Newbie- Making a computer case...

[kinghong1970]

So i woke up one day and decided... hmm... how tough can it be?

well, i'm very interested in this... but i'm no pro... i've worked on some old pc cases but mostly cutting and modding pre-mades...

design is somewhat simple, and of course, professional cutting will yield better results but i've got the itch and basically, steady hand, some common sense, jig saw, scroll saw and/or band saw should do the trick, no?

material is basically aluminum sheets.

i like the thought of using 2mm thick aluminum sheets but in my previous modding experiments, the thicker they are, 90deg bends will make them "crack"...

internal structures can be made with thinner sheets... and support can be done via L brackets...

but down to the questions...

1) is 2mm too thick to bend 90 deg?
2) can i cut <2mm alum sheets in scroll saw/band saw/jig saw?
3) to bend, i see that i may need a box & pan brake... how accurate are they?
4) what aluminum sheets is good enough for pc cases? i see 4 digit number and i assume they are different alum alloys as per mcmaster.com... but what would you recommend?
5) the design so far, is < 36" in width, any box and pan brake you guys can recommend that is going to give me nice 90 deg bends?

thank you in advance for your help.

[doorknob]

I don't have much experience in this area, but I recently started investigating something along these lines.

A good google search term is "aluminum bend radius" - that search will bring up many good sources for info that relates different aluminum alloys to the minimum radius that should be used to avoid cracking of the material. I found, for example, that 6061 aluminum needs a much greater bend radius (perhaps 3 times to 6 times the thickness of the sheet) than the 5052 alloy.

I just bought a simple 36" wide bending brake from Harbor Freight for about $199 (using a discount coupon), but have not yet set it up. See 36" Metal Brake with Stand There are other styles of bending brakes available (for example, so-called "finger" brakes) that are more flexible in applications such as bending small electronic boxes. There are also much less expensive units that mount to a bench top and use C-clamps to hold the material in place while bending.

[DareBee]

Originally Posted by kinghong1970 1) is 2mm too thick to bend 90 deg?

No

2) can i cut <2mm alum sheets in scroll saw/band saw/jig saw?

Yes

3) to bend, i see that i may need a box & pan brake... how accurate are they?

As accurate as you are - make test pieces to learn from

4) what aluminum sheets is good enough for pc cases? i see 4 digit number and i assume they are different alum alloys as per mcmaster.com... but what would you recommend?

Any utility grade (3000 series) is standard for fabricating with.


IMO spending many days building something that you can buy for $100 doesn't make sense (you would make more $ going to work).
However - have fun with the project.

[kinghong1970]

Originally Posted by doorknob I don't have much experience in this area, but I recently started investigating something along these lines. A good google search term is "aluminum bend radius" - that search will bring up many good sources for info that relates different aluminum alloys to the minimum radius that should be used to avoid cracking of the material. I found, for example, that 6061 aluminum needs a much greater bend radius (perhaps 3 times to 6 times the thickness of the sheet) than the 5052 alloy. I just bought a simple 36" wide bending brake from Harbor Freight for about $199 (using a discount coupon), but have not yet set it up. See 36" Metal Brake with Stand There are other styles of bending brakes available (for example, so-called "finger" brakes) that are more flexible in applications such as bending small electronic boxes. There are also much less expensive units that mount to a bench top and use C-clamps to hold the material in place while bending.

thank you very much doorknob for your detailed reply.
i am looking at the box & pan brakes and it does seem to be the ideal machine to have on hand for this project.

i will google bend radius for aluminum... that is something i ran across briefly last night and it seems quite important...

again, much thanks!

Originally Posted by DareBee No Yes As accurate as you are - make test pieces to learn from Any utility grade (3000 series) is standard for fabricating with. IMO spending many days building something that you can buy for $100 doesn't make sense (you would make more $ going to work). However - have fun with the project.

hahaha... DareBee, you are absolutely right... a good pc case can be purchased for less than the cost of a bending brake... but sometimes, you just get the itch to do something on the weekends just to keep yourself busy...

tinkering and playing with this has always been an interest for me and hence...

also, there's no pc case out there for something like this...

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...lodedIsoBk.jpg

yea, i'm nuts... but i have fun being crazy tho...

thank you for the answers btw...

[DareBee]

Very nice.
You had better figure a 4-5mm bend rad with box and pan on 2mm material (will change some features on your design)

[kinghong1970]

that's what i feared...

and i think i may have to go thinner than 2mm...

the machine i am looking at is the SHOP FOX 24" box/pan brake
and according to their pdf manual, they suggest not bending anything over 1mm...

i think i'll have to buy some 1mm sheets and see if it is strong enough for the externals... the internal plates can be done with even thinner sheets, just give the edges 90deg bends to make it rigid...

a 4-5mm bend radius will mean the side panels will not flush mount on the chassis...

hmm...

do you think that a 1mm thick 3000 series sheet will be rigid enough for the front, back and top panels?

i fear the front and back bezel will be wobbly in the center...

[rcpilot82]

why not make one out of acryllic? I have seen them on the net and would love to build one someday. something neat about seeing the guts of your computer I like. you can get all different thicknesses and colors of acryllic.

[kinghong1970]

well, i was never really a fan of acrylic... it looks nice at first... but after some wear... it looks horrific...

and aside from the Motherboard area, the rest of the pc is nothing special to see... lol...

even the mb is not that special...