3D Scanning To Replicate a Guitar
Reproduce it with 3D Scanning
What do you do when you have an amazing handmade guitar that sounds great and wish that you could give one to all your friends? What do you do when you have a one-of-a-kind old guitar that you wish you could update into a newer version? The answer is that you do what one guitar maker did with his guitar. It is a handmade electric guitar that he’s been cranking on for about 20 years. It is a guitar that everybody fell in love with that played it. Even professionals who know a thing or two about what a good guitar should sound like thought is was good. He decided that this guitar needed to be reproduced somehow. He decided it needed to be saved on digital file and then reproduced so that other people could enjoy it. To do this, he used 3D printing and 3D scanning services.
3D Scanning Made things easy
The first thing this guy had to do was to get a digital copy of it. This was not an easy task since the guitar was handmade with some very intricate woodwork. It would require more than just a hammer and chisel to reproduce this masterpiece. The only way to get a precise copy of this beaut would be to use 3D scanning services. His first attempt was with a scanning company that didn’t quite have the qualified scanning equipment to get a the job done. The end result was unsatisfying. That did not stop him, fortunately. He decided to invest a little more by going to a high quality scanning operation and had a 3D scanner that could do it with fine precision. He had a digital copy of his masterpiece once that was done. All he needed now was a plan to recreate it. To do that he turned to a tech savvy wood working shop.
Let's print that baby
3D scanning services had done its duty at this point. It was now time to turn to 3D printing services. He went to a workshop that specializes in CNC (which means computer numerical control) with the digital model that was created by a 3D scanner. This method uses a machine to automatically cut a design out of a piece of wood based on a CAD or 3D model. This way the cutting was not left up to just eyeballing it and hand skill where there is a much greater likelihood for error. The cool thing is that the guitar maker could produce pretty much the same exact piece of wood as what was scanned using machine automated cutting.
It’s amazing what 3D scanning services can do with a work of art these days. It can replicate it with ease. It doesn’t only replicate it but it also does it with speed. The machine work only took about 6 hours from start to finish. It took 3 hours for the initial scanning of the guitar body. It took another 3 hours to do the CNC wood cutting. It also makes you wonder what other works of art could be replicated for many others to enjoy. I suppose anything could, as long as it can find it’s a way to a 3D scanner.