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Building a Laptop Enclosure To Last (makezine.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the things-HP-doesn't-like-to-do dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Build quality is a characteristic many people value in laptop design, but one that often goes unrepresented on a spec sheet. Over at Make, Kurt Mottweiler took build quality to the next level with his laptop enclosure design, which replaces the typical plastic clamshell with a wood veneer filled with e-glass cloth and cork composite. The article shows his build process in detail. Quoting: "The LCD panel and main enclosure components are assembled using vacuum bag clamping techniques. After assembling the layers of the panels at the glue station, the assembly is transferred to the molding station where it is put into a seamed bag and sealed up with a roller rod and clamps. Then a special vacuum pump is used to evacuate the bag and allow atmospheric pressure to clamp the layers together while the epoxy binder cures. ... To increase the strength, improve heat dissipation, and enhance the aesthetic properties of the Heirloom's main enclosure, I chose to use an undulating shape across the width of the bottom panel. The slight wave provides a semi-monocoque structure that stiffens the otherwise flat section of the case while providing for a measure of air flow across the bottom of the case."

16 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Looks nice , but ... by PPH · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... who wants a laptop that will last? What happens when new processors and technology come out and you've got to scrap your investment in aesthetics?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Looks nice , but ... by oakgrove · · Score: 5, Informative

      Doesn't look like it'd be much trouble (relative to building this in the first place) to replace the innards every 3-5 years or so if you felt the need. Besides, the open-source Novena computer designed by Bunnie Huang and Sean Cross that this is built to enclose has as one of its goals a "requirement for user access to the internal components" so I'm guessing being able to upgrade iteratively is kind of the idea.

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      The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
    2. Re:Looks nice , but ... by TWX · · Score: 2

      "Replace the innards" doesn't work for most laptops as each laptop line is engineered as an assembly based on the components that are considered necessary at the time. Fifteen years ago laptops would have needed a floppy diskette drive, a CD-ROM drive, a 2.5" hard disk drive, PS/2 port, 15-pin SVGA, a 9-pin RS-232 serial port, a dual-slot PCMCIA slot, and an RJ11 socket tied to an internal modem. Some machines would have had a 25-pin Parallel port too.

      Now, we need SSD, USB, 802.11 wireless with internal antennas, SDXC socket, possibly SIM 3G/4G capability with internal antennas, digital video-out like HDMI or Mini-HDMI or a Displayport variant, and on machines designed to be workstations, docking ports and RJ-45 Ethernet port. Even optical drives are not considered essential anymore and are limited to specific models.

      Now, look at the price of a high-end laptop and of a low-end laptop. When we bought my wife's Thinkpad X301 when it it was new it was about $1700, and was equipped with just about every option available at the time. When we replaced it a little over a year ago with a Thinkpad Yoga 12 it was around $1200, with the Core i7, the 8GB RAM, the big SSD (can't remember offhand if 512GB or 256GB), etc. We got five years of usage out of the X301 and it got dragged across two continents and probably sixty flights. Amortized over time it cost $340 per year while it was in regular service. If that Yoga 12 lasts five years it'll cost $240/year, and so far it's handled probably half a dozen flights without any problems. We replaced the X301 in-part because the performance was no longer meeting our needs, and in-part because the battery was getting to the point where it wasn't lasting even two hours anymore, so no good on flights, and the cost of a battery was high enough relative to the performance of the machine to turn us away from buying another.

      It does not make economic sense to build a portable, personal computer to last longer than five years when the computer will no longer meet the needs of the user after those five years are up. Moore's Law states that computing power doubles every eighteen months. Assuming the same class of machine, replacement computer five years later is around eight times more powerful than the computer it replaced. From an engineering perspective, it simply doesn't make sense to overbuild on orders of magnitude past the realistic lifespan of the computer.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    3. Re:Looks nice , but ... by oakgrove · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Replace the innards" doesn't work for most laptops

      This isn't "most laptops". This is a custom hand built enclosure for an open source computer[1] designed specifically to be user upgradable. Your entire comment makes no sense in the context of this article.

