Low cost ways of working with aluminium for a n00b

[Stonelesscutter]

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.




@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?