Enclosure for your PC/Laptop

[Todd Krueger]

What are you guys using to keep your PC clean? I'm in a 2 car garage so space is limited/cramped. What are you guys using to keep your computer a little less dusty?

Thanks,

[Rtibbs]

What are you guys using to keep your PC clean? I'm in a 2 car garage so space is limited/cramped. What are you guys using to keep your computer a little less dusty?

Thanks,

Well I don’t know what others are using however, I’m in the process of finishing an enclosure for my CNC. Not only to help keep the dust off my ‘puter but keep the dust out of my lungs. Along with the dust shoe the enclosure has an exhaust ducted to the outside.

I know it’s a little extreme but........

[scottp55]

I have a Small shop, and needed to make my machine wheelchair accessible(Bill Young and TJ customized a Makercrate for that (for free!) ).
And it needed to be mobile and fully unitized for me to move it for various projects and to clean shop and empty cyclone.

The PC and UPS being directly under the machine worried me until Brady gave me this link;
https://www.dirtbag.biz/

I took it all apart to clean the PC and UPS years ago after 1 and 4 years of use....virtually pristine....WAY better than the house tower with dust and cat hair!!!

Now if I could just keep my MS ergonomic keyboard clean!!
(I'm on my third one.)

[jerry_stanek]

I use a Roll up keyboard and wired mouse with my computer in a cabinet with filters

[fredtoo]

I use a Logitech washable keyboard K310, a standard wired mouse (with Shopbot mouse pad), and a refurbished pc mounted 5' off the floor and flush to the wall. Recently replaced the last refurb after 6 rock solid years with: Dell Optiplex 3020 SFF Desktop PC - Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz 8GB 500GB DVDRW Windows 10 Professional (Renewed) for $160. My dust protection consists of a periodic (every several months when I think of it) shooting in the front and rear of the computer with my air hose. I find my method to work fine.

[dlcw]

I use an air hose on low pressure and a vacuum cleaner.

I've tried doing enclosures and haven't found them all that helpful, unless you create positive pressure inside the cabinet. That means you have a have a VERY good air filtering system to bring air into the cabinet to pressurize it and blow it back out. That's just my experience.

[tri4sale]

Leaf blower. Just open garage door, fire up the wall fan and us the leaf blower and blow everything outside. Run the air cleaner for a few hours when done and good to go.

[dlcw]

Just like Daniel said, I do a blown down on my shop every year. Open doors and windows, put a smoke ventilation fan on the downwind side and hit everything with a compressed air line. Keep air cleaners running for awhile. All this is required by my insurance company to help lower the fire danger in the shop.

[steve_g]

I use a fanless PC.
SG

[Rtibbs]

Finished my enclosure for my desktop and am very pleased with the results. I had two goals. First was to reduce the noise while cutting as I am using long tapered end mills on most of my recent projects and they do "Sing" quite a bit while cutting. Second I wanted to reduce the dust throughout the shop. The results for both have exceeded my expectations.
I originally contacted ShopBot regarding their enclosures however, the person I spoke with either didn't know the answers to my questions or just wasn't forthcoming so I designed my own enclosure.

I constructed the enclosure with 80/20 materials and used 1/4 acrylic sheet for the panels. The doors are bi-fold which gives me full access to the machine. I have an axial flow fan for dust removal as well as the dust boot for chip removal.
In the upper left corner you can see the fan hose duct. The small black box on the front upper left is the controller for the fan. On the lower left side is the control computer which swings underneath when not in use.

Enclosure 3.jpg