386 / 486 Retro PC Case

thingiverse

Overall size of the case faceplate is roughly 275mm tall by 175mm wide. I just printed it and gave everything a rough test fit. It is by no means perfect, but should go together ok if you have a well calibrated 3D printer. Minimal to no sanding/filing/drilling out required. It features a single 5.25" bay and a single 3.5" bay, turbo display, turbo/reset buttons, keylock switch, rocker power switch, turbo/power/hdd LED's. It is somewhat miniature, designed to fit easily on a 300 x 300mm print bed. I'm using the Longer LK5 Pro 3D printer I picked up for $188 shipped from Aliexpress on their 11/11 sale. The filament I used is Printed Solid Jessie #500 -- an Amiga 500 retro beige. So first off you need Sketchup if you want to open the design files. I use Sketchup 2017 since it is the last free desktop version I believe. (maybe someone could port it over to Fusion 360 or something) Then you'll need a 3D printer slicer program to prep the STL files (I used the latest Cura). Here's the parts list for everything that will fit in the faceplate as-is: Turbo Display: ATTiny85 2-digit Turbo Display -- https://github.com/wiretap-retro/2-digit-Turbo-Display Turbo Button: Latching green version of this -- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000882790991.html Reset Button: Momentary red version of this -- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000882790991.html LED's from this, or 5mm LED's of your choosing -- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000345599216.html 5mm LED holder: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001382340508.html Keylock Switch: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FWN8GXM or https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FS2Q931 Power Switch: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000987280507.html or https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MF4GV6W Case badge: 1" x 1" standard Mounting Hardware: M3 screws, 10mm x 10mm x 10mm M3 mounting cubes -- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001307756906.html Misc: Super glue gel, Gorilla Glue, epoxy, etc to secure the drive bay to the front faceplate. Case Feet: Stick on rubber bumpers, drill some holes and mount some fancy ones, or design and 3D print some. Rest of the case: 1/8" thick acrylic, standoffs for mounting the motherboard, etc. The U-shape shell can be 3D printed to make it mostly complete. Just add a clear acrylic window and some sort of rear plate/bar for ISA/PCI mounting. Case hardware note -- I recommend using a PicoPSU or Meanwell to power the system. There is no room in this for an ATX/SFX power supply. The main faceplate can be printed rear side down with supports. The drive bay holder can be printed with supports and a brim to prevent warping/lifting. This piece is thin and tall, so it can lift/warp if you don't have a heated enclosure, ymmv. Print with the mounting tabs side down. The u-shaped shell is best printed with all the long flat sides vertical. Use a brim to adhere the thin edges down. For my slicer/print settings (latest Cura was used): - 0.2mm layer height - 220C nozzle temperature for the Jessie Amiga 500 PLA - 80C bed temp with 125% flow for the first layer, and normal 100% flow with 60C bed temperature thereafter - 50mm/s print speed, and blower fan off for the 1st and 2nd layer, 100% blower fan speed starting at layer 3 After printing, you'll need to install the buttons, switches, drive bay, etc. The drive bay may need a little bit of edge filing and brim cleaning (ymmv), then it can be glued in place. The 6-way threaded cubes can also be glued into the cutouts on the back side corners of the faceplate. The cubes will allow you to screw 1/8" thick acrylic or the cover shell STL to make the rest of the case. The length of the rest of the case depends on your motherboard size and add-in ISA/PCI/VLB/AGP/PCIe cards. Just note the drive cage size so your cards don't get blocked by it. If using a small Baby-AT motherboard like a Zida Tomato, the side panels need to be at least 16 inches long. With a 4-ISA SBC backplane, you can keep it to 10-12" long panels which cuts down a lot of cost. The U-shaped cover shell has been designed to fit on a 300x300mm print bed, and will likely only fit SBC backplanes. You may get lucky with some really small Baby-AT boards fitting if the CPU/RAM is low enough. I have one small Zida board that fits inside. The rear plate will need to have the cutout hole adjusted for your specific motherboard/SBC/fans. The sketchup file included makes it easy to edit.