Project - Air Cube v2

[waynio]

Hi all, time for my imaginatively titled Air Cube v2 to get done sorry could not think of a good title so it is a spare of the moment title.

I got the flat bars and angle bars today of the aluminium, I should have the sheets tomorrow. at last woohoo lol i'm a tad excited for my next modding fix.
The flat bars are 20mm wide by 3mm thick / angle bars are 12.7mm x 12.7mm x 1.58mm
the sheets are 1mm thick for components and 1.5mm thick for panels

insert completed project pic here

Here is the new small 2-5mm hss countersink bit I just bought and these are the little m3 countersunk allen head bolts and half nuts, I'm hoping I will not need rivets at all for this so it can all be dismantled easily for painting and further mods.

Here is the main structure I will be making 1st of all which I hope will be strong, probably got over 30 120mm fans in bags lol, so 3 for the front instead of the 200mm fan this time so it will need to be about 30mm wider than planned but that can be a good thing for hdd wire space, 2 for the true, 1 at back and 1 in front of the hdd's.
I'll be swapping all the fans when I can afford it with the akasa apache 120mm fans as they are 57cfm at only 16db and are rated to last 50,000 hours.

I'm going to have my 1st go on a drill press with this project and plan to use it quite a bit, hope it is as good as I imagine it would be, I'll be sure to very carefully do the measuring and marking and it should be fine I hope , lucky my dad is into motorbikes and has done a bit of restoration work on them so he has a few very useful tools to compliment the ones I have bought. He has a powerful air compressor that is outstanding for making a dust clogged pc look like brand new , still yet to get into using quality paint with a paint gun and air brush, annodising seems quite hazardous unless you really know what you are doing but I think it would be my prefered choice or I could just pollish it to a mirror finnish.

I'm very tired from over exercising every day for the past month I'm shattered lol so will start on the project in a couple of days when i'm a bit more sparky as long as the aluminium sheets come tomorrow.

So hopefully I will not bore you all any further and just post pics with as short as possible descriptions whenever I progress a bit further .

Compliments & pointers are very welcome without them the 1st time round I would not have redesigned it better so if you think I'm doing a good job once I have some actual work in progress shots leave a comment .

 

[waynio]

My current hardware will be going into this when its done
enermax galaxy 1000w
gigabyte p45-dq6
q9650 @ 3.6ghz 8x450fsb with true & push pull low db fans
8gb ddr2 @900mhz 4,5,5,18 1:1 ratio
BFG GTX 285 OCX
Auzentech prelude x-fi sound card
6 hdd's out of a possible 8
2 dvd-drives or 1 dvd drive and a fan controller or blu-ray

Yes the drives will be resting on a nice thick accoustic foam cushion to seperate them from the alu as they are in my current case & only hear the hdd's a tiny bit when its busy but no vibrations, still not decided if I should clamp the hdd cages down yet because if I do that there might be vibrations going through the case. could put a window in and still have sliding side panels without obstructions, I'll be puting plenty of vents throughout the sides and back panel also.

 

[waynio]

WooHooo Got the rest of the aluminium today and its all in perfect condition

Not quite prepared to start on it yet, but by friday I will.

 

[waynio]

The prototype I made and using right now has pretty much no vibrations because I use acoustic foam in key spots where vibrations would occur and when I touch any area of the case I can't feel any vibrations, so fingers crossed the v2 should be good, also the bolts are countersunk with allen head and will be good and tight but if not then I could make a simple fixable revision or if worst comes to worst countersunk rivets.

I estimate anything from a week to a month before it is ready for painting or pollishing as long as no major hiccups or delays for anything I might need to get come up .

The alu angle bars are 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/16" so you was very close Monkey Puzzle .

 

[waynio]

lol I should have left the fans out of the discription till later updates but anyway.

I still think the akasa apache's would be good fans thou, I mean akasa have been around for some time and they usually only make cheap fans and this is the 1st premium fan I have seen them make, not wrong about the poor choice of colour thou lol.
I would like to see antec do a premium low db fan they make good reliable fans, I'm not a fan of noctua fans they are overly expensive especially if you want 7 of em @ £120 and think they look worse than the apache's, although either could have a light spray of preferred colour, I found the apache's through google as low as £10 with free postage, most places they are going for £14.

I'll buy 1 apache instead of 7 and see how it performs, hopefully they have made a good fan.

