That looks so much better when finished.

What is the weight of the phone with the new back cover?

That question has already been asked (by the same poster, no less) and answered. The poster has even thanked for the answer. A temporary amnesia, perhaps?

Yeah you're right. I totally forgot that the question was answered.

Thanks! Many people had doubts after seeing results of 3D printing things like keyboard TOH's for Jolla, etc. While I don't mean any disrespect for 3D printing DIY'yers here - in fact, they're bunch super-creative people, and it's really nice to see that people are entering self-manufacturing with such enthusiasm - I understand why consumer 3D printing results may not match one's aesthetic.

That's why I've chosen CNC approach, which is much less common, and for good reasons - one need to gain heck of experience when building such manufacturing machine, to achieve desired results. Many caveats along the way (if some of you remember my early video footages of CNC machine and would compare it with it's current look, it could be hardly called the same unit - it was reworked and tweaked so many times...), and inaccuracy margin is much smaller, not to mention higher possibility of damaging own hard-build equipment (more likely) or self health (less likely, but still possible with mill razor turning 24000 times per minute with 2kW of power, and accelerating cut-off metal particles adequately).

Anyway, I hope that final results of flat backcover aesthetic are satisfying to you as they are to me - it looks elegant, yet sturdy. Custom finish methods may make them look more badass (for example, leaving traces of CNC mill) or "mainstream" (for example, choosing glossy lacquer variant, instead of matte). Peersonally, I'm "waiting" for the fat version, as it's what I'll be using every day in real-life applications not to mention the tripod launch, that, if someone still remembers that, was a spark that started this project alltogether.

After that, the most exciting part - whole body replacement. This one is going to be definitely tricky to polish (radios), and overall, whole lotta heck of a challenge to integrate properly, considering the amount of functional features we want to add (sourcing shielded hirose u.FL to regular mini antennae adapters with good quality builds and affordable price, for example... And ones possible to dissasembly, as we will need to modify them for our needs (3 hirose ends, one regular antenna end). Eagerly looking forward to meet those challenges!
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From organizational announcements - we're going to close backcover pre-order donations in two weeks - soon to be replaced by regular "orders". It would be quite unfair to allow people get the same "goodies" pre-ordering 2 days before backcovers become readily available for purchase, as we have offered to early supporters. Anyway, if you want to donate counting for pre-order, it's the last chance . Full body replacement (and regular, non pre-order) donations will still be accepted, as the body thing is likely to require many expected and unexpected financial expenses.

Just as backcovers in both variants will start becoming ready for shipping, all past pre-order people should expect mails (and other forms of contact) about details, choices, custom engravings, etc. This is going to be happy moment!

Cheers,
/Estel

So the day's finally nearing, excellent, any (preliminary) plans for the N9 yet, perhaps almost time to start a dedicated thread?

I think that such question will be correct near the day of releasing N900's body replacement (as N900 would require whole body replacement too), not the backcover stage. Sorry, not yet

/Estel

What is the accuracy of the CNC milling machine?

In general, or my personal one? In the former case, well, as accurate as you make it LinuxCNC suite supports 0,0001 mm accuracy, which can be further divided by using fraction of steps. Of course it's theoretical accuracy, pracital one need to be measured by real-life effect, and depends on the technique that your CNC machine is built, properties of materials used there, etc.

Another factor affecting accuracy, is the so-called "rectangle correctness" - i.e how close to ideal is the rectangle (or cube) made by your machine, in terms of angle accuracy. So it's not all about how well the machine reflects the step-motor move you want it to in linear move, the things like 3D-angles of every working part in your machine plays a role, too. Proper calibrating it for real-life results is a heck of a task, and if you're aiming for high accuracy, it should redone with every major change in temperature and humidity (unless you keep your CNC in something like server-room controlled environment).

You can skip most of those, if your machine have no more than something like 0,1 mm, accuracy (which, in real life effects, can create surprisingly non-matching parts...). The machine I'm using now - after many upgrades and design changes - have real-life accuracy of about 0,01 mm. Generally, whole things i (now) build for even better one, but the mechanic of the threaded axises is limiting here. One day, I will replace "classical" threaded axises I use, with much-more expensive ball-chain ones. For now, using backslash must be enough.
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Now, just a small side-note - when comparing accuracy between different devices, be sure that you're looking at the test results from real-life things such machine have made. Many sellers (or even DIY'ers) post a theoretical accuracy, which is completely unrelated to reality (that's why you may read about 0,01 accuracy on 3D printer, while, in reality, you still have "stripes" of plastic, that you need to clean manually, and are visible clearly by naked eye, or felt to the touch).

/Estel

http://s27.postimg.org/dadhkd6b7/cover2.jpg
This is the final design? That kickstand is an aesthetic disaster.
I dreamed to have an alu back cover. But with that hole and that kickstand
I will dream no more. Anyway good luck.