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Who is Making Cases out of Natural Materials? 57

Posted by Cliff from the turn-your-pet-rocks-into-computer-cases dept.
alansz asks: "I've been rereading William Gibson's Idoru lately (insert your favorite bookstore link). The main character uses a computer made by 'Sandbenders', an Oregon commune that designs computer cases (and parts) from natural materials like stone, wood, glass, etc. The theme is a blending of the natural/analog and the relentlessly cybernetic/digital. Like the imaginary customers of this commune, I find the idea of such a computer very appealing. There's a fair number of case mod stories here on Slashdot. Have any of you actually made (or decorated) or found a company that makes PC cases that incorporate unusual materials and a natural aesthetic?"
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Who is Making Cases out of Natural Materials? More

Who is Making Cases out of Natural Materials?

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  • Almost 30 years ago (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MarkusQ ( 450076 ) on Thursday November 14, 2002 @11:52PM (#4674650) Journal

    I had a Northstar (8080) with a cherrywood case. It was sweet (*sigh*). 2 MHz, and 32k of RAM...what a great machine.

    -- MarkusQ (waxing nostalgic)

    • YES!

      And a brushed metal face-plate... Like an amplifier by Fisher or Marantz. One red LED?

      I worked at a computer store in San Diego '78-'79. Northstar was a 'Cadillac' machine, and we couldn't keep more than one in stock at a time.

  • Here! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Konster ( 252488 ) on Thursday November 14, 2002 @11:52PM (#4674651)
    ...like this [d0rk.com]?

    • Kharma Whoring (Score:3, Informative)

      by Pfhor ( 40220 )
      I was procrastinating from writting a paper and noticed the page was running slowly. Here's a mirror:
      http://www.students.bucknell.edu/cbarker/ case/

  • Be careful of EMF (Score:4, Informative)

    by photon317 ( 208409 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @12:05AM (#4674697)

    If you undertake a project to build a funky case out of plastic/glass/stone/wood/whatever, be sure to take the EMF into account. If it's something opaque like wood, this is easily remedied by liing the inside of the case with a faraday cage (wire mesh of the right size, basically). I'm not sure what you should do for clear materials - perhaps leaded glasses have some emf shield properties? not really sure on this.
    • I've had these concerns as well but haven't been able to find a good source of copper mesh in small quantities. This site [twpinc.com] sells some nice-looking mesh but their minimum order is $75 which works out to 20-25 square feet depending on the mesh size. I checked the local craft stores (Michael's, Jo Ann) and they don't stock it.

      • Question (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Why does it have to be made out of copper? You can get regular steel mesh from any large hardware store. Computer cases aren't made out of copper ... so why would you substitute copper mesh? If you're worried about how it looks or something, spray-paint it with copper-colored metallic paint. That won't reduce its EMF shielding effects so long as you ground it through any layers of paint.
      • Is there any particular reason to be using copper?

        I mean, sure: it's a fine conductor. But for soaking up RF in the context of a home computer, it would seem that steel would work fine. And rather than being ~$3/ft^2, steel is usually of negligible cost.

        The best place to look for this sort of stuff is not at a business selling fabric to housewives or mail-order distributors, but your neighborhood hardware store. Not Lowe's or Home Depot, but the tired-looking place downtown that sells shotgun shells out of the same glass display case that props up their singular cash register.

        In this store, you will find a man who looks as old as the building. He will be helpful. You'll either be directed toward the precise item that you're looking for, be able to order it for little cost, or be given information about another tired-looking local business that specializes in such things as wire mesh.

        Myself, I've seen copper window screen sold in these places, by the foot. No idea if the holes are too big for the frequencies in question.

        Failing that, there's other options. AFAIK, the requirements for a Faraday cage do not stipulate that the material must be hole-y.

        From the same hardware merchant (or any of the fabric stores that you're so fond of), you'll be able to buy a can of spray-on adhesive. From your local food service vendor, you'll be able to buy a wide roll of aluminum foil.

        You'll need one (1) aerosol can of adhesive, and one (1) roll of foil.

        Apply adhesive according to directions on label. Apply foil according to common sense, bearing in mind that the adhesive will not let go of the foil, ever. If grounding connections must be made between movable portions of the case (side panels, for instance), make sure that the foil is applied in such a way that they're able to touch eachother with at least slight pressure.

        Or, if you want to be a pedant, join the sections together with copper foil tape [digikey.com].

        Done. Time saved: days. Money saved: At least $65.

        [OT: What, pray tell, is Slashdot's average IQ these days? I deal with stupid, helpless people for a living, but I'm often amazed by what I discover on these pages.]

