Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

[waynio]

Amazing, sorry for not commenting on this as often as I would like but I'm just sitting back enjoying the build. Keep up the good work!!

Thanks red enjoy the show mate.

Taking a little longer than anticipated to do the feet, what a surprise.

Filing / Weren't the same as each other which I expected with them being complex-ish & only doing a partial template. / Clamped them both together & filed them to be the same or at least very similar.

Pretty nice I think after a few swipes of the drum sander on 240 grit.

Tried doing the small pieces the same way by clamping them but they are too small to do that so I first tried to grind them down on the disc sander, didn't seem a great idea so fixed up a massive vice which was wasting away in the back yard so I could file properly, I used a little of the grinded angle as a guide for what angle I needed to file at & then finished off on the disc sander, these small pieces were far more work than the bigger triangle pieces but all parts are now ready to fix together.

I then got my drum sander on the go in the drill press to make all visible edges a bit nicer, they still need more finishing but they are quite nice now, the smaller pieces mount upside down to how they are in the pictures.

I'll try to complete the feet tomorrow, careful bit of drilling, cut a few rods & it should be a pretty simple process, would have done it in this session but I was feeling wasted so called it a day.

Sound card came today.

Found another place which had the extra drum sanders in stock, a rocking horse specialist shop so I cancelled with the one I been waiting about 2 months for & bought from the new place, should have them soon hopefully.

 

[waynio]

Nice to see the hand tools out, makes a change from all that scroll saw work. Looking very nice, will be interesting to see how you fit those feet together, basic fixings or do you have some cunning plan?
Keep up the good work

Thanks Wazz, using a mix of slotting pieces & aluminium rods used in the same way as dowels are in wood work I'm trying to use as few screws as possible in this build & any I do won't be seen or I'll at least aim for that.

At a stage where I need to be extremely careful so I don't screw up the effort to cut the pieces so I made a new drill guide to support 6.5mm bits now because that's the needed size for the 1/4 inch aluminium rod so have a load of 6.5mm & 2.5mm guides for rods & tapping holes, also the square bar I use for this is 3/8 inch thick so 0.5mm too small so I made it up with about 5 layers of masking tape on both sides.

However drilling deep with a power drill is still too unpredictable with a 10mm thick guide, I'd guess maybe a 30mm guide is needed for deep straight drilling, I'll make one for further deep drilling later in the project but this went ok just about & got my rod pieces plugged in.

Plugged & slotted all pieces together & was flipping perfect, I was really happy & still am.

This one I have to explain in words because it was difficult & I couldn't be bothered messing with the camera, it was pickling my head & was getting late & I was wasted once again.

Then had to mount the underside front bevel pieces, I sat & stewed on how I should do them for quite some time & then just decided to make them join the bottom stand panel, I first placed masking tape along the line for where they should mount, drew rough lines for where not to drill, then dotted 6 marks to drill on the bottom panel, then came the tricky part, aligning it right & clamping it so I could do starter holes to finish off on the drill press into the bevel pieces, I used 2 stacks of 10mm aluminium to support the bevels & spent ages getting them aligned & clamped properly, then finished off on the drill press, then used my quality new dorma 3 stage taps (awesome BTW), countersunk the panel & installed, was perfect.

The stands bottom panel just slides into place nicely.

On with the pictures of the base & man am I glad this went ok, could have easily been a wreck with 1 faint wrong move, it was pretty intense doing this today so have no doubt doing all the rest of the fixings will be similar.

So yeah only screws for the base are on the front small pieces, was a nice challenge but it's back to scroll sawing next time, these feet will get further finishing done on them but they are totally functional now which I'm happy with.

 

[waynio]

Wow dude, the feet have come off brilliantly. They look almost fluid! Good work!!

Thanks mate, so glad the effort paid off.

They do still require extra touches to make them perfect but they will do for now.

 

[waynio]

Amazing thread.

