Anyone like alienware?

Post by **Jacampb2** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 6:08 pm

I just thought I would share... I made this for a guy I work with. He is a big gamer, and recently decided to buy a Alienware laptop. My personal opinion on alienware is that they are sellouts, and their product is worth no where near the astronomical price tag attached (he paid $7k for a laptop that he bought almost a month ago, and just now finally got it up and running). Anyhow, he is still in love with the image of having an uber high end lappy, so who am I to burst his bubble... I made him this just because I knew it would fit right in on his desk

I made a night lite for my girls, and that is what started this whole deal, it came out pretty good:

Anyhow, I have had the mill almost a year now, and it is finally really getting dialed in. I am thinking of trying to make some money with it. I know I have mentioned this before, but I am thinking of doing some PG logos in plexi that can be inset in an amp rack or other place in an install, and side lit. How much interest might you have, and what do you think a roughly 2x6 logo would be worth?

I have this particular engraving process down pretty well now. The logos and text are all engraved in 3d in mirror image in the back of the plexi, so it is smooth on the outer surface. I am using .25" plexiglass right now. I would love to be able to do some in 1" or so as well to be flushed into sub boxes, but the material for that is very expensive.

Give me your honest opinions, and whether this might be worth while to make and sell on the phorum.

Thanks,
Jason

Post by **Wakeup** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 6:20 pm

yes it is worth while....I think!

I'm positive you'll get at least 20 or 30 of us here that would be interested.

Especially if it is in a reasonable price range for the particular sizes etc.

And now on to Alienware.....

As a guy who fixes/fixed/repair/repaired all brand of laptops, including alienware....

I'll tell ya this much, Alienware the only thing you get out of IT rather than another, is the Alienware logo and casing/case.

Most model Alienware laptops are made by a company called Clevo. And on occasion they use Uniwil and some other brands like that.

You may notice (while researching etc) that there are other brands that use Clevo and sell a similar notebook to the Alienware models, and that they are exactly the same hardware other than the casing.

Sager is one of the ones that models their notebooks using the same manufacturer as Alienware. The good thing is USUALLY you can find Sager to be a bit cheaper than the Alienware counterpart.

My store has had a few models that were called Enpower notebooks that used the same guys as some of the smaller 12" Alienware laptops etc....

So anyway, just gotta shop around to find one that is using the same manufacturer as Alienware.

Post by **mr tibbs** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 6:28 pm

Well, after seeing your bass cube remotes I'm sure people trust you enough to make these! I personally would be interested in one in the future! But if I could give you one word of advise it would be to not limit yourself to this forum. There are a few other forums out there that might be worth your time. I can see these being popular with all sorts of logos on them.

Post by **Wakeup** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 6:57 pm

mr tibbs wrote:Well, after seeing your bass cube remotes I'm sure people trust you enough to make these! I personally would be interested in one in the future! But if I could give you one word of advise it would be to not limit yourself to this forum. There are a few other forums out there that might be worth your time. I can see these being popular with all sorts of logos on them.

Amen true that. We are a small niche market here. And I agree that you might have avenues elsewhere...

Also realize there's some small Subwoofer/amplifier companies out there, that might be interested in your products....IE: SSA, FI.....etc....and maybe a few others....

Maybe talk to Denim? Etc...They may have a need.

Also some Case modder companies (computer) might be interested.

We had a kid out here in Portland that was into CNC metalfab had a plasma cutter I believe (and when I say kid...he was like not even 21...)
And had worked on gear for a Company called Danger Den. (they specialize in case mods, and water cooling etc).
Worked on gear for AMD and Intel too. He pimped himself out to all the major companies around...going to Lan parties (big ones...1000+ man lan's). And was making fan grills and selling them for a nice price. Materials I think he told me was around 1-2 dollars a piece (even for the larger fans 120mm), and he'd customize it and sell them for 15-20 a piece. And companies like Danger Den, Intel and AMD he'd give them price breaks...he'd created keychains for the Lan Parties with the name of the lan party...(IE: PDXLan, I have one of those and a Danger Den fan grill from him). Anyway he seemed to have made a good living doing it.

Unfortunately he committed suicide a few years back. Bright kid. seemed happy...and everything seemed to be going his way...but I guess he had enuff of whatever was bothering him...Called up one of his friends and just said "Good Bye" and then jumped in front of a train.

Game over...felt so bad...he was a cool kid. He always came in to ask me for suggestions. He built his own cases. Built one out of sheet metal himself. was pretty slick looking too. He made a cube, that housed two computers....made one with an AMD setup on one side, and Intel on the other, then made cutouts Into the case...(not just grills) with parts that were in the machine....IE: Nvidia (video card), Intel, AMD, motherboard brand (ASUS or whatever the brand was at the time) was pretty slick anyway....he also had modified his monitor (before flat screens were in...) and cut open the top and put a fan in it, LED lights and plexi so you could see into the monitor. Anyway amazing work.

