Is anyone interested in making their own metal front for the Eclipse?

Ian Mac

Ian Mac

Ian Mac

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31 Jul 2005
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219
I asked a metal working firm for a quote for a metal tray, the height and width of an Eclipse case and with 30mm depth. It was for 1.2mm aluminium like the rest of the case and would be welded and finished in the corners. There are no tabs like the normal front, so you would have to think of your own way to attach it to the case. I am thinking of using magnets for instance. I can also get a line of slots milled into it for the front fan intake, as well as getting it annodised in black.

I have to get 5 or 25 made or its to expensive and I think they would end up costing anywhere between £30-£50 accordingly. I wondered if anyone else might be interested?
 
I have had to make a guess at the final costs. The price for 5 trays was around £25 and for 25 it came down to about £14. I had to make an estimate on the milling and annodising so it might work a little cheaper. I could just get them annodised only and it would be down to whoever if they want to cut all their own holes.
 
Are these the same design and features as the standard fronts, i am really really interested

Attacking the front will be fine, just make some metal taps in my tech class and use uber strong metal epoxey resin.

What about the fornt PCI slot and drive bays may I ask.

I guess the akasa logo could be done with a spray can and a template.

Also the power and hhd LED mounts?

I started off the other metal from thread a while back. But that came to be very expenise to produce.
 
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I wonder how much it would cost if it was milled from a solid block of aluminum, anodised black and brushed effect like the sides and top and the Akasa sign in polished aluminium raised from the case by a mill?. Coz that is what id like :D . It does sound interesting but id have to see one first.

Mark
 
About £50. With proper fixings into the front of the case and a choice of colours, more USB and/or Firewire and/or Mic and Phones sockets. The Akasa logo will be routed out of the metal, not standing proud though. Doubtless it could stand pround and then that bit could be polished, but no-one else is asking for a logo at all.

I'm working on this. Patience is a virtue you guys.
 
I didn't realise that WJA96 was already working on something. Maybe we should get in touch as I have lots of contacts in engineering, annodising etc.

I was thinking of keeping it as a fairly simple front that peple could cut whatever holes they wanted, I am thinking of buying a slot loading optical drive so the front of the case would only have a thin slit for the drive and a line of slots for the fan intake and two snazzy buttons. It would not look like the current plastic front it would literally be a flat front of brushed black ally so you would have to customise it how you wanted.

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Milling a front out of solid ally for a small quantity would cost hundreds of pounds each.
 
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It would not look like the current plastic front it would literally be a flat front of brushed black ally so you would have to customise it how you wanted.
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It would look like a Lian Li then?, i think the front looks good but i sopose that there are a lot of people who would like a plain flat front like a Lian Li.

I was thinking of keeping it as a fairly simple front that peple could cut whatever holes they wanted
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The only problem with that is that there would then be silver edges and you cant really paint them or anything with it being aluminium.


Doubtless it could stand pround and then that bit could be polished, but no-one else is asking for a logo at all.
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Im not fussed if its standing proud really as long as its there, would look quite plain without the logo and as sagaboy2 says it gives the case its identity. Also does anyone else not think it would look good, black ally front with silver logo :cool: . The main thing id like is the brushed effect like the rest of the case, then im in :) .

Mark
 
Ian Mac said:
Milling a front out of solid ally for a small quantity would cost hundreds of pounds each.
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I break-even point at £50/piece for a Hoojum style front is 125 units. I posted a costing somewhere else on these boards. The first one is going to cost over £2K, after that it's all downhill ;-)
 
aslong as the front is not a cruved shape like the plastic 1, i am not really bothered. Just so i can attach my usb ports and put my cd drives in :D A Lian-Li style front would go quite well with the rest of the case
 
You all know you want to copy the pc7 front.

Its gonna happen!

If I could see one of these made up first a la real life - I might be interested in one to get the case to go with it. (Eclipse without the icky part, thank you very much)
 
I think you have to be realistic. To add that curved radius to the front you would have to mill away huge amounts of metal. It's possible, but really expensive. The front has to be flat I'm afraid.
 
There is a serious amount of ally to be milled away anyway, I am rather impressed. The longer it takes the more expensive it is.

WJA96, would there be any possibility of getting a fairly raw front from you that I can get milled how I like?
 
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