Are we having fun yet Russell?


Sep 12 08:10 04, Russell Tiedt wrote to All:


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

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

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

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

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


It could be worse ...
Paul

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.1