Project: KNS-01 01-Nov

[Kumo]

Well many of you know about my rack project (if not, go here ). I'm doing it to keep my computers tidy and clean. This is the first machine on my network (KNS-01) and the first one for the rack.

A jump between some post on Bit-tech.net forums, like this or this i was inspired and decided to make a new case for my Shuttle system.

I have a LAN party close in time and with my LAN Raider project on hold (here ) while i get more parts and ideas, a new case was needed. In add, this case will give me enought space for liquid cooling components and others.


By the reasons i've said, i have other projects on hold, so i took these hex bases borrowed for this project. I fixed both with screws, cutted, filed and sanded until they matched perfectly. Then i began to make an alu frame.


This is the back of the case. The small hole is for ventilation and the big one to pass the shuttle chasis thru. I'm going to use wood (MDF) only in front and back and it will be properly covered when finished.


The inside face of back and front, with the angles to support the structure and the chasis. The frontside will has holes also, for buttons and others, but i'll make they later.


8 of those 8x8mm ALU square bars wil be the chasis of the upper structure.


A teaser of the case. HDs will be in the botton, in a removable plate for easy access. The shuttle chasis in the middle and WC comps in the sides. I have to decide some things, like the location of the DVD (maybe a slim type unit) and others.


Glueing the bars as previous step to make the holes precisely. It will be strong for LAN parties

More pics soon. As i've said, this is the first case for my rack project and the shape isn't very common, but i've already thought how i'm going to put that thing on the rack... surprise.

[Kumo]

the problem with alu is heat... dremel, heating alu, burning fingers, summer.... I need air conditioned at home jajaja

[Kumo]

It looks like a blade for straight cuts on wood. For alu the tooth need to be smaller, IMO

Thanks anyway. Maybe i'll try the hacksaw. Sometimes i cut it with the jigsaw, but to get a good cut is not always easy.

[Kumo]

My idea of glueing the bars first, didn't work so i've changed the plans.

I've traced lines in the middle of each profile...



...and then i matched it with the lines in the steel angles. They were fixed with clamps to make the first set of holes.





The case is pretty strong and still left more screwing work.

A preview:





More things soon.

[Kumo]

More updates.


After making the second set of holes the chasis/case (outter shell) is rock solid.

Supports for the shuttle chasis.



After align the profiles with the frame, i glued they with araldit epoxi, that is very strong.


Watching this forum, cats love mods... is a fact.


Get the shuttle chasis there is not easy. I had to cut and sand some sides, because (disapointing) the chasis is larger at the back. I have to paint the chasis well before put it inside the case.


The back of the case. You can see my current setup to cool the CPU and GPU. I'll redo it better when the case will be finished. A handle to pull out the case would be nice.


At the front, holes to secure the chasis. The front needs work...


Some details in the front. Black in the top, the Imon inside reciver module. At the botton...


...My spider logo. i'm re-using it, maybe by the last time. Isn't still glued, but fit perfectly. Once the front will be covered, you only could see the the inner circle and the spider.


Behind the spider i'll put one of my MDVA's lite unit. I hope to achive a nice effect.

Comments and ideas are welcome.

More soon!

[Kumo]

Thanks.

KUTGW??

Maybe i'll put a pair of handles at the front like in rack units and one at the back to pull the shuttle, but i'm not going to put handles to carry the case really, because i cand find any nice heavy duty handle here, only the common ones.

To carry the case to LAN, maybe i'll order a custom bag... to my girlfriend, she's a genious with the sewing machine.

One thing i forget, no paint this time. I want to cover the case with vinyl, so i'm making a design with Gimp.

[Kumo]

Yes, the WC will be inside the case. The negative point is that a 240 rad doesn't fit inside, but the temps are ok with de Black Ice 120.

[Kumo]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy with the project. But at last some news.

Yesterday i bought some new gear for the case and new items for the armory



Hinges, vinyl, etc... And my copy of your favorite delta sander.




Come on with the work.

