Advice on getting 3D-printed drive bay cover for a Cube?

[Ndru]

I found a design on Thingiverse for a Cube bay cover with base for a BlueSCSI, including a slot for the SD card.

Does anyone have any recommendations and/or advice for getting that printed? I've not dealt with 3D printing before, and I'm especially interested in recommended services; what material and any other details I should use for the best match for a Cube; and any gotchas etc.

(I wasn't sure if this topic should go here in Hardware, or in General Discussion. Apologies if I chose wrong; I can remove it from here and re-post in General if so.)

[ZombiePhysicist]

Great question. I know there are services that will build parts for you and mail them too you. Also know that basics 3d printers can be had for around $200

[Ndru]

I will probably end up ordering blindly if I have to, but since some other people have printed Cube parts it would be really nice to get some "do xyz" or "don't do xyz". I don't see myself doing my own 3D printing, at least not any time soon.

Great question. I know there are services that will build parts for you and mail them too you. Also know that basics 3d printers can be had for around $200

[ZombiePhysicist]

I know some here have ordered from places and hopefully someone chimes in soon.

[ZombiePhysicist]

From the discord channel by flewflufloo_01236: on thingiverse -> apps -> choose a printing service

[Ndru]

An update: I ended up ordering a print of this faceplate from Form Lab's 3D-printing service (now.formlabs.com). I used their standard resin in black, with supports removed and sanded (though there are still a bunch of dimples which I assume are from the supports). Total price was close to $50. ($27.50 for the part with supports removed and light sanding + $14.50 for the slowest shipping option + $4.50 tax).

(The order process recommended that I split the print into multiple parts, which they could do automatically; I'm not sure when that would actually be desirable, but it wouldn't have been for me, and would have been about three times as expensive.)

I installed the BlueSCSI on that, then installed the whole thing in the Cube. (Needed two M4 x 8 socket head cap screws, along with washers, to match what NeXT used for the faceplates.)


The part itself seems pretty good, it fits pretty well, and the color isn't too bad, but it's certainly not an exact match in either shade or texture (lighting noticeably affects the appearance), and it has the aforementioned dimples on the surface. I'll attach some photos.

For now I'm glad to have the bay covered with something which looks ok from a distance (and doesn't actively offend me when I'm closer), and happy to be able to easily remove the SD card to make changes, without having to open up the Cube.

At some point I expect I'll pull the part back out, sand it down and paint it, but I don't know what paint would be good, and the motivation isn't there currently. (I know Rob Blessin has posted about finding the original paint formulation, so maybe I can buy some from him.)


I don't have the necessary skills, but in my ideal world I would tweak this part design some. The SD card slot is appreciably larger than needed, which detracts from the appearance; and the SD card protrudes awkwardly from the Cube. It has to protrude enough to be able to grip and remove (it's a shame I can't buy a BlueSCSI with a spring-loaded SD card socket), but IMO it protrudes more than needed.

SD cards (per the spec) are 2.1 mm tall (thick) and 24 mm wide. This part's SD slot is (best I can measure) 5 mm tall and 30 mm wide (maybe slightly under those measurements). Also, the SD is snug on the top edge, so all the extra height is underneath. If I had the appropriate skills, I'd probably adjust the design to make the slot 2.5 mm tall (certainly no more than 3 mm tall); 26 mm wide; and shift the base plate portion down 1.5 mm so that the card would be more centered vertically in the slot. I'd also push the connection points on the base plate back by 5 mm so the card didn't protrude as far from the case.

I've thought about maybe adding another BlueSCSI to the Cube, which would provide the "everyday" boot system, while allowing me to use the external slot for when I wanted to boot into a different system. But I should probably get an external BlueSCSI instead, since I could use it on the NeXTstations as well.

(The photo of the installed part is from before I screwed it in. And in fact I had removed one of the screws from the other faceplate in order to measure it. Lest anyone think that I just left them hanging there unsecured.)

[ScutBoy]

No offense on your choice of putting the SD card out the front, but if I were to want it accessible like that, I think I'd work out something to use one of the open slots from the back; maybe make a new slot cover with the opening there. Then it would be available, but not interrupt the front of the Cube.

It would entail some thought on how to run the SCSI cable, which might make it impractical; not sure how much clearance there is between the chassis and the backplate when it's attached.

[Ndru]

No offense on your choice of putting the SD card out the front, but if I were to want it accessible like that, I think I'd work out something to use one of the open slots from the back; maybe make a new slot cover with the opening there. Then it would be available, but not interrupt the front of the Cube.

I like that idea. I had had the thought of using the extra slot area for other things (like Previous on a Pi, or a MiSTer FPGA), but it didn't really occur to me to put the Cube's drive somewhere other than in the drive bay area.

It would entail some thought on how to run the SCSI cable, which might make it impractical; not sure how much clearance there is between the chassis and the backplate when it's attached.

There's enough clearance there — unless I'm misunderstanding which bit you're talking about, the stock SCSI cable already runs in that space to get between the drives and the motherboard. If the BlueSCSI went in the far left slot, that would leave space to fold the cable to reach the device's SCSI connector. (I already have a third-party three-connector SCSI cable which I think should be long enough.)

Not a near-term project, given my complete lack of 3D modeling skill/experience (and limited enthusiasm for diving into it). But thanks; I do like the idea, and it had completely escaped me. There's a design for a back slot cover on Thingiverse; I should grab it as a potential future starting point.

[ScutBoy]

FWIW, I bought some matte black PLA (Inland - on sale at Microcenter this week) and reprinted the OD cover.

It's a better match than the "shiny" PLA. Not perfect, but much less obtrusive.

[KennyPowers]

No offense on your choice of putting the SD card out the front, but if I were to want it accessible like that, I think I'd work out something to use one of the open slots from the back; maybe make a new slot cover with the opening there. Then it would be available, but not interrupt the front of the Cube.

It would entail some thought on how to run the SCSI cable, which might make it impractical; not sure how much clearance there is between the chassis and the backplate when it's attached.

Sorry to link to the other forum, but here's what I did:

https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=5818.msg34836

The card is more recessed so it doesn't really look out of place sticking out the front of the cube IMO.  From a couple feet away, it just looks like an MO drive is installed in that bay:



I've attached STLs for the bezel and spacer.  The "spacer" is literally just a block that I screwed the stock BlueSCSI bracket to and mocked up in the cube until everything lined up and then screwed to the drive cage.  A real cube BlueSCSI bracket that either attaches to the drive cage or the recessed bezel itself would obviously be better and more filament-efficient, but I didn't want to attempt that with TinkerCAD at the time    I guess the two-part design does mean I can remove the BlueSCSI like any other drive by simply pulling the drive cage.  That did actually come in handy when upgrading to a BlueSCSI Ultra recently.

[Ndru]

Thanks! I don't have an account on those other forums and there's no way to sign up now, but I got the gist, and grabbed the stl files in case I ever decide to try to use them.

[ScutBoy]

If it's just a onesie/twosie kind of thing, I can print them for you.