Thats right peeps! Finally after much R&D, time and a little bit of luck, I now present to you my new trading card display unit...
So, I guess I better run through how this unit works and how it all goes together.
As some of you may or may not know, I work as a graphic designer for a signage company, so I have access to all materials necessary (acrylic, paint, tools etc), and access/skills to run the programs to help put this thing together, and work out on the computer whether it will work in real life before I build it.
First I will start with the face of the unit. It is 4.5mm clear acrylic, mitred and glued at all corners (bar the back ones), to create a box face. The sides and about 5mm border on the front are painted black, then gloss clear. Basically what you end up with looks like this...
The most complicated part of the whole unit is the back face, which is 4.5mm clear acrylic, backsprayed black. This has grooves routed out on the front of it to allow the 10mm clear shelves to sit in perfect parallel to each other, and be glued in place.
The 10mm clear shelves also have grooves routed out of them, at 10mm wide, to take any Ultra Pro or Pro Mold one touch cases on the market. On this particular unit (which I guess is a working prototype for future units), I have one set of shelves at the top for portrait oriented cards, 2 sets of shleves in the middle for landscape oriented cards, and another set at the bottom for portrait oriented cards again.
That means this whole unit can hold 30 cards. Thats 9 per portrait row, and 6 per landscape row. Below is a pic of some random cards I have placed in the shelves.
So basically the idea is that the face is taken off, then the cards are slid into the grooves of the shelves either from the left or right side of the unit. Then the face is put back on again and the unit sits on a table or anything flat that it will fit on. This is probably as big as I would make a unit like this, as this one is fairly heavy. Nothing crazy, and it could be hung on a wall with the right mounting split battens, but I don't think you'd want to go any bigger. The unit actually measures about 700mm wide x 500mm high x 120mm deep. It could be shallower and that would cut back on a little weight and make it look even classier (and would suit hanging from a wall), but I am renting and I didn't want to go drilling into walls, so I make this unit lightly deeper than normal so it could sit on its base without fear of it falling over.
Once the cards are all in place, the unit stays lying down while the face is sat back on and screwed into place. The screws have been tapped into the unit so no matter how many times you undo/do them up, the thread will not be lost.
So thats it!
Like I said to alot of members in the leadup to me completing this, if I have enough interest in these units I will consider making them for members here exclusively. Price would be somewhere from $200 up to $400 depending on the size of the unit, but I think considering the price we pay for cards nowadays thats not bad. If I get interest in these I will work out concete prices etc, but thats for later.
I will throw up a couple more pics...
Oh, what a sexy card this is!
One I forgot to sit in the unit! 
Enjoy the pics and let me know what you all think!
Cheers.
Josh.
So, I guess I better run through how this unit works and how it all goes together.
As some of you may or may not know, I work as a graphic designer for a signage company, so I have access to all materials necessary (acrylic, paint, tools etc), and access/skills to run the programs to help put this thing together, and work out on the computer whether it will work in real life before I build it.
First I will start with the face of the unit. It is 4.5mm clear acrylic, mitred and glued at all corners (bar the back ones), to create a box face. The sides and about 5mm border on the front are painted black, then gloss clear. Basically what you end up with looks like this...
The most complicated part of the whole unit is the back face, which is 4.5mm clear acrylic, backsprayed black. This has grooves routed out on the front of it to allow the 10mm clear shelves to sit in perfect parallel to each other, and be glued in place.
The 10mm clear shelves also have grooves routed out of them, at 10mm wide, to take any Ultra Pro or Pro Mold one touch cases on the market. On this particular unit (which I guess is a working prototype for future units), I have one set of shelves at the top for portrait oriented cards, 2 sets of shleves in the middle for landscape oriented cards, and another set at the bottom for portrait oriented cards again.
That means this whole unit can hold 30 cards. Thats 9 per portrait row, and 6 per landscape row. Below is a pic of some random cards I have placed in the shelves.
So basically the idea is that the face is taken off, then the cards are slid into the grooves of the shelves either from the left or right side of the unit. Then the face is put back on again and the unit sits on a table or anything flat that it will fit on. This is probably as big as I would make a unit like this, as this one is fairly heavy. Nothing crazy, and it could be hung on a wall with the right mounting split battens, but I don't think you'd want to go any bigger. The unit actually measures about 700mm wide x 500mm high x 120mm deep. It could be shallower and that would cut back on a little weight and make it look even classier (and would suit hanging from a wall), but I am renting and I didn't want to go drilling into walls, so I make this unit lightly deeper than normal so it could sit on its base without fear of it falling over.
Once the cards are all in place, the unit stays lying down while the face is sat back on and screwed into place. The screws have been tapped into the unit so no matter how many times you undo/do them up, the thread will not be lost.
So thats it!
Like I said to alot of members in the leadup to me completing this, if I have enough interest in these units I will consider making them for members here exclusively. Price would be somewhere from $200 up to $400 depending on the size of the unit, but I think considering the price we pay for cards nowadays thats not bad. If I get interest in these I will work out concete prices etc, but thats for later.
I will throw up a couple more pics...
Oh, what a sexy card this is!
One I forgot to sit in the unit!
Enjoy the pics and let me know what you all think!
Cheers.
Josh.
How will you ship these interstate?
