How thick should the aluminium be?

[Knightlag]

Hi, new here.

How thick should the aluminium be for a standard case? I plan on making a larger case down the line, but I don't know what type/thickness of aluminium I should get.

It's going to be ten inches wide, twenty tall and twenty long; would .63in aluminium be thick enough? Or is that too thick?

also, are there any patterns for quick 5.25 bays? I haven't been able to find any.

[Zephik]

Well, a lot of case manufactures use 0.5mm steel to build their cases, excluding the frame work as that obviously has to be more rigid for structural support. As for aluminum, I believe most chassis are 1.0mm thick or more. Personally, I love 2.0mm to 3.0mm. Makes for a pretty solid building material. For the frame work I'd definitely use at least 2.0mm. Take the Nzxt Adamas (http://www.nzxt.com/products/adamas/) for example, it uses 3.0mm aluminum for the top and bottom frame and for the rest of the construction it uses 2.0mm and its one of the thickest aluminum cases around. The word "Adamas" defines as...


Latin adams, adamant-, from Greek,
unconquerable, impenetrable, hard. A legendary stone of impenetrable hardness, formerly sometimes identified with the diamond.

So you can kind of get an idea how thick and strong 2mm and 3mm is. So I recommend going with at least that. Sorry, I don't know how that translates into inches. Maybe someone here knows if you don't...

I believe this (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9985) modder used aluminum in his build, you may want to check it out and read through it. Skip to the last page to see the final result of the computer chassis. The first page is just about the mini fridge idea/thing which I think he later incorporated into the case.

[crazybillybob]

For most cases 1/8" aluminum 0.125" is over kill so yeah .63" is tank armor :) that over a half inch thick!!! :eek:

For the conversion.... 1mm =about less then 1/32" 2mm = about 1/16" 3mm =about 1/8"

I made a micro ITX case out of 5mm Aluminum.... it's aromored..and too hard to work with bending it involved the use of steel blocks and a 3lb sledge hammer :)
Go withe 3mm for frame work and 1 or 2 mm for the coverings.

[Knightlag]

Just realized I typed in .63in instead of .063in. :facepalm: Guess it would be a tank if I use that and a USB missile launcher. Would weigh as much as one, anyway. o_o

Thanks for the recommendations on the thicknesses. I hope to start on the case sometime within the next few months, depending on how much money I have.