I'm probably looking to buy 1/4" thick aluminium. I'll probably need a sheet of around 300x700mm. I really couldn't find any decent looking suppliers. A few building sites that I didn't really understand, but apart from that... I was hoping someone could link me to a site where I can find the costs of this. Failing that, an estimate would be alright. Final question. What sort of aluminium is best to go for? It'd be for a case. Are there any types of finishes I would maybe want? Sorry, I'm not really sure. Sid. Oh - one more question. How easy will 1/4" aluminium bend to a 90 degree angle?
I was just looking at aluminum sheet at my local Lowe's building supply yesterday and it cost $38US for a sheet 17x20 inch square. It was only about 1-2mm thick!
1/4" thick stock is going to be pretty expensive at that thickness... I couldn't find prices but here's a good place to start: http://www.metalfast.co.uk/aluminium_plate_stocks.htm http://www.metalex.co.uk/site.htm kong has had remarkable success at finding metal plate stock at salvage and recycling places... that would be your best bargain. [edit] 1/4" stock would be very difficult to bend. I have a little metal brake I got that can bend up to 18 gauge steel and I'm pretty sure my little brake would have no chance at bending it. With plate stock that thick, you would be better of making joints with brackets or some similar solution. Or you could have it professionally fabricated. At some point in thickness, sheet becomes plate. As a loose rule, sheet metal is stock that can be fairly easily fabricated (bent, cut, etc), once you move up into the "plate" thicknesses like you are, it's not easily workable without some serious equipment. Typically, it isn't a reasonable design aspect to have to bend something of that thickness, it would be cast into that shape instead. I'm not trashing whatever idea you have. I'm just explaining why it may be difficult to find parts and tools to do what you are trying to do.
Cool. I already guessed that it would be damn hard to bend it. Plan B would be to use rounded corner bits that I can fix the aluminium sheet together with. That seem like a better idea? What would be the best way of joining metal sheets with a rounded aluminium corner bit together? I'm pretty sure that I want the thickness of 1/4" stuff as I'm gonna be cutting a slit into the inside of the sides of the case which would go halfway through the thickness of the material (sliding motherboard tray thingy). Cheers for the links, no price on them unfortunately though I did see Kong's aluminium case when searching. I don't really know of any scrap yards near where I stay, but I can look into it. I don't have the tools for doing this all myself. So I'm probably gonna get certain bits machined at a shop.
They have 6mm sheet at RS electronics, you need to goto mechanical -> engineering materials -> non-ferrous stock -> machinable ali sheet. Sorry, no direct link! It ain't cheap though, £45 for 2 pieces 500mmx300mm +VAT and p&p! Like eddie said, I manage to find quite a lot of plate/sheet at the local scrap yard, if you can find one, and you don't mind getting your hands dirty... Anyhow, as for the round corner stuff, could you explain what it is a little more please?
Here are a couple of UK sites. Not sure of the thickness thou. Chronos Stainless steel centre Technobots Now i know the last site have alu uptp 12.7mm thick. Hope some of these links are helpfull to you....Good luck and happy
i'm not sure how much shipping from the US would be, but aluminum is light so maybe not much http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=1248&step=4&showunits=inches , also i would think that 1/4" thick aluminum would bend fairly easily, but why so thick?lian-li cases use 1/16" thick.
Well the panels on my project P_R_I_M_E are all 1/4" thick. Are you sure you want it that thick? Cause it does make it very hard to cut into. And forget about bending it, maybe a real good metal shop can do it but I wouldn't hold my breath. Anyways speak to Chris at www.customwatercuts.com Maybe he can ship to you
I work for an aerospace engineering company, when I got the guys to bend the new front bexel for my PC, they had to 'pickle' the 3mm sheet to soften it so they could bend it. I doubt you could bend anything thicker without cracking it.
