Nintendo SuperBoy (SNESp) case design - comments? advice?

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:53 pm

Finally! I've been going nuts trying to create a case design that I would really like to attempt vacuum forming. I kept going in circles from portrait to landscape to portrait and back to landscape orientation again! I think I finally made up something that I like. It's nothing revolutionary; it's just that it's very visually appealing to me and the shape of it is just right (and 100% to scale!) Sorry if this page takes a while to load, I just want to share

First, some pics. I'm linking these first ones because they're full-size. (all designed using a free trial of Adobe Illustrator

):
lol 56K-ers...
Basic outline (the blue will be a raised section by 1/4" or 1/8")
Outline with cart and li-ion batteries (lol backwards cart)
Outline with the guts in it

Here are some pics that I took after making a quick print of my design to see how it feels and how it compares to the Stupendo:

Shoulder curve matches SNES controller pretty well, but I think I should make it just a little larger to match the SNES controller proportions better

Without the cart

And here's with the cart in.

*Couple of closing notes:
1)Going to round bottom corners a bit more and expand bottom out a bit more to fit shape of my hands better

2)I'm planning on making my mold out of wood. Turns out my uncle has a band saw and a good router so I'm in business!

3)I can't wait to vacuum form! Probably will be a few weeks before I get to, though. Dang...

4)This SNESp will be like the hot cousin of my first one. She looks pretty similar, but has better curves and a slimmer midsection

So - questions? Comments? Suggestions?

shmagoogin77 · Post by **shmagoogin77** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:10 pm

looks pretty sweet
cant wait to see it done

Post by **Triton** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:50 pm

pretty damn slick dude, better than my method which is as follows

1. come up with vaguely formed idea
2. start construction with whatever fits said idea that i have laying around
3. constantly dremel and adjust the design as you go along making sure stuff still fits. by this point there are half a dozen peices from as many seperate sources
4. get the shape and everything right and reinforce the structure as much as possible (hotglue can only hold so much) then begin bondo work
5. a dozen seperate small layers of bondo and sanding later begin painting
6. FIN

lol i consider a case more of a prototype, if i make a second with the same design the work is much more streamlined because i know how it all goes together and what to cut more what to cut less etc.

thats why my cases, when sold, tend to cost a decent ammount of money, very labor intensive lol

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:02 pm

You crack me up Triton. I totally understand that method though. I'd probably do the same aside from the fact that I can't do much until school is over in a couple of months and I can move back home where all my project stuff is. Until then, I daydream a lot.

Edit: Anyone want full size scans of SNES parts to play around with in photoshop, gimp, or illustrator? I've even very carefully cleaned them up so they're all ready to play around with. It helps to have full scale pics to play with when making a design. That way you don't have to worry about your design not being "to scale".

Rekarp · Post by **Rekarp** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:15 pm

Looks hot. (so does she have a sister or what

)

Yah school does bite. Up at college I don't have access to my shop or any of my tools so I just mess around in 3D space /sigh. If you could pm me those scans joedog I would be very happy as my scanner doesnt seem to like 3D surfaces (blurs out some stuff)

Post by **Triton** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:17 pm

sad thing is that IS my actual method, for example my controller for the bondo off consists of 8 seperate peices hotglued and bondo-ed together from 3 different sources and im on the third layer of bondo with probably at least 2 or 3 to go before paint and after one layer of paint possibly ONE more layer of bondo and sanding lol

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:57 pm

Rekarp wrote:Looks hot. (so does she have a sister or what )

Yah school does bite. Up at college I don't have access to my shop or any of my tools so I just mess around in 3D space /sigh. If you could pm me those scans joedog I would be very happy as my scanner doesnt seem to like 3D surfaces (blurs out some stuff)

PM'd

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 2:45 pm

Quick little update:

I fooled around with the design a bit more in Illustrator to get a shape that I think fits my hands more comfortably. It's a tad bit beefier now, but just by a little bit. I can't wait to make this baby!

Outline

And here's with the guts in it

I have everything on hand to make this, including a half-finished vacuum forming table, electric grill, and a few sheets of high-impact styrene plastic! Do you understand why I'm so frustrated that I don't have time to make this yet!?!

Edit: Lol open up the first design outline in my first post and the new outline in two different tabs and then switch between them real fast

That little change alone took me about an hour and a half to get just right. I've really enjoyed learning how to use paths on Illustrator but I still got a long way to go before I'm proficient. Alas, my trial of it ends in twelve days...

Rellizate · Post by **Rellizate** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:45 pm

Nice. Will the screen be mounted on the front, and the snes mobo on the back or both mounted at the front or what?

Master of Portables · Post by **Master of Portables** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 8:33 pm

I like the design!(hey it beats my square one) one tip before making the vac forming table: make sure the mold won't obstruct the hole for the air to be sucked through... I made that mistake and I got very mad when I had to rework the table

Post by **Triton** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:01 pm

check the case part of my site for pics of my vac table, its much better to have many holes than just one!

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:58 pm

I'm using a drawer with peg board on top of it. Why make a box of my own when there was one that just needed a top on it?

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:30 am

Can you post a link to the SNES parts? Those would be nice to have, seeing as I'm starting the case today, finally. It's a nice and warm 4 degree (celcius) high today.

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:02 am

Kurt_ wrote:Can you post a link to the SNES parts? Those would be nice to have, seeing as I'm starting the case today, finally. It's a nice and warm 4 degree (celcius) high today.

Certainly my good sir:

Screen

SNES mobo

SNES cartridge (F-Zero FTW!!!1!)

Speaker (yeah it's been sanded down a bit)

Odd, they seem huge when I view the pics on Putfile.com. Hmm, I suppose just open them up in Photoshop or whatever and choose "view print size" for the zoom.

So, I finally got my hands on that free ZN-40 case from Polycase.com! It's like it was made for portablizing! I highly recommend it to anyone for SNES, PSOne, Atari, NOAC and GOAC portables - plenty of room and yet it's still compact and sleek enough to look damned sexy (as G-force proved with his PlayMad).

I recently ordered a Zenith PS2 screen off of eBay for $30 total, and good thing I was planning on putting it into the ZN-40 case and LED modding it because the backlight for that screen was burned out! I can just barely make out the green bars for brightness and volume. I did buy it "as is", but I was feeling lucky that day I guess. Sometimes you get a bargain that way and sometimes you get burned. Also, I just ordered a package of fifty 10,000 mcd 3mm white LEDs for just a few bucks off of eBay. Let's shout a hooray for cheap bulk products from Hong Kong!

MAN I can't wait for summer, or at least Spring Break!

shmagoogin77 · Post by **shmagoogin77** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:10 am

looks like everything working out pretty good
everything is linein up