Project: SR-2 Desk

[The Boy Riley]

Now then, I was planning a new build for some time, I really fancied Silverstone cases, particularly the TJ07 or TJ11. Then a sheet of 10mm toughened glass sort of fell into my lap and sealed the deal... DESK!

I started getting parts together in late august then I was working for 6 weeks so it slowed the whole process down a bit.

The pictures are in the order I got everything with a few project log posts put together, so if something doesn’t make sense let me know and I can fix it

Bits:
EVGA SR-2
2x Intel Xeon 5650
24Gb Corsair Dominator
3x EVGA gtx580 SC
OCZ vertex 3 240Gb
2x Coolermaster silent pro gold 700W

Cooling:
EK-FB SR-2 Nickel plexi x2
EK-Supreme HF - Nickel
EK-FC580 GTX+ - Nickel x3
EK-RAM Dominator – Nickel x2
EK-Multioption RES X2 - 250 basic x2
EK d5 pump top rev 2 x2
Black Ice SR-1 360 Radiator x4
D5’s x2

It's all very shiny:



the quick test run



The plans for the desk had a few revisions as I was working in wales without a pc for a few weeks, so I got back at weekends with a whole different idea on how to do it.

This is what I settled on...



The desk design took a while as I have this thing for symmetry. I can make the frame at home, but the panels might have to be cut somewhere else, hence the whole desk is modeled.

This will be the first big build I've done for myself my previous builds have been nothing special, hence I'm pushing the boat out a bit.


24-11-11

Started making the frame this afternoon, the first three sections will take the longest so I'm starting there, here's the first round

The box and angle, ready to go together with the plans on the desk.


The first side...


The tools I think I'm going to be sick of in a few days


The last (and most awkward) side


One down... 25 to go...


You know when you draw something and think "that will be be dead simple to make"...

never again will I think that... or, I'll make everything under 750mm long (the travel on the milling machine bed)

Will be doing more of the same until the frame is done, so I'll post anything interesting

..............................................................

Picked up the panels on yesterday they turned out really well so hopefully I can make the desk to the same standard and let’s hope I didn’t miss anything when I drew them.

So here they are



I thought I'd start by making sure the motherboard tray fits, so cleaned up the edges and tapped the mounting holes.









Like a glove...



Throw in some cables





and a few blocks




Saving these till later as they'll be black sleeved



Making sure I my plan for the cables would work, I'll be tidying them up a bit but they seem to fit pretty well.



And some more of the cooling made its way here, only a few bits and pieces left now



And that’s pretty much it for now, got some more nuts and bolts on the way so I'll be carrying on with the frame midweek probably


Just a quick one, tarted up the rear panel, it still needs the hole cutting in the centre for the back of the Motherboard but I wanted to make sure the PSU's fit









Seems to worked well, I'll be carrying on with the frame tomorrow so hopefully I can see some parts fitting together soon.


I got bored and realised i could assemble one or two bits

With these :O



All the bolts for the desk (I hope)

plus a few bits and pieces









Still need to cut the hole for the back piece above, but thats some fun for another day



Good news everyone

my brother has let me use his camera so the pictures seem to have worked a bit better and I've pushed the boat out a bit and done a video :O

SO... I've been finishing off some of the frame, so I thought I'd play with this here camera and show you guys what I was upto.

First, sawn box section, with the outside edge touched up a bit...



As you can see, the cut face looks rubbish, and the inside edge needs a lot of attention... but if you put it on the milling machine



and then do this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOSZ7h73ins&context=C3951a01ADOEgsToPDskKrSLqK_w8m8HHW9_I-J6up

It looks a little something like this...



and repeat...



