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 Posted: May 08, 2012 - 10:43 PM |
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Joined: Sep 12, 2009
Posts: 2398
Location: Sacramento, CA
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Another question, since you guys know so much.
What is the current situation regarding having plastic parts made? I'm looking for a round battery box with a switch and maybe a couple of buttons, about the size and shape of a round Altoids box. It would need to be strong enough to act as the base for a few pounds of weight, and look decent (not the "slimy" black plastic of normal battery holders).
So if I were to make up a drawing of this box (how hard? what software?), is it possible to get 100-1000 made up at a "reasonable" cost? Or is custom plastic only feasible at much higher volumes? |
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Posted: May 09, 2012 - 12:04 AM |
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Joined: Sep 04, 2002
Posts: 21249
Location: Orlando Florida
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| How about a custom machined aluminum box? Send a sketch/picture to dave@aircraftinstruments and he'll quote 100 and 500 for you. |
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Imagecraft compiler user
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Posted: May 09, 2012 - 12:06 AM |
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Joined: Jun 08, 2011
Posts: 300
Location: Maryland, USA
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It really comes down to whether you're looking to take a standard off-the-shelf enclosure and do some milling on it, or doing a completely from scratch custom design. There are enclosure manufacturers out there with extensive catalogs of standard designs and the facilities to provide whatever holes/slots/labeling you want on them. If you want something completely from scratch, then things start getting REALLY pricey, especially if you're looking at injection molding (injection molds are colossally expensive to setup--easily five figures just for the mold).
Plus, you need to design your enclosure, which is probably a lot harder than you think, depending on a number of factors. How many pieces will (can) it be? How will they fasten together? What sorts of tolerances will those fastenings require? What sort of stresses will the enclosure be subjected to? Based on that, what material will be suitable, and how thick will it need to be? On and on. . .
If you can design your enclosure so that it can be made from layers of laser-cut sheet material, you can probably get that done pretty cheaply, plus it's much easier to design--check out eMachineShop if you want to try sketching out a few ideas, the nice thing about their software is you can get instant feedback on how much it will cost. |
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Posted: May 09, 2012 - 12:56 AM |
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Joined: Feb 19, 2010
Posts: 507
Location: Montreal, QC, CA
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From personal experience it's not worth investing into a custom built case until well into final development stages of a decent sized batch, and even then there such a large variety of premade cases you can probably find what you want... Have a look at http://www.polycase.com/ .
Something like this seems to fit the bill, mostly all under 10$:
http://www.polycase.com/dc-series
From there you can either ask them to mill it custom for you, or do them yourself for a smaller batch. You could probably also ask them to add structural reinforcements for the weight you are planning. |
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Posted: May 09, 2012 - 03:04 AM |
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Joined: Dec 11, 2007
Posts: 6841
Location: Cleveland, OH
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