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Custom Metal Computer Cases?
Sarreq Teryx asks: "I'm looking to buy a new case for my system, to fit in a particular space (20¼" tall x 11" wide), I've found plenty that fit the height (I personally like the Lian-Li PC-6089A out of that bunch), but all the cases I've seen are either the too-too narrow 7½" to 8¼" wide consumer tower cases (that Lian-Li included), or the super wide 13" to 20" wide server cases (which tend to be on the unbearably ugly side), both of which are the wrong width.Does anyone happen to know if any PC case company makes cases that are ~20" tall x ~10¾" wide, or of any company makes custom cases from the plate metal up? I've never done any metal working, so if I were to make one myself, it'd end up being made of wood, and I don't particularly like that idea."
Make sure you've got plenty of airflow to the back - no fun hooking it up, only to find that all that pressured air behind it makes it rocket out of your nook!
No, seriously, make sure that it doesn't overheat - either a vent back there, a vent above, or airflow in/out of the front/side.
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How exactly is metal a good material for cases?
RF Shielding? Durability? Easy grounding? Doesn't accumulate static charges?
=Smidge=
you would need a hand brake and ofcourse, a nice drill press, and i would also recomend a shear the ones given are mearly examples of what you would need tool wise. you can sometimes get them in an all in one combination.. brake press to bend the metal, shear to do your big straight cuts and a drill press for precision holes.. you would need airplane shears and a few other assorted tools like perhaps a scratch awl and what not..
-- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount}
If I were building a wooden, ceramic, or plastic case I would line it with window screen, or reasonable equivalent, to sheild the rest of the world from the radio-frequency interference the computer generated.
I bought a waity-waity-wait IBM-XT clone in 1985 from my buddy. He had been forced to build a faraday cage to surround it, because it was noisy, both acoustically and electronically.
He built it out of particle board, lined with alumninum foil, lined with foam.
Heating was a serious problem. The foam insulation that lined the faraday cage, held in place a one litre coffee can, with both ends removed. Fitted over the exhaust fan from the power supply it was just the right size to form a snorkel to direct the exhaust air out of the cage. But on a couple of occasions the can got knocked out of position. On those occasions when I opened the faraday cage a few hours later, it was like an oven.
The clone still worked, but some of the components had scorch marks, and my Six-pack-plus card is noticably warped.
Do you think that electricity ignites gasoline? There is nothing wrong with the safety of a wooden case. In fact, do you recall that televisions maybe 2 decades ago where often set in wood cabinets. Also, isn't your oven surrounded by some type of wood product?
When I was younger, I had a little farm of 386 motherboards held in with a wood rack I built. I never had problems. You might say that a 3 Ghz Pentium runs hotter than a 386, but that really doesn't matter since you do not place a block of wood on top of a CPU like you would a heatsink.
Not to insult your intelligence, but have you thought about how you would secure a motherboard to a liquid like gasoline?
PCMods has a line of wooden cases.
Google: wooden computer case
Anyway, this is offtopic. Good luck to the poster in their search...
Ditto
My favorite bookstore Has a number of books that will help anyone planning to make their own computer case. Not to mention all the fun science things that can help you do. Get the dead tree catalog, it has many books that are not online.
Then I guess there's no company that makes them approx this size stock then?
3 Issues with wood cases:
1) Ground management. You don't have a chassis ground anymore, and ground loops are bad.
2) EMC. Most modern computers spew out signals all over the place even without the case, it gets _much_ worse without the case. Granted, this is slashdot, and people leave the covers off all the time...
3) Weight/Strength. A metal case is going to be lighter than an equivalently strong wooden case. Wood (depending on type) is also often easier to dent (and much harder to remove).
If you do it, make sure you plane/sand all the interior parts _very_ well.. fan bearing and CD-ROMS do not appreciate splinters.
"'Tis great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults, greater to tell him his." --Poor Richard's Almanac
While that link is interesting, I don't think you understood what I was getting at. If you remove the heatsink from a fast proc, it will no doubt get hot, and I'm sure it will burn wood, melt plastic, cook breakfast, etc... But mounting a motherboard on a piece of wood is not dangerous! Air is an excellent buffer, as is wood. Air will not ignite at 370 degrees, and wood a few centimetres away also will not. Go to your local swimming pool, and ask how many times their sauna has burst into flames. Be paranoid about leaving the coffee pot on, but don't think that there is even a remote chance of a fire occuring with a properly thought-out and constructed wooden case....
Ditto
Go for some wood spacers on both sides of the narrow case, sand the parts smooth, then paint to match a nice aluminum Lian-Li PC case. Not that hard, and requires only the ability to cut the wood to size, various grits of sandpaper, and either some paintbrushes, or an airbrush (would look better done with an airbrush - you can find cheap ones at hobby shops now).
That is all...
Anyone know of any good vandal resistand metal cases? for school and kiosk levels of torture :)
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Alright, at the risk of sounding like an ass:
A CD drive is ~5.75 inches wide... 2 * 5.75 inches = 11.5 inches
Why would anyone build a case almost wide enough for two CD drives but not quite?
