NCASE M1 Wood Front in Walnut

warmack

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Warmack Woodworks
Nov 4, 2018
42
46
My NCASE M1 arrived in from customs and I decided to replace the front panel with a wooden one made from some walnut. I really like walnut on aluminum, though I know it isn't everyone's thing. The hardest part of this was routing out a recess in the top of the walnut front so that the aluminum top panel sat flush. I originally tried to leave a small amount of wood on the right land left side of the recess, but it blew out while finishing up the front. The top right corner has a repair that I am unhappy with.



I am going to make another one, and I think I want to do something unusual, like using a cracked piece that is stabilized with some aluminum butterfly joint. Oh and my next one will likely be 2/3rds the thickness.
 

warmack

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Warmack Woodworks
Nov 4, 2018
42
46
Wow, that looks very clean. How many hours did it take to make it?
It took about 5 hours to go from rough lumber to this, most of that time probably fumbling around with ideas until landing on a process or look that I thought would work well.
 
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warmack

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Warmack Woodworks
Nov 4, 2018
42
46
Saw this over on the subreddit. Looks great, I want one.
Thanks! I'm planning on offering some up for sale eventually. I will need to batch out 10 or so to be able to price them anywhere reasonable. I will probably do an assortment of woods if you have any input.
 

HottestVapes

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 13, 2018
135
131
Thanks! I'm planning on offering some up for sale eventually. I will need to batch out 10 or so to be able to price them anywhere reasonable. I will probably do an assortment of woods if you have any input.

I think a lighter wood could look good with the silver chassis. Maybe a beech or oak? Just thinking back to that InWin A1 that was shown a while ago with a wooden top panel, the lighter wood just sat really nicely with white side/front panel.
 

warmack

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Warmack Woodworks
Nov 4, 2018
42
46
Are you planning to cater for other cases?
So far only the Velka 3 and the NCASE M1. I'm working on the Velka 5 but I don't have one on hand so I am going off of provided dimensions.

I'm open to other suggestions but they'd be lower priority unless someone wants to finance them. My other side project that I am working on is a wooden sandwich style case that uses a flex PSU and an ITX graphics card and I'm saving up for a CNC router for that one.
 

warmack

Trash Compacter
Original poster
Warmack Woodworks
Nov 4, 2018
42
46
over time, the massif of the tree can deform from a large difference in temperature and humidity

I think the front of the NCASE is fairly well shielded from most of the extreme heat of the case, but I mounted it with a single screw in the back and I drilled out where the pins connect to the front panel much larger than the wood. It is a pretty small piece and fairly straight grained. Unless the front goes crazy I suspect any wood movement to minimal, but in the end who knows. Wood will be wood.