Scratch Build Lean and Green - 20-Dec-12 - preview of next project & status update

[Waynio]

Design

Wanted a low power good capacity HTPC & looked at the range of available ones at retail that could hold what I want it to but thought I want something worthy enough to replace Stealthlow with so wanted to make it a dual system to use a lot less electric when I don't need the extra power of a normal system which is most of the time, I didn't think I'd manage making an ok looking dual system where they can still be used as completely separate rigs but I think I got there in the end & went much further, it does look top heavy but I have it figured out nicely & it will be very Heavy Bottom not the other way around & I still haven't designed the case feet, want to have a good idea of it's weight before I do those.

I added a porthole window where the psu cables come out from for giggles in an otherwise super neat system internally with interesting exterior from any angle & this dual system is also highly functional, everything is easily removable & the gaming rig can be removed & placed on alternative feet & the top of the HTPC can be replaced with a plain top or test bench rig very quickly, I know this design rocks for my PC wants with it being very modular but as always with my designs if anything lets it down it will be the style not appealing to many but it will brighten up my eyes each day if I manage to make it as good as I hope to .

I took another good final examination of the design before marking the materials & tweaked it a little more to perfect it & so it will support slightly higher mobo standoffs & give it a little more strength & a little extra on the looks.















Name
Lean & Green - Yes I would have chosen a better name for it but my mind goes nicely blank caught up in the detail when I look at the concept & only random words find their way out so I'm quite happy it has that effect on me where it leaves me kind of speechless, I considered the name of Heavy Bottom because of people saying it looks top heavy but gave it a miss lol .



Why
Needed another reason to do a good personal build & the how much does your rig cost to run blog on bit-tech caught my curiosity to go find out & it came to about £210 for the rig alone each year, I figured I could trim that down to about £60 per year with a better use of electric separating low performance needs to high performance wants & still be able to have a performance rig to enjoy when I want so totally managed to convince myself this was a good idea so got on with it .



System components

HTPC
ATX PSU, mini-ITX on board CPU/GPU 18w motherboard with hdmi & DVI, good low profile sound card, 4 HDD, 1 SSD, 1 full size optical, full size 140mm custom fan.

Gaming rig
ATX PSU, Full ATX motherboard, moderately overclocked quad core, 8GB RAM, high performance & quiet air cooler, 3 custom fans, good GPU, good sound card, full size optical, 1 ssd, 1 hdd.

Control of the systems, good quality cable splitters.



Materials

Aluminium 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10mm sheet/plate & some bars round ones, square ones & angled ones. Screws & precision DIY fittings .


Acrylic 3 & 5mm sheets, Black, Opal frosted, Brown tint. tensol 12 adhesive.

Wood 3 types, Cocobolo, Ebony & Maple. gorilla glue bought the wood as turning blanks & they come coated in wax.


Manual modding is my approach of choice still & no plans on changing after grinding through the difficult barely skilled wondering if I can make anything phase up to feeling pretty confident about my increasing skills phase but I'm always learning & know I always will be which is probably a big part of why I enjoy it so much & feeding the difficulty a few notches higher each time in some way is making me get pretty good at this .


Reason I am a week late on starting the thread is I've been waiting for deliveries & the last of them came today nearly 2 weeks after ordering them scroll saw blades, drill bits & a quality dormer tapping set so as long as I don't screw up anything I should be able to go at it until it's done but what are the chances of me getting through all this without screwing up, place your bets now .

First slice of progress, minimal but it's enough progress to warrant for the new thread .

Tackled the 3mm sheets first with them being the hardest to manage being so massive, really should have ordered smaller easier to manage sheets, d'oh, the small work bench is waaaaaay too small for the 1650x1000 sheet & the kitchen work top I used to use I found my dad made it into a fixed side table for the garage so had to improvise, quick look around & seen a bunch of beer packs used 5 or 6 12 packs of beer they made for an awesome make shift cutting table in fact they worked better than the work bench because of the even load of the packs spread out in the right places but it put a good bit of strain on the back from leaning over a lot & about an hour later of a jigsaw frenzy session they are to rough size within a 3mm safety measure ready for detailing, but when I marked the cut lines I forgot to make notes of which pieces are which so need to work that one out lol, should be easy enough & I'll cut up all the other sheets next, it's interesting how much I can do in a short time when going at it with a solid determined plan, I think the days of standing around for hours thinking what next? might be behind me .

Needed a map to get good use of the material cutting layout.


Nearly as tall as me.


After the 1 hour jigsaw frenzy, all the 3mm alu cut to rough size within a 3mm safety gap.


