I've always wanted to build my own computer case and really make the machine my own total creation. So I sat down with a beer one night to think about what kind of case I could build that would reflect my own tastes. As I finished my fine Miller Genuine Draft and got up to retrieve another, the answer hit me: a beer case!
So I took my empty MGD beer case, some spare parts from an old AMD K6-2 500 computer, a few extra beers (of course), and enlisted the help of my father Gary and friend Noah. We had a brain storm session about how to build the computer, what kinds of features it would need, and what kinds of problems we might encounter.
We thought of two problems we believed we would have to counter. The first was that a cardboard case of beer would not be all that sturdy, and we would surely have to reinforce the case to help it support the weight of the computer. We were wrong. The beer that came in the case was actually much heavier than the components we were going to use. First problem solved! The second problem was that the cardboard might not stand the test of time. A little water, a bit of mistreatment, or even a curious cat could easily ruin the case and bring our venture to an end. So we all agreed that we should build metal infrastructure to hold the parts which could be placed into any standard sized beer case (with a few holes cut to allow access).
The metal frame idea was what we set out to build. We realized quickly we wanted the skeleton to comply with the same standards of any computer case. Sure we only had an old K6-2 mother board to work with, but we wanted to allow for the case to be used with any new upgrades. So why reinvent the wheel? We got to work immediately on ripping apart the old metal case the computer had originally lived in. We removed the motherboard mounting plate from the back side of the case and cut it and twisted it to make a “U” shape that would form the front, bottom and back of our frame.
The next obvious problem to be solved once we had started our frame was the question of space (or rather lack there of) and component layout. We knew we would have room on the bottom of the case for the motherboard and either a hard drive, floppy drive, or cd-rom drive, but nothing else. We unanimously agreed to leave a floppy drive out of our system completely. Good riddance! But where would the power supply’s hulking mass go? We knew we had to build up.
Thus began work on the second tier of the frame, which we lovingly called “the shelf”. We knew we would not want the shelf to be larger than it need to be for several reasons. Air flow for the mother board below it should remain open, and we really didn’t want to block the wonderful built in handles on the side of the beer case. The handles make the computer so easy to transport, why waste them?
So we decided to make the shelf only as wide as the power supply, but the entire depth of the case so that it could also hold the hard drive (and thus the cd-rom was condemned to the bottom of the case with the mobo). We also agreed that the shelf should be easily removable (if not toollessly) so that you could easily access the components under it.
We looked again to our old PC mid-tower case to see what piece of metal we could steal this time to suit our needs. The first thing to strike us was that the top of the case was (of course) not much wider than the power supply. A few saw blades later we had a wonderful upside-down “U” shaped shelf the exact depth of our case. It was shaped like a “U” because we cut about an 1/8” to ¼” of the side of the case off as well.
We made two cuts to our original frame to allow a piece of metal in the middle of the case to be folded down to rest our shelf on. The sides of our shelf hung over this rest, preventing it from moving side to side. But what would keep it from moving up and down? MGD colored thumb screws outside the case screwed into the power supply!
But then we noticed an aesthetic problem with our design. The ugly grey power supply was now visible through the hole in the top of the beer case, even when the flaps were shut. What would look better than ugly grey metal? How about transparent yellow plastic? Ah, that looked much better. But still lacked the flair we were seeking. How about we cut the 80mm fan out of the power supply and replace it with a new orange LED saturated 80mm fan? Indeed, this is what we did. Visual appeal now restored we moved on to other issues.
The cd-rom could be mounted to the frame we had constructed with only minor modification. Yes, this means we ripped more metal from the former case, bent it, drilled some holes for screws, and attached a glorified “L” bracket to screw the cd-rom into. Next we decided that in order to have the cd-rom’s tray reach outside of the box we would need some sort of self-closing, spring loaded door to be cut in the cardboard. After thinking about how best to accomplish this, we decided to order a slot loading cd-rom and cut a slit in the box to allow access. Much easier.
However, due to our own amateur metal work, the cd-rom when mounted was not level, making portions of the slot off center to the slit now cut in the cardboard. So we decided to drill a series of holes for the top screw mounting the “L” bracket to the frame to allow it to pivot left and right. This allows for any cd-rom to be adjusted until leveled. Oops, except now it gets too close to our frame. One run of the cd-rom’s plastic face plate through the band saw and we were back in business. It fit great!
Then we needed to allow access to the cd-rom eject button. Or did we? As a happy side effect of the way we mounted the drive we found that if you pressed anywhere on the left half of the front of the beer case, the button would depress, and your cd would come out. So we lied to our wives and told them that you had to press the “D” in DRAFT on the front of the box because it was the D:\ drive. You’d think it wouldn’t be funny getting a non-geek to fall for a geek’s joke, but you’d be wrong.
We realized that it was very dark inside the box. Almost too dark to work on the computer. So we added a white cold-cathode light. Well, the cathode was supposed to be yellow (to match the theme) but the manufacturer of this light sucks, so we have an off-white light in our case. And really we didn’t need it because it was too dark. We’re just dorks.
We also needed to have a way to turn this beast on. Using some plastic, two springs, a little wood (yes, wood in a computer), and an MGD Bottle cap, we fashioned a working power switch. Then we poked two holes for power and hd activity lights right above it and hot glued the LEDs into the wood block on our frame. This actually took a lot of time to create, but not much to write about it. Weird.
At last we were nearing completion of the coolest computer on the planet. But the cardboard flaps on the top would not stay closed on their own. To resolve this, Noah came up with the brilliant idea to insert magnets into the cardboard of two of the flaps, and metal washers into the cardboard of the other flaps. Now the lid stays closed, but is not difficult to open. But most importantly, when we need to move the frame into a new case some day, the magnets and washer can be easily removed and slipped into the new case.
This marvel of cardboard engineering took us three Sundays to complete. But we accomplished something much greater than we had set out to create. We managed to bring man, beer, and machine together in glory.
Calendar
