Low cost ways of working with aluminium for a n00b

Hi!

I have zero experience in working with metal, yet I find myself wanting to take on a project with aluminium. As you can imagine, I have some questions, so I looked for a community which could perhaps be of help and that's how I ended up here.

The project I'm considering is a custom PC case of my own design. I've looked around for manufacturers who could do the machining for me if I supplied the design files, but first of all it seems relatively hard to find them here in the UK (Northern Ireland) and I would still first have to actually create a completed design just to get a quote. So far, I've found two specialized companies in the USA, but the costs seem to be much higher than I would expect. In one case, I found something which would cost about 250 pounds to manufacture, and I was just about ready to go for that, but then it turned out the shipping from USA would add another 150 pounds on top. So, I've started looking at other options.

Now I've been watching some videos on Youtube, and in one of them it was mentioned that because aluminium is a relatively soft material, it can be cut with saw blades intended for woodworking. This got me thinking, because I do have some (not a lot of) experience in woodworking. What if I didn't need to outsource the machining to a specialist, but could do it myself, using basic tools and a lot of patience and perserverance, and get the satisfaction that comes from making something with your own hands?

And when I say basic tools, I really mean basic tools. When I moved over here from another country about six years ago, I basically had to leave almost all of my stuff behind, including most of my tools. What I have available at the moment, amounts to not much more than a hammer and some screwdrivers. I do have a handheld rotary tool, but it's a cheap one, not a Dremel. I would be okay with investing in some additional tools, but I wouldn't want to spend a lot of money on them, since they might just be used for this one project and it might end up being just as or more costly than outsourcing the job to a specialist.

It seems to me that most of the machining which would need to be done for what I want to make, would be relatively straightforward. Cutting along straight lines, drilling some holes, cutting out some mostly rectangular shapes, and then some circular cutouts. So, obviously a drill would come in handy, and that is something simple enough to get and which might prove useful for other things later on. A hole saw bit for the drill would be handy for the circular cutouts. I've seen that I can order aluminium sheets already cut to size. This leaves pretty much only the cutouts which would go into the back panel for the power supply unit and motherboard outputs. So now here come my questions.

What would be the best/easiest/cheapest/most effective way to cut out pieces of material containing right angles from the middle of an aluminium sheet?

Would it be possible to for example drill a hole and then use a figure saw to cut through this material, either by hand or with a power saw?

What about using just a hammer and a chisel, could that be feasible?

Can you use a file with aluminium?

I would appreciate any insights and suggestions anyone might have on accomplishing these tasks I'm looking to do as cheaply as possible, although I'm not saying I wouldn't be willing to invest in equipment which costs a little bit more but gets the job done better or more easily.

Thanks in advance for your consideration. I certainly look forward to any replies.

Well, it's correct that aluminum can be cut with a wood blade and many of us here do exactly that on a table saw with material upto 20-25mm thick, it's also possible to use a handheld wood router to cut out pockets, etc, if you have big enough balls and a little experience. Again several of us have done this with great success.

What thickness aluminum are you talking about.? If it's just thin stuff like 2-3mm and all your doing is cutting out holes and shapes out then it's very easy to use a Jigsaw and a drill.
If you want a little more accuracy and repeatability to your holes or shapes then I would suggest you make Jigs out of say MDF which is easily worked and shaped then use a router with a bearing guided cutter.

Or ask someone on a forum like this if they'd like to cut you some parts.!!

If you could show us a picture and give us some more details like material thickness etc then could advise better.

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Originally Posted by Stonelesscutter

Hi!

I have zero experience in working with metal, yet I find myself wanting to take on a project with aluminium. As you can imagine, I have some questions, so I looked for a community which could perhaps be of help and that's how I ended up here.

The project I'm considering is a custom PC case of my own design. I've looked around for manufacturers who could do the machining for me if I supplied the design files, but first of all it seems relatively hard to find them here in the UK (Northern Ireland) and I would still first have to actually create a completed design just to get a quote. So far, I've found two specialized companies in the USA, but the costs seem to be much higher than I would expect. In one case, I found something which would cost about 250 pounds to manufacture, and I was just about ready to go for that, but then it turned out the shipping from USA would add another 150 pounds on top. So, I've started looking at other options.

