Front plate design

[R.G. Keen]

>OK folks, I just got off the phone with the printing place. It looks like the 
>minimum I can get done, if I want them to supply the materials would be 30 
>pieces at about $40 each. That would be 1/8" black anodized WITH rack-mounting 
>holes and white silk screening.
>
>I can't be laying out $1200 on a gamble, so if there's only a couple of people 
>who want 'em, I'm not going to do it. Remember that with the shipping, it will 
>be more than $40, especially overseas. US should be about $3 or $4 shipping. 
>I'm not making any money on this, and would be paying $40 for my own panels.
>
>If anyone wants to see my layout, I can e-mail you the .gif.

I dug into silk screening a ways back. You can outright buy screen frames,
screening supplies, squeegee, photosensitive stencil, the whole works for 
under $200. It seems to me that you could buy black anodized panels, learn 
to silk screen, make a big mess, and come up with some dynamite panels for
less than another $33 each, plus have the screening setup left over - or throw
it away as the garbage of the work. Ask a friend who is arts-ily inclined 
or wants to be to help. 

I keep almost buying screening setups to make pcboards as few as a couple at 
a time.

The printing shop is asking you to pay a high price for the convenience of 
having them have the space and time to do the printing.

R.G.