VOGONS


First post, by JK1984

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I'll try to keep this short, but apologize if this post is a bit of a read.

I recently purchased an Acer Acros from a private seller that I have yet to receive. Might be a couple more weeks before I get it, so I don't have the computer in hand yet. Unfortunately the case is missing 1 case foot and the front panel badge that states the make and model number. The seller suggested 3-D printing replacement parts. Other than that, the seller said it's in rather good working condition.

Alright, well... I know nothing about 3-D Printing and don't plan on buying a 3-D printer. So in the mean time I reached out to a local 3-D printing/manufacturing company and they said they would work with me in getting replacement parts printed, cheapest way possible (by skipping the development process) The feet, we aren't concerned about since we would have the others to go off of to scan and print.

But the badge they said might be an issue since we don't have anything to go off of. They said that they can measure & design/develop one for me but would cost quite a bit more than just scanning and printing a replacement.

Does anyone here happen to have an Acer Acros that's willing to get me some pictures / dimensions and measurements of the badge? Would be even more of help if you know 3-D printing and can get the badge scanned in to a 3-D printable format file.

Other than that I might have to live with not having the front badge for awhile. Until I find another Acros to pull parts from. I doubt Acer would have spare case parts for an almost 30 year old desktop.

I attached some photos for reference.

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Reply 1 of 5, by JK1984

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Bit of an update.. Just got a price estimate for printing up the case feet alone, not including the badge. And I was a bit shocked.

Lets just say I will not be going that route. Cost was over 4 times the cost of the computer itself. I'll just live with it as is until I can find another Acros to pull parts from.

Reply 2 of 5, by pentiumspeed

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The badge looks like it is piece of plastic, silkscreen printed in blue paint. Piece of scrap plastic with good texture like and similar color, cut on CHC to make a oval flat badge then somehow find a way to print this model onto that badge? Then stick it in with double sided adhesive tape.

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 3 of 5, by Thermalwrong

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What was the price point they were asking, for the scanning & printing of those parts?

I've got an interest in 3d scanning & printing myself so I know how much work it can be - the hourly rates for technicians doing CAD design & scanning, then the equipment to do the scanning are the expensive parts. 3D scanning is imo quite difficult.
Sadly it's going to be this way as parts go completely out of availability, or further in future where the plastic starts to deteriorate. Last weekend, I designed up a hard drive door for my Thinkpad X20 laptop 😀 Since parts for this thing just aren't available, this has been on my list of 'I'd love to sort that out someday' for a few years now.

My 3d scanner is at a point now where I can mostly trust its results and this was one of the easier things, that I wanted to sort out with my computer collection:

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If you want to do it yourself, you can use some digital calipers (around £10) and a set of radius gauges (around £7) to measure up the shape, then build it up in CAD (fusion 360 is my preference). The badge would need a slight curve (chamfer) at a shallow angle to get the profile of the case. Then the back of the badge would need a tab on one side, with a thin clip on the other side, then it'll push into place.
If you haven't got a 3d printer, pcbway just started doing 3d printing services, which are quite reasonable in price for the quality they're achieving, take this part for example, it cost around $43+shipping and in 3d printing terms that's quite a big part - the finish looks awesome: https://mobile.twitter.com/pcbwayofficial/sta … 946746968006656
Potentially you could design up a part with the text embedded / embossed into it to get the label you want.

Another way to get measurements is to find a CCD type scanner, put parts flat / on sides onto the scanning bed with a ruler as a scale. You can then use the resulting pictures to get pretty accurate shapes into CAD.

Reply 4 of 5, by Thermalwrong

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Oh, another option I didn't think to mention, is that instead of making it all through CAD - you have a void in that case panel that's covered on each edge but the front. This means you can essentially just put some plastic into that void and smooth it with your fingers to get it fitting flush.

Use some easily mouldable plastic like polymorph or similar thermoplastic. Melt it in a bowl of hot water, dry it with your fingers and knead it so there's no folds in the face of the plastic you're going to use.
Shape it with your fingers then before it cools too much, but also while it's not too hot (too hot = permabonds to the case plastic) - squish it into the case front and smooth it out. Maybe practise on something you care less about first to get a feel for it.

I use this quite a lot with stuff that's simple or hidden inside the casing, where it's not something in the computer that would get hot. Like where all the screw mounts break on a laptop's screen hinge, this stuff can be squished in to hold it all together enough to make the hinge work again.
You can get it in white which ends up being a sort of off-white that might not look too out of place on your case.

Reply 5 of 5, by JK1984

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Sorry for the delayed response, life gets busy unfortunately. They quoted me at 2 hours design time.. just for the feet. $150/hr... so $300 alone for that plus the time to print the feet. Estimated at an additional $150-$200. So probably around $500 usd for 4 case feet printed. This quote doesn't include the badge portion. I obviously did not pursue this any further.

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I believe the badge is just a piece of plastic with lettering silk screened onto it. All this is new to me so it would be something that I'd need to look into further. I may have to settle on waiting for another system to pull parts from.