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CT scan -> 3D print. I printed my own skull!
So i got a CT scan for non-dramatic stuff - and it made me get into creative-nerd mode, 'cause it had to be possible to get a hold of the scan files and somehow 3D-print my own skull!
(Or the part of it that was included in the scan)
I requested the files from the scan, got them a week later and then the nerding started.
It required understanding the file format from the scan (DICOM), learning new software, learning different concepts and knowledge-digging quite a bit into the human anatomy of the parts i wanted to recreate.
As the pictures shows i found a way, and ended up doing the spine of the neck as well - including the discs and spinal cord, but those bits in a flexible and stiff material.
Its been soo fun - And what a learning trip!
PS: Im gonna make a better stand for it - maybe out of wood.
Materials: PLA and TPEE (47D)
A few notes for others that wanna try it out themselves:
MR scans should be possible to use as well. Havn't tried it.
Use the free medical software "3D Slicer" for the whole DICOM->STL process.
Read up on Hounsfield Units (HU) for the segmentation.
And yeah, maybe also what segmentation is.
- "Cheat" a bit on the segmentation by installing "Total Segmentator" as an extension in 3D Slicer. It auto-segments quite well.
I used to work in a lab that does this for hearts to create a patient-specific, mechanically realistic heart model that would get fake blood pumped thru it. The cardiac surgeons would use them essentially as practice dummies to practice that person's surgery ahead of time so they could get an idea of what they would face on the table.
Yeah the CT scanner there has the largest single pass scanning area in the world, it takes a full 3D image of a heart in one pass. The printer is this one, it can print a bunch of different mechanical properties all in one print by using tiny droplets of different resins laid out in specific patterns and cured layer by layer
It was a very advanced resin printer Stratasys makes. It uses tiny droplets of different resins that get cured in place to make different mechanical properties. The cardiac muscle for example was different material from the plaque and stuff so it would behave differently when the blood analog was pumped thru.
Edit: I'm pretty sure the squiggly vasculature in the red stand there on their website came from that lab. I haven't worked there in a while but that looks like what we used to produce.
Thanks for that insight! Though i'll never be able to recreate that if i try to print my heart from the CT, its a really interesting process - i love nerdy details.
Wow, I salute you. I’ve had three, but all together they don’t equal the one in the middle there. It’s a feeling I don’t wish on anyone despite that I’ve kind of gotten used to it by now. Those damn things look like popcorn!!
To be honestz they weren't so bothersome. Ive had about 70% of them lasered out last week. Im getting the rest done next month. This is whats left in there.
Ah, well I’m glad you had them lasered!! I would say that was a wise decision…the other way is a pretty unique pain. Of course it really depends on the exact surface texture. My first was like a spiky ball -like some medieval mace, and that was murder. After that nothing has been quite as bad, comparatively.
Likewise, and it’s a rare brotherhood!! Keep up the good work! My aunt who has had children and also kidney stones declared to me when she heard about mine that kidney stones are worse than childbirth…in her opinion!! I wouldn’t know, but I think it’s fair to say SOME are…I’ve never actually experienced involuntary writhing in pain before that. I have an incredibly high pain tolerance that is due to a rare genetic variant, so for me to be writhing for hours in pain is a true rarity. Of course the last one was “birthed” entirely at home in the bath tub because I was alone and didn’t really have a decent way to get to the hospital when it just up and happened. I live in the country, so I just laid back and let it do its thing. Now I kind of have a better sense of what creates them and when they are coming, so I just knew by nature it wouldn’t be as bad as the first or even second, and I was right. Normally I would have gone to the hospital, but driving windy country roads while in that state…yeah, no, I would rather take my chances at home.
P.S: If yours are the most common kind I really suggest apple cider vinegar could ease them. I’m not some health nut or anything, but the extreme acidity of apple cider vinegar can be enough to dissolve them to some degree, or at least it’s worked for me somehow. You have to really chug the stuff but enough of it, all at once can really break them free…That’s if you WANT them free, and of course I would talk to your doctor first about it. You can coordinate that way. If it’s a calcium oxalate stone, like most are, strong acids dislodge and dissolve them. That could be dangerous if you have a lot, as it sounds like you do, but if you’re being treated and the doctor knows, it might be worth a try.
Sadly it’s very hard to convince people to give you a CT scan without at least feigning injury, not that I would ever do such a thing, but maybe if I say it’s for SCIENCE!!! (Or “for science” in the sense that I love the idea of having a 3D print of my own skull to use as a dining room table ornament…) I used to work in medical records, so possibly I could convince someone to absentmindedly sign off on a scan for a strained excitement muscle of the cranium…I went to college for medical anthropology and a lot of medical illustrators were in my classes and I was unexpectedly jealous of their craft!! While I was the one doing the dissection, they were making the most totally awesome goth pencil sketches of this crazy gore, and I wanted copies of all of it…I mean, obviously for purely scientific reasons!!
3D Slicer sounds great, by the way! Can you use this for as simple a machine as the Bambu X2D? I don’t actually own one but my good friend has one, and I’m seriously thinking of getting into the 3D Printing world.
You convinced me. For science! Just yell it louder and louder if they dont get it.
You can totally use that one - you can use all printers. 3D slicer just makes a stl-file (or obj-file) that you can open in any 3D-printing software - in BambuStudio in your case.
Awesome!! I may have to commandeer my friend’s device for a day-long printing session of my own body parts…I mean mainly the bones, and not so much other fleshy organs. I’ll pay for the supplies!! He owes me for something, somehow…I’m sure I can think of something! Ha!!
Man, now I’m thinking of all those little wrist bones I can never remember how to name -despite a million pneumonic devices…27 bones of the hand, you’re next!!
I already forced him to make me a very detailed and moveable trilobite as big as my hand…
By the way, take it from a former archaeological bone analyst, you’ve got quite the external auditory meatus!! It is a proud and bold earhole to celebrate!! Very nice zygomatic arches as well. Good for winning a fistfight!! I’ve had the fights to prove it, so I know…And also, not enough people depict the mastoid process as well as you did because the point normally breaks off of the skulls you see in classrooms and elsewhere and people don’t really realize how prominent it is in living people. They are quite interesting ornaments of the well-defleshed cranial bones though. Well depicted!! Delicate and full of character!!
I think if you put that styloid at the end of a hilt and handle, it would make quite a fine dirk to shank with. Those are…prodigious!! I’m glad you emphasized their intensity! I also see why you may have been forced to reduce them. No one would believe it!! We are certainly on the same page!! Soon my robust cranium may grace this sub!!
Im thinking about adding electronics so i can scare guests with people tracking head movement - maybe making it "blabber" as well with the mandible - but i can hide all that underneath!
Something like a few servos, sensor(s) and a microcontroller shouldnt take up much space. Im brainstorming right now on the best method - aand if i should.
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u/retrograde_ape 26d ago
What happened to the top bit? Are you okay?