[COMPLETED] Laser Cut Prototyping mini-GB

[Acanthophis]

Anodising included?

[matt3o]

Anodising included?

without. but the impact on the single board shouldn't be that much (5-10€ I guess)

[Acanthophis]

Sounds reasonable.
I might be interested.

[mtl]

I should see the design. Are all the 1.5 layers plates?

The top is a 1.5 mm aluminum plate and the bottom is a 1.5 mm steel plate. The sides are steel to try and keep costs down. The design file is attached.

[Zifle]

I finally got down to finishing my drawings, so they should be ready to cut.
The plate should be 1.5mm steel, while the rest of the case is 3mm steel.
Can you get me a rough estimate on what a aluminum plate would cost? I might get one in addition to the rest if I can justify it, but steel plate is a definite go.

[matt3o]

the alu plate should go for around €50-60 I guess if it were to be done alone. No clue in a GB.

[Muirium]

I am of course still in for the GB. I promise not to get cold feet this time if you don't unveil new designs in the middle of the process!

[matt3o]

I just had this new cool idea for a case design...

[Muirium]

If it's stepped: I'm on it!

Tried several CAD and 3D apps this last week and hate all of them. I think I'd be better off using my technical drawing skills from high school! Let's see if I can at least get HHFox's dimensions out of all this damn software…

[matt3o]

just fooling around I'm pretty sold with the design I sent you.

[matt3o]

okay... I lied... I designed the stepped case... now which one do I send to production?!

[Muirium]

Stepped of course. The flat case is a known fail safe so why not?

[matt3o]

Stepped of course. The flat case is a known fail safe so why not?

exactly!

[Zifle]

the alu plate should go for around €50-60 I guess if it were to be done alone. No clue in a GB.

That's not too bad, what can I expect the steel plate/case to cost? If I can get both plates, and case for around €150, then I'd definitely be in for that.

[matt3o]

the steel case (the whole case not just the plate) should be 60-80.

Please remember there's shipping from me to you, that should be around €15 for registered mail. The steel sides + 1 alu plate + 1 steel plate should be about €150 but if you are unsure please pick just one plate.

To all.

Just as a worst case scenario, consider that one steel case costs €80 and an alu case costs €140 (for a 65% keyboard a 60% will cost a little less, a TKL a little more). We are probably going to spend less than that, but if you can't afford the worst case don't join.

[Zifle]

Alright, I think I'll just cheap out and get all, and only, steel case + plate.

[pasph]

okay... I lied... I designed the stepped case... now which one do I send to production?!

Please let us see it

[Acanthophis]

So, does anyone have plans for TKL?

[matt3o]

Okay I'm finalizing the design to push to the laser cutter. I'll post a preview as soon as possible. All layers will be named with the DT nick of the owner, you are responsible for your layers. If you see errors or you don't see your name let me know right away.

[Muirium]

So, HHFox is still unproven? Because that plate design (with my layout) is what I really want. (And a stepped case if I can get away with it.)

[matt3o]

So, HHFox is still unproven? Because that plate design (with my layout) is what I really want. (And a stepped case if I can get away with it.)

I thought you were redesigning your own case. Do you want me to try to hide the screws from your original layout?

The stepped case is a possibility but I never tried it so it inherits a certain grade of risk.

[Muirium]

Yes, try to HHFox-ify my plate, please! I'd love to see them side by side and understand your strategy.

Is there anything about a stepped case that would make it impossible to use HHFox style hidden screws? I understand that risk increases quite a bit when mixing two new things together, even if they are compatible

[matt3o]

Is there anything about a stepped case that would make it impossible to use HHFox style hidden screws? I understand that risk increases quite a bit when mixing two new things together, even if they are compatible

adding the step is not the easiest, so many things can go wrong. Anyway I'll post the design maybe you can help me spot errors.

[Muirium]

Thanks. That way I can choose between stepped case OR hidden screws: both have their separate appeal.

[matt3o]

This is the stepped HHFox. The hole is approx 270x40mm

HHFox-stepped.png (13.87 KiB) Viewed 3893 times

[Muirium]

I like it!

Visually, it checks out fine. But I would really prefer to do a scale drawing in 3 dimensions to be sure. Could you put a millimetre scale on your PNG (and export it nice and large) so I can transfer everything to paper? And could you label the layers with their thickness? I am particularly interested in working out what angle this body will sit at.

(I am banging my head against the wall with the available software! The only app I have found so far on Windows 7 to open these DWG files is DraftSight, which is pretty ugly. Inkscape and SketchUp both refuse the unzipped HHFox and HHFox Stepped DWGs for no sensible reason. I am horrible at using Windows anyway, so I have no idea what is wrong.)

[matt3o]

The best I can do is to export to PDF so you can import and print easily. Anyway draftsight is good enough for taking measurements. Use the "distance" tool.

The layers are 1.5mm on the left and 3mm on the right.

I've spotted a couple of things that could be done better. I'll post v2 in a bit.

[Muirium]

Cool. Thanks.

[ماء]

ErgoFox

[Muirium]

All in good time...