Anodized aluminum poker cases

[oneproduct]

Just picked them up from the anodizing shop and they look pretty great. http://imgur.com/a/lSOdE#0

The good:
1. The blue came out in a wonderful, rich shade.
2. The pitting is very minor. The brushed ones hide it completely and even on the polished ones it's not that noticeable.
http://i.imgur.com/11H0ch.jpg

The bad:
1. The anodizing shows up in a different shade around the welded corners.
2. At least one has an ugly unanodized part along the inside where it was "racked." When they dip it inside the vats to anodize them they have to be held up by something. I've only unwrapped 9 of them so far and this is the only one that has a big spot like this, on the others I can't even tell where the racking point is at all. I'll be taking the worst cases for myself, so this one in the picture will probably be mine. I have a feeling that this one was just sort or racked improperly and is the oddball. I'll check the others shortly... just need some room to put them all somewhere! http://i.imgur.com/MUqLzh.jpg

Here's the Google spreadsheet with all the orders: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... SUXc#gid=0

Here's a little video explaining how to set it up. Pretty straightforward.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAuaEI6snDM

[metafour]

These cases have character! Nice mood lighting in the pics too.

[mkawa]

we knew the welded bits would anodize a bit differently. a clear powdercoat from treble's shop might make this less noticeable. we'll have to experiment.

but i just want to say HUGE THANKS for making this happen oneproduct. manufactured things have flaws; some have big ones, some have small ones. it's kind of the nature of things. please don't feel bad about any of them. the thing to focus on is that we just made some cool stuff, by ourselves, from scratch! i'm super proud of this project and i think you should be too

can't wait to get mine!

[oneproduct]

Took them in partial sunlight so you can get a better idea of the shade depending on the lighting. They look really good IRL though, barring the corner discoloration a bit. I'll put up a little 360 video tour of one in a bit.

[metafour]

Did the brushed cases end up with pits as well or was it just the polished ones as original shown?

[oneproduct]

They have them, but the brushing hides them almost completely because of the textured look.

[metafour]

They have them, but the brushing hides them almost completely because of the textured look.

Which you stated in point #2 in the OP. Totally missed that. =\

[kint]

we knew the welded bits would anodize a bit differently. a clear powdercoat from treble's shop might make this less noticeable. we'll have to experiment....

One has to trim the type of welding rod to the alloy, this will prevent discoloring on the welds when anodized. In other words, the welder has to know the cases are going to get anodized.
Nineties bicycle frames show that it's possible although I'm in the lucky position to own a pre production sample where the manufacturer obviously had run into the same problem...

[oneproduct]

One has to trim the type of welding rod to the alloy

Sadly I don't even know what that means now that I'm hearing it! If I ever organize something like this again I'll mention that to the place where I got these manufactured.

Uploading a video to youtube, not that much to see since it's basically just a metal tray. Taking a break for lunch then I'll start packing up the ones where people said they'd attach the mounting plate on their own first. Once those are all taken care of and shipped out, I'll start attaching the mounting plates for those that requested it which may take a day or two, no idea really.

[Elrobo]

Awesome, looking forward to mine. Do you have an idea of how you will sort out shipping (I know some people myself included hadn't specified how to send it yet), did you have our info saved outside of GH?

[kint]

just FYI.
I assume those cases are TIG welded (method). In that case a filling wire material called rod is molten into the gap at the corner, and the weld you see is basically that molten rod.
Now different aluminum alloys anodize in different colours due to their composition, so if you anodize a sheet of 7075 aluminum and a sheet of 6061 in the same bath both will have the same colour but with a different tint.
So if a capable welder knows the cases are going to get anodized and knows the material alloy the cases are made of he will choose a rod with a composition that will anodize as close to the sheet metal as possible, if he doesn't care he will go for any rod that does the job which likely leads to different alloy composition of rod and sheet metal which leads to discoloured welds.
Stunning cases though.

[oneproduct]

Awesome, looking forward to mine. Do you have an idea of how you will sort out shipping (I know some people myself included hadn't specified how to send it yet), did you have our info saved outside of GH?

I have everyone's shipping address from geekhack PMs going to my regular email. I'll have to dig up my paypal logs to look for email addresses in order to contact people again though.

What I will likely do is ship out everyone's cases using my own money and include a sort of "invoice" in them telling them how much they should send me on paypal once they get the cases. For people in the US/Canada, I'll probably just go ahead and use ground shipping, which takes something like 6-12 days vs air shipping's 4-6 days, which is not a big difference so I don't think people would really mind.

For international shipping, the ground method was only like $16 and the air method was a big jump to like $35, but it goes from 4-6 weeks for ground to 1 week for air. For these people I'll send it by air, and if they would have preferred ground in order to save on cost, I'll take the hit. I just want to get these out to people as soon as I can. I've got enough money of my own to pay for things for the moment.

I'll see if I can get in touch with people though and if anybody can direct their attention here it would be great. If you know for a fact that you would prefer a different shipping method you can PM me, but I think ground for North America and air for international is pretty much the best way to go.

