frankee
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Now, going on almost 10 years ago there was a thread here on the board where a member was looking for a supplier of custom front panels. Read the original thread here..
Since that time the custom front panel industry had grown and there are a number of companies today who can either manufacture or customize front panels. I had the same issue as the member who posted the original thread. I have been designing and building custom electronics and prototypes for over 20 years, and I found that I would spending too much effort on drilling and punching holes to create custom front panels, and that the resulting enclosures (which is the first thing the customer or user sees) were never great, at least to my critical eye. To save time and money, I purchased a CNC machine and started making my own panels and mechanical components. I found this to be a great investment, not only because I could experiment with panel designs, and that my prototypes started looking much more polished, but because I found that after decades of designing in electronics I really enjoyed switching over to designing the mechanics, and I was so fascinated working with the CNC. I quickly learned CAM programs, ( I already used CAD), as well as graphics programs like Illustrator. I always look forward to working with the CNC, (and as an obviously a biased opinion) I find that a electronics person designing panels brings a little extra the table. I look forward to any time I have making panels, so I started making them for two of my colleague, and then I grew it as another service (**broken link removed**) for my company.
Has anyone else had a similar experience, coming to enjoy mechanical design as much as electronics?
Since that time the custom front panel industry had grown and there are a number of companies today who can either manufacture or customize front panels. I had the same issue as the member who posted the original thread. I have been designing and building custom electronics and prototypes for over 20 years, and I found that I would spending too much effort on drilling and punching holes to create custom front panels, and that the resulting enclosures (which is the first thing the customer or user sees) were never great, at least to my critical eye. To save time and money, I purchased a CNC machine and started making my own panels and mechanical components. I found this to be a great investment, not only because I could experiment with panel designs, and that my prototypes started looking much more polished, but because I found that after decades of designing in electronics I really enjoyed switching over to designing the mechanics, and I was so fascinated working with the CNC. I quickly learned CAM programs, ( I already used CAD), as well as graphics programs like Illustrator. I always look forward to working with the CNC, (and as an obviously a biased opinion) I find that a electronics person designing panels brings a little extra the table. I look forward to any time I have making panels, so I started making them for two of my colleague, and then I grew it as another service (**broken link removed**) for my company.
Has anyone else had a similar experience, coming to enjoy mechanical design as much as electronics?
