Glad I read this thread. I’ve been meaning to get into 3-D printing... for both myself and for “STEM” stuff with my kids.

I’ve got reasonable skills... just not with the right software (I use Autodesk Revit professionally). I’ve got access to quite a bit of software and limited access to fabrication equipment. What I’m missing is time. At least at the moment.

I’ll definitely follow this thread...

 

My son had graduated his mechanical engineering program and told me he really liked Solidworks. Indicated there were student/hobbyist versions that could be used cheaply. Have not purchased yet but did buy a Solidworks tutorial book from Amazon and will be looking at this for a few projects like the ones mentioned above. Wolfe which Einstar scanner did you purchase ? I have been down a few scanner rabbit holes and Einstar was one of them in the $500 -700 range that I looked at as well as Creality ??

 

The Einstar blows away any other affordable scanner. Watch many comparison vids on Youtube.
This is the one I picked up.

 

Well crap.. the embed doesn't seem to be working.

 

I have been looking into scanners as well, thanks for the videos. I'm also considering a solidworks or fusion subscription and just started comparing them. My understanding from a couple years ago was that a file format conversion is needed between the scanning, modeling, and production stages in order to make a part. Is that still the case?

 

I'm still getting up to speed with Fusion 360, but Tinkercad will output a file directly into the .stl file format, which I've always taken straight to a slicer program. I guess it's fair to say that, indeed, there is a need to covert that .stl file via the slicer software for the production of the part. I have seen that folks get into tweaking that part of the process (optimizing is probably a better word) but I have, so far, had reasonable success with the default values and it's relatively painless.

Cheers

 

So I found out today that one of my customers does a lot of reverse engineering and 3d modeling for work. I sent him the 3d scan file to take a look at and explained to him the goal. I could send him my two speaker brackets and he could do a complete model of them with the changed needed to fit early cars.
Also sending a file for the interior panel as well, now that I've gotten a mostly decent scan of it.

And today I was shown a post on Facebook from some guy in Spain who does carbon fiber parts, so I spoke to him about the cost of doing up interior liner. He said about 750 Euro each, and they could be done with or without aesthetics in mind, if one were to want to do a vinyl covering to keep a factory look. That's much better than I had expected, and it's tempting to look locally and see what a local place might charge, and/or send him two of the ones I have arriving soon to make a mold from. That cardboard backing has got to go...