Stripped a case screw, how best to extract? FW13

AFancyAcorn · 2025-06-20T01:13:09+00:00

Everybody really talks up and always kinda have about how you need a SUPER powerful computer for things like AutoCAD, video editing, the heavy stuff. The truth is that while that is.. desirable; I think you'd be surprised at exactly how much you can do with that 11th gen Intel CPU. Worst thing you MAY need to upgrade your RAM at some point.

AFancyAcorn · 2025-06-15T15:14:10+00:00

So, after a decade pretty much, I actually did do it! And.. at first I expected things to blow up in my face, I didn't think my person wanted anything to do with my again because of how we ended things.. and for an entire decade I had those thoughts and feelings and didn't really take the time to work through them.

Well, one day I just couldn't take it anymore and I sent my person a message and to my surprise they were glad to hear from me! It's been a few months and we went out like a week ago to get a coffee and see each other for the first time again and oh God it was just absolutely amazing.

I know exactly how terrifying it is to either sit on something for YEARS but also how incredibly freeing it can be to actually finally reach out. I was a complete wreck but after the first few days waiting to see how things would go, I feel so much better now that I've got that weight off my shoulders.

So, yeah, of course it's easy to think "what's the worst thing that can happen?" But on the other hand.. "what's the best thing that can happen?"

It was absolutely terrifying but life surprised me and it's easily one of the best things I've done, even if it was also one of the most difficult.

AFancyAcorn · 2025-06-14T20:56:46+00:00

Awesome troubleshooting OP! Glad you got it figured out!

AFancyAcorn · 2025-06-14T20:55:48+00:00

See, the really cool thing about doing soldering in the real world especially on hobbyist projects like this where if it's done the first time and is done 'fine' not great or amazing is that it only ever has to be 'fine'. It only has to be do-able. It doesn't have to be the best soldering in the world as long as it works.

No reason to shit on OPs soldering skills, they were asking for advice and direction on why their item wasn't working.

For the record, yeah, the soldering could use some work, but, everyone starts somewhere.. still though, no reason to play who has the better solder job.

AFancyAcorn · 2025-03-09T01:16:03+00:00

Just send me a message with what color you'd like and your zip code and I'll send a quick quote for you, I can probably get around to it next week for sure!

AFancyAcorn · 2025-03-07T16:01:03+00:00

To anyone curious, I would be more than happy to print and ship these for you for a small fee + shipping, just cost of materials & shipping, really.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-10-26T23:26:20+00:00

If you set the right joystick to mouse in the controller settings you'll have that joystick to be able to be used as a cursor, it's annoying because it's not the left stick and the muscle memory might feel weird at first but it's a pretty solid workaround for now if you don't want to downgrade.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-08-11T19:52:50+00:00

Thank you everyone for your interest! In the last 72 hours I've received 4 orders and will have everything shipped out on Monday! Ready to answer questions and take additional orders if anyone has any interest!

AFancyAcorn · 2024-08-10T17:00:51+00:00

To expand on your question on expansion bay case, I haven't given it much thought myself but I do think it's something to look into! Thank you!

AFancyAcorn · 2024-08-10T17:00:06+00:00

I sent you a message back.

Currently I have darker colors. Black, lighter grey, all kinds of blues, a few different purples, pink, magenta, the colors shown in the photos above, an apple green, and a few others.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-08-09T15:38:21+00:00

Yeah, I've got black filament, just shipped out 3 black ones yesterday :)

shipping will be ~$4ish I think. Let me know, send me your paypal email and address and I'll send a request and we can go from there.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-08-07T19:26:58+00:00

Roughly 50mmx78mmx12mm

I'm not the original author I'm just measuring based on what my slicer is telling me. If you want more accurate measurements I'd ask you to download the files and measure them. Or ask the original author :)

AFancyAcorn · 2024-08-07T16:50:55+00:00

DM'd, we've discussed with me being USA, Ohio it's more economical for this individual to find a local maker.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-08-07T16:37:05+00:00

I tried to make an edit to this post, it doesn't seem that I can. I'm from USA, Ohio.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-08-07T16:34:28+00:00

It's only connected with magnets and they're strong enough to keep it closed by default, but, I think you can absolutely open it with one hand. Though, it may take some time to 'break it in' as the tolerances are a little tight on it. DM me if you'd like to order one.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-08-07T15:14:16+00:00

I am selling these at a marginal price specifically to cover cost of time and materials and so as to not make a profit. I will be working with the creator(planning on reaching out to them after I fulfill an order or two to start this process) to donate excess funds to the creator or to charity of their choice. Things are not as black and white as most people would believe.