So that's about 70% of the frame, the rest of it has 45 degree ends and could be a pain in the arse, but that's tomorrow's job

the pile of box section has got smaller too



If you guys want more videos of the making and stuff let me know I think this sort of stuff is interesting, but everyone else might think otherwise and to be honest, milling the ends was about the most exciting part of the frame

Only about another 100 M3 holes to drill and tap


Just a quick follow on from yesterday and some more video's

A video of one side of the smallest pieces, tried to keep it brief as it's not too thrilling, but at least you can see how I've been doing the frame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4QCU6Pkzg8&context=C3d6a518ADOEgsToPDskIk6H5h5d_bhNzgA0PIKW7O

And I got some of the 45's cut today, the longer sections, I asked my Dad (as it's his workshop) what I could use for this, as I had in mind, just a vice with a rotating bed.

I was directed towards the vice in question...

I asked "could you not find a bigger one?" I asked in jest,

"That's the medium sized one, you can get the big one out of the garage if you can lift it..."

needless to say I did not see the need for a bigger vice, as you can see this one is a little on the meaty side as is...



But it certainly holds things very still.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS0nVw_B6ho&context=C389ce4dADOEgsToPDskIk4ncZVpCevIgKzg6qeF6J

And the finish turned out really well



and then they go on the stockpile ready to be drilled and tapped tomorrow



...................................................................................

Today was a really good day, mainly as you will see in the last three photos don't skip though, you'll spoil it !

to break up the tediousness of the day, I've done this update as a recipe, also my Mum was making my brothers birthday cake whilst I was working...

Today's to do list



First take your angle and square up the edge



Offset by the radius of your cutter





swap chucks



zero the Y axis



tool swap (centre drill)



score at 25mm and drill pilots then swap to 5mm drill



Get your magic magnet



Place magic magnet against the face of your angle and switch on.



release angle from the vice and rotate, then replace the angle using your magnet as a guide



repeat steps to score and drill



Enter the garage and try to spot the band saw



having located your saw, remove your bracket from the angle



take your newly liberated bracket and clamp it the the vice, then even up the edge, the same way the box section was done.



Measure the bracket and see how well your eyes did when you lined it up.



Pose your work on a non reflective surface





That kept me amused and for a little while I forgot that I needed to make 38 of these

But here's the best part

Grab some sections and have a play !







I think my mental age decreased to ten whilst putting these together

I managed to make ten this afternoon, before I retreated for food. Hopefully I can knock the rest of them out tomorrow, I had worked out some time saving methods by the 7th one Then maybe I can start assembling bits and cutting some more serious holes

And for those of you who are wondering the cake turned out pretty good too



thanks for reading guys, more to come over the weekend

 

[The Boy Riley]

Thanks for all the response, been around Overclockers for ages, but never used the forums, nice to have a warm welcome

should be finishing off the brackets tomorrow, then I can start putting some more frame together to make sure it all fits together with the panels. Then I need to make a few bits and pieces, some more angle sections for the centre chamber panels to mount to, and the DVD drive holder, power switch, all the boring stuff that needs to get done on the frame before I work out where everything else fits.

hopefully I'll post some pictures of the frame tomorrow, unless it doesn't fit together, In which case I'll be crying in a corner somewhere.

 

[The Boy Riley]

So the brackets are nearly done, I was worried about how long it would take to touch up the second side of the brackets...



as there was a few of them...

then the realisation that I could just put some sort of jig on the vice



And after that, it went quite a bit faster...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybwnemUCvfg&feature=youtu.be

then the crap lining of that cloud...



40 of them with one side that need finishing

I managed 20 tonight before I got bored and am heading to the pub

thanks for reading

I think Typhoo has made a few sneaky appearances

 

[The Boy Riley]

Looks excellent, what do you do for a living though? I can't imagine a standard guy would have access to all that stuff.

The workshop is my Dads, my whole family do stuff sort of like this I suppose.

Dad is currently building a 4 inch scale traction engine

My Brother is restoring a Fordson super major tractor and recently bought a mark 1 Daimler Ferret armoured car to do up too (His eyes are bigger than his tummy)

so my little desk is a bit on the small side really for this house, doesn't even weigh a ton...

