Thought I'd share a picture of a little project that I started doing with Autodesk 123D. ;)
I have a 3,5" floppy as external drive in my CPC6128. A plain drive looks a bit bland so I decided to give a go at designing an enclosure for a floppy drive. The picture is of the case bottom, WIP. Once I get the top and bottom finished, I plan to have it 3D printed somewhere.
It's a nice idea. :)
May be you can design the top case to look-like the FD-1 external drive?
Thanks!
Actually I had thought that the top would take its design cues from the CPC6128 itself. The back face of the top shall also have a reservation for DC jack and some extra space for side selection and ABBA switches.
I did some finishing touches to the case bottom and did the case top today. Enjoy the pictures! :)
Still need to add a hole for the DC jack and do some chamfering into the top edges.
Quote from: protek on 09:23, 25 September 14Actually I had thought that the top would take its design cues from the CPC6128 itself.
I have though the same before posting... :D
The, I have took to look to the DF-1 to see the changes, but both look fine I think.
Quote from: protek on 09:23, 25 September 14The back face of the top shall also have a reservation for DC jack and some extra space for side selection and ABBA switches.
May be interesting to design a little interface PCB for that?
Ok, finished. Hopefully. Did some tweaking, merging and filleting and here are the pictures of the finished case halves.
Additionally, I made a special top for the CPC community. Enjoy! ;)
Are you taking orders? I could be tempted for 2 in plus beige and 1 in Cpc grey ;-)
I'm going to get one sample 3D printed for myself to see, if there's still need to do some adjustments. Once I'm happy with the design, you can ask for the .stl files to get it 3D printed somewhere.
I wish I had time and resources to make a small production run but unfortunately I'm a bit short on both. :(
Pleeeeeeease do a small production. PLEASE ;D
I like to order three pieces in CPC darkgrey, this is awesome!
Regards
Tom
I converted the two halves into .stl files and sent them out for evaluation to get a quote for printing the sample pieces.
I got the quote and estimate. It'll take about two weeks because the dark gray ABS needs to be ordered. In late October I should have the first sample in my hands. :)
Sounds good ! but what is the quotation ?
Quote from: protek on 05:55, 30 September 14
I got the quote and estimate. It'll take about two weeks because the dark gray ABS needs to be ordered. In late October I should have the first sample in my hands. :)
the whole of the cpcwiki wait with baited breath.
Quote from: Kris on 08:27, 30 September 14
Sounds good ! but what is the quotation ?
I know the guy doing it personally, so I got a bit of a special price, which I'd rather not disclose. Let's just say that you should probably be able to get below the 50 € marker, if you're having it printed at an online service.
As I said, the gray plastic needs to be ordered, so it'll take some time. In the meantime, I'm having one case printed in white as that is readily available and I need a case for the drive in my BBC Master too. I'll just brand another case top as "Acorn". You'll then have a chance to see sooner how the printed case will look. The Amstrad case will follow.
right great stuff, now all we need is for a small run of replica silver metal Amstrad badges to stick on them :-)
Quote from: Lazy Dude on 17:03, 30 September 14
right great stuff, now all we need is for a small run of replica silver metal Amstrad badges to stick on them :-)
Thanks! The Amstrad logo is actually engraved on the front as you can see from the last picture.
yeh i see that, and it is good detailing. its just i m a silver badges fan ;D
Quote from: Lazy Dude on 22:22, 01 October 14
yeh i see that, and it is good detailing. its just i m a silver badges fan ;D
Ooooh, Look at that........ Shiny! :P
yeh until they made the cost down badges on stuff lol
Quote from: Lazy Dude on 22:36, 01 October 14
yeh until they made the cost down badges on stuff lol
Now you mention it, a 3D printed floppy drive case with chrome detailling does sound kinda retro ;)
Craig
now we're talking! its all about the little details. the most basic hardware to base this kind of unit on i think would be the MP1 or 2 modules
You can easily spray it yourself with Chrome / Colours if it's already printed in 3D.
Bryce.
I have to do slight modifications to the model. The first printing attempt resulted in a slightly warped piece. I'll add some reinforcing pieces and shave off half a millimeter from the base thickness.
The case halves have now been modified, converted to STL and sent for printing.
Got a couple of pics from my friend. ;)
Nice to see it take shape.
As we can see, it's hard to get clear detail like the embossed AMSTRAD logo with a home printer.
Is the final version will be industrial printed with more accuracy?
I need to make some adjustments to the logo to make it more prominent. Also I need to adjust the thickness of the material on the sides as in this specimen, some sanding is needed to get the halves to fit properly.
I'm going to have another case printed based on these changes but for me, these home printed cases will be the finals. Personally, I'm not planning to make an industrial run. The quote I got for just the upper half of the case from one of the online 3D printing services had a price tag of 130 €, which I consider pretty hefty. The thing is that that their calculation system must've based the calculation on the bounding box of the piece and not the actual volume.
Once the models are finalized, I can provide the .stl files upon request to anyone who wants to get a case printed.
By the way, the material used was HIPS. My friend made a couple of attempts with ABS but ABS has a tendency to warp, when printing large 3D objects.
Hi all,
I'm quite new (subscribed) to this forum and wanted to point out that I'm really glad to see some amazing :o insane stuffs like these :D !
Carry on the good job!
Roland
Well, I got it in my hands now. :) As you can see, it's going to require some handiwork. There was a bit of snag in the printing program so the upper part didn't print completely and the remains had to be printed separately and glued. Nevertheless, if you're after a smooth finish, it'll require some extra effort. I suppose one can conclude that at this point 3D printing is more suitable for prototyping and one offs.
I've made some changes into the model already based on these results. One is changing the badge to a simple placeholder for sticker or separately printed badge. Other was to shave a bit off of the thickness of the overlapping parts.
I'll start working on the case as soon as I can find suitable putty for smoothening the surface.
I tried the the floppy drive mechanism inside the case. Top half needed a bit of tweaking, which I've now done. Unfortunately my friend had already started printing the second case so both will have an appointment with x-acto.
I got the other case from my friend. Along with some accessories. ;)
This is probably the casing I actually begin to work on. Have to print a third one at some point. I'll probably do some final tweaks on the case halves before I "release them to public".
The yellowed drive bezel does spoil the appearance a little, perhaps the next case could be designed to take a floppy drive without the bezel, so the case will just have a slot and two holes, one for the eject button and one for the led.
Perhaps a version of the case could be designed for two drives, giving space for a power supply behind the drives like the amstrad design.
I'm planning to paint the case anyway, so painting the drive bezel can be done at the same time. Have to find some suitable filler putty next.
Not much update in this front. I haven't had time to find any putty to make a smooth finish to the case halves.
Anyway, I've now done the finishing touches to the model and it's time to release the .stl files. If you want to 3D print a floppy drive enclosure, sent me a PM with your email and I'll send the .stl files to you.
The files are sent as such. You need to find a place or service to get the case halves printed. You may also have to manually do some modification to the printed parts to make them fit. Bottom line, use the files at your own risk!
I wish I could provide readily printed cases but unfortunately time and resources don't permit that. The files are my contribution to the community.
I am sorry to bump such and old topic, guys, but has any of you got the models and printed one? I would like to give it a try with the HxC I have in here :)