I leave it when i was fixing the MDVA. So i resume it there.


The MDVA full unit front bezel used as template for hole drilling.


The front. As i previosuly mentioned, when the front will be finished, only the circle will be visible.


And the back. The MDVA only uses de 5V line, so less wires to solder, and less mess.


ALU profiles to make a variety of pieces. I'm using a lot of profiles in this project.


Edges to support the sides. Are fixed with araldit epoxy. Recently i've discovered the Araldit expoxy for metals that is even stronger.


The base of the case is made of steel. I hope the steel will be present only there, if not i going to need a truck to move it. To bend the plate without the required tools, i dremeled a channel first.


The base in place. The top plate should be like that but in alu, if i can find 1mm alu plates anywhere.

[Kumo]

The main reason of the lack of updates is because i've changed the design a little. I want a removable HD tray. But in the former desing it wasn't possible. So i began remakin the back pannel small hole




Catch the diference?? I reconstruted the hole with wood, araldit and putty.


This is the idea of the docking bay.


The plate for the bay has being glued in place with araldit.


I've also did a stand for the hd tray


Triying to save some weight in every place.


The stand is fixed with screws to the base.


Profiles added to drive the tray thru.



This is the HD tray. It's a hacked shuttle tray with a lot of work. I had to reconstruc one side because it has a hole for wiring pass in other project, added profiles, cutted vent holes, added stands off from a Zalman block, etc... In the pic with dummy HDs


This is the idea... And the last pic for today. But before a little preview....

Preview 1:

My girlfriend is making a Lan party hex bag for the case.... more to come.

Preview 2:
Some final scheme designs. I made they with Gimp. Each image are 2 faces of the hex sides. The top and botton will match they more or less.

Design 1


Design 2


Design 3


No paint this time. I want to cover the case with vinyl. The "grey" part is metallic finish vinyl.

Comments are welcome.

More soon.

[Kumo]

To uniform al colors igoing to use the metallic vinyl. Remember that the base is made of steel. In add to polish all the case is not easy.

[Kumo]

I did a little test with the MDVA and the spider etch.





What do you think?

[Kumo]

I'm doing some different task in the mod, so i don't have a really big update by the moment.


This is the HDs module. I reconstructed the side with ALU plates leaving only the holes to screw the HDs. I glued they with araldit, and sanded the cage. Then i applied a layer of car filler to smotth the surface and fill the small gaps. That piece is not the most important, though. But take time to finish it.

The LAN is the 09/15... Less than a month. Time to speed up the work a little.

Ahhhh And the bag, of course. The bag is almost a parallel project and my girl is making an impressive job.


That blue foam of 10mm thick is the shock-absorber material. Mmm... maybe it will be a nice pillow in the party nights haha


With the foam inside the bag stands up.


She is making also some nice military/adventure style pockets. Cables, CDs, mouse and others will fill they.

More soon.

[Kumo]

Sorry again for the lack of updates, but i`ve been busy trying to get a lot of work done. I have the LAN in few days so i have to work in the case a lot with virtually no time to post regular updates.

But while the paint is drying...

The awensome bag is done. My girl has done a wonderful job with it.


Making special pockets on the bag cover for pen and ID card.


The cover fixed. Still work to do with the zip. The bag`s solid looks is due the blue foam inside the walls.


Finished cover and bag. You can see the handles added. Is impressive. It has 2 of those big pockets for wires, tools and others.


Lot of space there. Oh BTW you can see the DVD new tray painted, inside.


The front of the bag. The tab hides the zip closers and maybe a lock.

I have to give a lot of thanks to my girl for that bag. Mmmm.. maybe a new pair of shoes...

[Kumo]

More pics...

The Watercooling system is plain symple and you have seen it in the previous posts. But i want to improve it a little and i did the pump mod, like Coolmiester has done many times.


Here are my pump, dissasembled and the elbow to sacrifice. The barbs of the elbow are bigger thn the original ones in the pump.


Hole done and elbow barbs cutted.


