay for my next trip to Atlanta! [lol]

[GJMATHEWS]

Jim,

Just wanted to tease you a bit with your next piece. I am taking extra time with the Knight because I know that you are a horse owner. The knight, the king and the queen should be available for download by Monday.

Guy

[james mcgrew]

guy david nd i are sitting here just in awe, met with foam people and am getting ready to gear up!!!!

excellent work

[GJMATHEWS]

Just added some photos to my albums. As the Chess project that Jim is working on progresses, you will see some more info on it posted here by him. As for the laser scanning end of it, I am preparing a video that will show start to finish just what is involved in what I like to call, "Scan to mill technology."

More to follow soon.

Photos can be viewed here...

http://www.camheads.org/member.php?u=190

[pescado_loco]

FastScan Scorpion. Our company also uses an LDI Surveyor 3500 for for extreme detail work. It cost a lot of money to get us to turn that one on!!! :D

We are considering taking a look at the Nextengine Scanner. I am going to send them an email and see if they will do a demo in house.

To be honest, I do not believe the Jay Leno video is showing you all the work that is involved. Jim's pieces were scanned with our scorpion, but since they are so small a lot of detail is lost. I have to clean them in CAD and detail them in Virtual Carving. There will be more on this coming up.

When you buy a laser, be sure to tell them that I sent you looking to Polhemus, I need the finder fee referrals to pay for my next trip to Atlanta! [lol]


I told them you sent me when I talked to them.

[TomM]

Well I've been following this scanning and I have a couple of things that I'd like to do in the future, but the cost is out of my league for me to justify. I'm just a hobbiest and admire the work being done by others on this forum and have learned and continue to learn quite a bit. I was on one of the tutorial blogs on the net and came across this and maybe someone could benefit from it. Its within my price range, but probably not near the detail of the commercial systems, but I think it would be a good starting point for scanning. I'm sure there are others out there, but the video goes from start to finish and is informative.
Tom

http://revision3.com/systm/laserscan/

[GJMATHEWS]

Here is a scan I did this morning for a customer in Jersey. We will produce 2 of these in a larger size next week.

http://i609.photobucket.com/albums/tt178/gjmathews/LeafScanning.jpg

Not sure what is up with the attchment section of this forum, so I am now using html links and encoding to my photobucket account to post larger pictures here.

[GJMATHEWS]

Hey all,

Have been working on our website for the past few days. Laser Scanning page went live today. Stop by and check it out if you can pull yourself away from your CNC machines long enough! :D

www.newwavewoodworking.com

Comments and corrections are welcome.

Thanks.

Guy

[Russ Revels]

Guy,
The web site really looks good. The scanning page is great. The sequence and layout is really nice. I noticed one typo on the page. To the right of the picture with the blank loaded, 4th line from the bottom, the sentence starting with "This" the word "is" is missing.

Hopefully that makes some sense.

Great site!

Russ

[GJMATHEWS]

Thanks Russ. I caught a few other changes as well. More are coming as the grammer goddess in our office takes a look at it.

She is not smart enough to do, only smart enough to teach! [lol]