Project : eye-tx

[bugeyewrx]

So while my other project , Zotac Rebox is under going a bit of a rethink I'm making a start on another project

I thought I'd have a go at something more ambitious ....

End of the long PAD process .

First former , from 4mm acrylic . I'm going to us it to cut the main former from 10mm .

 

[bugeyewrx]

Routing the 10mm former . The big piece of mdf is to stabilise the router .

Shiny new former

 

[bugeyewrx]

As I've got a lot of fiddly routing to do I made up a router table .

First job was to true up some bits of acrylic .

Seems to be a good fit

I'm going to use my first template to make two more , one for the bottom and one for the top parts of the case . Where the top and bottom parts meet there is a mitre . I made up another template to cut them so I could get them all exactly the same .

Three parts of the top template glued together and the lower one cut .

 

[bugeyewrx]

So cut cut a long story short , after a couple more templates I have these .

Then these .

An finally some parts

And they fit

 

[bugeyewrx]

Thanks for the comments

Now waiting on a couple of parts so I can work out the depth of the case .

 

[bugeyewrx]

looks good, how are you thinking of cooling everything?

Yep ... air cpu fan and probably a small case fan as I don't want any vents in the top .

Is it going to be all see through?

Funnily enough it won't be clear at all , just using clear for the internals as that's what I have . It does make fitting stuff easier though as you can see through the case to line up screws etc . I haven't decided on the external finish but I'm currently thinking about some sort of combination of brushed ali and carbon fibre . I'm not sure about the carbon though , I think it might be getting a bit over done . Not too much of a disappointment I hope

trying to wrap my head around this one

Me too

 

[bugeyewrx]

So now that Rebox is done and Raspberry Rebox is waiting on the hardware I though I'd make some progess on this one

I want to fit the front rear formers to the base with some machine screws so that I can take it apart to work on the various bits as I go along .

The formers need a 3.5mm hole in them for clearance on the 3mm screws I'm using but the base needs 2.5mm holes for the thread . I didn't want to drill a 2.5mm hole all the way through and then try and drill it out in the former after as I find the acrylic tends to splinter when doing that .

The other problem I had was holding everything true and square while drilling the holes , I don't have a milling machine just the pillar drill .

So I came up with this contraption

I set the depth stop on the drill to go just through the former and leave a little mark on the base , you can just see them with the former removed .

Action shot , drilling out the 2.5mm holes in the base

Bit of tapping .

And countersunk and screwed together .

 

[bugeyewrx]

Its looking good!

Thanks

Little bit of progress today

Running around the curved parts of the formers I need a series of strips of acrylic ( set inside like the base ) to support what ever I use to cover the top and undersides with . When I was truing up the base I made it over length that gave me an off cut the same width as the depth of the base . The idea is to cut thin strips of about 12mm and true them up using the table router landing up with a 10mm square section that is exactly the right length.

To do this I need some jigs ... two reasons , 1 so that I've got something straight to follow with the router and 2 some way of holding the rather small strips so that I don't remove my fingers while doing it

Here's the first jig / holder .

For the second on I need to cut a profile into the aluminium . For some reason I can't remember now I decided that it would be nice if the acrylic strips weren't just square

 

[bugeyewrx]

This mornings progress

Finished the jig with the profile in it and cut the blanks .

Blank held in the jig with a bit of double sided tape .

Lots of routing later

I don't mind admitting that these were a real pain to get right . They were really difficult to get square . The first pass on the non profiled side worked well enough but the problems started on the other side . Because they had a slightly smaller area of the tape to grab on to and I was removing slightly more material the part would move in the jig meaning that they came out a touch out of square . The solution was to turn the router speed up to full and run the part through more slowly . This meant less pressure on the part so it didn't move

Took me a few goes to figure it out :wallbash: ..... squint ones .

How they work with the rest of it .

Next is some wedge shaped bits for the ends .

Got myself a new router bit you'll see why soon .

 

[bugeyewrx]

So wedge shaped bits

First blank in the jig .... I've run it through the band saw already to take some of the excess off .

Being routed .

Finished bit .

You can see it a bit better if I cover it , they are symmetrical to about .5mm just the camera angle .

Where they fit .

The next thing is to figure out how to fix them in place , I can't decide between screwing or glueing them probably land up as a combination of both

 

[bugeyewrx]

Thanks Mr May

I started today by drilling the holes for the screws that hold the top and bottom of the case together. Yet another jig , should be the last one

Then with all the parts screwed together I tacked the cross pieces in place with some glue .

When the glue had gone off I drilled and tapped for the screws that hold it all together and suddenly the frame was finished

Bottom half

Top half

Assembled

Still some excess glue to clean up but I'll sort that later

So that's the internal frame sorted I need to start making decisions on the external finish . I think the design has got something a bit retro about it so I think the surface materials should go that way too .

Thinking about this for the top and underside of the curved part .

Burr Maple

For the front and back I'm thinking about brushed aluminium . But I can't decide between natural or something dark , not black but a really deep blue ??

Thoughts or suggestions , no acrylic though

 

[bugeyewrx]

Would AND metal? Hmm.. not sure it will work, but give it a go.

I'd fine a decent carbon weave for the top section (nothing awful looking though, would have to be good quality), and then dark brushed metail for the panel.

Love your work on this btw

I'm not sure either I did have an idea of some sort of cool looking retro hi-fi finish to it . Something a bit 70's but I've realised that it doesn't really work how I though it was going to .

