Hello Paul.

12 Sep 04 05:08, you wrote to me:

 RT>> Well seeing as I will have a few mobo's of non standard sizes,
 RT>> shortly, what material would you blokes recomend for case
 RT>> building, ie. for SBC's and PC-104 size devices.

 PW> Glad to see you're moving up in the world. Here are several materials
 PW> with some potential.

Moving up, ... I wouldn't know really ... :-)

 PW> Corner bead and J-strip for drywall; these are a fairly thin guage
 PW> sheet metal made to cover the outside corners and exposed edges of
 PW> drywall before applying the mud. While not very stong in and of
 PW> themselves, they do provide a metal surface to screw or bolt to and
 PW> are fairly easy to work with. It can be cut with tin-snips or hacksaw,
 PW> and when assembled should be strong enough for most casual abuse. It
 PW> comes in 8'+ lengths and has the shining virtue of being dirt cheap.

Unfortunately we don't do much building with "dry walls" here ...

 PW> To hold it all together, I recommend standard machine bolts (I think
 PW> #6 1/4" or 3/8" round head.) The thread pitch should match those
 PW> fitting your hard drives but check as that is what you want. The heads
 PW> will not match the standard hex head used in most computer cases, but
 PW> can be used interchangably nonetheless. For the price of a couple of
 PW> dozen computer standard hex head bolts in chrome, you should be able
 PW> to pick up a hundred of these machine bolts, with nuts. If you do use
 PW> them to mount a hard drive, thread a nut all the way to the head first
 PW> to shorten them and double check for interference :]

Hmmm ...

 PW> At the local newspaper, I occasionally scrouge sheets of some sort of
 PW> plastic which comes interleaved with the film negatives for their
 PW> offset printer. These come in several sizes, somewhere in the
 PW> neighbourhood of 17" x 22" and perhaps 1/16" thick.
Whatever this
 PW> plastic is, it has the anti-static properties that make it attractive
 PW> for use inside a computer case or as a working surface.  It is
 PW> extremely easy to work with a sharp sturdy knife. To fold a 90 deg
 PW> corner for example, one scores (without cutting through) and folds
 PW> away from the cut. A hole capable of holding a bolt can be started
 PW> simply by twisting a nail through by hand. Unsupported edges will have
 PW> a tendancy to bend especially if a hair too long for the fit. An extra
 PW> fold along that edge will help, but if considered cosmetic only, it
 PW> can be ignored. I have made 3.5 to 5.25 bay adapters and hard drive
 PW> coolers (with a working but tired cpu fan) in only a few miutes,
 PW> saving about 20$ each. Be aware though, that there may not be much
 PW> resistance to heat and flame as it is fairly soft stuff.


This sounds real nice, I wonder if the photo copy shop where we do a lot of 
work, will have something similar. Must remember to ask ...

Thanks,

Russell

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