Project Stealthlow

[waynio]

Ahhh, got past a fiddly time consuming bit, the hdd cage mount clamps & still managing to avoid adhesives completely except for the acrylic adhesive, all the metal work so far has been countersunk bolts & tapping , finished this bit at 11pm & was a rather chilly -5c .

What you are seeing is 4mm sheet, then 19mm square bar, hdd cages inbetween a slim 3mm pieces & another 3mm piece on top that overlaps the hdd cage base & meets up with the angle bar of the cage, it's such a good fit that I might leave the extra clamp I was going to make for the front & back of the cages as it takes a little force to make the cages slide out.

 

[waynio]

thats looking really good mate! keep up the good work

Thanks Zairs , I think I'll engrave codes underneath all pieces when I have them anodised or even if I paint them all myself just so I know how to put it all back together lol .

BTW it weighs a tiny bit short of 10 lbs so far lol.

 

[waynio]

I'm a bit down, the fan holders just aren't gonna happen, the thickness of the sheet was 4.9mm not 5mm & I never knew until after I made the holders that cast acrylic sheet varies in thickness, this made the slot for the fans shrink by 0.5mm I tried filing & finger sanding to make the gap bigger but failed making a dogs dinner out of it so no striped lit up parts now, I sure don't fancy spending another £50 to replace the acrylic & rebuild, I'd sooner put that towards a scroll saw so I'm gonna time out & think about an alternative, actually I'm really disappointed with acrylic now after finding this fact out the hard way, sure it's fine for single layered tasks but for layered stuff that requires absolute precision it really isn't good if you don't know about this lack of precision in the material, however if you know about the varying thickness & plan according to that fact then it's not all bad & workable so I'll know for the next encounter I have with acrylic, also I messed up by not making jigs for while I stuck the holders together so they became rather wonky & required heaps of sanding to blend them seamlessly, done the sanding on 1 of them but wasn't happy with the result, they were supposed to be perfect fit & like I said, dogs dinner lol, so it's time to forget about the first big hiccup & focus on an alternative .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPWaQKuqENU

I wrote this a few hours ago, was tired & hungry, since had a meal, awesome far better alternative ideas already brewing so there will be a surprise in this log after all , I might let the silly season pass through until I get started back up though & enjoy a bit of that GTX 580 goodness while it's still a beast , so over & out until January .

 

[waynio]

Thats bad news about the fan holders mate. What exactly did you want to achieve? Maybe some of the members on here could come up with suggestions.

I'm glad you offered help, it gave me a kick up the bum to see if I could resolve it .

Was about to post a why I can't fix it splurge of text & thought damnit I aint quitting on it yet lol, just checked what 5mm acrylic I have left over & only just have enough to remake the 1 I really messed up, the other 2 only got a light mess up so I got the 2 ready made ones put them in a tuppa ware box perfect fit & poured boiling water on them & put a lid on it & left for 5 min & simply hoped it would loosen the adhesive a little & it did, had to use a very thin blade to slowly force them open & finally got all the pieces for the 2 holders seperated so I have a lucky 2nd chance to do these holders correct with jigs which I will definately make this time

Here is the redesigned fan holder which accounts for the 4.9mm pieces so with this they should work perfect.

Did a loose fit together with a side & back panel to see what it looks like for the overall height .

 

[waynio]

Wow that is going to be huuuge

Glad to see you figured out a solution, here's hoping you have no more snags. Still making decent progress though

Yep It's gonna be a high tower but if all goes to plan it should be a nice looking case & yeah so glad I'm able to have a 2nd shot at doing the fan holders , just need to finish off all the fan holders but need the jig materials first, the extra clamps for the hdd system, then the optical mount, then I'll need to buy some mdf sheet & poles for making jigs so I can reattempt doing the fan holders, the fan holders aren't going to be polished, instead I'll frost them for better & more subtle light spread, once this bottom area is done the next step will be making the curved pieces, then can mark up for the mobo tray mounting holes pci i/o piece fan mounts side panels & pattern etc, I'll be leaving wire management holes for close to last.

First time I've held a milling bit & sheet they are mighty sharp when you twist them (like a fresh razer) I can see these doing what's needed perfectly the first task will be cutting the extra 1mm step out of the holders & 0.5mm shaved off the bunch of sticks that join the fan hole pieces.

 

[waynio]

Very little done but made the basic form of the extra hdd cage clamps, just need to shape the flat bars now & trim any excess material away from the stand & the hdd cages for it to work 100% correct.

 

[waynio]

Still not got to the diy store so it'll possibly be boxing day to new year before I get the materials now.

