wooden case?

I

Incinerator

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
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a friend of mine is thinking about building a case out of wood with a unique design (possibly the Atlanta Falcons logo). I was just curious if any of you had tried to do stuff out of wood and what are your reccomendations.
 
there are alot of them around.... its a fun project if you have the time and the tools... would like to do one myself at some point.... a google search will get you far in this realm.... i know there are a few "how to" guides out there about how to acually mount the stuff to wood....
 
The DangerDen wooden cases are special order only and come in any configuration you want. You tell DangerDen exactly what you want, including a huge array of options and they produce it all including laser etching, engravings, custom windows, and custom fan grills. You even get to chose what type of wood you want, including exotic woods. I spoke with Dennis of DangerDen at PDXLAN and he told me all about the wooden cases. Dennis does all the laser cutting and etching. The only downside to these cases is their price. The go from $500 and up! I guess thats what you pay for a wooden masterpiece though.
 
whats the fun in having someone else build it for you.... IMO the point of a wooden case is the experience building it..... im sure more people would build there own steel cases as well if metal work was as simple as wood work
 
Incinerator said:
a friend of mine is thinking about building a case out of wood with a unique design (possibly the Atlanta Falcons logo). I was just curious if any of you had tried to do stuff out of wood and what are your reccomendations.
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I do woodworking on a regular basis as a hobby, and am about to start building an HTPC into an entertainment center for my living room. I have a few suggestions for building a case out of wood.

1. Measure 3 times, cut once.
2. Use the right tools for the job. (good rule for life in general as well)
3. Build it once, out of cardboard, before you build the real thing. This will help you get an idea of what goes where, and how the whole thing will look when it's done.
4. INVEST in good quality tools. I can't stress this one enough. I went through 3 cheap cordless drills before I bought an 18v Craftsman, which has already lasted me 5 times as long as any of the 3 cheap ones did, and it was only 2 times the price.
5. Use quality wood purchased at a real wood crafts store. Plywood may be cheaper and easier to work with, but the end result won't look anywhere near as good as if you had made it out of a quality oak, maple, etc...
6. Use buscuit / glue joints on all the major structural joints. You won't be left with screw heads on the outside, which just looks ugly on a quality built piece of furniture (which a wood PC case is), and they're alot stronger than just gluing them together.
7. On the smaller, non structual joints, use brad nails driven in with a nail gun. This method sinks the brads in slightly below the surface of the wood, and you can follow up by filling in these recesses with a little dab of wood filler.
8. Pick out a good quality stain & give the whole job 3 or 4 coats of semi-gloss polyurathane.
9. Read suggestion #1 again!!!

Good luck, but most of all, Have Fun! :D
 
I too would like to build a wood case sometime, but my next project is going to be of aluminum. The biggest advantage of wood cases are that they have a natural sound barrier. With the right wood, you can nearly silance your rig with case alone.... Bad thing is that they usually end up twice as heavy of a standard metal case. I plan on building an HTPC right into a custom tv stand someday. I have way too many thoughts but not enough money...
 
Sheldron said:
I do woodworking on a regular basis as a hobby, and am about to start building an HTPC into an entertainment center for my living room. I have a few suggestions for building a case out of wood.

1. Measure 3 times, cut once.
2. Use the right tools for the job. (good rule for life in general as well)
3. Build it once, out of cardboard, before you build the real thing. This will help you get an idea of what goes where, and how the whole thing will look when it's done.
4. INVEST in good quality tools. I can't stress this one enough. I went through 3 cheap cordless drills before I bought an 18v Craftsman, which has already lasted me 5 times as long as any of the 3 cheap ones did, and it was only 2 times the price.
Click to expand...

I do woodworking on a regular basis...based on what you said...want to marry me? I came to this thread to basically say those things. Also, invest in tools with real warranties that are written and enforceable.
 
hince the reason i only buy craftsman handtools.... im a theatre carpenter and i have been through about 6 or 7 30' tapes in the last 5 years.... walk in and hand it to the person at the counter (dropped one from a genie at 30' once... broke into about 30 pieces) and go get a new one no questions asked except for how the hell did you do that?
 
What store is that at? I have had pretty good experience from tools made by name brands. But between them I don't have enough experience to differentiate.

Also, where are these totorials on wooden case-making?
 
I agree with what's already been said, but I have one more suggestion.

