Here is the fabled steel encased Creative Zen that matches my newly created Steampunk headphones. Those can be seen in my other entries.

Difficulty: either learning how to weld will make this a bit hard, or having someone weld for you will make the cost go up. You also have to know how to use a rivet gun, a power drill, and a tap wrench. On the other hand, you probably could substitute metal epoxy for the welding, since it's not holding much weight...

Step 1: The Base.

Made the basic shell in my senior year of high school, in Welding class (one of the best classes ever, in my opinion)

Took a scrap of sheet steel, probably 1/16 thickness, and bent in into a C shaped channel that my Zen would almost fit into, except for the control buttons on the side.

Then I ground out the gaps in the edges of the C to allow the buttons to fit.

I took a scavenged hinge and, after a failed attempt on one end(a crappy weld) I managed to Oxi-acetaline torch weld it onto the other end of the C.

Sorry the pic is sideways. Grink! goes my neck.

Step 2: The Lid

For the lid, I used another 1/16" sheet of steel scrap and bent it into the L shape I wanted, then hacksawed/filed/sanded the screen opening out.
Then I drilled the holes for the screws that would anchor it to the hinge, and tapped them with a much-searched-for M5 tap (the school shop had only English standard taps, and my garage was full of metric screws)
Then I screwed it together with loctite, and ground off the protruding ends of the screws to be flush with the sheet steel.

Step 3: The Padding.

I needed some kind of shock absorption, so I superglued a cut-up mousepad inside the lid, grippy side towards the Zen.
The stuff also keeps it from moving around in the several mm of vertical space it has in there.

Step 4: The Clasp.

This thing has gone through several less than satisfactory methods of keeping the lid closed, and right now there is a key chain looped over a bicycle chainring bolt keeping it shut. Looks interesting, and is all metal, but I worry about the Chinese whatever-it-is snapping at some inconvenient time. Whatever.

Step 5: The Decoration

I added the gears a year or so later, on a break from college. Had a bunch lying around from a dead, dissected printer. Looks kind of odd, white nylon gears on a steel device... but I'll figure out some kind of magnesium paint or something to make them look the part.

This pic is also sideways. Erk.

Step 6: Afterthoughts....

It just occurred to me that this thing has none of the wonderfully Olde Tyme stuff that we call brass and are so fond of (some of us are)
I believe I shall find either some brass instrument case corners, or some cheaper steel ones and subject them to the flame, and I shall have a less sharp and gougy device.
pics shall follow.........