PCA Forums

Well? im going to ask you this. If i made ATX mother board trays woudl you buy them? What if i told you it has LEGO edges? thats right a tray that you can add legos to to buld a case. Also pre made 3.5" bays and 5.25 bays that you mount the drive in and then build it into the lego case! Also lego fans. kinda like the adapters they use in the antec cases. its just a hole with clips to snap in any fan then build legos around it to make it part of the case!

And what would you be willing to pay? I have no clue how much this would all cost me, i know it wouldent be cheap cause id have to make the molds and they are by no means cheap. Would you all be intrested in a system of parts like this that would allow you to effortlessly build cases out of legos?

Any comments about it or other ideals about it please talk about it here.

I think it's a great idea pugs.. I'd be willing to pay for it.. But I "myself" couldn't see spening more than say $125 for it as I'd have to buy the legos to go with it.. ) Good Luck Though!!

Chal

Good idea, i could see myself buying one of these. My Son is really in to Lego Building (10years) It would be a fun project to build a computer out of Legos together.
Let me know what you decide.

Originally posted by eGoCeNTRoNiX
I think it's a great idea pugs.. I'd be willing to pay for it.. But I "myself" couldn't see spening more than say $125 for it as I'd have to buy the legos to go with it..

Well thats about how much it COULD end up costing end users if i only do a small run of them... the trick woudl be to make one mold that would make 1 tray 1-2 fan thingys, 1-3 5.25 bay things, 1-4 3.25 bay thingys and 1 power supply thingy (just thought of them).

this way if the mold ends up costing 5,000 at least i can make like 200-400 sets and still possibly not loose money... there are alot of other factors as well to consider... this is still a long ways off.

id have to see it first

me

Pugs, best thing to do, so you don't end up eating the entire cost yourself, is to get someone to share expenses with you. Pitch the idea to someone with money and they either go in as an equal partner, or if your lucky a silent partner. Which means they fork out the dough and don't tell you what to do with it. They just expect more out of the return when you make money though.

Good luck with it.

Not sure how your planning to make the parts and mold, or from what.

Would you be able to make a prototype of the parts and do some castings? Are the parts your planning to build going to be molded plastics, molded metal, stamped metal or what?

I do a bit of casting. If you are going to be making molded plastic parts and could build the prototypes there are several ways to make molds that aren't very expensive. For pewter I use a 2 part putty mix myself, makes a nice rubber mold that will with stand 500F or more. There is another resin mix for making molds that you pour, or of course you could do sand casting. Once you have a mold made like that you can cast a few parts perhaps, or use that mold as the prototype for another mold which when casted would give you a casted mold to make your parts. Idea being once you make the prototype, mold, mold of the mold, you then cast that mold in metal like pewter which would result in having a Pewter mold to make the actuall parts in.

Sound dumb?
I have actually done exactly that for some small molds for a plastic injection system for a friend. He only does plastic injection as a hobby. He had some small figures he carved from wood he wanted to re-produce in plastic with his little injection system. It worked quite well. For awhile there he was really melting down the coke bottles and milk jugs faster than he could drink them

Most or maybe all plastics have a lower melting point than pewter. Or you could take the pewter molds to a machine shop and have them cut from a block of steel. Duplication from an existing mold should be far less expensive than fabricated from prints alone.

Really depends what your planning to make and how your going to make it of course, but being creative can get alot of work done at a low cost fast sometimes with the same great results. My friend didn't have the molds made sooner because of the high costs, for his stuff it was several hundred dollars he was quoted. We were talking about stuff one day, his injection machine and my pewter and he mentioned those molds. I said heck you built your own injection system seems like you could make your own molds, so we did!!

Also if your gonna be casting parts from plastic, it's not that hard or expensive to build a small injection system if the parts aren't too big and your doing small runs. When I get more time (and money) I'll be do that myself. Getting another old trailer house for a total shop. Pewter casting, injection molding, Chrome/Gold/Silver plating ect... all in one trailer. Just no room here now, heck I haven't even done any pewter casting or Gold plating probably all year now!

Well I have acess to a rater big injection moloding machine (400 ton?) So i would need a steel mold... and making them isnt easy. I have acess to all i need to do it... just a matter of getting it done.