Sourcing Atari ST cart cases

[nokturnal]

Hi, anyone tried to do Atari ST cart, custom cases (rather small batch in +/- standard dimensions)? What are the options? Are there ready ones which can be bought or can be ordered in some way. Second option would be 3d printing I guess. Anyone has looked into this or maybe made some already?

Thanks,
Pawel

[alexh]

Depends on the cartridge going inside. I looked into the same thing many years ago.

https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=23462

There are several Atari ST cartridge cases on Thingiverse.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3829249
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3838668
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3009595

[nokturnal]

@alexh Thanks for links, this variant from Thingiverse will be enough for a start, looks nice at least for prototype phase. Ideally would be nice to design case and maybe make molds from silicone, actually molds can be done from existing carts.

[Plagued]

@alexh Thanks for links, this variant from Thingiverse will be enough for a start, looks nice at least for prototype phase. Ideally would be nice to design case and maybe make molds from silicone, actually molds can be done from existing carts.

Most people at home print with FDM 3D printers (spool of plastic filament, extruded in layers) which result in that ridged prototype look, but if you want something that looks like a moulded "professional" product you could consider an SLA 3d printer. They're about the same price but print from a bath of UV resin and are much, much, higher resolution. Often used by people printing little models (warhammer etc) the downsides, which result in them being a lot less popular, are that the prints can be a bit more brittle and it's really messy and smells. But if you're thinking about silicone molds and resin anyway it's probably less messy/smelly and would be well suited to small items like cartridge cases.

I've often wondered if one of the larger SLA printers could be modified to have a lift height tall enough to print an Atari case in one go.

[Atari74user]

There was a similar thread started on AF not so long ago, expressing interest in the same: https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=42405

[alexh]

Most people at home print with FDM 3D printers (spool of plastic filament, extruded in layers) which result in that ridged prototype look

I've always been successful in reducing this effect with acetone (nail polish remover) smoothing. It "melts" the surface and you can get a reasonable smooth gloss effect. And it's cheap. Here is the first video I googled showing the process.

[Steve]

I wish Atari made the cartridge port a bit more usable, we're lucky that awesome coders have been able to do what we currently have available with it - like netusbee etc. But if Atari made it able to access larger roms & read/write properly supported, just imagine the amount of cool upgrades people would have made in the old days.

I still wish we could have some games released on cart :)

[Badwolf]

I've always been successful in reducing this effect with acetone (nail polish remover) smoothing. It "melts" the surface and you can get a reasonable smooth gloss effect. And it's cheap. Here is the first video I googled showing the process.

IIRC that only works with ABS?

For a blocky think like a cartidge, mind, I'm not sure the steps in FDM printing are so terrible. Blast it a bit with a hot air gun if you're feeling brave. :)

BW

[alexh]

IIRC that only works with ABS?

Yes. That is the normal FDM material no?

[Badwolf]

IIRC that only works with ABS?

Yes. That is the normal FDM material no?

I suspect 80%+ of home prints are PLA. ABS is harder to work with and normally requires an enclosure of somesort.

BW