And at the minute I'm not working, but before that (to pay for this) I was doing some contract mining work, before that I traded forex and before that I worked at Overclockers

Anyhoo, been out and about caving today so not much progress, should finish up the brackets later on, tomorrow I'll hopefully get some frame together and hope it all fits, if it doesn't Christmas will be ruined

thanks for the positive comments

 

[The Boy Riley]

Finally got the brackets finished, and started playing with the frame so I thought I'd throw up some pictures.

The start of the evening, find some space...



lay some parts out and try to remember how you numbered everything...



get the base together



faff about for a while because you found some holes you forgot to thread up then wait till the morning as the light was so terrible the pictures looked like they were on the yellow submarine



sit back and think... it's a bit big...

I've put this last image in as a bit of a teaser, I'm currently working through the panels cleaning up the edges and holes and then fitting them so those pictures will follow after Christmas

and... that feeling that it's a bit big soon disappears when you pop the motherboard tray in...



Thank you for all the great comments and feedback

Have a great Christmas.

Sam.

 

[The Boy Riley]

I was looking at welding it but then did some working out, my room where it will be living has a door that is at 45 degrees and is 750 wide, with a small bit of the landing going to it, so if the whole desk was welded the legs would prevent it getting through the door, or at least all the way through.

so a welded desk with detachable legs... again the desk is 800x1500 so I would still have to put it sideways to get it through the door. with the way the upstairs landing comes to the room, someone would have to be awkward or flying to get it in

In the end I went for the fully dismember-able desk just so I could move it about on my own if need be.

And I started with very prominent joints in the design, with the joints being brushed or nickel plated then the design changed and then changed again etc. and I liked being able to see the joints but them be small if that makes sense? with the glass top so you can see the gubbins I wanted to see how the desk went together too but not have it thrown at me, so I went for small but visible joints

The angled section poking out the front will have some more box between them yea, but I need to decide where and what order I want to put the power switch/usb and reset in the right one and then mount the DVD drive through the left

The panels are going in really well, so I should have pictures up in a day or so (after Christmas probably)

Cheers for the questions guys and Happy Christmas

 

[The Boy Riley]

Thanks again for all the comments

And I thought about taking a table and modding it, but then I thought about what I wanted to do... then I got the glass for free... so I just made one speaking of...

Hopefully you all had an awesome Christmas so here's what I got up to during that quiet bit on Christmas day in the afternoon when everyone is done with presents and stuff but before the food bit

fitted the rear panel...



was a little tight in the corners but with some light adjustment it soon looked the part





then moved onto the internal sides, you can now see where the one of the PSU's will live







Dropped in the panels either side of the motherboard tray





A quick shot of the grill retaining panels on the side, there are similar panels on the rear, I'll be getting to these in a day or so.



Then we flip and move onto the radiator panels...





for some reason I flipped it back and did the triangle pieces next, not entirely sure why...



you can see the third side of these is still open, I have these sections left to make, they are small but will be a pain in the arse

and flip back again to do the underside cover



then move onto the front underside panels, these aren't fully attached yet as the fronts and diagonals are missing.



please excuse the lighting in these last photos, I got it better nearer the end, I had a really big light and a small space to shine it

That's all the panels, now to see some parts in it...

















now then, I was hoping to get some input on the layout, I have this space and these parts. I have yet to decide where the reservoir and pump will be, and dependant on them I will put the hard drives on various panels, so if you get some time to spare let me know what you think.

This is also what I intend on doing with the tops of the radiators, it looks better in real life, but I'm undecided, think I'm going to wait until the panels and frame are painted to see if it looks good. the underside will have a traditional rad grill though, not these.



and the money shot, I did all this so I know where to cut the hole in the back panel



Thanks for reading and sorry for the quality of the photos, the ones of the components have really shown up my camera so I'll see what I can do for the future



Been playing with some switches and USBs today trying to work out how they will fit into the front sections, I can do a bit more detail about how the USB came about if anyone is interested, but it was pretty straight forward, the USB socket had the common courtesy to be metric unlike motherboards

The task... put one of these, in a box section like the one next to it...



about an hour later....









