This week marked another step toward finishing the exterior and material side of the CORE One Mini. The focus shifted toward plastics, fitment refinement, and finalizing the sheet metal and enclosure components.
Some of the originally planned materials ended up being difficult to source in the exact specification I wanted, which forced a few last-minute changes in my approach. In the end, though, this will be fine.
This week was also spent balancing speed versus perfection. There were definitely moments where setting up more advanced tooling would have produced slightly cleaner results, but for one-off prototype work it often makes more sense to choose the faster workflow and keep momentum going. Surprisingly, some of the more improvised solutions ended up working far better than expected.
During the process, I also customized the front handle, shortening it - like the other frame pieces - by exactly 70 mm.
Originally, I considered remaking the entire handle from bent sheet metal, but matching the existing paint for such a small quantity would have been wasteful and, honestly, unnecessary. Also, I need to focus a bit more and avoid getting sidetracked.
So I simply cut the original part down and refinished the exposed edge manually with acrylic paint. I am definitely not great at hand painting or color mixing, so I expected this to look far worse than it actually did. Surprisingly, the final result blended in really nicely. You can only really notice the painted edge when looking at it very closely.
The good old Army Painter Game Master set I bought years ago still pays off to this day. The colors are vibrant and highly pigmented and are great for such touch-up jobs.
Originally, the plan was to use material with the same tint as the original CORE One, but this material is surprisingly difficult to source in the right tint. I checked my local suppliers and online, ordered a few samples, but was not satisfied. To keep the project going, I decided on a simple approach.
The top and side panels (2 mm thickness) were laser-cut from PMMA (Plexiglas / Acrylics). They ended up a bit darker than the original panels of the CORE One, but this will be fine. The same material from the same supplier in 3 mm is very dark, though, so I tried finding another supplier.
After not finding a suitable lightly tinted 3 mm PMMA sheet, I eventually switched over to a polycarbonate sheet from an earlier 3D printer project I had lying around. With roughly 60 % translucency, it is not as dark as the original acrylic door, but with the smaller volume of the machine and a bit less lighting, this should be fine.
PC is definitely more difficult to work with compared to acrylic, especially since it does not really get along with laser cutters. Instead of setting up the CNC mill, I went with a much more manual workflow this time: I cut it with the good old track saw, 3D-printed a quick template for the router and manually routed out the hinges, then drilled the holes. Since it did not fit (what a surprise), a few quick strokes with the file did the job.
Technically, the CNC would have worked fine, but considering the setup time, the manual route ended up being much faster for these one-off prototype parts.
For now, the protective film will stay on the parts :)
Another milestone this week was reached thanks to Prusa providing me with a Prusa USS Drybox, as I mentioned last weekend.
I won't get into details here, but the Drybox is nicely designed. Only the latching mechanism is a bit fiddly - but I guess, since the box is meant to stay closed, this is not that big of an issue. The Prusa USS Drybox fits a broad range of spools and most importantly, it fits the side panel of the CORE One Mini - sort of.
To fix that, the workflow was as usual: a combination of paper-cut templates, a quick 3D-printed test piece, and iterative adjustments directly with the hardware.
With a bit of trial and error and some modifications to the bend angles at the top and bottom, I managed to squeeze out a bit more to make it fit better. Once everything lined up properly, I transferred the dimensions into the final drawings and laser-cut the actual part.
Since I was running out of time, the side panels are not finished yet. Due to the odd shape of those pieces, it is not an easy straight bend on the brake - I will tackle that in my next session.
Once this final bending operation is completed, all sheet metal parts for the current revision of the CORE One Mini will finally be done (for real then).
I also want to take a moment to sincerely thank the community. The feedback, suggestions, kind messages, and support mean a lot and have a real impact on how this project evolves. It wouldn’t move forward at this pace without you.
If you want to learn more about the project, make sure to checkout the main post "CORE One Mini - The Rocky Road to a Prototype." for the complete background and FAQ.
If you intend to buy a Prusa machine, you can use the referral code "@suit" at checkout in the Prusa online shop. This will give you some Prusameter points and 1 kg of free filament and i'll get some points aswell (which I can use for some free filament). Or you can just download, like and make some of my models here on Printables and even consider to become a member in my Printables club.
I've also set up a GoFundMe campaign to tackle the costs. Thanks to everybody who has donated a few euros already - that means a lot and helps me cover the expenses.
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