Final result

The final result without components in it weighs about 6.6Kg (14.5 pounds). There's no reason to buy cases :) The final price was 22.4 euros, I Doubt there are many cases cheaper than this one in the market. The varnish cans were practically new... They're good for some 30 more cases like this one ... lol 

No, this doesn't heat up more than an metal case, the truth is that the temperature of the processor in idle decreased about 15 degrees, maintaining everything as it was. This difference maybe is due to the extra space that allows the air circulate. Besides I only have a grid at the top and at the bottom of the case, so that allows the circulation of the air, but seems like a good idea to install a copule more fans (though the noise is already excessive). 

Any one can build one of these, considering that this was my first wood construction...

Thanks to my father for the knowledge / practice and for the help in the work, to my mother for the croshet yarns and for some aesthetic notions, to the local carpenter and their assistants for the available time and wood.

	Construction costs :
	- blue varnish can	7.5 euros
	- brown varnish can	7.5 euros
	- 2 Brushes	3.5 euros
	- 2 leds	0.1 euros
	- 2 pressure switches	0.3 euros
	- tunning net	1.0 euros
	- screws	2.5 euros
	- vido wood (offered by the local carpenter)	0.0 euros
	- 4mm wood sheet (offered by the local carpenter and the wood exporter)	0.0 euros
	- glue (found at home)	0.0 euros
	- wires (destruction of an IDE cable)	0.0 euros
	- 1cm transparent hose (stolen from my grandmother)	0.0 euros
	- colorful wire (stolen from my mom)	0.0 euros
	TOTAL :	22.4 euros

	Hardware needed
	- 0.5 cm chisel (0.2 inch)
	- 2.0 cm chisel (0.8 inch)
	- metal hand saw
	- wood hand saw
	- hammer
	- knife
	- sandpaper
	- screw-driver/drill (loaned by the local carpenter)
	- shears
	- pliers
	- glue pistol

Home made grid

Here is my home made grid. It was not supposed to use this metallic grill but when I put it over mine to do the appropriate holes, I noticed that it looks even better. I think that this part has a small problem, the circulation of the air through the wood grid, does a lot more noise than without it! Now that I went through all the work of doing it, I'll just let it stay like this.

PCI/AGP fix

After a lot of requests, this is the way I fixed PCI/AGP. The system is not very good, but I couldn't come up with anything else. Using this system, the PCI/AGP boards are quite are quite tight and don't come out easily, but it is not very easy to change them. To explain this here is extremely complicated, see the pictures below:

Panel slide

This is how the opening of the lateral panels works, is similar to the drives, they fit in some type of guide style like domino box or checkers board. The panels fit into the upper part of the box, then they slide down, where they'll lock together on another groove.

Cable holdings

The following pictures show the holding cable system, since I used wood, basically I can put what I want where I want, since I get it held well. Using 2 tips pliers, I undid some clips and I bent them to do some cable supports.

 After having fastened the cables to the wood, it results in this, which i believe is quite nice and organized:

Power-on

Now some images with the doors open, You can notice my archaic power-on system.

Here it is a picture of the power button in the darkness, the only light my case has, although I have in mind to apply more illumination. The button consists of a wood slice with transparent hose arround, behind the hose I put 2 leds (HDD and power). In the middle of the slice it has a screw with nut. At the end of this paraphernalia, there is a normal pressure button. when you push the wood slice, this will touch the pressure button and turns the PC on, later the spring makes the button return to the initial position. Reality looks better than this picture :)

The result

The doors where supposed to be as shown in the previous images, but when I began to glue the pieces, to assure them to be properly centered, I decided to resort to the cuts surpluses and when I put the surpluses, I thought that using these surpluses would look better. This is the result:

Some more drawings

During one week I used a msn nick asked for ideas for a frontal logo. There were not plausible ideas... By no reason, it appeared me the idea of drawing in relief a corn-cob. I drew a quite simple one, I asked some family people what was that, and all got right... therefore, I could use that logo, even that doesn't have to do with anything:)!

 Then I cut a small gear to be around the power button, as displayed in the next picture

The front and side drawings

Then I begin to do new drawings for the front part. Once again the extra sharp knife leads the action.

The tunning grid

After one hour searching for a grid that doesn't look like it's for a rabbit's cage, I find a tunning store, not a PCs tunning store, but cars, it's true... I was at this store to buy those nets that you can use on your car. Then I began setting up the upper and lower grid.

IDE Operation

My mobo brought an IDE round cable, but I need one more for CDROMs, therefore, I made a small operation to an older IDE cable.

Wrap up

 Back home , I begin to transform my PSU, I wrapped up all of the cables in crochet thread.

MCP 2004

3 in the morning finishes the beta version of the case, the following day begins Minho Campus Party 2004 (the biggest lan party in Portugal) and I have to take my work with me, to show to my friends and to participate in the best case contest. The following picture was taken at the MCP site. The front part was made in a hurry, so it's not that great. The top door is clearly green, since it only took a coating of varnish. At this time, I put a net in the top of the case, closely it seems a rabbit's cage:) there is no bottom, in other words, any piece that falls inside, it is going right to the table, or even to the ground.

The HDD holders

The following pictures show how I held the drives to the case, there's a picture of a FDD, the system is the same for the HDD and optical drives. I applied some wood laths of about half centimeter, or little more, these laths will fit in the guides that I initially cut in the base structure, as in a closet drawer.

Some paint job

After concluding the holes and the support for the board, CDROMs and disks, painting begans. 1 hour to give a varnish coating on this with one of my fantastic and recently bought brushes.

While it dried, i began painting the drawings that I will put in the lateral of the box, also began. Those were made in a 4mm wood. To paint these drawings I used blue varnish, that only turns blue after 8 or more coatings. At the most you can apply 3 coatings per day, that gives approximately 3 days to get the color I want.

The lateral covers after gluing the properly painted drawings.

The case will have as front, two doors, one for access to CDROMs and diskettes, and the other to reach the HDDs. The following picture just shows the lower door, it has a round hole in the middle to install the power button.