You could get away with using brackets to secure corners as long as they're on the inside. This makes for a really secure case, with no aesthetic disadvantage. Quality wood and accurate measurements are key. If you have both of those the rest will go alright.

Do build a mock-up out of cardboard to check tolerances and measurements. If you don't copy the ATX or BTX layout designs, keep air flow in mind at least a little.
 
Tool advice:

Hand tools: Buy all Craftsman. My father's uncle was a cabinet maker for thirty years. My father inherited his tools, some of which I use now. Several of them date back to just after World War 2, when my great uncle started into his trade. If I break one of them today, it gets replaced no questions asked. Of course, Uncle Sam only ever broke one screwdriver, and he lost a finger in the same accident (I don't know all the details). Yep, Sears replaced it. You can't go wrong with Craftsman hand tools.

Aside from the usual hammer

Power tools: Craftsman doesn't give the same warranty to power tools for obvious reasons, so they've got a little competition in my book here. Makita makes some excellent power tools, especially their drills. DeWalt is good, but I've found I can usually get better tools from Makita for the same price.

What to have:

Circular saw, hand drill (18v cordless is great), the usual.

Table saw: If you're like me, you don't do this enough to be really skilled with a circular saw. A table saw will give you good straight cuts. Spend the extra money to get one with some flexibility: you want to be able to adjust the angle of the blade, for example.

Jigsaw: For those jobs a circular saw can't do.

Drill press: Again, because it's easier to have the specialized equipment than trust yourself to drill every hole perfectly even by hand.

Assorted sanders: Gotta smooth it all out when you get done. Always use random orbit sanders--belt or single-axis sanders will leave an unnatural grain in the wood.

Stuff you might want:

Band saw: for when a jigsaw seems clumsy.

Rotary tool (aka Dremel): These can actually come in handy in various roles in woodworking.

Lathe: Never used one myself, but you might have a use for it in some project, and they are quite nice to have.

I know I'm forgetting a lot...oh well :)
 
Footer4321 said:
whats the fun in having someone else build it for you.... IMO the point of a wooden case is the experience building it..... im sure more people would build there own steel cases as well if metal work was as simple as wood work
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Metal work *is* as simple as wood work, it's just that the tools are a LOT more expensive and most people have more experience with wood.
 
PopeKevinI said:
Tool advice:

Hand tools: Buy all Craftsman. Of course, Uncle Sam only ever broke one screwdriver, and he lost a finger in the same accident (I don't know all the details). Yep, Sears replaced it. You can't go wrong with Craftsman hand tools.
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DAMN :eek:

Sears replaced a finger for him! Wow, that's a hell of a warranty! What happened to the screwdriver he broke?
:D :D :D
 
penguin said:
Metal work *is* as simple as wood work, it's just that the tools are a LOT more expensive and most people have more experience with wood.
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the amount of skill and precision needed to produce a piece takes more time to learn and master.... wood can be manipulated much easier then steel.... also the amount of setup time for steel takes longer (jigging, cleaning, welding, grinding, finishing, etc).... you can do wood work cheaper then metal, but to do wood work right (after you have bought everything you need that is good stuff) wood work is also very expensive
 
superkdogg said:
DAMN :eek:

Sears replaced a finger for him! Wow, that's a hell of a warranty! What happened to the screwdriver he broke?
:D :D
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And that's what I get for typing a lengthy message in a hurry :p
 
im sure they would consider the finger a "power tool" and not apply the lifetime guarentee to it :D
 
Wow, I almost forgot the most important tip to give anyone starting to work with wood or metal of any kind:
WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!!!
 
Sheldron is dead right with the huge red font.

I used to skip the glasses if I just had "a little" work to get done. Then one of my cutting disks broke and a piece of it hit me in the cheek. Missed a potentially serious eye injury by about 2".

It doesn't take much of a crack to destroy a cutting disk @ ~30K rpms. I learned my lesson and that is don't bother risking it-the penalty is too much.
 
superkdogg said:
Sheldron is dead right with the huge red font.

I used to skip the glasses if I just had "a little" work to get done. Then one of my cutting disks broke and a piece of it hit me in the cheek. Missed a potentially serious eye injury by about 2".

It doesn't take much of a crack to destroy a cutting disk @ ~30K rpms. I learned my lesson and that is don't bother risking it-the penalty is too much.
Click to expand...

Yeah, can't forget safety. Decent glasses are dirt cheap so there's no reason to not have them.
 
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