In response to the prompt to "post or perish" here's some info on me....

Profession - decorative metal casting via the lost wax method for 35+ years. Have dabbled in many techniques of nonferrous casting (sand, permanent mold, lost foam, die,
etc.) through the years.

Mach 3 usage - on and off for a couple of years. For those not familar with lost wax casting, an injectable/pourable mold is made of an original object to reproduce said object
very accurately in wax. The wax is then embedded in either a solid plaster-like material or coated with a ceramic shell and burned out leaving a negative cavity into which molten metal can then be poured. After solidification, the outer material is broken away, and if all the variables have been addressed and the fire gods of the volcano been
sacrificed to, a fairly detailed/accurate metal casting is the result. Mach 3 comes into play in helping to CNC an original master part into existence for mold making purposes.


Use Rhino, ZBrush, MOI, DeskProto, Mach 3 to create and cut parts in wax or butterboard on a MAXNC (ugh what an initial choice) 15 CL machine. Have ocassionaly sent out for RP resins. Mach 3 is vastly superior to the program the came with the MAXNC.

Also have a Roland PIX-30 scanner which needs some attention.

The PIX-30 hasn't been used for a couple of years and has recently been called up to active duty, but has hasn't produced the scans it used to do when new. Scans  are being done at .002" and .006" resolution and show random "bumps" in a somewhat diagonal pattern. Am using a sheet of glass for a test surface. Suspect machine needs a cleaning
and am wondering if any of you CNC gurus have ever dived into this particular machine to tinker/clean/repair and have any advice about what parts to pay attention to when deep in the inards of the beast? The Y travel is done with a 2 track lower table and the X and Z with a needle piezo probe riding a belt and motor system from above on a gantry.

If anyone out there does scans w/ .002" or .006" resolution and knows of a better tabletop machine, I'd love to hear about it. Anyone use the NextEngine machine?

Pourhot in Albuquerque, where the hotair balloons are thick this time of year.....

Pourhot, Have you looked through at the laser scanning being done with Mach? It isn't perfected yet and I Imagine it will be some time beofe it and the cloud point g-code genertor will be done but I know your one of those that would love it. I have sent you a PM as well.

Brett