Edit 3:
Okay well I took measurements (in millimeters), downloaded an educational version of AutoCAD, struggled for a bit to figure out how it works, then came up with dimensions for the front face so far.
I forgot to add the LED holes, will do that later.
Here's the AutoCAD file if anyone wants it. Basically a key has a width of 18mm and the space between keys is 1mm. I might go over the casing dimensions between clusters and from clusters to the edge of the case again as I'm going to borrow a set of calipers from my friend. These were done using just a ruler.
http://www.mediafire.com/?88ky2a0njbcdtt6 [ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 36289[/ATTACH]
I have to take care of the 3D aspects of it next. Have to learn how to use AutoCAD a bit more before I tackle that.
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Edit2: I have exams until December 16th, so I won't start working on it till after that.
Edit: Just bought a Filco TKL second hand from the classifieds here because I like brown more than blue so will probably be doing a case for that instead. Waiting for it to arrive in the mail then I'll take some measurements and try to get as many as I can made, which will probably be at most 10. The price will probably be about $30-50 for the case itself and I'll be paying for them all myself and worrying about selling them after, so you won't have to prepay or anything. If and when I do get them, I'll be giving priority to the people that replied first.
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So I recently found out that my friend's dad owns a metalworking company and I asked him if he would be able to make a metal case for my Leopold TKL and we're currently exploring that option. At first I was just going to get one for myself, but then thought that other people here might be interested as well. I wanted to see if I could design something that worked with TKL Leopolds, Filcos and anything else of similar dimension.
I was just going to do the top part of the two part case, because the bottom part has all the cable routing channels and would be considerably harder to manufacture. Also, since you generally don't look at the bottom it's not such a big deal. The next thought that came to mind then was how to attach the metal top to the original bottom, as I'm not sure if replicating the little plastic snap in system that the original Leopold case uses is feasible because the metal likely wouldn't be flexible enough to insert and remove in such a system. I was also wondering if other keyboards use something else.
In any case, if somebody with a TKL keyboard other than a Filco is interested, could you take some
precise measurements of your casing (preferably in millimeters)? Things I would need are the size and position of each of the key area cut-outs (esc key area, each of the F* key areas, insert/delete/etc area, and so on), the distance from these areas to the edge of the casing, where any holes for the USB cable would need to be cut and some information/measurements regarding how the top part of the case attaches to the bottom.
Hopefully the cases between the different brands are similar enough that it would need little to no changes between them. If somebody has a good idea about how to attach the metal top to the original bottom I'd be glad to hear it. I'm not sure about how much something like this costs or when we're going to actually get it done, but I was just trying to see if other people were interested so that I can make a more adaptable design rather than just making one for a TKL Leopold.