Project Stealthlow

[EniGmA1981]

At least copper bends easier than ****ing perspex!!

Looking good man, I like those vents!!

 

[waynio]

At least copper bends easier than ****ing perspex!!

Looking good man, I like those vents!!

It does kind of, at least it's infinitely more forgiving , thanks EniGmA1981 .

Ok so this is why I like the little tabs, they are highly functional & show the fact that the window is flush to the alu curve bars which in itself is pretty cool but also it makes taking the window out or the bottom panel out incredibly easy with only needing to untighten the tabs a tiny bit to flip them up or down which releases the panels, also no excess forces.

Anyway on to making the full lengths strip tabs, here is 2 25mm strips cut with the jigsaw.

Also before moving on I put the mounting bar back in for holding the bottom of the window in place as it bulged out a tiny bit & I didn't like that & was scared stupid of wrecking the window while drilling & countersunk the mounting holes lol, it went fine thank goodness .

So the actual bending of the copper strips was soooo much more difficult than I anticipated & done heaps of different methods to get the curves I was after but as usual the top curve was a PITA .

This is the first thing I really don't like with the copper strip tabs, with it being 3mm thick (I should have chosen 2mm) I think it's tougher than the aluminium as it's pulling the alu curve out by a good 2mm on the top curve, not good.

I placed the left side vent meshes in for a glipse of how it might look .

I don't like it as much as the tabs but even though it cost extra to get this copper piece I'm kinda glad I did even if it was just to put the idea into practice to see if I like it or not, sometimes you just know straight away if you like something or not & this is 1 of those things I don't like, doesn't look as good to me & it's a massive hassle with installation & that was without having the window & vent meshes in, so yep I'll be going back to my original tabs & I'll straighten out these copper strips & put them aside for other projects.

So up next is taking measurements of the bottom optical tray, eject button & vent location & designing it & making it .

 

[EniGmA1981]

Yeah I agree with you mate, I think it looks better with the tabs... As you say though, it was worth a try

Just a shame your time was taken up with this and not with any 'genuine' progress

 

[waynio]

Yeah I agree with you mate, I think it looks better with the tabs... As you say though, it was worth a try

Just a shame your time was taken up with this and not with any 'genuine' progress

Yeah was worth a try the idea sounded good but it felt like too much & it was deforming the alu curve bars & was very difficult to put in & out, yeah it's a shame, the amount of time spent on doing those copper bars I could have easily completed the front bottom panel but at least my curiosity of if it was good or not has been squashed .

Got the alu curve bar fixed back in shape after the copper ripping it out of shape, it also ripped the helicoil out & knackered the thread for the helicoil so called for drilling the mounting hole with a 4.5mm bit & whacking a brass thread insert in place but it's sorted now, phew .

Run a little test on countersinking the mesh holes like I did on the back panel, 1 side deep countersinks, the other tiny countersinks, bit iffy with the holes close to the edge as shown but I do quite like this effect what do you guys think.

Also smoothed off all the tabs by brushing them & they are to a nice colour now, the next stage for these is to polish them.

Anyway I'm back to where I were the other day but with cleaned up tabs & cleaned up curve bars.

So now I need to get the optical drive mounted back in the case so I can take measurements for the bottom front panel design .

 

[waynio]

Took the measurements of the locations of the eject button, optical tray & where the front vent should be, then designed it & went to work on it, still need to re-make the alu panel as I carelessly turned the piece while being distracted by something so cut it in a wrong spot accidentally, also need to do the diy mesh on the copper panel but got a few shots while there was a touch of blue sky & it really was just a touch .

 

[EniGmA1981]

That truely is a work of art mate!

 

[waynio]

That truely is a work of art mate!

Thank you EniGmA1981 .

Re-made the front alu piece & brushed it & laid a mesh template down on the copper piece & spot drilled, drilled with a 3.5mm bit & then a 7mm bit & then countersink madness .

