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http://www.pad2pad.com/
A printed circuit board manufacturer providing all your custom printed circuit board

http://www.olimex.com/
Electronic design and PCB sub-contract assembly

http://www.eurocircuits.com/
PCB manufacturing; verified a la carte on demand specifications ...also...

http://www.emachineshop.com/
Machine shop to create custom parts, products and prototypes

http://www.tapplastics.com/
TAP Plastics specialize in fiberglass resins and fabrics for fiberglass repair, plastic containers, and custom fabrication

(non-affiliation yadda yadda goes here)

There are already a number of small-amount manufacturers, as you call them. Some are prototyping shops, some will build any number of items for you.

http://www.emachineshop.com/
http://www.tapplastics.com/
http://www.pad2pad.com/
http://www.olimex.com/
http://www.eurocircuits.com/
(no affiliation to any of them)

But you have to supply a sellable idea that's not been done yet, and bear the cost of iterating the bugs out of the design.

Also, and more to the point, the burden of IP is on your shoulders; at least, they're just punching out parts on your behalf and AFAIK that's not been contested in court as of yet.

Molding & Casting (through replica propwork and creature prosthetic effecs) is a hobby of mine, so here's what I know about resins. Maybe it will help

Epoxy resin is good at holding up to high temperatures. It comes in a variety of cure times and is available in small quantities at hardware stores and large quantities at marine supply stores. The fumes are smelly and unsafe, but they at least dissapate soon after curing.

Polyester resin (aka fiberglass resin) is cheaper than epoxy. It is generally weaker. It's fumes are quite nasty and hang around for days, so it's really an outside thing. It's probably no good for this task as uncured resin ravenously dissolves polystyrene (I don't know if PCs ahve polystyrene, but I wouldn't risk it).

Polyurethane resins come in the widest variety of formulations. It varies from hard as rock to a very flexible rubber, and any mixture inbetween. It is very low odor, but the fumes are still nothing to mess around with. Some formulations use metal fillers like aluminum (reduces shrinkage/thermal warping), so look out for that. It will certainly shrink a bit, so thicker coatings should be done with more flexible varieties. Shrinkage can be reduced by adding loose chopped fiberglass, though this does raise thickness.

Silicone rubber, particularly Platinum cure silicone has low to zero shrinkage. It's also by far the least toxic. It's also the most expensive by volume. again wide range of cure times, thickness/thixotropy can be adjusted by adding fumed silica (just don't breath the stuff). It is thermally resistive, so you will want to keep coatings thin, and suppliment it with submersion. Still, if I was tinkering around with such hardhacks, I suspect I'd go this route. Silicone is a great electrical resistor and has fantastic waterproofing abilities

for thin coats of any of these materials, you'll want to brush or spray the liquid to minimize airbubbles. All types resins have sprayable formulations, either by using specialty spray devices sold by the resin manufacturer, or by thinning the resin with the appropriate solvent. The more solvent you add, the more shrinkage is an issue, which is supplanted by applying thin coats in good ventilation.

I've done business with all the major online (US) retailers. I've had excellent experiences with all of them; be sure to take advantage of personal customer support. For more information check out http://polytek.com/ http://smoothon.com/ and http://tapplastics.com/

I wonder where he could readily get a vacuum chamber big enough to pull the air out. Getting the air bubbles out is going to be pretty vital to not baking the mobo, especially the cavities under components.

The most readily available vacuum pumps are smaller than a full motherboard + components, used either for basic science, paint or latex molding. Maybe call up Tap Plastics or your local university and see if they have a big one you can borrow. Because you're going to need a real one. A vacuum cleaner on a Tupperware box or a concrete vibrator isn't going to get what you need.

But my main worry is about thermal expansion. When motherboards get hot they don't expand evenly. Locking everything in resin, not mater how thermally stable, will put a lot more physical stress on the components. And you won't be able to do a damn thing about it except chuck it in the bin and start over again. Though this would probably be lessened with a smaller form factor and lower energy components.

A. Goetzberger et al., "Solar Energy Conversion with Fluorescent Collectors", Applied Physics 14, 1977, pp. 123-139.

Yes 1977!!!

I was also playing with this using plastic from TAP plastics (in the SF Bay Area) http://www.tapplastics.com/ in the late 80's.
Works ok.

See:
Patent 4149902
Patent 5227773
Patent 5816238
Patent 7316497

Mobay Chemical Corporation make a fluorescent called LISA. "fluorescent dye-doped edge-illuminating emitter panels" Technically.

There were some articles.
"A Little Light Goes a Long Way with Lisa", Mobay Corp. Marketing Document.

"Light-Collecting Plastics-A Brilliant Idea", Provisional Information Sheet, Mobay Corp.

