Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

[waynio]

SUB! those panels are unreal,Amazing work

Thanks GottiB

Ready for carrying on again but now with all my tools ready for action in the cellar & plenty of storage, workshop still needs a lot more attention but it's totally usable again for the time being & with a lot more function.

Scraps area & a load more has been added from the garage since this photo of acrylic, bars, sheet alu & copper bars & sheet, will be a perfect selection, so much good stuff to pick through & will be great for some freestyle modding.

Work top area & all the tools on there can be placed inside the cupboard leaving a big blank work surface & it has mounting holes for a vice, grinder/polisher & bending brake which hasn't seen a lot of use from me to be honest because it's only any good for 1mm sheet really but it's there for whenever I need it.

Draws filled with many various types of drill bits, loads of types of nuts & bolts (I should buy a couple of small compartment storage boxes for them), adhesives, fillers, small hand tools, files & cutting bits.

Cupboard shelves with some hand manual/power tools, more files, clamps & sand paper from 60 to 2000 grit in closer gaps for each grit now with room for much more stuff.

My scraps need a good sorting through for what could be useful & unuseful & to sort them into same types & thicknesses nicely arranged for easy selection & all my modding bits need a hefty sort through also, have 1 huge box & about 7 smaller boxes of lighting, fans & all kinds of modding bits including retail case parts but with me now knowing how to make my own main important case pieces I have no need for them anymore so already know I can have a good clear out instead of becoming a massive hoarder.

Really starting to feel like a workshop & think modding will be much more fun as it should be from now.

Off/on topic .
Because of me mucking up by showing the doubled up panel in it's best lighting & some approving of it lol I couldn't hold myself back from having a quick mess about in sketchup as well as checking out different orientations of the actual panels.

A big part of what makes it look good doubled up in reality is the inside cuts catch reflections & cast shadows under the right light with them being 3mm thick, if I doubled these up they would mess the planned design which would be a problem so natural choice to me is stay with the design & either use 1.5mm sheets or 3 1mm sheets, but with the lack of depth might not look as good, also I got the feeling wood wouldn't fit in with it all so if I did go that route I'd make it all out of aluminium, colours used in this example are titanium, grey & black, kinda looks good to me but I would love to throw some nice colour into the project, this is like a black & white movie so if I did go this way I'd have to put a good colour scheme together & think the perfect colour scheme would come in the form of paints, not anodising.

But having said that I could smooth off the ends so instead of having a frame around them they simply smooth & blend off to the edges as a rounded bevel edge, certainly a crazy amount of work though doing 2 more of these panels & would add more weight to the top half.

As for colouring I think paint would be the best way because I can pick from an infinite range of colours & do some blending to form a real nice colour scheme, the range of colours on offer at the anodisers is very limited & know I could really broaden the range of colours if I DIY the anodising, would be a really sweet skill to gain also, would make me completely self sufficient at all my creating.

1 Thing I like about not using the wood is I'll be dealing with materials I know won't be prone to splitting/chipping/warping, never made panels from slithers of wood before but I am up for giving it a shot, this alternative look is not a sure thing yet, I just explored the option a little.

I particularly like the look of it from a looking up at it angle, looks chunky & pretty badass.

Intended look comparison.

And back to the project, on the last episode.

I aim to get this panel done today & know it's very doable with taking out all the tiny cut outs first, they might not take the longest to do but they require more concentration to do.

 

[waynio]

what is the name of god are you making!!?

Lvoing you skills so far, keep it up and wee need more pics and progress reports!

LOL Thanks Craterloads I'm doing my best to keep updates frequent.

HTPC back panel.

I'll do the back gamer panel next.

 

[waynio]

Thinking update.

Slacked off yesterday spent a bunch of time working out what direction this is going in, I'm not mad keen on doing 3mm doubled panels but might if I can dig deep enough to do those again & thin panels wouldn't create the reflection or shadow thing as much but I found doing panel surfaces whatever colour I will & keep all the edges nicely sanded & raw, creates a nice effect overall.

And had a go at the feet design, 30mm high, as deep as the gaming rig & a little bit wider, combination of 10mm plate alu, 6mm rod, 3mm rod all interlocked together.

I do believe I'll make these overkill feet.

 

[waynio]

That's a lot of scroll saw usage. I bet you're hands feel like jelly by now, lol.

It is but my hands are fine TaeK, just takes a toll on the mind mostly with having to keep concentration high the whole time & wow it's a lot of time, you do need a break every few big sessions.

