Custom laser cut case windows

[Sotacs]

What if there was a company that created custom cut case windows utilizing lasers?
What if the acrylic windows were laser cut as well to fit precisely into the case windows so that the windows would fit flush to the outside of the case and there were no unsightly brads or fasteners holding the acrylic in place?
What if you could get custom fan guards cut right into the sides and top of the case as well?
What if you had hundreds of choices?

Does the idea of being able to get custom laser cut case windows and fan guards appeal to you?
If it does, what would your ultimate window shape be?

 

[neubspeed]

Dude, if you seriously do this and aren't joking, my P180 really needs a window and I'm just not good enough with tools to do it myself. PM with a quote if you're not joking.

And I would probably want 90% of the door acrylic but with a quake 4 logo in the metal colour on top of it.

 

[penguin]

Umm... there *are* companies who do all that stuff, if you ask
Thing is, how would you fasten the acrylic into the window and keep it flush?

 

[Bio-Hazard]

Water Jet cutting does the same thing, I don't know which is the cheaper though...........

 

[PhoenixKokido]

Considering a cheap waterjet machine is $80,000 and a cheap laster cutter is $10,000 I would say the laster cutting is probably cheaper.

 

[Sotacs]

Let me clarify something here, this is more of an information gathering or feasibility study if you like.
In order to convince investors to drop the half million plus on such an endeavor, they would like to know that there is an interest in such a thing.

The pictures posted are of the prototype. The windows and fan guards are real and were cut by laser.
There would be hundreds of choices for windows and fan guards. Several initial colors of Plexiglas would help round out the choices.

We considered water jet cutting as well, but believe the laser to be more cost effective overall.
Also $20,000 will buy you a 20 to 30 Watt laser. To cut steal and aluminum effectively requires about 2,000 watts. This machine will cost considerably more.

We also believe that we can offer this service at a reasonable cost, making it affordable to most anyone.

Here are a couple more pics to wet your appetite. The first is of the top window with a fireball chimney fan,

and the second is the mirrored windowed right hand side.

 

[GoFastNova]

im sorry because i dont know how the specific machine works, but if you are controlling the machine with software like Corel Draw 12, or if there is a way to import a common file type such a .eps file, so people could send their own art work, that would help, but people would take advantage of your equipment either way!

 

[Bio-Hazard]

I guess it all depends on the finial price of cutting. The place I get my water jet cutting done is pretty cheap IMHO and they do it while I wait most of the time (inbetween aircraft parts). .......

 

[Sotacs]

im sorry because i dont know how the specific machine works, but if you are controlling the machine with software like Corel Draw 12, or if there is a way to import a common file type such a .eps file, so people could send their own art work, that would help, but people would take advantage of your equipment either way!

The low powered lasers, the kind used to cut and engrave acrylic are printed to the same way you print to a laser printer. The only difference is you tell it what colored line is for cutting.

The higher end lasers use CNG or G code. A CAD drawing has to be encoded into this code one line at a time. Each line, arc, circle etc is defined by this code. The Wizard and dragon cutting shown here was literally hundreds of thousands of lines of CNC code. It will have to be completely redone from scratch if we decide to offer it.

So if a customer wants their own artwork cut into the case, then it will have to be turned into a vector format like AutoCAD DXF. Unfortunately Raster to Vector programs do not do a real good job of creating clean drawings, (hence the 400,000 lines of code in this window). So it would either have to be drawn cleanly in a CAD program to start with, or re-rendered, at a cost, by us. This would definitely increase to cost of production for that particular piece.

The up side is that we may waive the cost of rendering on original artwork for the rights to offer it to other customers. This would be at our discretion of course.

 

[Moose777]

That first one with the dragon is friggin' awesome. I'd be down with this.

 

[shadowwyvern]

If the customers could submit their own CAD drawings (I am sure that many serious case modders are skilled in cuch programs or at the very least have acsess to them) in the appropiate fromat you described above for a nominal aditional price (for the time it takes to convert the CAD file into something readbale by your mill), I think you would have a wide market. Perhpas some things to consider:
>See if it would be possible to oder just side panels from major case manufactuers. These should not be too expensive, and having penal on hand would greatly reduce turnaround time for an order, something that might be very appealing to your market, given that you may be competing with local companies that will do custom work on the spot.
>Offer a complete service. Perhpas offer thing like custom paint jobs, window etching, ect.
>Assuming the equipment is the same, offer custom plexi/acrylic/lexan (I still can't get their attributes straight ) cutting as well.

 

[GoFastNova]

the reason i used the corel example is because i use a low power laser at work that is used exactly as you described, and i can see how difficult it would be for you to do custom artwork.

The big issue here is money, just like always, i think this job is so laser intensive that it will cost a good bit of money, which will turn away many people. i think a few people would take advantage of it, and LOVE it. but i feel that segment is small, and will not make your investors happy. if you can market this machine to many niche's outside of computer modding, i think the collective niches would pay for the machine and make you and your investors money.

 

[Top Nurse]

I would be willing to be one of your first customers. I need a very complex cut made on my case panel and also want the plexi (two different colors) to fit flush to the case side if you can really do this. Had been getting quotes on having the plexi machined on a CNC mill so how about PM me with where I can have this done when you are setup to start lasering.