        • Instead of copper foil tape, one can use muffler tape. Its essentially a roll of superthin, supersticky aluminum and can be purchased at pretty much any automotive store.
        • Sorry, I should have been clearer so you wouldn't berate me. I want my case mods to look cool so solutions that involve unattractive materials are out. The reason for using screening is so that you can have a clear viewport in the case and see through the screen. If I were just adding shielding to the inside of a case that wouldn't be seen I could use aluminum foil tape. Other screening materials would work like brass or stainless steel but they're not easy to find either.

          I've been to all the hardware stores in the area, including the ones with the old guy who wears a feed-store hat and smells like fertilizer. Nobody has anything except aluminum screen in rolls. I can get very small brass screen in tiny sheets but the mesh is too small and they're not big enough to cover the side of a case anyway.

          So hey, does anyone know where I can find copper screening in small quantities?
          • So about these huge gaping windows that are in current PCs, these materials don't usually provide any variety of EMF shielding do they?
          • Try your local OKRIN man. Seriously.

            Copper Mesh, 20ft. roll [ridabug.com] $9.95

            "STUF-FIT rust proof copper meshing for sealing rodent entry points. STUF-FIT is a copper mesh (no rust) cloth that is stuffed into openings to keep out all kinds of pests. When tightly packed into a gap, crack or weep hole, the copper mesh resists being pulled out. STUF-FIT permanence makes it the perfect choice for access control. The roll is 20 feet long and 6 inches wide, double folded."

            Cast some of this in clear acrylic and you have a rf solution that looks cool too.

            SD
    • Is this really going to be an issue? I don't know, that's why I'm asking. Generally speaking, it seems like you're not going to get noise that's large enough to mess with a computer too much.

      People use all sorts of clear plastics on "normal" case mods and don't seem to be suffering any ill effects.

      If it is a problem, then couldn't you just tack some aluminum foil to the inside?

      • While the shielding may protect your PC from environmental EMF at times, and that may be beneficial, the primary purpose is to keep the immense EMF inside your computer from leaking out. Aside from the debatable long term health effects sitting next to it, it can and will interfere with other electronic devices in the vicinity. Building a computer with absolutely no EMF shielding also means NSA Tempest vans can sniff you from much further away :)

        As a side note, I've noticed that my company-supplied cellphone (PoS Motorola i1000plus Nextel phone) emits some serious wattage, which I would suspect could induce errors if it was around an unshielded computer. If it sends/receives any calls/pages/data while within about 5-6 feet of a traditional CRT, it causes the CRT to flicker. Without a slightler larger range of any sort of speaker, it actually induces blips of white noise on the speakers.
      • It can be an issue. It's not EMF getting inside the computer, it's the EMF that the computer produces.

        As an example, I'm an amateur radio operator and found that one of my computers produced enough EMF to be heard -- and be annoying -- on a radio three feet away. And this computer was in a fully fastened steel case. I finally found I had to turn that computer off to operate.

        Sean.

  • heres an idea (Score:2, Funny)

    by bpb213 ( 561569 )
    You might try to adapt how people make model trainsets (with all that paper wad type modeling) to make a rock lookalike computer case.

    Id definitly say, that given the proper amount of time, its feasable.
    • Ah bu66er, where's the right accent???

      Anyway, yeah, the above post talking about EMF and using some kind of Faraday cage could be used in your rock-case idea if you get some chicken wire fence material to act as your 'base' and you would slop paper mache over that to make your 'rock'. Sounds, urm, funky, but let me tell you about my own idea:

      I always kind hated the idea of having a PC on a desk, so figured that maybe we could incorporate the PC into the desk so that (say) the monitor (a flat panel, of course) could 'flip up' out of the desk and a Wacom-styley graphics tablet would replace the mouse. In fact, the gubbins of the PC could live at the back of the integrated drawers, and the cd rom drive and floppy, etc. could be incorporated in a spare drawer along with a hot-swappable RAID array.

      And it would be a gorgeous thing to look at when the PC was 'put away' and the desk reverted back to a writing desk or whatever.

      Hmmmmmm ;)

      JTC

  • old news (Score:3, Funny)

    by DMBoyd ( 446358 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @12:34AM (#4674833)
    I already have this. My computer's made entirely of natural materials.
    Sand for the circuit board and transistors.
    animals and plants to the crude oil that makes the plastics.
    And natural rocks, found in the ground, refined to give the metallic casing.

    from 100% natural materials.

  • Natural Glass? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by blueroo ( 553454 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @01:07AM (#4674971)
    Last I checked steel and aluminum was about as natural as glass is...
    • Every material consisting of natural atoms IS natural...
    • Actually, when lightning strikes sand, it makes a type of glass called Fulgurite [google.com].
      And since Steel has to be made from Coke and Iron, I don't think that occurs naturally anywhere. And Aluminum is found naturally as Aluminum Oxide, not the stuff your case is made out of.
      Here's [att.net] more info.
      Note that it's not the pretty stuff in Sweet Home Alabama.

