Scratch Build – In Progress ProtoHype - (paused)

Thanks, nice to hear you like it.
I'm studying designengineering at Chalmers university of technology.

 

The votes are well deserved! Is that Industrial Design Engineering?

 

Thanks...
yeah kind of. "Industrial Design Engineering" is the 5 year master programme, mine is the 3year version of it, but basically the same.

 

It looks like you designed the case on CATIA, thats quiet impressive.

 

Uuuuh, alu-work. Gotta sub to this one!

 

Thanks..yes you right, thats CATIA. We use it at school and thats where I got it from. I like it since it feels so logical. Atleast the solid modelling part, the surface modelling im learning right now and it feels a little bit trickier but I guess thats the case on all similar programs.

Now im off to pic upp some alu...

 

okay, guys
Next update

This is the part Im about to fabricate next, it is the top (and bottom) of the case as you probably already figured out.

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This is how the finished parts hopefully will look. It's a quite advanced shape, atleast I think so. Since I don't have acess to a CNC, the rounded surfaces will be a pain in the ass to fabricate

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This is the profile of the bars and the support for them. The bottom of the bars and the support might look a little bit unnecessarily complex. The reason for this is that there will be alumium mesh added between the rods and this will probably make it a little bit more easy to install. There is also the airflow in mind. The support will probably still see some modifications to ease the fabrication, if you know of any, please let me know since I'm still learning.

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This is how I intendt on creating the curve. Milling the parts in a stair patern and then even out the curved surface by hand with a file. This is the only solution I have to the problem at the moment, please let me know if you got a better one that will save me some elbow grease.
I was thinking of fabricating my own cutter with the desired radius but I would need to fabricate 3 different ones and also a tool to create them.

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Picked up some aluminium square rods last week. The thickness is 20mm and it was delivered in 6 X 1m lengts.

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The first thing to do was to cut them all down to 50cm lengts.

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At this point I'm starting to realise how much this case will weigh...a lot

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Since the rods are 20mm square, I need to mill them down 2mm since I want them to be 18 mm. I could have bought 18mm square rods from the beginning but since (half) of these rods will be on the top of the case and very vissible, I wan't them to be perfect. There is almost always some dents or large scratches from the metal supplier and therefore I prefer to have some excess material.
Btw this is one of the mills at school that I finally have acess to, not my own. This one is much larger and there is a lot of nice tools. Like this facemill.

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I also discovered a second vice wich helped me speed up the facemilling process a lot, since there is a total of 24 sides that need to be treated.

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I ran out of time and had to stop after half of the pieces where done. This is what I got so far.

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See ya

 

On rounding the tops: Do you have access to a rotary table, tail stock, and A high-clearance mill?

 

vashed va sngte

 

I got access to a rotary table (around 12"), and a high clearance mill but I'm not to shure about the tailstock though. I think I saw one at the workshop but I'm not shure of the condition, guess I'll have to check it out.

I think I get your point though... mounting all the rods on a support and "turning" them all at once, one small step at a time right? I't would be sweet but im a little bit worried about the rigidity when milling though since the size is quite large.

I'm not shure I understand that one but atleast I understand the smiley, Thanks

 

Really nice project you've got there : >
The harddrive looks AMAZING!

 

Thanks a lot, I assume you meant the DVD-drive since I havn't touched the harddrive yet

 

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."

well... to me it looks as you have a pile of really nice stuff.. not junk at all... but you seem to have a good imagination.. did you use to have a pile of junk, and thats where you got your imagination?

 

I got that quote when I was doing my first "real" project, (Widescreen Projector) since most of the parts from that build was taken from something else like typewriters, shopshelves and computer parts. It's kind of been my way of building things ever since I was a kid, I take what I got, (also the reason for my MACgyver avatar ). However this build I agree with you is not made of junk and I got access to a nice toolshop which is needed because of the complexity of the case. But I still have that reuse thinking even though it doesn't show of in this project..

Thanks for noticing

 

WHAT HAPPENED MATE? WHERE IS THE MODDING. BEEN WAITING FOR ALMOST 2 MONTHS NOW. lol

 

Yay.. nice to hear your waiting. The modding is still going. However there hasn't been any ludicrous speed since there has been a lot of work at school. The current stage with the "toprods" have also proven to be a true pain because of some problems with the mill and therefore ended upp taken forever. So i'm currently working with other parts too speed up the process a little bit atleast

And since you ask ...here's a teaser for you.



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more to come soon.

 

That looks.... expensive...

 

Been a while since the last update and the resone for that is quite a lot of work att shcool and of course the holidays. Also had some alignment problems with the mill im currently using at school and therefore the toprods have ended up taking longer to fabricate than estimated. For that reason I have also started the work on some other parts of the project to speed up the process a bit. This is the work currently done on the top rods

all 12 rods and 24 sides are facemilled and ready for the rough milling.


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Here is the first rod taking shape. Each step has a different depth to create the a rough shape of the desired radius.


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This is suposed to bee one of the underside of the rods. Managed to screw it upp a bit because the previously mentioned alignment problems with the vices. Think I managed to save it though.

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The work on the toprods are on hold untill I manage to solve the problems with the vices.
Therefore I started working on the HD-blocks that are a lot less problematic to fabricate.

This is the plan for the HD blocks. Two solid Alu blocks that will cool up to three hard drives. The water will enter the top block and continue on to the second block through a single tube and then exit the second block through 6 separate tubes.


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Layout of the top block. The middle "plate" is supposed to be a plexi window to add to the geekyness. There will also be a thin sheat of rubber to (hopefully) make it leak proof.


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Sideview of the top block, here you can see the chanel structure


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Bottom block, with chanel structure.


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Time for fabrication.
First of I need some thick pieces of alu. These are 160x20mm and cut with an angle grinder


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Using an endmill to trimm the edges and make it the right dimentions.


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sorry for the non workable clicking images, but im of for a trips to london and don't have time to fix that. see ya

*edit: fixed and added some images and text.

 

Have fun. We'll be here waiting when you get back.

 

thx, cheap.
The trip was a blast.


*I've edited the update since I was in a reall hurry when posting it and therefore didn't have time to dubbelcheck. Realised that some images where wrong and some were missing so I added those.

Would like to hear your thoughts and ideas of the HD block design. Either good or bad.