PC case made of wood

Not sure if anyone else is interested in this topic, but I tried my hand at making a PC case made of wood. I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to woodworking, but the result was not too shabby, considering the limitations. Anyone else has experience with this niche that they can share? Or with other materials?

Video of the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_94mswlMSqg
Or in pics log form: http://imgur.com/gallery/GeFQ3

16 Likes

I think the biggest improvement would be working on your joint skills. It can really help the look of the case.
Try doing a mitre joint if you take another shot at it.

Reminds me of this build. 👍

Are you experiencing any resonance from the wooden case?

1 Like

Yeah, I was thinking of using miter joints on another project I'm doing, I've been practicing. Also, do you know anything about cutting glass? I got a large piece from the rubbish tip on my street..it's not tempered, looks like it was from cabinet shelving or something. I think it would make for an awesome glass side panel thingy..if I don't shatter it to pieces! XD

No, noise levels are better than a regular (cheapo) case, i'd say. If it wasn't for the stock cpu cooler, I think it would be very quiet. The wood is fairly thick so I think that helps. Yeah, I saw that case from DIY perks, he's an inspiration :)

I want to make a wooden case as well, had an idea for a long time to make an old wooden, industrial style one with temp and other readouts displayed in the front of the cade through nixie tubes. There are nice mother boards now that have test points for this information so hooking that up would be easy enough now.

The wood would add to the dark and subtly glowing nature of the tubes as opposed to the clean edges and often shiny bright led style today. same ice but if it had existed decades ago. But that is a far away project been sitting in it for years.

Yours looks nice and has got the idea going for me again.

For the glass cutting you can get the small metal Hlhandle more or less with a small sharp wheel on the end for scoring the glass in a line and then it has some teeth in the side the hook over the edge of the glass to lever and snap the clean edge off you just scored.

@Zibob go for it! And thanks for the tips. I'min the process of making another case, this time with melamine. I find it super brittle, crumbles to the slightest touch. Do you think if I use something like silicone I can fill the bits of melamine that fall off? Maybe I should have gotten thicker melamine..

1 Like

Glad I could help. But past that I am no use to you. Melamine is a plastic right? I know nothing there.

I think it's called MDF in the US. The difference is over here (EU) it comes covered in this melamine substance, hence the name. It's like a non-conductive thin coating of white paint

melamine is a resin-impregnated paper. It's brittle when cut, yes; to get a clean edge you need a very sharp saw or router and cut slowly.

MDF is the board itself (medium-density fiberboard). more commonly (in the US anyway) melamine will come on regular particleboard. very uncommonly, you can get it on plywood.

for a box, you'll also need edge banding (an iron-on plastic strip to cover the exposed edges of the board) and filler (a hardening putty for seams/chips). be aware that regular wood glues do not hold on melamine (neither do most paints; they'll flake off after a week or so). you need a cyanoacrylate glue.

TBH, I don't see melamine as a particularly nice medium for stuff like this — it's mainly for inexpensive cabinets — but hope yours comes out well!

Ah, thanks to @_adrian's reply I get it. Over here MDF is just bare sheets, no coating at all.

That's good to know, thanks for the info! I think in my case it might be plywood considering how thin it is. In the attached pic, you can see how in one of the corners it just crumbled :( I don't want to start over, so I was thinking of filling this with silicone, somehow.. Or maybe in the end I could cover every surface with a somewhat thick white paper, then paint over? Any suggestions?

Good job, thanks for sharing. Smart idea for the spring suspension by the way.

unfortunately, … : (

silicone would not look good. paint does not stick to melamine (it might seem ok at first, but it will flake off in short order). and those chips are way too large for filler.

Imgur

that's particle board. and actually, might not be true melamine (it's hard to tell in a photo; but shinyness/texture seems off). how thick is it? ½" ?

for this, i might suggest using MDF.

you can get "ultralight" MDF too, and it's totally worth it. go to a cabinetry/hardwood supply shop (do NOT go to home depot or the like; you want nice stuff. you'll probably pay ~ $30 for a 4×8 ½" sheet. for few buck more they'll cut it into pieces that fit in your car).

MDF is much more forgiving to cut/glue/sand, and you can paint it (ultralight will require extra primer, but it's fine). use woodglue, clamps and a (smal) nailgun for joints, then predrill (PREDRILL) and screw for stability. You can leave the screws exposed if you're careful enough with placement + depth, or countersink them a little bit and fill in with wood putty and sand flush before painting.

When you're ready for actual wood, start with a softer hardwood like poplar.

1 Like

re: cutting melamine: what are you cutting with? do you have a tablesaw?

if so, then cut in two passes: the first very, very shallow (like, only ⅛") to score the melamine on the back, the second to finish the cut (but keep the blade only a half inch or so above the surface). go very smoothly and very slowly. they make melamine blades, too. the teeth are pointier, angled back instead of forwards, and there are more teeth (80-100 for a 10" blade). More pricey though.

Nice work man. Wooden pc cases can be very cool pieces of art. One of my favorite scratch builds from recent memory was the 'Addison' build by Slipperyskip.

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?s=f80a6b9bd405711e0c8dd47028156617&t=277893&page=6

1 Like

:( That's what I was afraid of, but you are right. Might as well start over with better materials. I'll look in my local supply shop. I might just go straight to wood, as pine wood is super cheap over here. Like 7-10 euros for 2x2 meters if I remember correctly, and they do cut to measure as you suggest. I have no idea where to find poplar. Would pine be ok? That's what I used for the first project.

I don't have a table saw. I have a circular and a miter, but I use a hand saw for almost everything (I can't get straight cuts with the circular). Usually I'll start with the miter for a guide, then finish with the hand saw. Worked ok for wood. Probably the worst possible way of cutting melamine though, I imagine XD hence the mess. My circular did come with 3 different saws, one of which is similar to what you describe. I think the third one is for metal.

Wow that's way too pro for me XD I agree though, we need more wood cases, or at least some wood elements mixed with steel and alluminium. Cryorig showcased a really nice case with wooden feet at computex: http://www.cryorig.com/computex2016.php (scrolll to the "TAKU")

A while ago I broke a glass panel on a coffee tabele at a place I was renting. Getting a replacement at a glass shop was really cheap. That was 20+ yrs ago however.

Awesome job on the case

if you like it. it's soft, but the grain is harder, which can make cutting/sanding hard sometimes.

poplar will be at just about any hardwoods shop in the US; i don't know about Europe though. It's a north american wood. i don't know what would be comparable over there.

as for cutting straight lines with a circular saw: clamp on a straight piece of wood as a guide.