  • You could try these guys... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Sierran ( 155611 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @01:18AM (#4675004)
    ...I've seen them around for a while.

    http://www.arbustus.com/ ...they make wood cases and computer systems, as well as periphs (mice, keybds, LCD monitors *DROOL*). They'll even let you pick the wood. They also do PDA veneer and the like. Some of their high-end stuff is quite striking, if out of my price range. :-)
  • I think I'm pretty safe as long as I *don't* have a case constructed out of radioactive elements that have a half-life in the millionths of a second. ;)

    To be honest, I don't see myself getting much value in having a computer case out of mundane materials. Aesthetic, utilitarian, environmental, economic, or otherwise. While some people may wax poetic out of goat cheese made from swiss monks, personally, I'd rather brag about how technological it is. After all, we're talking about computers here! ;)
    • While some people may wax poetic out of goat cheese made from swiss monks

      I truly hope that the people you hang out with get there goat cheese made by swiss monks, and not made from swiss monks. There truly aren't enough swiss monks to go around to make all that goat cheese I eat on my pizza!
  • The idea of a polished oaken computer case gives me a woody. Well, it would if I get a woody. :) (I am of the Chick side of the Force) Wait! I can always install Debian 3.0 on it...

    (rimshot)

    Hmm. I kinda-sorta made a computer out of natural materials once... when money was short and I had plenty of spare parts sitting about, I built a machine using ordinary paper in place of the handy-dandy metal plate (donno what they're called) that the motherboard attaches to. In fact, I used the campus foodservice newsletter. :D
  • using a cabinet router and some veneer sheets and contact cement is not that hard, a nice skill for anyone to get, and doing simple flat rectangular surfaces is easy. Pick out your laminate, spray case, spray laminate. stick on, roll or press, take the router to it to trim precisely. cool. I haven't done it to a computer case but I can't see it being that hard. Guess I'll try it now sometime thinking about it, next time I scrounge some scraps of laminate that are my taste in "cool" looking. That would seem to be the quickest easiest way to make a nice exterior.

    I was looking at the miniitx page via a link from another thread here, saw a mod I HAVE thought previously I want to build, and that is a computer inside a briefcase. I don't want a laptop inside a case or bag, I want the case to be the laptop and have some storage for cd's etc inside. You open it up, there's the screen on the case facing you. simple, easy, you reach in, haul out the regular keyboard and mouse and get to work. The guy did a nice job,it's not exactly what I was thinking of but nice still, he used to me looking at it like an anvil-style case. I want a "laptop" or call it a portable like that, inside it's own case, full sized "normal" keyboard, decent screen, etc, and dual or quad batts! yep, it'll be heavy, I _don't_ care, 99% of the time it'll be sitting on a desk. I got a "normal" laptop already, just want a better one and don't got 3 grand to drop on one right now.

    As to some sort of "natural" case, possibilities are pretty limitless, depends on what you want it to be functional as later. Just a piece of art work you can sit in front of, and have it not look like a computer? Still need the screen and keyboard and mouse. Hmm, I like house plants, put one in the base of the pot of a big potted tree sitting over in the corner, use wireless keyboard and mouse,hmm, don't even know if they have the wireless screens, but that would be cool if they did.

    Make one look like one of those big bragger "coffee table" books people affect.

    "Stealth" computer, you get a raggy old black and white tv, gut it, turn it into a sort of iMac computer, add a real lame broken rabbit ear set up with tinfoil on one of the ears, keep the keyboard and mouse hidden someplace else when you are gone. burlgar busts in while you are gone, they see a tv so cheap even the pawnshop wouldn't give them 1$ for it so they leave it. Full effect is set of vise grips on a stub for a lost knob, scratches, etc. Bonus points if it's an old style screen that was two arcs opposite two straight sides.

    "Stealth" #2, monitor gets embedded flush into wall, box is buried in closet or in the wall as well, you hang 2$ walmart mirror over it when not in use.

    ---next guy---

  • How is glass any more natural of a material than aluminum?
  • The closest thing to this I've done is to build a case for a car stero and a computer power supply out of wood. 3/8ths inch plywood on the sides, and a purpleheart (exotic, reddish wood) face. It works great as a small-footprint desktop stereo, and goes better with "nice" furniture than a black metal box.

    That, and I once tossed together a 486 router on plywood, with a few finishing nails to hold it down. That was one of the ugliest hacks I've ever done, hardware or software. Worked, though; it still does, although in a "proper" case.

  • My personal weirdest case was created after having bought an old non standard XT Mother board and a bunch of controllers and stuff from a computer garage sale (junk bins at a local computer store) when I first got into computers. It was an old dresser drawer we had, that I mounted a powersupply, Motherboard and Dual Floppy drives in, and used it in a Tower fashion. Oh yeah and the monitor was entirely open, no case what so ever. (Kinda Dangerous, but then again I was a young teen, what did I care?)
  • Transparent aluminium. Good EMF, nice look. :)

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