How many people have tried metal or something other than wood?

My brother in law owes me a LARGE favor for many rebuilds of his home computers when his kids blew them up. He owns a machine shop, so I've been contemplating having him do up something for me.

But I'm thinking that the metal might radiate any heat from the lamp in a way that wood doesn't.

Anyone tried various metals, and have any feedback on the plus or negative of trying it with them?

Starting to draw up my plans for a 17" folded PJ, and trying to determine how involved I want to make it. If i have my brother in law doing the case in metal, I have a lot of leeway for how I can mount things, and how I can have machined adjustment mechanisms. But I don't want to go too far down that road if it's already been tried and just is too problematic.

Thanks for any info.

john

Actually, metal has been seen as better than wood in ways of heat dissipation. The wood holds in heat where the metal sends it around. The only problem is you have to worry about the electronics. You want to ground the enclosure and mount the PCBs and LCD on wood or something non-conducting.

On a side note. I have used MDF on one projector and I used a plastic composite frame and fiberglass shell for the other. Fiberglass doesn't dissipate heat as well as metal but it also doesn't conduct electricity .

Well, that's right and wrong. The metal will dissipate heat better, but in the process of doing that, the outside could become very hot. You need to manage that somehow. You want to get the heat out of the box, but you don't want the outside surfaces to get hot.

I'd suggest that a metal enclosure could work well and look awesome, but line it with some kind of insulation, and have a ventillation/cooling system the same as the wood enclosures.


Take it easy,
Phil.

My box, hope to have everything in it soon.

Ammo can!!! I love it!

MDFF

Good looking steel box. Here is my idea after you build the steel box build a wood box to cover the steel box but leave room for air flow and place another fan to blow cool air around the steel box. I know another fan people hate fans but it would keep the steel and wood cooler.

Wicked!

The box is actually aluminum. I'd do the wood thing, but this is VERY lightweight. I really like the ammo can too, especially being silver now. Easy to carry with that nice handle, easy to open if I need to, get's the weight out of the PJ. Hopefully I won't have to vent it or put in fans, but we'll see.