 

[andy_mk3]

Looks awesome now. Amazing what you can do with the right tools available

 

[EniGmA1981]

*drooling*

Fancy making me one? lol shouldn't take you long now you've done it once hehehe

 

[G-Dubs]

Been watching this for a while mate. Epic work and dedication to the project. You've had more than a few problems to overcome but then infuriating though it is that's half the fun isn't it.

 

[JohnTedd]

It is an amazing piece of work, a true labour of love by the look of it.

However personally I am not too keen on the copper tabs. Functionally I understand them, but I think they are a bit too in-your-face. They look a little too large and I am not convinced that the contrast of the tabs to the case is better than, say, having aluminium or another silverly metal tabs.

 

[oliver2601]

It is an amazing piece of work, a true labour of love by the look of it.

However personally I am not too keen on the copper tabs. Functionally I understand them, but I think they are a bit too in-your-face. They look a little too large and I am not convinced that the contrast of the tabs to the case is better than, say, having aluminium or another silverly metal tabs.

Was thinking the same thing. But when he has everything in the case then I think it will look totally different.

 

[Akempster]

have you considered more into the painting of it, personally i think you shouldn't bother, i like the unfinished look that its currently got, or you could go for a a thin coating which shows of the grain maybe? definitely worth while spending time on thinking about the painting with a build of such quality, it really looks as if you've given a company a design and they built it for you! top notch mate, keep it up i am absolutely amazed at your build skills!

 

[Josh P]

I really like the contrast, the fan grill at the bottom looks particularly good!

 

[waynio]

Looks awesome now. Amazing what you can do with the right tools available

Thanks Andy, yeah took me a while before I knew what's best for what, think my dremel days are soooo gone .

*drooling*

Fancy making me one? lol shouldn't take you long now you've done it once hehehe

Usually after building a case I can easily say I'd be able to re-make 1 but this one I'm not totally sure to be honest lol, I mean I'd know exactly what I'd be in for but still it was a difficult one for sure, only because of the double opposing curve, if it was 1 curve or even just 2 but not opposing I wouldn't have trouble with it, cheers EniGmA1981 .

Been watching this for a while mate. Epic work and dedication to the project. You've had more than a few problems to overcome but then infuriating though it is that's half the fun isn't it.

Thanks mate, yeah the learning part & noticing improvement in skill is a really nice part of modding, gonna be weird in a few years but even then I'll have heaps to learn in electronics & motors etc the list goes on forever .

It is an amazing piece of work, a true labour of love by the look of it.

However personally I am not too keen on the copper tabs. Functionally I understand them, but I think they are a bit too in-your-face. They look a little too large and I am not convinced that the contrast of the tabs to the case is better than, say, having aluminium or another silverly metal tabs.

Thanks John, since brushing the copper pieces they are much more subtle, the stretching tabs I'm going to do something else as I agree they don't compliment the build at all, I even considered making all new tabs with more detail & something to compliment the design but it's difficult coming up with somethinf that looks good & does as good a job as what the plain tabs do but yeah once those stretching tabs have been replaced it should look much more together .

Was thinking the same thing. But when he has everything in the case then I think it will look totally different.

This is true but still would be good if I can make it look good as an empty case also .

have you considered more into the painting of it, personally i think you shouldn't bother, i like the unfinished look that its currently got, or you could go for a a thin coating which shows of the grain maybe? definitely worth while spending time on thinking about the painting with a build of such quality, it really looks as if you've given a company a design and they built it for you! top notch mate, keep it up i am absolutely amazed at your build skills!

Only a couple of parts will be getting painted, the ones that I had to use body filler on, got some plastikote reflective copper paint that I'll try to get around to seeing how it is tomorrow.
Would have loved to got it anodised black externals & copper internals but it's not looking likely, but if I keep at it as I am it may not need colouring .
If I was to paint this though I'd get a clear adhesion promoter, basically a clear primer, the colour it with candy paints & the clear lacquer it, this would keep the brush finish clearly visible underneath, I've seen it done by MNPCtech & it's the next best thing to anodising or maybe even better as I'd be able to do it myself .

