Cipher 5210XT inspired external drive chassis

Project Background

After completing my IBM 5150 inspired PC, I decided to build an external drive chassis to go along with it and to hold a few types of drives that I did not have room for in the main PC. My goal with this project was to match the style of the IBM 5150, and have a full height 5.25" drive bay. Looking back at reference photos of external drives paired with the IBM PC, I discovered that the Cipher 5210XT external tape drive matches what I was looking for, thus I decided to base my design on it.

Designing the Front Panel

As with the IBM 5150, the front panel is the centerpoint of this drive chassis

Initally, I statred by creating a miniaturezed version of the 5150 front panel, as pictured below, however this concept did not look that good and was soon adapted to a more Cipher-like design

The Cipher styled design shown below is significantly simpler, and will substantially reduce the material use when it is 3D printed.