Surface treatment with cyclododecane

[piGuy]

Hi everyone,
Long time lurker, first time poster.  I'm trying to scan a bicycle, but it contains a lot of dark and shiny parts (carbon fiber, paint, polished aluminum, etc).  I decided that in order to get acceptable results, I would need to treat the surface in some way, and I've experimented with a variety of techniques:

Spraying object with a mixture of flour and isopropyl alcohol - the flour tends to flake off very easily from smooth surfaces, and removing it (with water) creates a lumpy doughy mess.

Spraying with white plasti-dip - creates a very nice finish but peeling it away can be a mess and very time consuming.

Spraying with a roughly 50-50 mixture of mineral spirits and cyclododecane - the mineral spirits does not evaporate quickly enough and leaves large crystals which are very delicate and transparent.

Submerging object in melted cyclododecane - leaves a tough white finish, but a lot of fine detail is lost in the thick layer of CDD (similar to paraffin wax).  I just tried this a few hours ago, and based on my experience playing around with CDD, the layer might take several weeks to entirely evaporate.

I'm curious to know if anyone has played around with CDD much and can offer any advice.  I haven't tried the CDD spray cans, but from what I've read the finish will probably be too delicate for my application.  (ultimately I'd like to be able to scan the bicycle with a rider on it, so the surface finish needs to be durable enough to stand up to being touched occasionally). 

I've thought about a hot-melt spray gun to use with the CDD but the spray guns are very expensive and hard to obtain.

I've ruled out talcum powder as it will be too delicate on the surface to handle and the possible carcinogenic effects of talc.

I can upload pictures of my experiments if anyone is curious.

Playing around wit the demo version of photoscan has been a blast.  Very impressive software!

[Mr_Curious]

Hi everyone,
Long time lurker, first time poster.  I'm trying to scan a bicycle, but it contains a lot of dark and shiny parts (carbon fiber, paint, polished aluminum, etc).  I decided that in order to get acceptable results, I would need to treat the surface in some way, and I've experimented with a variety of techniques:

Spraying object with a mixture of flour and isopropyl alcohol - the flour tends to flake off very easily from smooth surfaces, and removing it (with water) creates a lumpy doughy mess.

Spraying with white plasti-dip - creates a very nice finish but peeling it away can be a mess and very time consuming.

Spraying with a roughly 50-50 mixture of mineral spirits and cyclododecane - the mineral spirits does not evaporate quickly enough and leaves large crystals which are very delicate and transparent.

Submerging object in melted cyclododecane - leaves a tough white finish, but a lot of fine detail is lost in the thick layer of CDD (similar to paraffin wax).  I just tried this a few hours ago, and based on my experience playing around with CDD, the layer might take several weeks to entirely evaporate.

I'm curious to know if anyone has played around with CDD much and can offer any advice.  I haven't tried the CDD spray cans, but from what I've read the finish will probably be too delicate for my application.  (ultimately I'd like to be able to scan the bicycle with a rider on it, so the surface finish needs to be durable enough to stand up to being touched occasionally). 

I've thought about a hot-melt spray gun to use with the CDD but the spray guns are very expensive and hard to obtain.

I've ruled out talcum powder as it will be too delicate on the surface to handle and the possible carcinogenic effects of talc.

I can upload pictures of my experiments if anyone is curious.

Playing around wit the demo version of photoscan has been a blast.  Very impressive software!

Easy...get some Magnaflux Spotcheck SKD-S2 Developer - 16 oz. Aerosol spray.

It's what pro's use :-)

Leaves a very thin, white powder coating on the surface which can be easily removed.

You can get if from welding supply shops or the internet.

It is what you need.


BTW - If you can't find it in your area then then next best thing to use is foot powder spray such as Lotrimin powder spray.

Greetings,

Mr_Curious