What a model train project can teach us about the future of 3D scanning and printing
“The hobbyists have established a startup called The Flexiscale Company, which launched a Kickstarter project on Monday that aims to fund the production of model kits for several old and very obscure locomotives,” writes GigaOM.
With that data, Thorpe was able to send it to French 3D-printing firm Sculpteo to make a 1:25-scale model of Winifred.
But Thorpe also wanted to recreate part of Winifred on a 1:1 scale. “To test whether this would work, he sent the data for the door latch to Shapeways, which returned a copy in stainless steel: effectively a spare part for a vehicle that’s more than 120 years old, complete with the patina gained by the original part over the years, with 1mm accuracy,” reports GigaOM.
Read the full story here; http://gigaom.com/2013/02/04/what-a-model-train-project-can-teach-us-about-the-future-of-3d-scanning-and-printing/