Wood/Steel TKL Case Question

[pesky brat]

Hey everyone!

I recently saw this TKL case...



...and I absolutely love it. I'm hoping to possibly recreate one for myself.

My question is, does anyone know what that middle steel plate might look like? Or if anyone knows the person who made this, would you be able to put me in contact with them?

I got the picture from here: http://www.keyboardco.com/blog/index.php/2014/10/11-custom-filco-entries-from-the-pimp-your-filco-contest/

Thanks!

[Leslieann]

That case is gorgeous!

The center strip is said to be stainless, but being that thick, it could be done with aluminum, brass could look cool for a more steampunk look as well. As for the plate itself, it's likely 1/4in (or metric equivalent) milled out from the underside, if you have seen the underside of a Vortex Filco case (look above the arrow keys)you will see what I'm referring to. A chunk of stainless milled like that, will probably not be cheap, and regardless of stainless or aluminum, I would leave some internal ribbing for strength.

As for the wood, you won't get that look with Oak, much less Pine, that's Teak wood. Walnut could also give you that sort of appearance. Burlwood would also be cool to use if you want a rich look. The key word here is rich, none of those woods are cheap to acquire. That's $150-$250 worth of wood you're looking at if done in Teak.

If you do it yourself, you could go cheap and do the case for $100, but to really do this right you could easily break $1000.

[pesky brat]

So you think the steel looks more or less identical to the top piece?

I guess in that case the bottom would have to have standoffs like a standard TKL case right? (see below)



I wasn't planning on using teak, probably something more affordable and lighter. I was thinking maple but I'm not sure yet.

Do you really think this could run up to $1000? That seems a little bit ridiculous to me. I was thinking maybe $100 for the wood and $100 for the metal max, but then again I'm certainly no expert.

[Steezus]

The case looks similar to The Cheat, I really like it too. I'm not sure about the price but it should cost a pretty penny, not sure about how expensive shops are in Canada but in the States they ask for an arm and a leg. Wood will definitely lower the cost a lot, one thing I fear is mixing wood and steel and is that you may end up with a gap between them. It will be hard to get a perfectly flat piece of wood and steel to line up, yuktsi had some problems with the gap when making the TGR-Jane case which was full aluminum.

Here's a pic of the gap on the TGR-Jane to help better understand what I'm trying to say haha


It's not really that severe but definitely best if you can avoid that problem.

[Leslieann]

So you think the steel looks more or less identical to the top piece?

Depends on how you build it and the materials.
I was assuming that the stainless was also used as the plate holding the switches and using Teak, hence the price.

You are talking about putting a universal plate inside and using the wood and metal strictly a housing (in which case the metal would just be a ring around the outside). That's certainly cheaper and easier but will not give quite the same feel. If you used a soft aluminum, you could actually mill the whole thing at home with a router then make some standoffs. From the outside it would look no different, but typing feel would be.

In any case, either make sure that wood is well sealed from oils in your hands, or is at the very least an outdoor wood that deals with moisture well. This was probably one reason Teak was used, Pine will turn black quickly if not protected.


As for wood being cheaper than metal, that depends entirely on the wood, some wood can really get up there in price and make a lot of metals look downright cheap.