Project - Air Cube v2

waynio · 26 Jul 2010 at 19:21

Lol, didn't even get around to do any dremel work, but did cut pieces to size, masked up & drawn the pattern on, the thin lines are what will be staying the rest is what I'll cut out.

Sides

Top pieces

This new keyboard is ultra sensitive, only bad thing about it is the small backspace which I should soon get used to, other than that it's perfect

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PaulGreyhead · 27 Jul 2010 at 11:41

I like the designs, look great.

mattbill · 27 Jul 2010 at 13:50

Awesome thread waynio

... epic case and tower!

I wish I could get motivation like you. I just give up way to easily!

waynio · 27 Jul 2010 at 20:03

PaulGreyhead said:
I like the designs, look great.

Thanks m8

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mattbill said:
Awesome thread waynio ... epic case and tower!

I wish I could get motivation like you. I just give up way to easily!

Thanks mattbill

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It all started with doing rough blow holes & windows & mutated into doing stuff like this lol :eek:

A little step closer to finished

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Refined part of 1 of the panels design (was a little off, fixed).

Cut the most difficult incisions to keep it all accurate to the drawing so the rest will be easier to do.

First piece out

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Some more.

All out, now time for a little filing & then a good sanding session, the sanding will be the most time consuming.

Messy

Clean

Ready for filing then sanding

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Started late today so only got this far, took just over an hour to get the dremel work done on 1 of them don't want to be making much noise past 6pm, I'll try to start at 10am tomorrow & get the other 3 done, the side panels are done with 0.7mm sheet so were nice & easy but run out of 0.7mm so the top panels will be done with 1mm.

Colour wise, I'm thinking ice blue for these panels :cool:

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waynio · 28 Jul 2010 at 12:52

Well, got up bright & early with full intent to get the new panels done, just smoothing the edges of 1 of them took near 3 hours

, then I went to work on the next panel, made a couple of incisions then the cutting disc got stuck & when I freed it the mandrel screw top snapped off & have no spares arrrrrgh delayed by a mandrel typical lol

, bit gutted but these things happen.

But I did a test fit of the one I made, still needs a little work on it as noted in the picture & the surface needs a good sanding but I'll save surface finishing till last

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K@rl · 28 Jul 2010 at 15:13

Well impressed with your work on this. Although to make the unit completely sorted I would be tempted to incorporating some kind of cable management system into the back of it - looks like a bit of a mess coming out the back.

waynio · 28 Jul 2010 at 18:27

Thanks K@rl, it has crossed my mind & your right, I'll get onto that once I finish the last few parts

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My dad bought a couple of new air tools just before the gasket blew & he reminded me about them & suggested to try it out on some scrap so I did & wow I'm very impressed, bye bye dremel days lol

no more metal dust in my face & no need for steaming up hard to see through glasses

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I don't know the name of the tool but it's cross between a jigsaw & small hacksaw & prooved relatively easy to cut out complex shapes, the 0.7mm sheet didn't go to well though so I might re-do the side panel.
I had to learn how to use it, it's like a dremel but you need to lean way over the piece your working with so you can clearly see where your cutting but cuts far far easier, after the side panel I had it sussed, I mostly needed to clamp the work piece down better to minimise vibrations, this new tool will be absolutely awesome for thick materials as the 1mm sheet came out very nice & will need minimal cleaning up, also the blade is still good & sharp after doing these 3 panels, on with the pics

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This was the 0.7mm one which came out quite badly before I had the technique & clamping sussed.

The wavey strip above the workpiece was my practice to see if I could follow the lines & could fairly easily

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On with the 1mm sheet which went quite perfectly

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I think I'll have to throw the 0.7mm sheet, it needs a lot of cleaning up & is bent all over the place, tried whacking it into shape with a mallet but it's still not so good, I'll try a couple more things to fix it but not worried about having to do a new one now I know how to do this :cool:

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K@rl · 28 Jul 2010 at 21:53

waynio said:
I'll get onto that once I finish the last few parts .

From reading through the entire build it doubt it will never be finished .... just one more thing here... and there...

Great job and an interesting read - very well documented too.

PaulGreyhead · 28 Jul 2010 at 22:18

It's called a high speed saw (I think!). Used for cutting body panels and the like on cars and stuff. Really good for cutting plastic too.
Grills are looking good.

waynio · 28 Jul 2010 at 23:15

K@rl said:
From reading through the entire build it doubt it will never be finished .... just one more thing here... and there...

