So my brain is a little bit fucked up. But now I get some cool desk decorations out of my MRI’s!

I started by converting my MRI (DICOM) files into .stl files. I did this using the software 3D Slicer, one commonly used in radiology. I loaded in the DICOM files.

The software has built-in modules for segmenting different tissue types, such as skin, bone, etc. but it didn’t have any for the brain. I downloaded an open-source plug-in for this software called Swiss Skull Stripper that is optimized for segmenting brain MRI images.

I experimented using the different brain slice orientations as the references for segmenting before landing on sagittal neuroquantitative as the highest resolution cut.

Here’s an example of a bad vs. good cut:

I then exported it as an stl file and began printing. I used the Bambu STL printers. It took 11 hours (lol…) because I printed it to scale and with all the internal geometries (so it’s also an impossible object!).

Once the prints were finished, I removed the supports and sanded the rough edges.

Finally, I sprayed painted them (#sorry they aren’t the same color but I wanted them this way as desk decor).

Here’s my clean work station:

and here’s my cost analysis:

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	Brain MRI	$300	bettercare.com	1	$300
	PLA	$0.10/g	ankermake.com	440g	$44
	Sand Paper	$0.52/sheet	homedepot.com	0.05 sheet	$0.03
	Spray Paint	$5.98/can	homedepot.com	0.02 can	$0.12
Labor	Prototyping Engineer	$36.48/hour	ziprecruiter.com	3 hours	$109.44
Overhead	Facility Time	$3/hour	ankermake.com	24 hours	$72
Design	Engineering and Development	$48.17/hour	ziprecruiter.com	3 hours	$144.51