Slight revision of the feet, when cheapskate says he thinks it's too crazy it really must be so I removed the rods, added a full length middle support & made it less wide & it all still interlocks nicely, so much so that it might not even need any bolts other than to fix to the base of the rig, this was 1 of the other neat things I was thinking of when deciding to buy the scroll saw, nicer ways of putting things together, not just nice detail panels.

Now to carry on with the cutting, I think that back gamer panel might take a while.

 

[waynio]

Started with a fresh 12 pack of blades to see if I could manage doing the back gamer panel with just those.

Problemo, but spotted before I mucked up beyond recovery, the bottom right cut outs in this shot don't line up with the next row, the row beyond that do though, I already done the starting drill points a while ago now but I think I can salvage it by tweaking the design just enough to let me get away with the mistake, I started trying to manually do it but it's a bit too technical to do anywhere near as good as I could if I tweak the design to fix it & then print & stick it over (still got no drawing aids), they are definitely a bit too much out of flow for my liking, wouldn't even be noticed on normal shots but on macro shots it sure would & I'd like to do a ton of photos of this once it's done so instead of completing this panel now I have to fix the design, print, stick, then continue.

Here is what I got cut today though so far.

 

[waynio]

Error in the back gamer panel pattern that I couldn't go ahead with, some of them were out of place by as much as 3.5mm, you have to look close at it to really see it.

Fixed & added an extra cut out because there was room for 1.

Off to print this fixed one & very carefully stick it over the faulty one, retained all the drill start holes in original place too, a spanner in the works nicely pulled out just in time.

 

[waynio]

Fixed pattern applied & already working on it, this shot makes it look wonky but that's just the sticker sheet risen up a bit, it pressed back down nicely.

And say hello to my little finger choppers. Bought them from here.

These will occupy the 2 main front fans & I'll be applying my custom fan frames to these but I think I'll redesign the grills I was going to use so it's a bit safer.

These fans come run at 1600RPM but also come with a 900 & 1200RPM cable, I'll use the 900 for the htpc, not sure about the gaming rig yet.

 

[waynio]

Finished cutting the gamer back panel.

Up next the gamer front panel & then a little break so I can get the scroll saw out of my dreams lol.

 

[waynio]

Decided I'm going to have a little break from the project to enjoy some sunshine while we have some & catch up on a couple of the ever increasing backlog of awesome games I have & I could smell the detailed chunky aluminium panels coming to an end so thought the heck with it & pushed forward, I don't consider acrylic the tiniest bit difficult to cut on the scroll saw compared to aluminium, it's sanding acrylic to a sweet finish which is a nightmare lol.

So the last of the detailed chunky panels, gamer front, start.

I'm surprised I did these super tiny holes, the 1mm drill bit I used just about fit this cut out lol, but I did the drilling well before so couldn't not do it leaving a drill hole, had to get my very fine blades out for this 1, quite proud I managed to do it nicely.

This circle hmmmmm, why didn't I just drill the right size?, maybe it was because I didn't want to risk drilling badly.

Done, well not done but cut at least like all the other panels so far.

So, with me taking a break from it to recover I thought I'd take photos of all the work done so far.



HTPC sides & front 10mm.

Stand sides 10mm.

Stand bottom 4mm.

Gamer top pieces 3mm & 4mm, it'll make sense later in the project.

Gamer side panels 3mm.

HTPC back panel 3mm.

Gamer back panel 3mm.

Gamer front panel 3mm.

Group hug photos.

So time to relax before I get back at it & when I do the rest of the scroll saw work should be quickly done & ready for stage 2, I’ll try to get the feet finalised in the meantime, there is still a lot of cutting to do but it's all far more simple & then it goes to the thinner material which I can breeze through.

Also got the sound card ordered for the HTPC, PITA how you can't buy auzentech sound cards in the UK now, had to buy direct from them, there are a few alternative shops but I wouldn't buy from them with all the bad feedback they have, went for the x-fi forte low profile card, got to have awesome sound on a HTPC.

At least a week before another update.

 

[waynio]

This is cool, I love all the attention to detail! You're very good with a scroll saw

Looking forward to the next updates

Thanks mate, really looking forward to fixing these panels together.

Oh yeah, the aluminium fans came with a magazine, a wine voucher & 15 day world of warcraft, but the best which I'm only interested in was the bag of haribo munchies lol nice little sugar boost.

