with the build from this post we're approaching the end of
my stories regarding this relevant/popular topic, unless i stumble across something nicer one day by chance. i am thinking that the top lid of a narrow shoebox from cardboard or else would be nice and perfect as keyboard cover, @quake4mhg terrific idea thanks for sharing!!, however no shoebox has the length 44cm (4550) of filco 104. today i am presenting a follow-up on the foam build-my-own mkb cover DIY project, i am satisfied with the function but not with the size and looks.
Function over form 
pro's- perfectly covers all 5 faces, even with raised feet inclined boards
- very easy to clean, dust off
- very convenient to deploy, i prefer rigid covers to flexible ones
- per se clean and dust-free. all my pieces of cloths contain lint, dust or fluff, yours not?
- good inner fit as planned
- FREE or inexpensive material, low cost solution
- material won't oxidize, deteriorate, degrade, or become yellow under normal conditions
- material won't crack or chip after long-term handling/wear'n tear
con's- silly thick wall thickness leads to silly outer dimensions
- ugly color scheme, ugly colors, ugly cuts, ugly seams, ugly size, ugly diy looks, bähh!
- ridicules the maker, provokes head shaking, room visitors
appalled - can't be folded or stored away easily, what an effing waste of room space!
- dislikable workday storage
- will deform, decompose, or rot if stored away in the basement
- took lots of efforts, time, frustration, to get anywhere near the desired result
- while it is more or less drop impact resistant, it could still be easily destroyed/broken/damaged by accidental mishaps or careless handling
Summary/Rating. Out of 3 possible grades (Thumbsup, Thumbssideward, Thumbsdown) i am giving a Thumbssideward for the overall result and likability, i.e. a grade "C" or "C+" if it were a classroom art project in junior high. While the build turned out as planned, i had believed that i would like the end result better. Point is, even with perfect geometrical cuts and seams, i wouldn't like the end result any better; the ugly size, colors and mismatching materials would still appall the viewer. In life, in everyday life, function is not all that matters. If it were, i could simply put a Safeway plastic bag on the keyboard and be done with the topic. Lol. So here is the documentation for your entertainment purposes (sorry in advance if you feel that most photos are redundant):
The story continues 
...
...continuing, I had all the parts, hadn't i? In my original thinking, yes. However the purple foam was dense and had some weight to it and definitely needed stabilization to reduce the foam flexibility. Any cardboard quality would have done the trick, i went for the
dougle wall corrugated cardboard which i got for free from the local PC components retailer. I felt lucky having got a big empty box branded Logitech who coincidentally is a keyboard maker if not keyboard cover maker:
I tried my best cutting out a perfect rectangle matching the dimensions of the foam top face. That went well, so far so good:
Joining foam parts directly with glue is a true challenge, i did many tests and experiments and failed. Interestingly, foam can stick extraordinarily well to paper, cards, cardboard, using the same glue:
All righty then for the main plate:
Have you noticed that the cardboard plate is not all flat? Neither was the foam, argh. Both had some curve to it, both were convex, thus not cancelling out each other's curvature, too bad. I thought that compressing with heavy books during the drying phase of the glue would do the trick and flatten out both materials. Well, with the books on, the stuff looked flat all right:
Unexpectedly the trick didn't work and the plate came out convex nonetheless. Much later i learned that manual counter-bending would straighten the plate just fine. Are we done with the preparation of the 5 faces? From the inside, the 5 inner faces would look like this:
Looks legit, i'd say. However the 5 outer faces would look like that:
Not legit. At this point i realized that i had messed up, one error which i had done when cutting the 2nd lateral face omfg. You aren't realizing it, you can't see what i mean? Yeah, that's how/why i had done the error in the first place. You no smarter than me then lol. Moving on for now. The front and rear faces were too short. I decided to extend them to maximum length. The cutting of perfectly matching cutting profiles of the extensions wasn't too easy, the gluing itself was straight-forward:
Let's check basic dimensions, never mind the orientation of the black foam parts, hmmm:
With correct orientation:
I wanna see how tight the inner fitment will be. OIC minimal play, me likey:
But hey, before we proceed with the assembly of the 5 faces, why not use the top plate alone as dust cover? It's not the worst. Sunny-side up:
Quite awesome. Or maybe i like the other side better:
For the sake of this thread, i decided to not let it be but proceed with the assembly. With tacky glue it was surprisingly easy to make the foam parts stick to the cardboard. In hindsight i regret not having used exclusively right angles when "designing" (what a big word!
) ) the dust cover. I thought about the right order of assembly and started with the first black foam. I had cut the foam at some arbitrary inclined angle, guesswork. Naturally i had to re-use this angle when joining the parts, crossing fingers:
The second black foam should have been cut at the same angle. When gluing it to the top plate, i realized that things were gonna be off and me starting to become unhappy
:
I was wondering. Were the two black foam parts perpendicular to the table? For sure they were not too off parallel and perpendicularity seemed promising:
Then i flipped the semifinished dust cover and look what i got wtf
:
Yeah perpendicularity my ***!!
At this point i knew that the project was a lost cause. Yet i decided to march on and glue the first lateral face. The angles didn't match up, nor the height, check the corners which are to meet the desktop surface:
A closeup for you, ugliness abounds:
Also take note of the pattern on the lateral face. Once the dust cover were deployed, the alignment of the pattern would be, in fact, parallel to the desktop surface. Or on the photo, can you see how the (imaginary) lines are cutting into the cardboard? I would call that 'correct':
Now let's compare to the pattern on the second lateral face. The imaginary lines of the pattern are parallel to the cardboard profile wth:
The next fail is that the face profile does not project onto the first lateral face profile. WTF did i do or think when cutting the second lateral face
(that's a faceless smiley, i lost my face by now!!):
But when i flip it, the profile would project nicely,
aha :
I must have been on the john smokin when the teacher went over that geometry lesson in class, about projection and mirror symmetry. Now lesson learned, and too late to fix. Proceeding with gluing the second lateral face, it is the last part of the assembly. Note that all gluing surfaces must be plane; try to cut a thick piece of foam with a utility knife and you'll learn how plane you are able to cut a cutting surface, no diss intended:
How can you exert pressure on all 3 gluing surfaces at the same time and in particular when the materials involved are spongy, flexible, compressible? Difficult. And i couldn't manage. So during the drying phase i filled in another glue, cheap clear stuff:
Okay! I think we've got something here:
Without further ado let me share some photo now
. The left side has the correct pattern alignment :
View of the rear. I can't see the hole for the Bluetooth cable
:
The right side has a tilted pattern. Not correct. Also enough head space at the front:
Profile size comparison:
Panoramic view:
Bird's eye view:
The bottom line is:
While the project was a success in that i did not let my expenses go to waste and i completed the project with a working functional result, sturdier than expected, and also much easier to clean than expected (Have you ever tried to clean a foam construction?), i must admit that, if i could go back in time, i would not have paid money for the effing foam scraps and i would not have tried to build a dust cover made from different foam parts or from foam to start with. Life can be full of regrets and this shan't one of them. No, i won't toss the thing right away. I'll leave it intact somewhere in the house and maybe even use it temporarily as a reminder that i shouldn't *uck again with any of my future crafts. Spare time is limited and valuable, so we should try our best not to *uck during that time.
