mounting an electronics project

[davidfromtas]

Hello sci.electronics.basics

I hope this post is not off topic. If so my appologies. Also since I
dont really know what I am doing I may not express myself that
clearly. Please bear with me.

I bought a bunch of PC parts the other day and build a little PC on
our guest bed. Now I want to clean it up by putting it in a box or at
least mounting it cleanly. I have a hard drive, a tiny little ITX
motherboard and a power supply.

I have built PCs before in standard cases, but this time I want to
make the housing. My idea is to use some kind of sheet metal (a flat
piece of aluminium?) and drill holes in it to mount the parts. Where
I need vertical stuff I was thinking that perhaps I could find some
little angle brackets and use them to mount strips of metal going
vertically. If that works out I might make a persphex cover for the
whole thing but that is for part 2 of the project.

After some thought I decided that must be the kind of problem that you
electronics project people do all the time.

Could somebody recommend a resource on how to do this? I went to
Fry's, Radio Shack and Home Depot (I live in Orange County, CA) but
couldnt find the kinds of things I am guessing I need. What is the
kind of store that sells things to do this called (a googleable term
would be nice).

I dont have a lot of tools or stuff, but am willing to spend some
money to be successful in this project. I dont want to go out and buy
some premade solution. I want to build it. Also if you want to make
some suggestions please make it pretty simple I am starting from
scratch here. For example: dont say "cut some holes in the back panel
for the ports", say "use an sonic screw driver to cut some holes in
the back panel for the ports".

Any advice much appreciated.

Cheers,

David

 

[Rich Grise]

davidfromtas wrote:

I dont have a lot of tools or stuff, but am willing to spend some
money to be successful in this project. I dont want to go out and buy
some premade solution. I want to build it. Also if you want to make
some suggestions please make it pretty simple I am starting from
scratch here. For example: dont say "cut some holes in the back panel
for the ports", say "use an sonic screw driver to cut some holes in
the back panel for the ports".

Do you mean that you have components just lying there loose? Then,

although you don't want to hear it, you can essentially do anything
you want to. But your question is kind of vague. And I don't know if
you have the background to start cutting holes in sheet metal, if you
need someone to say "use an[sic] sonic screw driver to cut....". Which
doesn't make any sense anyway, by the way.

Go shopping around. OC? Geez - go to the malls and look for educational
toy stores with construction kits. Go to industrial liquidators and
check out relay racks. Go lurking in the hobby/recreational build-stuff
newsgroups.

But saying, "I want to put some stuff in a cabinet, but I don't know
what I want to make it out of or what I want it to look like, and by
the way, I've never had a tool in my hand, so I need detailed instructions
down to how to put a screwdriver blade into the slot" probably isn't
going to yield much in the way of useful information.

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[Randy Day]

davidfromtas wrote:

Hello sci.electronics.basics

I hope this post is not off topic. If so my appologies. Also since I
dont really know what I am doing I may not express myself that
clearly. Please bear with me.

I bought a bunch of PC parts the other day and build a little PC on
our guest bed. Now I want to clean it up by putting it in a box or at
least mounting it cleanly. I have a hard drive, a tiny little ITX
motherboard and a power supply.

I have built PCs before in standard cases, but this time I want to
make the housing. My idea is to use some kind of sheet metal (a flat
piece of aluminium?) and drill holes in it to mount the parts. Where
I need vertical stuff I was thinking that perhaps I could find some
little angle brackets and use them to mount strips of metal going
vertically. If that works out I might make a persphex cover for the
whole thing but that is for part 2 of the project.

Sounds like you'd find all kinds of stuff
for this at your local hardware store.
Since you say your Home Depot doesn't have
anything appealing, I'm not sure what to
suggest. An electrical supply store might
have unusual cases and such...

One funky option might be to use plastic
zip-ties to hang the motherboard in the case.

If you want a retro look, find an old wooden
console record player, strip out the guts and
mount your stuff in it. You can put the
monitor and keyboard on top, and mount PC
speakers where the old speakers were.

My one recommendation is that you mount the
motherboard with something non-metallic; if
a rough-edged metal mounting bracket rubs
the coating off over time, and touches two
traces, say goodbye to your mobo.

 

[cassandra]

"Rich Grise" <null@example.net> wrote in message
news:9kkPc.1649$%e2.634@nwrddc04.gnilink.net...

davidfromtas wrote:

I dont have a lot of tools or stuff, but am willing to spend some
money to be successful in this project. I dont want to go out and buy
some premade solution. I want to build it. Also if you want to make
some suggestions please make it pretty simple I am starting from
scratch here. For example: dont say "cut some holes in the back panel
for the ports", say "use an sonic screw driver to cut some holes in
the back panel for the ports".

Do you mean that you have components just lying there loose? Then,
although you don't want to hear it, you can essentially do anything
you want to. But your question is kind of vague. And I don't know if
you have the background to start cutting holes in sheet metal, if you
need someone to say "use an[sic] sonic screw driver to cut....". Which
doesn't make any sense anyway, by the way.

Well the components are lying there loose now. But now that it works
nicely, my plan is to secure them to the flat plate and later build a cover
for it. I noticed at Fry's they have metal and plastic project cases. None
of them fit my needs. But I'd love to see one with somebody's project
already affixed within it.

Sorry, the sonic screwdriver bit is a Dr. Who reference. Please disregard.

Go shopping around. OC? Geez - go to the malls and look for educational
toy stores with construction kits. Go to industrial liquidators and
check out relay racks. Go lurking in the hobby/recreational build-stuff
newsgroups.

But saying, "I want to put some stuff in a cabinet, but I don't know
what I want to make it out of or what I want it to look like, and by
the way, I've never had a tool in my hand, so I need detailed instructions
down to how to put a screwdriver blade into the slot" probably isn't
going to yield much in the way of useful information.