      [1] http://www.kosagi.com/w/index....

      --
      The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
    4. Re:Looks nice , but ... by roc97007 · · Score: 2

      Computers made ten years ago will do the things that currently available computers can do, with a vanishingly few exceptions. Currently available computers can't do 100% of current things either. ("cost effective" computers and high end games, for instance.) I'm writing this on a seven year old Dell laptop. My computer at home is a ten year old motherboard in an enclosure from the turn of the century. Yet I make a small living as a photographer running the current Adobe suite on that machine.

      There are a few people who have exceptional needs. For the great majority, there just isn't anything they do that requires a leap in resources. We have long ago reached the flat end of the curve.

      But go ahead and replace your perfectly good unit that has resources you don't fully utilize for a more powerful computer that will have even more resources you don't fully utilize. You're helping to prop up the computer industry so the rest of us don't have to.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    5. Re:Looks nice , but ... by PPH · · Score: 2

      I have an IBM PC Case (Model 5150) with modern guts. I had to do some sheet metal work to the back to fit modern motherboard I/O ports, the power supply, etc. But yes, laptops are small and there are few standards for board sizes. One approach to upgrading a laptop might be to stick a Raspberry Pi where the old system board was

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    6. Re:Looks nice , but ... by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      Previous one was HDD, and they come with a half inch super soft rubber isolation all around the hard drive. current one that I throw regularly is an SSD.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    7. Re:Looks nice , but ... by toddestan · · Score: 2

      In the real olden days, you had 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 screens, available even on entry-level laptops. IBM even made a 2048x1536 screen for a while, back when Thinkpads were Thinkpads. Then everything went to shit with 16:9, and we had the dark days of 1366x768 everywhere. It's only been the last year or two where laptop resolutions started to exceed what was common 10 years ago.

  2. Or... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How I Built an Heirloom Laptop

    Or: How I have money and time than you

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re: Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't worry, ADD is common these

  3. Missed the boat by argee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the fellow has met HIS goals, but they miss the boat.
    The main cause of laptops dying is spills on the keyboard and the underlying electronics.
    The broken ones I have seen involve damage to the LCD screens. Neither of these
    scenarios are addressed by THIS wood/composite design.

    It appears the gentleman mainly designed for drop resistance, rather than spill and
    LCD strikes. He has sought for a problem to the solution he proposes.

    Lastly, most laptops end up discarded not because of damage, but because their
    innards are obsolete. His insides are not upgradeable; the bulky case has limited
    interior space and is not modular. The materials used are impact resistant but they
    have to be made and formed by hand.

  4. Not the most retarded thing I've ever seen by H0p313ss · · Score: 4, Funny

    But it might make the top ten.

    --
    XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
  5. Being run over by a tank? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    I thought I saw a TV news segment back in the 1980's that the GRiD Compass laptop was designed to withstand being run over by a tank. With an $8,150 USD price tag and sold mostly to the government, the case should be quite sturdy.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_Compass

  6. Thinkpads by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

    I have a Lenovo T430. My backpack laptop bag opened up in a mall awhile ago and the laptop fell onto the hard tile floor, bouncing several times. Not even a crack or chip. Still looks like new. Without a doubt the best laptop purchase I have made.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  7. Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not only is this a waste of time and money, but they left the ThinkPad insignias on it after assembly. And it's supposed to be some kind of "open source project"

    I'm not too surprised though, the following article is about how a guy restored his guitar by laser-etching a "sacred geometry" pattern onto it.

    And the site's tagline is "We are all makers!"

    In other words, come here with your money to feel less guilty and possibly even convince yourself you're not a total moron!

  8. Cork?? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's impact resistant sure, but it's a damn good thermal insulator. Heat is a killer.

    Also, plastic clamshells tend to hold up okay when dropped. Fans getting clogged (or dying from mechanical failure), power supply breaking off the board, or lcds cracking seem to be far more likely causes of laptop replacement.

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