Scratch Build - In Progress ⭐ Project Alumina - A SFF Case

Hey all, I know I've been out of the loop for a while but I'm back with something new. I won't bore you with a huge introduction since I tend not to read them myself. But, after I went back to school for a two year engineering degree I've been working at a machine shop for the last couple of years. I'd been getting that all so familiar itch to make something so I decided to whip up a case relatively quickly. It seems like the days get shorter and shorter and I just don't have time to sink hundreds of hours into builds anymore.

I wanted to make something to showcase a bit of what I can do now with my new-found career so I made a SFF design based on machining it out of one piece of aluminum. I think it's about 3L so pretty small, but it's also a pretty minimal build. Here's a list of what's going in it:

Ryzen 2400G
Gigabyte AB350N-Gaming Wifi
8gb Corsair 3000mhz
Silicon Power 120gb m2 ssd
120w picoPSU

I'm a bit of an old fogey so I like to keep everything simple, no sponsors, no pages and pages of pointless hardware shots, no social media. Just me, a chunk of aluminum, Solidworks, Mastercam, and a $100k CNC mill. Yes, simple .

Here are some real rough renders of the plan, enough to get an idea of what's to come.





Since it's not a build log without actual building, here's about 20lbs of aluminum.





It's hard to see anything through a wet window, so I tried to record a short clip of the action. It's a small machine with a BT30 taper spindle and a long-ish end mill, so I'm not pushing it very hard. Sorry for the video quality, recording through a wet window with a smartphone isn't exactly easy.









I've left stock on the top and front since those are curved. It's not exactly easy clamping on a curved surface so I'll come back later and do each face after the rough shape has been whittled down.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

 

impressive piece of alu and nice start... I'm following

 

Sploosh? Yeah, Sploosh.
Great to see you back! It must be Spring finally. You and Paslis both came out of hiding on the same day.

 

Thanks!

It's nice to finally have some free time. I've missed having a hobby.

 

Update #2

Got some more for you all today!

I had a chance to work on the second operation, time to start making some chips.



Here it is roughed out with the 5/8" end mill. After this I'll do some rest machining with a 1/4" and a finish pass.



I made a lot of scrap aluminum today.







All I have to do is rummage around for a 6-32 tap long enough and I can call this step done after some sanding. I was having a bit of trouble with chatter, but it wasn't exactly a surprise running a 1/4" end mill with 2.5" of stick-out.

 

Yum.
Side 2 being a passive heatpipe and heatsink thing would be cool, but you couldn't do that to a full power chip.

 

A coworker thought the little grooves were fins for a heatsink and I had to break it to him that they were purely decorative.

 

Update 3!

Got some more done over the weekend!















Did a quick polish before I started doing the detail work, figured it would be easier to get it out of the way.





I actually went home after this and left it running. It was going to take a few hours and I wasn't going to wait. What's the worst that could happen?



I wasn't concerned but you can't help but wonder what carnage may have unfolded while you where gone, fortunately when I went into work Monday morning everything survived. I guess it wouldn't have been the first time someone ripped a spindle out of one of our machines.

 

That is coming along very nice.

 

Mmmmm... Billet PC cases are the best. Nice work dude.

 

I wish I had the resources to produce something like that.

Loving the design - can't wait to see more.

 

I would sensually deburr that all night.

 

Thanks!

I'm really happy with the uni-body design. It's not something you see too often. I may have to step my game up to a matx system next time.

I have to admit I am extremely fortunate to have a boss that's cool with me working on stuff after hours and access to just about any machine or tool I want.

Don't forget to use protection!

 

Update 4!

It's Monday, so time for an update.

I hadn't chose a power switch at the time I machined the front, so now that I have one I have to set back up on the front.





Next is to do the back panel, nothing too surprising.







The DC jack included with the picoPSU is threaded with a nut so I figured I could just tap the hole and screw the jack in.





A little polishing and the bottom will be done. While I figure out the side panel mounting system, I'm leaning towards magnets, next on the to do list is to start on the side panel.

That's all for this week!

 

Oh my god! It is magnificent!

 

It's starting to come together

 

woah....this is the best casing ever!!!

 

Awesome. Kinda reminds me of that video of the guy using an entire log to make a lampshade. It's not about the end product, It's about the obscene amounts of milling.
Side panel: If you use magnets, the important bit will be a way to remove it. I can't see you making a huge finger hole. -Maybe some keyholes and a T-shaped puller?

 

Thanks!

Yeah there's definitely more efficient ways to make something like this, but where's the fun in that?
As for the side panel, I think I have a solution. If I don't do magnets and do my plan b, some kind of spring loaded ball catch, either way I'm probably going to make a flat plastic tool with a hook on the end I can stick through one of the vent slots and pop the door off that way. I like the idea of needing a special tool to open a case.