So I completed my first portable project back in 2015 after 4 years of not knowing what I was doing and finally figuring things out, and I started this in 2014 as part of a competition on the Bacman forums but ran in to major case issues. I'll post a bunch of pictures here of my progress and such and then hopefully sometime soon I'll find the time and motivation to get this thing done!

Case selection:


Some Electronics:

I found out after purchasing this SNES on ebay that certain models of it have a separate board for handling sound, that's what's on the top right of the system there. relocating that thing was tricky, but I did manage to do it, so all should be well!

5" screen, personally don't want to use anything smaller than that on my portables, personal preference.


Beginning to Frankencase... This where all my trouble began. This part all worked out fine initially, the trouble came later. Decided to use the method of mixing ABS plastic bits and acetone to create a glue. Had never done that before.

As you can see, had lots of big holes and gaps to fill.


Pretty good case progress here, I was happy with how things were looking!

First coat of primer or so. I was really going for sleek and good looking this time around, so I wanted to nail the case. I kept having problems with bubbles from my fill job cropping up, so I knew I had a lot more spot puttying and sanding to do.

Case looking very nice to me, everything going great! Got my speaker holes, start and select, it was all coming together!
Hole cut for cartridge slot:


Mockup of cartridge placement and a little peripheral for AV out and external controller ports:


Electronics being handled:

A plan for button instalation. It sucked on my last portable, wanted something more sturdy and reliable:

SNES cartridge relocation is exhausting!!! So many pins!!!

I don't have a pictures, but with the two relocations done and all that, I did test it and it booted and ran connected to my 5" screen. That's about where electronics stopped because then this happened:

Yep, case cracking. I had noticed that after my fill in job the case was a little warped, but I just figured that once everything was installed and held in place it would be fine. But the issue ended up being that ABS/Acetone mix I used. I either had it way too thin or did something else wrong, because it fundamentally destroyed the structural integrity of the case. So after all that case work and it looking so good I Didn't know what to do. So here it sits, unfinished. I'm considering having a friend 3D print a front face for the case, my printer is too small and also isn't very reliable. I don't think that cutting out the front of it and replacing it is the way to go, I think it needs total replacement. So that's progress so far, guys! Any input or suggestions would be great, thanks for reading! We'll see when I can get this project going again!

 

I see that golden tee game at thrift stores from time to time and think of this portable EVERY TIME.

Your button mounting solution should work pretty well. I believe that was Downing’s technique pre-3D printing.

 

Haha! I'm honored! I bought mine at a garage sale for a couple dollars, it just seemed the perfect choice! Haha! Yeah, it wasn't an original idea, it was something that I knew I had seen it somewhere, but I couldn't remember where so I just did my best to remember the gist of it and recreate it myself. I'm more than happy to give the credit to him, it was probably something of his that I had seen.

EDIT: I can not believe that I can't buy a broken one on ebay for a few bucks, the only listings I can find are around $20 (with shipping at least)! Ridiculous!

 

So I'm thinking of a few different solutions to my case dilemma. One is to 3D print a brand new case front, complete with all button areas and mounting screws and all that. The second is to 3D print a rectangle and then frankencase it into the case front. What do you guys think has the best chance of working? I also would like to know if any of you that have experience in 3D printing know how difficult it would be to accurately recreate the case front. I have Fusion 360 and a caliper, And I have experimented with recreating an object from a picture, but I am not sure that will yield a perfect enough result to fit properly, and If I 3D printed both halves then what is the point in using this case design? Haha! Anyway, thanks in advance!

Here is a mockup I did in Tinker Cad, but I would probably recreate it in Fusion because Tinker cad is very limited and therefore this is porobably not as accurate as it could be. https://www.tinkercad.com/things/793O4jNWc2C

 

I've started modeling the replacement face in Fusion 360, Here is what I have so far. Pretty much finished unless something needs to be changed, which would most likely just be the overall outer shape. Anyone who has experience with 3D printing, I would love to hear your advice and opinions on what material it would be best to print it with. The original case is not ABS, pretty certain of that since there are no stamps to speak of on the plastic (unless that rule does not always apply, that's just what I was told), and I also would love to hear everyone's favorite methods and materials for frankencasing something like this. Thank you!

 

So I finally got my 3D printer to work! It has a small print bed, so I made a test of what I have modeled, but unfortunately my printer needs a ton of calibration because the piece is not only slightly off kilter but also smaller than the actual design by enough that the start buttons and abxy buttons do not fit. I would love to know what you guys think about the possibility of printing of the design I have above and frankencasing it into my main case, and maybe the way to go is to buy a plastic sheet, replace the case front, and THEN frankencase in the individual 3d printed button holes and such, thus giving a solid front. I am skeptical that printing that piece whole and installing it would be flat enough to work right. If A printer is set up right will warping of a part so large be an issue? Would love some feedback! Thanks all!