I will be replacing the screws with stainless allen bolts so it matches the rest of the desk, and cutting them to length on the inside, even though you cant see them...I'll know...

On to the power switch , this one was again pretty straight forward







And finally, the reset, I put this on the wrong side of the test piece for some reason, but the wire for this will sneak out in the gap around the back of the power switch. The switch will be underneath the section so it's not on display and the panel will cover it's screw, which will again be a stainless allen and cut to length...

The fun part of this was the spacer, as for the first time this build the lathe got involved (even if it was for about 5 minutes) if you need a 3mm internal, below 8mm external, 4.4 mm high spacer, do not spend ten minutes rooting through crap to find one... just make it...





A lot of effort for something you will never see, but again, I'll know it's there and now so do you

Thanks for reading, Hope everyone had a good Christmas

 

[The Boy Riley]

So I thought I'd throw up a quick update before I disappear for new year I've been finishing off the legs today, as the metal rod for the attachment arrived a few days ago.

After the weekend I should be powering ahead with the frame as I now have a time restraint on the use of the workshop, but I'll explain that one at the end

Righty, today saw the lathe coming out to play, everyone, meet the little lathe...



half a leg base and the bar to fit into it



The best part of using a lathe, it makes finishes like this take about 30 seconds









and add the little feet



I'll be finishing the bars next week

The reason why I need to stop faffing about; My Dad (proud owner of this workshop) is building a 4 inch scale traction engine, he hasn't been able to carry on with it as he's been waiting for a casting...



The cylinder block, so he needs me to get off the milling machine and clean all the aluminium off it so he can start work on this

Happy New Year !

 

[The Boy Riley]

Looks incredible....

Two questions:
Your PCI/IO shield bracket looks anodised suggesting you may not have made that one yourself? If not could you either tell me here, or mail me in trust where you got it, if it is from a competitor.
Also how are you threading all of your screw holes?

Thanks

kd

The I/0 shield is a danger den one, I was going to make one, then it became so much messing about that it was cheaper to buy one and ship it from the states

And I'm just tapping everything atm, might end up threading the screen stand attachment later on with the lathe, but for now its all nice and simple

Nice lathe!

I love this lathe its just such a nice lathe to use... the bigger lathe is really hard work, whereas the myford is the perfect size and it's nearly as old as me I think (or we've had it as long as I can remember)

 

[The Boy Riley]

mate the work you have produced so far is to a level that is fully professional....seriously great job you are indeed very very talented and obviously quite wealthly.....5k plus dropped in a desk...bravo sir bravo

lol Not wealthy, I did some work with mining a month or two ago, so 8 weeks underground in some not nice places then got paid and just threw it into this
I just have terrible impulse control, I had the plan and suddenly some pennies so I did it

 

[The Boy Riley]

So I've been a bit quiet of late, I wanted to have a bit more done for this update but it might be a week or so until I can get the rest done so it seemed like a good point to stop and post some pictures

Here's where we left off, I was about half way through the leg pieces, they had incomplete uprights and no end caps.



And then on with the new stuff

Finishing up the leg attachment bars







Making space for the power switch and usbs





















Milled the slot for the DVD drive







These were a bit of a pain in the arse to make... but the came up nice in the end









Right, back to the frame finished up the small angled sections so I could mount the panels to them...













and an attached leg...



The end caps came out well too





And back to the dvd drive...





That's all for now as far as the desk goes The screws holding the usbs and DVD drive are just ones I found that fit, I'm waiting on the new ones that match the rest of the desk

Should be getting my replacement blocks from EK this week and I think I've found the colour I want to paint the frame... the panels will be black powder coat so mat black.

