Aluminum for case modding?

[skyline889]

I'm planning on doing some case modding and was hoping you guys could hep me out with aluminum selection. I don't really know what the difference between the types of aluminum are nor what thickness I need.

What I'm doing:

I'm going to mount two hard drive cages with three hard drives in each cage to a cut out piece of aluminum. That assembly will then be bolted down to the case floor. The reason for this is that I messed up the original holes for the cages so the cages are only partially screwed down.

My Options

.05" 6061 T4

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=150295709692

.063" 7475 T76
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=350189098326

.08" 5052 H32
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=350190037296

.10" 5052 H32
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=350193119532

Picture
Here's picture of the cages in the case now. The assembly will be screwed down in the same location.

 

[ekuest]

i am personally only familiar with 6061-T6 and 5052 H32 myself. 6061 is harder and stronger and therefore more expensive, but not by much. i would say go with it. as for thickness, .05 should be fine. see if you can find a supplier near you instead of ebay. it would be only a little cheaper, but more importantly you can see how thick and how strong it is before you buy it. do you have a bending brake for making nice clean bends? other than that just a normal drill press or hand drill should be all you need.

my question is: why dont you just drill new holes in the flanges at the bottom of each cage, and new holes in the floor of the case, offset from the old ones, and just use the same cages? seems like it should work just fine and it would be much easier and cheaper and probably look better in the end.

 

[E.T]

my question is: why dont you just drill new holes in the flanges at the bottom of each cage, and new holes in the floor of the case, offset from the old ones, and just use the same cages? seems like it should work just fine and it would be much easier and cheaper and probably look better in the end.

Agree.
That would also retain soft mounting which is very useful considering higher vibration sensitivity of rather light aluminum.


If someone is wondering what those markings mean here's few links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_alloy
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=310
http://www.atlasmetals.com.au/customer_aluminium.asp
http://www.kaiseraluminum.com/customers/products/plate-sheet-coil/

 

[skyline889]

Thanks for the links! I'll look into them later this afternoon.

As for the reasoning. It would still be hard mounting wouldn't it? The cages are screwed into aluminum right now and the new assembly would be screwed into aluminum as well so I think it'd be the same. I was thinking about putting a foam backer in between the aluminum sheet and the case floor so this would probably be quieter. The reasoning why I would prefer to do this over re-drilling is that the case floor is perforated so it's hard to find a clean spot to drill and still get the placement of the cages correct.

 

[ekuest]

well the reason i say just modify the ones you have is because you have 2 options:
1: buy $15 in sheet
cut it, bend it, drill it all to exactly the right shape and size (still wont look nearly as good

​

as the ones that came with your case)
put holes in it and in the floor of your case that match up perfectly
or
2: put holes in your cages and in the floor of your case that match up perfectly

seems like youre cutting out a bit of work, no? also, you probably wont get it right the first time, have to buy new sheet, and make it all again. really sheet metal can be a huge pita. unless youre familiar with working with it and have the tools on hand, i dont recommend tackling the project like that.

assuming you decide not to remake the cages, let go back to your dilemma. which holes did you mess up? in the case or in the cages? all of them, or just on one cage, or just one on each cage? you could, if you wanted, just cut holes in the cage and screw it to the mesh in the bottom. i dont see why that would be a problem unless youre putting a lot of lateral force on the cages. if you dont want to do that, then move both cages and the fan in between toward the front of the case by half an inch. drill new holes in the case there.

 

[skyline889]

well the reason i say just modify the ones you have is because you have 2 options:
1: buy $15 in sheet
cut it, bend it, drill it all to exactly the right shape and size (still wont look nearly as good

​

as the ones that came with your case)
put holes in it and in the floor of your case that match up perfectly
or
2: put holes in your cages and in the floor of your case that match up perfectly

seems like youre cutting out a bit of work, no? also, you probably wont get it right the first time, have to buy new sheet, and make it all again. really sheet metal can be a huge pita. unless youre familiar with working with it and have the tools on hand, i dont recommend tackling the project like that.

assuming you decide not to remake the cages, let go back to your dilemma. which holes did you mess up? in the case or in the cages? all of them, or just on one cage, or just one on each cage? you could, if you wanted, just cut holes in the cage and screw it to the mesh in the bottom. i dont see why that would be a problem unless youre putting a lot of lateral force on the cages. if you dont want to do that, then move both cages and the fan in between toward the front of the case by half an inch. drill new holes in the case there.

Well the cages came with the case and they were already pre-drilled however I reversed the cages to hide cables and I spaced them to fit a 120mm fan in between the two cages, that's why I had to drill the new holes in the floor of the case. It's too hard for me to mark the holes in the case with the cage outline because of the limited space, that's why I wanted to just attach the new panel.

It would be a lot easier for me to mark the holes for the cages on the new sheet of aluminum and in terms of matching up the new sheet with the case floor, I'm just going to clamp the sheet to the floor and drill through both at the same time, so they'll match perfectly.

For cutting the actual sheet to size, I can have up to four cuts made for free, so I can have the panel cut to size for me. In addition, I also purchased a pair of aviation shears and metal cutting discs for my Dremel when I did my last set of mods to the case so I can make any adjustments that need to be made myself.

 

[ekuest]

aha! so youre not making new cages, youre making a new floor panel. hmmm. that sounds pretty straightforward i guess. sorry for my misunderstanding. any aluminum over .05 should be just fine i think. good luck!

 

[skyline889]

Ah sorry if that was confusing. Yeah, there's no way in hell I'd try to build my own HD cage.

So the .05" won't be too bendy? It won't matter too much since it'll be bolted down to the floor but the sheet probably won't be able to mount flush to the case floor (Because of the screw heads required to attach the cages to the sheet itself) so I don't want the aluminum to buckle under the weight of the hard drives and the two cages.

 

[E.T]

So the .05" won't be too bendy? It won't matter too much since it'll be bolted down to the floor but the sheet probably won't be able to mount flush to the case floor (Because of the screw heads required to attach the cages to the sheet itself)

It's easy to make cavity for sinking screw head by drilling carefully with bigger bit.
And when you have already present screw holes as starting points it's very easy to make new holes certain distance away in straight sideward or forward/rearward direction by using them as guide... working all the time outside case.

I also purchased a pair of aviation shears and metal cutting discs for my Dremel when

Don't know what alloy Lian Li uses but it's hard enough to make angle grinder as required tool for bigger cuts unless you have half day to waste and big box of cutting discs.

 

[skyline889]

It's easy to make cavity for sinking screw head by drilling carefully with bigger bit.

Yeah I was thinking about countersinking the holes but meh, I don't know...I'm kinda lazy.

Don't know what alloy Lian Li uses but it's hard enough to make angle grinder as required tool for bigger cuts unless you have half day to waste and big box of cutting discs.

The aviation snips didn't work well on the Lian aluminum but this sheet alloy is thinner so I was thinking it would work. If that won't do though, the metal cutting discs on my dremel work fine, that's how I cut the holes for cable management on the case above. It does take a while but it was the only thing (Short of a far too large angle grinder) I could make work. My father and I even tried using his Festool jigsaw with a densely toothed metal cutting blade and even that wouldn't do it well (Aluminum was too thin).