Want to modify a complex shaped plastic part; need a good, inexpensive, scan/service

[robosmith]

Put here a sketch with key dimensions, I'll design it for you.

Thanks for your offer, but I have imported a photo into sketchup, scaled it to the major dimensions, and attempted to trace the outlines.

I spent 3+ hours on it, including the enhancement pieces, and printed out the base part. Unfortunately the photo did not scale exactly and some of the features I missed were critical, so I'll be investing more time to get it right.

I was hoping to avoid this by getting a dimensionally accurate scan, but I guess that's hard to come by.

[LambdaFF]

... Probably not that hard but definitely expensive.

My company has several such scanners and the handlers have become "experts" with time and experiments : they get requests from the Group to do things on a steady basis. It would be hard / costly for a small company to keep that kind of expertise.

[JSenior]

As above, there's plenty of companies that can do it, but I'm not sure it's going to be cost effective assuming it's just for a personal project (you're talking an hours work using $100k of specialised equipment and software.)


Saying that: if you want to send in to Britain (and don't need me to return it ) then I'll do it for beer tokens.

[Marm]

Ok, getting the outer shape is easy, you're making this way to hard on your self. Do the same steps as above, but when you take your photo, put a ruler in the pic, say a 20mm length. Then when you import the photo into SU, draw a 20mm line, and scale the photo to match that line. Bingo, 100% scaling. Then use the arc tool to make the arcs, tracing the picture. If it's a number of arcs with different radii, then make multiple arcs, but only half the item. Then copy/rotate the half arc into a bigger one.

As mentioned. 30 minutes.

But to be honest, I'm guessing every dimension is not critical. There are probably some parts that are open to the air, so design a new one to fit the attachment points, and the rest just needs to be close.

[LambdaFF]

Ok, getting the outer shape is easy, you're making this way to hard on your self. Do the same steps as above, but when you take your photo, put a ruler in the pic, say a 20mm length.

Works too. Splines are cleaner. :-)

As mentioned. 30 minutes. .

Yep.

[Marm]

You need a reference point, to know how long your scan/photo is.

[robosmith]

Thanks for your offer J. If I can find the part for purchase in the UK, I'll have it shipped to you. So far, I've only found it in the US. It's a drip tray for a Frigidaire refrigerator water dispenser.

http://www.searspartsdirect.com/part...FUWVfgodLGcA7g

[JSenior]

No Problem.

I can't see anywhere in the UK that does it (we don't really have fridge freezers.) There are plenty of places that will ship to the UK but want $25 or so for postage.

[Marm]

Hmm... at that cost, the time spent making one may not be worth it! That said, I'm still intrigued by reverse engineering it. A set of calipers should do you fine, and it looks like, to my eye, there only 3 radii to deal with , so you might be able to get it into SU, and use the arc tool to semi-easily create those radii. Oh well....

[robosmith]

Hmm... at that cost, the time spent making one may not be worth it! That said, I'm still intrigued by reverse engineering it. A set of calipers should do you fine, and it looks like, to my eye, there only 3 radii to deal with , so you might be able to get it into SU, and use the arc tool to semi-easily create those radii. Oh well....

Yeah, I'm well past the major radii. I spent a few more hours on it last night and am almost there. The key was those two tabs in the corners which hold it in place.

Of course the 5 hours I've already spent include the enhancements, not just the original part.

Seems like there may be a major market developing for inexpensive scanners that really work reliably.