Chassis

Chassis

The best material for building the chassis out of is Plywood, in both of Mark I and II I used plywood, laser cut in the former, and wood worked in the latter.

Plywood is great because it looks good when cut neatly and finished, it's durable, cheap and can be painted or varnished. Unlike MDF it isn't as susceptible to moisture but it can delaminate or bow in extreme cases. Also the dust from MDF isn't particularly great for your lungs and MDF is just ugly.

You could also use Polypropylene, ABS or another similar plastic but plastics aren't as easy to obtain, or work with as they scratch more easily. They're also generally more expensive.

Another alternative would be a fully 3D printed vacuum cleaner, although current FDM machines tend not to be airtight so an SLS machine would be more appropriate, or CNC milling but this would require a lot of material to be wasted.

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