Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build
- Thread starter waynio
- Start date
Cheers Jim, got a lot ahead.
Cheers alex. 
Here is the bits I needed to cut the prints nicely.
Back to the 10mm alu, turned out it was delivered next door & the courier didn't leave a note so I waited in 2 full days for nothing, annoying to say the least.
As soon as I lost a cold, my bro gave me the flu arrrrrgh lol but I wouldn't let it hold me down, figured if I stay in bed groaning or sit at my pc moaning I may as well mod on because I'll feel like crap whatever I do except making progress really appealed to me after so little lately.
I could have done pictures again but I already done that for these htpc pieces but in wrong size so I thought an ultra speed video of the whole cutting process which is 3 hours 38 minutes at normal speed but I reencoded it twice at 12 speed so 24 speed but doesn't add up for the 1 minute 30 seconds of fast video but whatever.
Ooohh I wish I could work that fast. My first & only youtube vid until I get around to upgrading my camera to a 550d.
I only intended to do an example of how slow it cuts for 1 straight edge but thought meh I'll do a full panel, used my old kodak z950 which is why it isn't great quality.
I'll be going quiet again now until I have the other panel & the front low piece done so I can move on to the easier to cut panels.
Soldato
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
kd
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.
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.
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.
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.
Soldato
Looking good.
Where do you get your blades from. Wickes looked at me like I'd said behind the bin in 10.
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.
Thanks Mawat
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.
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.
Associate
Seriously... AGAIN!? Mate how do you do this!
Plenty of time to sleep when your dead
Amazing work mate im definitely following this!
Plenty of time to sleep when your dead
Amazing work mate im definitely following this!
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. LOL too much free time & don't like sitting idle for too longSeriously... AGAIN!? Mate how do you do this!
Plenty of time to sleep when your dead
Amazing work mate im definitely following this!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Soldato
Blue 2, green 2, blue 3, turquoise, black hard anodised
kd
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.
Soldato
You is crazy sir