Aluminum USB Drive

The aim of this project was fairly straight forward. The keychain ring on my Corsair 1GB Flash Voyager USB drive from Newegg broke, which left the poor thing prone to be left in the lab. The style of this USB mod takes inspiration from the many, many, many aluminum peripheral electronic cases found around on the internet.

Click the images for large versions!

Update: CORSAIR IS AWESOME! They saw my project and sent me a free 16GB flash drive. The insides are a little different, so expect a new case very soon.

 

Like any good Mechanical Engineer, I make 3D solid models of my idea.

 

 Collapsed view. I modeled the USB electronics very rough with measurements that I took from my calipers.

 

 The USB Drive in question. Note the broken rubber keychain loop.

 

Layout work being done. I started with some 1/4″ by 1.1″ wide aluminum stock, 3 0-80 taps + hex head screws from McMaster-Carr, and one 3/64″ drill bit.

 

Overall shot of the Bridgeport milling machine that I used while drilling the eight holes. The DRO is just in view to the right.

 

 

Milling the pocket for the USB drive. I also machined a slot for the keychain and an LED indicator hole.

 

Milling the two halves down to the correct thickness. It was easier to mill the pocket and do other work while the material was 1/4″.

 

Tapping the 0-80 screws was a real pain. I broke one of the taps, but I was able to pull it out of the stock. 

 

Polishing the halves on this very convenient piece of equipment. Wet/Dry sandpaper is adhered to four surface plates over which water is continuously flowing.

 

It works! I later put some translucent epoxy in the LED hole to seal it off.

 

Finished!

All told, this project cost about $20 to make, with most of that going to the 0-80 tap set from Mc-Master. I would really like to get this anodized, so if anyone has suggestions, please e-mail me. Anodizing immediately lends itself to personalization via laser engraving (most likely at Lady Ada’s wonderful etching service)