Casting an Aluminum Souvenir | Scan, Print and Cast Aluminum
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- As a 3D tourist, taking a photograph is sooo last century. Now, even our phones are equipped with 3D scanners, although not yet powerful enough to do what I show in the video, they soon will be. Calling into question why do we not capture our vacation memories in three dimensions?
Since moving to the Detroit area in 2005, I have always enjoyed walks on the public grounds at Cranbrook. Daniela and I have been partial to Marshall Fredericks's sculpture "The Thinker" and that is the subject for my trip into 3D digital tourism.
This sculpture was installed outside the Cranbrook Museum in 1940 as a sort of tongue-in-cheek reply to the more famous "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin, installed outside of the Detroit Institute of Arts just down the road.
For this video, I will use a Revopoint POP scanner to capture the sculpture in 3 dimensions, then print a verification in carbon fiber and ultimately cast an aluminum snapshot to live permanently on a shelf in our home.
Here are the links for what I used in the video:
Revopoint POP Scanner (provided to me by Revopoint)
amzn.to/3NcvAX2
JGMaker Artist D Pro:
amzn.to/3IhRhSQ
These are the filaments that I used:
Carbon Fiber
www.matterhack...
PolyCast
www.matterhack...
This is the investment that I used:
SC-20 Investment
www.riogrande....
This is the Penetrating Epoxy from Total Boat:
www.totalboat....
For more information on the Marshall Fredericks or if you are interested in seeing some of his other work, please visit:
marshallfreder...
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(Brian Oltrogge is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com).
#aluminumcasting #3dscanning #3dprinting
When Brian uploads a video, you just know it's gonna be amazing
troof.
That’s hands down the best lost PLA cast I’ve ever seen straight out of the mold. I think that was better than most people after sanding and finishing. Well done.
Thanks!
this guy is a perfectionist. it makes me happy just to watch. Btw, most people don't burn out the plastic properly as he did.
Absolutely love your videos!
Thanks!
Amazing as ever! The finish straight out of the investment mold was quite stunning. The epoxy-sand base was the perfect finishing touch! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I’d like to try ceramic shell investment next as this might have been more appropriate in this case…
You're dead on about the base. It really put the finishing touches on the sculpture.
It's a good day when I see a Brian Oltrogge video in my notifications. Love your work.
Thanks! 👍❤️
One of the absolute best channels on UA-cam. You're one of the few UA-camrs of this genre whose work satisfies my OCD tendencies!
Glad you found the channel!
Used to bike to Cranbrook as a teen...back when 50+ Mile bike days were common for me....not so much anymore. LOL...that was 40 years ago.
Always good to see a video from you. Nicely done, and interesting
Great video!! And lots of information! Thanks and looking forward to the next one!!
Welcome back
SO COOL! I used a 3d scanner to scan my wife's hand and then 3d print her a thumb brace, I didn't realize I could make it in metal too!
That sounds like an awesome project! For something small, you can also get printable wax. That way, the burn out is less complicated. Could even pour some silver!
That sculpture came out quite good👍😄
I was surprised! I knew the 3D scan would turn out well, but I wasn’t sure about the investment cast.
Wow that really turned out nice
Lovely work, amazing end result after scanning, thanks for sharing.
Thanks!
Amazing, can you talk more about the degasing step?
I'm literally shaking my head in disbelief of how incredible this is. The potential for things you could make are limitless. Practically gives me goosebumps that's how cool this is
Thank you! It is pretty great how easy it is to reproduce and also make things that respond or modify existing objects!
Great video! Now I HAVE to go to Cranbrook to see the original!
Even though your videos are sparse, you never fail to impress.
Thanks! I have a few in process… when it is just me, I have to shoot for quality vs quantity. I hope new people get curious and check out my other videos.
Amazing work as always!
I do get strong vibes of that old pre-movie roll about not pirating movies, (if you wouldn’t rob a bank, you wouldn’t download a movie) which someone parodied with a bit that said “you wouldn’t download a car!”
Made me think: “You wouldn’t download a sculpture!”
To avoid any grey areas… I wouldn’t sell a sculpture I scanned. I have a hard time believing there would be an issue about a 3D photographs of a public sculpture for personal use.
Definitely an interesting moment as digital art is infinitely reproducible. Is the goal truly to bring happiness to as many people as possible through art? I give it a couple more IPhone iterations before this capability is in everyone’s pocket. If you believe in the Metaverse, even more pressure will blur the line between digital and actual. This sculpture will sit on my shelf in both locations!
