Production for 464 Plus Tape lids and Cartridge Cases!

[BluesBrothers]

LOL, tell me about it.
No I'm just a bit embarrassed cos it's not like me and I like to come through on stuff when I say I'm gonna do it, just as I said before, life stuff an' all that.
I'll give Adam a bit of a kick and see if between us we can't get things moving a bit

[TFM]

Great! 

[Gryzor]

Is the tape lid still alive?

[BluesBrothers]

Oh yes . Adam hasn't yet taken the mould but I have given him a kick and he has promised to sort it out as soon as he's able. It should be fairly painless to take a silicon mould from which he can rework the eventual aluminium cast.
I'll keep proding him until he gets so sick of hearing me that he just gets on with it

[Gryzor]

Not a problem, just asking


Maybe Adam could also help with the CPC covers mentioned in the other thread? This should be much simpler - no moulds, just a sheet of plastic, some hot-bending and a few holes tops!

[BluesBrothers]

Can you send me a link to the thread and I'll investigate?

[Gryzor]

Oops, sorry, my bad.
CPC Dust cover

[BluesBrothers]

Mmmm, ok.... are we talking a hard cover of the type that you got on the BBC Model B or I believe there was also one for the C128 (a mate of mine has one of these), or are we looking at something of a hybrid between that and the soft neoprene or leatherette type covers.
I should mention that if the demand was high enough I could almost certainly get the old soft ones made again. A contact of mine has contact with someone who used to make these way back when and the room they were made is has been left exactly as it was ever since they turned out the lights back in the early 90's. The upshot being that I know the same people are able and willing to make them again, it's just going to be a case of persuading the man in the middle to make that contact for us. It's always tricky when your relying on other isn't it... not only do you trip over your own real life stuff but theirs as well.
The rigid type would be possible but to do something that size that completely moulds around the CPC is beyond the injection moulding machine we have the use of, however I would imagine that given the simple nature of the thing it could be vacuum formed.
A hybridised hard/soft thing would be trickier and require a bit more investigation.
The towels might just be possible too if I ask around

[Gryzor]

You actually have access to the very Room that they were made? Wow


Nah, wasn't talking about soft ones, rather hard ones. But why go vacuum/injection since you can do it out of simple sheets?


I guess there are quite a few places doing customised towels, aren't there?

[BluesBrothers]

Well vacuum forming is relatively simple and can be done in a garden shed if we're honest so with better facilities and a bit more finesse it should be possible to make something quite decent.
If we make out of simple sheets then I imagine it will be a bit "blockie" and if we're going to bend the sheets with heat and plastic weld pieces together then you are really going to just as much trouble I think.
I will ask his opinion none the less

[Gryzor]

Oh, ok, I've never made such stuff in bulk so I've always used plexi and I'm not an expert Of course with a mould you could also do a stamp on it

[BluesBrothers]

I think the towels much like t-shirts and other textiles would be easy enough for anyone to source really. Stuff like that is farmed out to India and produced for pennies.
I do like the idea of a 464 towel though. It has that kitch 80's theme a bit like keyboard ties

[Gryzor]

Depends. Usually customised towels are bathroom towels, where you have some monogram embroidered or beach towels with full-surface prints, but this I think is only done in bulk - like BULK bulk.

[BluesBrothers]

I think the towels much like t-shirts and other textiles would be easy enough for anyone to source really. Stuff like that is farmed out to India and produced for pennies.
I do like the idea of a 464 towel though. It has that kitch 80's theme a bit like keyboard ties

Give me a couple of days and I'll have a much clearer idea of what is possible and then come back with the options available. As it's a community thing lets let the community decide eh

[BluesBrothers]

Give me a couple of days and I'll have a much clearer idea of what is possible and then come back with the options available. As it's a community thing lets let the community decide eh

I hear that it is quite surprising just how few items certain companies in India will consider (relatively speaking of course). I think some up and coming companies will hope that fulfilment of one order will lead to another. Maybe it would be possible to have 200 or so done rather than several thousand.

[Gryzor]

Well, if potential buyers get 5 each...

[BluesBrothers]

 

[steve]

Just to be clear, the towel idea was a joke, you should do a poll to see how many would buy one before you commit to anything.

[BluesBrothers]

Don't worry I'm completely with the humour. The 464 does however lend itself to such an enterprise

[BluesBrothers]

Maybe Adam could also help with the CPC covers mentioned in the other thread? This should be much simpler - no moulds, just a sheet of plastic, some hot-bending and a few holes tops!

Had a good chat with Adam both yesterday and today as have a number of little projects on the go with him and....

The hard dust covers are quite simple to vacuum form and we believe this will give the most satisfactory finish. Adam has for some time being making RC cars bodies using this method and has got pretty damned good at it. We have also spoken about potentially embedding images into the plastic to really make these a custom item. Because of the way these would be produced anyway this would be achievable without driving the costs up. This way you could have CPC Wiki logoed covers or game screen shots, whatever.

Also a bit of news on the cart cases. I have some images of some initial attempts, which I have to say look good to me but Adam wants to just smooth out a couple of minor issues by creating some extra outlets in the casts so that air can be fully removed. This is mostly around the tip of the clips where triangulation could be slightly better.

I will upload images shortly.

[TFM]

Images?! WoW! I cobalt blue cart with the FutureSoft logo!!! That would be a great motivation to finish up all my half the way done Plus games

[BluesBrothers]

At the mo we just got white and grey whilst Adam get the casting 100% but yes hopefully we will have the blue before to long. I just need to sort the images out that he sent me as I need to download them properly rather than just viewing. Just about to have my dinner so will do it in an hour or so.

[TFM]

Oh, never mind. As long as they work I will be more than glad. Everything else is just wishful thinking, but finally not needed for function 

[BluesBrothers]

[attach=3][attach=4][attach=5][attach=2]

[BluesBrothers]

The blue will come I promise. The above images are just of early prototypes made from poured plastic in silicon moulds