Aluminum case/rack building

[BlazinBeaches]

What are you guys using to punch holes through aluminum when building your mining racks?  Should I use a drill bit or a punching device.  Would something like this work, or is there something better?  Also what size Rivets do you need?

http://www.amazon.com/Neiko-Power-Punch-Sheet-Metal/dp/B0002T87CW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370988075&sr=8-1&keywords=Neiko+Hand+Held+Power+Punch

[1714759081]

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[1714759081]

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[1714759081]

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[1714759081]

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[shilex]

i just used inox screws because i have them laying around

[BlazinBeaches]

Did you drill the holes or punch them?  I could see drilling causing the aluminum to fray.  So just trying to figure out the supplies I need to order before I go get the aluminum from lowes.

[bitcoiner49er]

Aluminum is best machined at high speeds. If you can drill at 3000+RPM that is best. Punch OR drill will leave some burrs, so get a nice flat file and hole deburr tool. http://www.amazon.com/SHAVIV-151-29250-Deburring-Handle-Blades/dp/B003JY7LY2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371049716&sr=8-1&keywords=hole+deburr

[camaro69327]

Alum drills very easy.

When done drilling use a Larger drill bit (by hand ) to deburr.

If you use wax and a sharp bit you wont have much of a burr and can just bolt or rivet.

[Operatr]

You can just use self-tapping metal screws too. The upside to them is you can quickly join the frame together without pre-drilling at all, downside is the protruding screw leaves a potential to snag yourself

[razorfishsl]

Don't hand punch , it distorts the aluminum into a well area, and bends as you apply pressure to punch the holes, plus the punch can be a bitch to get in close or round angled parts...

Just buy a load of CHEAP HS drills 10 for a $ or something, and as long as you don't apply too much pressure, it won't burr when the drill punches thru, and if it does , take it off with a stiff wire brush or file.


Square off all the holes from a guaranteed straight edge, then 'centre' mark the drill spot for all your holes, to prevent the drill bit from 'wandering' when you start the hole.
 (if you want to be super accurate use a .5 or 1mm modelers hand held drill to drill the pilot.), and just zip thru the job in quick succession.


I have built mining rigs from ali.
Notice the 'corner rods', this allows me to adjust the width of the rigs, by dropping in a new doweling, or fold the whole thing down if it needs to be transported or stored.

also see the "double riveted" top  part & bottom, this is to guarantee the squareness and to prevent folding



I'm currently working on another 30 board rig.

[BlazinBeaches]

Ahh!  good notes, thanks.  Glad I asked because I was going to buy that hole puncher.  I'll get some carbide drill bits and use those.  Yeah I definitely want to use Rivets they just look really clean and solid.  

I'll use corner clamps to hold the pieces together while drilling and such which makes all the difference in the world.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=corner+clamps

Do you guys recommend aluminum or steel rivets?  And what size?  

I'm going to be using a bunch of these and also a few of the full square pieces of the same gauge
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=30753-37672-11347&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3056481&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=rel&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

[ssateneth]

Don't hand punch , it distorts the aluminum into a well area, and bends as you apply pressure to punch the holes, plus the punch can be a bitch to get in close or round angled parts...

Just buy a load of CHEAP HS drills 10 for a $ or something, and as long as you don't apply too much pressure, it won't burr when the drill punches thru, and if it does , take it off with a stiff wire brush or file.


Square off all the holes from a guaranteed straight edge, then 'centre' mark the drill spot for all your holes, to prevent the drill bit from 'wandering' when you start the hole.
 (if you want to be super accurate use a .5 or 1mm modelers hand held drill to drill the pilot.), and just zip thru the job in quick succession.


I have built mining rigs from ali.
Notice the 'corner rods', this allows me to adjust the width of the rigs, by dropping in a new doweling, or fold the whole thing down if it needs to be transported or stored.

also see the "double riveted" top  part & bottom, this is to guarantee the squareness and to prevent folding



I'm currently working on another 30 board rig.

What am I looking at? Is that ASIC?

[Soros Shorts]

What am I looking at? Is that ASIC?

Looks like FPGA dev boards to me.

[BlazinBeaches]

Ahh!  good notes, thanks guys.  Glad I asked because I was going to buy that hole puncher.  I'll get some carbide drill bits and use those.  Yeah I definitely want to use Rivets they just look really clean and solid. 

I'll use corner clamps to hold the pieces together while drilling and such which makes all the difference in the world.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=corner+clamps

Do you guys recommend aluminum or steel rivets?  And what size? 

I'm going to be using a bunch of these and also a few of the full square pieces of the same gauge
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=30753-37672-11347&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3056481&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=rel&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

Don't bother with carbide bits, they're for harder materials and not even used in mass production for aluminium. Just get a box of cheap HSS bits as posted by razorfishsl. Aluminium rivets are fine but any rivets will get loose quickly if there's any movement so use as many as reasonably possible and get washers to go on the back of them. Steel ones take a painful amount of force to compress but if your design doesn't allow much space for rivets then they would be better. I'd suggest smaller rivets (1/8") and lots of them for appearance but that depends more on straight lines and equal spacings, if your buying corner pieces they could be pre-drilled for 3/16" already though.

Perfect!  I will do this.  Thanks man.   Yeah I was worried about steel ones being a pain.  I hadn't thought about rivets getting loose, maybe I'll just use nuts and bolts. 

[razorfishsl]

What am I looking at? Is that ASIC?

Looks like FPGA dev boards to me.

50% right..

Ebay scrap of this....

http://www.netinsight.net/Global/Documents/Products/PDS_VAMv2.pdf?epslanguage=en

Hay I can always go into the internet video business...  (I believe there is a linux distribution & web-server in there some place.....)

My latest 'beast' is 10 slots of 3 PCI-express cards per slot, with 2 FPGA per board...... you don't always need a motherboard for PCI......


Slightly unfinished I'm missing some RS232 boards and heat-sinks...... I'm due to scrap off all my shitty ATX PSU, a friend owns a PSU factory hope to pick some up on Sat..