HEY guys . need help

[Drone]

New3dguy,
I'm very new to 3d printing having just started about 2 months ago, so take my advice for what it's worth (and what you paid for it). I would take a very small amount of money now and get actively involved in 3d printing. Buy an inexpensive kit and build it, use it and learn it. 3d printing isn't something you talk about and ask questions so much as live it and do it... and yes, ask a lot of questions. But as you learn an inexpensive printer you will start to ask more pertinent questions and develop a knowledge base that will pay huge dividends when you are ready to buy your higher level printer. Even an inexpensive printer kit (I have the Makerfarm i3v 10" that runs $600) will be a very useful tool for a long time during your initial learning curve and you most likely will not outgrow the capabilities of the cheaper printer for quite some time as you gain knowledge along the way. I was voracious in lurking on boards, watching videos and doing research for about 6 months before I took the plunge with my first printer purchase and found I learned more in the first week of owning the i3v that the 6 months of research. It seems it's one thing to approach 3d printing academically and a completely different thing to approach it from a builders perspective. I don't think I made a mistake in taking so long in the research phase, but after owning one a short time I think my understanding of 3d printing capabilities and limitations are growing much faster with actually owning one and using one. Just an opinion, but I would highly recommend jumping in and seeing how your research knowledge applies to the real world experience of using a printer. It will allow you to get a jump start on you designing skills as well as you create what you design and learn the different design tools of the trade.

[new3dguy]

Drone your absolutely right. Im going to do that and put some money aside for buying a inexpensive one. thanks for your time !

[curious aardvark]

Thanks Curious Arrdvark for your time. Okay so lets begin with scanners. Say i have a newborn baby just born. Say id like to make a 3D baby hand in pink (its a girl) that would fit onto a keychain with the name and date inscribed on the top of the hand and obviously the lines and creases that naturally occur in our hands on the bottom. These are simple custom items id like to create if you know what i mean. ANother example of what im looking to do. Id like to print a dogs face. ( as close to detail as can be ) out of plastic, resin , etc . i have a small house dog. hes is no bigger than 15lbs . THose are the things im looking to do with help from a scanner . Do i expect to edit and reshape and apply some details of course. i just would like to know , WHO knows the good the bad and the ugly as that technology is coming along at the moment.! Does it exist yet? Slower is fine with me . I can sacrifice being slow for quality. so Quality and details.? which scanner printer combo would best suit my goal. ? Again thanks for your time and input, Cory

Okay - for those kind of things the mcor are ideal.
They basically make full colour paper mcahe models that you soak in a resin to produce a very durable more plastic type print.

I also agree wholeheartedly with the chap who said to just jump in with both feet.

You'll learn a lot more by playing with a printer than by thinking about playing with a printer :-)

[awerby]

The problem with the baby hand or dog face idea is that those critters never stay still for a moment (babies are the worst). You say a slow scanner would be okay, but you wouldn't capture more than a blur. Obviously you can't use a turntable-type scanner for a project like that (unless you molded the hand or face first), so you'd need a very fast and accurate hand-held or tripod-mounted scanner to do it. These certainly exist, but they aren't cheap. If you've got $15k or so to throw at this project, please let me know; I can fix you up...

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[Feign]

For scanning an unscannably fidgety subject, a multi-camera setup is the only option. http://www.instructables.com/id/Mult...Scanner/#step0 has one method of doing it, but I've seen it done with webcams and other kinds of cheap cameras that you can network together.

If there were some way to hook multiple Camera modules to one Raspberry Pi it would make this method a boatload easier and cheaper, as it is, the Multi-Pi scanner looks like a wiring nightmare.

(Kinda sad only less than 20 people saw the potential in the IVPort, even though it was a bit expensive for what it does, and the guy running the IGG never marketed the thing very well.)