All together with lots of araldit epoxy.


Testing the pump with a happy end of no leaks. There was another reason to make the mod: Hose routing. In that way is easy to lead hoses thru the case.



The Black Ice with half done fixings.


Complete pieces. I pop-riveted diferent AUL profiles together. The long parts are 2 8x8mm square alu profiles while the short ones are 2 2x10mm Alu plates. In the edges, 90 degrees steel L mounting plates.


The rad in position. The advantage of that suppor system is that you could mount the rad in 4 different ways, depending of your cooling and computer system. The disavantage is that i can`t use the 38mm fan, and must use a standar 25mm fan.



I`ve found this piece in a IKEA set... as usual I want yo put something in the oposite side to the rad mount, simply to fill the, by the moment, unused space, but it finished better.



Plate riveted to the case. In that moment i was thinking in how to use the plate... and the idea came to me.


New PSU location. It improves the cooling, the wire managing and the looking of the case... More of this to come.

[Kumo]

Last pics for today...


The case black painted. Despite there aren`t too much paint jobs on this mod, the paint is always the slower parts, because the drying times. I`ve painted some parts to give to the project a uniform finishing between the diferent materials.


Those are plastic handles, for decorative purpouses only. The were part of an "Old styled phone" so they aren`t for heavy weight things. The original silver paint was old so i repainted they black.


The chasis repainted in mat black. This time i`m using Motip paint, instead the usual Duplicolor cans. Like Duplicolor, is also for cars so the finish is guarantee.
At this stage, no more additions except the mentioned new paint and a the mesh in the 2 vent holes. I cutted the old grill with small holes under the mosfets area. More about the chasis later.


A little teaser about some fresh painted parts more details in the next update. In the upper left corner part of my Blood Angels collection

More updates soon, i promise it.

[Kumo]

I'm in the Netzone (Netzonetour.com) LAN Party right now. The case is still half done and left some work on the details and others, but the gear is running fine.

More updates and pics soon.

[Kumo]

Originally Posted by airchie

I think the light is too powerful and it obliterates the logo.
Maybe get a peice of sanded plexi between the lights and the logo, to diffuse the light slightly and have a uniform surface to allow the logo to be seen easier?

Thanks. And thanks from my girl too.

You can adjust the MDVA's light in 3 degrees, so it isn't a problem really. In add the camera catch a lot of light in darkness. Anyway, I was thinking in a sort of tint, but i don't know.



Just some quick mobile phone pics


The PC up and running. Still some work to do.


Backward. The "034" is the security check number. The side is open because it's still unfinished and doesn't has the vent hole for the rad


My girl made me that. It's a LAN "shelter" with fixings and inner pockets to kept the mobile and others. No more lights when sleeping quietly I'll try a better pic later.


Fun for all, no matter if you're a Unicef/Ikea Teddy bear or not

[Kumo]

More party pics, taken by the admins:


My rig.


A middle size LAN with 240 people (about 24 chicks included )


No DOOM, Quake, unreal, BOS or CS:s... The mame machine was the star.


Ligths off.

[Kumo]

After the LAN, more updates:


This is the base of the case. With black vinyl applied in the inside face.


And the outside face with the metallic vinyl. The bubbles in the pic are mainly because under there are holes, so they're not a problem.


That shiny coat is Softmetal sticker. Designed for kitchen decoration (like the frigde) and it is a little hard to bend in close curves. But it easy to apply without bubbles. There are different colors of metal finish.


The base in place. The big platform is for the HD cage. And the small one for the pump. Both have been covered with softmetal vinyl.


The back of the base, in place and without the decoration, for test purpouses. I've put a lot of screws in the case.


Althought the top and the base are made of steel, the sides and other pieces are made of aluminium. That is important becase the case is getting heavy. I've found in the last minute a provider of ALU. Those are some 0,8mm thick plates.

[Kumo]

Thnaks a lot.

I like your enlarged soflyxpc although swedish is not my strong point haha.