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Others have described where to get the knobs, sliders, switches, and indicators, and how to hook them up. For the panel itself, there's Front Panel Express, which makes nice looking front panels with any desired cutouts and permanent lettering.

If this is to be a commercial product, the device should present itself as a collection of USB Human Interface Devices. That spec covers everything from a steering wheel to a touchpad.

I personally think this is rather retro, but it's certainly buildable.

I wonder how he measured the holes for the keys. That's the tough part. Once you have a good model, it's a simple enough CNC machining job. Although the front panel is thicker than the original, and the keys don't project as much as they should.

It might work to simply put an undamaged calculator in a flatbed scanner, get a good image of the front, clean it up so it just has the hole outlines for the keys, vectorize, then clean up the vectorized form.

Front Panel Express specializes in making panels with holes and lettering. They could easily do that front panel, if you laid out the design and sent it in.

The first thing to realise there are plenty of technology related hobbyists around the world, although most are not high profile and some may be different very different demographics than yourself.

Some (hobby) groups to consider looking towards for ideas and help include: woodworkers, metalworkers (hobbyists using micromills and mini-lathes from TaigTools and Sherline, etc.), model railroads, model aircrafts (static and RC), robotics, amateur radio (ham), 2600, LUGs, and Artist Run Centres/Communities

Random list of some I use or know of:
  Make magazine http://www.makezine.com/
  Instructables http://www.instructables.com/
  ARRL http://www.arrl.org/
  http://www.sparkfun.com/ (check out their tutorials)
  http://www.fpga4fun.com/ / http://www.knjn.com/
  QRP-L http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/qrp-l/>
  GQRP http://www.gqrp.com/
  http://www.pololu.com/ (cheap stencils laser cut, e.g. 3x4 for $32)
  http://www.diyaudio.com/
  http://www.digikey.com/ (if you're still buying electronics from Radio Shack, get these 3 catalogs now!)
  http://www.mouser.com/
  http://www.jameco.com/
  the ton of various surplus/NOS dealers online
  http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/
  http://www.seattlerobotics.org/
  http://www.chibots.org/index.php
  DorkBot
  http://eyebeam.org/production/production.php?page= tools
  MIT CBA FAB http://fab.cba.mit.edu/
  http://www.leevalley.com/
  http://www.smallparts.com/
  http://www.danssmallpartsandkits.net/
  http://www.wmberg.com/
  http://www.acklandsgrainger.com/
  http://www.grainger.com/
  http://www.onlinemetals.com/
  http://www.amqrp.com/
  http://www.princessauto.com/
  http://www.sherline.com/
  http://www.taigtools.com/

Yeah, casing is the hardest part, in my opinion. (then again, I haven't done any home made cd changers or 3d scanners either...)

I am currently learning to work with stained glass (should make some nice boxes), as well as looking for a local machinist. And don't forget about Front Panel Express, even though I'd really like to find something cheaper...

I prefer to fire up Eagle's Cadsoft (under Linux!) and generate my own gerber and excellon files. I can then send these files to ANY board house I choose.

When creating 2 layer boards and when I don't need super fine spacing I use Olimex (the lowest cost 2 layer with silk screen and solder mask pcb house I have EVER seen!). When I need 4 more or layers I go with the more expensive PCB Express.

Although I think emachine shop sounds great, you can get much cheaper smaller runs of aluminum panels from Front Panel Express. Their prices are very low and their quality is amazing!

- Rod

Where loved ones are remembered: Memoriam.org

I've used ExpressPCB for a lot of mini projects in the past. The rates are pretty good if you know how to maximize your layout properly, and you can get multiple boards out of 1 panel (ie: 5 silkscreened/soldermasked panels of 21sqin/ea are about $250, ($50/ea). But, if you can get 5 boards out of 1 panel (and you need 25 boards, give or take) then your per-board price is effectively $10/ea, which is reasonable for a small, custom job). The quality of the ExpressPCB boards has always been excellent.

I converted one of my projects to pad2pad just last night. Their component selection is horribly small right now (no .1uF caps?? WTF??), but the prices for boards with a few components soldered on is pretty reasonable (again, if you are ordering in a manner that spreads your cost over 25 or 30+ boards).

FrontPanelExpress is another good option for custom metal panels.

For the lazy ones...

Clickable.

Realistically, PC boards are made by sending output from a board design program to a service that makes boards. It's reasonably cheap, turnaround is good, and you can get double-sided with plated through holes, which is what you want.

Toner transfer methods are for people who like looking at their boards under a magnifier and doing rework. Do it yourself photographic methods work better, but few people bother any more. Anybody still have one of those small etching tanks with the aquarium bubbler?

A related business is making front panels. Send out your design and let a computer-controlled punch make all the connector holes. They also etch the lettering and anodize.