PC Case as an Laser Scanner Housing ?

[seanharrison]

Hey guys, I have a few old PC Cases Laying around, Do you think that they would make a good housing for my scanner build ?

[Things]

Any case should work, depends how you want it to look :P You may need some reinforcements tho, the metal case on those things arent very strong..

[FrankenPC]

I've been thiniking the same thing. The top drive bay is the XY output. The optical plate is bolted sideways to the case. Then, on the other side of the case the power supply and controller plate. Add some fans to cool the entire internal assembly and you are set.

Unfortunately, I think the PSU's and controllers would bump up against the lasers in the average mid-tower. You would need something large.

[seanharrison]

I have a slimline black media centre case. i think i would look really cool. i dont think it will get the drivers + PSU's in there aswell as the lasers and galvo's tho. It might be ok for my first build, with just a green laser and scanpro20's

[gottaluvlasers]

i dont see a computer case being a very good laser enclosure. just my opinion. i think the moajority of them are going to be too "Flimsy."

you need to think, all the optics in an RGB laser need to be EXTREMELY solid, tight, and unmovable. the slightest movement will knock everything out of alignment. i know most of the cases (even big server cases) i have dealt with are, again only my opinion, WAY too chincey to keep optics reliably in alignment.

i wouldnt spend all that time aligning lasers and mirrors and dichros for a perfect white balance....for it ALL to be for not because it was knocked out of alignment moving the case from table to table. (or whatever.)

just my 2 cents.

-Marc

[carmangary]

You could mount all of the optics onto a nice aluminum plate and then attach that inside the case somehow. The power supplies and fans could attach to the normal computer case.

[allthatwhichis]

I used one once. It was a temporary setup just to get it in something. It was an old Gateway server tower that had a big support bard across the front. I bolted a breadboard inside and it worked very well. I would have kept it but I wanted to move away from the ghetto look. Looking at the monster case I have my PC in now; I coulld make a nice projector out of it. The frame is nice an sturdy. All kinds of places for fans. I'd like to take a micro atx and a big case and make an all in one solution. PC and projector together. But there are dozens of drawbacks and I am not sure there are enough pros for the effort...

[seanharrison]

The alloy plate idea is what i had in mind, a normal tower case on its side, with alloy plate halfway on supports down the center of the case, lasers and optics on top half and drivers and PSU's on the bottom half. most cases have the cutouts for Serial/Parallel ports which would be perfect for the ILDA port. also the PC power supply would be good for powering stuff like the fans etc...

[allthatwhichis]

I would look into a full tower or server case just for the extra room they provide.

[stanwax]

It wasnt a projector but I built a small argon tube and its power supply & a controller I built into an old AT desktop cas once. Worked a treat!

Rob