But in other news Air Cube is a MOTY nominee over on bit-tech which has made me extra happy for this time of year , there are 18 awesome mods on display & can pick 3 this year, I'm not asking for votes & didn't even vote for myself but if you like it enough compared to the other nominees then why not , but just vote for the ones you like the most, there is some really awesome mods on .

http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2010/12/24/mod-of-the-year-2010/1?tcs=nl

 

[waynio]

Woooo hoooooooo produced an update in the freezing cold , still shivering.

Had to re do the optical flat mounts as I did it so the optical were sticking out by 3mm by accident (I'm blaming the cold )

So got all the bottom storage bits done, hmmm maybe not, still need to shape the flat bar clamps.

I'll work on getting it all cleaned up & brushed nicely later, just focusing on getting the basic form first, that is definitely it until I get the jig materials & on the 3rd jan I'm painting the house so that might take a few days.

Anyway it feels good to have made a little more progress .

 

[waynio]

Here's a picture to show the clearance between the fan holders & the optical.

And here is rough concept of the jig I'll make for doing the bending, this is with a slightly adjusted curve at the top so it will duct the air out better.

For the poles I'll be chopping up broom sticks lol .

 

[waynio]

Starting to really take shape. Look forward to the next update, hopefully you'll have better luck with the fan holders this time around

Thanks Diggsy, should all go to plan this time with jigs .

The wheels of progress are slowly starting to turn again , got the jig materials & cut the 2 main panels to size & have an accurate model made for a guide for the jig, I'll mark up with the rest of today & get them made tomorrow.
I was recomended to get dowel poles but for ones of decent thickness it would have cost too much just for a jig so stuck with original plan of broom stick handles , they are 28mm thick & cost £2 per 1200mm pole & got 3 of them, I'll get 4 poles out of each one.
The panels are 18mm chip board, why get quality wood to be wasted on a jig?.

 

[waynio]

Brought the new year in with the bending jig .

All the best for 2011 everyone .

 

[waynio]

wow! nice looking work thus far dude, very nice indeed.

Thanks mate .

LOL, I really need to tidy & clean up the garage before I can proceed, started playing twister again & it totally wrecks my concentration for what I aim to do when over there so cannot think on the objective lol .

So I'll get it as sorted as possible tomorrow, it's a shame as it's a nice sized garage but the work space is made ultra small with the 2 motorbikes, 2 big fridges, multigym & barbells, dumbells stacks of beer all over the place so can barely move, just wish my dad would get rid of the bikes then I could set all the machines up properly would make working over there like a dream compared to how it is.

Probably got 4 foot by 8 foot with obstacles so really need to have a good tidy then I might be able to think straight when over there.

---------

Just finished the big tidy & clean up so I'm good to start tomorrow, got heaps more space again, should have taken a before & after picture for LOLs.

 

[waynio]

Waynio,

How old are you, if you dont mind me asking.

33, had to stop & think about that one, I don't celebrate my birthdays so my age skips my memory lol , I only celebrate good things like completing a case or something else worth celebrating .

 

[waynio]

Yaaaay got past the worst of the man flu so only got lots of mucus now lol.

Marked the acrylic to re-make the failed fan holder, then cut & this time I decided to use the jigsaw, went very well, I remember the first time I tried cutting thinish materials with the jigsaw & I never knew of the essential concept of clamping down a work piece very well before trying to cut so now I do & it went perfectly fine, it's a very cheapo jigsaw too so was pleasantly surprised with the clean cuts , then I used the disc sander to get perfect edges, then used the hole cutter to add the holes.

Now then, I put the milling bit to use, first I changed the drill speed to max & all I did was get the work base to the height I wanted to cut at & clamped a piece of wood so I could slide the acrylic pieces through slowly, do this for all 3 pieces adjusting the clamp as I go, did 2 cutting stages for all pieces, now standard 120mm fans can slide in & out without modification.

I found I'll need to make all the thin sticks of acrylic a little thinner to match the edges, then I'm good to start making jigs for these fan holders, then I should have perfect fan holders as I originally intended .

Here is a picture of the flanged nut rivets experiment that I milled just enough depth for them to sit flush, when I ordered the 8mm milling bit I had other nut rivets in mind so to use these how I want to I should buy the correct size mill bit so it looks correct.

 

[waynio]

Thanks Diggsy, text update for today .

Spent the day wet sanding the acrylic adhesive off all the pieces, had to else the bond would have been off, then cleaned them all up & about an hour ago used the acrylic adhesive again but with jigs this time so I only stuck the thin pieces together & the pieces with holes, so tomorrow I'll get the thin blocks sanded down to correct size & then stick the thin pieces to the larger holed pieces, then sand again for a nice smooth finish, looking forward to getting these pieces done with, that bending jig I made is begging to be used .

