Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!news-1.dfn.de!news.dfn.de!news.informatik.hu-berlin.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Joerg Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design,comp.arch.embedded Subject: Re: Cutting panels Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 09:20:02 -0700 Organization: Consultant Lines: 52 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: news@analogconsultants.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net kGVHuD5lEn5KxJgGQaySOAwVB4+hioBnqqdmlW8qCUrus3O+l5 Cancel-Lock: sha1:YxrDKq5yHZG9Wmnbeut74w4+ld4= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070728 Thunderbird/2.0.0.6 Mnenhy/0.7.6.666 In-Reply-To: Xref: csiph.com comp.arch.embedded:12634 Don Y wrote: > Hi Peter, > > On 7/21/2013 4:57 PM, Peter Bennett wrote: > >> Try Front Panel Express (http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/) > > I *crudely* threw together a minimalist panel design just > to get an idea as to what their pricing was likely to be. > I.e., I just set out to reproduce the existing panel -- trimmed > down to 3x12 instead of 4x(12+12). Recall I will need two > that are that size... > > This results in a panel 5.25 x 10.5 x 0.125. I chose black > anodized aluminum as it seemed to be close to the cheapest > option ("natural" would require painting) > > The panel with three 7.5 x 0.625 slots was $43. > > Adding the 72 countersunk holes that allow the PCB's > located behind the panel to be attached to the panel > increased this to $72. > > Adding 6 countersunk mounting holes to mount the panel > to increased this to $96 (OK, maybe I could > omit two of those holes... perhaps this saves $5-10?). > > Lettering the 36 connector positions with simple numeric > designators (i.e., 1-36) brings the price up to $118. > > [Perhaps there are cheaper options that I didn't explore?] > > Repeat for the second set of 36 means we're in the $230+ > ballpark. For essentially a blank sheet of aluminum with > a few holes in it (surely no descriptive legend... that > would have to be written on a sheet of paper taped to the > wall by the panel? :> ) > > I can't imagine many folks going this route. Esp when you see > how many PC's have replaced/added optical drives that don't > bother to "match" the original color scheme of the machine! :> > For a professional-looking panel that ain't bad at all. Just think about what your own time is worth per hour, and then you still need to buy the stock somewhere. Which probably means another hour just for the drive into town, plus 2-3 gallons of gas at $4 a pop. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/