Need your opinions on case design

[Chemoletter]

hi folks!

i'd really appreciate your opinions on my case design because i'm not sure yet how to do it and some of you are experienced with caseproduction.

infos:

* hardware: phantom pcb - ISO1.25 german layout - MX blue switches ( in the 3d model it is ANSI cause i didn't want to bother modeling, so i took a pre-made one )

* material for the case and final finish: high density fibre board ( took the translation directly from LEO.org so don't know if correct. in german it is "HDF" - hochdichte faserplatte ) basically a very sturdy, dense piece of pressed wooden fibres, easy to glue and to laser and pleasantly heavy. Boards are 3mm thick (0.118inch) and glued together in 7 layers, so we'd have a thickness of 2,1cm (0,826inches) for the parts ( see pics below ). it'll be treated with stain to lose its saturation in color and finished with a clear matte enamel/varnish for protection.

* intention for the case:

- cheaper than a badass aluminium design
- heavy (this HDF stuff is quite heavy) [ Specified attachment is not available ] [ Specified attachment is not available ] [ Specified attachment is not available ] [ Specified attachment is not available ] [ Specified attachment is not available ] [ Specified attachment is not available ]
- clean lasered finish
- ability to remove the pcb/switch stuff easily on the fly
- pcb will be placed tightly into/onto the case and will sit (hopefully) motionless and angled inside it.

question: do you think i need to make a cover plate on top? i'd want to remove it quickly if i needed to, so glue is not a possibility here.
question: which design do you like most?

thank you very much for your opinions and your input on this one. more pictures will follow.

[Chemoletter]

more pics:

[Chemoletter]

more:

[Chemoletter]

and the last ones

[ideus]

You may consider an option for negative angle. It has been found that it causes less stress in the wrists, thus, less exposure to carpal tunnel syndrom, and similar injuries to typists. Your cases would be one of the few providing an option for that. I am afraid very few of us are aware, or interested in this. However, you may be surprised of the different feeling when using the keyboard, at a negative angle.

[Chemoletter]

thanks for your reply! you're suggesting that i put the keyboard angled the other way around with the f-buttons on the lowest point and the spacebar on the highest point, did i get that right? interesting in deed! i may consider that.

[ideus]

That is right. Please check this thread about the subject.

[metalliqaz]

I would really, really love to see this made.   I've been looking for something like that for a long time.

[Chemoletter]

thanks for the input. i've decided to go with the classic positive angle because i am used to it. but i've lowered the angle to be quite subtle. i also decided to make cutouts for the feet on both sides so that they go nice and symmetrically into the body of the case. further i have carved in two areas for rubber to make it anti-slippy. the last pic shows my method of how ( i think ) it holds the board best without compromising the ability to remove everythig in two seconds if needed. basically we're talking about an offset of 1mm on each side of the wood. best thing is that this will be nicely heavy and will have a rough, natural look after staining.

[metalliqaz]

Have you thought about using corrugated cardboard instead of HDF?  It would be a really cheap (and easy) prototype.  That's where my interest comes in.  Something I could modify and make at home for my projects.

You can probably get all kinds of corrugated cardboard stock, but I'm not familiar with that material so I'm not sure about thicknesses.  I'm thinking that 3mm would be too thin.

[Neebio]

I was going to post a reply to this with regards to the negative angle idea, but I wasn't in a place where I could upload a picture of my thoughts.

I believe you've inadvertently allowed for negative angle typing, in pretty much the exact way I was going to suggest.  Since you've notched the front and back of the keyboard (for symmetry) where the feet attach to the board, you should be able to turn the feet around and put them in the notches backwards, effectively giving you a negative angle keyboard.  You may have to play a tiny bit with how the feet are designed to make it really look nice when at a negative angle, but it looks as though it may just work out of the box as it is.

[Chemoletter]

OMG your're right!!!! never saw this. i'll just not glue the feet into the body and could swap their positions. you're a genius! 

[Findecanor]

That case design looks incredibly thick...

[Chemoletter]

it really does but i've taken the heights from my CMstorm quickfire tk which is very comfortable for me. thank you guys so much for your opinions, it helps deciding. going to laser tomorrow and post the progress soon.