Steven Ashley, "Razzle-Dazzle Plastic", Popular Science, pp. 100-101. Sorry can't find the year, (any one can you help here)

For drives, I scout around cheap hardware stores like Harbor Freight for the generic tool cases with uncut foam in the middle and stack those into two more drawers. Cables take up another two drawers. Finally, CPUs and RAM go into anti-stat bags, which in turn into some small acrylic cases from Tap Plastics with some foam for cushoning. These, with motherboards in whatever box/foam I can find take up another drawer.

The cabinets are great because, my dog can't tip them, my cat can't get into them, they have locks on the drawers and the drawers are usually on some kind of roller mechanism. I keep both in an unused bedroom closet. They even fit perfectly with the sliding closet doors on, but my guitars and music stuff is closet too, so the doors live in the garage.

Now if only there were an easy and compact way to store surplus cases and monitors.

You seem like a kindred soul, so I will let you in on a little gem I turned up in my inventing hobby. TAP Plastics.

Web Site

They aren't like most stuck up chem suppliers, they sell direct to the public.

I got some glass microspheres, and man, those things are cool. Imagine a fine powder, finer than powdered sugar, but it's not a powder, it's millions of tiny glass spheres containing air. If you pour them on water, they float on top and form a skin. You can stick your finger in the water, and the skin follows your finger down, so when you pull your finger out, it's not wet. It's really cool stuff to play with.

They also carry PU Foam two-part system in bulk, epoxy resins in bulk, fiberglass fabric, shredded fiberglass for reinforcing epoxy, and plenty of other cool stuff. Their prices are reasonable, and shipping isn't too slow.

I know this is a glowing review, but I don't have any financial interest in TAP plastics, they are just a cool supplier for home experimenters.

2. Your local plastic dealer. It depends on what brand of acrylic they carry, but all the major manufacturers publish little booklets about basic plastic techniques.

Even better, your local plastic dealer will also have tools specifically for plexiglass. It's not that ordinary metal or wood tools won't work; they will, but the cuts won't be as smooth and you're likely to jam on the chips until you learn the basic moves and good feed rates. The tools intended specifically for acrylic plastics are much more forgiving.

Someone else here recommended epoxy adhesives, which are truly a sign of poor workmanship with acrylic. Quality acrylic stuff is bonded by making the gap be very small and using a cement with the consistency of water. Done properly, the joint is optically clear and seamless. It does take some practice.

Some classic websites:

• CYRO Good technical data about their plastics.
• TAP Plastics Pretty good source of tools and making small orders.

Rohm and Hass make the "plexiglass" brand of acrylic, but I've never found anything useful at their website.

Nothing beats a visit to a local plastic dealer, IMHO. Especially if you're looking for lively colors or advice about working the material.

I recently aquired a Cooler Master ATC 210 aluminum case. it has various bits of acrilic bit all over it that look really cool, except I wanted it all in a different color. Thus began MY first plastics project.

The goal was to be able to reproduce the various bits of plastic on the case. This included 2 side "rails", and a front door. A quick trip to Tap Plastics pretty much got me started with everything I needed in terms of the plastic itself. I left the store with 18"x18" of colored 1/8" sheet of acrylic,, 18"x18"x1/16" sheet of clear acrylic, and acrylic cement as well as a little advice from one of the folks who work there about certain tools NOT to use.

I found the acrylic machines VERY easily, even with non-plastics tools. the bits were cut to size on an old radial-arm saw (didn't have access to a table saw) with an 80 tooth carbide tipped blade. This worked well enough to get a decent finish on the edges, as long as I was carefull with how the acrylic was pushed through the blade.

the only part of the project that I had my doubts about was the arc at the bottom part of the door which gives access to the USB ports of the front of the case. This actually turned out to be pretty easy with a cardboard template, the dremmel with a cutting bit and the router adaptor. the acrylic took well to the bit and didn't really chip at all.

After the bits were cut to size came the filing... lots of it. I aquired a plasics file and went to work smoothing out the edges. Once the saw marks were worked out, hit it with 320 grit sandpaper to smooth the edge out. The last trick was jewellers rouge and a dremmel too with a pollishing (not buffing!) wheel at low speed.

Once all the pieces were polished to a nice shine on the edges came the assembly. This was pretty easy with the help of a little celophane packing tape to hold the pieces together as the cement was applied.

finally, the little aluminum pieces which hold the hinges and magnets for the door were installed with the help of a 3/16" drill bit and the dremmel cutting tool.

the project was a great success and a great learning experience as well. I think the best advice I can give is to just go down to your local plastics shop, pick up some acrylic sheets and play with the machining and assambly. I found the stuff really easy to work with. I now have a one-of-a-kind flourecent-red ATC-210 and my friend has a clear-amber ATC-210.