Scratch Build – In Progress Lean and Green - 15-12-14 - as complete as it's going to get

I wish I could get blades like the ones you have. I can't seem to find blades made for cutting metal locally for squat. Everything is just for wood. The few that I did find dull quickly just trying to cut 16 gauge alu. I need to start looking online to see what I can find.

 

Thanks a lot Martinho I'll keep an eye out for your log & welcome to bit-tech mate.

Yeah it is quite silly having all that depth of table but virtually no front but that's how scroll saws are, must be so you can comfortably sit in front of it while using it but it sure isn't comfortable holding a heavy alu plate with 1 hand while guiding & holding down with the other for hours.

The extension isn't perfect though & ideally I should buy some 2 inch by 3 inch wood so I can cut the legs to precise length with nice straight edges, it's working good for supporting my pieces but it's catching & dragging now & then so doesn't make for smooth scrolling, it's made it a bit easier but could be perfected but only if I go & get the right wood size for clean cuts, think I'll get the wood tomorrow so I can perfect the extension.

My focus & patience was way off today, got a good bit done though I suppose but really felt like giving up but only have 1 more cut out of the stands sides & then another full stand side.

Like I said though I think I'm tackling the most grueling bit first so what else should I expect but I can't wait to get past the 10mm alu, it's causing me to moan lol.

Cheers mate, it's such a grind this 10mm alu.

Are they not easy to find over there, I don't use scroll saw blades, I use fretsaw blades they are a lot cheaper but still get the work done, I have no idea if there is even a difference other than the price, big difference on the price, the band saw blades I cut into smaller sizes are 1/4 inch wide ones & made by draper meant for metal, get a good few out of 1 blade but not sure if all scroll saws can take them, the brands I use are Draper for ok strength blades about £1.80 for 12, faithful piercing saw blades for higher tpi but weaker at £1.47 for 12 & brandless ones for really thin material that come in packs of 144 for about £3.

I checked & this place doesn't ship anywhere other than the UK but I get the Draper & Faithfull ones from here, also I'd say they drop ship going off how long they sometimes take to ship orders but these might help you in finding what to look for mate, they all have the part numbers so should be able to use them in local searches I expect.
http://www.toolbox.co.uk/fret-saw-blades-3709-0000
http://www.toolbox.co.uk/faithfull-piercing-saw-4287-69754

 

Ok since my sleep pattern is knackered once again but I was feeling highly focused I decided to just get on with it through the night but at a slow gentle pace so it didn't create noise & slowly but surely got it done.








1 of the big 10mm pieces done, 1 more to go.


And pulled all the templates & masking tape & protective film off the other 10mm pieces for a few group photos of 4 out of the 5 10mm alu pieces.






Warning, cutting 10mm good grade alu even with a good tool like the scroll saw I have tests a persons focus & patience, zombie mode with keeping control high is required.

 

hmm zombie mode...

looking great man!

 

By that I mean it goes at a painfully slow pace.

Thanks jokkos

 

I wish you more patience then my friend!!! Zombie mode can achieve better results I believe!!
Sorry if you mentioned that before but why didnt you go with 5mm aluminum or thinner?

 

Waynio, how much does it cost that machine?

 

Nice one Waynio and man you have patience.I always say good work needs time. Keep on the good work mate.

 

Zombie mode Cheesecake the extension legs need re doing so it lets pieces scroll about more freely, it's being a pretty good helper but could definitely be done better with perfect size legs.

2 Reasons, I wanted to break away from my usual method of overusing flat bars & angle bars after seeing how nice chunky pieces are as demonstrated by Attila & the stand needs to be nice & solid.
Cheers Alex

Mentioned here

Thanks Paslis, almost done with the 10mm alu I'll need to take a couple days off after it I think.

Got all the outside edges cut, now onto the inside cuts of the last 10mm panel.

 

looking good mate keep up the good work

 

That is awesome! Will be great once the grind is over!

 

Thanks peteski I love the look of the alu that came with protective backing but the big plates didn't come protected so they look miles duller & will require some cleaning up.

Cheers Kidmod I am really looking forward to getting past this 10mm alu. Sooooo close now.

 

Great looking parts man! top job

 

yeah, looking good!

 

Thanks mates

What AngelOD said earlier about the prints not printing 100% to scale, looks like something went wrong somewhere, either the HTPC side panels didn't print to the right scale or I used a wrong model to print, I have about 10 revisions of the design so this might have happened by accident.

The front low piece is spot on & so are the stands panels but the HTPC sides are wrong, I only started checking the measurements of the prints when Angel said I should & the stands sides were perfectly as they are in the model, only the HTPC sides are wrong & are 2 to 3mm bigger than they should be.

So more 10mm alu to order it looks like.

Time to clear out any invalid models so this doesn't happen again.

Only good thing about this mistake is it won't happen again & I'll be pretty good at working chunky alu by the time I'm done with it.

 

damn you never figure these things out until you have actually cut the part either . I found out the hard way that one of my printers prints everything very very slightly out of square I was on my third template before I figured it out

On the upside there is a massive amount of awesome piling up in your workshop

 

Free. He just had to pull it out of a stone. All hail the machinist boy king!

 

Yeah sucks but at least I know the printer is doing them to scale nicely, I must have used a model from an earlier revision, got about 10 revisions in the same folder so was just dumb human error for not measuring the prints to begin with so have moved all the invalid models to another folder so it doesn't happen again. .

Just bit the bullet & ordered the needed 10mm plate to re attempt the htpc parts, I will be 100% certain with all the prints I do from now, will take a good few days before it's with me I expect with the weekend being here so I'll move onto other parts to keep things moving along, I'd like to get the custom fans made but wouldn't mind getting some 0.5mm brass & copper to make something crazy good looking so think I'll start on the mobo panels & pci back pieces once I get that stand panel finished.

Back to flat broke again though, I was going to let any faulty bits pile up & then order what's needed when everything else is done but the htpc sides are crucial so I can put things together.

I'll put these wrong sized ones to good use though & tweak another design for a 2nd htpc & sell it because they really did turn out nice & it would be stupid to throw them on the scrap pile.

 

Ok Got all the 10mm alu cut but I have crap news & good news.

The crap news is the HTPC sides are 2 to 3mm too big on the size of the outside edges & inside edges so is no good for my design, I must have printed the design of an earlier revision, had about 10 revisions in my folder so mucked up good there, here is how they would have looked if I printed the right one.


And this is how it looks in reality, missing the inside lips because of the size difference.




I have checked all my newer prints & they all measure up spot on like the sketchup model so it was a pure muck up by me for using the wrong flipping model, d'oh.

Good news is I have ordered some more 10mm alu to re do them & the HTPC side panels made won't go to waste & I will make a tweaked version of the HTPC & sell it, but I won't be doing that one until I've completed Lean & Green.


So at least I have the stands panels done spot on at least & they were much harder to do because of the size & weight of them when they were stock plate alu.








Now I'm waiting for the extra 10mm alu it's time to pick what I'll do next, plan was to start off with doing all the difficult or patience testing bits first lol.

 

Well it was good practise

Now on to the real build