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My take on a SFF tower

NRG

Airflow Optimizer
Oct 30, 2015
289
359
This is really neat man. Really enjoyed reading through your post and look forward to seeing more progress in the near future :)
 

Carsten

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 16, 2020
20
69
The cardboard mockup is finished. The cutting took quite some time but I am happy with the result:


I will order the metal version soon, but it will take two weeks to arrive.
I will use the time to preapare the magnetic mounting points and also work on the top & bottom panels.
 

troybot

Average Stuffer
Sep 6, 2018
56
57
As requested by troybot and a DM, the dxf files for the laser parts are now availabe.
I just postet them to Resources, along with a little bit of explanation.
Hi mate that's really nice that you did this! I mainly wanted it to check the dimensions and spacing of the pcie and mb holes relative to each other, but ended up making it myself from some other references.

Out of curiosity how long did delivery of the sheetmetal take? I ordered on the 31st and it was in procesing on the 5th of June (last Friday).

I will make a quick write up of mine eventually too because i'm doing mine slightly different than yours.

Looking forward to seeing the final result
 

Carsten

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 16, 2020
20
69
Some progress was made today.
I had a bunch of magnets Ø10x2mm left over from another project. So I decided to use them to attach the panels
At the front, four magnets per fix point sandwich the stainless steel. This seems to work well and also gives me the planned 4mm distance between inner and outer housing at the front.



For the sides, I drilled 10mm Holes in the brass construction blocks.
The plan was, to epoxy the magnets in, but It turned out, that the magnets and the drilled holes create a light press fit.
So I just pressed them in with my vice.







___________________________________________________

Hi mate that's really nice that you did this! I mainly wanted it to check the dimensions and spacing of the pcie and mb holes relative to each other, but ended up making it myself from some other references.

Out of curiosity how long did delivery of the sheetmetal take? I ordered on the 31st and it was in procesing on the 5th of June (last Friday).

I will make a quick write up of mine eventually too because i'm doing mine slightly different than yours.

Looking forward to seeing the final result

There are really better sources than a dxf from a random homemade build ?.
Let me know when you do your writeup, I'm interested.
As for delivery: as far as i remember delivery was about two weeks after order. I chose the fastest of the options 2/3/4 weeks.
 

Carsten

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 16, 2020
20
69
FINISHED! ?



The top & bottom panels are solid oak, finished with boiled linseed oil.
I wanted to work on my woodworking skills, so I bought a piece of good oak (600x125x15), cut and planed the panels with hand tools to dimension (200x123.5x13.5)
Power tools were only used for the cutout and holes in the bottom.
For those interested, here is a gallery with some pictures from that process:


Side panels:
I figured one can never have too many tools. So i bought a sheet metal bender to fold them in my shed.
Primer and paint were also diy.

Some things to point out:
- the power button has been relocated to the back panel (I didnt like the cutout in the temporary wood panel)
- I got rid of the magnets in the front, the panels are secure enough without them
- tolerances and paint thickness on the side panels made it necessary to add 0.5mm spacer between the bottom wood panel and the construction blocks.
- the added thickness of the bottom panel and the cutout towards the back allows now to plug in almost any cable without adapter


Finally, a gallery with previously shown pictures of case internals, just to have everything together in one post:
 

Arboreal

King of Cable Management
Silver Supporter
Oct 11, 2015
819
814
Congratulations @Carsten, your design has turned out so well!

The outer shell and the wood, take it to another level. I thought the core was impressive , but there was more to come.

The cut out on the wooden base was a nice touch; flexibility of cable access whilst making the visible part of the base match the top panel perfectly.

I'm really inspired by what you have done, and am assembling some initial materials to hand build my first aluminium prototype case soon.
 
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Carsten

Chassis Packer
Original poster
May 16, 2020
20
69
Congratulations @Carsten, your design has turned out so well!

The outer shell and the wood, take it to another level. I thought the core was impressive , but there was more to come.

The cut out on the wooden base was a nice touch; flexibility of cable access whilst making the visible part of the base match the top panel perfectly.

I'm really inspired by what you have done, and am assembling some initial materials to hand build my first aluminium prototype case soon.

Thanks :)
The wooden base with cutout was added thanks to the inputs of @tinyitx and @Phuncz