3D Scanning Dog Shoes

When Jane told us about her disabled dog Tbone who wears supportive shoes to enable him to walk and how much it costs to have them custom made, we thought why not 3D scan, 3D print and see if it works.....

So here is the story of how we scanned, printed then bound the parts together to recreate Tbones' shoes using the latest 3D scanning and printing technology! 

STEP 1: Set up of the DAVID SLS-3 3D Scanner

 This is a quick video of the setup of equipment used:  DAVID SLS-3 3D Scanner, Desk Scan Lever (DSL), Automated Turntable (TT-1), Calibration Panel, UP! Mini 3D Printer. 

Step 2: Scanning and printing

The process from 3D scanning to 3D printing:  Tbone's old dog shoes were scanned which comprised of 2 parts for each leg, the upper part and the bottom part. Since the original shoes were made in black, we painted them white to be able to scan them as black absorbs light.  You can also coat objects with white powder that washes off if you need the original object in its original color when finished. This is how you overcome scanning shiny or dark objects.  When we finished scanning, we sent the 3D scan files to the UP! Mini 3D printer to print in red and blue ABS plastic. For our 3D printing needs we always turn to Octave - thanks guys.

STEP 3: Putting the shoes together

Then Jane glued them, put the straps on and bound them together

STep 4: Putting it on tbone!

Finished product fitted on Tbone!  This was a test so we are further thinking about different materials to use for better flexing, slight size adjustment (Tbone's old shoes we scanned were a bit worn)  etc, but so far so good!