 

[waynio]

Jig for the pieces with holes, 2 seperate layers to save space.

The stick bunches.

Hiccup of adhesive bonding the pieces to the chip board, D'oh.

Had to line up a piece of wood on the floor & whack away with a mallet to release them, the stick bunches stayed intact but messy .

Did a quick dry fit trying out all 3 holders.

Sanded down all the chip board & whilst I was at it I blended the stick bars together to make them seamless.

Then combined them all how I wanted them about an hour ago by sticking them together, so need to let them set & cure for a few hours at least, the day is still young so I might be able to wet sand them all later in the evening for a perfect finish so another update today is possible, it'll take a fair bit of wet sanding though :thumb:.

 

[waynio]

Still looking very interesting. Can't wait to see how this is going to look.
Whan are you going to start forming the curve?

Pretty soon , can't say exactly when as I'm trying to get the base as complete as possible before moving over to the bending, I am a bit eager to get started with that though .

I was really wanting to order gigabytes p67-ud7 but at £285 it takes the p so I am no longer loyal to gigabyte, they out priced themselves .

So I had a good look through others that have ok overclocking ability, 8 sata ports & have good reviews on them, no need for multi gpu or some other advanced features so I got my eye fixed on a ASUS P8P67 Deluxe at £185, then researched a little more & settled for the ASUS P8P67 Pro at £140 , asus is a brand I dodged like the plague as I had nothing but faulty boards in the past but gigabyte prices convinced me to give them another try & they have the funky looking BIOS so that might be nice .

So this enabled me to buy some other bits so I ordered a corsair 850w 100% modular psu, 3 enermax apollish white led fans, prolimatech megahalems heatsink anodised black , & when I get the money for the gigabyte hd 5870 I just sold I'll be able to buy a i5-2500k when they release on sunday .

Already received the ram I ordered the other day, it's ocz platinum 1600mhz 6,8,6,24 so should be good & is normal height heatsink so no problems with air cooling .

 

[waynio]

Did a few hours wet sanding then called it quits @ midnight, I'll finish them off tomorrow, got 1 of them close to perfect though so far, the one with the fan in , they all only had a simple wipe down with tissue, once they are to a standard I can't fault I'll wash them properly & call them complete .

I'm going to try keeping a good pace from now with the new hardware on it's way, I'll be sure not to rush it though , I have no idea when I might have this complete but I'll do bit by bit properly.

 

[waynio]

Looking good now, those little fan holders are really starting to take shape. Do you plan to light them up with LED's or just let the fans light them?

I have to say though, not only do you have some skills, but you have a LOT of patience. I would have got the 2lb hammer out by now and did some demolition

As far as I know enermax apollish fans are really brightly lit so them alone should light it up plenty good enough , I do have a 100cm long led flexi light that I'll use somewhere nice though , about the hammering it lol I dunno my patience has really grown with this being my 4th scratch build, you really get a grip of how much dedication is needed to do things right & it can take time so when you know this you just tend to go with the flow .
Thanks Diggsy .

Loose track of this thread for a little bit and it's all change. Glad you got the fan holder/shrouds sorted out in the end. From the hardware you listed looks like is going to turn into quite the computer.

I would love to do something like this but I doubt I would have the patience to do it either.

It's a good thing I have the air cube to keep me going while I make this else it would be a rushed effort , the fan holders could be left as they are but the perfection bug is whooping my rear & telling me to make the joints seamless which requires a LOT of wet sanding .
And the new parts should be a nice upgrade coming from Q9650 & ddr2 .
Thanks Greboth .

Think I came last in mod of the year 2010 with the Air Cube lol , but it was nice to be nominated amongst such excellent mods .

 

[waynio]

Got all the system parts ordered now & should have them on Monday, the spec will be.

Corsair Pro Gold AX850 PSU
ASUS P8P67 Pro Intel P67
I5 2500K
Prolimatech Megahalems Black
4GB OCZ Platinum 1600mhz 6,8,6,18

I've got these fan holders extremely smooth all over now but still parts here & there aren't seamless, truly is a monstrously tedious part of the mod, don't know if I can take another day of trying to make them seamless lol, anyway I won't bore you all with any more pictures of these until I get the apollish fans lit up inside them, the original goal was just to get them all perfectly aligned which I achieved but then the goal turned into trying to make them seamless so rather than waste more time on these I want to see what they look like lit up before I do any more on them which means upper level time, hope it goes smoothly & no major hiccups .