3D print of my skull
- CategoryFor fun
- Project dateSummer 2022
- Skills requiredRhino, Blender, SLS printing, CAD, slicing with InVesalius
About this project
In November 2022, I crashed my bike and hit my head on the concrete. I was picked up by MIT’s EMTs and rushed to the Massachusetts General Hospital in an ambulance. After getting 6 stitches to the chin and a CAT scan, I did what any normal person would: I asked the radiologists for a copy of my scan so I could make a print of my skull.
Anyways, this is a life-sized model of my skull SLS-printed in nylon.
After pulling off all 278 image files from a CD, I used InVesalius as a slicer to create a 3D model of my skull. I tried to also create a model of my brain, but unfortunately because I got a CAT scan, not an MRI, the soft tissues were not high enough contrast to separate out my brain from my spinal fluid very well. (Oh well, looks like this project could use a part two one day!)
I think it turned out pretty cool, with my top few vertebrae also appearing in the scan. And because I had gotten scanned with a mask on, you could actually see the metal piece that went over my nose in the scan!
But there was a problem here: because the scan stopped just short of the back of my head, there was actually a giant hole on the back of the skull. In order to patch this, I had to pull the model into Blender and do some sculpting to smooth out the back. And while I was at it, I blended out some strange noise in the model, especially on the teeth.
Finally, I used Rhino to detect and remove naked edges, transforming the noisy model into a continuous piece that could be printed.
This SLS nylon printer was awesome, with extremely high tolerances that could even enable you to print a ball and socket joint. You could also print pieces inside of other pieces, which is super cool.
Overall, I thought the skull turned out really nice, with very high detail!