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Hi folks!

I'm in the process of gauging interest and getting feedback regarding a custom case business I'm investigating the prospects of.

In brief the idea is to bridge the gap between the quite expensive and very high-end stuff (Mountain Mods, CaseLabs etc.) and the more mainstream market with cases that allow for significant customization at time of order.

I've set up a site to briefly explain the project and what I see such a business would do differently from those already established. If you have a few minutes to spare, I invite you to take a look at it. Feel free to post any comments in this thread or through the site. Thanks!

cratlecases.com

The early prototype...

I see how the larger pieces fit together. Very interesting.

Sorry - no idea how much interest there may be. Maybe auction prototype number two.

Lasercut MDF - seems like a reasonably cost-effective way to crank out a case if you have access to or own a large enough laser-cutter.

The issue I've always had with homebrew cases is how to get the expansion slot covers and motherboard tray sorted in a suitable manner, which has put me off further DIY attempts. Seems you're solving it with long screws but I'm a little worried about the strength of the MDF in that area - given how heavy GPUs are these days...

Still, if you can source the longer screws for everything and motherboard mounts to deal with thicker MDF, that's half the struggle and you could probably sell just those as a package quite easily.

Thank you for the comments!

The issue I've always had with homebrew cases is how to get the expansion slot covers and motherboard tray sorted in a suitable manner, which has put me off further DIY attempts. Seems you're solving it with long screws but I'm a little worried about the strength of the MDF in that area - given how heavy GPUs are these days...

I can certainly understand the concern. After all, the components we put in our PC's tend to be fairly expensive, and the protection a case gives is part of the reason we stick them in there in the first place.
The strength of even the relatively thin sheets of 6mm MDF I use for the prototype has actually surprised me. When assembled correctly, it is rather strong - I can actually stand on the case without it wobbling.

Beefing up the mount for the GPU's in the back could easily be done. The force on the bracket you see in the pictures is pretty much in the vertical direction only, and here the MDF is doing great. A lot of the GPU weight is being held by the PCI-e slot on the motherboard itself, and were a full system to be tested under different orientations with a very heavy GPU, I think it would get damaged before anything else.

I use 10mm screws that go through the motherboard tray and into 10mm brass standoffs, which the motherboard is then mounted to. With the tray being fixed on all four sides, I haven't been able to detect any bending. I've had an NH-D14 in there too. Since the tray is quite a bit smaller than you would typically see in a regular thin steel chassis, with it often extending past ODD/HDD cages to the front, I think you actually see less bending here (depending on steel thickness and any grooves made).

What is the final material going to be? At first glance I thought that the material was acrylic without the projective paper removed. My SO has some experience laser cutting that material. She also had access to some awesome clear acrylic glue that cures under UV light. When that glue dries, it is invisible and incredibly strong. The one problem we had is that we couldn't find a good way to tap threads into the sheets to create screw holes. Attempts to create holes to embed nuts into a design had mixed results due to cuts not being perfectly smooth through the material due to multiple passes.

What is the final material going to be? At first glance I thought that the material was acrylic without the projective paper removed. My SO has some experience laser cutting that material. She also had access to some awesome clear acrylic glue that cures under UV light. When that glue dries, it is invisible and incredibly strong. The one problem we had is that we couldn't find a good way to tap threads into the sheets to create screw holes. Attempts to create holes to embed nuts into a design had mixed results due to cuts not being perfectly smooth through the material due to multiple passes.

The idea is to leave the final material choice up to the customer. I have so far only experimented with MDF, but the design should fairly easily accommodate a switch to acrylic for instance. The prototype you see it only "kept together" by a few select press fittings on the large side pieces. These press fittings don't carry any weight in the structure, and the side panels too assist in locking the whole thing down, so the case accidentally coming apart is very unlikely. Acrylic, however, may not behave as nicely with press fittings as MDF, but I haven't tested this yet. I would like to avoid glue, as I want to keep the option of changing select pieces at a later point open. If acrylic doesn't behave with press fittings, then I'd imagine using a few screws and bolts in a similar manner to the press fittings - not actually holding weight, just locking things down.

the wrote:

What is the final material going to be? At first glance I thought that the material was acrylic without the projective paper removed. My SO has some experience laser cutting that material. She also had access to some awesome clear acrylic glue that cures under UV light. When that glue dries, it is invisible and incredibly strong. The one problem we had is that we couldn't find a good way to tap threads into the sheets to create screw holes. Attempts to create holes to embed nuts into a design had mixed results due to cuts not being perfectly smooth through the material due to multiple passes.

I think a decent but time consuming way to imbed the nuts into acrylic would to first drill a hole where you want the embedded nut. Then using a long stud "say 12" long" that the nuts can thread onto. Thread the brass or nickel plated nuts onto the studs then keep the nut at least 4" away from the acrylic and heat it up very hot them pull the stud till the nut melts into the acrylic using a spray bottle to cool it when it is deep enough. then unscrew the stud and you have a embedded nut. Easy Peasy and once you get the hang of it I am sure it would not take long at all to do a bunch in a row to be productive as long as you get all the holes drilled first in the correct spots since one goof up and you wasted or have a sloppy looking panel.