Okay, I enlisted some assistance for this project from She-who-shall-remain-unamed over the past few weeks, so things have been moving forward (mostly) while I've been kernel hacking to pay the bills.

There is a huge stack of pre-wired back panels for docks sitting here, and more of those getting completed each day.

I have purchased additional docking connectors and pins, and ordered more fans from my Supplier-Of-Things-That-Run-Silently.

Down in the workshop are huge stacks of cut-out MDF bits and pieces for the shells of about 85 docks. Unfortunately, the local Borg is now stocking a slightly lighter variety of 1/2" MDF than before, so the tops/bottoms will be mostly darker than the sides on this batch of units, so they will definitely want an opaque topcoat of paint rather than a clear finish. Your choice on that.

But one problem that arose is the tablesaw has at some point shifted ever so slightly out of alignment (it's had tons of heavy use with no readjustment for over five years now, and only once in the five years before that.

The result is that we need to re-mill about 270 pieces to square them up ever so slightly. Fortunately, the original dock dimensions have enough slack in that particular dimension that the re-milling will actually improve the design overall.. it just means a slowdown while I get it right (me this time, not She-wsru).

Today I stumbled across a nifty new system for crimping RJ-45 cables, and I'm considering taking the $100 up front plunge for the cutter and crimper to save some cost/labour in that area.

Each dock requires a 1' cable with RJ-45 connectors on each end, threaded through a wooden block. Previously, I purchased pre-made cables (to save labour) and glued up the blocks around the cables from separate pieces of wood.

With this new system, we can simplify the blocks to a single piece with a slot and centre hole, and then crimp a cable threaded into place through the centre hole. I think the labour ends up being less for each dock, and the cost probably about the same overall -- accounting for the equipment purchase and slightly more expensive RJ-45 connectors.

For anyone interested, I don't have a web link (yet), but the crimping system is from "Platinum Tools", and is called "EZ-RJ45".

Cheers