PLAN B analog blog

All,

I've been spending a lot of time lately hammering out details on the
case and it's becoming clear we may be heading for a deadline crnch that I'm not willing to compromise for.

Making a case is serious business.  There are structural issues,
electrical issues and even safety issues to consider.  I don't want to
rush this for the sake of having it shown and there's no use in
showing a prop that's not at it's finished design yet.  

Here's the deal: I'm investigating alternate ways of closing up the
back.  The no-brainer solution is three metal boxes (Buchla calls them
boats) and screwing them into the side plates.  Easy, but
unnecessarily expensive and lacking ingenuity. What I'm thinking
instead is using a curved sheet of black plexi - 1/8 inch - which
would wrap around the back and fit into two channels inside the side
plates which would be held in place by metal struts and high-tech
epoxy into the grooves of the wooden sides.  There are some amazing
adhesives out there.  In the 70s through to the 80s a French bicycle
company called Vitus made an aluminum racing frame which used an
adhesive to glue the tubing together.  (blog member Norman Fay could
embellish on this process)

http://schutt.org/velo/photo/20050618-092956-vga.jpg

Given that my side plates are going to be laser cut there's no problem
in having groves put into them to fit the plexi. 

OK, cool.  This saves you all from having to pay for three metal boxes
which serve no real electrical purpose, having them finished, having
them anodized. But there's engineering to deal with - making sure the
grooves are exactly as long as they need be, making sure this idea is
structurally viable, etc. 

Long story short - I'm meeting with an ME (Mechanical Engineer) next
week to discuss this idea.  If we can come to a solution quickly, then
I will be showing the case.  If not, I'm not!

If we nmiss it, know that it's on the table now.  It won't be long.

- P