I’m working on getting a case printed and I’m wondering what I might put the mainboard in for now to fire up and play around with a little bit. Would a Pelican case work if I can find one that’s the right size? I was told by Framework that the operating temp can get up to 100 degrees C so it would need to withstand that. Would it be crazy to put it in like an oversize glass baking dish with a plastic lid with ventilation cut into it? With a big air gap between the board and the lid.
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A baking dish seems like it would work fine. Instead of a plastic lid, you could probably just use a piece of aluminum foil–as long as you don’t need to stack anything on top of it. It would be much easier to ventilate (you wouldn’t need to cut up your plastic lid).
@BluishHumility yeah good call that makes sense! And I may be able to get the 3D printed case quickly enough that this is moot. But the preliminary quotes I got from Proto Labs and Shapeways were MINIMUM $250! I don’t know if there was an issue with the instant quoting process or something but I was super surprised by that.
That is probably the going rate for the amount of material and relative complexity of the design. I’d expect 1.5-3.0x that if you decided to go Aluminum or another metal because of the amount of needed CNC.
Arguably, this ‘could’ be the reasoning you “need” to pick up a hobbyist 3D printer, which are typically going from the $150-250 range, should you decide that you want to make other nick-nacs and prototypes of anything you’d create iteratively.
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A glass baking dish would probably work for heat, but you’d want to do something to keep the board from sliding around in it - if you’ve got some standoffs available, those would probably work well.
You could also try mounting it to a thin piece of plywood, again using standoffs - if you’re concerned about dust, invert a cardboard box over it and knock a few holes in for ventilation.
I think some playdoh or blu tack or double sided tape will work in a pinch. Save time while waiting for the actual case
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I think a janky solution could be like using a cardboard/some wood and cutting it to match the 3D printed case.
Might be actually possible to mount it under a glass topped desk with a drawer and drill some holes for air cooling I guess. Might need a fan to bring fresh air in.
Perhaps a combination of Play-Doh and dried pasta - cappelini is probably thin enough to fit through the mounting holes, it’s non-conductive, and would avoid something sticky getting on the board itself.
One could embed macaroni in the Play-Doh as standoffs, then slide the cappelini through the board, through the macaroni, and into the Play-Doh to anchor everything. Rigatoni might work for standoffs, or penne (although the angled end would make penne problematic)…
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Haha I’m loving these ideas. Rigatoni lol. I’ll keep you guys posted. My components from Frame Work still haven’t arrived so I may be able to get the case soon enough to not need to experiement.
I just cut airflow and connector holes in the box it came in and am running it like that.
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