A Pocket Computer with a Beautiful CNC-Milled Wood Enclosure

For much of the 20th century, electric devices like radios were built a lot like furniture. They were relatively pricey and buyers expected them to last for decades, which meant a lot of heavy, sturdy wood. But by the time I was born in the ‘80s, manufacturers had abandoned that wood in favor of injection-molded plastic and faux wood veneer. Now they don’t even both with those — everything is sleek aluminum and glass. But Nicholas LaBonte is a man of sophistication of refined tastes, which is why he CNC-milled a beautiful wood enclosure for his pocket computer-style cyberdeck.

LaBonte cites ClockworkPi’s uConsole as a source of inspiration and, by all accounts, that is a quality product, but this is truly impressive and has a much more “premium” feel to it. That’s mostly thanks to the material choices and fabrication techniques.

This project makes heavy use of CNC milling, all done on a Carbide3D Nomad 3, and the back half of the enclosure is the most obvious example of that. LaBonte milled that out of a solid hunk of sapele hardwood, which is from a tree native to Nigeria and some of the surrounding areas. It is a really gorgeous wood with very nice grain. LaBonte milled both sides, so the enclosure has a professional appearance.

The front half of the enclosure was also CNC-milled, with that part being a phenolic material. And the keyboard is especially beautiful. It is a custom design with flat faux aluminum key caps, each with engraved labels. Even the heatsink, which is visible on the back, is custom (CNC-milled from bronze).

The electronic components are more typical of a project like this. They include a Raspberry Pi 5 single-board computer, an 800×480 touchscreen, an RTL-SDR, and a Waveshare UPS (uninterruptible power supply) module. The keyboard is a custom PCB built around a Microchip ATmega32u4 microcontroller. It has tactile buttons beneath those CNC-milled keycaps, giving a nice clicky feel. The mouse is a joystick with a flat top, like an oversized IBM TrackPoint or a Sony PSP stick.

This isn’t perfect and LaBonte has reported some issues, like overheating and some interference with the SDR. But this device is undeniably beautiful, and the use of less common materials and fabrication processes is always nice to see.