OP how many hours have you spent doing this so far?

From the look of the machines are you a carpenter?

Cheers

Thanks Tyron I don't keep track of the hours I put in but it's a lot, heck of a lot coming from no trade background in anything, I just got the bug for modding when there wasn't any good cases about at a nice price & then creating & realised I can keep getting better at it the more I do, the tools I've been adding as I have gone along when I can, started with just a drill, a rotary cutting tool aka dremel & rivet gun like most modders & been adding to them as I've gone along with the interest.

 

[waynio]

When are you going to make a business of it dude?

I could do regular & slightly advanced case modding for others because it's usually thin materials in retail cases so can do it at a good speedy pace, stuff like this though as a complete scratch build manually in 3mm to 10mm would cost a fair fortune with the amount of hours put in unless it wasn't so detailed & a bit more on the basic side.

Even if this was being done by CNC by a 3rd party it would cost a lot but with it being purely in my free time it's a lot cheaper than a premium retail case.

I need to build other skills though for doing a more complete service so right now I'm all about the fabrication & cut work, not the finishing but powder coating is easy enough with the right setup but don't have that yet.

 

[waynio]

Started on the HDD cage for the HTPC & started the fan mount stand, all 5mm black acrylic, also cleaned up the workshop (needed it).

Might get them stuck together before I go bed, might.


Ordered the rest of the mini-ITX parts, Asus E45M1-I DELUXE on-board CPU/GPU & Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB & 4x 20w per channel fan controller & because I don't trust fan controllers after a couple of meltdowns a dedicated 92mm fan to cool it, fan controller is for the gaming rig. I'm Broke again.

 

[waynio]

I should have gone bed lol, finished sticking at 5AM.

HDD's slot in place on plates, 4 HDD 1 SSD. I first seen this method done by oliverw92 on his POLARity case mod, I liked how neat it was & said at the time I want to do that & now I am.

HDD cage almost done.

7AM HDD cage able to handle it.
Just done a loose fit test to see how it all looks together up to the stand... But no sneaky peaky yet.

 

[waynio]

Haven't kept up with this in a while, but it's going along well!

Looks like it's likely to be the height of you! xD

Coming along well though

kd

Thanks KD.
Done a loose fit of the HTPC & stand & it quickly grew in height, it's missing some extra decorative pieces though but still looked nice, so much better than the look of the concept. It'll look really wild when everything is together.

I must have missed the cut off time with my order yesterday but at least things are a lot closer to putting parts together now, when I get the parts I'll test to make sure everything is ok & then box it back up for when it's done.

 

[waynio]

After doing a loose fit the other day & seeing it kind of together I just couldn't keep it to myself so while waiting for a delivery today I did it again & took a few pictures & remember all of this is fresh raw cuts that are to be cleaned up a lot & there are a few more decorative pieces to be made.
And yes the back panel is on the wrong way around & so is the PSU rather than have cables poke out the front.

I'm not 100% sure but think the edges of most parts are like 0.3mm too big or about that so just need a faint sanding on edges, just glad nothing is too small because then I'd have a problem.

I was going to use some different methods for fixing things together but it's probably silly & not worth the extra effort so I'll do same old screws to begin with but the option will still be available for the alternative tool less version but screws will be visible in places but won't have to use a screw driver for maintenance other than securing expansion cards, everything else will click & slot in place by the time I call this complete which is still a long way off I think.

 

[waynio]

Just got the mini-ITX mobo, 8GB RAM.

Installed on the mobo tray & powered up to make sure all is ok & it is, the RAM goes perfect with it too, it's got the sweet efi bios on it too.

I sliced a piece of the tip of my thumb off when cutting some bread earlier.

Hopefully the tip missing from my thumb won't prevent me from carrying on, was only a 3mm loss but will need to be well covered when doing anything for a bit while it repairs, just glad it wasn't more than what it was.

Blooded thumbs up.