@@Grunblau Brian, I don't think you should apologize in the least. The Arts and Crafts Movement, in part, was an effort to use the new machinery of the Industrial Revolution to bring art to the everyday masses. People like William Morris understood that the Industrial Revolution wasn't going away. Your video demonstrates that today we have better technology and capability at our disposal than Victorian England could dream of. Why aren't we teaching and replicating beauty and making it available to the masses? You are, and I thank you for it. Keep up the great work!
You’re back!
Nice 300zx :) Great work as always ;)
Thanks! She has been sitting there waiting for much too long!
I truly don’t understand why you don’t have millions of folks watching you. Great work as always.
I like you. Thanks! :)
@@Grunblau Hi. Could you please be more detailed about the epoxy sand technique? Thanks. 🙂
Bravo! The end result is spectacular! I love UA-cam for exactly these kind of videos🙂
Thanks! I’m glag you enjoyed it!
3D CAD, 3D scanners, and C&C additive and subtractive tools, in the recent years have all added a lot to manufacturing, especially to personal projects. As always a nicely polished video.
What is a good 3d scanner for a beginner in this hobby?
Love this video! Your work is very inspiring, I can't wait to try this out myself.
Glad you went black with silver highlights. Fantastic work
I am surprised it wasn’t immediately obvious to me and I spent hours trying to get the silver with black details to look good before I finally painted the entire thing black!
Glad you're back!
Absolutely fantastic piece of work
I should have comment years ago when I found your page. Absolutely awesome. Can't wait until I am able to get all of the necessary tools that you use to get my ideas to a tangible point. Thank you for your page, and your fabrications. Keep on doing what you doing brother
HAWK
Incredible execution of an idea. Fantastic job.
I agree, that is a great sculpture, and your replica came out great!
Thank you!
3d scanner in your phone... science fiction, still can't believe how amazing that device is... I mean, you're using your phone!!!! hahahaha. Your job, awesome, as usual. Cheers from Buenos Aires ;)
So cool! Nice work
You don't make al lot of videos but when you do, they're top notch! Always interesting and good step by step explanations. Thanks!
This is so amazing. 10/10 for the end product & 11/10 for the execution & inspiration.
Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for the terrific video. It wasn’t until very recently that I learned that Rodin’s Thinker was originally a figure in his Gates of Hell piece.
Huh, today I learned… thanks!
I don't think you can comprehend the level of respect i have for you! You are amazing and you also have a 300z.
Thanks! I hope to be able to be able to get it back on the road again. It didn’t need anything when I parked it, but now it needs a bit of TLC. Was on its way to stage VI and upgraded turbos when I ran out of $ to throw at it.
Never stop producing high-quality videos
Thanks! I’ll keep going as long as I can!
That is just ridiculous levels of skill and craftsmanship. Just amazing, thanks for sharing!
You're a great artist / maker Brian. Pleasure to watch.
That is an absolute work of art, that moment you put the black on and began to rub it off to reveal the silver highlights was almost heavenly.
I agree it was the right move to go all black with highlights. I almost polished it but it would not have had the same feeling as the original.
Wow, excellent work!
Thank you very much!
Just gorgeous!! 🤩
Thanks for sharing your incredible projects and for the quality of your content. 👍👍👍
Stunning!
Awesome job
Excellent!
I love the idea and the result ist absolutely stunning. You can really see the dedication to details in the result
Thank you! Best I could hope for was to accurately capture the original details as best as possible.
Just wow!
Brilliant as always. Love your attention to details!
Thank you!
Great video! Loved the project. I'm not far from Cranbrook, makes we want to now visit!
Say hi to the monkey for me!
Fantastic !
amazing work
Well done
Awesome work as always buddy. Love your little 3D scanner !
Thanks! 👍
This is a fantastic video! Please make more recreations of other sculptures, seeing the different mediums you used throughout this is really inspiring
Amazing!
That came out looking great!
Nice to see you back in action. Seems like a fun project with wonderful results. Gonna have to pick up some of that filament and try for myself.
I absolutely love your videos. I wish you would make some videos more often.
Thanks! Me too…
Always excited to see a Brian Oltrogge video, and even more excited it is at Cranbrook! I'm such a fan of mid-century designers, I really want to visit it sometime.
