Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

[waynio]

This really looks a true labour of love. Subbed to read all later (only read first and last page so far!)

Thanks Tattysnuc, hope you enjoy it when you do, think I started putting every bit of effort I can into my builds starting with my last one, it's all a progression though, think I'll be extremely hard pushed to out do his one though but I think that with every new one I do lol.

HTPC Fan perch 20mm 4 5mm layers glued together.

Basic first cuts.

Used the modded band saw blade but it was causing it to melt when doing the smaller curve cuts, the blade got completely stuck in there.
Had to saw to the blade & file to the blade to free it, those curves are ones that will be visible too so I had a big drum sanding session to clean them up, was a PITA.

Used a sturdy fret saw blade for doing the bigger curve & did it very slow going forward 3 millimetres & going back about 6 over & over & it prevented it from melting, also did that on half speed instead of the slowest, worked a lot better.

Installed brass inserts to the fan perch.

Filed the optical plate to represent where I need to round the corners.

Used the hack saw to cut down 7mm so its down to 3mm.

Put it in the cross vice & set it up to drill down so 3mm would be left to make filing a little easier.

My arms got Popeyed ugugugugug.

Aluminium shortbread.

I filed down far enough to let me finish it off with a mill bit in the drill press & cross vice, it worked quite nicely really.

Smoothed things off more with a file.

Cut the optical tray out.

Installed.

Optical plate & fan perch installed.

That turned out to be a big session but was one of those where I just wouldn't call it a day until I got what I intended to do done, I'll make my next session a small one to balance things out again.

 

[Tattysnuc]

Wow. I've just spent the last hours reading through your log from start to finish - I'd no idea how long you've been building this for - seeing how it's come together it's no wonder this has taken as long as it has.

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on the job done to date.

When I first looked at this, I thought the the design is not to my taste, but after reading, I'm absolutely blown away with the detail - that it what has won me over.

Your dogged determination and perseverance is just amazing, as are your use of tools in this build. You've not got one of those "new yankee" style workshops, but a few important tools, and my god you know how to use them, and have the patience to get the finish you are seeking, from them.

Love the Spinner thingy, and the write up of the Zalman failed smooth base. A lesson learned for the community...

For once, I'm not actually that interested in the hardware inside the box.

One of the best builds I've ever had the privilege to follow.

Subbed, and thank you for sharing - You must have spent half the build time documenting this for us!

 

[waynio]

Wow. I've just spent the last hours reading through your log from start to finish - I'd no idea how long you've been building this for - seeing how it's come together it's no wonder this has taken as long as it has.

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on the job done to date.

When I first looked at this, I thought the the design is not to my taste, but after reading, I'm absolutely blown away with the detail - that it what has won me over.

Your dogged determination and perseverance is just amazing, as are your use of tools in this build. You've not got one of those "new yankee" style workshops, but a few important tools, and my god you know how to use them, and have the patience to get the finish you are seeking, from them.

Love the Spinner thingy, and the write up of the Zalman failed smooth base. A lesson learned for the community...

For once, I'm not actually that interested in the hardware inside the box.

One of the best builds I've ever had the privilege to follow.

Subbed, and thank you for sharing - You must have spent half the build time documenting this for us!

Thank you very much Tattysnuc, appreciated mate I have been told by some I should invest in some rendering software to represent my designs better but ouch, they are expensive would make things look a lot more pro but I kinda like the cartoony effect the sketchups have because when the real piece is made it looks a lot better if done well some do amazing rendering & really bad modding, glad I've got things the right way around, I don't really need them personally but yeah for showing others how I see the designs closer to how they would look in reality, the scetchup raw models don't cut it for most I think, but I'd sooner buy new tools than software I don't really need & I think it would spoil the surrprise of how it looks in the end.

All the teeth marks or most of them at least & surface finishing I'll be sanding smooth so the looks will shoot up again when I do that just before I send everything to be anodised.


Had to do some extra planning the past few days gearing up for a mega hectic November of none stop modding.

Pedestal
Pricing of MDF & plywood at local DIY stores is a bad joke unfortunately.

