CyberDeck2022
Heres a quick story about how I went from the sketch above to the final product below. A wild and twisting tale of curse words, failed prints, terrible design choices, poorly installed threaded nuts, stripped M3 bolts, and wasted time. Im proud of the end result and picked up many useful tricks along the way.
It started with the sketch above. I just wanted a simple enclosure for my odroidC2 and lcd screen that included a battery mount and handle. I had never designed a handle for anything before, which is probably why it looks so weird. My initial idea was to use the circular part as a thumb hole, which would allow you to wear the device along your forearm.
At this point I took a 30 day break from the project to work on other things. I made sure to put the CyberDeck in a place where I would have to see it everyday too. Nothing worse than forgetting about a project because it isnt staring at you everyday!
I shopped around during my time off from this project for a folding BT keyboard. I found one on amazon for less than 30dollars.
As soon as the keyboard was delivered I went from the sketch above to the design work…
The first time I folded it up felt amazing. No better feeling that making huge strides on a project! I wasnt done yet though… The handle was terrible and uncomfortable. I took a two week break from the project then hit the sketchbook hard one morning to come up with the following design…
The intent with the design was to produce a soft and squishy handle using a silicone over mold process. At first I wanted contours and texturing on the handle, but later settled for simple ridges instead. This was my first time using FDM to create molds for silicone work. I was amazed by the results!
Always wear gloves and eyepro when messing with mica powder and silicone. Its nasty stuff!
When I checked the mold the morning after the pour it felt very sticky! I was worried that there was some issue, but the stickiness came from the blue painters tape I was using. It appears the blue painters tape causes cure inhibition with platinum cure silicone. The overmold handle was fine and cured normally. Good to know for the future! The mold was difficult to pop apart, but the result above speaks for itself. It has a rough but squishy texture, exactly what I imagined!
GLAMOUR SHOTS!
Lessons learned:
- Collect all your parts first, before building the enclosure and peripheral hardware. I could have saved time if I would have had the keyboard from the beginning.
- Mock up the enclosure with cardboard first to limit failed or misconfigured prints.
- Consider using clay or foam to get the dimensions of handles in the future.
- Overmolding is an excellent way to make FDM prints more comfortable to hold.
- Think about how FDM layer lines can create interesting patterns and textures in silicone objects.
- Mica powder is not a good choice for making textured silicone objects sparkly, use glitter next time.
- Blue painters tape causes cure inhibition with platinum cure silicone.