Cheers for the links there guys. Aluminium Plate 6.35mm 500x1000mm £60.49 from Technobots. That looks round abouts what I'd need. £60 is pretty expensive yeah, but if I'm getting a good case at the end of the day... I mean look what you pay for retail aluminium cases. I'll need to finish the plans for it completely before I can work out all the work I'd need done at a shop. The shop costs will determine if £60 is OK for the alu. Scope: Out of interest, how much was it for watercut PRIME name in the alu, if you don't mind me asking. Kong: The corner things I was talking about would be an alternative to bending the metal. I've drawn a wee paint diagram The bit highlighted red is the type of corner thing I'd be after and the other two sides would attach to it, somehow. Not even sure if anywhere sells things of this type, lol. But I'd assume places will. Any other ways to get nice rounded corners. I've got my heart set on them really. Edit: Oops, Kong's link can get me it for £45. That's a bit better.
Kongs link gives you a 500x600 sheet for £45 +vat +del, so you're prolly better off with the technobots stuff! As for those corners, I'll have a think, but it seems difficult. It would need to be a strong joint, JBweld or similar certainly wouldn't do it. One more option to consider is to make the case from a different material, and then clad it with a thinner sheet of aluminium. Same effect, but less complex. Just a thought though edit - Option 3 - make an, erm, mould if you like, from wood, then use several layers of thinner aluminium bent around it to build up to the 6mm. All you need to do then is secure the plys together, remove the mould and you have a bent 6mm aluminium sheet. I quite like that one
My dad used to be a draughtsman, so he is gonna help me draw out the plans and advise me on what's possible etc. I was having a think about those corner bits and realised it'd be pretty hard to get a strong join with them. At the moment I've just been planning out the internal dimensions of the case. It's going to be around 250mm wide, 130mm high and ~350mm deep. I'd quite like to have slight 'fins' in the side. Sort of looking like a heatsink. A bit like this case has. Thanks for all the help guys. I've got the approx. cost of aluminium which is what I was after. I'll let you know when I've made up my mind on the final design. Chances are I might use a second material with the aluminium eg. acrylic. I may even drop the aluminium completely. Scope: Read that you paid $350 for your panels to be cut. That's pretty steep for me really. I reckon I could probably find somewhere cheaper though. Apparently $100/hour for a waterjet is around average. I'd need to find somewhere in the UK anyway. I didn't think it was possible to control the depth of the cut with a watercut like has been done in your PRIME logo. That 2014A T6 aluminium that technobots is selling seems like good quality stuff. Seems stronger than most other types around.
I see two other options - one I have recently done. If you treat the case like a bit of countertop and laminate the aluminum to an mdf shell using contact adhesive then you can file the corders and end up with a very think edge like: Please note that this is just roughly filed because I'm putting edging over it but if you filed it and polished it i'm sure it would come up a treat! The second option may be to use internal corner brackets kinda like (if I can do this in ascii) _______ | __ | | | | | | and then use something like jd weld to attach them. If your carefull you could also file the edges and get something very clean if it was thinner aluminium. I think the good thing about option 1 is the best out of the two as you only need thin aluminum for it. The stuff above is only .6mm thick! Those are my two - bits anways
sorry caught your last post while I was writing this one - speaking of acrylic you could alway mirror the inside of the acrlyic so that it looks chromed ?
One last question: Do I need to treat the aluminium in any way to protect the metal over time / stop it losing its looks etc.
That will depend on the type of aluminium sheet you buy. A soft ali, 10xx series, will degrade quickly, whereas a harder alloy, 60xx or even 70xx will last a good couple of years without tarnishing. My case still looks like it does in those snaps, and that was about, erm, a year or more ago. It wouldn't hurt to give it a couple of coats of lacquer though. Automotive stuff from Halfords os quite good, bit tricky to get it to stick properly though! Clean the ali well with washing up liquid, then several very thin coats should work ok.
Ta, it's 6082 T6 stuff that I think I'd be goin for. I think I'll still give it a few coats of that lacquer stuff anyway, just to keep it looking good.