Sorry, I didnt mean to infer that I have never had a tool in my hand. And I
did try to be as specific about what I planned to do. I just thought there
might a standard way to do it that would make it all go a bit smoother.

I want to mount the motherboard to a metal plate using some metal spacers
using holes drilled in the plate to secure the spacers. I will do the same
with the power supply, but without the spacers. I plan to find a way to put
space between the plate and the hard drives too so they have some airflow
around them. If I can find a little angle bracket then I can probably cut
some strips off the base with a hacksaw and make a couple of little risers
that I can screw the hard drive to. Does that sound like a worthwhile
direction to try out?

Cheers,

David

 

[cassandra]

"Randy Day" <ruthal@sasktel.nex> wrote in message
news:10grm8o8d5pkjbf@corp.supernews.com...

My one recommendation is that you mount the
motherboard with something non-metallic; if
a rough-edged metal mounting bracket rubs
the coating off over time, and touches two
traces, say goodbye to your mobo.

I think there are plastic versions on the spacer I was planning to use to
mount the motherboard to the metal plate I will use for my base.

I took an old stereo appart today. Thought I might even be able to use that
casing. It did have metal boards much like a I am planning on using to
mount my motherboard, but they used them mostly to mount the transformer and
mechanical parts of the stereo. Also the boards we pressed into funny
shapes that pretty much ruled out my using them to mount my computer parts.
I noted most of the circuit boards are mounted quite differently to a normal
PC motherboard. As you suggest they did not have a lot of metal contact.

Cheers,
David

 

[Rich Grise]

cassandra wrote:

I want to mount the motherboard to a metal plate using some metal spacers
using holes drilled in the plate to secure the spacers. I will do the
same
with the power supply, but without the spacers. I plan to find a way to
put space between the plate and the hard drives too so they have some
airflow
around them. If I can find a little angle bracket then I can probably cut
some strips off the base with a hacksaw and make a couple of little risers
that I can screw the hard drive to. Does that sound like a worthwhile
direction to try out?

Oh, yes - sorry for condescending there. The Newark/Mouser/Digi-key
et al catalogs probably have a wealth of hardware. For a flat piece of
sheet metal, how about a case side from a "retired" computer? If you
have access to a brake, bending some little upside-down-U-shaped brackets
might be cool. When I was a kid, we got an Erector Set for Xmas one year.
I don't know if you can still get such a thing, but you could build
little superstructures and trestles and stuff, if you want. Erector Sets
are _way_ cool.

Have fun!
Rich

 

[Richard]

You can go to places like www.jameco.com or www.digikey.com or even Radio
Shack.

Look for an item called Standoffs. The come in different lengths and
materials. Thoses are the little spacers your looking for that go between
the chassis and your motherboard. You can get them in Brass, Aluminum,
Nylon.... and different thread sizes.

Almost every town I've ever lived in has a sheet metal shop somewhere. They
can bend and cut sheet metal for you and generally pretty cheap. Most do
not have the dies to cut the holes for computer connectors like the DB9 or
DB25 but you can do that by using a drill then using a notcher.

Sorry but that is about all the help I can provide. Have fun and try to
keep the cut fingers to a minimum.




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[KevinR]

On Sun, 01 Aug 2004 20:20:19 -0700, davidfromtas
<david_removeablejunk_.rolph@cox.net> wrote:

Hello sci.electronics.basics

I hope this post is not off topic. If so my appologies. Also since I
dont really know what I am doing I may not express myself that
clearly. Please bear with me.

I bought a bunch of PC parts the other day and build a little PC on
our guest bed. Now I want to clean it up by putting it in a box or at
least mounting it cleanly. I have a hard drive, a tiny little ITX
motherboard and a power supply.

I have built PCs before in standard cases, but this time I want to
make the housing. My idea is to use some kind of sheet metal (a flat
piece of aluminium?) and drill holes in it to mount the parts. Where
I need vertical stuff I was thinking that perhaps I could find some
little angle brackets and use them to mount strips of metal going
vertically. If that works out I might make a persphex cover for the
whole thing but that is for part 2 of the project.

After some thought I decided that must be the kind of problem that you
electronics project people do all the time.

Could somebody recommend a resource on how to do this? I went to
Fry's, Radio Shack and Home Depot (I live in Orange County, CA) but
couldnt find the kinds of things I am guessing I need. What is the
kind of store that sells things to do this called (a googleable term
would be nice).

I dont have a lot of tools or stuff, but am willing to spend some
money to be successful in this project. I dont want to go out and buy
some premade solution. I want to build it. Also if you want to make
some suggestions please make it pretty simple I am starting from
scratch here. For example: dont say "cut some holes in the back panel
for the ports", say "use an sonic screw driver to cut some holes in
the back panel for the ports".

Any advice much appreciated.

Cheers,

David

I got part of the way through doing this my self.
I managed to get a piece of 3mm Dural sheet from a local Aluminum
stockist. I drilled (carefully) through the mounting holes in the
motherboard, not all the way through the dural, just enough to mark
the positions, then moved the motherboard out of the way before
drilling right through. I got M4 spacers and bolted them on to the
dural and fixed the motherboard to the spacers using M4 screws.
Then I got a right-angle AGP adapter which would allow my video card
to fit horizontally ( I was after a low profile so it would fit under
my telly like a VCR) . I made a mounting bracket for the harddrive
from some angle aluminum with some of those soft rubber gromets from
inside an old CD rom drive for vibration and bolted the PSU on like
you were suggesting and that is as far as I got. I was going to fit a
DVD drive which would sit just above the, now horizontal, video card.
but the skeleton PC now sits under my telly whith no box around it and
although I like the "borg ness" of it, it isn't very pretty.

Kevin R