News on the new panels and brackets
2006-06-13 by tsomneevich
Hello folks, Here's an update on how my panels and brackets are going: The website is not live yet, but will be soon. That will have full information and a Paypal shopping cart. The metal fabs are done with the first run, which includes blanks in 1U, 2U and 3U (sorry, only "MOTM format") with mounting holes. They are about to be painted, and the first five designs silkscreened. I expect prices to be quite lower than what's out there, and think the finish will be similar to FPE (not textured like the Stooges). The PCB Brackets are finished. They are held in place by 2 pots, and have holes for mounting most of Ken Stone's new PCBs. They are $4 each, and I hardly make anything off of them. They may go down on the next run, as I'll order more, and I may try a thinner gauge of stainless. We'll see. My fabricators and I are talking about how to let everyone order their own designs. Instead of using software, we were thinking of something along these lines: The DIYer would send me a plot of X,Y coordinates with corresponding diameters/ dimensions and labels. The fabricators would punch the holes according to coordinates and I would insert the labels in Illustrator for the silkscreener. We would do a run approximately every other month. Costs would be less if we order more, so we can use this group to all work together to make many more modules for our money. I estimate the cost to be half that of FPE. I'll keep the group updated, of course, and any comments are welcome. Cheers, Scott