Hi guys, This is my first time posting up on this forum and also my first time building a fully custom case. Here's a youtube vid that I made to go over the case design on sketchup. Hope you enjoy Current progress IMG_0340 by nmrci1, on Flickr
Time for some pics. This build was designed as a quiet optimized case that will look different. I didn't want to have to put padding on the case, so I designed it so that I would be able to run the biggest fans possible at the slowest speeds. (This is also my first time using sketchup, so it doesn't look that good.) The side box where the power button is located will also house the hard drives and the wiring. The 2 fans on the front are 200mm, this is so that I can run them at 30% the whole time for maximum quietness. The motherboard tray will be lifted slightly of the back and there will be lights behind it, giving the tray a floating effect. I plan to put some sort of artwork on the back of the case. I hope you enjoyed.
Started to make progress on the build. IMG_0070 by nmrci1, on Flickr And I decided to hoolow out the insides to save weight and have more room for cable management later on. Before and after IMG_0073 by nmrci1, on Flickr IMG_0075 by nmrci1, on Flickr All done (without filing) IMG_0076 by nmrci1, on Flickr I also had modify my tools in order to make the cuts IMG_0077 by nmrci1, on Flickr I also need to find a reasonably cheap aircooler that is quiet, and preferably white. I think I might go with the H5 from cryorig, but I’m open suggestions. That’s all for now
Major update First I cut out the front I/O IMG_0219 by nmrci1, on Flickr Then the 4 pieces were brazed together IMG_0289 by nmrci1, on Flickr Then I mocked up the power supply cover IMG_0332 by nmrci1, on Flickr And this is how it sits now with most of the frame brazed IMG_0340 by nmrci1, on Flickr IMG_0338 by nmrci1, on Flickr Thanks for looking
What about something like the Phanteks TC14CS or the 12LS if you want smaller. Has black fins, but the fans cover that. Some of the top down coolers are pretty cool and you hardly ever see them put to use.
Thanks for the suggestions, but I don't think those are compatible with an AM3+ socket which I am running.
Ok, so finally an update. I cleaned up the welds and started to design panels using CAD (cardboard aided design) IMG_0938 small by nmrci1, on Flickr IMG_0941 by nmrci1, on Flickr The motherboard tray will be mounted off of the back by about 10mm, in order to fit a led strip behind, to make a floating mobo effect. Speaking of mobo tray, I managed to clean up the edges today on the grinder, but there is quite a lot of flex, so I'll have to weld some reinforcement to the back. On another note, I came up with these nifty case feet that I think match the build quite well. IMG_0942 by nmrci1, on Flickr IMG_0943 by nmrci1, on Flickr Got some cad work done. Here is the side plate. side plate by nmrci1, on Flickr I hope to mill it out tomorrow, it has 800 lines of g-code (the stuff that tells the CNC what to do) I also made the back plate back plate cad by nmrci1, on Flickr I'm thinking of removing the 2 fans at the top after watch Linus' video on fan configuration. I also can't decide whether is hould go with a matte finish for the white on the case, or an automotive gloss style finish. For reference I plan to make the blue a metallic gloss (maybe even metallic flake?) so that it stands out. What do you guys think?
Kinda, one time I used fusion to make a less complicated part and ended up with 39000 lines so I'm really happy with how much less Makercam is able to make. However, using Makercam means I have to convert the file into an svg. Draftsight's svg conversion is sort of different to Inkscape's or illustrator's svg files, unlike the others that have a consistent ppi, Draftsight scale every drawing to be the same size (around 28.8cm on Makercam with a ppi of 72) so you have to do some maths to calculate the scaling factor to get it around the actual size.
So finally an update for the build, I was trying to save up for one massive update with lot's of progress, but that didn't work out. I finally got around to brazing the feet to the case. IMG_1033 by nmrci1, on Flickr IMG_1034 by nmrci1, on Flickr Pretty spiffy if I say so myself. Speaking of spiffy, here's how to make a pop rivet disappear nmil style IMG_1035 by nmrci1, on Flickr Here you can see the mobo tray flex, I will have to fix this later with reinforcement: IMG_1037 by nmrci1, on Flickr Now to the bad news, I spent the past 3 days machining the back panel on the X-carve. In the process of drilling the holes going around of the outside of the panel, I wore down 2 of the 3mm bits that I have, one of which has lasted my family 7 years or so. May it forever rest in peace. Then it was time to actually mill the piece. This was one of the reasons why the panel took so long, it is actually bigger than the machining bed of my X-carve, so I had to do it in sections, meaning that I would have to first take gcode from cam bam (by far the best cam program I have used) and then splice into 2. Here you can see that the cut is going fine: IMG_1009 by nmrci1, on Flickr But then when the bit made it all the way through the steel, all hell broke loose: IMG_1018 by nmrci1, on Flickr You can see in the photo that the bit is cutting where it shouldn't be, so the piece is ruined. When the bit fully penetrates the steel, it gets stuck and cause for the x axis to skip a few notches on the drive belt, meaning that everything goes out of alignment. I tried to increase the spindle speed when the CNC fully penetrates in order to try to stop the bit for getting stuck, but that didn't work either. But, I'm not gonna let this piece of steel defeat me, so I have to start all over again suppose. This time I got some drill bits designed for doing many shall holes in steel so that I don't have to sacrifice any more expensive drill bits. IMG_1038 by nmrci1, on Flickr And I got some more sheet steel IMG_1040 by nmrci1, on Flickr I updated the CNC setup (I'll have a video coming out on it tomorrow) IMG_1012 by nmrci1, on Flickr The new plan is to just engrave the letters instead of fully penetrating, and all the other cuts will only be done to have the depth then finished with a dremel or jig saw depending on how lazy I am. Thanks for looking, nmil
That X-Carve is so amazingly cool! I've been looking at it myself but haven't found a justification to buy one yet :3 also Europe... Curious at how it will turn out!
