is ordering a 3d print from somewhere near me too expenive? im talking about 3d printed/ cut from polycard or something plate not metal thanks for advice on making it. il post the pics when ill start working on it.
i think the budget could go up to something around 250$
It's absolutely out of your range (but I have a suggestion at the end)
While 3d printing is cheap in terms of manufacturing, it's not cheap if you have to pay someone to do it for you, for several reasons. Laser/water doesn't care that much what you cut, the only cost difference is material and that's not enough.
For all manufacturing you need to pay for their time and service, wear and tear etc... It's not like you just press start and it happens, there is work involved in machine prep, file prep, deciding certain parameters. There is some skill involved. Easy to learn but it still takes time and mistakes happen and they'd like to get reimbursed for the machine. If they are doing outside work, they're doing it for money.
Some places schools, libraries and hacker or maker spaces will let you come in and use their laser or 3d printer for free but you still need to pay for materials (cheap), you also need to learn to use it and that takes time, and with others wanting to use it, it will take a while to get the necessary skills. Worse, there's no chance in heck that you get more than the smallest part of a keyboard (the plate) printed within the hours they're open. It can take a LOOONG time. I think my 65% base took 20 hours and that was on a commercial grade, high speed printer, it would have taken closer to 48 hours on a normal 3d printer and being a fire hazard most will not let it run overnight without supervision.
And then there's YOU, you have no CAD, no manufacturing and no 3d printing skills.
As I said, you don't just press a button and you have to learn what can and cannot be done on a 3d printer and how to get the best results. While it is a LOT better and more capable today, it's still not the same as 3d printing for CNC milling and it's not the same as just going out to your garage and start cutting wood or something by hand. 3d printers cannot do certain things, they need tolerances or clearance, overhangs sometimes need supports, and if you do make a mistake, and you will, there is no going back and cutting a second time like with wood, you have to go back, modify the design in cad and re-print the whole thing again. Sometimes you can fix a print but most of the time it means starting over.
It's also entirely possible to design your way into a corner.
You start adding holes for fasteners and realize later there's no way to reach them, for example you bolt the plate to the top with screw heads covered by the bottom, and also bolt the plate to the bottom with the screw heads covered by the top. Looks great and it works in CAD, it doesn't work when you try and screw them in with a screw driver and the screw head is covered. Ever work on a car and find changing a headlight means pulling the battery or removing a bumper (yes this is real), it's because the engineer designed it in CAD and had no reference as to the bumper or battery being in the way. Even someone experienced is going to need several iterations before they get it right. All manufacturing uses prototypes for this reason. It's super easy to forget a screw, design yourself into a corner, things don't fit quite right, limits of manufacturing etc all boil over. You can have 50 people check over the design and verify it's correct but still miss a screw hole. It happens.
All of this is to say the odds of you designing a keyboard and having it work the first time is literally ZERO.
So what to do...
If you can spend $250, buy a printer and print it yourself. I believe Ender has a $99 printer that is decent, not great, but usable and you can upgrade it later (often using it to make better parts). Buy that, some plastic and get to learning. Yes it will take time and you may eventually go over budget because you will be able to alter it as many times as you want, but you will end up with a much better keyboard in the end. Exactly as you want. You may get this built and find it's absolutely horrible and what you thought you wanted, isn't. Now you can just make a change, re-print it, re-use your parts and you're only out say $5. Don't like that one, try something else. When all it costs is time, a little plastic and some electricity you're free to experiment and make a lot more mistakes.
The bad news on this approach is it will take a little longer and during that time odds are you will go over budget because of revisions, learning etc, but it also means you don't need all of the money up front. Get the printer, a spare switch, some stabs, plastic and a controller and you're in business to get started. By the time you have a working design you'll have earned the rest of the money to buy your switches and caps.
Get good and make stuff for those around you and you can make enough or save enough by making gifts instead of buying them and that the printer will pay for itself in a short time. I've made tons of earrings and trinkets and things for people, saved me a bunch of money on gifts.
