Dave Hick's fantastic HP calculator museum has an interesting page and
images of design studies and prototypes of a few HP desktop calculators
which illustrate how realistic some prototyping methods can be.
As for computer cases, early models were probably handmade; it's not that
hard. Take a run to your local Tap Plastics store. You can pick up all
kinds/sizes of plastics that can then be made into just about anything.
Also, model car/plane/boat shops probably have stuff to let you work with
plastics.
Even metal cases aren't that hard; I have a friend who built, as one of his
first projects, an amazing set of cabinets/shelves for his Land Rover out
of aluminum. Some simple tools are required, but nothing earth-shattering.
I was talking to someone recently (Rax?) about building a custom
wood-glass-and-brass case for a computer. Not that hard to build your
first one in a plywood case, then worry about the production cases once
you've got financing. (Of course, just make sure that cable going to the
vax behind the curtain doesn't show! 8^)
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