The combination of CNC technology and 3D printing has sparked a true explosion of projects online. We've also noticed that many enthusiasts are trying to narrow the gap between computing and woodworking, which is how we landed on the channel MXC Builds, who built a fabulous lamp-case hybrid for their mini ITX hardware.
Wood is generally not seen as a good material for building PC cases. Its thermal properties are not the best (at least when we talk about that application), and it usually presents extra challenges. But with CNC as an ally, we can now reproduce patterns and achieve cuts that would be a nightmare by hand. The web is full of marvelous examples, and one of the most recent comes from MXC Builds, with a mini ITX lamp-case inspired by the lamps of Kara Ghasemiani.
A Mini ITX Case Shaped Like a Lamp
The first step is to cut a panel for the motherboard and graphics card support. A little tape helps prevent the jigsaw from 'tearing,' but the 'fine detail' is handled by a laser cutter, while a 3D printer creates the secondary supports. Anyone could stop at this point and enjoy a good open-frame system, but MXC Builds went the extra mile, creating an external power button and spending an enormous amount of time eliminating imperfections from the circular base.
Of course, not everything went perfectly, and manual corrections were inevitable, but the lamp began to take shape once work started on the "pod," which consists of two rings, twenty rods, an air filter, and a good dose of super glue. He also used foam rubber to seal the filter edges and improve its effectiveness, and with an Arctic P14 fan on top, the hardware temperature doesn't end up in the stratosphere: 84C on the CPU and 86C on the GPU under stress tests (e.g., Furmark). Under normal loads, both numbers drop to 70/60.
Source: Hackaday
