One word, plastics.

[Fraggle1]

Errm, does anyone own a 3D printer ?

[Fraggle1]

Well, um, it was just a suggestion. I take your point though.

[Fraggle1]

"Yeah, I guess we are a ways off from 3D printers or affordable CNC"

CNC will never be a 'cheap' option, I think, because the production runs would be too small to gain the benefit from CNC, & anyway, the operators are paid serious money, which would have to be recouped.

3D printers are actually not very expensive if you build them yourself. All the parts are available online & if you build a basic one then you can print the extra parts you need to improve it.
Cost of things you print with it are governed by the cost of raw materials, however.
We have one where I work & which we use for prototyping because it's cheaper than a one-off machining of a similar part, & there's a strong possibility of using it for small production runs of parts that are currently (& expensively) made from metal.

Conventional production of plastic parts is not really an option for us here, because of the cost of producing the mould & (because of small quantities needed) would likely result in something like a floppy drive faceplate costing £150.

The only problem I see with 3D printing would be getting the colour right.

[Fraggle1]

"I would think that getting the right texture would be the biggest barrier. "

Texturing in itself is not a problem, but as you say, getting the right texture may be an issue.
Not sure how the surface texture is expressed in the data/drawing that is sent to the printer. I'll ask next week when I'm back at work.

[Fraggle1]

OK, so I'm back at work & I've asked the questions.

Our Design Engineers think that the easiest way to achieve the right texture would be to print the required part, then sand/beadblast the texture onto it.

This is partly because the accuracy of (affordable) 3D printers is not high enough to apply a fine grained surface texture, & partly because of the way in which printed objects have to be layed down - Most likely the exterior surface would be the first layer, facing downward, away from the print head.
However, if the surface that the plastic was being printed onto had the desired texture, then the printed item would 'inherit' that texture.
Thus, if a section of Amiga casing (treated with a suitable release agent) were used as the print surface, the printed part would have a matching texture.

My apologies for boring everyone rigid.

[Fraggle1]

"Very simple, pizza box looking thing? Is that possible with todays 3D printers?"

You could easily make that kind of thing, assuming your printer is large enough, & in fact, I am reliably informed that somewhere, there's a 3D printer that prints life size BUILDINGS ! (So's they can see that the whole plot works before they construct it for real)

How large do you want your pizza box ? lol

BTW, the printers are fed their data from CAD software, so designing your box shouldn't be a problem.

[Fraggle1]

"CNC, but I thought that would be more expensive? And could the plans/design for one (in CAD software) be use by either type machine?"

It depends. We have CNCs at work that can be fed a drawing from a computer, & others that have to be manually programmed by the operator.
Naturally, manual programming takes time & skill, both of which have to be paid for. The computer to CNC method isn't exactly cheap either, because the resources needed may be quite expensive - the software we use at work cost around £4000, (about $7000) but of course you could do your own design & take it along to get it machined, so long as the data is compatible.

@ TheGoose

"Cool, I love this stuff. It's exciting to me like micro computers were in the 80s."

Yeah, I understand, because I was there & it gives me the same kind of buzz.

It seems that the DIY 3D printer community has a pioneering spirit, similar to the early computer scene with people helping each other to get something up & running, aware that THEY are the ones creating the future.

Might be worth your while doing some research & maybe getting in touch with some of these people to get first hand feedback about what's possible ? You might even find someone willing to print your pizza box.

[Fraggle1]

Yup, that's a kludge alright, & a prime example of why some means of reproducing original parts is needed. Went cheap, though.