Successful CT scan processing into 3D printable file

Today was spent researching all the manipulations involved in getting a CT scan into printable form and I managed to get a print out of it.  The process starts with DeVide where the dicom data from the CT scan is processed using a dual threshold, decimation filter, and stl writer.  The stl file contains a lot of unwanted stuff, in this case, soft tissues inside my head that add triangles but won’t be seen in the print, so those are removed by applying ambient occlusion followed by selecting and deleting vertices by “quality” (which will be very low values for vertices on the interior of the object).  This process invariably blows small holes in the desired surface, so you apply a “close holes” filter to fix that (which closed up the nostrils very nicely).  Next you open the stl file in netfabb and rotate and clip unwanted external stuff and apply repairs as necessary.  Finally, drag it into slicer and scale it. slice and print.

First successful ego print!

First successful ego print!

Nerdy Derby Car From The Future

I made the car “Sling Shot” to enter in the 2012 Milwaukee “Nerdy Derby” at Barcamp7 this weekend.  A lot of people were talking about adding motors and fancy electronics, but my car is powered by a spring – a 10 foot length of surgical tubing that is stretched to another block of wood that must be clamped down.  I added wheels, but they aren’t necessary – they don’t actually even touch the track.

Check out what may end up being the only two runs the car has.  Fortunately, JRock captured some video of them.  I’d estimate that the car took 0.1 or 0.2 seconds to travel the 40 foot length of the race track, giving an average speed of 300 feet per second (200 mph!).  The great part about this “sling shot” design is that the car is accelerated by the surgical tubing spring throughout the first 30 feet of the track – until the surgical tubing is completely unstretched.  “Beautiful!”

 

Spaceship Chair Tested By Space-Man!

*Extra! Extra!*

Dateline: June 14, 2011, Milwaukee Makerspace

Ron Bean recently wowed the world & the Milwaukee Makerspace with his new invention, the “Spaceship Chair”. Now everyone is wowed again now that an actual real life Space-Man has come down from the cosmos to test the chair. No word on what galaxy he was from, but he was quoted as saying, “This chair is out of this world!”

We have this one verified image of the Space Man enjoying the comfort of Ron’s Spaceship Chair!

Congratulations to Ron for bridging the intergalactic boundaries with his universally adored chair!

For more information please check back here at www.milwaukeemakerspace.org !

For Milwaukee Makerspace news, I’m David R.