At 02:43 PM 9/17/99 -0400, you wrote: >Hi all: > >I got a PIC based board that I need to make an enclosure for. >Also in the enclosure will be a Palm CE PPC (the PIC makes up for >the shortcomings of this device). The box will be 7"H x 5W x 2.5D >(or smaller). > >I stopped by one shop, who wants to mold a enclosure for me out of >urethane (not injection molding, but a "poured process"). $850 mold >design, $500 tooling and $85 for each box (qty 100).... not >having any experience with this, it sounded a bit high. This plastic >is common used in industrial environments and very strong. If possible, make your system fit an existing plastic box from Bud, Rose, or whomever. MUCH cheaper in small quantities--even if you have to do some custom machining on the box. Did a design for a simple garage door opener transmitter years ago--Pricing went like this: $5000 for the case design in autocad. First bid on the mold was $12,500. After they (the mold maker) screwed it up, it cost another $13,000 to get it right--all for a two cavity mold intended for a 100,000 unit life. Cost for materials was about $0.10 each. Another $.010 per part for molding time, etc., and about $.30 for the tooling, for a total cost of $.50 each. Not too bad--if the job had run the full 100,000 pieces. As it turned out, only 10,000 pieces came out of the mold, which cranked the total price up to about $3 each for the tooling alone. Not cool. I buy the cast aluminum boxes for our loggers in small quantities from mouser or digikey at under $10.00 each, and add a couple of bucks to machine out some internal raised areas I don't want, and put four holes in the lid. Another $40 gets them powder coated safety yellow (minimum lot charge) and I'm done. NO tooling. Fixed price, no commitment other than designing the boards to fit. The design and tooling figures seem very reasonable to me--piece price is a bit high, but urethane is expensive. Hope this helps Kelly William K. Borsum, P.E. -- OEM Dataloggers and Instrumentation Systems &