This project began to solve my chronic issue in the stuido of not having a fork to eat my lunch. The project was a test to see if I could scan my studiomate's fork and print it (since it seems like there always is an idle 3d printer while nobody has an extra fork). Could we avoid unnecessary grocery runs for everyday supplies? Could we just scan our friends' things and print them?
I decided to test the workflow (scanning in Luma AI, cleaning up the mesh/modifying the form in Rhino, and 3d printing in Bambu P1S) with a fork that I found in Architecutre school's cafeteria. I mounted the fork on a cardboard and scanned it with my phone. Here is the link to the scanned file of the fork.
I exported the scanned file as an obj file to Rhino and removed the background meshes around the fork. Here is how the digital/scanned version of the fork looks like.
Realizing I can actually manipulate the form in rhino, I tried changing the form and dimensions of the fork: lengthening in x-axis/y-axis and doubling
After importing obj files from Rhino to Bambu Lab, I went through several rounds of rearrangement to fit all the forks on the plate. This is how the final configuration looked like.
Feeling more experimental, I added a few more versions to print.
Bambu printers were all occupied, so I sent these on Sindoh printers using 3D Wox. I realized 3D Wox builds less support for overhangs, but I decided to test how they would turn out.
The first batch in Bambu printer was build upside down and although the supports felt a bit excessive, the thin parts seemed to be printing close to the digital model.
Here is the freshly baked version of the first batch.
The second batch in Sindoh printer spectacularly failed. The vertical orientation of the forks in the four-forks-in-one version seemed to have caused failure. Some supports were generated between the overhangs, but it wasn't sufficient.
The supports ended up being more substantial than the actual forks.
It took a bit of effort and time (longer than the print time) to separate the supports from the forks.
The final fork collection after supports were removed.
Might be the most terrifying looking forks that I have seen, but it could be interesting to keep on repeating the scanning and printing processes until the "glitches" create unrecognizable forks. With the higher resolution scanning, I could also see a future where you go into a "template" super market to simply scan objects that you like and print at home at a much cheaper price (but as we have seen with my project, it might only work in the world where the fabrication time can be drastically reduced to compete with just walking over to a store and buying one - my forks took 5 hours total to scan, model, and 3d print).