Have you ever visited a historic home and wished you could replicate a decorative element easily and inexpensively in your own home? With 3D Printing this isn’t just a whimsical idea – it’s become a reality. A ceiling medallion for your new dining room light fixture straight from the Crawley’s Downton Abbey mansion? Check. A molding for your fireplace straight from a Frank Lloyd Wright era gem? Sure thing.
Recently, on an episode of This Old House Detroit, AET Labs Senior Technology Consultant, David Kempskie returned to pitch in and assist the TOH crew in restoring the original luster to a stunning piece of original decorative molding in a 1939 Russel Woods-area home.
Traveling on location and employing the services of his trusty Creaform Go!SCAN 3D handheld scanner, Dave scanned an intact portion of the molding. After bringing the scan into a CAD program, and prepping the .STL file with GrabCAD Print, he was able to promptly send it to a Stratasys Fortus high-performance 3D printer to create a replacement piece of molding for the installation. Back at the house, Tom Silva demonstrated how to integrate the brand new molding seamlessly with into the original doorframe, restored and ready for painting.
