[cholin]

Hi there guys,

As you can tell, I just signed up here. I'm looking to get some enclosures made for a small electronic project of mine. I've contacted a few local shops but they all want a bunch of money to get these done. I figure the home-brew community would be more open to my sort of work, since everything I do is home-brew anyway!

A bit about me: I am a student at university in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I am in an electronics program. My hobby is basically electronics and automotive. I am combining the two and putting a PC into my car (www.mp3car.com). For this, I have designed a product that I feel will truly help out the automotive PC industry and I want to do a small run for them.

Product: I need a plastic (black -- abs maybe?) or aluminum enclosure to house my circuit board. It is modeled off of this very sleek design:






The INTERNAL dimensions are 2.5" x 2.5" with a 1cm (0.393701") miter on the corners. I want the total height to be 0.5". One side will have 2 cutouts -- one for power, one for USB. The other three sides will each have one long cutout. The top will have a small hole for a reset switch to be pressed with a pin, and 4 screw holes. If it doesn't add too much to the cost, I would also like the top to have a slight recess so I can put a model number sticker on it

As far as quantity goes, I'm thinking about 10 for now. I'm a student on a really tight budget and I know this sounds like a lot but it should be simple on a CNC machine! I hope one of you guys has an open heart and will make these for me! I would REALLY appreciate it.

Thanks guys!

[Pyrokuda]

Hello,

Its best if you can provide us with a print.
A solid file would be even better.

Thanks

Brad

[cholin]

Hi,

I am currently downloading Solid Works 2008 from my old computer, then I will design the file as soon as possible!

This is the best I've got for now:

[Dualkit]

Hello,

Its best if you can provide us with a print.
A solid file would be even better.

Thanks

Brad

Or worst case scenario show a picture of the inside detail with out the board in it, then at least someone can make an educated wild guess at the price.

[cholin]

Added pictures.

[Michael.lee]

I am not sure if you have finished sourcing the products.
if you only need 10 pieces of enclosure,
I think you can create them via cnc prototypes, though it will be not strong enough comparing real products.

Detail you can send your files to me for suggesiton.

[Starleper1]

PM sent

[cholin]

Michael,

Please send me a PM regarding your offer.

[MrMold]

I suggest casting these yourself with some hard urethane. You'll need one as a master to make the mold from. You can make 10-20 in a day on the kitchen table. When your ready to up your production, then injection molding is the only way to go. You'll have a couple of thousand dollars in a mold but the parts will be less than a dollar per unit.

[cholin]

Thanks,

The thing is, I never plan on making more than 100 or 200 of these so it really isn't a big deal if I get molds made or not. If for some crazy reason this picks up big, then I'll go injection molding.