For my birthday, my wife is getting me parts to build a UAV. The first said parts are in and I’m going to begin constructing the frame this weekend. Below you can see the processing and sensor units on top of the four propellers. Its much smaller than I expected!
So with all of these subtractive and additive CNC devices, its nice to have additional ways to create objects. I wanted to try 3d scanning. There are open source, DIY, and commercial variants. The only open source one I know of is the makerbot cyclops which uses structured light and I really wanted to try the laser method. The commercial variant I saw recently demonstrated by Bre cost about $30k which is out of my price range. There is a DIY option called the David Laser Scanner that looked promising. You need a webcam, a laser, and their software. You can use a trial of their software at low res to get a feel for it. I picked up a $10 laser off of ebay and reused an old webcam to get started. Below you can see the setup.
The pattern is a PDF that you print. I picked up some foam core from a local craft store and constructed the scanning set. Below you can see a video of the actual scanning taking place.
Next I’m going to mount the laser to an old meade tripod so that it will skew consistently so that I don’t have to do it by hand. Please look for updates to this blog with pictures of the scanned image. Then I’ll try and print it on my Prusa 
Recently one of my pets Juanita passed away. We buried her in the backyard at our new house. I wanted to engrave a granite headstone to place on her grave. I’ve lasered wood and acrylic before, but this needed something more permanent. One of my friends picked up some granite counter scrap. This made for a perfect canvas. After some unsuccessful attempts processing the photo, I used a piece of software from Universal Laser to prepare it for engraving. Below, you can see Juanita’s head freshly engraved at 20% into the granite.
This worked better than expected. To make sure that I had the right laser settings for the photo, I engraved another picture at 25% power rather than 20% power. Afterward, I applied Winston flake white oil based paint to make the white areas “pop” a little bit more. You can see the image below. Sorry for the glare.
You can see the streaks from me rubbing the paint in. This will be buffed out once the paint dries in 2-5 days. I expect to finish this next weekend. Look for an update of the buffed picture and the finished engraving next week. Only for you Juanita …