18mmx1220x2440mm MDF £18 or plywood £29 but I'd need a big van to transport it, this 1 piece covers what I need so this is an annoyance plus I'd rather use 25mm thick but they don't offer it.

6x 18mmx1220x606 £93 in MDF at £15.50 each & £221 in plywood at £36.82 each, plywood at half the size near £8 more expensive LMAO yeah that makes sense.

Veneer on top about £25 for each flavour so between £150 & £300 so too flipping much, so wood work is officially an insane choice of material for me.

So now I know I should just make an all aluminium version would be far cheaper & lighter weight too, flipping heck the amount of aluminium I could order for the cost of that basic wood LMAO, it's an absolute no brainer.

Bars & sheets of aluminium simply making the aluminium order a little bigger, biggest challenge will be making it not resonate any vibes but yeah it will be a lot cheaper than using sheet wood & veneer & instead of nice looking woods I'll just make it nice some other way, plus making it as a frame & covers it will be very highly moddable in the future, think it might actually be nicer too.

So I'll just work the design change to see what material I will need, add them to the order I was going to do for extra materials I need to complete Lean & green, get it ordered with some spare bits to hopefully cover extra bits I do making it up as I go so I won't have any delays running up to the deadline & get extremely busy, gonna need a new screw order too, there will be many used on the pedestal & it has to be as strong or stronger than the one I designed but it will be lighter.



Lean & green, main current topic.
Worked out a design to make the joining cover nice & sturdy between the 3 pieces, it's a mix of 15mm acrylic & 3mm & 5mm aluminium rods, the curve & bend panel won't be fully fixed on until it's been anodised though because it's fixing on permanently with JB weld but the cover piece will be removable, just the cover will be stuck to the frame support.

Ordered & received 5 shades of silver metallic, black metallic & green metallic, white plastic primer, white primer, 2 cans of clear & worked out the paint job I'll do on the plastic fan blades, the blades on the akasa venom are quite different to the ones pictured in the model & will be a bit of a challenge to do this nicely but very much worth the effort.

2 of the shades of silver seem really similar so I'll have to do a faint quick haze of the darker ones for 2 of them so they work as intended together.

I had to do this bit of extra planning ahead to make sure the materials are here & ready for when I get to later stages else I wouldn't have a chance of making the deadline, November is all out gogogogo, fun times, but don't worry about it being rushed & compromised, it won't be, just the volume knob of dedication is going to crank up to maximum, big difference between rushing things & just applying yourself properly.

 

[doyll]

Might I suggest talking to a local bespoke joinery / cabinet shop? Baltic birch void-less 13 ply plywood 19mm should be about £50 or less lfor a 1220 x 2440mm sheet and they will probably cut sheets into 4x pieces for little or nothing. Haven't bought any in over a year so not sure of exact cost. You would have 2 extra pieces out of 2 sheets. Can be had in 3mm to 30mm thicknesses.

Birch plywood product guide:
http://www.lathamtimber.co.uk/icmed...Literature/Latham Brochures/Birch Plywood.pdf

 

[jakspyder]

This is absolutely unbelievable! Cannot wait to see this finished!

 

[Darkans]

The level of thought & detail that's gone into this project is astonishing, I applaud your dedication

Definitely subscribing to see this progress!

 

[waynio]

Might I suggest talking to a local bespoke joinery / cabinet shop? Baltic birch void-less 13 ply plywood 19mm should be about £50 or less lfor a 1220 x 2440mm sheet and they will probably cut sheets into 4x pieces for little or nothing. Haven't bought any in over a year so not sure of exact cost. You would have 2 extra pieces out of 2 sheets. Can be had in 3mm to 30mm thicknesses.

Birch plywood product guide:
http://www.lathamtimber.co.uk/icmed...Literature/Latham Brochures/Birch Plywood.pdf

Thanks doyll, but the problem with getting a large sheet cut up is it would clash with the layout I made to cut back on waste material, had it so it intertwines so cutting into smaller sections would have made me need more, the size of some DIY stores they could offer a small workshop to let customers do rough cuts to make it more manageable for regular people to take home.

