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

[Ian Mac]

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?

 

[Ian Mac]

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.

 

[Ian Mac]

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.

edit

Milling a front out of solid ally for a small quantity would cost hundreds of pounds each.

 

[Ian Mac]

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?