I have a case I need to modify that is made out of 1/16 (~1.6mm) thick steel. I need to do a fair amount of cutting, I think I will be cutting most of the rear of the case away to replace it with one I make out of aluminum. There will be quite a bit of cutting and I don't think a Dremel is the right tool for this much cutting. My arms are already aching at the thought of doing it by hand with a hacksaw and I know my cuts won't be clean. Is there there an apartment suitable power tool I can get my hands on? It would be a bonus if I can can use it to help fabricate the replacement panel too.
Angle grinder possibly? Plasma cutter would work too "Apartment suitable" is relative, I've used a surface planer/ router table/ table saw inside. Do you have pictures of what you're cutting too because that could be helpful? Good luck.
you guys stole my idea of the Plasma cutter or you could use a dremel with a few hundred cutting disk
m-16+a ton of extra ammo angle grinder, mill, dremel could do it, you just need a LOT of disks, jigsaw + wd-40 or some other lubricant (mechanical only please) yea prettymuch everythings mentioned. btw, which case?
I once had to cut a cast Iron bathtub in half with a sawsall, so it's a safe bet you can cut your stuff with a jigsaw, some metal cutting blades, and a hell of a lot of free time. Or the particle cannon- whichever floats yer boat... p.s. wd40 + hot jigsaw blade = fire! Use gun/sewing machine/cutting oil.
The reinforced dremel wheels will work well on that, ive gut up to 3/16 steel with them before, they are more durable than the regular wheels that or a jig saw with a fine metal blade and lots of cutting lube.
It's an old SCSI external enclosure. My digital camera is acting up (old camera, and smart media) so I haven't been able to get pics. I'll see if I can track down a replacement memory card this weekend and see if I can get some pictures then. In the mean time, these are what I was able to find on the net. http://www.phethean.com/enclosures/8000.htm http://www.labx.com/v2/spiderdealer2/vistaSearchDetails.cfm?id=3496814 I have an AMI series 803 board and 'chassis' which will fit in a 5.25 bay. I'm fitting it with a SATA card and using it to backup my main file server. With the SATA card, the board will take up 3 5.25 bays. I'll use one for a SCSI HDD I have for the boot drive. I'm looking into one of those backplanes that takes up X 5.25 slots and provides Y 3.5 SATA HDD slots. The 3 to 4 can be found for prices that aren't terrible. I'm trying to figure out if I'm doing to get 2 of the 2 5.25 bay to 3 3.5 bays, 1 of the 3 5.25 to 4 3.4 or see if there is a 4 5.25 bay model around that isn't too expensive. This will give me room to get more drives as I expand my file server when drives go on sale I've removed all the power supplies in the case (there were 4 5/12V PSUs) and I plan on putting a 1U ATX supply in their place. I started thinking about reworking the back of the case when I did a trial fit with a 200w 1U PSU I use on my port-o-nas (another 803 board I use to so I can take my file server's drives with me when I travel). There are three fans, one made it so the supply just couldn't quite fit, then there are the issues of getting the power connector and fan holes to line up properly. So I figures I could cut a huge chunk out of the back and bolt an aluminum plate over the resulting mess that has the mounts for the PSU, improved fan mounts, and the USB and LAN connectors for the 803 board.
For around a fiver it's worth trying a nibbler to cut out shapes. The usual PC chassis is 0.8mm mild steel, half the 1/16" you're saying.
Well, I learned that smart media is practically non existent anymore. So whether it is the camera or the storage, it means I need a new camera anyway. But that's fodder for another thread. I was able to get it to behave long enough to snap a pic. I've cropped it to just the interesting bit that illustrates the thickness of the material. I put a PCI card next to the case material for comparison. Sorry it's crooked, with a malfunctioning camera, do overs are a bit tough. I know from expereince that a hand nibbler will choke on that, and where I need to remove most of the rear of the case, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think a Dremel will fare very well here either. Would a jig saw work here as an angle grinder is likely to get me a fire citation unless I can find a buddy who will let me use his garage
A decent jigsaw with the right blade should handle that easily, most'll advertise as being able to cut through ~10mm of steel. Just cover everything with masking tape first, that'll protect the steel from the baseplate
wd 40 is actually not a lubricant to my surprise. Better use 3-in-1 oil and a new metal cutting blade...
OK, cool. thanks for all the help. the cases was an external SCSI toper not meant to house a computer. Getting the power supply mount will be the trickiest part.
I'm in agreement in regards to using a cutting wheel on a Dremel, angle grinder, or a die grinder (if you have a decent air compressor.) Some rental places are better equipped than others, and if you're lucky, you might be able to rent a plasma cutter for a day or weekend.
