Building a new 500++

[Pat the Cat]

It looks very good but I'm wary of laser cut clear acrylic. Broken a few bits and bobs made that way. OK I superglued them together but you can always see they was busted.

If you know the technique it wouldn't be that hard to get them cut in polycarbonate. The tricky part is designing a case.

EDIT: And making sure all the dimensions are accurate for every hole and corner cut for each piece.

There are some places that will cut an odd angle on an edge for slanted joins, but most don't offer that. Means sanding done edges for slanting edges. You can't get them perfect but you can get acceptable (with the right equipment like... lots of grades of sandpaper.

[Pat the Cat]

I don't know how small but I know you can get touchscreens for Pi that are dinky too!

EDIT: Thinking about it, polycarbonate is kind of wobbly in big sheets.

How about an internal steel frame made out of threaded rod with printed plastic corners?

Wouldn't be cheap but would be very hard to break from impact. I don't know cost pf sheets of quarter inch ally. Might be cheaper (and much stronger).

If you're going to do something better than a Checkmate, fragility is an issue.