PDP-8/A Front Panels

woodelf wrote: put in "metal fabrication" in your google or search engine of your choice and at least here in Orange County, Ca it brings up all the local choices I know of. YMMV, but you could send drawings for a quote to each. A call to each place explaining how you will buy would help you get a more reasonable quote. They usually have the same constraint on their quoting as the board houses do. You actually pay the most at a board house for the holes and cuts in a PC board than you do for the rest of it after a certain point. Unless you add on premium testing, or unless you have a complicated multi layer board with special problems with the fab, you will find that the cost you can't reduce is the number of holes you make. Same goes for the metal work. Also most fab shops dont like to set up for 5 pieces, so the price will be spread over a few pieces for the setup, and run the cost up there. For a professional job i'd figure that you'd pay about $50 to $100 each for 1 to 5 pieces. Less than that would be good. Jim