Hey Everyone, as far as brackets are concerned.
A lot of very talented people are giving lots of time to this project to bring it to life. It's ridiculous that all would go through all of this trouble and have a board without a bracket.
1.) 3D printed bracket. I've done this, and while I understand the cool factor of a 3d printed part, its flimsy at the widths/thickness of an ISA bracket. Also, cost of 3D printing a large batch is cost prohibitive as far as time/filament is concerned. Remember, 10 users might have a 3d printer setup and the time and gumption to make a working bracket, but after cost of shipping its more expensive than getting brackets made professionally.
2.) Changing board layout. The design is nearly finalized and its not realistic to change board layout at this point. That requires a lot of time that could be better served towards getting the boards done. Not a realistic ask.
3.) Buying blanks and doing it yourself. Blanks - I've got a drill press and have drilled holes in blank brackets. I thought it was easy but it's dangerous and time consuming and in all seriousness its not THAT easy to do. Drill, test fit, drill, test fit. Doing that 200 times by hand is ridiculous. There's too much room for human error and it can be done making a jig but the blanks cost almost as much as just having a manufacturer cut them!!! It's easy for members to say we'll just make them ourselves but its not realistic for everyone to fabricate brackets.
I back in May, contacted Gompf brackets in Seattle. I work on a hardware engineering team and do this for a living. A drawing has been made and I have sent to shock___ and 640k!enough (thanks for the help and hard work guys) for test fit. Here's the price, I have been quoted from Gompf.
QUANTITY PRICE EACH
5 $30.85
10 $17.00
25 $9.45
50 $6.85
100 $5.55
200 $4.95
500 $4.51
100 x 5.55 + %10.4 sales tax in washington = $607
200 x 4.95 + %10.4 sales tax in washington = $1092.96
I want to get this done so we can move on to more important items. This project is only going to survive and work if everyone pitches in. I will spring for the brackets for everyone as my contribution to the project. Once I get the OK from someone with a board to test fit, and some idea of where to ship them and an OK from project leaders, I will get them, pick them up locally, and ship them to Germany. They can be distributed along with the cards.
How many do we need? 200 is the most I am willing to pay for along with shipping to Germany.