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Home-made Wooden PC 
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Update April 17, 2008: This mockumentary page is very nostalgic to me now. It was only meant to be a joke but seemed to get a lot of interest. Thanks for all your comments. Update February 14, 2006: I recently moved cities and in the process I threw Wooden PC out. It's currently in land fill, unless someone salvaged it... if you come across it make sure you email me pop79 @t d0d0 d0t c0m d0t au Update July 23, 2003: I just realised this page is still here... to update on what the wooden PC is up to, it's sitting on the floor tripping me over. Maybe I could use it to program a robotic arm to plunge a power drill through it at maximum speed.
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| I worked for a company that often upgraded old PCs. Around November 1998 I came across some parts they didn't need so I HAD A VISION and salvaged them.
There was a motherboard 'Baby Foot' (?) motherboard. It was only a 386 DX-40 but was very small compared to the new motherboards. I liked it and wanted to make a small PC out of it, with a case made out of wood, and other small cards that would fit inside of it. |
Wooden Case
The case is made out of 12mm Medium Density Fibre board held together by plasterboard screws. Dimensions are 299x216x166mm, with a 'footprint' the size of a sheet of A4 paper. It has a lid with hinge and some catches to keep it shut. The card slots on the back are a metal fitting, which was taken from an old case, and screwed into the wood. The picture hanging wire stops the lid opening too far, and is held in with eyelets. All of the lid fittings needed glueing so they dont wear out too quickly. Various holes were needed to be cut in the case, keyboard socket, power connector and switch, floppy drive, reset switch, lights (LEDs), fan holes and power supply ventelation holes. A strip of foam padding is stuffed in the back to stop dusk getting in, there are four rubber feet in the bottom and a handle on the top. The case is still awaiting some sort of pictures to be painted on it. The wood doesn't offer much protection against RFI (radio frequency inteference) or ESD (electro-static discharge). Foil glued to all the inside faces of the wood might help, but at present it only has earth wires joining everything up. |
Components
The motherboard is resting on cca 15mm brass spacers which are joined to the motherboard with nuts, and screws through the bottom of the case. The cards are:
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| The wooden box was made bigger than the motherboard just enough to fit the length of the longest card (Sound Blaster). The hard disk and 3 1/2" floppy drive are bolted to a mounting bracket taken from an old NEC 486 slimline desktop, which is screwed to the underside of the lid. The hard disk wasn't thin enough for the bracket and is upside-down, although a single 'platter' Quantum or something would probably fit.
A bit of shuffling was involved to get the cards in the right place to get enough room for the disk drives and cooling fan. The fan is from an old 12v power supply and blows air outwards. The lights are from an old case and the reset button is from Dick Smith Electronics. |
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| Before I designed the coffin I wanted to find the smallest power supply that would do the job. Branco from Oatley Electronics found one from an extra slim case which I dont know what it is used for. It is a 50W power supply housed in a well ventillated metal black box, seen to the right of the box in the previous picture. The connector didn't fit the motherboard so an old one was fitted to the wires, being sure to match the correct voltages to the pins. The 240v power socket and switch are from the same case the power supply came from which clipped straight into a hole cut in the case. A few rows of 2mm holes drilled in the case near the power supply got a good flow of air which keeps the power supply cool, which I tested for a day or so in summer.
One problem with the power supply is the absence of a 'Power Good' line, which normally tells the motherboard when to start up, since the power supply may take a while to get to the right voltages. I wired in 5v which is expected when it's ready. This resulted in intermittant 'no-starts' and a press of the reset button would get it going. I've been told that a small capacitor might give a long enough delay, however I still haven't come up with a solution yet. The other problem is that the power supply is only rated at 50w and I don't actually know the maximum load of the whole system, although the motherboard with 4Mb RAM uses about 25W, and the drives use much less. However startup loads are much higher, and the power supply may eventually stop. A standard AT power supply circuit board will fit with modifications to the heatsink although a metal case should be made around the modified board to shield the dangerous high voltages. |
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| The most expensive parts were the case fittings and power supply. I payed about $25 for 12mm MDF board (wood), screws, handle, hinges, catches, latches and rubber feet. The Power supply and freight was $26. Total - $53 AUS
I may have gone a little over board with the fittings, but I only used half of everything. The other parts needed are:
Depending on where you live in the world as to how much these parts will cost. Around here people normally throw those parts at your face (free), but other countries may still be using them as current technology. Note that list is only to make the actual box, and to use it you need all the bits that plug into it: monitor, monitor cable, keyboard, mouse and power cable at least. |
Uses
Currently the hard disk is set up as a 'DOS box'. Because of the slow processor speed compared to current machines, most 'off the shelf' software would be too slow and bloated (excessive disk/memory usage) to run properly. There are however many people and companies developing software for lower end computers which can do the same thing as the newest products. You'll find many WWW sites (like this one) dedicated to 'survivor PCs'. You could use it for a test machine or a tool that requires a bit more power than a calculator or multimetre. For now it rests under my monitor as a feature. I might set it up on a network one day. |
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| So there you have it, my wooden PC. I've also managed to make an MP3 Player out of nothing too. It plays music that you save on it's hard drive, like a juke box. All I have to do is make a stylish wooden box for it now, and attach an amp and massive speakers. I hope this story has given you some ideas to build something for yourself. |
pop79 @t d0d0 d0t c0m d0t au
Created with Arachne DOS WWW browser, on 5th February, 1999.
Last updated 17th April 2008.