Shot of the wood ready & waiting to be worked.


I didn't take my ok camera to the garage though, it's too cold & would be bad for it & it was a quick get in there & get it done type task not faff about with a camera in the cold & was only me using a beer table lol which yeah I suppose would have made a good fun opening work shot really now I think of it sat in the warmth .

More tomorrow I hope .


-------------
23rd May 2012
Changes

The design has been a work in progress all along but I thought the first update would have been the final look of this, it's a big relatively complex design so it needed quite a bit more effort going into it so it would turn out as I want it to look & to function, I also chickened out of the wood work for fear of it being a big hassle with my tools & lack of experience of working wood & as you can see they are square 2 inch thick blocks of wood which I'd have to make slithers of to form panels so not exactly something for a wood work newb.

Here is how the design looks now with a side by side comparison.

[Waynio]

Reserved for final pictures

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Angel OD

Come on, not you again...

Looking insanely promising, and you have sure proved your modding skills, so this will be one to follow for sure!

I had to start another to stop me from rambling all over the place Thanks Angel, hopefully I'll be full of energy tomorrow & feeling like getting plenty done, my last project had many things holding me up so hoping for a nice clear run at this , pretty sure everything needed for doing this I now have so only things that might slow things down is me burning out now & then or life stuff but a clear run at this would be very nice .

Originally Posted by Paslis

I love the design mate and i cant wait to see the progress for this one.Following for sure.

Thank you Paslis appreciated & I'll try not to slack .

Originally Posted by KidMod-Southpaw

Hell yes- here we go again! Can't wait to get my HTPC mod going!
Can't wait for more Wayne!

Wooooo hooooooooo fun to start another one cheers mate & that raspberry pi gizmo looks pretty cool indeed, think it's more powerful than my first PC & the size of it .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by craig - toyoracer

A great opening Wayne. Very original design and with all the open latice uptop it does not come across as heavy.

Good building and you have me watching.

Thanks Craig, think that was my best opening so far for a log I tell you though all that 3mm alu cut to size weighs a ton so I'll have to lighten it up a lot else it will need strong casters , I'll do my best to be frequent with the updates also .

Originally Posted by Metrodusa

Looking forward to following this. I really looks promising.

Thanks Metrodusa I'll give it my best .

Originally Posted by Gtek

Hey Waynio, another crazy project in making. May I ask where did you get ebony from? I couldn't find any decent supplier.

Cheers mate, should keep me very busy for a while .

Exotic solid woods are difficult to find online I spent days & days searching & imagine if I asked for some of them at local lumber yards they'd think I was crazy or something unless that's just a touch of ignorance from me .

The site I bought them from is http://www.turners-retreat.co.uk/aca...oodBlanks.html they have changed it so you need to register with them to be able to buy from them but they were good & quick on the delivery , hope that's good for you mate, I did have another good place to order from but lost the link .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by KidMod-Southpaw

Why said I was doing a raspberry pi HTPC?
I'm doing a Gigabyte H55N HTPC mod and a raspberry pi coffee table mod!

I'm sorry to talk about myself, but I'm getting really excited at doing them and seeing another Wayne project gets me even more psyched up!

Coffee table mod sounds fun , just thought you was doing a htpc with the pi but remembered you said 2 mods , on the bit-tech article there was a video of it handling xbmc & 1080p video nicely, impressive little piece of tech I want to do a project with it myself maybe later in the year .

Originally Posted by quizz_kid

YAY!! I´m so excited... This is one crazy project!! Btw Waynio, you don´t like using periods, do you?

Good stuff, so am I in the middle of working out the best route to use the other unmanagable sheets, so many bits & needed to work out the needed lengths for curved pieces .

Periods as in breaks or eras of time periods , anyway I like both & Stealthlow completed in September so had a 4 month break from physical modding so feeling supercharged .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by quizz_kid

Periods as in the dot at the end of a sentence But I´m glad you´re charged!!

Ahh yeah my grammar is top notch in the awful sense I know not proud of it but not going to worry about it neither , I do often add periods or full stops immediately after a smilie though but my grammar has improved a tiny bit with posting on forums but probably no where near to a good standard .

Finally got all the 1mm & 2mm sheet marked up, took forever & not too late to get busy cutting .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by KidMod-Southpaw

I've been flawless the whole time, that's why people like me.

Originally Posted by AK71

Looks nice Waynio, very unusual design again! The renders do look a bit odd and top heavy but looking forward to how this turns out.

Thanks AK71 odd is good as long as it functions right .