I hate to say it, but have you thought "outside the box"? Why not just use a regular case and build a wooden frame to occupy the unused space? As this sounds like it might not have a lot of clear area behind it, what about using the extra space for air return from the back of the case? (Did you think that far ahead) You could build the frame to make it look like the surrouding area was larger, or the case was bigger, either way will work. Seriously folks, I know we're mostly Engineers here, but we can think about the Real World factors a bit.
Kurdt
I'm not anti-social. Just pro-technology.
There is nothing wrong with the safety of a wooden case.
You are right that the wood probably won't catch fire.
However, wood is a good thermal insulator, and metal a good thermal conductor.
It's likely to raise case temperature quite a bit.
May we never see th
Get a really large server case, that has a deep (more than a foot) well of none occupied space at the bottom, with no electrics or other servicable items in the area, and then fill with large block of lead. That should pretty much do it.
Regards,
Ryan Pritchard
Fun Extends All Basic Life Expectancies
those PCMods one are actually quite nice, but still the wrong size
Your greatest expense with metal working will be in the tools, not the metal itself (ok, metal is more expensive than wood - and don't get me started on retail pricing of thick plate steel - but that is why you get your metal scrap, surplus, or wholesale). If you have tools for woodworking, you probably have the bare minimum of what you need (electric drill and jigsaw). You will need different bits and blades for those (mark the blades with an indelible ink so you know which is which, unless the blade is an "all purpose" - this goes doubly so if you use a fine blade for plastics). You will probably also want to get a drill press, if you don't already have one. Those are the basic tools.
With those tools, you can build quite a lot - if you don't mind bolting/screwing things together. You can also get very creative with JB Weld (that stuff is *very* strong if used properly), if you want. If the metal is very lightweight stuff, soldering with a torch is possible, too (use acid core solder here). Also, look into brazing and alluminum rod soldering (it is like a form of brazing, but it used special rod for alluminum and a stainless steel brush) - both tried and true techniques for quick, easy, and strong metal joining (most bicycles are held together via brazed joints, not welded joints).
After that, you get into "heavier duty" metal work - which also translates into more expense (most generally for the tools). Believe me, when you cut your first piece of plate steel using an oxy-acet torch (look at the running molten slag, feel the heat, smell the burning steel - don't let it hit your feet!) - you won't want to do it any other way. Alright, you don't *need* such a torch, but it is a handy (though expensive) tool. Really, for entry level work here, you need a low-power arc welder, and some kind of cutoff tool.
When you first start looking, you will find there are many types of arc welders, and most of them are pretty expensive. If you have the money, get a 220V AC/DC welder with a nice range setting, and have an electrician wire up an outlet for you with a dedicated breaker. Sometimes, you can make a conversion cord for the AC outlet an electric dryer or water heater is connected to (generally 220V appliances) - you need such a cord or box because the plug on "consumer" 220VAC and "industrial" 220VAC machinery are different. However, you won't be able to run both at the same time.
These welders tend to be expensive (and hiring an electrician to run a line increases this expense) - so if you have to get one, get a good one. I would personally reccommend a Lincoln 225 (the AC/DC type - not AC only - they make both) - it will do everything you are likely to throw at it. It is a rod arc welder (there are wire feed welders, both gas and gasless - but they can be more expensive still - get used to rod, then move to wire later). You will need to get a helmet, chipping hammer, gloves, steel brushes, and a place to work (typically, your driveway or back porch - you may want to invest in some 1/4-1/2 inch piece of plate steel as a surface protector - a 3x3 foot piece should suffice for many things). You will run into a lot of difficulties welding - the biggest one is the rod sticking (this is where DC comes in - DC sticks less). If the rod sticks, wiggle it to break the rod away, or release the "stinger" from the rod to break the circuit. There are a number of other issues (blowing holes, starting the arc, keeping the arc going, running the bead, etc) - so many numerous things I can't describe them all here (maybe I should make a FAQ?). It can be frustrating, but also fun. Never look at the arc directly. Always wear a dark t-shirt when welding (the flash can get under the helmet, and while y
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It is more expensive, heavier
Sheet steel is cheaper than any high grade wood or polymer product you'll find. You'll want the high grade products if you don't want it to look like ass. It also tends to be stronger at any given thickness, so your steel case can potentially be lighter than a wood or polymer case.
Except for the strength issue (don't use balsa...), all of those issues are easily solvable by gluing copper or aluminum foil on the inside of each wood panel, or some sort of wire mesh (window screening will work...)
I would take the nice look of a wood case over a light one any day for my main desktop system. (A LAN party system would be a different story...) With the right wood, a wood case can be MUCH stronger than a metal one.
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They will work but you'll need to go to a bit
of trouble to shield it. Either RFI paint or tacking foil onto the wood making sure you have a passable farad cage.
Metal would be easier, using inserts as someone else said and a standard case would be best.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
+ He added an LCD display displaying the CPU & overall temps, and he drilled holes in a line under the switches (1 for each switch) and put in LEDs so he would know which (if any) fans were turned on! I don't know if this might sound a tad advanced for you but either way, lemme tell ya, that was a HELL of a cool case to check out, especially in action!
*fiddles with the switches* Fans go on! *fiddles again* Fans go off! *fiddles some more* Fans go on!...
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plexiglass, lexan, acrylic? anyway I don't like clear cases, I don't even like windowed cases. I'm just looking for a normal nice looking metal case that will fit into a particular space without any gaps.