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In small quantities the best bet is sheet metal. You can take a design down to your local shop and they can cut and bend it. Ask them what colors they'll be p
by cmos 18y ago
In small quantities the best bet is sheet metal. You can take a design down to your local shop and they can cut and bend it. Ask them what colors they'll be powder coating that week and if you could slip your batch in with it (much cheaper than shutting down the line for your small volume)
It helps, of course, to know how to make the 3D drawings. But if you find the right shop, and make friends with them, you might get away with sketching it or paying a small fee for them to design it in CAD.
This is much more cost effective for small quantities compared to dealing with plastic. It also gives you more flexibility in your design since you don't have an expensive mold to change or re-machine when you want to make a change. And, at the end of it's use, it can be melted down and reused more efficiently than plastic.
If money is tight I'll get an extruded aluminum chassis and just make custom end caps for it.
- HeyLaughingBoy 18y agoIn small quantities, your best bet is either to get the tools to make your own sheetmetal parts or make your design fit into an off the shelf enclosure. Just getting a single panel of aluminum with a few holes punched in it can run you $100 in set up costs at a sheet metal shop. The same $100 will buy a few square feet of aluminum and tools to make holes yourself. I'd find one of the online hobby machinist forums and ask someone there to make you what you need. As long as you're intelligent about it (learn to make your own drawings or to clearly explain what you need), you'll find plenty of hobbyists with the proper tools who don't mind helping you out at much less than professional shop rates.
- stcredzero 18y agoSo a couple of thick sheets of plexiglass and machine screws/spacers just don't do it anymore?