How to Create a DIY Bench Power Supply from an Old ATX PSU

So many times with all of these damn projects I have in this lifetime have I needed 12 volts, 5 volts, 9 volts.. And due to guitar pedals being this way for some weird reason - negative 9 volts, which is just backwards polarity, either way don't make sense.  But the prices for a bench power supply is outrageous for the level of projecting I do.  Nothing I do is important, but it's fun for me.

When I upgraded my ubuntu server with a new box, I had the old power supply.  I got one of these boards

These things are great for these older power supplies, but I have a hard time dragging around this monster of wire and metal boxes messing up my work bench.  It's messy enough already!  So I needed a cheap project box.  I considered an Apache box from Harbor Freight (Pelican clone box) but that was too much and too fancy for what I'm doing.  But while I was at Harbor Freight, I found these everyday ammo boxes on sale like this one at Amazon:

I got lucky, the power supply slides right into the ammo can perfectly.  There's even enough room to stuff all of the cables in the box so if I ever have to power an actual hard drive (has already happened twice if you can believe it) I can just pull out the cable and Bob's my uncle.

Here's a loose step-by-step on how I did this.  I needed to make sure the fan and the AC power plug was available on the side.  I made sure I kept the 5 short screws that originally held the power supply, but those were not long enough to make it through the plastic.  I luckily already had some longer screws that fit into those holes, but if you don't hoard hardware like I do, you may have to go to the hardware store and get some appropriate screws and some washers for spacers if you need.

Cutting the hole was challenging because the plastic used in ammo cans does not easily cut.  I was going to take my time with a key hold saw and actualy cut out individual holes to line up, but it cracked as I almost expected so I wound up scoring a square and breaking off the pieces, then used a file to file down the part where the AC cord goes in.

I also filed out a channel at the top for the main 22 or 24 pin connector that goes to the circuit board.  Of course, now it won't be waterproof.  I'm hoping you were not expecting it to be waterproof.  I had some white spacers leftover from the music box project, but you can use any kind of spacers or washers to lift the board a little away from the ammo box.  I wound up using some short bolts and nuts to secure it.

I mounted the power supply, and then used needle nose pliers to get the nuts on the screws on the circuit board.  Don't be like me.  I was a dumb.  Mount the circuit board first, and then mount the power supply, and THEN plug the two together duh.

That's it! Easy peasy! you can even put your AC powercord in the box with the plugs for easy transport.  And then it has a handle!