Project Stealthlow

waynio · 10 Feb 2011 at 10:05

Greavesy said:
Case is looking great I really cant wait for the acylic to go in. I'm starting to get a little jelous of your ability to do this O:.

LOL don't be mate I think it helps that I didn't have a big break since completing air cube

but thanks

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Started on making the fan mount bars, done the filing on 1 & a half out of 6 bars, I'll need to be ultra persistant to get all 6 complete by the end of the day, there is another 2 or 4 but they are slightly different spec so I'll leave them until I got the main 6 done.
Think I'd better get some gloves on too as my finger tips are starting to blister, just don't like gloves as you can't feel the piece your working on.

Like this but I improved the design a tiny bit, you'll see later

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waynio · 10 Feb 2011 at 20:13

Holy sheet I've developed a muscle in my forearm I never knew existed & it aches a lot, filing total for yesterday & today rounds up to about 17 hours, gahhh I feel like a zombie.

The brass thread inserts are meant for acyrlic but I must have miss drilled the bottom right side holes for the helicoils so were not a good tight fit so I used a 4mm drill bit for the brass inserts, placed them in the hole.

Hammer time

Put masking tape over it to keep it in place & whacked it in with a hammer, then fine tuned the whacking with a small hammer so it was in flush, good stuff

, seems I clipped the back panel & it made the right panel not go on correct so whacked the excess off with a chisel & it goes on fine now.

Fan mount bars.

Cut the main 6 bars to required size & was only gonna do these 6 & the other optional 2 or 4 tomorrow but done the lot today.

Many hours of this.

Test fit

Panels on with an extra bolt near the top back of the side panels & the front 2 fan mounts, top fan mount & bottom fan mount filing done.

Diggsy · 10 Feb 2011 at 23:26

The amount of work being put into this is incredible. Fair play to you mate

Really is taking shape now, can't wait to see the acrylic on

Sayso · 11 Feb 2011 at 08:04

Haven't been to this thread for a while...all i can say is its looking amazing.

Cant wait to see it together

You should really look at getting sponsored for this free stuff is always a bonus hint hint OCuk

King Damager · 11 Feb 2011 at 12:40

Really starting to look like this build is coming together!

Actually can see a full case now, in a kind of half built form

kd

Predicament · 11 Feb 2011 at 12:59

@developing muslce in your arms:

Did you never work out / play sports ^?

waynio · 11 Feb 2011 at 15:57

Diggsy said:
The amount of work being put into this is incredible. Fair play to you mate

Really is taking shape now, can't wait to see the acrylic on

Thanks Diggsy

, I might be leaving the acrylic work till last so it doesn't get scuffed although I suppose I could wrap it up & put it aside until it's time to put it all in

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Sayso said:
Haven't been to this thread for a while...all i can say is its looking amazing.

Cant wait to see it together

You should really look at getting sponsored for this free stuff is always a bonus hint hint OCuk

Thanks Sayso

, I've been building up my skills & knowledge before I take on sponsorship as I wouldn't want to let them down, but during this build & definitely after this I'll be confident enough in my abilities to say yep I can do it anyone wanna sponsor me

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King Damager said:
Really starting to look like this build is coming together!

Actually can see a full case now, in a kind of half built form

kd

Yeah it's getting much closer now, thanks kd

Predicament said:
@developing muslce in your arms:

Did you never work out / play sports ^?

Oh absolutely & used to do finger pressups but I meant I developed a particular muscle in my forearm that has never had such a workout lol, infact I'm walking funny because of the repetitive actions from all the filing as parts of my body have been over used while other parts haven't had much to do so yeah I have a slightly funny walk at the moment & 1 forearm solid while the other is fairly normal lol

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Gundog48 · 11 Feb 2011 at 17:26

waynio said:
Oh absolutely & used to do finger pressups but I meant I developed a particular muscle in my forearm that has never had such a workout lol, infact I'm walking funny because of the repetitive actions from all the filing as parts of my body have been over used while other parts haven't had much to do so yeah I have a slightly funny walk at the moment & 1 forearm solid while the other is fairly normal lol .

[INSERT INNUENDO HERE]

A fantastic build though, and it is great to see the parts slowly coming together. The workmanship is excellent and I hope you get it finished with no problems!

waynio · 11 Feb 2011 at 18:25

Gundog48 said:
[Charger from l4d2 ]

A fantastic build though, and it is great to see the parts slowly coming together. The workmanship is excellent and I hope you get it finished with no problems!

Thanks Gundog48

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Just taken the mobo tray out & going to use the rest of today to get it measured & marked up for the motherboard & fan mounts, I'll also have to take the 2nd level out so I can put vents for the PSU at some point.

waynio · 12 Feb 2011 at 19:47

Knowing people are following the log & commenting really does give me that bit more drive to keep moving forward, without the comments from people I'd still be doing slack efforts lol so thanks for that

& last but not least thanks to every other modder who do amazing projects who have inspired me to do better

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I marked up the mobo panel for the fan mounts & where the pci/io piece will go during the night but need to make the pci/io piece before I can mark the mobo mounting holes so I'll work on that tomorrow, had a crazy long sleep waking up at 2 pm yesterday after the filing so I count that as 2 days worth of sleep

, I should have been up all day too which should mean a decent update by the end of today but I nodded off the sleep so wrecks the acceptable noise time levels so tomorrow it is

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LOL I can't figure out why I didn't draw the pci/io lines on the materials when I drew the mobo tray layout last night as it's taken near 3 hours & it's ready for taking to the garage to be cut out which with it being near 8 pm I'll leave until tomorrow now but a little more rest won't hurt

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This was inspired by an aluminium billet pci/io piece I seen a while ago here on bit-tech but the guys price was I think nearly 200 euros (about the cost of the aluminium on this project), I was in love with it but the price ended that lol so I decided to make my own solid pci/io piece by making layers, the theory is spot on, just hope it turns out the same

taken precise measurements from a lian-li piece, made the sketchup model & now it's time to make it.

