Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

[waynio]

Wow, that's a lot of files, shame about the HTPC mistake, but maybe selling of a second adjusted copy will help over some of the costs

kd

The 10mm alu plate isn't so expensive really, £8 for each of the htpc sides, cost me much more when I was messing with copper on stealthlow, but everywhere else to buy 10mm alu it's pretty damn expensive.

Only thing that does cost is time for delivery & postage is a fixed £15 for tiny or large orders so costs a bit much if only doing a small order but for big orders the delivery cost is a total bargain considering the size & weight of the order.

 

[waynio]

this is turning me on!!! GREAT DESIGN!!!

LOL thanks virdee2


I just now finished all the 10mm aluminium cutting nice relief to get past that takes a long time to cut.

Later I'll see if my sanding blade idea will work or not & get pictures up later too.

 

[waynio]

LOL I just couldn't go to bed with being eager to try the sanding blade idea out since all the 10mm alu is now cut.

First up I tried making a simple sheet at the size of a band saw blade, it snapped as soon as I tried tightening it.

This is the example piece fresh after cutting.

Next I cut double wide to fold it over, this allows for it to be used even at high speed & has some flexibility to it but is still quite prone to ripping out of the holder but as shown on a bit of the front piece it does the job nicely but takes too long to get the finish I'm after, want that finish & better, no teeth marks at all & possibly a polished edge I should have tried to quad it up which should give it pretty good strength which I'll try when I go at it next.

Other thoughts to do it is card in the middle of a folded piece of sand paper or if I want really stiff then something like the band saw blades but without the teeth & smoothed edges all around, 1mm aluminium might do, or 0.5mm stainless steel which I think would be the ultimate for doing this & would be reusable over & over, I do know I'd be best starting the process off at 100 grit or maybe even less to get the bulk of the teeth marks out & maybe work towards 1000 or 2000, it's getting rid of all the teeth marks that's going to be time consuming, from there it will come to a good shine very quickly.

Here is how the stand side panel was intended to look like with the htpc side panel & a shot of all the 10mm alu freshly cut ready for smoothing, I'll be saving getting rid of teeth marks & polishing the edges until the last step of the project but want to get prepared for how I'll do that.

 

[waynio]

Looking good.

Where do you get your blades from. Wickes looked at me like I'd said behind the bin in 10.

Thanks Hyburnate I get my blades from toolbox an online retailer they are good for the range of bits they sell but they take a long time processing orders if they don't have stock but no more than 2 weeks, main reason I shop with them is the prices are good & they have a super broad range of bits.

Don't think there is a local wickes near me, there's a few b&q's but they rarely have anything I need lol.

Axminster is pretty awesome for a good range of power tools, it's where I got the scroll saw from.

Wow this looks amazing.

And lol at Wickes. I work there myself and unfortunately we only do a selected range of power tools with very little precision/specific tools. Regarding spares for tools, our range is even more limited unfortunately.

Thanks Mawat

 

[waynio]

Pretty boring updates I think with it all being scroll saw work but was asked for updates so made one.

Due to popular demand, picture progress report.

Started back up today after a little break to recover from man flu & lack of enthusiasm due to spending absolutely ages cutting the 10mm panels.

Got all the 10mm, 4mm cut & 1 of a heck of a lot of the 3mm panels done, it is getting easier but there is some high detail 3mm panels to be done & have no idea how long those might take I would do those next but I could do with getting a stronger spray adhesive to make sure it stays held down for the whole panel, soooo many cut outs to be done on them & this spray adhesive is only any good for simple panels.

Also shown here is the drill helpers, these particular ones are for drilling spot on on bars & on edges, I'll make a bigger one for big flat panels, will help make sure every single mount position is 100% perfect on edges of the 10mm panels & on any panels with a normal power drill.

On to easier thickness of 3mm now, then 2mm then 1mm then adding all the drill mount points then an epic sanding session, then acrylic which cuts incredibly easy on the saw then gluing some of the acrylic parts together, then hmmmmm woooooooo hoooooooooooooooo.

Because I've gone to such lengths on the design it would probably be able to be mass produced also but have no plans at all for that but it is my most complete design so far.

 

[waynio]

This is looking wicked mate! can't wait to see the finished item

Neither can I contacted an anodising place based in my city Manchester & they replied this time so could very well be that I do get the finish I want, thanks charthan.

Seriously... AGAIN!? Mate how do you do this!

Plenty of time to sleep when your dead

Amazing work mate im definitely following this!

LOL too much free time & don't like sitting idle for too long thanks mate.

It was proving to be a tad difficult searching through the 3mm alu I cut up to get the project started which I didn't label what cuts were what so it took an hour or 2 just to work out which are which & get them all labelled so continue I could.

