i’m a total NOOB at this - some direction is welcome = can i 3D photocopy things?
You can take a 3d scan of an object and 3d print it yes. But only the shape will be the same
You could also tweak the scan if you want but I guess that wouldn’t be “photocopying”
So far, the inexpensive scanners don’t yield very good results. There is another 3D scanner that’s supposed to be out soon, good for 7-8" tall objects about that round, but it’s performance with real users in real circumstances hasn’t been confirmed. (Matter & Form)
There are a couple scanner & printer machines supposedly in the works, but those start at $2,000 and already overdue (AIO Zeus)
FABtotum might be shipping to backers now, but I haven’t heard of it happening yet.
Scanners right now would be more similar to a <1MP camera. and the printers would be similar to a black and white only inkjet from the 90s. So making a photo copier will technically work, but your results will not be perfect, some may even say poor… here is a particularly bad on (note i have no experience with makerbot digitizer or replicator, but have been told both are way over priced and moderate quality)
http://blogs.ncs-nj.org/k4stemlab/?p=1413
Matterform has a scanner that is said to have higher quality, but they are still getting scanners to people so we will see.
Oh also note, there are 2 types of scanners people are working on. Ones that scan large objects and will allow you to shrink them and build attachments, and ones that scan small objects that you could print directly. there is not one solution that does both yet.