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Thread: Cutting/drilling irregularly shaped metal panels?

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    Cutting/drilling irregularly shaped metal panels?

    Hi all,

    Cutting metal panels such as side panels off PC cases is obviously straightforward enough, but what about irregularly shaped ones like, say, the front drive bay door off a Wavemaster? I'm guessing a Dremel wouldn't be beefy enough. Anyone know somewhere I could send mine to to get it cut or drilled?

    Thanks in advance
    8bit
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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    where abouts you live might help!

    you want stuff "milled" that is you want access to a milling machine, or a machinist to do it for you, this tends not to be cheap, enless you find a small place with some nice people who will work for pints and a cash in hand style for small quick jobs (ie 5mm allu). There are plenty of these places around!

    Myself i'm keeping in touch with a few uni lecturers, so when i need to use something in the machine shop i can go vist

    do you have any sketchs of what it is you need done?
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    What sort of thinkness is the metal and how irregular?

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    That's the door on the case in question. I'd reckon most of the metal is about 2mm thick, the thicker bit up the middle is about 4-5mm and the thicker bit that curves out the front nearest the camera is about the same.

    Haven't got any sketches but basically I want to cut a section out that exactly matches the dimensions of the area the lower 3 of the 5.25" bays and lines up as near as possible when you look at the case from the front.

    The alternative plan would be to mark the area on the inside of the door and have it drilled to produce a grid of identically sized holes, similar to the ones you can just see down the front of the case behind that lump of metal, where the blue light is coming from.

    I live in Aberdeen and unfortunately don't know anyone that works in a machine shop!

    Cheers
    8bit
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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    you can dremel that.... only problem is the shape will make it an intresting experiance.

    I'd recomend marking it out very carefully, and having a practice in the middle. Ie, try n make a perfect 3*10cm rectangle, before you try the big challenge.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Dremel, jigsaw, padsaw are your options as I see it. Depends what tooling you have access to. Dremel is going to be slow with metal that thick though, so I'd recommend a saw.

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    I'm no use with a Dremel even on flat surfaces and I want this to look good so I reckon I'd rather take or send it to someone that does know what they're doing. I guess I was kinda hoping someone would know of a modding place that might be able to help?

    TIA
    8bit
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    Have cut a window in my wavemaster a few days ago and found the metal to be very soft and easy to cut; used a dremmel and jigsaw.

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    Flat cap, Whippets, Cave. Clunk's Avatar
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    how about a car bodyshop or somewhere that fits car alarms/stereos?
    Quote Originally Posted by Blitzen View Post
    stupid betond belief.
    You owe it to yourself to click here really.

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    SCAN Computers Pete the Painter's Avatar
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    I may be able to help out a little. I'm able to offer you a service for laser cutting images/shapes in metals.
    However it's only usually available on flat panels.
    I will check with my engineer to see if the front panel has too much of a curve on it.
    Is it only the front part you want cutting or side panels also.

    An example of which can be seen here -->
    or here


    If you can let me know what you're after in particular.

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    Panzer Division Marduk PanzerKnight's Avatar
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    Doesn't KustomPC do this kind of stuff?

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    Nox
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    Stop posting pics of that case Pete!! Damn, I want one!

    Nox

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    SCAN Computers Pete the Painter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nox
    Stop posting pics of that case Pete!! Damn, I want one!

    Nox
    Should see my latest project....it's a beast

    There's gonna be some new projects knockin around here soon

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    The King of Vague Steve B's Avatar
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    pete, i have a job for u

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    SCAN Computers Pete the Painter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve B
    pete, i have a job for u
    Any more info

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    The King of Vague Steve B's Avatar
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    i need a dual 5.25" aluminium panel with mounts for the drive tray pieces, to allow it to slide into my stacker. It needs to have a rectangle cut out of it, so that i can mount a 5" LCD panel in it

    how much would something like this cost?

    potentially have a different one for u to do after that too

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