self made 5.25 bay devices?

c-note

hey guys,
i was looking around for a card reader for my pc, and came across two really nice looking devices

aerocool infinity
and akasa all in one

the thing i like about the infinity is that it has a removable drive enclosure for laptop ide drives (i've a 120 gig drive doing nothing at the mo!)
and also the drive is lockable

this got me thinking of making my own 5.25 bay device
but obviously i would need a "blank" drive to work on, some kind of tray that would house components and a blank front which you could drill for mounting switches/controls etc

so has anyone made their own bay devices and if so what does one use as a blank,
i thought about stripping out a dead cd-rom but the front wouldnt be pretty!

using one of the cases bay covers as a front is not an option for me.

any suggestions appreciated;)

Solitaire

Moved to Tweaking & Modding.

Typically you work out what you want in the bay device first, get the internal elements or at least mockups of their exact internal dimensions, then measure out possible ways to combine them together to ensure they actually fit (also make sure you have enough SATA and/or USB headers on your mobo or expansion cards in there!). You'll then need to pad out any extra space between the assembled devices and the outer wall of the device (see below), making sure not to block the screw holes needed to mount the ad-hoc "drive" in the 5.25" bay.

Front of the enclosure can be built from a discarded bay cover but if you don't have one or it doesn't take your fancy then you can conceivably build a new one out of pretty much anything so long as you make sure to cut it to the exact size of a standard 5.25" bay cover, remove any voids needed to match it to the device ports that will be hidden behind/inside it and of course has some way of attaching to the chassis of the "drive". Take apart the front of a defunct old optical drive for pointers

As for the chassis? It doesn't usually have to be pretty so the easiest way to procure one would be to continue your defilement of said defunct drive, and once you've got the front off (hopefully without making a mess of the casing - they are made from steel thankfully!) remove the outer casing and cut it to length with a view to using the front portion as the outer casing of your wonderously random DIY bay device Main proviso is to ensure you don't go too far cutting it down; make sure at least the frontmost pair of screwholes remain intact and usable so you can still mount the device in a 5.25" bay in the way God (or Antec, or Coolermaster or whoever) intended

Nollog

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=716795&postcount=27
I'm going to make one of those next week.

Solitaire

Like this?

Nollog

Pretty much.
I'm hoping to keep an eject button with the mechanics.
A dream would be to keep the ide connection going for windows drawer ejection..

Solitaire

That would require a bit of ingenuity. You'd have to build a drawer within the drive chassis instead of using the chassis as the drawer, and where'd you put the motor to avoid getting it in the way of the drawer travel?

The alternative is to build a kind of rail system in the case's 5.25" drive cage and use that combined with the motor moved to the back of the drive and a reversed travel (relative to moving the original disc drawer) to work the magic. And that gives you other problems, such as how to guide the drive casing in and out much less keep it stable...

docmol

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-10025959-32.html

Ya gotta love that browning control in the systray!:D

Solitaire

One of the best Photoshop gags