Took me about 24 hours altogether to cut close to all the edges & cut spot on the seams for the multi page templates, just decided to get them ALL done so they are ready for sticking to the materials, will make for a lot less messing.

So with the 10th March deadline I set for myself I have 12 days with 1 of them being today a partial day to cut it ALL now lol.

I will do updates every 2 days showing how much I'm getting through.

 

[waynio]

Was a little concerned about sticking the busiest templates to the material with the weak spray adhesive but remembered I bought 50 a4 sticker sheets so printed all the busiest panels on them & got them cut up & taped together & did a final measure of them to make sure they are spot on & just stuck them to the alu.

I'll get busy drilling for access & cut them tomorrow but I'd be nicely surprised if I manage doing them all tomorrow but think it's doable, there is the front & back & both sides of the gamer rig & the rear htpc panel which are all the most detailed panels for the aluminium so expect updates to be rolling every 2 days from now with the first of them tomorrow evening or night.

 

[waynio]

This is awesome, I can't wait to see it all done

Thanks Shovinus.

So I'm staying with the do the lengthiest bits first & remembering I bought some a4 sticker sheets I chose to tackle the busiest aluminium panels of the build out of the mountain of alu I have to cut up.

Freshly cut, taped together, stuck on & drilled ready for cutting, only about 4 holes I think needed to be 1mm holes, all the rest were 2mm.

This is what I was hoping to do lol.
Took ???????? to do 1 of the gamer side panels
Took ???????? to do the gamer back.
Took ???????? to do the gamer front.
Took ???????? to do the htpc back.

But it took an hour to cut 6 of the smallest cut outs on 1 of the gamer side panels lol wow this will take quite a while but to be honest these tiny cut outs take far more effort to do than the bigger cut outs so I might still manage to complete 1 panel today & if I do I'll do another update later to complete this particular update but still aiming for an update every 2 days & these high volume cut out panels are definitely the most time consuming out of all of them besides the 10mm stuff already done.

Anodised colour selection I'll know for sure which colours I'll want once everything is built up.

Now I'll get right back into it but felt I was going at it for quite a while & not getting very far so stopped to check how long I was going to get those 6 tiny pieces out lol but it is very quiet work so I could go all day, all night & all day again which I very well might do & just take a 40 break every few hours to watch an episode of Chuck.

 

[waynio]

Blue 2, green 2, blue 3, turquoise, black hard anodised

kd

Nice, also like the brown & titanium & grey & green 3 going to have a pickle when it's actually time to pick wouldn't mind using 2 or 3 colours though.

Checkpoint 4AM but I'm going to treat each of the rows as checkpoints now I've got my technique good, each thickness takes some readapting to.

40 min break for each checkpoint & no more picture updates until tomorrow.

 

[waynio]

You is crazy sir

Why thank you lol

o.O how doe people have this much skill??? wants! XD

I don't know it all just started with me hacking up retail cases to add more cooling & led to more & more advanced things lol cheers evilpenguin.

Yeah, I quite like the idea of Green 3. Looks very British Racing Green

Would go well with silver.

kd

Fair way off about being decisive about colours though mate I don't particulary like it but I think grey might be a good main colour even though I would like a nice bit of colour in this, we'll see when I complete the rig & can sit back & think about it & discuss with people following it.

This build looks epic Kudos!

Just wondering why you decided to go with 3mm aluminium? Seems to be quite thick and unwieldy for jigsaw cutting, though it will obviously be extremely sturdy...

Anyway - can't wait to see the final product!

Cheers Duff-Man ohh yeaaahh
I like 3mm for it's nice rigid strength even when doing high volume cut outs like I'm doing, if I did this in 1mm it would be a quick job but would be very flimsy, I use 1mm for curved panels with it being more flexible & where strength isn't needed & 2mm for bits that would benefit from a little extra strength, the 10mm aluminium is my attempt at breaking away from overusing bars for my frames & so it can have nicer looks as well as giving it some tank like strength.


Not sure if I mentioned it here yet but I set a crazy deadline of 10th of March to get all of the aluminium cut & been grinding away like crazy to try & meet it.

Wowzers 8 days left to get all the aluminium cut ready for further stages, this is 1 ultra tight challenge.

Update as promised although not as progressed as I hoped for. I feel a slap incoming on the 10th if I don't dig deeper.

Trust me I'm very aware I bit off a little bit more than I can chew with ease at the time limit I set for myself but I'm still grinding through the damn thing XD, I know that once I get past these 3mm high volume cut out pieces the rest will be nice & easy (in comparison), just these gamer sides I absolutely underestimated the effort they would take, I did consider making it less cut outs but left it & now I really know how hard I made things for myself.

Here is where the first side panel is at, it seems to take a day per row but with each cut out taking a while I found myself moaning quite a bit in a state of bewilderment instead of just getting on with it so that's the key to getting heaps more done (shut up, stop thinking & mod not walking away for a quick break that turns into a couple of hours lol).

