Post 11: What

I still have some things to finish on my project, but it is looking a lot like what I imagined it would and it is matching the CAD.

For a quick overview of what my project is, I am making the face plate of a headphone amplifier as well as the circuitry inside. Progress in the shop has been slower than I’d hope because it’s busy with other students also finishing their projects, but I should be able to finish this week.

This is where the plate is at the moment, the front had the cut outs for the knobs, power button, out put and mounting holes. It just needs a few tapped holes on the back for mounting the plate to the rest of the case.

My aesthetic was mechanical swiss watch, so the surface finish I decided to go with was called cote de Genève which is made by passing a large end mill back and forth across the surface in a close stripe pattern. By doing so, only the very edge of the cut pattern is visible creating a cool pattern that changes in the light and adds depth to the part. Below are two examples I made of the finish, one horizontally, and the other vertically to see which I liked better for the final piece. In keeping with the swiss watch aesthetic, the fasteners I chose to hold the plate onto the rest of the case are flat head shoulder bolts instead of hex because flat heads are more common in watches. There was a slight problem with the thread pitch being slightly different than what is on the case, but luckily the shoulder bolts had extra length on the shoulder, so I was able to re-tap with the correct thread pitch.