Custom case materials

[Seanohue]

I really want to undertake a custom case project I'm just not sure where to begin. What material should I build it out of? Does anyone have pictures of people who have built a case completely from scratch?

EDIT: /slap sticky :P

[Slayer2003]

*shameless plug for a local guy*

http://www.vinster.com/cases.php

:p

[Captain Slug]

In progress
USSR (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=403779)
mATXvs (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=421119)

Done
Ruhe NMP (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=395995)
Nolio (http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=89477)
Hypercube (http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=64003)

What materials I recommend will depend on the quality and variety of the tools you have on hand. If you don't have very many tools then there's no way you can make a completely custom case. The bare minimum required for plastic or wood are
1. Table Saw
2. ScrollSaw or JigSaw
3. Drillpress or Power Drill
4. Files
5. Tapping set (or just the M3 and #6-32 bits plus a tap wrench)

And I'm glad you saw the stickies since they cover most of this information in detail.

[Son1990]

Captain Slug pretty much summed everything up. Wood and Plastic/Lexan/Acyrlic/Alumminum seem to be the best materials to use when making custom cases. Check out other forums such as [H] and Bit-tech for more modding and case making suggestions and help. Feel free to PM or IM anyone of the members here for help. :thup:

[gvblake22]

Besides scrap from plastic working shops, where is the best place to get acrylic/plexi/lexan? What about the colored stuff?

[Navig]

Following in the capt slug tradition--aluminum and plastic.

I have a sort of a different bent--I generally consider performance and air flow first.

System#1 (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=398882)

System#2 (http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=89637)

As you can see, I've used a fair bit of Lubic components which is a pretty middle-of-the-road method for building a case from scratch.


There are plenty of plastics dealers out there: mcmasters, polymerplastics, usplastics, sandiego plastics. They can be pretty expensive, so raiding scraps from a local plastics shop can save you much money.

Another ghetto method is to take cheapo 1/8in acrylic (available cheap at your local Home Depot or Lowe's) and tint it as I've done.

navig

[Son1990]

Besides scrap from plastic working shops, where is the best place to get acrylic/plexi/lexan? What about the colored stuff?

Your best and cheapest bet is always local plastics shops. If you cant go there I highly recommend shopping/looking around at Mcmaster (www.mcmaster.com). It has everything youll ever need for custom case building acrylic/lexan and many other types of plastics.

[gvblake22]

Your best and cheapest bet is always local plastics shops. If you cant go there I highly recommend shopping/looking around at Mcmaster (www.mcmaster.com). It has everything youll ever need for custom case building acrylic/lexan and many other types of plastics.
Yeah, thanks. I went and poked around on that mcmaster site. They've got a lot of good stuff, a very valuable resource. Thanks!