Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Seawolf, July 20. #40 Getting ready for Assembly Summer 2010!

Hi! This is my first real project log, so please be gentle

This project has been in the planning for a couple of years now. I've made a ton of drawings, Sketchup files and Solidworks assemblies, but in the end my plans have always changed so much I had to start all over. So I've decided to throw the fancy plans out of the window and wing it!

The aim of this build is to make a scratch built case that doesn't look like a rectangular box. To achieve this the case needs to look aerodynamic. My main inspiration have come from the Dodge Viper, Saab Aero X and orca-whales. The name also comes from orca.


I'll start from the back of the case.



The first thing I did was get some supplies from a curtain shop. They had some nice natural color anodized 25x3mm bars of aluminum for cheap. I don't really need the anodize because these will be painted but I still like the way it looks. I cut them to the right lengths, drew some guiding semi-circles on paper and bent the bars by hand. My knee and a small vise also helped.



The bends succeeded quite well. There's still some uneveness here and there but nothing that will show. If you look closely, there's also some fine white areas on the surface where anodize started fracturing. The bars are bent full 180 degrees but they don't like to stay that way without some tension.



Next step was to cut some 65mm long brackets from 20x20mm aluminum tubing. The ends of the piece have a 45 degree diagonal cut. Or they should have. Me and my hand saw never get along that well. The cuts were of course deburred and filed.



As I don't have space for a drill press I'm going to be using this.



My gear ready for some drilling. Rocol's RTD spray is great cutting fluid for sawing, threading and drilling. I've already scribed and center-punched the holes. I'm using a 2.5mm twist drill.



As you can see the small drill wandered despite my precautions. Good thing these were only pilot holes.



I'm using this to widen the holes to the full 5mm I need.



I also drilled the aluminum bars to match the brackets. All the holes were countersunk with this handtool.



Next I got to pop my new pop rivet gun. I got this industrial grade riveter from my girlfriend for birthday. My old was busted when popping about 500 of those rivets seen on the picture. That's a Flex 608 BS or 4.8mm x 11.0mm alu rivet for the uninitiated. I bought 700 of them from the UK when building this desk I'm modding on.





Nice and sturdy!

 

While at the curtain shop I also bought 80cm of powdercoated alu curtain profile. The profile had a velrco strip at the back. Perfect for my needs! I promptly cut the profile in half. The profile was packed in plastic so I didn't see it at the shop but the powdercoat had some blemishes and bare spots. These will need to be painted white anyway, so I didn't worry too much about getting scratches.



Here you can see the shape of the profile and the tabs that are bent to hold the velcro in place.



I needed to have a part of the back sides of the profiles flush to mount them. I scored shallow grooves to cut the tabs and pried them open with a screwdriver and pliers. The grooves have a 7 degree angle to make the profiles inclined.



I used a utility knife and pliers to rip off the adhesive-backed side of velcro. To my surprise it didn't leave a gooey residue. The tabs broke leaving raggedy edges that I filed flush.


That is about it for now.
In the next installment I'm going to fix the profiles and the third bend and make a tensioning bar for the back.

 

I can't imagine what this is going to look like............

And I like that.

 

It's a nice start, but... What is the idea?

As you did a ton of drawings, could you post one?

 

I have to admit a curtain shop is one of the ONLY places I have never looked for supplies. Creative.
I watch

john

 

I expected a Seawolf Submarine mod.


I'm pleasantly surprised. This looks interesting, I look forward to more.

 

Thanks for the interest, guys! I don't want to spoil all the fun, but here's a sneak peek that I doodled at school (Okay, I admit it's pumped up with photoshop!) the other day:



jhanlon303: You should have seen my gf's face when I said I want to come along.

Langer: I know. When you're trying to dig up inspirational pictures with "seawolf", only subs pop up!

 

Looks promising. I agree with Langer, I expected a submarine hehe BTW, nice sketch.

 

Hello! I new at this forum! Forgive for broken English! The excellent beginning! I wait for continuation

 

Ooh! tricky shapes! This will be neat to watch.

 

Intriguing...

Welcome to the forums!

 

Oh, kewl! My Dremel Station is one of my favorite tools. I use mine all the time. (wife: 'what do you need THAT for...I just asked you to replace a lightbulb?' Me: 'i needs a new bracket out of machined aluminum, sweetheart!').

 

ROTFL
Winging it has worked for me somewhat, but that doesn't mean I recommend it

It looks like you're off to a great start... will have to read more later.
subbed

 

I'm glad you all like what I'm doing. Currently, I'm waiting for my paypal-account to update so I can order some stuff. I'm also planning to go scrounge the shops next Monday or Tuesday.

 

Update #2a

So here's an update, that I had to cut a bit short:



My aim was to drill a hole for the connecting rod to tension the bent bars. I could have drilled the holes earlier, but this way I could lay them smack in the center. Because I needed a through hole I had to increase the height of the vice. My tribology book volunteered to help. The book is still okay.



While at it I drilled pilot holes through the profiles. Unfortunately, I mistook my markings and drilled one of the middle ones in the wrong place. A fixing pilot-hole was easy to make, but when I reamed the holes to 5mm, the drill started to wander.



I needed to enlarge the outermost holes to fit the ends of the pop rivets. Their diameter was 9.6mm so I needed a 10mm drillbit.



As you can see the drill ripped the thin aluminum to shreds. You can even see that it started to burrow through the aluminum below! Not pretty. Good thing these too will be hidden.



Because I had some problems with locating (or drilling!) the hole for the connecting rod, I aligned the profiles and the brackets in the vise. Then I drilled through the profiles using the brackets' through-holes as guides.



A bit mangled but good enough.



On with the connecting rod! First I cut 19cm of this 12mm diameter alu rod.



Then it was time to clean the desk, throw all the junk away and pop the lid off my desk. This is where I keep my small hobby lathe.



I set the rod in a three-jaw chuck and measured the deviation with a dial indicator. It stays within 0.03 mm right off the bat, which is good enough for this kind of work.



Here I've turned a small 9mm diameter, 8mm long shoulder. I also started to drill a hole for a bolt. Then I noticed that I don't have the right side drill to complete the hole for threading to M5! I could turn the rod over and do the other end to the same stage but then I'd lose the concentrity. Besides I seem to be all out M5 bolts too!


So for now, I have to wait until Monday or Tuesday so I can get the gear to continue. Till next time.

 

nice start to the mod... i have to get myself a lathe!!!

 

... you mentioned it so casually...

 

Heh! The lathe's not so special. It's got a lot of wobble, it's not that precise and I have to use spacers made of beer cans to align the cutters with the workpiece. Despite it's drawbacks it's really a boon when modding. Expect to see something come out of it when I get to the watercooling phase!

 

I'm confused... Why you did all that hand drilling when you had a mini lathe...

 

This looks really cool...I'm curious to see how the mod turn out, and I like your writing style.
Subscribed.