Post by **stipud** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:09 pm

That teddy bear is crazy! You CNCed all that texture in there?

Post by **Jacampb2** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:02 pm

I would love to take intentional credit for it, but the texture in the bear is actually a mistake. It is caused by to fast of a cutter speed, and too slow of a feed rate. Acrylic is a dick to machine, and if you don't have it just right it will melt and re-harden at the cutters edge. What happens is little micro balls of acrylic melt and gum up and then stick to the surface behind the cutter. The other issue that caused the texture was the cutters pass overlap. You engrave 3d stuff with a ball end cutting tool, so you have a very small cutting edge engaged in the work, since it is rounded on the end of the tool, every pass is actually concave. Each pass overlaps the last, you have to use a stepover that is a good compromise between the tool radius, time, and desired finish. (this part is hazy for me, but I'll try) Since the lowest point in the ball cutter is ?tangential? to the center of the tool, and exists as a finite point, then theoretically you cannot step over a small enough amount to ever achieve perfect surface with a ball nose cutter. In reality you can get very damn close to perfect with high end machines and lots and lots of time. I am told some mold maker's finish passes run for several days straight.

Long story short, I had each pass at 10% of the last pass on the teddy bear, that is what was recommended, but did not yield great results in acrylic. The alien head was done with ~4% stepover, and came out much better for surface texture.

In the end it was one of those screw ups that really looked cool, so who cares, right?

Later,
Jason

rlockwood · Post by **rlockwood** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:42 pm

You might look into equidistant offset programming, where rather than using a set in stone step over distance, it will instead calculate a toolpath that leaves equal (or, closer to equal) scallops.. a stepover of .02 usually works well and polishes out very easily using this method. I haven't seen it used much with image conversion software like you're using, but i'm sure its out there or will be soon enough.

But on the other hand I rarely work in acrylic and usually am doing high angle ramps in aluminum, with larger diameter tools. Engraving like that is kinda a catch 22.. To get good finishes in that stuff, you have to take a nice thick chip, which you cant exactly do with a 1/16" ball..

For logos and things, i'd highly reccomend creating a real cad drawing and pocket machining ("2.5D") rather than just dropping an image in and ball milling. Much better results.

Post by **Jacampb2** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:59 pm

I have never heard of the equidistant offset... The software I am using only allows you to set a stepover in % of cutter diameter. There are some other machining strategy that I have not tried. I was using a simple offset strategy, it also gives an option of 3d offset and 3d spiral offset.

Both the engravings above were vectorized by me. I tried simply rastor engraving images with several different cam programs, and never got even close to decent results. I used Delcam's Artcam which is a artsy cad/cam package to do all of the reliefs based on the vector art and to set up the MOPs and generate the gcode. I believe that technically they are 2.5D, not full 3D as my controller can not interpolate more than 2 axis at one time. The text is v bit carved and the reliefs are all done with a .25" 2 flute carbide ball mill. The biggest issue is simply that my machine cannot move fast enough to accommodate the 30k rpm of the high speed spindle attachment. I used the original steppers on the machine, and about the most I can get out of it while cutting is 80-90 IPM, it will do 130 ipm rapids, which is nothing compared to the servo driven machines you are used to, but originally I thought it would be enough. I am still struggling to find a good feed/speed ratio for acrylic and 3d reliefs.

I just recently rigged a variable speed control for my high speed spindle (it's just a rotozip rebuilt with good bearings for now) and so I should be able to get closer to an ideal feed/speed. The downfall of slowing the rotozip down will be loss of torque, but I am thinking it will be okay, I just need time to monkey with it some more.

V bit carvings of text and along vectors seem to come out about perfect with the spindle at full speed. I have a v carved PG logo I did while messing around, and it is far better than the first engravings I did. The alien head outline above is just a V bit carving along the vector outline. It lights much better than a .001-.002" deep center drill engraving.

In all actuality, I think a lot of my finish struggle is simply material. This stuff is most likely extruded acrylic, and from what I understand, that is the bottom of the barrel as far as ease of machinability. Polycarbonate is supposedly the cats ass, much more forgiving as to feeds and speeds, and far less melting/gumming. When I find some time, I need to visit a few somewhat local industrial suppliers. I found one that sells polycarbonate, I just need to see if they have drops they want to part with. I cannot afford a full sheet, no matter how much I would like to...

Thank you as always for your advise rlockwood! It is good to hear feedback from someone who runs this stuff every day.

Later,
Jason