ErgoDox case design for CNC machining

[czarek]

I used Lister's acrylic plate design and converted it to be 2 piece CNC machined case. Bottom case will start at the switch plate and continue to the desk, it will have cutouts for Teensy and pocket for PCB like in Lister's design.
Top case will only have pockets for Teensy and connectors and cutout for the keys.
Here's screenshot from CamBam. I'm going to cut it on Saturday since I'm busy with work over the week.
For now I'm going to use some wood or MDF but the goal is to have it cut out of Aluminium and anodised.
The other option is powder painting. In this case 2 pieces screwed or bolted together will appear like one piece.
Honestly this keyboard in decent case, either anodised or painted red will look like sex

I'm attaching CamBam files. You can download trial version of it (limited to 40 uses) for free to view them.

[daerid]

So is the switch plate part of the top or bottom piece?

[Findecanor]

Are you not going to fix the issue with the stabilisers for the innermost thumbkey? I can see that you have not done that in the image above.
Also, let me suggest that you modify the thickness of the plate to 1.5 mm, with 3.5 mm space to the PCB so that switches and stabiliser mounts can be snapped to the plate instead of crammed into their holes.

[kurplop]

Since the 2 piece design will give strength to the inherent weakness of the open #2 #3 and #4 plates, have you considered milling out more of those layers to lighten the total weight of the case. Also it might be a good time to design a keying feature, to align the two halves.

[Findecanor]

Whether you would want to mill away more material to loose weight, is 1) a question of cost, as with CNC-milling, the longer it takes, the more it costs, and 2) a question of preference. Some like their keyboards to be portable, others want them to be heavy so that they stay put on the desk and don't rattle.

By the way, Dox had made a two-piece case design intended for 3D-printing. It is available in a few variants on the official site. That design has a smaller border, utilizes the screw holes in the PCB, has keys for alignment and has space cut out to minimize material. A few ideas could probably be borrowed from that one.

[Tarzan]

Whether you would want to mill away more material to loose weight, is 1) a question of cost, as with CNC-milling, the longer it takes, the more it costs, and 2) a question of preference. Some like their keyboards to be portable, others want them to be heavy so that they stay put on the desk and don't rattle.

<snip>

Yep, that'd be me.  Heavier the better.   

[czarek]

If any of you are interested in progress, you can track it here: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=47408.0