Now I've been watching some videos on Youtube, and in one of them it was mentioned that because aluminium is a relatively soft material, it can be cut with saw blades intended for woodworking. This got me thinking, because I do have some (not a lot of) experience in woodworking. What if I didn't need to outsource the machining to a specialist, but could do it myself, using basic tools and a lot of patience and perserverance, and get the satisfaction that comes from making something with your own hands?

And when I say basic tools, I really mean basic tools. When I moved over here from another country about six years ago, I basically had to leave almost all of my stuff behind, including most of my tools. What I have available at the moment, amounts to not much more than a hammer and some screwdrivers. I do have a handheld rotary tool, but it's a cheap one, not a Dremel. I would be okay with investing in some additional tools, but I wouldn't want to spend a lot of money on them, since they might just be used for this one project and it might end up being just as or more costly than outsourcing the job to a specialist.

It seems to me that most of the machining which would need to be done for what I want to make, would be relatively straightforward. Cutting along straight lines, drilling some holes, cutting out some mostly rectangular shapes, and then some circular cutouts. So, obviously a drill would come in handy, and that is something simple enough to get and which might prove useful for other things later on. A hole saw bit for the drill would be handy for the circular cutouts. I've seen that I can order aluminium sheets already cut to size. This leaves pretty much only the cutouts which would go into the back panel for the power supply unit and motherboard outputs. So now here come my questions.

What would be the best/easiest/cheapest/most effective way to cut out pieces of material containing right angles from the middle of an aluminium sheet?

Would it be possible to for example drill a hole and then use a figure saw to cut through this material, either by hand or with a power saw?

What about using just a hammer and a chisel, could that be feasible?

Can you use a file with aluminium?

I would appreciate any insights and suggestions anyone might have on accomplishing these tasks I'm looking to do as cheaply as possible, although I'm not saying I wouldn't be willing to invest in equipment which costs a little bit more but gets the job done better or more easily.

Thanks in advance for your consideration. I certainly look forward to any replies.

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Hi stonelesscutter,

Have you considered having your design laser cut?

They dont care how many holes you put in your design.

Grtz Bert.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-A320FL met Tapatalk

Interesting challenge!

I'm not sure Ali will be your friend in this game because it is so soft. Also, it doesn't "work" well - forming 90 degree bends can crack the material unless you have a silly large bend-radius. Maybe steel sheet with something like a scroll-saw with a metal-cutting blade would offer a cheap entry level capability?, next your challenge would be to finish the product - powder coating or similar, can be outsourced.

If you're doing one-ers, then as Jazz says ask for someone with suitable machine to do the cutting for you; if you're planning to do more then you need to be a bit more realistic with your machining requirements and costs.

Wow, thank you all for the replies!


First of all, to respond to @JAZZCNC with some more information. I can't give you a picture at the moment, but I shall try to give a better description. At this stage, it's really just a concept I have in my head. The idea is to create a cube-shaped case, firstly because I don't like the look of tower cases and I find a cube to be a geometrically pleasing shape, and secondly because I'm looking for something which will offer lots of space for parts, particularly for hard drives. The cube shape also ensures that all 6 sides will be the exact same size, which I think may be beneficial for manufacturing. To make it more aesthetically pleasing, I'm picturing rounded edges instead of straight sharp edges, like a die. (as in dice) So imagine a die but then a lot bigger. I'm not sure what the exact size will be just yet, but let's say maybe about 15 inches in all directions, could end up bigger or smaller. In the eight corners, I had imagined small cubes to fasten the 6 sides of the case to. But other options are still on the table, such as a cube-shaped frame from aluminium bars to attach the sheets to. On the inside of the cube, I'm picturing a horizontal sheet about halfway up, splitting the case in an upper and a lower portion. This sheet will extend forwards from the back, but not all the way, leaving room at the front for airflow between the upper and lower compartments as well as fitting space for hard drives. This sheet will be the mounting place for the motherboard of the computer. In the lower compartment, I would mount a power supply unit at the back (which will require a cutout in the back plate) and a bunch of hard drives at the front. There would even be room for a second power supply at the back, if that turns out to be necessary for the amount of hard drives. The back plate would also require cutouts in the upper compartment for the motherboard I/O block and the expansion slots, which will at least have a graphics card. Around the sides (left, right, front and back) there will also be an as of yet undetermined number of circular cutouts for the ventilation fans, but I have not yet determined exactly where they would go. I've been toying with the idea of placing them just like the dots on an actual die, but I'm not sure if this is feasible or if I'll actually want that in the end. All six panels should be attached in a way which would make them easily detachable, so I figured on using a certain type of thumb screws. I would also like to use hot swap bays for the hard drives just to make it easier to add new ones or replace existing ones. I want them to be easily accessible, but have not decided whether I want them to be directly accessible at the front of the case (which would again require cutouts) or just accessible after removing a plate. Somewhere I'll also have to account for a power button, just to be able to turn the system on. The front would seem like a logical place for that, but perhaps I'll decide to place it at the back, since the system will generally be running 24/7 anyway.


