Last month, I got my hands on an old, broken computer from a friend. Instead of
letting it go to waste, I decided to give it a new purpose by transforming it into a
Network Attached Storage (NAS) server for home data backup and sharing. After
troubleshooting and replacing some faulty parts, I realized the computer case
was still missing some components, including a power supply bracket and a few
hard drive trays. Unfortunately, the case was an over-10-year-old model and had
already been discontinued for a long time, making it nearly impossible to find
replacement parts.
That's when I came up with the idea of 3D printing and learned about the Shapiro
Design Lab. I found the 3D print files on Thingiverse and Printables, and with the
great help of the Shapiro Design Lab 3D Print team, I successfully printed these
parts. It was amazing to watch the printer build layer by layer, turning digital
models into physical objects.
The once-broken computer was successfully reborn as a well-functioning NAS
server, and it's been running smoothly ever since.
Here are the links for the 3D print files I use:
https://www.printables.com/model/485549
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4898484
The hard drive trays (The top two in the case are printed, the bottom one was
original)
The power supply bracket