Custom case tips

nuhash · February 2, 2013

Does anyone have any tips for people who want to put together their own case, what kind of tools should i get? what materials should i be looking at? And just general tips for when designing and planning.

In case this is neccessary, I do have a fairly good understanding on assembly and manufacturing using machines.

YowZman · February 3, 2013

Depending on what material you are going to use, welding or riveting. No matter what you make it out of you will want it laser cut. Search the internet for companies that do this. Then you will want various parts folded, any sheet metal workers with a press brake will be able to do this.

Designing it is the tricky part, you will need a reasonable competency at a CAD suit. I personally use Solidworks which has a sheet metal element to it, if you can get hold of that, it'd make your life super easy.

nuhash · February 3, 2013

Depending on what material you are going to use' date=' welding or riveting. No matter what you make it out of you will want it laser cut. Search the internet for companies that do this. Then you will want various parts folded, any sheet metal workers with a press brake will be able to do this. Designing it is the tricky part, you will need a reasonable competency at a CAD suit. I personally use Solidworks which has a sheet metal element to it, if you can get hold of that, it'd make your life super easy. [/quote']
I am pretty good at CAD so that won't be an issue, plus my Uni gives free copies of Solidworks for engineering students!!! :D

The main problem I have right now is making a design which is easy to build, I think I might buy a motherboard tray from Lian Li or Silverstone and then make an enclosure for the tray.

For tools I am going to get a dremel to make small features but hopefully I should be able to use the machines we have at the university for everything else which should save me money on the cutting.

ruairi · February 8, 2013

When I'm designing custom cases I usually go pen/paper first, then I do a draft in sketchup and finally move on to a final CAD copy in Autodesk Inventor.

When building I usually get the panels ordered to cut size then cut all the holes etc with a jigsaw. But if you have access to a CNC machine at your uni then I'd definitely use it.