Thanks! I worked on campus for a few years when we had our architecture firm there. It is truly a special place. If you visit, you should check out the gate I designed at the end of Valley Way and Vaughan road! Right now it could use some paint though…
Beautiful project!
Glad you liked it and I think the results speak for themselves regarding your filament!
At first I didn't think I was ever going to get a 3D scanner, but seeing this video makes me want to get one for my trip to Europe next year.
Daniela and I took a 3D scanner to Dresden a couple years ago. It was a lot of fun scanning details on old doors, etc…
@@Grunblau The 3D scanner that you used in the video seems nice, although, I'm a bit surprised that it didn't stitch the scans together automatically rather than having to assemble them post-process to get the final model. In terms of your experience goes with 3D scanners (since I'm getting the impression this isn't the first time you've used one), is such a feature a reasonable expectation for scanners under 1000$ (Q1)?
Also, a bit of a side question if you have time for it, but when looking at purchasing a scanner is there any metric by which you can get an idea of the resolution of the scanner (Q2)? Now I'll probably find the answer to this question whenever I do my own research on the products on the market, although, I'd still like to get your opinion on the matter if you have one.
fantastic....
Great video, very good tutorial step by step
brilliant !!!
Brilliant
What a masterpiece and combination of techniques and technology 🤩
You are such an amazingly hardworking and talented artist/designer/Engineer Brian. Always such a delight to watch you create and work 🙏🏾
Thank you. I am glad you found the videos!
Superb combination of old and new techniques. That little scanner is very impressive.
Beautiful work as always Brian. Thanks for bringing us along :)
Great outcome and video. Apart from this being such a cool sculpture that id love to have, the amazing technology on display in this video is exciting. in just a few decades we have consumer priced, yet highly capable 3D scanners, 3D printers ( the mediums are amazing, dissolvable, carbon fiber, investment etc and all accessible outside of industry) and such an impressive array of epoxy chemistry options
The ability to scan and possibly replicate public art or other significant objects can reduce financial or geographical limitations to appreciating the real thing in person.
Great work, as always Brian!
You content and production quality are incredible!
Thank you. Try to improve with every video!
I wish the like button was additive and I could just tap it over and over. Great Job.
Always amazing!
Thanks!
informative, fun and great attention to detail, as usual. great video Brian!
I didn't know 3d scanners had such high fidelity! Great project and really interesting process
Thanks! I have used the Xbox 360 scanner and the Structure scanner and this is the first I have seen with this detail that didn’t cost over $10K
Awesome video of something I’ve never seen in detail like this. I’m now going to be looking for the filament that you burnt away. Thanks
Thank you. It was my first attempt too! I think I might try UV investment resin soon.
Beautifully done, as always!
very nice!
This gives me so many ideas. Can't wait for my 3d printer to come in. Love your work.
Acompanho esse canal faz vários anos, sempre aprendendo mais sobre qualidade de fundição e materiais, parabéns !
You do such amazing work!
What a fantastic video! It has inspired me to get going on my setup. I have all the investment casting equipment and a pop 2 but I have been working so much I just don’t have the time when I’m home. Really have to reevaluate my present job as it is cutting into my play time.
I just love every video you put out, just wish you had more time to produce content. Thank you.
Thank you for the comment! I hope to source a Kaya Cast machine in the future! I wish I had more time to work on projects as well, but for two years I had zero time and had to stop putting out videos. Now I have a much better balance and am much happier!
Nice! You should make videos more often)
Great-just when I am about satisfied with my photography rig, now I have the urge to go buy myself a 3D scanner!
Haha! Well, less than the 1/2 the cost of a decent lens….
Even in aluminum, that's a funky monkey.
Great job!
Ha! Thanks for the reference!
This is a fantastic job. Attention to detail is top tier. I would be very interested in watching you try ceramic shell. Although, seeing how perfect your raw casting came out of the plaster, I'm not sure you need it 👍
Thanks! I will be trying ceramic shell at some point…. Possibly with UV Resin prints.
