Custom Mini ITX Case

[Hugh]

Hello all, 

 

About to start making another computer case and decided it would be a good idea to make a bit of a log of it, but still currently in the planing phase.

Here is what i got so far.

spent a bit of time in Blender 3D playing around with shapes and layouts for the case, decided on something similar to the Dan case with regards to removing the graphics card off the board and moving it to the opposite side of a deciding wall and giving it its own vent on the side of the case to give it maximum fresh air.

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the graphics card side and top of the case will hinge open with internal hinges to make it easier to service the computer if water cooling ever gets involved

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Around the other side of the case there will be room for 2 120mm fans to be mounted so i can put a radiator on if wanted. I`m a big fan of having elements of the computer  poking out of the case.

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now i got the look of the case down its time to start putting some dimensions onto it.

i spent a few days working out dimensions for the components in fusion 360

decided that the case will be made out of 2mm aluminium as it is easier to work with that acrylic and cheaper

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Now i had some fixed dimensions down for the case and knew where the components were going to be i decided to use the sheet metal feature of fusion 360, which calculates bend radii of the metal.

again i spent a few days on this step to make sure everything was correct.

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i oversized the top shroud by 3mm so that i can fold the top all in one go and then run it past the table saw to create the cut that it will hinge open with, saves me cutting and bending 2 pieces and then trying to get them to line up.

 

That takes us up to the current state of the project. the plans are done i just have to get them printed out on a A1 sheet of paper and glue it onto a 2mm sheet of aluminium, i currently only have some 1.5mm aluminium scraps which ill do some test bends on.  ill also need to sort out some computer components to go into the case.

 

currently the case supports:

graphics cards unto 300mm long 

1 3.5" hard drive

1 2.5" SSD

mini ITX motherboard 

2 120mm fans

1 140mm fan

1 SFX powersupply

 

 

 

 

UPDATE 26-02-18

Sorry i haven't updated in a while, had a few problems that stopped me from getting onto the internet, but great progress has been made on the case.

 

So i had my test material ready, it was some 1.5mm Aluminium with some serious surface scum and scratches, so i spent the best part of a day cleaning the aluminium with some fine grit wet and dry sand paper

this was the best i could do without sanding the sheet down to nothing.  The remaining scratches are quite deep.

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the next step was to sort out tools to use, i knew i was going to use a jigsaw to roughly cut out the shapes then use a hack saw to bring it more down to size and get any fiddily bits that could not be reached by the jigsaw, then bring it down to final shape and finish with a file and sand paper, only problem was that my small hacksaw had a blunt blade and the new blades that i purchased were too small.

 

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so i decided it would be a good exercise to make a hacksaw out of a old 3d printer bed to get some practice working with the materials and tools.

 

i quickly made up a design in fusion 360, printed it out and stuck it onto the bed with some spray adhesive.  this would also serve as a good test to see if i needed the spray adhesive on both sides of the joint or could i get away with spraying only one side.

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so after rough cutting the material i needed to make some tensioning for the blade so it does not bend when i'm cutting with it.

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i decided to use a M3 screw and a large motherboard standoff i had spare and use that.  i cut a vertical line and a slanted horizontal line in the standoff to lock the blade into place.

 

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the next step was to then bolt the whole thing together and and give it a test. i ended up giving it a leather wrap handle to make it a bit more comfy to use.

 

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ONTO THE ACTUAL CASE

 

so i cut out my blueprints and spay glued them onto the 1.5mm aluminium sheet. after the mini hacksaw i decided it would be best to spray both sides to ensure the paper did not lift half way through cutting.

i'm starting with the main body of the case, which will fold up into the bottom, front and back.

 

i used a jigsaw to rough cut out the shape. then used the mini hack saw to get some of the finer details, then final used a file and sand paper to bring the cuts right down to dimension.

 

i taped the holes with a 38 X 6 thread because its commonly found in computer cases, so keeping all the threads in the case makes it easy to assemble. and the tap is a bit thicker and stronger than a M3 thread, so i might not break as many of them.

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onto the middle divider!

i again glued the sheet onto the metal and used a jigsaw, hacksaw and file to cut it out and bring it down to shape.

 

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the middle cutout for the PSU proved very difficult to bend due to the cutout in the middle not leaving a lot of material to grip onto.  i ended up resorting to a bench vice and hammer to bed it to final shape and then just sanded and filed of some of the hammer marks. 

 

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next step was to bend the base into shape, this was easy to do with the use of a sheet metal bender.

 

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at this point i had to sort out the graphics card mounting, and i stuffed up the mounting holes big time.  i drilled the holes befor bending the tab up.  the holes did not line up correctly so i tried to re drill them but it proved to difficult. after drilling 5 holes and having none of them fit i decided ill just lob off the tab and use a bit of right angle aluminium and bolt it on later, that way i can drill holes and have them be close to fitting.

 

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time to move onto the top cover, i did the same old stuff.  glue the sheet on, cut it out and then bent it using the sheet bender.

 

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at this point the case was done apart from a few little bits to fix up, and even with the paper on the surface finish was awful.  i would not be able to do the "brushed aluminium" finish i wanted, so i had to start thinking of other options.

 

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so after a few hours of going to back to blender and playing around with solutions to the surface finish. I decided i would go for a rundown post apocalyptic feel.

 

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i liked where this was going so i decided to 3d print the fan cover and give it a test. the fan cover just bolts over the top of the fan using some spare M5 screws i had lying around.

 

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that all for now ill be printing out all the parts and then painting comes next.

 

[Fungal]

this looks awesome, keep up the good work

[BeardRex]

Awesome!

[Hugh]

bump!

[Jsunn]

WOW!