Steel MP3 Case

Here is the fabled steel encased Creative Zen that matches my newly created Steampunk headphones. Those can be seen in my other entries.

Difficulty: either learning how to weld will make this a bit hard, or having someone weld for you will make the cost go up. You also have to know how to use a rivet gun, a power drill, and a tap wrench. On the other hand, you probably could substitute metal epoxy for the welding, since it's not holding much weight...

Made the basic shell in my senior year of high school, in Welding class (one of the best classes ever, in my opinion)

Took a scrap of sheet steel, probably 1/16 thickness, and bent in into a C shaped channel that my Zen would almost fit into, except for the control buttons on the side.

Then I ground out the gaps in the edges of the C to allow the buttons to fit.

I took a scavenged hinge and, after a failed attempt on one end(a crappy weld) I managed to Oxi-acetaline torch weld it onto the other end of the C.

Sorry the pic is sideways. Grink! goes my neck.

For the lid, I used another 1/16" sheet of steel scrap and bent it into the L shape I wanted, then hacksawed/filed/sanded the screen opening out.
Then I drilled the holes for the screws that would anchor it to the hinge, and tapped them with a much-searched-for M5 tap (the school shop had only English standard taps, and my garage was full of metric screws)
Then I screwed it together with loctite, and ground off the protruding ends of the screws to be flush with the sheet steel.

I needed some kind of shock absorption, so I superglued a cut-up mousepad inside the lid, grippy side towards the Zen.
The stuff also keeps it from moving around in the several mm of vertical space it has in there.

This thing has gone through several less than satisfactory methods of keeping the lid closed, and right now there is a key chain looped over a bicycle chainring bolt keeping it shut. Looks interesting, and is all metal, but I worry about the Chinese whatever-it-is snapping at some inconvenient time. Whatever.

I added the gears a year or so later, on a break from college. Had a bunch lying around from a dead, dissected printer. Looks kind of odd, white nylon gears on a steel device... but I'll figure out some kind of magnesium paint or something to make them look the part.

This pic is also sideways. Erk.

It just occurred to me that this thing has none of the wonderfully Olde Tyme stuff that we call brass and are so fond of (some of us are)
I believe I shall find either some brass instrument case corners, or some cheaper steel ones and subject them to the flame, and I shall have a less sharp and gougy device.
pics shall follow.........