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need wood case power button idea

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Atown

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May 20, 2005
right now im planning a wooden case, i have a full size AT case guts modded to fit a atx and have the areas set for my mobo and pci slots. im now preparing design for wood and figuiring how much wood i need, im figuireing all cherry etc. but im wondering about the power button. i have to buy an atx switch, but how should i make the button?
 
One that you might do is to make a round plug out of Cherry the same size as the switch. Then cut off a thin disk and glue that to the round switch button. I'm sure that someone else here can come up with a better suggestion but atleast I tried.
 
Buy a switch ? How are you planning to keep the cae cool? I wouldnt fancy too much heat in that case!
 
peterrastall said:
Buy a switch ? How are you planning to keep the cae cool? I wouldnt fancy too much heat in that case!
rofl, i hear that way to often, i think 3 120mm and a 80mm will do just fine
 
It doesn't matter what you make the case out of provided it's durable.
As for the power button described above it's not that hard to make your own trigger device to actuate a standard momentary push-button. You simply need a button, a spring, a control path, and a lock mechanism that keeps the spring from ejecting the button.
A simple cylinder of aluminum or plastic with two guide slots will work fine.
 
i just needed some ideas/feedback and was hoping for some proven methods that other people have used for the power button.
 
Take a look at doorbells. There's simple one's without a faceplate, lightup ones (though it's orange neon), and there's fancy brass and antique looking ones.
OOps, come to think of it, the light up ones wouldn't light up as they are usually made for 9-16 volts DC, and your mobo doesn't supply that kind of power to the switch.
It is the right kind of button for both start and reset, and usually have screw terminals so no soldering is required.

Also of note, they usually have a flat surface, so if you wanted to mount a wood block on it as suggested, it would be easy to do so. You can paint the button to the color of your choice as well as adding a piece of copper/aluminum/brass to schnaz it up a bit.

And many are made to mount through a thick surface. ;)
 
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Another thought to add:
If you were to buy the light up kind, you might be able to mod the switch by removing the neon bulb and placing your casefront power led in it's place with a little hotglue.
Something like the power led in the power switch, and the harddrive activity led in the reset switch...just run the led's existing power wires back to the motherboard where they usually plug in, you'd have two seperate sets of wires to each switch, one for the light and one for the switch function.

Maybe not an easy mod as I've not taken these apart, but it could be a pretty cool one.
 
what I did on my case was just take the push button from an old case I had and took the button itself off of the contact mechanism which had a square shaft on it and then just made a wood button with a hole that would fit tightly on that square shaft.
 
My last 2 cases, I gave up deciding on switches, and went RF remote controlled.

I think a doorbell knob would look good with wood.

How about a miniature door knob mounted to a rotary switch?

navig
 
I know it's a little crazy but if the case will look sharp you can do what i will on my case once I'm at that point.

You can use a card scan reader that will activate the relay to turn on PC. And in my case i will use the finger print scanner :)

Or you can use old good CLAP on CLAP off system that you see on TV:)
 
Just to float a thought out to be considered, what about making the button look like it's just a knot in the wood?
 
Instead of a switch just see if the motherboard supports powering on by the keyboard.

If I was going to install a switch. A flat momentary would be ideal. I would recess it far enough back to use a plug of the same species wood. Then glue the plug on the surface of the electrics. The idea of a knot is a great idea and would hide the visually imperfect seam much easier. I would use another plug as a holder to facilitate mounting hardware and retain structure. A dowel would be ideal. Wood and metal are hard to get happy together. Why I suggest making a wood harness to hold the metal in. You will get a cleaner finish. Use screws here. Even pins would hold it in place.

So the plug holding the switch don't pop out. I would look to Chair-Loc. That is about the best wood retainer I ever used. It swells after it penetrates so the parts fit tighter then conventional bonding agents. Really good for plugs and keeping wood parts together tightly. I used it in an antique repair shop with fine chairs and other items. It is not a glue, so removing it is not as distructive. For this stuff. You put the plug in and then squitr a bit in the seam. LEt it do its thing and your done. The neat thing, you can fix every squeeky wood chair in your home after the project is done.

Here is a very simple example of what I mean.
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A pin hole with a motion sensor would be kind or tricked out. The drawback would be not activating it to shut down. Same as a audio driven one.
 
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just take a switch from another case and glue some wood on, it worked fine for me when I built my own acrylic case, it should work fine with wood too.
 
You can buy the switch assembly meant for acrylic cases from Xoxide or lust buy leds, holders and switched from RadioShack. I used the back of a casset case to ghetto my sets to the boards on my wood tower. A little more creative work and you could recess the assembly in the wood face. The texture black cassette cases make for a nice finish!

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=427481&page=3.
 
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