It's sort of a bit naff really and even given a sort of modern look it sort of lacks something . I gave a lot of though to trying to get a bit of detailing into the design but couldn't really come up with anything that was going to solve the basic problem .

So I've decided to do some mock ups and I've got a couple of ideas that I think will lead somewhere

I did start of thinking about carbon fibre but it's getting a bit done to death right now and I wanted something a bit 'more' ..... we'll see

This is a fantastic build. Cant wait to see how this progresses.

Loving the work going into this!

Thanks guys

 

[bugeyewrx]

Powder coated top and front?

I think that's the problem with this build .... I can do anything I want with the outside as it's not part of the structure it's just stuck on .....

That's some very nice work right there.
Watching with interest.

Totally didn't expect this after the first couple of pictures, awesome job. It will certainly be unique :>

Thanks guys


Well after a bit of head scratching and a lot of navel gazing I think I've got a direction for this to go in .

First step is some samples ..... so a bit of veneering to start with .

Burr maple veneer

I've got one of these at work

So getting a nice even coat of pva is easy

The veneer is rather wobbly and I've not used a burr veneer before ....

But I'm hoping 250kg will keep it flat .... I'll find out tomorrow :worried:

 

[bugeyewrx]

If it doesn't work I'll have to try something .... just found out about veneer softeners ... just a bit to late

 

[bugeyewrx]

When I started this build I didn't really know what the exterior was going to be . I'm fairly set on using brushed ali for the front and rear panels , anodised I don't know what colour . To start with I was thinking about using carbon fibre for the curved top and bottom covers but I've gone off that idea. Even though I think the combo is a great one I don't think ( for now ) that it's right for this .

I then started thinking about old hifi etc but it just looks a bit wrong . I think it looks wrong because of the contrast between the wood and the metal .... it's too much . I think it's the colour of the wood , it's to warm against the ali .

So I thought I'd give this a go ......

I've stained the maple with some variations of black stain and black plus a bit of oak to take the blue out of it . Here's a picture of them all with the anodised samples I've got , rather strangely the samples are on checker plate rather than smooth or brushed but you get an idea of the colours .

My favorite out oif the lot is number 4 with the black anodised , although I'd prefer something not so black ...

That said I think it still a bit much ... I think it needs to be darker and with less contrast in the grain ..... quick photoshop .

Or maybe even darker so you can just make out the grain ......


So tell me what you think .... even if you hate them all and you think I'm barking up completely the wrong tree .

If you like them .... telling me why would be helpful

 

[bugeyewrx]

So I think this might be getting a bit boring , reading ramblings about strange combinations of materials for this build but it's been a bit of a head scratcher

My problem has been that although I like the materials I've been looking at there was always something in the back of my mind saying ... noooooooo :worried: none of them seemd to quite work and as I tried to make them work by adding more detail and different materials the worse it got :sigh:

Part of the problem was that the whole idea for the case came from the shape and I hadn't really thought about the surface finish much beyond dark brushed ali for the front and back plates plus a colour on the curved part .

Then it hit me ... that's it ..... the whole thing about the case design is the SHAPE and anything I do with the finish that takes away from that is going to be a problem :duh:

So back to basics ..... Brushed aluminium , anodised a dark colour and I'm going to paint the the curved parts a complimentary colour , probably try a metallic

So .... after a couple of weeks of samples and strange combinations I'm back where I started

 

[bugeyewrx]

It's been a couple of weeks and I'm still happy with the direction I'm going in so time to get on with some stuff



First job was to square up the radiused corners left by routing the formers and to smooth out any high points from the cross pieces .

Rather than trying to bend one thick piece of material for the curved part I'm going to laminate a couple of bits together .... that way I land up with a bit that is about 1.5mm thick but without having to force the bend .

First step was to laminate a bit of .8mm birch ply with some 1mm balsa , the reason for the balsa in a moment

I cut a bit of mdf to make taping everything together a bit easier . I decided to try PU adhesive , on a test bit and it seemed to stick to the ply and the perspex well . So glued everything up and got busy with the masking tape

Only problem is that just after I finished this I picked up my test piece that has been stuck solid all morning and managed to break the join a little too easily :wallbash: .... so I could be doing this all again :duh:


Anyway the reason for the balsa ...

Without lots of cross pieces when you bend the ply around the curve you get little hollows like this ...

I don't have enough room to put as many cross pieces as I'd like so the idea is that once the glue has set I can sand the whole thing flat leaving the balsa in the hollows and then laminate the top bit of ply on giving ( I hope ) a perfect curve .

 

[bugeyewrx]

Thanks Hyburnate


As I'm waiting for some glue to dry I thought I'd get on and post an update .....

So , lots of sanding later . You can see where the balsa is left in the hollow after sanding down to the ply at the edges .

Top and bottom sanded and ready for the final skin of ply ... sorry for the duff picture .

The ply being stuck to the top ..... all the cross pieces held on with masking tape are to help keep the ply flat .

And the first part of the bottom too ...

 

[bugeyewrx]

Part 2 ...

The last bit of ply , I couldn't fit them until the first bits had dried ...

They go here .

Test fit ...

All seems good so all glued up and another roll of masking tape later ...

 

[bugeyewrx]

Looking good!

Thanks


Part 3

Bit more sanding and finally it looks like a case instead of some strange perspex frame ....

Still strangely difficult to take a picture of though ...

I tried really hard to keep the edge straight and true , happy it's worked out well