Those SilenX Fan Ixtrema Pro 14dBA 120x120x25 72CFM Blue LED fans I tried out a while ago died within 3 months so that was an absolute waste of money @ nearly £16 each and the led was very dim, the performance of them was very good but they were not as low as 14db must have been around 20db.

Ultimately I would like to see the 140mm fans get more mainstream so some good ones make it to consumers I'm aware you can get some already but none have great performance cfm & db wise to top current 120mm fans strangely.

 

[waynio]

I see overclockers are now stocking the akasa apache's and at a good price, for overclockers to be stocking them they must be good as they mainly sell reliable fans and not quirky ones that come out of nowhere, the place I thought sold them at £10 with free postage I must have been mistaken as I went to order 1 and it was £7 shipping, so ordered 1 through ebay, I'm just curious to see how good they are and if it is as great as the specs then I'll be ordering 6 more from here now oc are stocking them .

You seem nicely clued up about fans EsaT thanks for the input yes the SilenX fans are straight up lies and a con.

I have tried the Scythe Kaze Jyuni 1900RPM Slip Stream 110cfm but way too noisy for me, but I see the 1200rpm version looks a good choice @ 68.5 cfm & 24db nice price too.

Still want to try out OCZ Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound to see if it is better than Arctic Silver 5, I have heard it is.

anyway enough about fans for now, I'm off to do my measuring and marking .

 

[waynio]

I'll get a 1200rpm SlipStream and see for myself, from your objections for the apache it sounds like you have tested an akasa apache right or wrong?

Anyway I've already ordered it now so I'll see for myself once it arrives, I'm hoping I can call bs on this naturally but I don't know if I'll be able to for now.

Back to topic
finnished measuring and marking the bars so good to start tomorrow.

 

[waynio]

Got the akasa apache fan today and it seems good, a tiny bit more audible than a lian li case fan but pushes more air, I put it next to my ear for testing, and from a meter away I could very faintly hear it They will do great on my case so I will be ordering 6 more when I get closer to finnishing it I also think they don't look bad either .

Slow day today as I was messing with the Oblivion Enhanced Beta 03 mod, 20GB installed.

And I have cut the bars to size and just have to shape some of the ends for better connection, I'll update the pics later.

 

[waynio]

Thursday evening
Made a start & I measured & marked the 2m bars ready for cutting.

---

Friday mid day
Only got all the bars cut to size with a hacksaw with 1 slightly wrong, good thing I bought a little extra for if I mess up made another 1 and here is how it will be going together.

Was really getting stuck into it but was getting aggravated quite easily so I called it a day as I figured I'd end up making a pile of mistakes with not being nice and calm .

---

Saturday morning
Very late start at 15:00 lazy day
overlapped the bottom angle bar pieces and marked the bits that needed to be removed so the angles slot together for a flush connection, hacksaw and file used.
Here is one of the angle ends which I cut and filed.

here is the lowest base loosely fitted together

here is the 1.5mm thick sheet snugly fit inside the frame with little angle bars which will support the corner angle bars, I'm happy with how its going so far but kind of dreading the drilling I'll be doing tomorrow lol, as you can see I'm going to have to get through 3 layers precisely or it will mess up, but I'm hoping to at least get this bottom base complete and bolted together tomorrow.

1 more thing, the camera I'm using olympus fe-170 6mp, I have noticed it is giving a fish bowl look about it as some parts look slightly curved, but the actual bars are definately straight, pretty strange.

 

[waynio]

Did you have the aluminium sheets pre-cut for the right sizes or are you cutting them yourself? If cutting them yourself, how are you doing it? Can't wait to see how this turns out. Watching with interest.

Dewalt DW941K Heavy Duty Cordless Shear
I got lucky and seen it on ebay for £100 in perfect condition, I could barely afford it but could not miss out at the price, it says in the description upto 1.2mm but had no problem at all with 1.5mm, brilliant tool for cutting sheet metal as long as you are careful and take your time, the trigger is great for speed of cut.

 

[waynio]

Did not wake up til 15:00 because of watching ufc 100 in the early hours .

I wanted to start early today so Made no progress on the case, but made a fence from a shelf that my dad had lying around and now I can see how useful it will be, the drilling will be 100% more easier now.

 

[waynio]

This is the progress made today.
The bottom panel was easy to drill with the fence I made, it was the little corner bits that was hard to pull off while keeping it all square but got there in the end phew , I am considering countersunk rivets instead of the little nuts & bolts in some areas like the corners for extra sturdyness , but they will do for now as I can dismantle and rebuild whenever needed, but I'm definatley using the nuts & bolts for the front & top panel.
The countersink bit was well worth getting for the nice flush fittings, I'll probably turn all the bolts the other way round on the bottom panel so its all flush inside and add some nice big custom case feet underneath.

