Model Scanning

[J_Man]

I'm brand new to the board. I just ordered a Carvewright and a scanning probe. It will be here Thursday. I'm doing my reading up on everything now so with luck I'll be able to do something by the weekend. I've been around computers for years and build my own, so I should be set as far as the software side goes.

My question is, could you take a 1/72 scale model and upsize it on the Carvewright? I'd like to take a Mig 29 and size it up where it would be 1/18 scale. I know I couldn't do it all in one cut, I'll have to piece it together and glue up the final parts. I'm fine with that, I just want to get the item in the program. Can you just lay a model kit down on the Carvewright and scan it in then resize it? As long as the program will allow resizing, I think I can manipulate the machine to give me what I'm looking for in parts.

I guess also I should ask, can it scan something as small as an action figure? I would like to be able to create some prototype figures as well. I could scan in a figure to get some on screen demensions, then I can start hand designing them straight on the computer. It should be no problem to have the machine cut the front of the full figure and the back of the full figure side by side. I could take that and glue it up to make the solid figure then.

So am I asking too much of the machine or is all of what I'm talking about just a matter of working with the software to get what I want?

[badger]

I'm brand new to the board.




Always nice to have another one.



My question is, could you take a 1/72 scale model and upsize it on the Carvewright? I'd like to take a Mig 29 and size it up where it would be 1/18 scale. I know I couldn't do it all in one cut, I'll have to piece it together and glue up the final parts. I'm fine with that, I just want to get the item in the program. Can you just lay a model kit down on the Carvewright and scan it in then resize it? As long as the program will allow resizing, I think I can manipulate the machine to give me what I'm looking for in parts

That might prove to be more difficult than you think. Yes you could put down the parts and scan them. But remember your only scanning one side. You would then have to scan the back side of the part and hope you get the scale exactly right. You might burn up alot of wood that way. Then you would have to do a front carve and backside carve or even a seperate carve to get the backside of the model part and hope the scale is correct to piece them together. Not saying it cant be done should be interesting to see someone actually try it if they had the time and the wood to spare.



I guess also I should ask, can it scan something as small as an action figure?

Yes, however the smaller the size the less detail you will get out of it. Be sure to check out some of the tips when it comes to the probe and using soft tips on it if your worried about marring the finish on anything.



Im sure when the older folk (sorry Youth Challenged) get up they might have some more ideas for ya. :cool:

[J_Man]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I'm thinking about just getting the outside detail done with the Carvewright, then I'll hollow it out by hand. I've got some thick sheets of Styrene plastic that I wanted to try and feed through it. If I can at least get the machine to do the details of the plane's body (or tank, or car, etc.), I can can handle the other details myself.

I figure I can buy something like a snap together model and just fully put it together, then scan the top and bottom separate so I can cut each. I'll probably have to divide the scan up too so that it'll handle everything since we would be talking about more than an inch from top to bottom.

I don't mind working around the machine's ability, just so long as it can do what I want. I don't have the money for a $20,000 machine so I can live with working around ways of getting the job done.

I've got another idea of letting the machine carve brick details and such for houses (model scale) and do it one wall at a time. I would think I could then just glue all sides together and have a really nice detailed minature house if it works.

[badger]

Cant wait to see how it all turns out.

[Gunner]

I'm not sure about the styrene plastic being carved. Seems to me it would melt from the speed of the bit. But, many people in here have been using Corian and cast acrilic for carving. Have you tried a test carve using a dremel tool? If it melts with the dremel it will probably melt with the CC.

[J_Man]

Styrene melts using a high speed dremel, but a cheapy dremel from say Harbor Freight doesn't melt it. You have to use low speeds and it'll do fine, so if that's a problem I can switch to a different type of material. I've got a plastic company right up the road from me that I can get almost anything I need from. Once I get the machine (it's suppose to be here today), and once I learn what I'm doing, I'll do a simple test run with styrene. Maybe just have it cut a rounded edge about 1/2" deep and 1" long. That way if it melts, it won't be much the clean off the cutter.

[ChrisAlb]

Styrene melts using a high speed dremel, but a cheapy dremel from say Harbor Freight doesn't melt it. You have to use low speeds and it'll do fine, so if that's a problem I can switch to a different type of material. I've got a plastic company right up the road from me that I can get almost anything I need from. Once I get the machine (it's suppose to be here today), and once I learn what I'm doing, I'll do a simple test run with styrene. Maybe just have it cut a rounded edge about 1/2" deep and 1" long. That way if it melts, it won't be much the clean off the cutter.

Hey Joe,

Just a thought here but, you can't control the speed of the CW. So while a low speed Dremel (I have a variable one) might not melt it, The CW will. I tried a chunk and it cost me a carving bit. A thicker bit might not break but, be careful.

Just food for thought.

[J_Man]

Thanks, yeah I don't know the material yet that it can cut. I assume the instructions gives a decent list? Or maybe somewhere on the forum?

[J_Man]

Well I did a scan of one side of the fuselage and the back top body of a Mig-31 model. I decided to work with this plane due to box look of the plane. Whatever I have to hand build will be fairly easy with the squared off body.

I'm still not fully comprehending the editing. It would be a heck of lot easier to just take the image into Photoshop after scanning and clean it up. I tried it and it pretty much flattened out. What is everyone else doing for clean up? Within the main areas of the image everything is smooth, but the edges are choppy. The edges get even more choppy when I try editing in the CarveWright editor. Plus of course the editor is limited in tools to work with.

Another thing, there will be parts too thick to cut so what's a good way to divide up the sections in layers? I posted about a 3D program that does that for regular CNC machines, what might work for the CarveWright? It should be some way that a program manipulates the grayscale map or something.

So is there anybody that can help me out? The sooner I can get a comprehension of this will be the sooner I can load up some images in the pattern thread. I put a Santa head in there that came out decent, but that's a good example of the chewed up looking edges that I want to know how to clean up. Any help would be appreciated!

[TIMCOSBY]

the scan into the editor write down the depth of the pattern then export as a png file do your editing in whatever you use and then go back to the carvewright editor and open up the manipulated png file it will come in at the default 0.25" depth change that back to the original depth and you should be good to go.

[TIMCOSBY]

with the blur tool after i bring the edited png back into carvewright editor. i set it to the solid black tool not the graduated one. seem the get rid of anything i might have missed.