 

[waynio]

You do all this amazing precise metalwork and then take the tip of your thumb off when slicing bread?

Great work by the way, this is one of the most impressive builds I've ever seen.

I know, the irony lol thanks Rids.

Been letting my thumb recover & had some life stuff to sort out.

I was going to get modding again but spent most of Saturday designing so it can support a fan controller & a 92mm fan with grills to keep the controller cool, I like the solution.

Had to tweak the already cut front gamer panel in a way that I will be able to mod it & keep it looking good, the fan controller has black with coloured display with temps & speed readings, this should be a nice addition.

Under the 92mm fan view from the HTPC.

Full view

I will get the designs printed & stuck tomorrow & hopefully get on with this again.

 

[waynio]

Long stupid story short, it's been a bad month not for the project but with my bro but things are straight again now other than a couple of injury's I picked up.


The past few days I've spent quite a bit of time getting everything spot on & ready to print including mounting points on some parts already made just so I have a very solid plan to follow where my efforts won't be a waste, all the curved bits & the fans needed extra design work so everything is ready to go forward now but the roof of it I still might put some extra work into as it's the only part that hasn't had much thought put into it, just been putting more into the internals & thought why just do 2 custom fans & why not the lot.

Decided to use clear acrylic for this now & also made the fan duct use acrylic also so the custom fans aren't hidden & kinda looks like they float, will be a mix of 1mm & 3mm acrylic so I'll make a gripping piece so the 1mm stuff isn't prone to getting damaged, the plan is so the duct piece easily slots tightly in/out of place with enough slack wire to allow putting it aside when doing any maintenance.

CPU cooler will either be a Zalman CNPS12X because it cools nicely enough, is a triple fan out of the box & looks awesome or I'll just mod my prolimatech megahalems so it doesn't need the fiddly wire fan clips which I don't like.

The curved cover piece for the front of the HPTC I had no idea how to accurately do it in real life or make the cut out bit accurately in the design so knew it was 1 of the bits I was very unsure about, during the process of getting the fan cut out in the curved panel I learnt a few new skills so I'll be able to design patterns into curved panels from now, took me a while to figure it out but could do it nice & quick now.

Also started using plugins on sketchup after cheapskate mentioning about them when I was trying to get accurate measurements of curved pieces, very handy 1 called flattery for flattening out curved panels, does it in segments of wherever the different angles are which makes for a totally accurate printable design of a curved piece with patterns inside it, so it all depends on my execution now.

Shame nothing was done during May so far but there is still just over a week left of it where I could do quite a bit & the little extra time I spent getting the design right also gave me a bit more recovery time, but I'd say I'm about as recovered as I'm gonna get for now, could be a long time before it's fully recovered & not so prone to extra damage.

So today I'll get toasted in the sun & tomorrow a cram packed week of modding.

Lastly for this last concept update before the modding continues a look at how it was in February & how it looks now, I'll update my first post with the revised one also, the design has been a work in progress from the start even though I thought that's it with the first update.

 

[waynio]

awsome......

Thanks Tackleberry.

Me & my running ahead of myself due to me getting seduced by the nice weather again I'll be stronger tomorrow to make sure I get well into this but I got as far as getting all the fan designs & curve pieces printed, cut, aligned & tacked together ready for sticking to materials so I'm right back where I was about 3 weeks ago but a few steps ahead ready for continuing tomorrow or later rather.


Printer friendly prep, all the fans & fan holders & all curved pieces converted to precise flat versions which will require me to be highly accurate on doing the curve pieces which should be fun doing correctly.

Aligned & tacked together.

More.

Close up of a tacked together section.

Remains.

Result.

Wooo Hoooooo the rusty wheels have started moving & this thing is rolling forward again at last, the past 3 or even 4 weeks have felt like absolutely ages.

 

[waynio]

Been away from following this for a while, what progress!

Keep up the good work

Thanks neo I've missed doing any during May until now though.

