Buying fruit is like signing up for an endless cycle of disappointment. You know the drill – you bring home those vibrant, promising fruits, only to witness them morph into a science experiment gone wrong on your kitchen counter. But fear not, for I've taken a stand against nature's fruit betrayal. Join me on a journey where 3D scanning and 3D printing collide with culinary aspirations.

Picture this: a counter-top banana that never goes bad. A banana so everlasting, it puts even the most resilient plastic fruit to shame.

This is the tale of my battle against fruit decay, the birth of the counter-top champion: the dawn of Project Forever Banana.

Project Forever Banana: The Quest for Fruit Immortality

In order to take on this monumental challenge I equipped myself with the following gear:

• The mighty 3Dmaker Pro Mole 3D scanner
• The Elegoo Saturn 2S, a printing powerhouse
• Elegoo Standard Resin in the shade of White
• The BASF Photopolymer color kit, for that oh-so-banana yellow

Confession time: despite my day job at a 3D Printing company, I'm not exactly a 3D modelling master. Instead of crafting models from scratch, I often rely on the treasure trove of Thingiverse. Yet, in my relentless pursuit of the ultimate everlasting banana, my search came up short. It had to be flawless, you see. I wanted the perfect forever banana. I turned to my coworkers, pleading like a banana enthusiast on a mission. "Please, bless me with a Banana model!" I begged, attempting to woo them with compliments and questionable favours. Alas, their schedules resembled a banana republic – busy and unyielding.

So I knew what I must do: Scan an existing Banana.

For this process I decided to use the MakerPro Mole 3D Scanner. We have a few choice 3D scanners around the office, but I chose the Mole because of it's ability ability to pick up fine details. You see, a flawless Forever Banana demands nothing less than perfection, right down to its dimples. With its turntable and tripod, the Mole offered stability and speed fit for scanning the most elusive of fruits. That stability also helps with getting a great print the first time so your boss doesn't catch you scanning bananas on company time.

Once the scan was complete I took the model into ChituBox; Elegoo's slicing software that lets me prepare that 3D model for printing. I decided to go with the Elegoo Saturn S because of it's large build volume, allowing me to print the perfect banana at 1:1 scale all in one go.

With the model scanned and prepped, all that was left was to colour the resin. I figured the perfect banana would come off the printer already yellow to reduce my time spent painting. To do this I used the BASF Photopolymer Colour Kit. Armed with Elegoo standard resin in white and a few pigment drops, I crafted the perfect shade of banana yellow. It's like Picasso mixing paint, except with a fruit fetish.

With the resin perfectly tinted and the file sliced for printing, all that remained was the 3D printing itself. A mere 6 hours of printing time stood between us and the grand reveal of the forever banana. The finishing touches involved removing the supports from the 3D print and applying a paint finish to bring our faux fruit to life.

In a world where counter top fruit's demise is inevitable, 3D scanning comes to the rescue, ensuring your 1:1 scale creation remains tantalizingly lifelike. Say goodbye to the tragic sight of a rotting banana on your counter – with the magic of 3D scanning and printing, you can savour the everlasting charm of the Forever Banana. Happy scanning!

In the end, Project Forever Banana demonstrates the power of 3D scanning and printing. If you're keen on crafting your own durable replicas, consider the Mole 3D scanner for detailed scans. Forget the counter-top decay – with 3D technology, you can immortalize everyday items and escape the clutches of the inevitable fruit rot.

Don't forget to check out our Tiktok Live-stream for a demo of using the Mole on Wednesday August 30th at 7pm to see how you can use a 3D scanner to recreate your favourite pair of shoes!

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