The use of 1mm aluminum sheet from Gu's blog

Aluminum is one of the most common materials used in many fields. It is also very lightweight, corrosion resistant and sturdy. However, aluminum does not have a great thermal conductivity so when you’re making an enclosure for your electronics to keep them from getting burned up during operations, it would be best if you can use materials with high thermal conductivity like copper or wood.

Material cost

When building a DIY project using only recycled materials, the cost can range anywhere between $50-100 depending on what you decide to make. For this case study I decided to use aluminum cans as the material because they are relatively cheap, sturdy and long lasting. However, if you want to make this project a bit more elaborate or extravagant then you can use wood instead of aluminum cans.

Time required

This project would take me about 2-3 hours to complete since I already have all the materials available. If I wasn’t able to find any recycled aluminum cans at my local shop for free then it will take me about an hour longer because I’ll have to go shopping for them first. Buying scrap  The total cost of the materials used in this project is around $30. That’s including all the cans and other pieces of hardware I would need to create my enclosure. If you were planning on making this enclosure for educational purposes then I would recommend using only aluminum cans that are made from recycled material because they have a much better impact on our environment.

Disassemble!

In order to make sure that none of the electronics inside will get damaged while constructing my DIY project, it would be best if I disassemble it first. For  Using a flathead screwdriver, I start unscrewing the bottom half of my cans. Once that is done I use a small pry tool to move the top part of the can because it’s slightly stuck in place.

Once all four cans are out of their containers, I immediately take them to my workshop and begin assembling my enclosure.

The first step would be to find suitable holes for mounting both my Raspberry Pi Zero W and the motion detector. Using an exacto-knife, I cut two small holes on each side of  f the enclosure. Then I use my drill to make a hole in each corner, so that they can be screwed into place using long screws.

Once all four corners are lined up, it’s time to find holes for mounting the door hinges on both sides of the enclosure. Using an exacto-knife again, I cut two small holes just like before and this time I also use my drill to make a larger hole on each side of the box where the hinge will go through.

To learn more about aluminum, please visit https://www.aluminumsheet.org/