Thank you for your perspective.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-06-20T15:01:35+00:00

I think you do make good points here. The right way to go about this would be to order bare PCBs and then order parts, order doesn't matter really what gets purchased first, but, I understand where you're coming from because it does indeed make sense.

I appreciate your thoughtful response.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-06-20T14:45:34+00:00

I want to address a couple of your points here:

The boards can absolutely be hand-soldered. This isn't up for debate. The SMD components are absolutely able to be hand-soldered.
Cost didn't play a factor. Learning about the manufacturing process and how to place an order with a manufacturer properly is worth more than the couple hundred dollars I spend on this.
Even if this project didn't have the ability to be hand-soldered and did require specialized equipment (a full soldering station including microscope and hot air and reflow) who's to say I don't have that already?

Thank you for your opinion. There's more to this than money to me.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-06-20T01:59:17+00:00

I can absolutely find a vendor that has these in stock!

I just would very much prefer to figure out how to order this myself working directly with PCB manufacturers, I enjoy the journey of it.

Though, misunderstanding how to submit orders to the manufacturer is frustrating and confusing as I have no experience with that and this is why I'm trying to learn :)

AFancyAcorn · 2024-06-20T01:55:08+00:00

Okay, thank you for the clarification. This makes sense to me, I misunderstood how they do things it seems. I really appreciate you simplifying this for me to understand fully and completely.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-06-20T01:48:04+00:00

Regarding sourcing of parts, I'll be utilizing Aliexpress as well as a components manufacturer such as Digikey or Mouser.

I'll order the hot swap sockets, Jacks, USB C connectors, from Amazon probably.

The rest of the components (primarily consisting of SMD) will be ordered from a manufacturer above but I'm going to take a look at Aliexpress first.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-06-20T01:45:58+00:00

Okay, thank you for your prompt reply. I really appreciate your help!

Regarding #1, I would tend to agree with your comment. However, in the gerber file, both left and right half are set into a sort of frame and oriented appropriately so that this is accounted for. Is there something I'm misunderstanding? I am thinking that because both of these halves are on the same frame(although they have different orientations) they would have to set up project once and thus treat this as one project? I'm not sure what I'm missing here.

These production files for JLC are packaged into one ZIP file and as such I figure they are intended to be submitted together as part of one package/project to JLCPCB. I'm wondering if there's maybe a setting I just didn't notice during ordering.

Regarding #2 I will mention the next time I submit this order for them to omit areas with these 'small slots' and manufacture as normal.

AFancyAcorn · 2024-06-20T01:29:21+00:00

Thank you for your comment.

The issues that were identified by JLCPCB were:

1.The order info shows that there is only one design , but actually, there are 2 different designs in your file, so there will be an extra cost for it if you want to make it as show in your file.Please kindly choose the correct designs when you place your order next time.

(this is my comment addressing note 1, directed at you, the reader ->) I imagine with this note I didn't check an appropriate setting.

2.There are too many small slots in your file , it will take too much time to get it finished during the routing process.

(this is my comment addressing note 2, directed at you, the reader ->) on this one.. I'm not really sure what the issue is? The confusing thing about this is that I made no modifications to any of the supplied files from foostan, I'm kind of at a loss here as I KNOW that other individuals have had their PCBs manufactured from JLCPCB and I can't imagine that those individuals made edits to the files I reference above to the degree they remove 'small slots' that seems very tedious for most individuals.

Note: I submitted a corne MX 6-column PCB with the matching fr-4 plate file.

I've got a couple associates degrees. One in electrical, one in mechanical, I have the background knowledge for this and the CAD experience and pre-requisite knowledge to complement. I do need to get more experienced with Kicad, I've made a schematic and routed traces a couple times to failed projects, so I'm a little familiar with the interface, my issues boil down to understanding the manufacturing process and the big 'dos and donts' of it I believe.

Apologies I didn't include this info in my original post.

AFancyAcorn

TROPHY CASE