[CurtisBarclay]

I've had this old Dell Dimension E521 for quite sometime now and wanted to turn it into a CNC control case.

I have fabricated, welded and powder coated for many years and thought this would be a fun and cool project to build.

It's all welded, sandblasted and powder coated Astatic Red.

Objectives;

Designed this for a 4 axis unit
Wanted to have easy access to all components
Internally air cooled
Cool looking

I still have a long way to go but at least to hard part is done...I hope!

Cable management is going to be the fun part.

Here is a Before picture.
Attachment 248204

And the After pictures.

Attachment 248206Attachment 248208Attachment 248210Attachment 248212Attachment 248214Attachment 248216Attachment 248218Attachment 248220

For the front panel, would it be possible to have an LED light to show what drives are in motion? I'd also like to have an LCD panel to show the voltage the power supply is running. This is just for coolness is all, but any help or ideas would be great. I'm not much on electronics!

This share is for everyone!! If you have questions about the build I'll be more than happy to answer your questions and maybe some guidelines to help you get started on your own.

More pictures to come when it's completed.


Thanks!

An added note: I spent the last 12 hours on this build on my wife's Birthday! Thank you for your understanding and hopes this gets me out of the doghouse!!

[Devastator]

That's pretty neat. The angled drivers look nice, hopefully they'll stay cool that close together. I'd suggest an air filter in front of the fan. I put my Superpid inside my computer case and mounted the display on the front by using one of the unused drive covers.

Never do that to your wife again, that was poor judgement.

[wizard]

That looks far better than most! However where is the E-stop circuit?

To be honest I'm not a big fan of PC chassis conversions as many in my opinion are poorly done and barely passable as safe. At least with yours you have put some nice workmanship into it.

[baskarz]

Very nice case! Love the colour.
I converted a pc case for my control box too but nowhere near as pretty as yours, I just replaced my cases front panel with a mdf panel machined with all the holes and lettering :-)

[CurtisBarclay]

That's pretty neat. The angled drivers look nice, hopefully they'll stay cool that close together. I'd suggest an air filter in front of the fan. I put my Superpid inside my computer case and mounted the display on the front by using one of the unused drive covers.

Never do that to your wife again, that was poor judgement.

Thanks Devastator! I think you're right about the drivers being to close. I'm going to redesign the plate to separate the drives further apart for better cooling. Air filtering is part of the package, just haven't got that far yet.You are right about my wife! I made it up to her though

[CurtisBarclay]

That looks far better than most! However where is the E-stop circuit?

To be honest I'm not a big fan of PC chassis conversions as many in my opinion are poorly done and barely passable as safe. At least with yours you have put some nice workmanship into it.

Thanks wizard. I'm using a pendant from vistacnc.com which has an e-stop on it but in picture 4 you see the 5 rca plugs, the top row is for the X, Y, Z limit switches. The second row is for the A limit switch and the 5th is for the e-stop

[msimpson99]

Here is one I built to show off my KRMx02 Build at a local show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6mszkT711c