So I've had a scratch build planned for a few months and seeing the mod of the year competition has sparked my motivation to see what a neophyte like myself can do. I have a few of the materials on order already but I am looking for some guidence. I'm planning on using 2mm aluminium and acrylic. Is 2mm aluminium strong enough to hold a 240mm rad? Also I have no idea about perforating the metal to create ventilation holes. How have others done this? I've tried googling it but not really turned up anything useful. Thanks for any help you can give. I'm sure I will have more questions as I start building. I have to wait until may to start though due to studies but I am getting tools and materials together from now until then to spread the cost.
It always depends on the specific factors(like the size of the panel, bends, how it's attached) but I'd say 2mm is plenty strong enough. You could probably get by with 1.5. You won't get much flex until you get past 2' panels, but always error on the side of too strong and you'll get the feel for it with experience. For the ventilation you're not really going to perforate the 2mm without some industrial machine, so the easiest bet is just to cut out a hole in front of the rad or fans. Something like this. What I've done on other cases is CNC patterns for ventilation. You could do that by hand, but even just cleaning up the milling on those with a file took forever. Another way would be to use a drill to drill a gazillion little holes or to drill endpoints and make slots.
I tend to use 3mm aluminium although 2mm is generally strong enough if you make it structurally rigid. You can cut it with a piercing saw, but use WD40 for lubrication as aluminium is a soft metal and gums up the teeth of a metal saw easily. You could drill ventilation holes using a mill but that is tedious work --and not everybody has a mill. Instead order a CNC'd part at a company like The Laserhive.
I've been looking at the Lazerhive website, I think it may be simpler to get them to do the ventilation holes for me. I don't fancy drilling ~200 holes and I don't think I have the tools/skill to make it look good. The build I am planning is a MITX case which consists of 3 parts, a 'c' shaped section for the base, right side panel and roof, a square shaped section for the rear and a single curved panel with a window which makes up the left hand side and the front. There are ventilation holes on the right hand side and the curved panel. I intend to build an internal frame to attach the panel to which should also increase the cases overall strength. I think 2mm aluminium will be fine and make the build significantly lighter and easier to bend but I will get a scrap pieces of both thicknesses to do some testing first. Thanks guys.
I wouldn't worry about a frame, with mITX size, 2mm will be plenty strong. You won't need it and it will just be something to work around. The center pic I posted above was mid tower sized made of 2mm and was solid as a rock once you tied the panels to each other. And that was with hanging the tray, with everything except the rad on it, from the roof. Check out Parvum's mod blocks for putting your panels together.
