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Steel/Aluminum Cabinet

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toasty:
I'm in the planning stages of building my first cabinet, thought I'd see if anyone had any thoughts on this:

I'm looking to build a cabinet that will actually look presentable and match my decor rather than covering it with sideart and the like -- gotta make the wife happy, you know.  It won't look like a piece of furniture, of course, but I would like it to look more like a piece of art than a large box of MDF.  To that end, I had considered plating it in brushed steel or aluminum that I could then take a grinder to and give it a cool finish that would match the other steel artwork I've got in my place.

My concern is related to electricity, static and otherwise.  I'm a bit worried that having a giant metal box surrounding this electrical equipment could be a bad call.  For example, if I come off the carpet and touch the cabinet, discharging whatever static charge I've built up, do I run any risk that I'm going to fry my machine?

So it's clear, the cabinet would still be contructed of MDF, it would just be plated with metal -- there wouldn't be any metal involved in the areas that have wiring, connections, etc.

TIA

Havok:
Ground the chasis to an earth ground, and you shouldn't have a problem.

hnugz:
Yeah as long as you are grounded things should be ok, computer cases are made out of aluminum and whatnot.

jcrouse:
Wilson Art makes some awesome looking decorative metals. The are actually laminate in different metal finishies. The drawback is that they are very expensive. Check them out.

http://www.wilsonart.com/laminate/consumer/products/listcategoriesandproducts.asp?idcategory=75&curPage=1&View=All

John

Ed_McCarron:

--- Quote from: toasty on December 28, 2005, 10:46:58 am ---For example, if I come off the carpet and touch the cabinet, discharging whatever static charge I've built up, do I run any risk that I'm going to fry my machine?

--- End quote ---

Like has been said, as long as its grounded, shouldn't be a problem.  Actually, if you are going to mix AC and metal, it almost HAS to be grounded for safety reasons.  If something goes wrong internally, you don't want the cabinet being electrically hot.  By grounding it, you force a breaker to blow when/if theres a short to the cabinet.

If its not grounded, the cabinet becomes hot - and you become a 200A biological fuse if you touch it and ground at the same time.

By isolating the steel with the MDF as you've suggested, you've basically done what you see on some powertools -  "double insulated" ones.  Theres supposed to be no chance of a live conductor coming in contact with any metal part of the appliance that you touch.

Although the cabinet may not get fried, if you shuffle around on the carpet enough and touch the grounded cabinet, you may get fried by the static discharge. :)

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