Had to rotate the picture upside down to show correct orientation.

I'll be extremely glad I chose to work through the most endurance pushing bits first but at this moment it's flipping tough going & a true test of patience to get through.

The 10th sure was too tight of a deadline, simples, but a deadline is a deadline or it's a fail deadline, looks like 5 more days or less if I don't muck about on these gamer sides, then a day each for the front & back & htpc back which makes 8 days leaving no room for the rest of the 3mm easy panels & 2mm & 1mm, only way I can do it all in the deadline is if I wake up each morning & go straight at it & only pause for food & light chores not slacking off 1 bit until it's done, I feel it is doable & I shouldn't burn out neither & I'm not rushing it, just dedicated.

 

[waynio]

I think I'd be bored just drilling the holes to start off all those cuts! Never mind the cuts themselves!

kd

Nevermind the boredom, the sheer grind of keeping focus right up & spending a full day & only getting 1 of the rows completed is like a nightmare lol.

I really doubt I can meet my silly deadline without rushing & working myself into the ground so I'm dropping the deadline but I'll just keep progressing each day.

So I'll go back to a sane pace before I totally burn out & leave the project alone for who knows how long.

 

[waynio]

Peanut M&Ms & nice coffee & the remainder of a heck of a mission.

Worth every minute & now I have another 1 of these to make.

 

[waynio]

Wow that side panel looks amazing and so intracut. Glad you have ditched the deadline as I would have hated for you to make a mistake trying to keep to it or worse worn yourself out and loose all motivation to complete this epic build.

Are you going to/ need to sand each of those cuts or did they come out spot on?

Yeah I'm nicely pleased with the outcome a realistic deadline would be ok but not a spur of the moment unsure deadline though.

They could use a tiny little amount of cleaning up & I have all the right bits to do this in a nice short time but the process I'll be doing this project is.

Cutting aluminium
Adding mounting points
Make free standing internal frame for the gamer rig
Add more mounting points
Sanding edges, internal & external
Cut acrylic
Sand acrylic
Stick any of the acrylic which will be used for some components
Wood - Need slicing into required thicknesses & gluing together to make panels & then the pattern cut outs, then finishing of the wood.
Do a test run with hardware inside for working out optimum wire work
Disassemble
Brush finish & polish
Take to the anodisers
Get it back & put it all together & do a nice photo shoot.



I'll relax for a few more minutes & then start on panel number 2 of these, it should all get easier the further I progress.

 

[waynio]

This thread is a sure-fire eyegasm. I love the design. Subscribed .

Thanks Raventu

Panel number 2.

Didn't do much today so not much to show but when I was cleaning up around the saw I found some 10 TPI blades I forgotten about, 18TPI on the left, 12 TPI in the middle & 10 TPI on the right, they are far stronger than the others so can cut faster.

They are very good for making quick work of the cutting but not good at very tight turns & useless at U-turns so I wasted a bit of time before I got my thinking cap on.

I decided to take out the need to go from the opening hole to the sides with a curve by adding start holes close to the edges, this will allow me to do all the longer curve lines quickly with the 10 TPI blades & then go over them all with a more flexible blade to take out the ends, I expect I'll have this panel done tomorrow if I get a good session in, already taken out the most fiddly holes with 18 TPI blades.

So early night, early rise & intend to get through this panel, would be quite something managing what was taking 4 solid days in a day.

 

[waynio]

Enthusiasm, energy & focus was getting scarily low so had to let it recharge plus there are a few other things that's been making me not want to spend much time in the cellar so things have been on pause the past few days.

The 10TPI blades cut fast but easily get stuck to the aluminium so not a good option risking high damage to the panel, already know using a lube makes it impossible to see the cutting lines so not an option, the extra 5 packs of 12 TPI came today so can get right back at it & change blades regular instead of rationing them out until they wouldn't cut a thing.

I'll only do thick high volume cut pieces on metal now & again because of the time they take but will stay dedicated to doing the ones on this project.

I am going to sand all edges to get an awesome all over look but I'll do that after fixing parts together but of course I'll have to sand any connecting edges so they are perfect before fixing them but the disc sander & sanding drums & sanding blades will make quick work of that.

This is an update on the status & a little eye candy of what is done so far for something good as a last post for a bit because I'm going to be getting really stuck into getting the high volume cut panels done & then I'll start updating again once I've got through them because I'll be able to do regular significant updates then, think doing updates between the time consuming panels is making it seem longer.

Been having a big flood prevention job done over the past 5 weeks & the room I got sorted was soon filled with the stuff from the other room so has been like modding in a big bin so it's been pretty bad for keeping my mind in awesome mode really.

