I picked up an old Pentium II system from college a while back but it had no case . So me and my bro were looking
around for something quick and easy to put it in when we thought of an old petrol can. I know it has probably been
done before but it does make a strong and relatively simple case. The strange thing is that although petrol cans
look big you cant actually fit a huge amount of computer parts in them. Specially this computer as it had a nasty
big riser card with the power connectors and IDE connectors etc on it which took up a lot of room. We decided that
it would be best if all the leads etc came out of the bottom in order to keep the shape of the can relatively
intact. Fitting everything else in was a bit of a struggle but we managed it . This is the result of two days on
and off work although there is still a bit to do.
We started with one cleanish petrol can e8.50 from army surplus.
Its got a nice big cap comes in useful later
We needed some way of getting the bits in (not through the cap ) so we cut it in half with an angle grinder.
This would enable it to be folded open for easy access to the insides.
Here it is cut open. Nice and clean inside but not very flat which means that everything will be difficult to
mount.
This is the plywood mount for the mobo. This will be stuck on with impact glue which is probably the handiest
method considering we didn't want to drill too many holes in the can.
Here you can see the hinges to enable the case to be opened.
The hinges enable very good access to the inside. It enabled us to mount some components on the right hand side
and some on the left. This made it relativley easy to squeeze everything in.
The PSU mounted on the opposite side to the motherboard. It was tricky enough because of the strange shape of the
can in the corners. We had to make up an aluminium brace to hold it in place. The bottom of the can had to be cut
to enable room for the fan exhaust and the power lead.
The two hard drives. Space for these was quite limited and there was really only one place they could go so we
made up a plywood mounting plate for them which is bolted on to the can with some of the hinge bolts.
The motherboard HDDs and PSU in place. The bottom of the can had to be cut yet again to allow access to the
motherboard I/O. But it all fits in nicely with just enough room for the case to close. Annoyingly the PSU leads
will have to be extended for them to reach when the case is closed . The CDROM drive is going to be mounted just
to the right of the PSU in this picture. It will be on its side when the case is upright. I don't think we will
bother with a permanent FDD ot's too tricky to fit and considering this will be networked it probably wont be used
much.
Here you can see how we mounted the CPU fan. It makes good use of the large cap and is much neater than cutting a
nasty great hole in the top. Also that is a blue LED fan so the opening will glow blue in use .
So far so good. Still a nice bit of finishing etc to do on it. Hopefully the cap will be wired up so that when you
open it the computer comes on and when you close it the computer turns off Need to fit the CDROM drive opening
and give the whole thing legs so that it will clear the power leads etc when sitting upright.