I heard that there is a custom plate-making service on AliExpress. Something to make polycarb plates with. Does anyone know where to find this?
I need to replace a polycarb plate for a custom, so this seems like a possibility.
Never used them, but I have used Ponoko.com. They were easy to work with and quick on the turnaround.
There’s also SendCutSend.com and LaserBoost.com (in Spain, metal only).
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I am not sure about AliExpress, but I believe there is a custom cut plate thread some where on here that lists all the vendors and what materials they offer.
Found it! - List of laser cutting services
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Thanks everyone, this is all very helpful.
I’ve used sendcutsend before and would recommend them if they have the material/thickness within your spec.
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Thanks, I’ll try them first.
Gonna see if I can have an HMKB plate made in polycarb. Wonder how I can tell them to remove the flex cuts. Guess they’re pretty readily-identifiable as the non-square cuts outside the switch areas.
If your in the US, check out SendCutSend.com. They are in Reno NV and turnaround time is pretty quick.
Hmm. The plate-making wizard setup at SendCutSend only seems to allow me to choose 3mm thickness at minimum. I think these are supposed to be 1.5mm?
what material do you have selected? they have multiple 1.5mm options, you just have to look around a bit.
Oh okay, I just gotta figure this out. I selected PolycarbonateClear118 as the material.
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here’s a tip: do it. the plates you buy with group buys are not any better or from any different factories.
just be sure to wash the CF plates once you get it, usually they leave milling dust on it and CF dust isn’t something you should have around 
that also applies to GB plates.
I think the stopping block right now is that I’ve got to figure out a way to have the plate file edited in order to remove the ‘flex cuts’ that were meant for a metal plate.
The HMKB has metal / brass only, so there are significant flex cuts in the plate. But they are not supposed to be present in polycarb.
I already have a custom polycarb plate for the HMKB, but I submitted a stock plate file, which means that it has flex cuts. The person who made the plate later said that such a plate could have too much flex.
So I need a flex-cut-free plate file before asking anyone to build anything.
Other people here have used SVG but I have always had conversion problems with it. I found that using https://www.kicad.org/ worked for me with roughly these steps.
Open Keycad
Start new project
PCB Editor
File - > Import Graphics
Graphic Layer: Edge.Cuts
Uncheck group items
Default line width: 0.100000
Then you can delete the cutouts you don’t want (mouse click or drag highlight then the delete key).
To Export → File → Plot
Plot format: DXF
Click Plot button
Your file will be generated with a name like this: DummyProject-Edge_Cuts.dxf
You can verify your file dimensions with AutoDesks free viewer: https://viewer.autodesk.com/
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Amazing! I will try this if it comes to it. Guess I’m going to get deeper with the plate files than I imagined!
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A kind person managed to delete what they think are the flex cuts.
2 Versions: one with flex cuts deleted, and one with any other suspicious cuts deleted.
LessFlex
EvenLessFlex
Does this constitute deletion of the flex cuts?
I would say yes on the even less flex file shown below from your files. But I don’t know why the cut out exists over the arrow cluster I don’t know it is necessary or could be removed.
Less Flex:
Even Less Flex:
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Good observations. I’ll see about the arrow cluster.
Ok, so here’s the final contender maybe:
I think all the flex cuts may have been removed?
Okay, I will try to get this built and let you know how it goes!
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