 

[waynio]

Bracing myself to get back onto it, had a bit of rest to catch up on.

Fan grill revisions since I went for the chopper fans.

Second design is a further developed version to be a little safer than the originals I was going to use.

Think I like this 4th one the most, looks ok & won't be restrictive & will prevent fingers being chopped not that I ever place my fingers into fan blades but some crazy might.

Revised feet again, chopped the front 2 feet off & replaced with 3 stacked 10mm small panels shaped to work a bit better with the look of the design & removed the side middle feet & created a bigger arch, kept the back the same.

Should be able to do the 10mm triple layer parts from scraps from earlier 10mm cuts.

I think I can make these, won't be easy but it's doable with a good accurate cutting, filing & drum sanding session, still waiting for my drum sanders BTW, well over a month & supplier not sure when to expect, they are incredibly good which is why they in such high demand, you can put whatever sandpaper you want on them, already got 1 but it's a big 75mm one, waiting for a 12.5mm & 25mm one, they make such awesome work of cleaning up edges & very fast, can use them in a power drill or drill press.

I'll continue with the actual creating in the next couple days, still loads of panels to cut but nice & simple ones.

 

[waynio]

Settled with intended grills but with the extra guards, the feet I removed the middle layer which will make them a little easier to make & think they look better so are now happy feet lol.

Flying squirrel feet.

 

[waynio]

There are just no words to describe how AWESOME this project is. You are a very talented individual! I look forward to seeing the completed project

Thanks Kyzou

Progress woooo hooooooooo, feels good.
Fan grills are down to these 2, I like them both really, was suggested by stonerboy on TBCS to just have 1 ring on the original design & it does look better than 2 extra rings.

Got 5 Pieces done today, only spent about 3 hours though so not bad.
And here is the drill helper in action, makes it so anyone could easily drill precisely where they want to, it is 100% spot on where it should be, you just place it & clamp it & use the power drill with minimal effort, brilliant, just need to make a bigger one for bigger panels but they can be made rapidly.

Mini-ITX mobo tray cut, drilled & countersunk ready for the 10mm female to female stand offs & m3 6mm countersunk screws, tested mounting a full ATX mobo to it & the mounts are completely spot on, I love digital callipers & printing designs.

Installed

HTPC bottom level.

HTPC 2nd level.

HTPC 3rd level

Gamer rig bottom level with mini-ITX mobo tray.

Altogether

The growing stack of parts just waiting to suddenly transform from a mess into a structure.

It's always been a battle for me to keep a regular sleep pattern when getting into a project, nearly went for doing some sound isolation in the workshop so I could create any time but after weighing it up it simply cost too much to do so realised a really loud alarm clock was the answer by the name of "Sonic bomb" has really sorted me out so expect regular progress now, that thing can't fail to wake me up & I really put it to the test for this morning because I went to sleep at about 3AM & set it for 6:30 & it catapulted me out of bed, disturbs you so bad you don't bother with snooze, precisely what I needed all this time & is what has been delaying progress, being energetic at completely wrong time of day but this is fixed now, I'll just have to go easy on the coffee late in the day.

 

[waynio]

Very nice project. Coming along great. Would love to see the final thing!

Thanks Wilk, you should do if I keep progressing like this.

Looking pretty good!

Thanks almostgfx

More HTPC parts I did today.

The motherboard tray doesn't screw in place, it's held in place by a bottom, middle & upper layer & slides in/out for sweet easy maintenance, big part of the functional side of the theme, a dream for easy maintenance, something I really do like in a build. =)

Few more parts for screw less fixing of parts, 2 of 4 layers for HTPC internal sides, optical holding piece, extra piece for holding the hdd cage in place, another level for the HTPC & a few small bits to form the front of the HTPC.

Parts pile grows further.

More tomorrow.

 

[waynio]

Fan grills was 5-1 for the original grill with extra ring so I'll do those.

Felt too tired to create yesterday.

Since changing some parts from wood to aluminium I'm not sure if I have enough so might need to get some alu ordered, the wood side detail pieces are meant to be 5mm thick, I have no large enough 5mm plate so might do a double layer of 3mm adding an extra pattern that compliments the main one, we seen how it gave a nice effect doubling up the 3mm panels so it makes good sense to do that in this part if I have enough material anyway.

The s****s of the 10mm plate are more than enough for the feet though, measured them. Hmmm s****s aka left overs lol.

