Laser-Cut Front Panels in Brushed Stainless Steel

[Dr. Ram]

I have just launched an experimental pooled front-panel service in brushed 304 stainless steel, fabricated with precision laser-cutting technology at a price you never thought possible. Summary here, more on my website www.audesine.com. Questions and feedback welcome - send me email at rr atSPAM audesine dotDONTSPAMcom.

How it Works

We work with a laser cutting shop in Bangalore, just a few miles from where we are, that has a certain minimum order value. We accumulate your front panel drawings into a single sheet till we are able to meet that minimum order value. The sheet is then sent for fabrication; the turnaround time is typically a few days.

These are panels without legend/lettering. All you need to do is to stick on a transparent waterslide decal or use a toner transfer method to create the legend/lettering.

Standard Specifications

* Material: Brushed stainless steel 304, 1.6mm/0.063 inches thick (which has the same stiffness as 2.5mm aluminum)
* Fabrication method: high-precision laser cutting
* Panel shape: Any! Billing is based on bounding rectangle
* Shape of internal cutouts: Any!
* Front panel sizes: upto 5x8.4 inches (half of a 3U/84T panel); contact us for larger sizes

Pricing
For now, the pricing is as follows. If there is reasonable demand I can probably maintain this pricing. Note that the pricing includes any number of holes or cutouts.

* Setup fee: No setup fee!
* US$ 0.75 per square inch upto 10 square inches; US$ 0.5 per square inch thereafter
* Minimum quantity: One
* Shipping: worldwide for US$ 10 by registered airmail (trackable, about 10 business days to most places). Speedier options available

Pricing Examples

* 2x5 inches (10 sq inches): US$ 7.50 + shipping
* 3Ux24HP (25 sq inches): US$ 15 + shipping

Cheers - Ram

[qusp]

right, youve got me interested, I do wish you were able to do aluminum, but i'll grab a couple of these to try out; give ve a week or 2 to get the files together. what files can you accept?

[Pano]

Good question. What file types - how do we get the info to you?

[Dr. Ram]

Originally Posted by qusp

right, youve got me interested, I do wish you were able to do aluminum, but i'll grab a couple of these to try out; give ve a week or 2 to get the files together. what files can you accept?

Hey, qusp and Pano - wishes are horses. The laser cutting shop I use does do aluminum. The only reason I did not explicitly state that was (i) because I would have to supply you with unfinished aluminum panels, since I do not have an anodizing setup of my own and I do not have a good enough source for 1-off anodizing orders, and (ii) I cannot guarantee the specific grade (hardness, purity etc) of Al you will get. If you want unfinished Al panels on which you will do an overlay so you are not bothered about anodizing or grade, that is very much possible, and in thicknesses of upto and over 5mm. Let me know.

File types are now mentioned on the Web page - .dwg and .dxf (AutoCAD). But the great thing is that you do NOT need AutoCAD to draw in these formats. What I have been using for a few years is a great package called ProgeCAD, the free version of which, "ProgeCAD Smart", is free for personal use. It does an absolutely great job of handling a plethora of file formats including .dwg and .dxf.

If your panels just have round/rectangular holes, and you can give me even a hand-drawn scrawl (with measurements clearly specified), I'll get it done in .dwg for a few $$.

Just follow the instructions on the page you saw to submit the files - email them with the correct subject line to info at audesineNOSPAM dot com so I can sort through my email easier.

Thanks for the interest - Ram

[SY]

ProgeCAD looks really cool (I can't afford AutoCAD), but... won't work on Windows 7.

[qusp]

Originally Posted by Dr. Ram

Hey, qusp and Pano - wishes are horses. The laser cutting shop I use does do aluminum. The only reason I did not explicitly state that was (i) because I would have to supply you with unfinished aluminum panels, since I do not have an anodizing setup of my own and I do not have a good enough source for 1-off anodizing orders, and (ii) I cannot guarantee the specific grade (hardness, purity etc) of Al you will get. If you want unfinished Al panels on which you will do an overlay so you are not bothered about anodizing or grade, that is very much possible, and in thicknesses of upto and over 5mm. Let me know.

File types are now mentioned on the Web page - .dwg and .dxf (AutoCAD). But the great thing is that you do NOT need AutoCAD to draw in these formats. What I have been using for a few years is a great package called ProgeCAD, the free version of which, "ProgeCAD Smart", is free for personal use. It does an absolutely great job of handling a plethora of file formats including .dwg and .dxf.

If your panels just have round/rectangular holes, and you can give me even a hand-drawn scrawl (with measurements clearly specified), I'll get it done in .dwg for a few $$.

Just follow the instructions on the page you saw to submit the files - email them with the correct subject line to info at audesineNOSPAM dot com so I can sort through my email easier.

Thanks for the interest - Ram

thanks for the info, all set up with a new computer now, will see how i go knocking it up in maya, but actually adobe illustrator will output dxf and i would just need to supply you with 2 files, front and rear panel plus bevel information if possible. do you have cnc mill? we'll get it done, need to decide whether to go with stainless fully finished, or al and get it labelled and anodised here.

[Dr. Ram]

Originally Posted by qusp

thanks for the info, all set up with a new computer now, will see how i go knocking it up in maya, but actually adobe illustrator will output dxf and i would just need to supply you with 2 files, front and rear panel plus bevel information if possible. do you have cnc mill? we'll get it done, need to decide whether to go with stainless fully finished, or al and get it labelled and anodised here.

Laser cutting is simplistic compared to cnc milling (which I do not have but plan to identify a good low-volume source sometime). Only straight-through vertical cuts are possible - no blind holes, bevels etc.

[qusp]

ok no problem, i'll still get a couple of things, but will still need to get a couple other jobs done elsewhere, as they at the very least need milling in the inside of the panel to accommodate the thickness of the panel

[cyclecamper]

Some of my commercial amps have an ugly extremely industrial black-painted slotted air-intake front panel. Sure would look a lot better in stainless! All the same model, and nothing tricky to fit as it's just the air-intake cover. But I wish the metal was a bit thicker, unless I just make a face cover over the existing panel. Price is definitely right!

[MagnumOpus]

Very interesting. I might want a frontpanel for my GX283 Galaxxy Maggiorato, aswell as a backpanel, in natural aluminium.

What would it cost me?