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Custom case

R

RaphaelVinceti

Gawd
Joined
Apr 7, 2005
Messages
600
Does anyone know any service that you could send a CAD drawing to and they would make a case out of whatever material you wanted? I have an elaborate case design, but i do not have the skill to make it out of what i want (polished Aluminum, or carbon fiber, havent desided). Any ideas/suggestions?
 
If it's something that could be cut in panels, then I would have panels water cut and then assemble them yourself. Other than that, I know MNPCTech (http://www.mnpctech.com) does alot of professional modding, and if it's not out of his scope, he could probably do it for you.
 
The case is completely custom, made from scratch, without any base model to work from. Im working on the CAD drawings still, trying to get everything right. I will look into mnpctech, and see if he can do it. Thanks for the help.
 
but is it not worh it if it has every thing youd ever want, and you are oging to use it for more than 1 build
 
mashie said:
Back in the day when Stiltner was developing the Coldforge case (R.I.P.) I think he paid 2k each for the prototypes so that is probably the figure we are talking about. Now if it is worth it? No idea...
Click to expand...

One offs are stupidly expensive to make. Its not till you get into the 20's that prices drop to more sensible levels. As I know you know well mashie :D
 
whoa.. expensive.. maybe ill see if a few people want the same case, when im ready to actually send it in to a company to build, so the price will drop down a bit. The Emachineshop looks like a good canidate.
 
mashie said:
Back in the day when Stiltner was developing the Coldforge case (R.I.P.) I think he paid 2k each for the prototypes so that is probably the figure we are talking about. Now if it is worth it? No idea...
Click to expand...
Last word on Pheaton was that it was almost ready for production, but I haven't heard anything about that. I'm guessing you've gotten updates?
 
mashie said:
Back in the day when Stiltner was developing the Coldforge case (R.I.P.) I think he paid 2k each for the prototypes so that is probably the figure we are talking about. Now if it is worth it? No idea...
Click to expand...

Did anything ever come of that? I remember waiting and waiting and waiting..
 
lol.......why would have go through all this trouble and $ getting a custom case built in the shape of a regular case? :D

Needs more bats. ;)
 
gordy_hand said:
One offs are stupidly expensive to make. Its not till you get into the 20's that prices drop to more sensible levels. As I know you know well mashie :D
Click to expand...


$2k isn't that much for a custom case you know.
 
hmm.. 2 lian li cases.. 400-600.. modifacation supplies.. 100.. at most.. 700 dollars for a HUGE case.. course.. still doesnt fit my needs.. but, just showing that 2k IS alot for a case.
 
People can't give you constructive input w/o seeing the design.. What you may think is elaborate, may have simple construction. My main concern, how well did you design/engineer everything in your drawing? I get several drawings were details are simply overlooked like the DIMENSIONS, thickness, how will everything fasten together, and with what type or fasteners?... All these little details add up in design time and mnpctech charges $40 per hour... Have you ever priced sheets of rigid carbon fiber? Last 1' x 1" sheet i bought was $50 + shipping.. When I had research time later... the cheapest I found (on ebay) was $25 + shipping. That 1' x 1' sheet doesnt go far either...If youre looking to mold or form it CF, I know of resources, but its god awful expensive.

If you want bling, ie: Polished aluminum, you better off paying to have it plated versus polishing it.. The shine is 10 times better and easier to maintain.

Tip: The smart way to cut costs in building your case/box, which Modders will tell you, is building around an existing oem chassis ....or at very minumum, an existing Mobo tray and rear I/O plate.

Bill
 
I was planning on snaging one of the trays from mountainmods.com, I am considering trying my hand at building it myself. It would cost less, but it would take a long time, and im not exactly sure how well it would come out, but i would have built it myself. Im still working on the drawing. Im drawing it in AutoCAD 2006, and im fairly new to autocad, so im slow, and having a hard time building it in the 3d mode.
 
It can't cost that much to get a few sheets of aluminum cut in the dimensions you want can it? I'm asking largely because I am looking into building my own case. Nothing elaborate, but it's nothing I'll find premade.
 
