Custom Raspberry Pi Case Shows The Whole Workflow

If you are a process junkie and love seeing the end-to-end of how a thing is made and with what tools, then watch [Michael Klements] show off his Raspberry Pi case design. His case has quite a few cool-looking elements to it, and incorporates 3D printing as well as laser-cut and clear bent acrylic for a gorgeous three-quarter view.

[Michael]’s write-up (and accompanying video, embedded below) are partly a review of his Creality 3D printer, and partly a showcase of his Raspberry Pi case design (for which he sells the design files for a small fee on his Etsy store.) But the great part is seeing the creation of every piece that goes into the end product. Not everyone is familiar with the way these tools work, or what they can create, so it’s nice to see attention paid to that side of things.

Both the blog post and the video nicely show off what goes into every part. The video opens with unpacking and setting up the 3D printer (skip ahead to 4:58 if you aren’t interested), followed by printing the parts, laser-cutting the acrylic on a K40 laser cutter, bending the acrylic using a small hand tool, and finally, assembling everything. For the curious, there are also links to the exact parts and equipment he uses.

Like we said, it’s part 3D printer review and part showcase of a design he sells, but it’s great to see each of the parts get created, watch the tools get used, and see the results come together in the final product. And should you wish to go in the opposite direction? A one-piece minimalist case for your Raspberry Pi is only a 3D printer away.

29 thoughts on “Custom Raspberry Pi Case Shows The Whole Workflow

    1. Aren’t almost all youtube videos with the exception of actual tutorials commercials? I oftentimes feel like I’m watching commercials interrupted by commercials when browsing YT.

    2. This must be your first visit to the internet. Every single bit of information on the internet is there to make money. Get used to it. Bits do not live for free, they need a constant flow of funds that has to come from somewhere.

      1. Simply to dampen the ‘commercials’ in you-tube. Just install ad-blocker and ublock origin (at least in Linux land, if that matters) into Firefox . Done. Nothing more irritating than commercials. I don’t mind if the presenter plugs his sponsers as you can just skip ahead, but ones forced on you (like TV) …. Yuck. Must work on some people though or they wouldn’t have them….

        1. Every time you block an ad, they jack up the price of something else. Also, Amazon etc. are paying attention to the ads you block! You get blacklisted by vendors who won’t offer you special deals. You think you are anonymizing yourself but in fact you are drawing attention to yourself.

          Install an ad blocker in your brain. It works for billboards and printed ads as well.

          1. It works and I can enjoy the content. Otherwise I’d look elsewhere. Simple. Oh, and also use Pi-Hole on an RPI-4 as well to eliminate even more junk.

        2. You do realise that blocking ads affects the people making the videos, they don’t earn money if you block the ads. Adblocker is pretty similar to piracy, you are not paying for the video you are watching, if you hate ads that much then why not just pay for YouTube premium, then you have no ads, can download videos, have YouTube music too and you are still supporting the people that make the videos.

          1. Nonsense. I can also decide not to watch the ad or skip it. Does that make me a pirate too?.
            Can also decide not to like not to share or not comment on the channel, making itess wirth for the ads. I can decide not to cluck on the ad, thus wasting the advertisers money. I can choose to click on the ad, making the channel .ore expensive for companies and not buy anything. Is that fraud? Racketteering?

    3. Nope, not fond of unregulated and affiliate advertising on the web. There’s nobody looking when they give unrepresentative accounts of the benefits of buying their $upported product.

      I bought a succession of popular SBCs, based on glowing accounts from YouTube users. They are yet to EXPLAINING how none of these COMPUTERS is up to the expectations I was sold on.

    1. And yet you do kind of need something approaching that ridiculous to keep a Pi4 cool under sustained load, especially if you overclock it. Not that it won’t run just fine without, but it doesn’t make a great ‘desktop replacement’ if it spends all its time thermally throttled…

  1. A long time ago I saw an aquarium similar to this, now it would be real cool to see this one with the fish swimming around in it ! Obviously this wouldn’t work so maybe a dual wall with the water inside, maybe one of those bubble walls with plastic fish floating around from a 3D printer, of course that may make the visual thing a little harder to see through the bubbles, so a small flow pump could work to keep things moving around.

    1. Linus Tech Tips (and plenty of other people online, they just have some good videos on it – I think I recall even seeing one somewhere about doing it for a Pi) have done several videos about a computer running inside a tank of mineral oil. Add in some fish (maybe with different densities, so they float at different heights in the tank, similar to a Galileo thermometer), and make sure the fan is oriented in a way that helps keep everything flowing (maybe a tank with round internal corners and a vertical partition in the middle to encourage circular flow?).

  2. IIRC you can reach the timing limits for overclocking a pi4 with a 10c heat sink and the pi vertically oriented for natural convection.

    Cool project, and a really good way to showcase your use of an SBC. I just prefer mounting my RPi to the back of a monitor ;)

    1. It’s all good as long as you know the physical CPU location, so you can project Psi rays at it from your third eye to make it work faster. “Hey dumbass, make better guesses in the branch prediction dammit.”

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