[metafour]

I'm in the US and just want ground. I've had a couple of Poker shipped in the past from Canada and ground was as fast as air.

[Elrobo]

Ground sounds fine for me in western Canada, but I think you're crazy for just initially covering everyone for shipping. I mean it's super nice, but I feel worried for you here.

[DanGWanG]

I think they look great

[oneproduct]

So I just unwrapped them all and sorted them all out and the quantities are a bit off.

What people asked for, excluding myself:
Brushed + Clear = 5
Brushed + Blue = 9
Polished + Clear = 2
Polished + Blue = 9
Total = 25

What I requested from the anodizing place:
Brushed + Clear = 7
Brushed + Blue = 10
Polished + Clear = 3
Polished + Blue = 10
Total = 30 (the extras are from people who cancelled that I'm paying for myself)

What I got from the anodizing place:
Brushed + Clear = 8
Brushed + Blue = 9
Polished + Clear = 4
Polished + Blue = 9
Total = 30

The spare for myself are then:
Brushed + Clear = 3
Polished + Clear = 2

Edit:
Two people switched, as a personal note, the ones I have for myself are:
Brushed + Clear = 2
Brushed + Blue = 1
Polished + Clear = 1
Polished + Blue = 1

The good news is that I can meet everyone's order with this. The bad news is that I don't get any blue for myself and that the blue one I took a picture of with the racking mark will have to go to someone (at random!). Anybody want to switch from one of their blues to a clear by any chance?

[Elrobo]

I could switch to clear, the finished product looked a lot better than I expected.

[oneproduct]

Only if you actually want to. I don't want to force anybody. If you do though, let me know if you want brushed or polished.

What my floor looks like right now:

[Elrobo]

Honestly I think I would prefer the Grey so it works fine for me.
Would it be fine then to swap my polished blue to a brushed clear?

I figure it will look even nicer with my white keys/grey modifiers from the red alert GB.

[demik]

that blue is really nice

[oneproduct]

Honestly I think I would prefer the Grey so it works fine for me.
Would it be fine then to swap my polished blue to a brushed clear?

I figure it will look even nicer with my white keys/grey modifiers from the red alert GB.

Yup, sure thing! Now I'll have a blue one for myself and I can take that one that had the racking mark so no one else has to end up with it.

None of the other ones have a mark like that as I had guessed. It's really the exception.

[emptythecache]

Oneproduct, you are a gentlemen and a scholar.

[WRXChris]

They look great oneproduct, thanks for all your hard work on this project!

Is there any chance that you could ship mine Air? I'm moving cross-country in a couple weeks and don't want to take the chance of it not arriving in time.

[oneproduct]

Will do Chris.

I just went to the post office to check out the weights, and the packages are about 50g overweight. So what I'll have to do is cut off two of the four folding flaps (the smaller two). This is what I had to do last time when I sent one of the unanodized cases to someone. The box will still be sturdy enough. The padding is also going to be pretty light, but it's in no danger of becoming bent and I've got a layer of paper then a layer of foam around it to prevent scratching, which the box should prevent anyways.

[oneproduct]

Soooooooooo annoying. Brought 3 to the post office and two of them were like 0.995 kg and the last was 1.005 kg so it didn't make it. Have to fiddle with the packaging grumble grumble.

Google Spreadsheet is here so you can see which ones I've shipped. The non-glued ones are going first.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... SUXc#gid=0

[oneproduct]

Got four of them out today. I might have to just abandon putting them in boxes and instead just bubble wrap them and then cover them in parcel paper.

For those that I got out today, I literally had to cut some holes of cardboard out of the box to reduce it the last 5g or so that I needed. It looks pretty funny/sketchy depending on your attitude, but doesn't affect the sturdiness of the box.

[emptythecache]

so we owe you the total for anodizing + shipping cost? so mine would be $31.66?

also, can you pm me your paypal address again so I can pay you.

[metafour]

Something's missing...

Looking forward to getting mine!



Just checked the spreadsheet and mine's listed as shipped. Thanks!!!

[oneproduct]

Okay, I've sent out all the ones that didn't ask for gluing.

As a reminder, I originally charged $80 but I didn't have to pay taxes on the $64 cases since they were paid in cash under the table, so I'm taking $10 off the remaining anodizing + shipping cost. (15% tax on $64 is $9.60)

The ones that need gluing may take a bit longer to get out for several reasons:
1. I have to get all set up for doing it, including learning how to do it right and not messing up any of them! I'll also probably make some makeshift jig for it.
2. I have to give them time to dry when they're glued and clamped, and I don't have infinite clamps.
3. I have summer classes and I'm actually pretty busy with school work at the moment.

Today's batch went out bubble wrapped and then wrapped with parcel paper. The boxes were simply adding too much weight (the box alone weighs about 150g or so, which is 15% of the max weight I'm allowed).

When you send payment for the remaining costs, please do so as payment for goods (rather than as a gift as I don't want my paypal account to get suspended), and if you'd be so kind, please add 2.9% + $0.30 which is the paypal fee.

[metafour]

Paid