Electron microscope still pending

The fellow who made the Lego 3D scanner that worked by poking things with a needle has now made the more conventional kind of 3D scanner.

With a laser.

As with the last scanner, he's using it to import funny-shaped Lego pieces, like Fabuland heads and trees from 1969, into LDraw.

And, needless to say, the new scanner is once again made out of Lego. It's less of a mechanical achievement than the last one, because the Lego isn't much more than a supporting framework for the DAVID 3D Scanner software, that works with a line laser and a webcam.

It's way faster than the pokey-scanner, though, and has startlingly good resolution. Lego isn't generally much use for making precision mechanisms, but this one seems to work great.

9 Responses to “Electron microscope still pending”

  1. Shadowex3 Says:

    Something like this that could work on a larger scale might pair nicely with the Fab@home fabricators...

  2. Popup Says:

    While on the subject of Lego.

    Can someone recommend a good way of managing a Lego collection? The kids are quickly amassing huge quantities of the stuff, and it's getting out of hand.

    Our current system relies on two large (but shallow) transparent storage boxes, one for 'regular Lego' (i.e. rectangular parallelepipeds) and one for 'special pieces' (everything else).

    Any better ideas?

  3. Thuli Says:

    I've got a large draw string bag that end up as a flat disc, to search for bits you lay it out flat & sift through the lego, then to tidy up you pull on the drawstring & it turns into your lego bag, wrap the string around the neck and it's securely stored.

  4. Ian Says:


    A vast quantity of plastic ice cream tubs, sans lids, was my childhood solution.

    They can split everything into whatever categories make sense, and stack them for storage without too much trouble. I also had an old dresser drawer that I used to pour stuff out into for that-elusive-blue-flat-piece-with-the-number-printed-on-it hunting, which helped.

  5. Shadowex3 Says:

    Not really popup considering that's more or less how I still have mine stored ~15 years later.

  6. corinoco Says:

    Cheap, large plastic toolboxes from Large Warehouse Hardware Store Near You.

    I have about, um, 6 of the things, along with some larger wooden boxes-with wheels from Ikea for storing assembled models.

    My collection takes significant time & space when moving flats (something I do FAR too often)

  7. TwoHedWlf Says:

    Storing lego in anything but a large bin with all the pieces thrown together is blasphemy.

  8. Red October Says:

    Dan I rarely read your writings without learning something. Today I have learned about Lego "Fabuland". Which I did not know existed. For being so old it is strangely reminiscent of the more modern sets that people complain about -the ones with large, prefabricated bits that aren't good for making much else. Interesting to see that they tried that experiment before!

  9. RichVR Says:


    Sent you an early Christmas Gift. Thanks for all you do.

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