I was doing some climbing at an indoor wall a week or so ago and spotted a water bottle lying about... a red sigg bottle to be a bit more precise.

So what do you all think about...

Red?

 

[The Boy Riley]

Just letting you guys know the build is still going (slowly but surely) been really busy and now I'm off climbing in Scotland for a week, Should have updates once I'm back in the workshop

 

[The Boy Riley]

Hoping to get some new updates soon!

soon... working on the grill mounting, incredibly simple idea, tedious to make

and the hole in the rear panel is done for the motherboard I/O, pics soon.

 

[The Boy Riley]

Oh hi there

buying more parts this week, see you soon :O

 

[The Boy Riley]

updates !

UPDATES :O

so here's what you might expect when I've been quiet for this long...



But just started a new job so on with the build

Frame back together and panels back on





Got the second pump, now I don't need to dismantle the current pc to rob its D5



Made the threaded strips that retain the I/O shield on the back panel... these took longer than you might think, but they turned out really nice.







Cut the mesh to size for the radiator chamber vents





Got the fans the other day so dropped them in





And checked to see if the board fits with the newly attached I/O shield ( it does )



currently at the point where all the places for HDD's and the aquaero are drawn on, so working out what needs to be cut to accommodate the wiring for everything and trying to deicide how I want the cooling to look

more to come soon.

***Please resize images to no wider than 1024 please***

 

[The Boy Riley]

Very nice, just a question.... the pic HERE could you let me know what dimensions you used? (i.e; W x H x D)

All the box section is inch x inch / 25.4x25.4mm

thanks for all the interest guys, more as soon as I can manage.

 

[The Boy Riley]

Thanks The Boy Riley! Just wondering what thickness you used also? Is it 3.2mm thick?

its 10 swg I think, but yea its 3.2 mm

 

[The Boy Riley]

Oh and how thick is the aluminium you've used for your motherboard tray?

3mm on the tray 2mm on the other panels

Been getting on with the wiring layout and tubing this weekend, so here's some pictures

Picked up some fittings so I could see what they look like in person and how many I'll need with the layout etc, got some test tubing too so don't get scared off by the horrible white tube.

Dropped the Radiators in one side and put the grills on, last thing I wanted was to put my finger through one of them whilst wrestling tubing.


This seemed like the easiest and least kink-worthy way to do the rads and it looks awesome, the pictures unfortunately don't do the fittings justice.





moved onto playing with the motherboard, so I cracked out the CPU and RAM blocks for a play.



these look nice, but I'll be swapping the angles for 90 degrees then I wont need any other rotary joints for the rest of the board (apart from ram block to res at the end)

Found some tubing from my last rig (shows the quality of Tygon as its been sat for 4 1/2 years and is still perfect) using the tygon gave a much better visual than the white stuff but it is only 7/16 so the real thing will be a smidge thicker but the extra flex was really noticeable compared to the XSPC white stuff. I was a bit shocked at the difference as a lot of people I've spoken to rave on about the XSPC tubing, but then again Tygon is about 5 times the price...





Spent the rest of today cutting down some offcuts of box section to start the hard drive brackets and they look good so far



Reverse progress :O

Had a setback with the wiring, I had to send back my Aquaero so I'll be jumping back on the fans and whatnot once I get a new one, should be trying to forge ahead with the rest of the wiring though.

Thanks for reading

***Please resize images to no wider than 1024 please***

 

[The Boy Riley]

Nice! Is that the HDD you are gonna use on a £10000 project!

lol no its an old broken one I don't mind getting covered in aluminium dust in the workshop

 

[The Boy Riley]

Epic m8 come the updates coming along can't wait to see more! If you are using the clear tubing what colour coolant are you going to be using?

Stoner81.

leaning on the mayhems metallic stuff as it will match the paint perfectly but need to make sure the loop doesn't have any static liquid etc first