Already changed the design to aluminium now anyway.

This is absolutely unbelievable! Cannot wait to see this finished!

Thank you jakspyder, still hoping for completion before 5th December, it's going to be a serious mission to manage that.

The level of thought & detail that's gone into this project is astonishing, I applaud your dedication

Definitely subscribing to see this progress!

Thank you Darkans appreciated, I know this has limited appeal because of too much detail for some but that's the type of look I like, could do more minimal & sensible but it lacks fun for me.

Sorted the design change to support all aluminium instead of wood stacking so now have a lot of hollow space so more difficult to make strong & get nice curves & bends, took me all day yesterday & thought what the heck can I do to make it work & then light bulbs started flickering.

Old vs new

Internal support & I might add an extra support near the front, I'll also make a few rod drilling jigs to speed up perfect rod drilling because only the top & bottom ones will be using countersunk screws, the rest will be grub screws.

Couple more shots.

Figured what I need to complete this & bit the bullet ordering the aluminium last night, I'm broke again lol, received the aluminium rods today which I ordered on Monday though so I can complete the HTPC & fans now but because I was at the computer until I passed out last night I need a bit more rest lying down for a few hours to recover.

But I'll be constantly pushing forward at it as soon as I recover from the natural hangover.

It's hard to believe but I still have some bits to design when I get to further stages of the gaming rig.

 

[CaptAwesomo]

Can't wait to see final product, should be awesome, don't forget to tell us the finished products specs? How did you think of the design? what was your inspiration?

 

[waynio]

Can't wait to see final product, should be awesome, don't forget to tell us the finished products specs? How did you think of the design? what was your inspiration?

Thanks Awesome
I'll add specs to first post when it's done

How did I think of the design, hmmm I start my designs off by just floating typical components into a layout that would be good for whatever method of cooling I intend to use, air in this case, then I build up from there making sure it's strong & trying to cram in good functions for easier maintenance as I go forward & then over to the other side of design, the looks, the looks is the part that makes people like it or dislike it especially if you don't aim to do something that would have a high chance of people liking it or not by not basing it on anything out there aka original but it's also this part that takes the longest to do.

Inspiration, other modders striving for out right awesomeness but also modders who have their method of fabrication & pushing the method to it's limits & beyond, it looks very much to me like the only limits are imagination, I say it all the time but it's so true that Attila aka oldnewb really did highlight how you can do fabrication as good as industrial state of the art machines but with normal tools in your back yard & that heavily inspired me to catch up, he's not the only modder who inspires me though, loads do.

If I played it a bit safer by basing elements on things that already have something awesome about them I think more people would have liked this but instead I'll be it's biggest fan lol & maybe others will like it also but even if the looks aren't liked much I just hope people appreciate the main design & are able to look past the skin but yeah I like the skin, something interesting to look at instead of a blank panel.

Once it's polished & anodised I do think it might amaze many to be honest when they see the contrasts.



Tiny update time.

This update will seem feeble I know but I've not been slacking, just not been in the workshop much.

Got the extra rods & cut them to size & made a template for placing them correctly in the front corners but with the rods being 3mm & not 2mm I had to change design a touch again else it just wouldn't work so instead of 4 2mm rods I changed it to 2 3mm rods, the rest is the same, think I prefer it with just 2 rods instead anyway.

Now with 2 3mm rods instead of 4 2mm rods.

Thought I'd see how junior hacksaw blades do on the scroll saw because they are a cheap alternative to band saw blades, snipping the ends off with the metal shears which only seem to get used for things like this, the hacksaw blades do the job of cutting 10mm aluminium but they are more prone to snapping if you push them hard unlike the band saw blades, none of those snapped so must be made of a better material or processed better but as long as I stick to the limit before they do snap they will be good, they do a cleaner cut though with being a finer TPI count.

Made a drilling jig for rods using a bit of scrap 10mm plate & bit of a 3mm flat bar, just place the rod to be drilled in the drill vice, plonk this on top, line up & just drill & get perfect results, my favorite DIY tool & it works brilliantly, all these drilling ideas spawned from AngelOD saying how to do nice straight tapping, I just seen more potential from the idea but I probably wouldn't have thought of this without him saying about it, I'll make it compatible for square bars too, will save me heaps of time on precision drilling.

