3d print lettering?

[butcher bergs]

I am working on getting my FiL's Aprilia Atlantic scooter cleaned up.

An "N" is missing on the left side emblem and according to Seacoast, the decal kit is NLA however they'd suggested finding someone with a 3d printer who could scan the other N and print something up.

I'd have to get it chrome coated in some way but right now I'm interested in seeing if scan and print is even possible.

Anyone have input on this?

[csmutty]

Do you have any pics of the emblem with the n intact?

[Crconnor18]

It’s definitely possible. I have done it at work plenty of times with parts. I’d give protolabs a call and see if they can scan your part and print a few copies or not.

[butcher bergs]

Smutty - I can get pics easy enough. Post here?

Also, being that the adhesive on the lettering is questionable, I am considering debadging everything, installing new adhesive and reinstalling so I may well be able to provide the physical letter if it helps any

[nick5446]

Printing is easy, scanning is hard. Probably better off pulling the logo/wordmark off of their website and building the model with that. Profile might not be perfect, but if they're all the same it'll look good.

Protolabs and the like are all great, but be prepared to spend a grand on this if you go that route.

[csmutty]

Yeah agreed. The scanning is going to be the hard part. We use xometry usually for printing and such. Not sure what scanning costs usually as we have only printed designs. I would also suggest just printing both badges. Not sure what plating costs are for plastic either. Does the plastic specific krylon (fusion iirc) come in metallic colors?

[Crconnor18]

I’d also recommend looking to see if someone could do a vacuum mold of the letters possibly? Gives your the shape then you fill with the polymers of your choice and spray paint with the aerosol chrome

[Garandman]

Printing is easy, scanning is hard. Probably better off pulling the logo/wordmark off of their website and building the model with that. Profile might not be perfect, but if they're all the same it'll look good.

Protolabs and the like are all great, but be prepared to spend a grand on this if you go that route.

You don’t ordinarily have to scan print. You can take a picture, then add a vector profile. And CAD system will extrude it to make a 3D model.

In the old days we’d just cut a piece of plastic to size and file it.

OP post a picture of what you have.

[keeena]

This what you're looking for Bergs?

[number9]

There are some really good online tools that can scan a picture and tell you what font is used. Have you tried that yet? Might be easier than 3D scanning & printing...

[PurplePackage]

Check out the Lowell Makerspace. They make shit like this all the time as a hobby.

https://lowellmakes.com/shops-equipm...g-rapid-proto/

3DPrinting@Lowellmakes.com

[butcher bergs]

This what you're looking for Bergs?

Yes

I'll put a few pics up later today

[butcher bergs]

(Upsidedown) Letter N on the right side of the machine

[Garandman]

Used to run an industrial model shop (before 3D printing was invented).

What we would have done is to make a rubbing of the existing letter. We’d use that as a pattern to trace onto a piece of plastic, cut it out as close as possible, and file the edges to the exact shape and draft.

Alternatively you could scout around and learn what they used for a font. If you can get a vector profile of the letter, it’s easy to extrude it with draft into a 3D shape.

ABS can be plated, but cost is probably prohibitive. You could try some Chrome paint. We would ordinarily paint over the whole ting so it would match.