3 Feb
2002
3 Feb
'02
2:08 p.m.
On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Curt Vendel wrote:
[...] I've spoke with some of Atari's former
Industrial Designers and
even on a side as a favor, to make new CNC'd dies for a short run
would be into the tens of thousands, there's gotta be someone who's
sympathetic to the classic gaming/vintage computing cause willing to
do some CNC work on the side for a smaller fee and then you could take
those to any place with a multi-ton press and run off a few dozen to a
few hundred pieces of plastic. I have wanted to do this for a long
time, some of the projects of newer hardware I've been messing with
have been using what I called "recycled Atari" cases as I use existing
products, machine them with needed opens, get color matching lexan to
make cover labels and such and do neo-Atari products
I worked for a couple of years at an industrial design / manufacturing
company as my first job out of college. Our speciality was getting
finished plastic parts in the hands of our clients in the shortest
amount time possible. Sometimes we'd take customer ideas from napkin
sketches to finished injection molded parts in a matter of a 3-4 weeks.
Something like a 520ST case is big and complex enough that you'd
definitely be in the multiple tens of thousands of dollars to do the CAD
work and to machine aluminum molds from it. Jack the price up higher if
you want steel. You could reduce the price by going with a very plain
exterior, but even then you're still dealing with some sizeable and
expensive molds.
Something simpler and smaller, like game cartridge molds, would be
easier to find someone willing to do that cheaply.
-brian.