This was a tough additional template to place perfectly on the front gamer panel but managed it.

Cut out the tweak & just needed to add the bevel for the LCD on the fan controller, if only I could rewind to this point.

Taken a big step back, screwed up the front gamer rig panel, stinger but my mistake was not using files for the bevel which would have been easier & quicker but instead used my scroll saw, up/down cutting I'm used to but angles ugh, need more practice, much more, just didn't use my noggin enough this time or I've got rusty at modding with the time out.

It's a kind of an advanced bevel though because it's acrylic bevel joining up to the aluminium all while being flush fit so maybe it was just a bit difficult to do mixed with mod rust, already got the tweaked design of the panel printed again to re make it right after this post, got to have a modathon through the night & all tomorrow so I'll be leaning into the progress zone where I feel happier, neighbors are away for the weekend so don't have to worry about noise, I'll be aching tomorrow night but it'll be worth it.

Two good things though, all the templates are stuck to materials & got 1 new panel made.

 

[waynio]

These little cut outs again, they take some time to do, patience is thinner than it was early in the project so I mixed it up doing a bit on the front panel & then do 1 of the easier panels going back & forth, gave an ok feeling of making solid progress while fixing a botched panel rather than just re make the botched panel.

Gamer bottom, applied a template to it for the mounting holes & 92mm fan hole.

Filling panel & with it being a filling panel this is 1 of the many panels that will be put on a harsh diet once everything is together.

Just taking a break & killing time while my mp3 player charges back up so thought may as well do a mini update.

 

[waynio]

Drill helper in action.

Takes the unpredictability of the drill bit wandering out of the bulls eye so thanks again Angel OD really helps hit the bulls eye every single time & easily, it's even far better than my cheap drill press which is prone to wandering away from the bulls eye so isn't a very useful drill press really, it can sway away as much as 2mm, only thing that would make the drill helper better is if it was stainless steel & a bit wider to be easier to clamp & so it stays in good form for longer so it can have it's permanent place alongside my rulers & squares so have ordered 2x 25mm x 10mm x 245mm flat bars to make a couple so I can use the 2 for drilling the centre of rods also.

I'm that happy with the drill helper I see it as an essential tool now so it's worth making a nice strong one that will last, aluminium ones need re making regular. Two of these will be made in stainless steel either tomorrow or the day after.

While re making the front panel I was switching over to some of the 2mm parts but didn't take pictures of them all, final details like sanding edges completely flat are still needed to be done on them but next update I should have quite a bunch of parts made, the small bevel with an awkward corner bit I did with a small file I don't usually use but it did the job very nicely, just needs about another 3 hours of attention to the overall panel but I'll keep mixing it up so I'm making other parts at the same time which will keep my mind in a fresher state.

Would have finished this panel & a bunch of others yesterday but I passed out when I went for what was meant to be a 10 minute break, was about 3/4 the way though a 30 odd hour modathon, the 30c temp helped put me to sleep also, just glad I didn't sit outside as I'd have got toasted.

Back to modding I go.

 

[waynio]

Today I just dedicated to finishing the re make of the front panel & it's nice to be back in the progress zone.

Tomorrow is easy parts time.

 

[waynio]

Been waiting for deliveries all week & the weekend didn't quite go to plan but was fun, "was" set to do 2 very big sessions this weekend but kinda been looking forward to Max Payne 3 & when I went to the supermarket to stock up on coffee sugar & milk I seen it sat on the shelf while walking past the entertainment section & I just couldn't resist, was like a powerful magnet that pulled me towards it to buy it & completed last night early hours so got heavily side tracked by an awesome game, was a fun ride though & my system with single GTX 580 handled it perfectly on max settings at 2560x1440, many of the levels look amazing & the gun-play rocks, only used the matrix slow downs a couple of times when I was getting whooped too many times, more fun playing it raw.