 

[Sotacs]

If the customers could submit their own CAD drawings (I am sure that many serious case modders are skilled in cuch programs or at the very least have acsess to them) in the appropiate fromat you described above for a nominal aditional price (for the time it takes to convert the CAD file into something readbale by your mill), I think you would have a wide market. Perhpas some things to consider:
>See if it would be possible to oder just side panels from major case manufactuers. These should not be too expensive, and having penal on hand would greatly reduce turnaround time for an order, something that might be very appealing to your market, given that you may be competing with local companies that will do custom work on the spot.
>Offer a complete service. Perhpas offer thing like custom paint jobs, window etching, ect.
>Assuming the equipment is the same, offer custom plexi/acrylic/lexan (I still can't get their attributes straight ) cutting as well.

You are right there, the wider we can make our market, the better chance we have of succeeding. Adding panel sides to our inventory is a good idea also. We have been kicking that idea around. We also intend to offer a large selection of cases, from inexpensive to top of the line. Since we don’t intend to mark up and make a profit from the cases, this will help reduce the overall cost. A huge percentage of the startup cost is wrapped up in this inventory.
We have considered paint jobs, but probably will not offer this initially. Window etching is a definite consideration. Imagine a wicked dragon window with all the details etched into the acrylic. Now how cool would something like that be?
The great thing is that because of the use of lasers, we can precisely cut and match the Plexiglas to the case window. We have already worked out the attachment details so having the Plexiglas flush with the outside of the case will just be so much more superior to the unsightly way sheets of acrylic are being mounted behind the cutouts with brads and rivets today.

 

[Sotacs]

the reason i used the corel example is because i use a low power laser at work that is used exactly as you described, and i can see how difficult it would be for you to do custom artwork.

The big issue here is money, just like always, i think this job is so laser intensive that it will cost a good bit of money, which will turn away many people. i think a few people would take advantage of it, and LOVE it. but i feel that segment is small, and will not make your investors happy. if you can market this machine to many niche's outside of computer modding, i think the collective niches would pay for the machine and make you and your investors money.

Utilizing the lower powered lasers to precisely cut the acrylic to fit the case windows will not be time intensive and has been calculated into the cost of the window process. Yet etching pictures, whether 2D or 3D does take a bit more time, as I am sure you are aware, and of course would cost more. However, that being said, the intent is to offer as much diversity in product and cost as possible and to appeal to the largest market segment as possible. To make this work, we will have to offer from the simple to the ornate, from the inexpensive to the top of the line, and everything in between.

 

[.Euphoria]

I would be interested in something like that but I am broke at the moment.If its not too expensive,I would seriously consider it.Anyhow,I think its a good idea and something an euthasist would like and appreciate.

 

[Kingpin]

you are aware that there are companies that provied the exact service you are looking into, Im not talking about about laser etch sites but the ones that cut metal

 

[Top Nurse]

you are aware that there are companies that provied the exact service you are looking into, Im not talking about about laser etch sites but the ones that cut metal

And machining the exact cuts into acrylic so it fits flush with the case panel? Where?

 

[Kingpin]

And machining the exact cuts into acrylic so it fits flush with the case panel? Where?

maybe they wont do that but to invest the kind of money being talked about I dont believe there is enough people interested for that kind of venture. Your looking at 10s of thousands of sales for it to be worth the price. To invest in that kind of machine your looking at a min of $100K, then you have cost of material, then you have to have the price at a high range of $50. Most people wont spend more then that and I bet you would still get a few complaints at that price. Sure some people will spend close to $100 but not many. I have talked to the guy at Custom water cut (I think he is a member here) and I know he does that as a side gig. He wouldnt be able to do it only for modding, just because there isnt enough biz, he has outside modding work to keep the biz going. Dont forget that if people have to send in thier side panel, then you are looking at atleast some mistakes from time to time and if the customer isnt happy, they can spoil a lot of business for others that have doubts. Just a few mistakes can go along way at hurting a company thats based on word of mouth business. Im just playing devils advocate here, I can promise it will be a very risky venture.

 

[penguin]

And machining the exact cuts into acrylic so it fits flush with the case panel? Where?

CustomWaterCuts can sandwich the two (The acrylic and the case panel) togethor and cut them, thus having the exact same cut on both, and then your acrylic will fit into the cutout flush.

 

[Bio-Hazard]

The small local place I go to here does the same thing if you ask for it.................. They will even take any drawing, pic or whatever you have and import it into their program for cutting at no charge...............

 

[Mickey21]

Maybe it's just the artwork, but I dont really think the sample designs are that great looking at all. But on topic, I think for a very specific job I would consider the service, but for the most part anyone who is going to stick something like this on their system would want to have a whole computer to match the uniqueness... I just dont think there are enough people interested in the principle to justify basing an entire business on this ability. It sounds great, but in reality I dont think it will prove practical to maintain with just modding as mentioned. Enough people will not pay that much, much less enough people wanting to make their computer that unique. Too many people are satisifed with basic modding and will not dive that far into it.

On the other hand, people like myself will more likely desire to complete the mod under their own capabilities. I want the mod to be my own with minimal impact from others on contributions. Something this complex would take some artistry away from the design of the mod. Modders like me would not be inclined to pay for this service or instead learn to do it themselves by other means. I would make sure you diversify the idea to other niches as mentioned to recoupe the costs of the business. Body shops dont tend to make their bread and butter on far out paint designs, they also have to paint a dented toyota fender here and there to make the bills for example...

If you do it, good luck.