- Joined
- Mar 5, 2002
- Location
- Bellevue, WA
I'm working on the preliminary stages of designing my own case, and ultimately I am thinking of making the case out of a translucent black plastic.
The idea I am working with is using a plastic just translucent enough to let some light through, but not enough to actually see anything through. Then the interior of the case would be lit with cold cathodes or EL. So, without being able to see through the plastic, the result would be that the case would appear to glow a bit, but not enough to be a major distraction. When the computer is off, the case would just look like boring black plastic.
The problem is that I have a strong dislike of sharp, angular edges, want to fabricate the case to be a rounded box with no sharp edges, which just complicates the project. The way I am designing the case, it will pretty much be a box with all edges and corners rounded to a two inch radius. If I just had to worry about edges, it would be relatively easy to get a 4" pipe to use as the main part of a frame to bend the plastic on, but the corners are going to be the hardest part.
Does anyone know where I can have plastics shaped or manufactured to specification?
The idea I am working with is using a plastic just translucent enough to let some light through, but not enough to actually see anything through. Then the interior of the case would be lit with cold cathodes or EL. So, without being able to see through the plastic, the result would be that the case would appear to glow a bit, but not enough to be a major distraction. When the computer is off, the case would just look like boring black plastic.
The problem is that I have a strong dislike of sharp, angular edges, want to fabricate the case to be a rounded box with no sharp edges, which just complicates the project. The way I am designing the case, it will pretty much be a box with all edges and corners rounded to a two inch radius. If I just had to worry about edges, it would be relatively easy to get a 4" pipe to use as the main part of a frame to bend the plastic on, but the corners are going to be the hardest part.
Does anyone know where I can have plastics shaped or manufactured to specification?