But when they finish the job which should be this week I'll be able to get it straight again & I'll be sorting the room with the saw in to be an awesome little modding room moving all my tools & bits into it I'll eventually make it a sound proofed room also so I can mod whenever I feel like it which will be awesome since my energy levels seem to mostly peak at night time.

Plus I'm going to make a really good photo booth soon, it's something that has been way overdue for quite a while.

 

[waynio]

Sees build log from waynio.


Subscribes.


Reads build log.

Thanks neo & sorry for the delay on replying & getting on with this, was unavoidable though.

Looks so awesome, I admire your love of patience to do this.

Thanks Shovinus it does require a bit of patience this one lol.

First of all I want to point this nice project out that has been a big community fund raiser build for a very awesome long standing pillar of the modding community, if you are a member on bit-tech it would be awesome of you to check it out & drop a comment or even just check it out if your not, it's a truly awesome show of community spirit in the modding circle, probably the most heart warming project log ever.

And it would be even more awesome if you know people or have family in America who would like to buy a very good special custom Fractal Design Define R3, sweet modding by probably the worlds best known modder Bill Owen Mnpctech, eye poppingly good hand air brush art by Brad Galvin, super special hand made water block & pump cover by the awesome cheapskate, absolutely perfect sleeving by Lutro0 Customs, contributions from modders with brand new bits & modder rchiileea helping with getting some extra sponsors & contributions from companies to supply excellent tech to go inside it all which includes a GTX 580 amongst the components & to top all that awesomeness off with an epic cherry ultra modder Darth Beavis will be installing the system & handling the auction, really awesome pro team effort, all the funds will be going straight to John Hanlon who this is in aid for.

Link to the log.
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=226517








Ok back to this log & wow it's been a while since last update, not because I've been slacking but because we been having a big job done in the next room to where I mod now & was supposed to be 10 days but turned into 45 business days & it was too much of a mess to be able to mod there without getting miserable so figured I'd wait for the job to be completed which explains the 2 week gap.

The other room is done now & spent the night sorting the cellar so I can at least stand long sessions in there again.

Before

After

I can get on with the cutting now without feeling like I'm sat in a garbage dump, already feels a lot nicer in there so you can definitely expect regular updates to start rolling on again now but first I need a rest, just thought I'd update that it's waiting for me to spring back into action now instead of anything holding me back, think I'll continue doing all the time consuming stuff first as planned.

Still loads of hoarded useless junk that fills the shelves though & want to clear it all out ASAP & get some really cheap but decent kitchen worktops to go along 2 or maybe even 3 walls for all my main tools & have a nice dedicated assembly spot, then all I'll need is a load of chunky wooden beams to form them into tables already got a very nice piece of kitchen work top which I'll make my scroll saw table with as soon as I can with all the different blade types having their own holders because the silly long table I'm using is very prone to rattling & I'd much prefer a sturdy smaller table that I can bolt the saw to so it's nice & solid not a bit prone to rattling.

But really I think I can complete the project with the room as it is & will bring my other tools & the foldable workbench over later today & just use them on the floor for the time being, got the space now, woo hoooooo, can’t wait to really get stuck back into this.

I would get back to cutting right now but I am very knackered & really need a few zzzzzzzzzz lol.

 

[waynio]

Awesome work.

Cannot wait for more updates

Thanks Sin, updates should be regular again now.

After sorting the room & as soon as I woke up I went at the 2nd detail panel & what an awesome idea it was to do mirrored panels of ones that take ages to do lol ugh anyway with having plenty of spare blades can change them when needed so it still takes many many hours to do but can do a lot more in a shorter time, I'd say 1 big session left to do on this.

Progress rolling forward.

 

[waynio]

Holy moly I'm a happy chappy now this scroll saw endurance test is done.

So that's 2 pieces which I expect is easily the most time consuming bits cut & ready for sanding, still got the htpc back, gaming rig front & back to do which is all 3mm alu also but these side panels are definitely the most time consuming panels.

Overkill mesh lol.

Not only nice progress but a clear sky with some sweet warmth from the sun, man I've missed that.

 

[waynio]

Just acquired a load of this 2mm thick brass hex mesh stuff, more than I'll ever need lol, this is 1 tiny sheet of it & there are I think 4 much bigger sheets of it.

Also got started on the htpc back panel.

 

[waynio]

Woke up with clear intentions to complete the htpc back panel & keep pressing on with the build.

My dad mentioned about shifting some stuff from the garage to the cellar the other day but today I overslept a bit & he decided to shift most from the garage to the cellar so instead of making things I had to just go with the flow since he made it into a sheet tip again lol so carried the kitchen unit cupboards & draws & work top over & put them along the wall, still need to remove the shelf above it else having a worktop there will be useless.

So yeah I'm back to sorting the cellar out & get it all nicely functional again at this point so no progress today with having to do this.