Hey there!
So my first/current project is a Small Form Factor PC Case, specifically this BeamCase SFF SW that has a bunch of different profiles you can print for different sizes, and has you print parts that get bolted to aluminium extrusions as a core.
People on the Printables project seem pretty confident that PETG should be sufficient but I’m planning to eventually upgrade this thing with the RTX 4090 from my gaming PC (when the RAMPocalypse has been over long enough for an upgrade to be actually feasible), which is a 2.2kg card that’ll pump out a bunch of heat, so I’m inclined to go with something stronger.
I might / will probably try ASA / ABS / PET-GF/CF… but I can’t help but wonder if it’d be feasible to CNC the structural parts out of aluminium? I’d need to convert the files I have to CAD files, but it seems like VCarve can import STLs? And the segments are probably thicker than they would need to be if they were made out of aluminium, but I could scale down the thickness in CAD?
Anyone with experience in this space have any thoughts? I feel like an all-aluminium core is probably the safest option for the long term stability of the case (assuming no catastrophic user error), but there’s a cool factor to having the whole thing (save the extrusions, bolts, etc) be printed. There’s also a cool factor to having the whole thing be aluminium, and to having it all be aluminium, except the outer panels, that are 3d printed, though.
Any input appreciated!
Ta,
Yaz