[absolutezero1287]

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask questions but I don't see my question fitting anywhere else.

How would one go about making their own ATX case? Does it take a lot of experience in welding and working with metal?

Also, I wanted to do some custom paint on a case. I figured that automotive paint would be best with an enamel clearcoat. Good idea or not?

Lastly, would a silk screen work well to put graphics on computer cases?

Thanks in advance

[JohnWill]

Look at a case and judge for yourself what effort it would be.

Personally, I'd take an existing case and perhaps strip the external panels and do my own thing. Making the mounting brackets for all the drives and motherboard, not to mention the expansion slots, would require a lot more work. These are stamped out with large presses, something you're unlikely to have available.

[RootbeaR]

http://www.instructables.com/tag/?q=...c=on&sort=none

Instructables

[guy2]

Building a DIY case for anything and most electronics is cave man simple even with limited tools.

If you have never done this before and you want it to look slick and pretty ,it's probably not gonna happen.

I would go with steel sheet metal of any kind like from a garbage washer or micro wave ,very easy to cut with metal shears and if you make a mistake metal forgives. I make allot of cases for power supply's/amps but never one for a computer so i wouldn't know the full extent of your project and mounting something as fragile as a motherboard will take some time.

What im sure of from past experience's is you need no experience with metal working to build a sheet metal box that holds stuff ,just measure and take your time use your head.

[JohnWill]

Building the box is the easy part, building the chassis supports for expansion cards, hard disks, optical disks, and the MB is the hard part.

In addition, since there are a multitude of cases that already exist, getting the difficult to fabricate parts from one that's already stamped out would clearly be the intelligent choice here. You can still add all the cosmetic "cool" stuff like the exterior of the box.

[absolutezero1287]

True, it does seem easier to just "retouch" an old case.

I tried to buy a Lian-Li case from the website but I don't think they sell to individual consumers.

[JohnWill]

Surely they have distributors that will sell you a case! Otherwise, what would be the point?

[Frank4d]

It doesn't have to be a metal case. I have seen a couple of very nice wood cases, and some computers built into old stereo receiver and VCR cases.

[JohnWill]

Yep, the only issue with wooden cases would be EMI suppression, you can line them with foil to solve that issue.