Here's a side view I quickly put together in AutoCAD (I can only do 2D drawings and would have to learn how to do 3D first) to illustrate how I had imagined the plates to come together. The 12 by 12 cube would have threaded holes on three sides (or all the way through) in order to fasten the three plates to it. It may be slightly harder to put together originally, but once it has been put together it would be a breeze to take of one of the plates, or more, as long as you're careful about which ones you take off at the same time. I had first thought of using 4 mm thick aluminium, to allow for the rounded edges and possibly other types of machines, such as maybe countersinking screw holes. Now I'm thinking maybe 2 mm thick aluminium would be enough. But this is just to illustrate the idea anyway. You could probably see how the 45 degree angle and the partially rounded edges on all sides of the six plates might be a bit problematic for someone who doesn't have the proper tools or experience to pull something like this off, which is why I first thought of having it machined for me. I may decide to forego on those rounded edges altogether, if I'm gonna do things myself.

Attachment 27940


@driftspin No, I had not considered laser cutting, thanks for this suggestion. How much might something like that cost? And can things like rounded edges and countersinking be achieved by this process? What would be the benefits of laser cutting versus CNC?


@Doddy This will be a one-off project. I will only need one of these systems in my house, as it will have three functions, being a media server for all devices in the house, a media player for the family room TV and a family gaming system. Also, I would not be able to afford more than one of these things, as at the moment I'm estimating the total cost might easily go above 1500 pounds. :D In fact, so far I've only saved up about 400 pounds, so I have a long way to go, but that's alright since I'm waiting for certain parts to be released later in the year, such as the 4th generation Ryzen processors by AMD. I want to see what those can do and I may not decide to go for one, but once they're released the price of the 3rd and 2nd generation processors will surely drop, so it's a good idea to hold off for now. For the same reason, and also because I don't yet have the money, I'll have to hold off on most parts. The one thing I can do however, is get or build a case, which is therefore what I'm putting all my focus on right now. So far, I don't have the intention to bend any parts of the case. It will highly likely turn out to be a cube-shaped case like I described above, with panels which can be fitted to a frame or blocks on the inside. As for steel, that would indeed be stronger but also heavier. It would I think be more difficult to process, either by a CNC or by hand, but I could of course be mistaken. I've been told that the heat conductive properties of aluminium are excellent as well, so that's another reason why I'm thinking to use this material. Despite being less tough than steel, it should easily be strong enough for the purpose of this case, I recon. Another reason I was thinking about using a thicker material is that it might help keep the whole thing more quiet and would better prevent potential vibration of the case. Not that I'm particularly concerned about vibrations, but there will be a lot of spinning hard drives and fans inside the thing, so you never know. As for a finish on the outside, I just don't know yet. Maybe the aluminium by itself would look good enough for me. Maybe it would need to get brushed or something.


There is another thing which I have been pondering about a little bit, which is how to attach brackets to mount various parts, such as the hard drives. The motherboard will be simple enough, because that just requires some holes in the middle plate. The hard drives however would require mounting brackets, either for individual drives or for blocks of drives, i.e. drive cages. Since I don't yet know which parts I will be using, it's hard to give an example, but perhaps something like an L-shaped part on both sides of each drive. What I'm puzzling on is how I should attach such things to the case without having to have screws go through from or to the outside. In other words, I don't want the way of mounting them to be visible from the outside. I suppose superglue might be one option, but perhaps that would be a dumb thing to do. I have no welding or soldering equipment, nor do I have any experience with welding. Now I'm thinking about it, perhaps it would be a good idea to create an entire frame for this purpose out of aluminium as well and then just place the entire frame inside the case, attaching it to the bottom plate and middle plate in a similar way as the side plates will be screwed together. Any thoughts on mounting options are most welcome.


