Guest ShagWill Posted December 20, 2002 Report Share Posted December 20, 2002 Hi !I'm currently in the process of designing my own surface control... maybe I will wait for the MB NG...Anyway, my question is how do you guys build so clean and professional looking boxes ? What tools do you use ? Where do you buy your stuff ? Any tips ?Thank you !William Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ShagWill Posted December 20, 2002 Report Share Posted December 20, 2002 Hi !I'm currently in the process of designing my own surface control... maybe I will wait for the MB NG...Anyway, my question is how do you guys build so clean and professional looking boxes ? What tools do you use ? Where do you buy your stuff ? Any tips ?Thank you !William Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d2k Posted December 21, 2002 Report Share Posted December 21, 2002 I'm new to all this aswell well and the items that have cost the most so far have been the tools...Ebay has been my saviour - I got most me tools (and a lot of components, including plenty of C64's for the SIDs ;)) of there...I'm gonna be using a dremel for when it comes to piercing metal. However, if you've got the reddies try this place in Germany (ship worldwide apparently): http://www.schaeffer-apparatebau.de/ You can download a free program to design your front panel and send of the file to have it cut - it even works out the price as you go along. I used this for my design as it's incredibly easy to use. I'm then gonna print this out to scale and spray mount it to my case to use as a template when cutting...Once the cutting has been done, I'll take the pdf of the design I done, import that into Illustrator and do the artwork for the panel. This will be printed on decal paper which is then applied to the metal panel...HTH...Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d2k Posted December 21, 2002 Report Share Posted December 21, 2002 I'm new to all this aswell well and the items that have cost the most so far have been the tools...Ebay has been my saviour - I got most me tools (and a lot of components, including plenty of C64's for the SIDs ;)) of there...I'm gonna be using a dremel for when it comes to piercing metal. However, if you've got the reddies try this place in Germany (ship worldwide apparently): http://www.schaeffer-apparatebau.de/ You can download a free program to design your front panel and send of the file to have it cut - it even works out the price as you go along. I used this for my design as it's incredibly easy to use. I'm then gonna print this out to scale and spray mount it to my case to use as a template when cutting...Once the cutting has been done, I'll take the pdf of the design I done, import that into Illustrator and do the artwork for the panel. This will be printed on decal paper which is then applied to the metal panel...HTH...Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_Hurlock Posted December 21, 2002 Report Share Posted December 21, 2002 Hey thereIf you want a good looking finish then draw the thing on cad and export the .dxf to your favorite laser cutting place. Can be pricey, mine was $150 nz (US$75 )Check it on the brag page.I did my lettering in Adobe Illustrator and gave it to the signwriter and he computer cut the thing out of whatever they cut stuff out of and I stuck it on. Not as asolid sheet but the backing with the individual ltters etc cut out.Woorks good.My box was made of 0.9mm electro galved panel steel.Powdercoated grey.I stuck some of those self adhesive rubber feet on the bottom.Hope that helpsIan Hurlock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_Hurlock Posted December 21, 2002 Report Share Posted December 21, 2002 Hey thereIf you want a good looking finish then draw the thing on cad and export the .dxf to your favorite laser cutting place. Can be pricey, mine was $150 nz (US$75 )Check it on the brag page.I did my lettering in Adobe Illustrator and gave it to the signwriter and he computer cut the thing out of whatever they cut stuff out of and I stuck it on. Not as asolid sheet but the backing with the individual ltters etc cut out.Woorks good.My box was made of 0.9mm electro galved panel steel.Powdercoated grey.I stuck some of those self adhesive rubber feet on the bottom.Hope that helpsIan Hurlock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kieran Posted January 2, 2003 Report Share Posted January 2, 2003 d2k's idea for the panel artwork is good. If you can export your design in whatever software you use to WMF, PDF, AI, or Autocad files (DXF, DWG), corel draw, EPS/PS, then do it and use Illustrator, it is a fantastic piece of software and you can nearly do anything with it to beautify your surface, add curves, stroked outlines, interesting fonts, text following around a curve, anything.:)regards,kieran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kieran Posted January 2, 2003 Report Share Posted January 2, 2003 d2k's idea for the panel artwork is good. If you can export your design in whatever software you use to WMF, PDF, AI, or Autocad files (DXF, DWG), corel draw, EPS/PS, then do it and use Illustrator, it is a fantastic piece of software and you can nearly do anything with it to beautify your surface, add curves, stroked outlines, interesting fonts, text following around a curve, anything.:)regards,kieran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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