Micks case design has give me great inspiration and I have taken some of his ideas and incorporated them within my own designs. However I must say that I agree with 'Whicked's' statements about cost and manufacturing this product. I can't see a major case manufacturer taking this on, if they did it would not be at the top of their priority list. This is most definately not due to the design but rather as whicked quite rightly pointed out the costs involved to produce each case is going to be astronimical, let alone the very limited market avaialable for such a case. The only companies I can see that may take this on are the likes of Danger Den and Mountain Mods where they will design around not having to invest massively in press tooling.

Whicked, I would be interested to know your background as you seem to be knowledgeable within this field! Please pm if you would rather.

Quote Originally Posted by WHICKED View Post
First, a NDA would account for nothing. He does not own a company, therefore he has no entitlement to his product.

Second, he can not copyright his product since he has shared the information publicly.

Third, UK business laws are different than US business laws. Which means NDA, company rights, disclaimers, etc etc... are all for not.

Fourth, I would not steal his design, the design is perfect the way it is. Hence he can "keep" his design. However, improving upon an idea and modifying it so it is not the same, is different. Now a lot of those people will say it is plagarism in a way. Sure, I guess you could say it is. However take a look at all the other case manufactures. Each one copies the same basic layout of each other, aside from Lian Li and MM.

Fifth, I understand the flaming aspect of my comments. But lets be real, a case manufacturer would have been able to fabricate a case within a month. A metal working shop with the necessary tools and materials could do it in 2-3 weeks. And how long has this post/thread been alive.

Would I like to make his case, yes, you bet. Would I like to make the design better, yes, you bet. But as for stealing, signing agreements such as NDA's, etc etc. You need to understand that those do not matter unless he owns a business, but even then NDA's do matter because he is based in the UK.

But from a high level, it looks as though he was going with 5052 aluminum 1/16" GA thick material for the inside, maybe 1/8" thick for the components and outer shell. Cost of materials: 6-7' (feet) x 10-11' (feet) material ~= $334.08, not including labor.

So the case would be around $600-$800 depending on who he goes through. But it might be more since, he would manufacturer it in the UK and then shipping costs are also an issue since tha case itself would weigh 30-55 lbs.

So, $1000 would not be hard to reach.

But like I said, the case is nice, it has a great design. I would make it, and see the costs of it, but there are just some things that make it bland.