I really like the contrast, the fan grill at the bottom looks particularly good!

Thanks Josh & it gets better .

Thanks everyone for commenting, appreciated .

I'm just finding if it's only little touches of copper it looks great but a big mass of it I feel just looks a little wrong, even almost feel like doing dual layer vent meshes so I could do same sized holes & countersink them & have an aluminium cover for them which hides the odd edges, they'd have to be stuck together though so they don't flex out at all, if I countersink the vent mesh pieces I don't have to worry about getting more copper & might get away with just remaking the bottom front alu piece to include a simple grill to break it up a bit.

Nearly had a disaster for my power drill, jigsaw & fretsaw as I forgot about a spot in the garage that leaks when raining heavy, the jigsaw & power drill escaped the water but the fretsaw was covered in it & it also lost it's ability to tighten up the blade properly before this so I took it all apart to dry it all off & to see why I can't tighten it, figured as much the thread had worn away & I've barely used it but didn't let it put me off using it & wooooo I love using it for complex cuts, really really nice, but want to get a better one as I could only use the pin less blades a couple of times, it has a really crappy method for using pin less but it's fine for pinned blades so I'll stay with that until I can afford a new better one .

I got the feeling whenever there was too much copper built up in an area it didn't quite make me smile or it did & then I'd be saying to myself it needs something else so I set about designing a different alu panel to break it up a little & man am I glad I did , been a while since I've cut something nice like this & it's got me hooked on the fretsaw .

But was all out of 0.7mm alu so had to use 1mm, the copper sheet for the mesh panel is 2.25mm so the 0.7mm made it a perfect flush fit so think I'll have to either sand the copper panel down 0.3mm across the whole face of it or just give a faint bevel on the alu panel.

I think this piece might have come about from the moral boost from comments so thanks everyone :up: & keep em coming .

I'm going to add something different in place of the stretched copper tabs also :up:.

 

[EniGmA1981]

Oh that's nice, real nice touch man!

To make life easier, you can leave out the double curve on my one, just follow the line of the top straight out to the rear shouldn't be as difficult there should it?

 

[JohnTedd]

I love the new panel. Very art deco IMHO.

I'm glad you are going to re-work the tabs. If you can make them more subtle I think it will be a lot better.

 

[SL09]

You are right, too much copper. And the alu plate for the air vent certainly tone it down abit.

 

[waynio]

Oh that's nice, real nice touch man!

To make life easier, you can leave out the double curve on my one, just follow the line of the top straight out to the rear shouldn't be as difficult there should it?

Thanks EniGmA1981 .

I love the new panel. Very art deco IMHO.

I'm glad you are going to re-work the tabs. If you can make them more subtle I think it will be a lot better.

Ah cool, so it does fit in well then & it wasn't just me being hyped lol thanks John .

You are right, too much copper. And the alu plate for the air vent certainly tone it down abit.

Mixed opinions about it all round really about the full length tabs so I had a mess around with a couple of concepts that might work, or then again might just waste more time & possibly money , thanks SL09 .

I'm trying to think of a way to implement the copper curve bars but I found it was too much copper & it didn't look right to me, plus it messed up the form of the aluminium curve, fixed it now but it'll require a good bit more work on them to make them a perfect fit without it adding excess force to the main structure, I'm considering using the drill press & the milling bit I have to route a 10mm channel 1mm deep to place aluminium in there & so the mounts go through the alu, I'm not certain but I think it'll look much better than big plain copper bars.

Another alternative but requires a purchase of 1.2mm copper sheet is to do a pyramid step type form so a 25mm copper bar, then a aluminium one then a copper bar & the middle 1 being the mounting one.

Heres a concept of both.

I was going to make an alternative for the tabs that stretch across the case but everyone saying do those so came up with a couple of alternatives that I think would look better, so let me know what you think, cheers .

 

[jakspyder]

This is too awesome! attention to detail is unbelievable and the level of skill + sheer number of tools is pure awesome!