I'll be using 2x 5mm acrylic sheets, 2x 2mm aluminium sheets & 1x 1mm sheet to make a 15mm thick piece, only the 2mm inside sheet will have slots, all the rest will be plain cut out area, always wanted to make my own & figure this will be the easiest way to do it compared to bending a sheet of alu.

Kanpai · 13 Feb 2011 at 14:09

Big respect to you for trying something of this calibre mate, subbed!

Can't wait to see the final outcome

Monkey Puzzle · 13 Feb 2011 at 17:30

I want an IO/pci bracket machined from billet.

Looks so nice, but £200 is better spent! Will be really interesting to see how the layered PCI&I/O plate comes together.

Good work brushing the aluminium - looks VERY nice. What did you use for it - sandpaper/wire wool?

waynio · 13 Feb 2011 at 22:49

nayan89 said:
Big respect to you for trying something of this calibre mate, subbed!

Can't wait to see the final outcome

Thanks nayan89.

Monkey Puzzle said:
I want an IO/pci bracket machined from billet. Looks so nice, but £200 is better spent! Will be really interesting to see how the layered PCI&I/O plate comes together.

Good work brushing the aluminium - looks VERY nice. What did you use for it - sandpaper/wire wool?

They look bada$$, only seen 1 but yeah it was awesome

, for brushing the alu I used satinising mops, pretty much a polishing mop but like wire wool they are excellent for cleaning up messy alu brushing & many other things :cool:

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Update

This was going to be an update earlier but got cracking on with an alternative so it wasn't a wasted day

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LOL didn't go to plan :facepalm: the metal work did but the 5mm acrylic pieces didn't it's just soo brittle so came back in to get my thoughts together & as usual came up with an alternative which is all aluminium & if that fails then I could always go with a pci/io piece from another case & admit defeat on making my own but I'll give it another try but yeah that means loads of marking up again which takes a while to do right.

So the new plan is 5 3mm pieces bolted together, got 1 done & checked the IO cover from my last mobo & it won't go in easily because of it being 3mm instead of 1mm thick so to fix that all I need to do is give it a bevel on the last piece so the notches of the IO cover can click on.

Anyway the marking up will be nice & fast actually as I have 1 of the pieces made & it's spot on so it'll make a good template even for the 1 with the slots so back to it I go

included the failed acrylic pieces for a laugh, the 1st 1 when drilling ripped a corner off & the 2nd 1 was going ok & cut out the IO piece but the reciprocating saw melted the cuts so wouldn't fall out & with already being frustrated with the 1st piece I whacked it out & it ripped it in half lol.

Hopefully I'll have some more pieces done by the end of the day, especially the 1 with the slots.

Started off positive.

Metal work went well.

Hmmmm acrylic pieces

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Last try but this time all alu

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Alright, got the needed pieces marked up in about 15 minutes thanks to the piece I already made, time to cut these out & even with getting them done as fast as possible it took 4 hours to cut all these & they require a lot of filing, I'll just have to remember it'll be worth it lol.

Yeah they look rough as I don't know what but that will change after heaps of filing

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King Damager · 13 Feb 2011 at 23:39

Haha, enjoy the filing! A couple of weeks at this rate and it will be "heaps of sleeving" xD

Just out of interest, you might have answered this one before, but how you going to manage vibration?

kd

waynio · 13 Feb 2011 at 23:49

King Damager said:
Haha, enjoy the filing! A couple of weeks at this rate and it will be "heaps of sleeving" xD

Just out of interest, you might have answered this one before, but how you going to manage vibration?

kd

Hehe quite possibly

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I'm hoping the 3mm alu with solid connections will prevent vibes, on Air cube the hdd cage was 1mm sheet & was very faint vibes so put some accoustic foam underneath but was still there so the vibes were coming from the middle hdd out of the 5 so tightened up & the vibes went away

so this is why I think the 3mm sheet with the solid connections should do the trick

but if not it'll be quickly sorted.

waynio · 15 Feb 2011 at 05:38

Started at 9:15 PM, finished 4:40 AM lol, managed to keep the noise quiet by clamping heavily & holding the pieces so they don't make any vibration or high pitch noise, then came in & cleaned the kitchen, made a coffee & started putting this together while parking my rear, ahhhhh

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They still require some more work but nothing major

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King Damager · 15 Feb 2011 at 09:21

/me thinks you should invest in a sander ;p

Nice mug btw

kd

Voices · 15 Feb 2011 at 09:59

Wow! Just seen this log... Great stuff, mate!

waynio · 15 Feb 2011 at 17:31

King Damager said:
/me thinks you should invest in a sander ;p

Nice mug btw

kd

Got one but couldn't use it in the middle of the night, the sanding you see in the last pics was just to get the rough stuff off the edges.
Cappuccino power

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Voices said:
Wow! Just seen this log... Great stuff, mate!

Thanks Voices

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Greavesy · 15 Feb 2011 at 19:16

How long you think it will be now, starting to look better than it did when it looked awesome, so i dont exactly know where that leaves it

Had any ideas for another project while working on this one

?