From pictures of a face to a 3d head

Going from pictures of a face to a 3d printed head.

Step 1 - Use FaceGen Modeler's Photofit feature to generate a 3d-mesh and a uvw-map of the skin.

UVW-map of the face generated with FaceGen Modeler

The whole head is exported from FaceGen as an OBJ-file
and can be imported in any 3d modeling software.

Step 2 - Fix and position the mesh using Autodesk's free Meshmixer app (they have more free tools for 'Makers' and 'Hackers') and generate a valid STL file. I wasn't a fan of Meshmixer but I'm becoming one fast due to the automatic error fixing capabilities!

Step 3 - Print it!

A timelapse of the 3 hour print....

 

HoneyComb infill @ 80% by Slic3er and 3 perimeters

Support material generated by Slic3r
(facing up only the back of the head looks ugly)

the End result

A failed test print that is hollow and has only 1 perimeter.
Use meshmixer to 'fix' these things by
making valid 'single solid' 3d objects.

Reprap to the rescue: Fixed my daughter's favourite toy

Original Broken & Newly 3d printed lever

My oldest daughter's favorite toy is the Fisher Price Sink Set (1982). It's a toy that my wife used to play with when she was a toddler so it's quite old (no darling you're not old!) but still in good shape. Recently my daughter was upset because water stopped coming out when she pushed the lever. I opened up the set and noticed a broken lever that pushes a rubber pump.

 So let's fire up Sketchup and get the calipers ready and start drawing! Then generated an STL file (you need a plugin to generate STL files in Sketchup) and sent it to the Prusa I3 reprap.

I know one little person who will be very happy when she wakes up in the morning...

Let me know if you need the STL files. I printed in ABS with layer height @ 200µm and Slic3r Honeycomb infill @ 80% with a tiny bit of Brim (2mm)

My first 3D print with PLA - a Gear Bearing

To test the PLA material I never printed with until now I printed some planetary gears.

This is a customized version of Emmet's Gear Bearing on Thingiverse. The tolerance is set to 0.3 in the customizer. I'll print another one with 0.1 as these are even a bit too loose...
Printed in PLA, extruder @ 200°C, heatbed @ 65°C, layer height 200µm, (still no cooling, I really need to connect my PLA extruder fan to my electronics!)