Wooden PC Case

I started this project in High School when I was building a PC for myself. All of the cases that I saw weren't appealing because they didn't match the aesthetic of my parent's cabin-like house, so I designed and built my own. Now I am trying to refine the design to make it scalable.

First design

To ensure that the case would fit together well, I modelled the design in Fusion 360 and made drawings to take into the woodshop.

First build

The first design was a little complex for the tools that I had, so I sacrificed the cleanliness of the design for manufacturability (and double-sided tape). Other sacrifices I made for manufacturability were using acrylic instead of glass and keeping all the panel features 2D.

Preperations

I knew that in later designs, I wanted to have an automated process, so I built a CNC machine. This would also allow me to experiment with 3D panel geometries.

Redesign

The first prototype showed me flaws in the previous design, including the rigidity (and viability) of acrylic, the impact of exposed wires on aesthetics, and the weakness of machine screws set into wood. I redesigned the case to include interior paneling, no offset glass, and inserts set into the wood for mounting screws. I also tested 3D panel geometry.

First cuts

Once I had a model that was passable, I tested out some of the important features by cutting out a side panel on the CNC machine. In this process, I learned more about tuning the CNC machine settings. I also learned that setting things up was very time consuming and that the manufacturing process on the CNC machine takes very long, so I plan to create time optimizations like making the CNC run without needing my supervision and possibly adding a laser cutter for 2D geometries.