back to article 3D scanning made easy: Reg man ponders terrifying Xmas pressie

Something I determined some time ago is that the key to 3D printing is the modelling. The new scanner from Fuel3D makes this significantly less painful. Quick and easy scanning using the Fuel 3D The little black square is used for registration While there is an increasing number of desktop scanners what makes the Fuel 3D …

  1. Ole Juul

    There's going to be a lot of landfill

    Christmas presents. Brilliant! Everyone gets coffee mugs, dildos, piggy banks, and other bits of plastic just made just for them. Another idea is to make 3D business cards. Pass out little busts of yourself with your phone number at the bottom. The list is endless.

    1. Anonymous Custard
      Mushroom

      Re: There's going to be a lot of landfill

      I dunno - I can see a marked for 3D-printed stress relief toys like those little rubber balls & figurines you can get.

      Imagine having a little figure with your bosses face on it that you can pound to a pulp - could be the most satisfying 3D-print you ever invest in.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: There's going to be a lot of landfill

        The PLA that most home 3D printing is done from is made from corn starch so both compostible and sustainable.

        1. Alan Brown Silver badge

          Re: There's going to be a lot of landfill

          "made from corn starch so both compostible and sustainable"

          If you've seen how much USA farming subsidy (and oil) goes into growing corn you might rethink the latter part of that statement.

    2. John H Woods Silver badge

      Re: There's going to be a lot of landfill

      I doubt it ... most 3D printed objects have a relatively simple composition (and maybe a few pigments) - pretty much a recycler's dream. Even better, use an edible substance such as chocolate --- although maybe not for coffee mugs :-)

    3. Stuart 22

      Re: There's going to be a lot of landfill

      Nope - there must be a market for texting selfie naughty bits in 3D to the one you love - or want to love. And a lot more useful at the other end I would imagine. No, on second thoughts, I don't want to imagine.

    4. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: There's going to be a lot of landfill

      The next must-have christmas present will be a plastic chipper and filiament extruder

  2. frank ly

    Creepy chess set

    How about a 'family' chess set where the King/Queen are Dad/Mum and favourite aunts and uncles are knight, bishop and rook. Cousins and siblings can be individual pawns; or whatever. I'm sure there are some people who would pay serious money if the end result was of good technical quality.

  3. psychonaut

    chess sets

    Bishops always looked a bit phallic anyway, so ...you know

  4. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Promising start

    This still looks like a "Mark 1" device. However it does seem that there's an inevitability about this sort of thing -- and not just as an interface to 3D printing.

    With luck, some years and several £££ Billion we might just get some proper 3D telly out of this, from the 3rd or 4th generation versions.

    More worrying will be when your passport "photo" is required to be a 3D image, including the back of your head. Combine that with airport style "see through your clothes" millimetre radar and city centre CCTV surveillance and we might all need a dam' sight more than tinfoil hats,

  5. Kane

    Copyright/Trademark

    Just waiting for the first copyright/trademark case against someone who used a photo of their boss/spouse/family member/celebrity/delete where applicable to be launched.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Copyright/Trademark

      Yes - I must register my face before some bastard makes a fortune with it as a bird scarer!

    2. Trigonoceps occipitalis

      Re: Copyright/Trademark

      But you can print as many macaques as you have plastic.

  6. tony2heads

    all with your own face?

    Sounds like you escaped from Rimmerworld

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Full 360 in all directions

    It's not obvious from the Fuel3D web pages how you can scan an irregular object rotated horizontally and vertically to expose any undercuts or overlapping features. It does talk about manual post-processing to stitch images together - but that seems to be in the context of a model rotated in one plane?

    I have a fired sculpture that the moulding shop says is too fragile to attempt to mould. It is a person sitting on the floor with their hands clasped in front of their raised knees. The structure looks quite open - but various surfaces like armpits, back of knees, and the insides of the clasped hand are potentially hidden unless the scan is "global".

  8. stu 4

    A fraction of the price

    well yeh.. if the fraction is 8/3rds...

    Sense 3d handheld scanner is just over 300 quid, has been out for over a year and does the same thing.

  9. John Gamble
    Happy

    I've Grown Accustomed To That Face

    I take it that the "World's Creepiest Chess Set" sub-title was written by an editor who knows what Simon Rockman looks like?

    Maybe a Cthulian chess set might be a better Christmas choice.

    Just a friendly suggestion...

    1. Captain DaFt

      Re: I've Grown Accustomed To That Face

      I was mentally picturing a Walking Dead chess set.

      With the living on one side and the properly decaying zombies on the other.

  10. i like crisps
    Meh

    IN THE FUTURE...

    Are we going to end up with a similar situation with the compounds, that are used for fabricating the 3D objects, like we have with Printer ink now, that is the expense? As the prices for the 3D printers go down will we see the price of the compounds go up? Seems that we're swapping one 'Cartel' for another.

    1. John Bailey

      Re: IN THE FUTURE...

      "Are we going to end up with a similar situation with the compounds, that are used for fabricating the 3D objects, like we have with Printer ink now, that is the expense? As the prices for the 3D printers go down will we see the price of the compounds go up? Seems that we're swapping one 'Cartel' for another."

      No.

      Why not?

      Take a look at who actually buys a 3D printer. Not who some marketing department would like to convince they need one, or who some "entrepreneur" wants to sell premium models to.. Or even who you invent to be a 3D printer customer so you can laugh at them..

      Fact 1)

      Entry level for a ready made 3D printer.. About a grand. Usually more.

      How many people do you know who spend that much money on an impulse buy? Considered purchase.

      Fact 2) The people who are actually buying 3D printers for themselves, rather than for schools or work or what ever, are the ones who will end up buying the consumables.

      £20 a kilo, or £60+ for a 200M spool in a chipped cartridge (about a third of a kilo). Choose.

      Fact 3) There can be no cartel, because the barrier to entry is so low it's buried. I can set up a small business for very little outlay gathering the parts to make a kit, and sell it for about £3-500. No knowledge needed, I can download parts, buy ready made control boards.. The works. This is how many of the companies selling the printers to the domestic market start.

  11. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Excellent

    A good start. But for those of us who remember 2D hand scanners, first monochrome and later colour and dreamed of being able to justify buying a "proper" flat-bed scanner will probably give this a miss until the technology matures a bit.

    Maybe the next version will be attached to a robotic arm so the images can be taken with high accuracy not just in one plane but also angled up and down from different heights to get "hidden" details and take away a lot of the required post processing needed to cope with meatsacks manually moving the camera.

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