Also while doing extra design time I accidentally seen it upside down & I like it, looks so crazy lol.

I could make this happen but the fan controller would be upside down & it has digital readings so ugh nah it won't happen now.

If it weren't for that though I could, I'd need to add more strength to the gamer rig & a few more supports inside the HTPC because the HTPC will far out weigh the weight of the gaming rig, I feel it's a mistake showing this but it looks more right & I do remember voigts saying to flip the stand upside down in the early stages of this project & heat rising would usually be a problem but everything is covered by a good flow of air.

I'll be sure to post some upside down pictures of the completed rig instead lol.

Now I will resume progress & found out I now have until 9th December which makes up for the extra design days I just spent.

 

[waynio]

The front gaming fan mount is 4 5mm sheets stuck together designed to hug the custom fan, it needs some love to stop it from shaking also had to make all the fans 1mm deeper, the cover support is 3x 3 layers of 5mm sheets stuck together & 3 3mm rods will keep them aligned together & screwed in place on the flat bar that keeps the stand extra rigid.

Not much to show but I can assure I haven't been slacking 1 bit the past week but I have been mostly sat on my bum lol.

Also the akasa venom fans I was disappointed to find out you can't pop the blades off like you can on the apache fans so that makes painting them a bit trickier but still doable so might just keep the stem that hides the wire instead of all 4 & might even get rid of that 1 just keeping the circular bit.

But for now I have many pieces to make & once it's all made I have an epic amount of edge & surface sanding & polishing to do, like the title currently says November is get busy time & I'll kick it off by modding all evening, night & all day tomorrow & update in the evening.

 

[Tattysnuc]

It looks far more stable when inverted. Aren't you worried that it'll be top heavy when on top of the cabinet?

 

[waynio]

It looks far more stable when inverted. Aren't you worried that it'll be top heavy when on top of the cabinet?

It's bigger size but shouldn't be heavy & it plugs onto the stand & the HTPC weighs quite a lot & will weigh even more when loaded with hardware, so no I'm not worried, plus the weight is distributed nicely.

I know it looks like it should be easy to topple but no it'll be nice & solid.


Instead of sleeping last night I did this.

Figured out a nice solution to the blade heating up & melting the acrylic when cutting thicker stuff, good old copper flat bar with a tiny slit in the bar, enough to touch both sides & the back of the blade, works brilliant but they can overheat still so I made an extra & found that wasn't enough so made 3 in total so I could cut none stop, awesome.

This is part of the gaming rig front fan mount & is 20mm thick without 8mm round bar.

With 8mm round bar.

The support pieces for the cover join piece.

Loose fit.

Back to the fan mount & got that mill bit out again to mill the slot for the 10mm square bar it mounts to & it went pretty damn nicely, seems to handle acrylic a lot better.

This fan mount piece is complete but I think I went a bit overkill by using 3 brass inserts.

Now I had to mark & file down 3 15mm sections for the support piece in the stands front flat bar, then drill & countersink mount holes & because the right side of the flat bar dips down an extra 1mm I had to file that side down to make it work right.

Turned out perfect, I added brass thread inserts into the acrylic pieces & these are now solid with a nice 1mm space all along where I need it to stick the bent & curved panel there.

I took a break at this point.

 

[waynio]

Joining cover piece.

Bends are the right angles but they aren't sharp enough for how I want them & I think it may have been impossible to do the curves so I'm going to use the bend & curve lines from the design & use a hack saw blade & sharp thin file to thin out the bend & curve points to make it more doable.

4 hours doing this but figured what I need to do to get it right so not a complete waste, reason it took so long is the opposing bends & me needing to figure out an alternative way to do the 2nd bend.

This was a fail update lol.

 

[coolamasta]

Looking great mate, some serious craftsmanship going into that!

 

[racerboy59]

You got mad skills bro. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

[waynio]

Looking great mate, some serious craftsmanship going into that!