Erm, sorry about that I'm 50/50 gamer/modder so can easily get distracted by awesome games, back on topic.


Started on making the custom fan frames, managed cutting it easy enough but the 2mm alu didn't have laser film on which helps to hold templates down & instead has the more typical flimsy plastic coating so when getting around to the final side it had risen flapping about & the template was useless so I fluffed up the cut pretty badly IMO.

Template side looks ok.

Side view you can see how the template had risen enough to flap about while the blade goes up/down making it impossible to see what your doing properly.

Template & backing removed which shows a nice big defect on the right side.

If I'd have swerved away from the cut line to clear the impossible to see bit where I was cutting I'd have been able to file down the rest easily so I'll do that for all the others now but this 1 needs re doing.

These 2 2mm strip pieces are filler pieces for the gaming rig.

On to the fan controller, no branding thank you.

Panel I pre-drilled a bunch of days ago but finished off the drilling for the control knobs & cut out today.

The stock one has 1mm sheet folded over connecting the unit to the front stock panel so I used spring washers to fill the spec & 6mm countersunk stainless steel screws.

Altogether, another example of why I love digital callipers & printing designs, it's spot on, the protective film is staying on the LCD until it's ready for use & I might have a go at making custom control knobs also if I feel like it when adding finishing touches.

Fan controller aligns to this bevelled bottom area once I get the acrylic cut & bevelled.

I'm not going to say I'll do some tomorrow since I keep slipping on what I say I'll do & then don't for whatever reason but hopefully I will get back into regular updates tomorrow lol, been very herky jerky since May which was a bit of a bad month.

 

[waynio]

Craig toyoracer mentioned about the distance of cut work earlier in the project & since then I've been curious to know & figured some new things out on sketchup, 1 bit being seeing the length of all edges.

I'll be going waaaaaay past 100 meters of cut work on this by the time it's complete, no wonder it's taken so long & still so much ahead, this is truly good scroll saw exercise though, incredibly dreary but good exercise which helps make things easier in the future, this is why it's so daunting going at the panels on this, you just know it takes a long time to do & you need a special mind-set to not think about that & just go at it else you can wind up thinking too much of how long it takes which is where I'm stuck at the moment, I had the same problem while doing the gamer side panels, I know the solution but it's moving to it that isn't easy.

Gamer side panels as expected are the craziest coming in at just shy of 15 meters each, this will be why they took like 2 massive sessions to do each one.

But the craziest IMHO is yet to be done, the lowest front pattern is small 180mm x 86mm & weighs in at 7 meters of very intricate cutting, this piece was going to be in 3mm Maple wood which would have been easy & speedy to drill & cut but is now 3mm aluminium so think it's gonna be hell to do & I can easily see myself having big difficulties doing just the drilling alone on that because only a 1mm drill bit will be able to give access to many of the tight waves & here is the problem I keep breaking the 1mm bits when drilling 3mm aluminium with my tight budget drill press so a redesign of that part might be needed, I'll soon find out, hope I can drill it though without getting too many broken drill bits, I'm bound to get at least 1, they break real easily.

It puts things into better perspective knowing how much actual distance I've been doing, gives me a good idea of how much I can get through in a certain amount of time so I could now go at it with a realistic goal checkpoint to reach before calling it a day but the thickness is a mystery factor if not worked before, this is for sure.

I was looking around for a good pedestal to put this on when it's done but I don't fancy paying £200+ for a nice one when I think of the materials I could buy instead with a lot less & I want to be sure it will be strong enough, this is first version so no doubt I'll develop it further but I think this will be the basic form of it.

Looks even more strange now I'd say that's because this is the vanilla v0.1 but if I do do something like this I will make a 3mm panel that is like a tracing of the bottom of the rig so it slots in place when putting it on.

Figured I'd better show some actual real stuff also.
2 extra fan frame pieces, they were made extra difficult to make with the templates coming loose, 1 more method to try for getting a good stick before I just stick them to the bare aluminium but I think that will give the best sticking power.