Great job and an interesting read - very well documented too.

Thanks mate

, not surprising I'm hearing that a lot though

but it will get the finished seal very soon (before Mafia II release) & will stay finished but it sure has had a lot of changes

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PaulGreyhead said:
It's called a high speed saw (I think!). Used for cutting body panels and the like on cars and stuff. Really good for cutting plastic too.
Grills are looking good.

Thanks Paul, when I said no more dremel I was a bit hasty, sitting here looking at the front grills I highly doubt I could do that with the saw but the saw will replace quite a bit of what I do with a dremel especially for simplish cuts like what I just done.

I have a couple of new pictures showing the new grills overlapped, my bro says I should do it, but I'm not so sure about it especially the double the work bit lol takes a fair bit of effort to make all edges really smooth, I'll get them up in a mo

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waynio · 28 Jul 2010 at 23:27

Standard intended piece which still needs smoothing out

Double overlapped piece

The thought of the effort is making me cringe already, possibly 3 hours to smooth each piece about 25min to cut each piece, so possibly a couple of days solid cutting & sanding :eek:

, suppose I could spread it out over a week.

PaulGreyhead · 29 Jul 2010 at 09:26

Have to agree with your brother, the double looks really good.

waynio · 29 Jul 2010 at 16:41

Certainly a lot more effort but it's growing on me & I have plenty of time to get them done, the doubled up grill could make some good light effects too, Just checked if I'll be able to do it for the sides with the new fan taking up space & I can (only just).
Now I just need to make sure I have enough scrap to do it, get the drawings done & get to work on them

8 long grueling sanding sessions ahead of me :eek:

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waynio · 31 Jul 2010 at 00:24

Finished doing the rough cuts of the side panels yesterday, today I started at about 3pm but smoothed off all 4 of the panels edges, finished at 11pm, had about 4 little smoke breaks, thought it would have taken days to do them but got really stuck in on them

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Pictures showing original simple plan of how I might have them & doubled up, I must admit the doubled up ones do look good but I only have a little 1mm & 1.5mm sheet spare now so it'll be a mix of the 2 thicknesses, anyway if I was to double them all up I now know I could do it within 2 days if I don't slack

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I'll get some temp installed pics up tomorrow

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Jaysquirrel · 31 Jul 2010 at 04:51

Gotta agree it looks much better overlapped.

VeNT · 31 Jul 2010 at 10:17

It's just so BIG!

waynio · 31 Jul 2010 at 13:00

Jaysquirrel said:
Gotta agree it looks much better overlapped.

Yeah, had multiple votes for doubled up & after getting them smoothed off I fully agree

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VeNT said:
It's just so BIG!

Yep

, another part of the reason why I made a stack tower to go with it to turn it into a great space saver

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Some night & day shots with the new panels temporarily installed 1 layer type. I think I will give the double layered style a shot so plan for today is cut the sheets to size, trace the already made panels instead of draw them, cut them out, tomorrow tons of filing & sanding lol.

Pic time just to show what it'd look like as single layer, I will do the double layer

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I likle this nightshot best

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To be honest though I was quite impressed with how these looked when I installed them so should look even better when doubled up

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perry081064 · 31 Jul 2010 at 13:29

perhaps its my imagination but i think if that was my build i would call it "midnight forrest" looking thru it at night really looks the part imo.

great build btw

PaulGreyhead · 31 Jul 2010 at 13:50

Actually, after seeing those pics, I think the single looks really good! Just wondering if the double might be 'too much', if you know what I mean?

waynio · 31 Jul 2010 at 16:52

@Perry, I don't think I can change the name of it now, but I could class the old standard Air cube as a scratch build & this as a case mod lol

, not a bad name for it though mate

an avatar forest

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@Paul, Be able to fully tell tomorrow after I get some new night pics, they all need painting still & if I go the double layer route I'll do 2 tone colours, either 2 shades of blue or a green & a blue.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention I painted the fan bolt heads when I made the second spacer ice blue

, I got a strip of blue tack, pushed them through in a line, masked the threads, scuffed the heads, cleaned, primed, coloured, cleared.

Rather than make the extra panels, I just took the ones I made & stuck them together with mounting tape & stuck them in, here are the daylight shots, I'll do night ones later

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I do like the top ones but not so sure about the side ones.

Also replaced my old & tatty alarm clock.

With this beaut, tells time, temperature & date, I'm going to make an angled platform for it, until then I'll use stacks of 2p's lol.