Not quite aviation related (unless things about my PC which I use to participate here count…), but we have a lot of builders / mechanically minded people here so I hope someone can help.
I am about to re-build a PC case I originally built from MDF, and I want to use aluminium panels this time. The finish is important – the final result should have a coloured elox finish. I have no desire to buy a CNC machine or a 3D printer that can do parts up to 370×370mm, so am looking for a prototyping provider which can mill or print to spec, but also need some advice on what to go for:
1) Printing vs. milling
Clearly the trend is towards 3D printing – but given that what I need is mostly sheets with some holes in them and a simple chamfer, does that make sense? Or would it make sense to print the whole thing in one piece?
2) Service providers
Who does this, for a batch size of one (or more likely, do one, and then do another one that actually works…)? If possible including drilling and tapping for screws and eloxing / finishing the surface? And is reasonably tolerant of an amateur?
3) Materials
3mm or 5mm aluminium sheets?
Any pointers appreciated.
I do not think aluminium lends itself to 3D-printing, at least not lightly enough to be affordable to an amateur.
OTOH cad/cam milling machines are common today, that must be the way to go. Over here there is a new trend called “fablab” where volunteer nerds provide know-how while the infrastructure is offered by the municipality or a university. Bring your own stock and bits, and mill away!
Have you considered building a support frame and then bolting/gluing sheet metal parts on to the frame.
You can get very nice polished sheet metal with protecting foil and get somebody to cutout or bend the parts you need.
The sheets will then be much thinner and you don’t need any polishing afterwards.
What’s the size of this case? What should it endure (forces, water, chemicals ??) any weight limitations ? Should it look sturdy (“industrial”) or more “furniture”/briefcase?
In a previous life in the late 1970s I used to build high power audio amps (up to 800W RMS per channel)
and they were built mainly from 1/4" hard aluminium plate (the pic above uses thinner sheet for the outside) which I bought from a local metal merchant already cut to size. It made it easy to create a very solid box. Just drill some holes and tap some M4 threads. Hard aluminium is much better for machining. I cut all the holes and got the pieces anodised.
Now I have a turret mill at home but it isn’t CNC so while I can cut big circular holes, they need to be done with an adjustable offset boring head i.e. very slowly. I have used that method for instrument panels, just about…
It all starts with finding the “local metal merchant”… or “internet metal merchant”, a place where I can order sheets that are cut to size with precision. I could then drill holes, tap threads, then get it anodised, and assemble.
I would very much prefer to get all that done (mostly because I son’t fancy handling the chemicals etc for anodising, especially in the quantities involved to anodise a 370×370mm base plate.
leSving, it is a PC case for indoors so nothing special, and weight is not an issue either. At the moment it is built from 5mm MDF. Total area of top, bottom and all sides is slightly more than 0.5 square metres (overall case dimensions are 370×370×185), which means with 2mm Aluminium the panels would weigh around 3kg.
1/4 inch or 6mm would really make this a bit heavy, but presumably I can get M4 screws into the edges to assemble it without a support frame… and I could walk on it without bending it at all…
think about DIBOND https://www.plastock.co.uk/shop-by-shape/sheet/dibond-sheet
you can get it cut pre drilled with holes in all shapes comes in various finishes it is light, durable, with very good surface finish, cheap, also can get easy printed for labels etc
if you wanna have a “special” look have some angles made in alloy cnc machined with a nice round radius, than anodized (even if only clear or with a colour) and than either glue or screw them together for your desired “housing”
i.materialise.com is good at 3D aluminium printing.
Thanks, @Peter_Paul. Composite / laminate is not what I am after because of fthe look of the edges.
The service is exactly what I need, though – stuff cut to size, as I don’t have the equipment to cut AL to precision.
I.materialise.com looks promising, but I checked with them and they cannot do the size required.
Is there really nobody out there where I can say ‘5mm aluminium, cut to 370×370 mm, 1mm chamfer on edges on one side, anodise in dark red, please’? (And 5 similar cuts) Or even ‘5mm aluminium, cut to sizes …’.
