Comming Soon: My First Scan

[JuicyCarp]

Good morning,

I am going to attempt my first scan this weekend with the probe. I will be scanning a carved wood badge/plaque that a coworker would like replicated. The original is carved from Honduran mahogany and i don’t want to damage it at all. I got the glue tips for the probe, but how do i attach the original to a sled without damaging it. I have seen that people have used hot glue and double sided tape, but i am concerned that both might damage the finish on the original. And of course screwing it down is not an option. I thought i would throw this out to the professionals and see if anyone has any good advice.

Thanks!

Kevin

[cnsranch]

Hi, Kevin

I've had my best luck in scanning by taking the item to be scanned and adhering it to the sled this way.....

I like to cut some 3/4" plywood pieces about 1" wide by 1" thick. How many you need depends on the size of the item being scanned.

I hot glue them to the sled, and hot glue the item to the plywood pieces. Now, you have the item to be scanned suspended above the sled by 1".

Here's a trick - have one more piece of plywood the same thickness as the ones suspending the item. As the probe is doing its measuring, jog to depth (that tells the machine how deep to scan) and jog to that piece of plywood. Now the probe won't scan any deeper than the piece being scanned. For me, that prevents having to manipulate the depth of the item in Pattern Editor. Suspending the item also allows the probe to "see" cut out areas (if it's adhered directly to the sled, it will scan the sled in those voids - make sense?)

I've got a grid penciled on my sled so that I can make the item as square to the machine as possible - and I also have 4 or 5 coats of poly over the grid - keeps the grid and helps the hot glue to come right off.

That said, I know you don't want to mess with the item by using hot glue - double sided tape may work, but the item HAS to be stable - the scan won't be any good if it moves while the probe is going over it.

The tips do work, BTW.