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Comment by tambourine_man | Hacker News Reader

I have no experience building PCs, but during the last decade or so I've been running RPis with 6-8 disks attached. It's great software and noise wise, but the cases were made by me with MDF (and I have no idea what I'm doing), so it's not as solid as I'd like them to be.

Every time I search for rackmount or 3D printed cases I'm floored by the prices, which seem completely out of proportion.

Any tips on cheep/custom computer cases are highly appreciated. Thanks

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I agree with the advice that you should just use an ATX case. They are a commodity and there are a billion great ones. You'll have to remove the motherboard plate and drill 4 holes for M2.5 standoffs; the full Raspberry Pi dimensions are on the product page, so you can easily print out a 1:1 template, get the right drill bit, and go. No fancy equipment is necessary to drill a small hole in sheet metal, and the result will be very satisfying.

I tend to 3D print my own stuff, and have found it to be the be all and end all of electronics projects enclosures. I never had a good project enclosure until I got a 3D printer, and now I always have them. It's amazing! I have at least 3 different Pi projects, and I designed and printed cases for each of them. It's very straightforward and not a bad project for learning CAD and 3D printing.

8 hard drives are going to be heavy and take up a bunch of space, though, so that's why I'd recommend an off-the-shelf case that already has support for that. (Sheet metal bending is the right fabrication technique for this application, I think, and that's how the cases are made.)

That's what I was afraid, you're convincing me of buying a 3D printer :)

They are still a bit expensive, but are so much fun that they maybe worth it.

You'll like it. Don't cheap out too much. I think the polish that careful manufacturers like Prusa add is worth paying for. I started with a Tiertime printer and it made me so unhappy that I bought a Prusa i3 a month later. Skip that step and go right to the good stuff. The best step for me was that I got the kit, so I put every part together myself. When something breaks, I know exactly how it's put together. (I have broken something by being an idiot and ... printed a replacement part and was back up and running the same day.)

The Prusa Mini is very reasonably priced, but I haven't used it and I'm not sure the build area is enough for what you have in mind.

I absolutely love laser-cut acrylic with tapped holes accepting m3 screws or standoffs.

For the MDF, it's mostly practice and time/care. It took me quite some time to master making square wooden boxes that stand up to abuse and nowadays I could design in Fusion and rip out a case on my CNC machine pretty fast (<hours).

Next project is to encase an entire RPi in clear epoxy: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/epoxy-pi-resin-io/

It’s probably easier to buy a regular case and then fit the raspberry pi into it.

We should be meeting in the middle and creating SBCs whose bolt holes spacing is identical to some other device standard. For instance 2.5” HDDs, or 3.5-2.5 adapters. Then you can find trays and enclosures and caddies that can be modified slightly to purpose.

Expanding holes in sheet metal is easy. Tapping holes, welding captive nuts, and bending are a lot trickier.

This would be excellent. That's a great idea.

For something as lightly loaded as a home computer, rivnuts are pretty darn easy and cheap way to add threads to sheet metal.

Brass standoffs with a nut on the back are also readily available and cheap.

Brass standoffs are great but they still require a tapped hole.

I was thinking more of moderate scale. I’d totally rivnut one SBC if I had a friend who could show me how. But I’m not doing twenty or small batches for resale. I think there’s a fraction of people in that demographic for whom a rivnut is still fancy tech. I’ve only heard about them from watching Bad Obsession Motorsports (with Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln) and rivnuts are like a running gag argument between the two hosts. Welded captive nuts always win. Every time.

I just looked at a rivnut catalog, and couldn’t figure out how to find a nut that would work with standard computer case screws, or in fact what tool and nut combinations worked together. I’m not gonna sort that shit out on my own.

its most a computer case(sound of drums) of production of scales the only ones who are mass produce are the ultra basic, the others are design for enthusiastic hobbyist who can pay a premium for their hobby.

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