Zeppelin_Child said:
It can't cost that much to get a few sheets of aluminum cut in the dimensions you want can it? I'm asking largely because I am looking into building my own case. Nothing elaborate, but it's nothing I'll find premade.
Click to expand...
Well, to get them cut, punched, and bent, it can, because tooling costs on one-offs are insane. If you were getting even 100 made, the cost per case would go down, but then you'd have 99 more cases than you need, and it would cost more overall.
 
It wouldnt cost much to get a few rectangles of aluminum cut at sizes I specify would it? I could cut holes myself and I'm sure I could find some joint to hoold it all together.
 
RaphaelVinceti said:
I was planning on snaging one of the trays from mountainmods.com, I am considering trying my hand at building it myself. It would cost less, but it would take a long time, and im not exactly sure how well it would come out, but i would have built it myself. Im still working on the drawing. Im drawing it in AutoCAD 2006, and im fairly new to autocad, so im slow, and having a hard time building it in the 3d mode.
Click to expand...

I too thought about buying one of the mobo trays from mountain mods but what I ended up doing was buying an old Raidmax case from someone in the FS/T forums for $35. I drilled out the rivets and it's a cheap motherboard tray and mounts for optical drives and hardrive mounts. Also a nice template for fan holes and PSU mount.
 
Also, how about posting some screenshots of your design. Also, if you wouldn't mind I would really like to see the drawing first hand. I just got done with drawing out my entire case in AutoCAD2006 and am in the middle of building. If you'd like to see what I did, it's the thread called Cubed in the case log forum.
 
mnpctech said:
People can't give you constructive input w/o seeing the design.. What you may think is elaborate, may have simple construction. My main concern, how well did you design/engineer everything in your drawing? I get several drawings were details are simply overlooked like the DIMENSIONS, thickness, how will everything fasten together, and with what type or fasteners?... All these little details add up in design time and mnpctech charges $40 per hour... Have you ever priced sheets of rigid carbon fiber? Last 1' x 1" sheet i bought was $50 + shipping.. When I had research time later... the cheapest I found (on ebay) was $25 + shipping. That 1' x 1' sheet doesnt go far either...If youre looking to mold or form it CF, I know of resources, but its god awful expensive.

If you want bling, ie: Polished aluminum, you better off paying to have it plated versus polishing it.. The shine is 10 times better and easier to maintain.

Tip: The smart way to cut costs in building your case/box, which Modders will tell you, is building around an existing oem chassis ....or at very minumum, an existing Mobo tray and rear I/O plate.

Bill
Click to expand...


I can't argue too much about using an exisiting motherboard tray and i/o as it is a good idea but a true modder builds his own :D It takes a bit more brains to do one. However it just depends on the amount of time people want to put into the case. I understand completely if it's supposed to be done in a matter of weeks rather than months.
 
Ill post those pictures as soon as I am done, im trying to be as detailed as possible. Thanks for the help, guys.

Oh, and Im planning on spending a few weeks just building the case (a few weeks straight.. i have quite alot of free time.)
 
The hurdle in making a good Mobo tray/Rear I/O is the straight bend(s) in the sheet metal. I've actually pulled off some decent bends in a large bench vise with a mallet, but that approach isn't for everyone :D Google "Sheet Metal Brake" Thats where MMod's resources come into play. However, the only plus I see in MMod's MB tray is that it accomondates a 120mm fan. If that isn't detrimental to your design, why not buy an entire case like this for little more $$ and cannibalize it for a real removable MB tray and have your HD/Drive bays as well. Search through newegg too. Otherwise check out a local Used Computer and or Electronics store (every city has at least 1 or 2. These outfits buy obsoleted PCs from businesses for surplus. Check your Yellow pages under "Computers, Used") You could buy an old ATX case for $25 for even less.

Just some food for thought :)
 
well.. here is the case.. a rough "SketchUP" I switched from cad, because i was having a hard time with it. sketch up is alot easier to use.