Thanks a ton to you guys for taking the time to read all of this. I know I can be a bit long-winded in my writing. I hope I got things through clearly enough.


Edit: And then I still forgot to ask a question. Say I have these things cutout for me by someone, and I later on find that a part doesn't fit through the cutout by just a smidge, would it be possible to take a file and widen the space just a little bit?

Interesting. This is where, if you wanted to, you could sink an awful lot of money.

I might agree with you to an extent about the use of flat sheets of ali. You may want to research two finishing technologies that may go hand in hand with what you're trying to do - "shot peening" and "anodising", particularly if this is going to be an aesthetic piece. This is likely work you'd want to farm out once you have your panels cut. Your point of making a skeleton and bolting the plates to this does offer an easy-out for this, and you can get the Ali sheets guillotined reasonably accurately by most metal suppliers. Add your holes, then erase your markings with the peening process and hard-anodise to get a durable and sexy finish.

Widening holes is easy (files, etc). It's filling them in afterwards that's trickier. Get everything fitting properly before looking at the finishing processes.

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Originally Posted by Stonelesscutter

Wow, thank you all for the replies!

In other words, I don't want the way of mounting them to be visible from the outside. I suppose superglue might be one option, but perhaps that would be a dumb thing to do. I have no welding or soldering equipment, nor do I have any experience with welding. Now I'm thinking about it, perhaps it would be a good idea to create an entire frame for this purpose out of aluminium as well and then just place the entire frame inside the case, attaching it to the bottom plate and middle plate in a similar way as the side plates will be screwed together. Any thoughts on mounting options are most welcome.

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Google "JB Weld". This is the cheaper part of the job.

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Originally Posted by Doddy

I'm not sure Ali will be your friend in this game because it is so soft. Also, it doesn't "work" well - forming 90 degree bends can crack the material unless you have a silly large bend-radius.

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Nah it's easy to bend if you get the right stuff. I bend it all the time, all my Z-axis covers are bent and folded 90Deg, I fold up water tanks and header, petrol tanks etc upto 3mm with out any issues.

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Originally Posted by Doddy

Google "JB Weld". This is the cheaper part of the job.

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Thanks Doddy!

I had good hopes for the J-B Weld when I read your comment and was thinking it might be a good thing to use to put together the inner cube-shaped frame to mount the side plates on. After work however, I went through a bunch of Youtube videos and my first impression was that it's pretty messy. Maybe that's because the people who made the videos were just doing a shoddy job, I don't know. But at the end of a lot of the videos, when it came to testing the bond, they proved to fail. So at the moment, I'm not exactly sold on this technique, although I will definitely be keeping it in mind. I'll be trying to come up with some sort of alternative though.

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Originally Posted by Doddy

Interesting. This is where, if you wanted to, you could sink an awful lot of money.

I might agree with you to an extent about the use of flat sheets of ali. You may want to research two finishing technologies that may go hand in hand with what you're trying to do - "shot peening" and "anodising", particularly if this is going to be an aesthetic piece. This is likely work you'd want to farm out once you have your panels cut. Your point of making a skeleton and bolting the plates to this does offer an easy-out for this, and you can get the Ali sheets guillotined reasonably accurately by most metal suppliers. Add your holes, then erase your markings with the peening process and hard-anodise to get a durable and sexy finish.

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Yeah, I agree that the finish is the last of my worries right now. That said, I had to look into shot peening and anodising as you suggested. Both are things which I would have to outsource, like you said. The shot peening seems to be mainly for relieving the metal from inner stresses which might cause it to warp. Anodising looks like a sweet option. But these panels are a lot bigger than the small parts I've seen people do in videos. I imagine this could be quite a costly affair. Any idea of what having this done might cost?

