Building an acrylic case, need some help

dgingeri

dgingeri

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Dec 5, 2004
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OK, so I'm not hte most artistic type. I'm far too clumsy and impatient to do a pretty case right, just to warn you.

I have always had issues with getting a case that will work for all my uses. So, I decided that I was going to make a case for myself. I thought about using aluminum or steel, but the tools required to work the steel and the aluminum itself were too costly to really consider for long. I then thought about wood, but the insulative properties of wood made it unlikely. So, I settled on acrylic.

With the sheets I was able to find, I decided I'd make it 18"tall 24"deep and 15"wide. I got the outer case cut, drilled, and ready to assemble, but I'm missing many internal components and can't get it assembled just yet.

I was wondering if someone could tell me where I could get 1"X1"X18" blocks of acrylic and 2 3"X14"X1/2" blocks of aluminum. I wanted some internal support to the case for the drive bays and some custom hard drive coolers/drive bays for up to 8 hard drives.

I'm also looking for ideas for the top panel/access port for this case. I'm not sure how to mount it so that it would be easy to take off, yet also solidly in place.

One more thing. Does anyone know where to get some little threaded plugs I could put into a .220" sheet of acrylic for motherboard standoffs?
 
Thank you. I was able to order the 1" post.

I can't use acrylic for the hard drive cage because these hard drives would likely soften and deform it witht he heat. (I have a 1TB Seagate and a 150GB RaptorX, among others. Those 2 get very hot.) I'll keep looking for the aluminum. I was hoping to make a custom drive bay/cooler setup.

You're right about the tap, though. I should probably just put those standoffs right into the acrylic. Would superglue hold the standoffs well, in since it is a acrylic to metal bond?
 
Acrylic has to get pretty freaking hot to deform... If you reinforce an acrylic cage with thin strips of aluminum or steel it shouldn't be an issue. In fact, reinforcement really shouldn't be necessary.
 
if you use a tap, it will thread the hole, just make sure you use the right size for the stand offs you have and you wont need glue, they will just screw right in.
 
Yeah, if you get some 1/4" acrylic, it actually takes an open flame or extremely hot heat gun to get the material to bend. You are pretty safe with the stuff. The thinner you go, the easier it is to crack/damage. The #1 rule is sharp tools. No Access to a table saw? Use a router or if you have an attachment for a dremel, it will serve the same purpose.
Take a look at Tap Plastics again & look for (I think they call it) a bonding agent. You'll have to polish your edges(if you don't use a cutting tool like a table saw), but your joints will become seamless. Clamps will really help!
If you aren't concerned about cost, try to get your hands on Lexan. It's an acrylic type product, but it's quite a bit more durable and a little more forgiving. To give you an idea how tough it is, Nascar windshields are made from it.
Take a look in the modding section here & over at OCN & you can see some brilliant use of acrylic for some ideas ;)
 
Rather than look for Lexan, use the generic name - polycarbonate. There are other brands besides Lexan that are just as good.

Polycarbonate is a lot tougher than acrylic. Some say it scratches more easily that acrylic, but both scratch easily enough for me to say it's a toss-up.
 
I went through my plexi case "phase" and pretty much gave up. Too expensive, too messy, and I didn't like the results. I also didn't have the time or tools to do a proper job. Good luck and I hope you enjoy building it. I've since taken a different approach in my custom case and I can appreciate how much work goes into these things (regardless of how they turn out).
 
I'm not really looking for 'pretty'. I'll screw that up royally. The reason I'm doing this is to get the full capabilities I need for a case: Big, (15"X18"X24") motherboard laying flat, 2 optical drive bays, 1 floppy bay, 8 hard drive bays, good cooling for my hard drives, enough room around my motherboard and hard drives that I'm not struggling to get things to fit, 6 120mm fan mounting points.

I'll screw up the appearances, that's guaranteed. I'll probably have edges that don't line up right, rough edges all over, major flaws in the cut edges, fan mounts with irregular circles, fully open areas around the expansion cards and ports, drive bays that are too big for the optical drives, etc. It's not that I am not careful. I am as careful as I possibly can be, measuring and tracing 8 to 10 times, but my fingers just don't do what I tell them to much of the time. (Just as I am typing this, I've had about 3 dozen typing mistakes.) Cutting a round hole with a dremel is just not something that goes well for me.
 
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