I could start building things up already now to boost some extra life into the log but I won't I don't want the form to get old like stealthlow did, plus I want to focus on 1 aspect at a time so it suddenly rises up when it's all ready to for a big ass wow moment.

So I think today I'll do the rest of the 3mm stuff & if I'm still feeling energetic make a start on the feet which I have no idea how long they will take me, 10mm takes a while to cut well.

 

[waynio]

Back to the land of chunk for the feet.

Templates printed on sticker paper & applied to some of the spare 10mm plate.

And it begins & to be honest I find this easier than those crazy 3mm side panels, they really did feel like they were taking forever to get through.

Had to take a picture of this odd creature.

Fine cuts.

Done 1 of 5, I started pretty late in the day & it already hit 17:30 by the time I did this 1 piece so thought I'll do the rest on a long day tomorrow with an early rise, at least I know the curve cuts are doable with the standard band saw blades & just the notches need taking out with the finer blades for easier turn cuts.

Tested a piece of the 10mm alu slotted into the notch & it's a perfect tight fit.

 

[waynio]

40% complete feet. More exciting cutting lol but it is good progress so I'll shut up.

I'll try to finish these tomorrow, not much more to do & will have the first bit of filing to do on the front pieces of the feet.

 

[waynio]

I love those case feet! Another very interesting build, looks fantastic dude

Thanks mate & about the picture on bit-tech I knew, thanks for the concern though.

Progressed a very good bit for the feet, all I need to do now is 5 drill hoes going about 7mm into the plates ends but then I need 6mm aluminium rod, I could buy some or I could sand down the 1/4 inch rod I have, cut a few pieces & JB Weld them in place & these feet will be rock solid but I'll save the JB Weld for after anodising.

Also then need to do some well placed holes for mounting the front plates & then mounting holes for attaching to the bottom panel.


Did these 2 yesterday.

Completed the other 2 today so that's the set, next stage for these 4 pieces is a big filing session to get the angles how I want them.

Last 2 side legs.

Drill helper in action.

Finishing the holes to desired depth.

More cutting.

More sanding.

Ta daaa, interlocked.

Parts pile grows again.

I'll try to complete the feet tomorrow if I can, thanks for looking.

 

[waynio]

Oh yeah almost forgot, I got another PM asking where I bought the scroll saw.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/page/find/?name=excalibur&page=1

It's gone up in price since I bought mine by £74, I went for the 762mm throat capacity so I could do rather big stuff.

 

[waynio]

Decided to start doing more actual WIP pictures but don't want thousands of pictures to upload over the course of the log so I'm starting to bunch them together either in 2s or 4s so it shows a more complete progression & showing full pictures for finished pieces or near finished, I'll put a / in-between descriptions of each picture cluster.

It's cool in the cellar but not like 0c or below like it was in the garage when it got colder which made me leave my camera in the house so I can keep it aside on every session now without worrying about it causing damage, even my mp3 player used to crash when over in the garage because of the cold, it's probably about 10c in the cellar virtually all year round, really nice temperature to mod in.


Back to hand tools woo hooo which let me use my full force, I missed it so much really, it exhausts the body which is a way I'm far more used to, whereas the scroll sawing exhausts the mind mostly with having to go at it's pace instead of my own so that tires me more than this, this just calls for regular recovery breaks & more showers because it makes me sweat a lot & it's cool in the cellar, usually need a fleece on.



Here they are just after carefully scoring them with scalpel & ruler so I have perfect lines that won't come unstuck while they get filed. / Templates removed showing the lines. / Harsh file, medium file & soft file. / It begins.

Busy / busy / busy lol / done 1 edge.

I was having difficulty clamping the small pieces on the workbench so decided to cut up to the peg holes in it so I could get them further in, the peg holes are supposed to act as a type of clamp but I never use them because they are rubbish, so no loss & all gain. / It worked excellent, I had to place a bit of same height scrap so I could catch the angles right.

Busy / I find throwing my leg over helps to prevent back ache & lets me throw more force into it.

Done the filing stage of 1 of these pieces, I started late & it was getting very late so called it a day, up next for these is a quick drum sanding session which will make them very nice.

A few pictures of the result.

And I have thought of how I can fix these to the legs without making it an impossible assembly which could be tomorrow if I start early enough.

Next update should be less wordy too, just had some things to mention with changing the style of the log a little.