Originally Posted by peteski

Looking forward to following this mate i missed the start of your last projrect .but glad i wont be missing this one

Cheers peteski & enjoy the show mate .

Originally Posted by AnG3L

This is going to be a long and delightful journey as always my friend, the awesomeness I am going to experience I dont think will be good for my weak heart!!!! Now just do your thing buddy and I will go and get my jaw support mechanism!!!

Cheers Alex mate, not wrong about it being a long one that 10mm alu is tough to work but I'm getting through it .

Since first update of cutting all the 3mm sheet to size I have been busy, marked & cut the 1mm & 2mm sheet to size & made layouts ready for printing & sticking, worked out a good way to span big designs over multiple pages accurately when using an a-4 printer.

I print & stuck the 10mm plate designs for the HTPC which just about fit on an a-4 sheet & drilled the holes for scroll saw access & I believe I'm tackling the toughest part of the project as the first bit lol, not because of complexity but because of tough material, good grade 10mm alu is very flipping tough , my small 18TPI blades cut it well but takes ages & will be great for curve cuts so since I was cutting the outer edges of the HTPC sides & front first which are straight I put the cut up band saw blades to the job but still took countless hours, was up good & early & about 5pm called it a day after getting those pieces ready for the next phase of cutting the holes out.

The bigger stand sides I will do 1 at a time trying to get 1 done each day rather than be an idiot trying to do them both in 1 day lol & that is being optimistic, I will amaze myself if I get the holes cut out of the HTPC 10mm panels in 1 day tomorrow lol I said the scroll saw is like a manual laser cutter but boy oh boy it's a slow one for chunkier materials lol.

Pictures of the day.

All the sheet alu ready & waiting for detail & the sign of 10mm plate, need glue spray to get things done quicker & better so will get some on Wednesday.


10mm HTPC side panels & front panel printed & stuck.


The blades & drill bits which held the start off for a week.


Starting off with normal scroll saw blades at 18 TPI for thicker materials.


Switched over to the band saw blades for doing quicker straight cuts.


Each & every line I had to cut took a while & took a lot of concentration.





Sneaky peeky at the chop saw in the background & the thinnest slither I took off the 10mm plate .


My view all day today lol.


More soon .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by KidMod-Southpaw

Damn, wonderful stuff already!

I'm thinking doing the straight lines was difficult, following shapes will either be easier slightly or harder .

Originally Posted by quizz_kid

Keep em coming!

Will do .

Originally Posted by PabloFunky

Very interesting design Waynio, You do like to make things tricky for yourself .

The mixture of wood and metals is nice, looks a little thin perhaps, i hope nothing splits for you with the wood.

Scroll saw looks fun, wouldnt mind a go with one of them.

Good luck, not that you need it, im sure youl pull this one off ok.

Cheers Pablo, yeah I'm yet to find how tricky wood can be hope I don't have too much trouble with it & I'm probably being a bit too ambitious with trying to make specific thickness panels 2 including 3mm & a good scroll saw is just awesome mate, goes slow with hard thick material but 3mm & below it breezes through it really nicely, compared to my dremel days it's just pure niceness especially with not being restricted as much to the thickness of material .

Originally Posted by jokkos

aahhhh... and so it begins....

Originally Posted by Mosquito

Come on now Waynio, be considerate to your viewers.... quit your job so we can have daily updates! After Stealthlow I'm quite excited to be watching this one

I totally burnt myself out a pile of times on Stealthlow, learning to pace myself now to keep updates regular without burnouts .

[Waynio]

The lighting in the cellar was pretty bad, too dim so took the daylight bulb from my room & used 1 of my clip on light fixings so no more cast shadows in way of the cutting line & far better lighting for good work & better photos but my eye focus is carry on wandering off with it taking so long so have to stop every few minutes to regain it, taken over an hour to get the cut this far, could really do with some kind of magnifying aid, it cuts so slow you sometimes think it isn't cutting even though it is but agonisingly slow, I hate cutting thick tough material it's easily the biggest test on my patience I ever had & this is the smallest piece to be done, ugh lol think I'll mark every couple of mm so I can tell it is cutting .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by KidMod-Southpaw

I need one of those!

Every modder should have a scroll saw, (voigts got me speaking American English ) Fretsaw, was after seeing voigts work on his projects I got interested in fretsaws, the cheap one I got just wet my appetite plenty good enough to splash out on a good one when I had the cash I will use it to make many projects, computers & furniture.

Originally Posted by monkeyfun

I have tool envy. I love how clean the curves and cuts look.

Best tool I ever bought mate & this one it can go all day without overheating pretty time consuming though cutting 10mm alu but it's very doable .