 

I did determine that some of the issues were with my design, and I did fix several issues and get things to fit better, but the calibration of the printer is off enough that not all the abxy button holes are even the same size on the print and 2 of 3 of them BARELY fit, and overall they are still smaller than my design says they should be, but I'm getting there.

 

i can't see that pics

 

Are you using PLA or ABS with your printer?

 

PLA, and my case is not ABS either, at least it isn't stamped. It's a pretty low end printer, a Monoprice Mini Delta, and it has a ton of problems with it's auto bed leveling, but once you get those straightened out it has really good print quality. I'm working on getting my calibration set up.

 

Are you still looking for a replacement golden tee? Just found one but haven’t picked it up. I know you wanted to get under $20, but shipping might kill that.

 

I am if it's the same model, although it's more for security if the front half is too messed up the way it is for it to work right. It would be kinda nice to start from scratch, possibly on both halves but probably just the front, but I if that "security" costs too much then I'll just purchase one when I actually need it. How much is it being sold for? I don't know how much shipping would cost, I would have guessed around 5 dollars if you found the right option at the post office but I could be way off on that. I wish I would just find one here. But we don't have a very good selection of thrift stores, especially when it comes to video games and the like.

 

Alright, so this is my plan for right now. I'm going to cut out the front of my case on the line I've drawn here to stay with. Then I will have a couple of ways to proceed. One idea is to cut out a piece of Plexi glass to fill in the space. Get that glued on and sanded fairly flush and then I'll cut out holes for the various 3D printed controller button holes. The other idea is to either 3D print a piece to fill in the whole gap, skipping the plexiglass in between, OR print the buttons as separate pieces and franken case them in at the same time I fill in the rest of the gaps with other plastic pieces, recycled or plexiglass. Phew! So, any opinions on which one might work best or which one would be done to fail? My only reservation about the second option is getting a good quality to scale print, but if I get around that I think it would be my go to. Thanks!

 

I know it sounds like it would be throwing a lot of work away, but with a 3D printer at your disposal I’d recommend starting from scratch and do your whole case 3D printed. If the scale isn’t correct with your SNES buttons... print new buttons, which should match the scale of your printed case.

Then you could do the nuts and bolts mounting solution for your internals. (Since printed screwposts wouldn’t be to scale with the internal components.)

 

Well, "at my disposal" isn't quite what I would say... I have a small Delta style printer with a 110 mm diameter bed, not near big enough to print a whole case. I do, however, have a friend who has a 3D printer at his work, and I would be able to print a part, but I get the feeling that he does not know a lot about getting great quality or scale accurate prints, so because I do not have the option of print testing, fiddling, and getting everything right, and because I am attached to this case and want to see it through, I think my NEXT project, whatever that will be, I will aim to use 3D printing, but I really am set on Frankencasing and proving to myself that I can get a good looking result on this project, and that means either buying another controller to frankencase in (something I am definitely considering) Or 3D printing because owning one makes me want to use it, haha! If I do fail to make this case work then I will reconsider, but I'm kinda set in my ways. ;D

 

Dremeled the case, sons I'll begin re-franken casing! Also cleaned up the bottom half of the case to get it ready to build up and such. Honestly, this is what my case should have started out like when I did it the first time, it was the holes I tried to fill with ABS that warped the case and made it so bad the first go around.

 

Progress! Got the plexiglass epoxied into place. I didn't get it 100% flush, despite using ductape across the front and Wheeling weighing it down from behind, but it is not protruding, instead it's slightly inset, so it can be fixed with body filter when I get to that stage. Definitely not optimal but it's alright. The second picture is the other stuff I intend on frankencasing in. I've got the controller pieces which will have to be cut, along with the screen bezzle that I think I will frankencase in to make the screen hole perfect and make screen installation easier. So yeah, we'll see where it goes from here!

 

Just a suggestion - I'd recommend picking up an SD2SNES since you can play every SNES game (even hacks and translations!) without swapping cartridges.

 

I am definitely planning on doing that at some point, but the order of that kind of thing, everdrive64, that kinda thing, is kinda steep! Especially considering I'm planning on picking up a Switch here in the next couple of weeks!

 

If you wanted to go economical you could just get the Super Everdrive, but you lose MSU-1, Super FX, SA-1, and all of the special chip games along with less features.