Building the ultimate turntable for 3D scanning

When you buy a 3D scanner, it will probably come with a turntable to spin the subject part and help you get a consistent scan from all sides. But almost all of those turntables are flimsy, shaky, and lack any fixturing provisions for parts, diminishing their utility. That’s why Chris Borge used an Arduino to build the ultimate turntable for 3D scanning.

Borge is a rising star in the YouTube maker community and has received a lot of attention for his machine tools that feature concrete-filled 3D-printed construction. That combination is accessible to hobbyists and results in very good rigidity. He applied that same technique to this turntable to make it incredibly stable and sturdy.

The whole turntable was 3D-printed, but Borge filled the base with concrete to add weight and rigidity. The top of the table rotates on the base via a ring gear system and an Arduino Nano controls that. A potentiometer and a couple of switches on the front let the user adjust speed and direction.

The icing on the cake is the fixturing system of Borge’s own design. The entire top of the turntable has a grid of holes that act as mounting points, so he can attach fixtures to support parts during the scanning process. That is very useful when scanning irregularly shaped parts that can’t sit flat on the table.

But that’s not all — the turntable can alternatively be used for videography. When filming, Borge can place the turntable on a linear slider to capture nice shots of the things he builds.