Scratch Build Project WMCC (Wooden Media Centre Case) - Massive Update 25th Oct. Nearly done!

[stonedsurd]

Ossum work on the backplate and the switch! Ingenious!

[voigts]

This is looking very nice with good attention to detail. Keep it coming.

[woody_294]

Great combo with the materials, should look uber sleek when finished

[GuardianStorm]

Having been ill for a while (swine flu is not the best of fun) then snowed under with work I haven't been able to update. I have been working a bit on it though, and i was defiantly not happy with the CDROM mount so I re-did it completely.

Hopefully i can post the update tomorrow, once i have sorted the images.

[GuardianStorm]

As I said in my last post, I am not happy with the CD Rom rack, so I have re made it. Possibly it was bad as that was the week I got swine flu. Who knows? Either way this is the new one.

I started off with 1 meter of 10mm square tulip:


I used the mitre saw to cut the tulip to the lengths needed:


And then (informed by my dad: "the circular saw has a disk sander attachment") used the disk sander to smooth off the ends:


Next item to use was this:

mmm, modern looking...

But they work well




While that was setting, I set about sanding the hard disk rails:

I had dust everywhere by the end of that...

And a finished (but not sanded) frame:


This is how it will sit on the hard disk racks:


And with the CD Rom drive:


That it for today, tomorrow is more sanding, fitting the CD Rom plate and then sanding the cover for painting.

Comments are nice as always

[woody_294]

Nice work! Is that a Sealey mitre saw got one of those, they're grrrrrrrrrrreat

[GuardianStorm]

It turns out I might have made a slight mistake with my calculations...

The height of the CDRom frame was not to be 50mm...50mm was the height the CDRom Slot was at

This means I had to tae the frame to the circular saw and do this to it:

At least I was able to save most of it

Next I needed to counter sink all the holes in the CD Plate as the Drive sits flat down against it (there are more photos but I seem to have lost them, must be on a different memory card):


The problem with this is as the counter sink gets hot, the aluminium deforms slightly:


So this was rectified with a hammer, and the other holes counter sunk in short bursts of drill action.

This then sits like so on the frame:


The height the frame actually needs to be is 20mm...Handy as it’s made with 10mm square tulip:


The two sides being glued back into place:


And the finished assembly:




Here is how it sits on the Hard Disk rails:


And here it is with the lid on:


And a bad attempt at a close-up of the disk slot:

[stonedsurd]

Oooh, VERY nice!

[earlydoors]

This is seriously impressive

You really have skills that I don't think I could ever dream of getting.

[kureshii]

Lovely work, I'd love to see it when it's running I (coincidentally) have a somewhat similar build in mind, and wanted to see how it would work with the side-mounted rad.

I really dig the clean front profile, and the centered DVD slot - it looks the part of an HTPC

[Crazy Buddhist]

Beautiful piece of functional art. I have an appreciation for the mix of organic and non-organic materials such as wood/metal wood/glass etc ...

Be following you.

CrazyB

[bagman]

nice work looks really profesional

[GuardianStorm]

Update will be soon; just sorting out the images/trying to get some good light for more photos...damn winter light :\

Originally Posted by earlydoors

This is seriously impressive
You really have skills that I don't think I could ever dream of getting.

Haha, just a little lot of patience i think is the key

Originally Posted by kureshii

Lovely work, I'd love to see it when it's running I (coincidentally) have a somewhat similar build in mind, and wanted to see how it would work with the side-mounted rad.

I really dig the clean front profile, and the centered DVD slot - it looks the part of an HTPC

Thanks The only problem with the case is it is rather long...if i was to do it again, i would use two 240 rads, one on each side

Originally Posted by Crazy Buddhist

Beautiful piece of functional art. I have an appreciation for the mix of organic and non-organic materials such as wood/metal wood/glass etc ...

Be following you.

CrazyB

Thanks the metal will be painted (soon) so it wont show through quite so much, but still i think it will look good

Originally Posted by bagman

nice work looks really profesional

Thanks, a lot of patience (and only working while in the right mood etc) goes a long way.

[GuardianStorm]

Update at last! I was sure I had done an update with some images...but as they're not in the thread, I guess I forgot
So a double update today

I started off by taking everything out of the case and brushing/vacing it all down (wood dust gets everywhere...), then the motherboard went in, along with the water cooling:


The pump comes with an RPM lead so I hooked that up to the motherboard by running the cable under the radiator (there is about 3mm gap under it for this purpose), then in the bottom of the grove for the PCI cards:


The boot drive with its stands for the hard disk rack:


Add the drives and the power supply:


Time for a test boot (win7 beta):

Yay! It worked

The DVD drive is IDE not sata, so I had some fun with folding the IDE cable out of the way:


And I let my OCD loose on the cables for the fans:


mmm, very inline and colours in the same order ^^.

Varnishing

As the side panels needed a good 3 (4 in the end) coats of varnish, that was done during the rest of the update. This is what I varnished with:


Between each coat I gave it a light going over with 180 grit sand paper. The final coat was rubbed down with wire wool and wax:


Which was then left to dry and buffed off. The rag in the previous picture was then used to do a second layer of wax, which again was left to dry then buffed.

While I was buffing the case outside I was 'investigated' by a bee. Somewhat ironic I think.

The result:



The radiator grills had their mounting holes counter sunk, and then I coloured them in with a Sharpie!


Here is what they look like mounted:


Sleeving
As I wanted the cables to be as out of the way as possible, I set about chopping them all to length and re-sleeving them all.

Some 'helping hands' being helpful:


I seriously have 6 lighters (6 for £1) and none of them work properly >.<

To get the hard disk cable right I had to take off the sata connector and re join it upside-down...I was very happy when it didn’t blow up the drive:



The GPU also had most of its cable chopped off (dual GPU power cable, one GPU needed):


I think this:

to this

Much better, no?

The power and eject buttons sit like so:


And some shots of the whole case (lid is not screwed down currently, so its sits slightly out):


And it in the TV stand:



I really wish the Stand's rear legs were 2 inches further apart:


Grrrrr. Oh well it came with the TV, so I will have to find/build a replacement.


Next week I am having the centre aluminium piece sprayed up, and I’m going for Satin Black to match the grills.

[kureshii]

Looks pretty good, although the curved buff lines are pretty obvious in the 3rd-last pic. How heavy is it?

[Skorchio]

Wow awesome build, that sheet metal work is top rate. I dont know why but that slot scares me! Ill keep my eye on this one

[stonedsurd]

Lovely

[GuardianStorm]

Originally Posted by kureshii

Looks pretty good, although the curved buff lines are pretty obvious in the 3rd-last pic. How heavy is it?

The lines wont show when its been sprayed
My scaled put it at 14.8Kg

Originally Posted by Skorchio

Wow awesome build, that sheet metal work is top rate. I dont know why but that slot scares me! Ill keep my eye on this one

Hehe, thanks

Originally Posted by stonedsurd

Lovely

Thanks

[kureshii]

Originally Posted by GuardianStorm

The lines wont show when its been sprayed
My scaled put it at 14.8Kg

:O Lemme guess... sleek black? Can't wait to see it

Mmm, 14kg is a good upper-limit weight, I guess mine should weigh around there (or lighter, since acrylic replaces wood).

I was just imagining your HTPC, decked out in black, and with the DVD slot glowing blue or red (or white)... would look really delicious *swoons*

[M. Ehrlich]

Awesome! Awesome work!