User avatar
By Sploinker
#4902038
Hey all,

I’ve been digging through the forums trying to see if there’s info on making your own aluminum motherboard and I haven’t found anything yet. I was hoping to find a recommended place to go to buy sheets of aluminum and what strength to get. I’m trying to build as much of my pack from scratch as I can to save cost but maybe it’s better in this instance to just get a pre-made one. Any advice would be appreciated!
By likesjellydonuts
#4903579
If you're scratchbuilding a pack, build the pack first. As far as making your own motherboard, the process is the same, no matter the material. The only thing that changes, is the blade you use.

It's .125" aluminum. Do a local search for metal supply. It'll be way cheaper if you can pick it up locally.
AndFisher liked this
User avatar
By AndFisher
#4903592
likesjellydonuts gives good advice. Finish your shell and trace around it onto an alumiunium sheet if you go down this route. You can cut it with a jigsaw with the appropriate blade (You might have to buy a set of blades, the stock blade that came with my jigsaw was only for wood, but they shouldn't be too expensive) Remember to use some WD40 or whatever while cutting to cool the blade. Beware though, that stuff removes sharpie! Also, be patient and take your time!

I used 3mm aluminium from an ebay seller and it wasn't too expensive, about £27 (after shopping around sellers) with enough to build 2 motherboards. Then make sure you have some nice files and some sharp titanium coated drill bits for mounting the L-brackets (I sourced some aluminium angle for mine, 6mm thick, cut into 4 pieces, tapped holes for screws and attached to the board with some wide flange rivets for connections, also from eBay) For me, this was the hardest part of all, making sure the screw holes in the pack line up the brackets, and that the brackets are positioned and riveted in the ideal places on the mobo.

If you're in the US, you can probably get all this stuff locally cheaper than eBay, but for me in the UK, eBay was cheap enough and very convenient! :)

The problem(s) with buying a pre-made motherboard, are that it is probably going to cost more and there's no guarantee it will perfectly fit your DIY shell. But I'm sure the quality is excellent if it's laser cut or what have you. You should also consider how confident you feel with your power tools (although it's really not hard).
Sploinker liked this
User avatar
By Etigo
#4903926
Like the two previous aswers, Pack first and Motherboard in second!!! :-D

    Make it that pack, sell it for $599. (While I […]

    Yeah, we've been building this thing for ten[…]

    Someone on FB found it. NARDA ELECTROMAGNETIC RADI[…]

    It appears that some time today someone who […]