Building from the ground up so could be made shorter when I get to that point.

The corner bits were tricky to pull off, they would be better riveted for extra strength.

Underneath, the base is really sturdy .

 

[waynio]

Bummer , got to put it on hold for at least a week until I can buy an extra square and some clamps, I was attaching the mid panel angle bar but needed a 3rd square and clamps to hold it all in place while I mark it up for drilling, could have carried on but it may have turned out a little wonky, so I'll just put it aside for a week, oh well .

Let me know how you all think it is coming along for the time being.

 

[waynio]

hehe b&q hardly ever have what bits I need, so I got these from ebay, think it was about £2 for 20 with free postage.

 

[waynio]

Hmm nice project, I wonder if some of the fine metal mesh from this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18023960 would come in handy for it

Looks great for intake fan filters, I wonder if it could be sprayed a different colour without filling the mesh with it being so fine, if it can that stuff would be awesome for modding, I have no idea where to get that mesh thou, 1st time I have seen it.

Ahh was able to make an order yesterday for some clamps, squares and a couple of smaller steel rulers, I only had a 1 metre ruler and was arkward to use in some areas so should hopefully be able to carry on with it today once I receive them .

 

[waynio]

Nice, got the bits I needed to make it good form, yay .

Didn't get much time on it today but it progressed a little.
Took all the corner bars off and layed them flat so I could make the mid angle bar spot on with 4 squares and a flat piece to line it up on so I could mark them accurately.
Got both front and back mid angle bars done and 1 flat bar half done, the reason for the 20mm gap is for if I choose to put in a window it will have no obstruction and should come in useful for hiding wires also, the front and rear angle bars have 2mm gaps either side to hold the slide panel in place nice and firm, it is also still very light but I'm only half way through making the frame.

I'm hoping to have the frame finished tomorrow.

 

[waynio]

Frame done and is nice and square and very solid, just needs cleaning up and replace all the screws & nuts with countersunk rivets which I do not have yet, the screws I used 3 of them lost the socket and went round, was a nightmare getting them out, this is why I am going to use rivets for the entire frame would be easier drilling rivets out than the struggle I had getting the srews out, anyway now I can work on the panels I'm going to take my time for a good design still not designed the shell, definately happy with the frame thou.

On with the pics

 

[waynio]

Still unsure about that, I would like to make my own just so I can say 100% built by me, it would not be easy but I have a quality spare lian-li back plate which I'm thinking of combining with my own made motherboard tray.

 

[waynio]

Thanks for comments m8s
Made a little more progress today
Got the side panels to fit so they can slide to the bottom they just need to be cut to size at the top and bent over.

Cut a sheet for the motherboard tray and aligned an old motherboard tray over it, aligned it how I wanted it and taped it together and pressed my perm marker through the holes and pci slits and it was ready for drilling, tapping and cutting.

From the front

A bit closer front shot

From the back

Closer back shot

Sliding slot for side panels

Done the mounting holes and started on the pci slits

Almost done, just needs filing and tapping.

Needs filing with precision files

Slight error in design to form, I made the little corner angle pieces smaller in my sketchup and left the angle pieces same dimensions as the main corner bars so the little bars stick out a bit, so I cut the bottom corners out of the panels, this shot is in close up and does not look bad unless you get very close to it.

I just got the idea whilst writing this to file the little angle pieces to be flush with the main angle pieces, But would have to order 2 new sheets of aluminium to fix this, Doh!, so I will have to put up with this for now and may as well do a no thrills design for it and when I get the 2 pieces and have filed down the angle pieces, then do a nice design on it.

Undecided if I'll get another 2 sheets, I might settle for this.

 

[waynio]

Tried using my cheap tapping kit, there was no size right for the standoffs, then tried drilling a hole slightly smaller than the standoffs and put the standoff in driver and let it make the thread, it worked for some and did not work for most others, then tried a bolt that had similar thread same problem, then tried some rivet nuts, the rivet nuts would have been ok but the thread did not start soon enough for the short thread on the standoffs so was in a pickle for a while until my dad mentioned about some square nuts he had, they worked a treat .

WooHoo got them to mount with some square nuts on the other side.

Also got the front and back panels cut and filed to size and put a guide for where I can drill holes for mounting