No where near done.. but im still playing with it, trying to figure everything out.

thebigbox.jpg
 
Unique case design, but seeing how the prices of custom building seem... I think you mgiht have more luck buying sheets of al and cutting those pieces up... I guess the exception would be if you were like that guy who had access to CNC machines to make his blade whatchamacallit case.
 
yeah, i have a couple of friends with mig/tig weilders and aluminum fill that are willing to help me out with parts that i want welded. I am planning on building it by hand. the bottom section is for radiators/harddrives. the top will be for the cd/dvd/monitoring device/mobo/psus (which im considering pulling the cases off of and mounting them inside the case, to show off the innards.. then again.. i might not)






(god i suck at spelling)
 
Ok guys, just heard back from the owner of So-Trick (http://www.so-trickcomputers.com) about the ColdForge...

GigaHZ said:
Hi , i wish i could say it would be here tomorrow , but the One Big Deal is Money !

Here's Why - i need to make at lest 300 cases to get price down so i have a marketable Product ,1000 cases are better , so anyone have Seed Money to make this Fly , Like 300k would be nice, lol Prototypes were 1800 ea.

but you never know , 2006 maybe the ColdForge Year.
Click to expand...

Eenteresting...

(And to keep it on topic)
Interesting design there. Are the cross hatched areas plexi, or some sort of mesh?
 
plexy. Sketchup doesnt have a clear glass part, so i used the 'reninforced' glass part. here is the latest one, i redid it with the 5.25 drive bays and 120mm fan bays (which i probably need to adjust.. then again.. maybe i wont, and just use 120mm rads, instead of 360.



thebigbox2.jpg
 
I'm no genius, but wouldn't it be better to put the radiators on the top level? You know, the whole HEAT goes up thing? Hell, if it was up to me, I'd make it one level, and just longer to fit both components.
 
It would matter, but i forgot to put into the model that the bottom of the top level will be solid, aside from where the water cooling tubes and wires down to the fans go into. Besides that, i want to make sure all of the hardware is seen, as opposed to the watercooling equipment.
 
Why not just go full plexy then? And use aluminum supports. That way you could show off verything?

PS: Metal is a conductor of heat
 
o.o... lainli tray... nice find.


Why not just go full plexy then? And use aluminum supports. That way you could show off verything?
Click to expand...

I dont like full plexy. I think they look tacky.. partly because you cant hide things you want to hide really well. And i know metal is a conductor. Im planning on insulating the bottom of the case, so the heat goes only where i want it to, probably with sound proofing foam, on all metal surfaces on the bottom section of the case.
 
Did you ever think about asking MountainMods to build this for you? They will do custom cubes and this seems right up their alley.
 
i considered it, but i think i want the experience of completely custom building a computer, right down to the case. I know how to work with metal, at least with passing skill, so i figured i would try my hand at this.. plus.. it would be alot cheaper for me to build it, than to have mountainmods build it.
 
i realized i messed up on the dimensions.. so i rebuilt.. instead of using imperial measurments, i used metric.. here is the new case.. with the radiator mounting plates from Aqua computer.

thebigbox3.jpg
 
you're def better off buying sheet metal 6061-T6
.125" or .1" should be strong enough. You can sand/brush the alum yourself.

I eprsonally bought a bunch of Aluminum angle's 1"x1" to be the base of my external watercooling box. I'll be joining the angles with 45degree cuts at the ends to form a square. I'll bolts an alum sheet metal to the bottom to support everything.

then the walls are Acrylic I bought online.
 
.1 inch, you think, will be strong enough for a box this big? The bottom section is now 70cmX70xmX30cm. I will be using 90 degree bars for the supports, probably just going to use bolts through those and the sheets ontop. I redid the case again, due to the lack of being able to find any thermal insulator that i would want to use on the case. Its a pain in the ass to work on the laptop im using.. i only have 512 mb ram and it bogs down about the time i start adding in everything. Ill post the new revision in a minute, as soon as i finish labeling what needs to be labeled.
 
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