Thanks coolamasta.

You got mad skills bro. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Thanks racerboy59, still hoping to be done for 9th December, gotta believe it's doable.

PITA piece take 2.
Freshly cut & flattened external edges, scored the lines with scalpel.

Snipped a piece of hack saw blade off, clamped a steel ruler along all the lines & shuffled until they were decently thinned, I went deeper for the actual bends.

Took a 30 min break from the tedious session hehe.

Time to bend & yes indeedy the workshop is a heck of a mess & no, DOF couldn’t do anything about this shot unfortunately, lets focus on hitting that deadline instead lol.

2nd bend & with it being so close to the other one & it being an opposing bend I had to use the bender unconventionally, clamping the piece on the wrong side & then flipping it upside down on the floor & carefully pressing something flat against it.

Main 2 bends done & this is the result I was after, sharp defined bends.

Now the fun part, faint curves, tried many silly ways at first but realised I just couldn't do it in a good way due to the bends, here is 1 of the silly ways I tried.

So I straightened out 1 of the bends & did faint bends on the lines & then re bent the last bend point & the faint bends made too much of a curve so had to tweak them as good as I could, this took far longer than I anticipated but knew it wouldn’t be an easy part.

I'll use button head screws so I can be sure of it fitting how I want it to, I'll just paint the screw heads to match the anodise colour, need more brass inserts though, only got 1 left so I'll leave doing updates until I have something good to show which I hope will be tomorrow & every day after leading up to the 9th of December.

 

[waynio]

Mid session update since I got interrupted, this must be why I prefer modding through the night, can just go at it none stop.

The HDD level covers before bending.

Using that awesome rod centre drilling tool & oh yes it's awesome makes very quick work of precision rod drilling & with using a drill press it should last a long time.

Tapping takes as long as it always has though lol.

Threw some parts together for the fan but still have 2 1mm pieces & the hoop to make & to file some edge off all 4 rod pieces but I got to say it feels nice & solid like this & it slots on the perch perfectly, very happy with it.

HDD cover loose fit but I didn't like how the bending went for the mounting tabs so I'll remake them without the tabs & just make them a perfect height so they hold in on their own when tightening the screws for the level above.

29 Days left arrrrrrrgh lol.

Having fun though now I'm really seeing it coming together more & I have 2 brass inserts which is enough to fix 1 side of the stand cover in place, that's a sweet fit too, loving how this is going & should have another update later on, going to fix the front corner rods in place & remake the HDD cover, that will probably take a fair bunch of hours so I don't know if I'll get to complete the fan today but the HTPC & stand is sooooo close to complete on the initial fabrication side.

 

[waynio]

1mm Aluminium for the last 2 fan pieces & the new HDD cover, old one wasn't too great with the tabs not working out well.

All panels made for the HTPC 140mm fan, cut the new HDD covers & put them aside for when I do the front corner rods & also cut the 5 140mm & 2 120mm fan ring pieces, to shape them perfect I'll look for a hard round object about 20mm smaller diameter of the needed ring to get that bit of needed over curve, a bit of spring back will be good for it.

Still need to file the inside edges of the rods so they are level to the 2mm panels before I can add the fan motor with blades, I'll just do a loose fit for seeing how the fan looks with the motor & blades in because the fan is going to be JB welded to the anodised piece.

How it currently looks, not bad progress & keep in mind all the scruffiness on edges & surfaces will be cleaned up but later in the project.

I'll have to take apart stealthlow real soon & install the noctua cooler to get hardware measurements so I can design the triple fan mount in case I need to make the fans with extra mount points & possibly design a shroud for the motherboard & maybe the GPU & sound card too, we'll see but I will sure be cutting it fine for completing in time, feels a bit like a mission impossible but I'm giving it a good go.

 

[doyll]

Massive undertaking... and if you fail we will disavow any knowledge of you or this project.

 

[IncognitoX]

This is a piece of art. Looks amazing from the design down to the precise implementation.

Super impressed with your creativity and knowledge, and even now it looks fantastic.

I wish you the best of luck with this project, keep going!