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Looking for a 3D scanner that is good for small parts

Jack Sparrow

Jack Sparrow

Joined
Oct 9, 2020
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Well,
I am in the mood for shopping for a 3D scanner and was wondering if anyone knows a good one for small parts (<2 cm x <2 cm)
 
Scanner is easy. What are going to do with the point cloud once you've scanned the parts? Here is a scan I did of a ski helmet. Now this needs to be turned into a part. I thought it would be easy but it is a huge and tedious job to do that.

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rshousha said:
Scanner is easy. What are going to do with the point cloud once you've scanned the parts? Here is a scan I did of a ski helmet. Now this needs to be turned into a part. I thought it would be easy but it is a huge and tedious job to do that.

View attachment 555696
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I think there is a function to export the image into an stl or obj file. my problem is that I have returned 2 scanners so far because they can't scan the fittings that I was testing.
 
May I ask what specific fittings you want to make up? Remember, scanning reduces the detail of the original, and the smaller the part, the more detail you will lose. Depending on what you mean by "fitting" it might be much easier to simply draw up the parts yourself, skipping over several steps in your quest.
 
rshousha said:
May I ask what specific fittings you want to make up? Remember, scanning reduces the detail of the original, and the smaller the part, the more detail you will lose. Depending on what you mean by "fitting" it might be much easier to simply draw up the parts yourself, skipping over several steps in your quest.
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I wish I could draw them up. It's not feasible for me. I am talking about the ornamentation on such things as the Soleil Royal.
 
Well, you got me there. Indeed, it would be wonderful to make up those types of fittings, in a variety of scales! I am sure, if you can get your system to work, you will have a lot of envious modellers.

Best of luck!

Rick
 
rshousha said:
Well, you got me there. Indeed, it would be wonderful to make up those types of fittings, in a variety of scales! I am sure, if you can get your system to work, you will have a lot of envious modellers.

Best of luck!

Rick
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It's a scanner made for jewelry. I hope it does what it is intended to do. If not I will return it like the other two that I tried.
THanks
 
Jack Sparrow said:
It's a scanner made for jewelry. I hope it does what it is intended to do. If not I will return it like the other two that I tried.
THanks
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As a note, there is an addon for Blender that allows one to convert an 2D image into a depth image. It's called Truedepth. I tried it a couple of times and didn't get what I wanted. Maybe it's because I didn't use it properly. Not sure.
 
So I settled on the Revopoint Mini 2 which is designed for "smaller" objects. The minimum volume for this is 10mm x 10mm x 10mm. I think I can work with that.
Anything smaller, I'll use as is or attempt to make myself with the exception of figures. I don't even know where to start to make those myself.
 
There is a topic on MSW where some software is used to make STL files from a simple drawings or pictures. The ornaments are easy using it. This eliminates need for scanner.

modelshipworld.com

Ship Model Carvings and figureheads - Using AI for for making STL files for 3D printing...things are getting better every day.

Now I am not a CAD guy at all. I know enough to be dangerous but really cant design a part to save my life. But thanks to the new idiot proof tools and software out there it really is easy as can be these days. Many are free and if they are not it really isnt expensive to use. So using really com...
modelshipworld.com modelshipworld.com
 
I guess this is too late to be of immediate use and hopefully you will in any case have more joy than I did. Last year I bought a Creality CR-Scan Ferret SE 3D Scanner, as it was being heavily discounted at the time. I wanted to scan the 1/100 Heller Victory hull, so that I could get a perfect fit for the 3D stern I'd modelled a while back, and I had it in mind to scan ornaments, figures, organic shapes etc, the same as you. I'd been in touch with a few professional outfits beforehand regarding the hull. The cost of them doing it was far too high and they had all implied that this kind of detail would need a top grade industrial scanner. I figured I didn't really need perfection, just 'good enough', so bought the ferret.

I made many, many attempts to scan the hull but could never get anything really useful. The scanning itself was a pretty painful process as the scanner keeps losing it's reference. (In the first of the pictures below, the black-ringed white dots are self-applied stickers that give it reference points). But even if the scanning had been easy, the quality was miles off 'good enough'. The picture on the left shows the scan with a 'skin' applied. "Wow", you think, when you first see this, "this scan is going to be amazing". But unfortunately it's really just a photo rendition overlayed onto the scan data. The actual scan product is the picture on the right. The broad shape is okay but every bit of detail is so soft that it would have been the work of months to recreate this accurately. See those nice sharp gunports on the left? It was impossible to determine the edges on the model on the right. It was the same for all the detail. As Rick says, scanning is only the first bit; converting it into something useful and printable is another thing altogether. After a few months of intermittent attempts, I gave up, sold the scanner and got the tight fit by trial and error. I'll be curious to see how you get on. Better than me, I hope.

On another thread this week I've talked about Meshy 6, an app that uses AI to create 3D shapes from photos, drawings, text. I'll definitely be giving this a try for Soleil Royale ornaments, as well as the Victory figurehead.

1763218089686.png1763217966877.png
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Y.T. said:
I would be more interested what would be a good 3D printer for making sharp copies of small parts not larger than 40 mm.
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Y.T, any resin printer will do that. If you're looking for a specific recommendation, I'd point you at the Elegoo Mars. Very affordable small printer. But keep in mind you will spend the same again on peripherals and you either need decent fume extraction or to run it somewhere like a garage.

1:100 victory stern
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winches and pumps for 1:96 cutty sark
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Y.T. said:
Got it. This means that all this printing business is not for me. I am in condo apartment. Do not have a private garage. I have a balcony but this is probably is not useful due to wind, sun, snow and dust.
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A balcony could be okay if you can run the printer in a cabinet or suchlike. But even with wash & cure machines for the cleanup, resin is a bit messy, being a wet process. Having seen the quality of your work I don't think you would be at all happy with the results from a filament printer.
 
Kevin the Lubber said:
The cost of them doing it was far too high and they had all implied that this kind of detail would need a top grade industrial scanner. I figured I didn't really need perfection, just 'good enough', so bought the ferret.
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Besides getting "good enough" result there's also matter of printing time and materials. Making low poly hull with no ornaments and without figurehead is simple. There're diffrent models of ships made that way on Kults and other sites. I don't know how much time it takes to print a whole hull on filament printer. I tried to slice 1/4 of a ship and supposed time was 2-4 days depending on settings. I didn't do any tests as I don't have such printer and the printing time combined with the quality of end result even with perfectly designed hull can be dissapointing.

Such hull needs to be covered with wood or veneer as it's quality isn't enough for glue and paint only. Those layers need to be polished or covered
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Maybe when printers like elegoo Orange storm giga become cheaper and more refined we will have our heller like kits in home

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I tried to create some models with ai over a year ago. From what they say on MSW it still cannot create models from photos of an actual model standing in museum. It needs clear sketches without noise in the background
AI will certanly be helpful in making bas reliefs and figureheads, but Soleil Royal, Saint Phlippe, Royal William or even other ships from 1600+ where you have only drawings of decorations which are painter's vision that needs to be converted to objects fitting rest of the ship.... I don't know, so far paid subscriptions and tokens are certain.

Here you have drawings of Tanneron's SR made by Marc Yeu. Third photo is from janos stern cross section build.
Only problem - this drawings won't fit any kit for SR except Heller's, but I'm very interested what ai will do with them :)

bouteille.jpg
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