@@Grunblau I have yet to do any resin prints. Everything I find myself wanting to cast is too large for any reasonably priced resin printer. Although outsourcing is getting more affordable. Sure would save a lot of pattern prep time. Which would be nice. Especially when you're watching all of your hard work melt away in the kiln 😁
Excellent quality as always, the resin/sand casting looks nice and crisp too. Regarding 3D tourism, in the future it will likely be possible to quickly scan/film a whole area/walking route with a small autonomous drone, for viewing later in VR. Popular tourist spots could even have 'Live recording' areas for virtual tourists to move around in
Exactly. We already have drones/RCs that can record the environment/mine shafts, etc…. Obviously no substitute for actually being there, but for those that can’t travel it could be amazing especially if the 4th dimension could be recorded like a waterfall or waves crashing on the beach.
@@Grunblau If highly detailed 3D recordings are stored and preserved, it will also allow people even further in the future to 'time travel' back to the original date of recording
I love the Nissan Z in the garage, any projects planned for it?
I bought the Z in LA and drove it to NY almost 20 years ago. The rear wing needs some TLC as they all do eventually. I have the replacement spoiler and didn’t want to drive it before it was fixed. Now that I am in Detroit, foreign cars get a lot of hate and door dings. I once came outside to find a hamburger opened up and face down on the T-tops. I ended up parking it for a particularly bad winter and I was bad at starting it every few weeks. I know the gas is bad at this point and I am just getting back to the point where I have some free time to do UA-cam and other projects.
Long way to say… yes I’d love to get it back on the road. I’d like to upgrade the turbos as I had done a lot of work to it before it was parked. Intercoolers, injectors, chip, eibachs, etc…
@@Grunblau oh wow, I knew people in Detroit loved American cars, but I didn't think the hate for foreign cars would be that bad. It's a shame that people can't show a little more respect for someone else's car. my friend had a 300zx twin turbo manual when he still lived in Chicago. He ended up selling it when he had to move for work. Those cars are fantastic when you don't have to throw parts at them lol. If I lived closer, I'd offer to help get it up and running again. I just picked up a new engine hoist to swap the 4.2 V8 in my dad's Audi, but it's a 6 hour drive from Chicago. I actually picked up the new 4.2 in Ann Arbor
Very cool! Ive wanted to get more into 3d scanning in order to replicate parts and/or model parts to fit another object. You make it look incredibly easy haha. The lost filament casting process is super cool, hope you do more!
I bought a anycubic mono x. With 2 kg of resin, $450 right now. Large build plate and great definition
Outstanding work, Brian! Could you possibly explain in brief what you're using to de-gas the molten aluminum?
Thanks! I use washing soda (borax). I don’t mention it anymore because fist fights would break out in the comments as to whether it is necessary…. Works for me!
top class
Great stuff! Though - I want to know more about that Z you have in your garage!
Just when I thought Brian couldn't get any cooler.. I find out he has a 300zx haha
Great video!
But came to say awesome 300zx! Looks likes its been sitting awhile.
Thanks! She has been parked for almost 10 years at this point. Didn’t really need anything when parked, but now it will require some TLC to get back on the road (Drain the gas, etc…). Has 78K miles and lots of upgrades.
Hot damn, that turned out 545665x better than I would have expected.
How much work was put in between scanning and printing? You made it look like the scanner/meshmixer did most of the work, but edited videos are often tricksy...
Also, .stl?
There are some pretty good tools in Meshmixer for automatically aligning scans. Then like seaming carpet, you cut through them both and delete the overlap. Realistically 3-4 hours of work probably. It isn’t an easy button, but it also isn’t hard. Scanners do not like black surfaces, so that was a challenge. Normally, you can spray or dust the surface to scan but I was not able to here for obvious reasons. I had to wait until dusk in order to get a good balance on the brightness.
Sorry, the scan is only for me….
Awesome result and a gorgeous sculpture! Any chance you could make a digital copy available? I'd like to try to cast a concrete version....
This seems to be someone's art -- perhaps making a digital copy publicly available isn't properly ethical, without permission from whoever owns it now. I think it's fine to scan something displayed in public and make a copy for personal use, however.
Great video, the epoxy sand is a new concept to me and looks awesome. can you please share the 3D STL file of the sculpture.
Hi Brian, outstanding result. May I ask what you use to de-gas?
I use Borax but everyone has a different opinion as to whether it is worth doing or not.
on the investment sequence, what if you made two separate batches of investment? one, like you did in the video but a thicker mix that you brushed on the the model in 1 or 2 layers so it will build thickness. and the second batch, investment mixed with sand or a cheap filler and poured to fill up the whole structure so not to waste that much investment (and probably help dry faster?)