Replacing laptop case with wood question

For a while now I've been doing custom paint jobs on things like gaming systems and laptops both professionally and personally, but recently I had an odd request. The person wants me to not only give him a custom paint job, but wants me to replace full areas of his laptop with wood. For example, pull off the casing around the screen, model an exact wood replacement, "paint" it, and stick if back on instead of the plastic.

The carving of the wood wouldn't be too difficult, the painting it really wouldn't be either (although I've never really painted wood), but I'm so sure how the heat would effect it. Would the heat emitted from the laptop ruin/warp the wood or cause a fire? I don't think it would around the LCD as that wouldn't get too hot, but if I were to replace the plastic bottom or the entire thing I'd be afraid of that.

Anyone have any thoughts, ideas, advice, pointers?

Thanks!

 

It wont go on fire but if it is a high performance notebook i would have some concerns as well. If it is like a minimalistic low component laptop id say no problem. there is a wooden laptop in my laptop skins treat ( look in my sig) maybe the creator can help you out.

 

It may be some issues if its out of a solid wood (oak,maple etc..) cracking and drying out.
I would suggest a high grade laminated plywood.

 

Would a laminated plywood still give it the look and feel of actual wood?

And sadly, it is (kind of) a high performance laptop, it doesn't seem to have any over heating issues that I could find, but it is built for moderate gaming and is said to have somewhat poorly placed vents. If I end up doing this I'd probably change vent placement.

 

Hmm, have you checked out Asus's bamboo laptop? As I understand it, perfecting it has been quite a challenge for them.

 

The plastic chassis of a laptop flexes with movement. Wood, especially once it dries out with a bit of time, is going to be much more brittle. I would expect lots of cracking on the LCD bezel just from regular opening/closing of the laptop.

 

Howdy Ya'll. I'm new here and just wanted to say so.



Anywhos. That sounds like an awesome idea and I personally think it would work if you used a very good quality wood.

If it was a very Hi Powered lappy, i would suggest making the case as big as
possible within reason and putting vents on both sides of it so the hot air can escape NOW

As for what Hep said above. I agree with every word.

 

Working with wood for a long time, I would suggest some things.

1 - dry the wood thoroughly, measure it with a hygrometer, make sure you're way down low on internal moisture.

2 - you might want to add some vents on the bezel facing but since you don't want light to peek thru the frame, louver them, like brake ducts on cars. and then

3 - line them with a black filter material , like speaker grille material.

 

Might get a bit warm but can't wait to see it when youve done it!

 

Maybe some inspiration can be found here? http://hackaday.com/2005/03/09/wooden-laptop/
It looks like the original page is missing, but the comments left in the link show a few wood computers

 

The first thing I thought of was steampunk.

Is this kinda what you had in mind?

Datamancer's Steampunk Laptop

 

That is all kinds of awesome.

 

Put heat shields in the inside!!!

I hope squirrel's get into your laptop!!!!!!!!

 

Pretty groovy up there - I'd go for it...

But then I'm a wood nut who only recently got hooked on laptops lol!

Since wood is a pretty effective at storing heat (one reason catalytic heaters work well in RV's) I'd say if it's a fair use gaming machine extra ventilation is an absolute. As far as drying out goes there's 2 good ways to combat that - first use a composite and laminate a fine veneer on the exterior instead - or - use a really dense wood and tell the owner to give it yearly rub-down with linseed oil.

You should do it just to say you did! After all there's 600 year old wood furniture around....

 

this is kind of a silly question, considering the technical advancements of laptops have been going on for less than 50 years...

think about how long people have been making, say, wooden pipes for example? and doing it, very, very, well?
i think your best bet is thinking of something widely made today out of wood that requires similar specifications as far as strength and heat, and youll be able to find a lot of information on it and what type of wood. nothing any of us think up is going to be near as good as thousands of years of a specialized woodworking tradition...
some wood is heat or pressure treated. you cant really say you knew what you were doing unless you do some research on that.

as far as ventilation style, i have one word: mission


good luck, this is a pretty exciting combination of technical finesse!

oh, and btw high quality plywood probably wont look good on the corners...