While looking up videos, I came across some nice ways of finishing aluminium. Just wanted to share two videos.

https://youtu.be/cpMetNWS98E

https://youtu.be/NBpfa3fcmZc

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Originally Posted by Doddy

Widening holes is easy (files, etc). It's filling them in afterwards that's trickier. Get everything fitting properly before looking at the finishing processes.

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Good to know this can be done, thanks! I've been looking for videos about using simple hand tools to cut aluminium, but it seems they are hard to find. What I did find out is that apparently you need to be careful what you use to cut it, as the relative softness of the metal can cause the space between saw teeth to become clogged up.

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The shot peening seems to be mainly for relieving the metal from inner stresses which might cause it to warp

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Fake news alert!!

Peening is the art of creating a compressive stress in a metal surface. (check out ball peen hammer and its uses)

The roots of gear teeth are control shot peened to increase their bensing strength through inducing a compressive stress in the metal surface. Con-rods are strenghtened by shot peening (this also removes suface imperfections). Peening is also used to bend wing surfaces before fitting.

Bead blast and shot blast are similar processes but with different intended results

.......just to clarify.

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Originally Posted by MartinS

Fake news alert!!

Peening is the art of creating a compressive stress in a metal surface. (check out ball peen hammer and its uses)

The roots of gear teeth are control shot peened to increase their bensing strength through inducing a compressive stress in the metal surface. Con-rods are strenghtened by shot peening (this also removes suface imperfections). Peening is also used to bend wing surfaces before fitting.

Bead blast and shot blast are similar processes but with different intended results

.......just to clarify.

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Thanks for clarifying that Martin. I may have misinterpreted the explanation I had found before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MartinS

Fake news alert!!

Peening is the art of creating a compressive stress in a metal surface. (check out ball peen hammer and its uses)

The roots of gear teeth are control shot peened to increase their bensing strength through inducing a compressive stress in the metal surface. Con-rods are strenghtened by shot peening (this also removes suface imperfections). Peening is also used to bend wing surfaces before fitting.

Bead blast and shot blast are similar processes but with different intended results

.......just to clarify.

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This man is totally correct and is one of the few with correct engineering information, quite rare these days. It can also be commonly known as 'surface conditioning', which also includes other processes affecting the surface of a component. Well done MartinS!

I've started working on a design (not anywhere near finished) and was having trouble figuring out the part at the back of the case for the PCI slots. Then I started wondering if there are parts for sale which could help, as in there would just have to be a large cutout at the back in which the part could be mounted. I found this one.

https://www.mountainmods.com/product...roducts_id=486

Attachment 27987

Unfortunately the shipping costs are so high that it would work out to 50 dollars just for this relatively small part of the case. I've been trying to find something similar for sale in the UK, but so far haven't had any luck. Would anyone have an idea about this?

Hi Stonelesscutter,

I am based down in galway, i work with Aluminum alot and its uses and treatments. I would suggest that you draw up your design in cad if you have the facility and develop the pattern [ie solidworks sheet metal] and sub out to a local fabricator. What you are describing could easily be fabbed up with one of the many fabricators based in your locality and also powdercoated - for easily less than 400 and with a greater quality than what your will achieve by yourself. I would suggest making the corners chamfered rather than rouunded as all of that can be fabbed easily with a profile cutter and press brake. Hope this helps
Best of luck

Are you doing 1 case or are you designing a case to be sold? If second- better design it and look in China for a manufacturer. All else is insanity, especially with your knowledge.

If you are making 1 fantasy case for yourself, you can do it with a saw, Dremel and a file+ 10 types of sanding paper. Probably will need to learn working with aluminum low temp solder. Work will be ridiculous, but i have done it and know people that do super complicated stuff by hand. We are artists, so we do that.

Choosing a material you don't know nothing about it and not having basic tools is a recipe never to do it. Anodizing at home is possible, have done it but on the scale you will be doing it with only one case= lost money.


Don't get me wrong, but better find something else to do if you are not an accomplished DIYer with a modest workshop. The real answer to your question is you need a proper mill to do correctly a project like that. People buy and use mills just to finish the front panel of custom amps and the engravings.

On the opposite i have to contradict with myself. I know of 2 people apart from me that could do such a thing with absolutely basic tools but each of us has like 20 years of experience in manual art , DIY and creative projects.