Luckily I didn't see how the fan controller fits into the front panel so have something good to show.

There is still an acrylic piece to be made that goes over the control knobs & continues the bevel edge to make a surrounding bevel round the display & gives the aluminium underneath a different tone.

More soon.

 

[waynio]

Exceptional work Wayne. Wish I had the patience and skill for something like this.

Very impressive mate!

Thanks mate, it's a heck of a grind but it's slowly coming together, still aiming to have it complete before 2013 lol.

Due to Cleveland expressing some disappointment about the standard fan controller knobs which has an effect like being shot with a think deeper gun lol I looked around the net for something to replace them with, bought chrome dice & marbles then did a mock up in sketchup & I just didn't like the mock-up, might look better in reality but anyway I took to designing my own knobs to fix onto the stock ones.
These have good pointiness, they sit 4mm lower than stock & will look even lower to the panel due to the pinch type grip on them.

Hopefully these appeal more, they do to me so that's what matters most.

Done some more designing on the pedestal, the form & function is complete now & it will be awesomely strong, only decorative stuff left to tweak on it now.

Also designed a mounting sheet for the rig to slot into.

I am really glad Cleveland pulled that trigger to zap the thought cogs to start them turning again because when looking around the net for things I could use, marbles really stood out for me, particular artful type ones hand made made by glass masters, I was like a kid in a sweet shop (but these days a retail riot) picking the right one out for this build, I was very tempted to go for one with colour but managed to stay on theme by keeping it neutral & I haven't given a power switch any thought at all other than same old vandal switches as a last minute function detail mounted wherever I could when it's done.

Here is a group picture of the bits I ordered, the 2 small marbles & chrome dice was an option for the fan controller that I doubt I'll go ahead with, the black & white marble they had sold it in the shop earlier that day but didn't get it updated in time on the site so they offered a refund for it or let me choose another 1 & let me go for one that was £5 more so I chose the same clear with detail one so will be able to pick which one looks most interesting & have a spare now, think this will be a regular feature in my projects starting from this one, such an awesome range to pick from & they will always looks different.

Marbles ranging from 5p to £800 some really nice pieces of glass art here from £20 to £800 but £40+ ones are keen collectors items but if I was a millionaire I'd probably buy loads, there is a good range of really nice ones £20 to £40, I'll be a regular shopper here for the magic ingredient for these power switches.
http://www.houseofmarbles.com/

Dice, crazy enormous range of dice.
http://www.thediceshoponline.com/categories.asp

So I've worked out a really kickass idea for using awesome marbles as power switches & I'm sharing the idea before I've even made 1 because I'm so excited about it & can't keep it to myself without my brain melting & dribbling out of my ears.

The marbles I'll be using are 40mm diameter & are hand made & I'll make them function like a vandal switches & here's the good bit, illumination & crazy interesting colours & shadows being cast from them, it will involve springs, a basic switch, a box to enclose it all & 5mm opal frosted acrylic formed into perfect fitting cups for the marbles, primary power indicator LED's, secondary LED's for HDD activity, could use different colour or slightly different or even the same but placed in different spots, I could also use layers of tinting film if they are too bright, I anticipate these power buttons to look & perform pretty incredible.

Should cost me no more than £30 to make this power button & £25 of that was for the marble so 3 times the price of a vandal switch but infinitely more awesome especially where I'll be mounting it.

Not really a good enough spot for this on the gamer rig sadly so I'll go with a typical vandal switch for that but I'll try to hide it away or might even use a chrome dice for a switch.
Front mount not a good idea.

Top mount, bit too cramped to mount nicely so would work best closer to the top back.

Did I express how awesome I think this power button will be

Workshop progress will continue ASAP, this update represents the past few days of thinking, designing & getting better at sketchup, learnt so much more on sketchup since starting this project & can keep it so I can realistically make whatever I design also.