What's wrong with europe? If it's postage you're worried about, I live in Australia and it cost me over $100 to ship. It's not too bad I guess, just make sure you order everything you need in one go.
I'm not the expert, but I know what makes my rig screw up. -It looks like you were cutting outlines instead of pockets, and only 2 passes to cut through? For my rig, the harder the material is, the shallower each pass is. I cut stainless steel at something like .002 deep, and slow the spindle down so it doesn't throw the oil.
I initial plan was to cut all the way through the letters, so yes the CNC was cutting an inside profile not a pocket. I realised while testing that doing it all in 2 passes would be way too much and so I did tons of shorter passes, each 0.05mm to avoid stressing the CNC too much. Here you have a slightly better view of the damage (sorry for the bad quality I took these at night in the garage. IMG_1057 by nmrci1, on Flickr So I've spent the past week trying to mill this piece sufficiently so that I can finish it of on the Dremel, but due to the fact that the bit I was using was tapered at the end and you cannot get the sheet steel to sit perfectly fat, there will always be a high region or a low region, none of the cuts end up being the correct thickness. So I got the flat end mill in order to make sure that all the cuts are the same width. But then I ran into another problem . For some reason the CNC mill keeps stopping randomly in the middle of the project. At first I tried to stop the Raspberry Pi from sleeping, since other people with similar problems had done the same and that worked for them. That didn't work, so I switched it over so that the CNC would run of my laptop, that didn't fix it either. So after a whole night of troubleshooting my dad determined that it might the new adaptive feed rate feature I think it was in the latest version of GRBL which could have been causing the problem, since it only supported feedrates of more that 45mm/min, but we were running much less. So we tried disabling that, and the CNC got a little bit further through the gcode, but then it struck again. So I still haven't been able to figure out this problem, if anyone out there is an expert on grbl could they please tell me what I'm doing wrong. So while I was trying to figure out this problem I also decided to try to solve a different problem in the build – the mobo tray flex. I started by marking out the area where the supports would be situated. IMG_1041 by nmrci1, on Flickr Then bent up this piece of aluminium angle to fit the shape IMG_1042 by nmrci1, on Flickr The tray has ridges that mean that the aluminium angle would not sit flush IMG_1043 by nmrci1, on Flickr So I made some shims out of aluminium sheet IMG_1044 by nmrci1, on Flickr Then I had to get rid of some pesky holes IMG_1045 by nmrci1, on Flickr Here it is all riveted together, I had to add the 2 going diagonally for extra support to straighten it out further. IMG_1094 by nmrci1, on Flickr And here’s the front, I know, some of you will complain about the amount of ugly rivets, but you won’t be able to see this in the final build since the mobo will be covering it up. IMG_1095 by nmrci1, on Flickr So I hope you guys found that riveting , but I probably won’t be able to finish the back panel before I have to go on holidays, so this build will have to resume next year. I’ll have some content premade in order to satisfy your cravings over the time when I’m overseas. Thanks for looking, nmil
So I finally got my cnc working properly, I got the latest version of ugs and it worked! Then the spindle broke. So I guess all that work went to nothing. Luckily Inventables customer service is super fast. (They replied within a day of my email.) And they gave me the option of either getting the same spindle again or upgrading to the quiet cut or a dewalt 611. I was considering the dewalt for its shear POWER!! But inventables told me that it would only run of 110v, and in australia we use 240v, so I would have to use some sort of transformer. The other problem with the dewalt is that you have to adjust the speed on the actual spindle and you can't control it through gcode, plus the dewalt would be a whole lot louder, meaning that i would have to stop work earlier in order to not annoy my neighbours. So the natural move would be to go with the quietcut. Ehat it lacks in power it males up for in quietness and gcode control, not to mention the er11 collets, meaning I can use all of my bits without an adapter. So no more updates in the build for this year since I will be on holiday. So a merry christmas and a happy new year to everyone.
Quiet is good. Listening to "SKREEEEEEEE" for 6 hours will drive anyone insane. At this point, I think you need to just make your own motherboard tray. You have the tools, and the tray has the dimensions you want. Heck, you can make your own risers and bring the board up as much as you want.
