Latest PC Case.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Not sure where to post this as there was woodworking, CNC and Laser work involved. However most of the underlying work was done with the laser.

First the finished product.

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Its mostly three types of Walnut with the legs and corner sconce made from Dyed maple. Its designed to enclose a very large PC with large CPU and graphics card. IE room and good heat disipation.

Now for the design.

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With my laser I created a carcass that holds the actual PC. Its self contained so all buttons, power, fans, ect are in this carcass. This allows you to get the machine working before its inclosed in wood.

In the photo above the carcass is sandwitched betweeen the top of the piece and the bottom. A threaded rod goes through the legs, top, carcass, and into the top with threaded inserts. ITs designed to handle wood movement.

The actual front, sides, and back pieces are Walnut Veneer on to 3/4" hardboard. They were then cut with the laser. These pieces are then inserted into walnut corner pieces and screwed in place. The sconces were CNCed and glued to the corners just before finishing.

The Front and sides are just slipped into position and held in place with back piece that is screwed into place.

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I did not like the look of the drives so I used the CNC to carve out a piece of walnut. It has 4 magnets that stick to 4 magnets mounted on the inside of the front of the case.

The slots in the front of the cover was cut with a laser.

The whole thing is coated with 5 coats of Shellac, buffed slightly to remove the gloss.

All in all it works very well the case maintains a solid 44c-50c under load.

[Bruce Volden]

I want one--only I want mine in pink ivory. Michael, do you custom build the pc's also? I think you are on to something-like Krell with their subwoofers. Keep up the good work.

Bruce

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Yes I build the actual PC. Its the only way I can get exactly what I want. I pretty much stick to ATX, EATX, mTX, ITX, mITX form factors.

[Anthony Welch]

Now that is thinking "outside the box" about the "box". Neat idea.

Anthony

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Nice work Michael. Thanks for sharing and inspiring us with some of the neat things you do.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

This was a long term project. I started it almost a year ago. I ran into problems building the sconce and legs so I built my DIY CNC to cut them. I had used router templates but this is a pain for small items. Something I also learned along the way is about Walnut. I got have three different variaties and and color variations. The corner pieces (not the sconce) are a drak smooth Walnut. Very Dence. The top and bottom are a lighter color and have a deeper open grain. The front and sides were vaneer and resombled the top and bottom. I would have liked the whole piece to have been more like the smoother dence stuff but I had to work with what I could find. It all looks the same before its planed down.

Some observations laset cutting walnut. With my laser I cut the 3/8" thick walnut (The dence stuff) at a 100% power and speed of 10 on my laser. It flamesbut as long as you have good vector air flow and evacuation system its a nice fine cut. It does char on the cut ends but its a hard char. If you finish the chared ends it can add to the piece giving a litlle contrast. You will also get a little char marking on the cut side but with dark walnut its kind of cool if finished with out cleaning it off. To clean I hit it lightly with 320grit paper.

Walnut is a open grained wood so if its cut too fine it can break. As you can see in the removable cover, the underside was reinforced to keep the vent slits from breaking off.

[Gregg Feldstone]

Is there any problem with heat? How do you keep the wood from drying too much and cracking?

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I build a lot of computer cases and let me say first. If you are generating so much heat that the wood is cracking then the something is wrong with the design. First is I never use wood that is less then 6%. I recently took a bunch of wood back to Woodcraft because it had too high a moisture content.

Second is Ventilation, Ventilation, Ventilation. Get fresh air into the case and get it out as fast as possible. I do this by creating a positive air pressure. I use the two or more fans (filtered) to bring in fresh air. It then needs a natural path to flow back out. In the case of this design it flows mostly out the back and a little out the drive vents to keep the hard drive cool.

I do lots of research when designing a new case. Smoke tests for air flow and lots of stress/temperature tests. I try to get a system designed so that CPU does not get over 60c. The lower the better. I try to keep my HD under 40c and the ambiant temp under 30c-35c.

Third is to seal the wood both on the inside and out. Also to design for wood movement. In all my designs the top and bottom pieces float. The fronts and sides are engineered wood or designed to float as well much like a panel and frame design.

In the past a lot of old TV cases were made of wood and believe me the tubes created far more heat than the even a modern gaming PC. I loce the old tube TV and stereo cabinet designs and vist thrift stores frequently and purchase them when ever I can find one.

So in answer to you question. No heat is not a problem.

[Dan Hintz]

Reminds me of an old-style sewing machine case... nicely done.