If I did this on my first scroll saw coffee would be everywhere from vibrations .


Half way point of the curve cut.


Lol after getting to half way around the curve cut I decided it's really going way too slow for my liking & would have taken a really long time to do the way I was doing so gambled the lifespan of the blades but carefully .

Glad I did, I found by pushing them close to snapping point but a little bit away from that I was getting though it pretty well indeed, took quite a few hours to realise this though so I think I shouldn't have a problem getting the 2 bigger side panels done tomorrow .

And any straight cuts in thick materials I'll stick to using the cut up band saw blades, much quicker.








Also I must have been rusty or struggling with the never tried before thickness of alu on the scroll saw when doing the first cuts so ideally I should buy a little more 10mm plate so I can remake this piece but having said that I could mod the design a touch to hide the tiny mistake & hiding it would allow for a touch more detail which isn't a bad thing so think I'll do that with it being a faint cosmetic flaw rather than a structural flaw so the game plan has already changed a tiny bit but thought of something which will just make it more detailed .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Blooddrunken

awesome work so far with this saw.
I've tried it once with such one, but didn't got a streight line. I think it was because of the quality of the sawblade, but what you did here is just! :wow:

I'm looking forward.

also subbed.

Thanks mate cutting straight lines is more difficult than curves bizarrely lol but if you take it slow & careful holding the piece good & firm it can go quite well .

Going to try to make various grit sanding blades for all the internal edges, hopefully it'll work nicely.

Originally Posted by Marcos_Viegas

Waynio As always, you have brought a great project for us.

Congratulations for the work and for sure this will be another mod of the month

Cheers Marcos & I'll do my best to try & get an update done every day, thought I'd have got more done but underestimated how long the 10mm plate would take .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by voigts

10mm alu? That must be a challenge to cut through. I think 1 1/2" thick oak is challenge enough. That design is radical to say the least.

I must say I envy that Excalibur scrollsaw. Mine has a lot of oomph to be sure, but it is a "C" type scrollsaw and hence isn't as good at making tight cuts as one where the blade does a true straight up and down motion. And yes, it is a SCROLLSAW, not a fretsaw. A fretsaw is a manual saw. Gotta make sure I keep you straight you know...

I'm thinking get the toughest or most time consuming bits done first & then the rest will be kind of easy in comparison, or at least I hope so & I'm still highly impressed by what you done with yours & can easily imagine how 1 & 1/2 inch would have been tough to do intricate work on but you done it to a sweet standard, is the reason I was keen to buy one, seen a lot of potential in them , if I was loaded I'd buy you & a few others 1 mate .

And calling a powered fretsaw a scrollsaw makes perfect sense to me so have no problem adopting that modded English , tried a manual fretsaw & it takes lots of practice to build the right technique like any manual unpowered tools but a scrollsaw is so much quicker to get to grips with.

Originally Posted by monkeyfun

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for the tool? I've started a hunt for a decent and cheap one here in the Seattle area.

Paid an eye watering £510 for it but comparing the 1 off price of that to having things regularly custom cut by 3rd parties it'll save me money & not have to rely on others & build skill at the same time so it was expensive but money well spent I still believe I'm sure you'll find 1 as good for much less over there mate always pay high for most things here .

Hegnar, proxxon & even dewalt also do excellent ones but the one I bought I got because it doesn't need to tilt the table for bevel cuts & the throat depth is a massive 760mm so I'll have no problems working on big panels, can even cut 1000mm sheet strips with it by cutting 1 half & then flipping it around to finish off .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Paslis

Nice scrollsaw Waynio and you will be cutting for some time i guess. Looks great already and i cant wait to see more.

Thanks Paslis Yeah going at the slow pace I was before figuring how to do it faster it would have taken a week of many hours a day to get through all the 10mm alu but with knowing how to go faster now I'd say a couple of days instead still a long time but not bad really .

Also found it does the thick stuff best on slowest speed.

Got some adhesive spray & more masking tape so good to go but I think if I started right now I'd end up doing it until it's done which would probably be in the early hours so I'll pass until tomorrow so I can maintain a proper sleep pattern & put a good solid day into it tomorrow .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by bugeye

This maybe a bit of daft question but have you tried different blades as far as the tpi ( tooth per inch ) . I found when cutting thick acrylic on the band saw that just a difference of 2 tpi made a lot of difference to the speed and quality of the cut .

Just a thought

I bought 12, 18, 25, 32 & 48 TPI metal fretsaw blades, the 12 TPI is for very thick material up to 2 inch, 18 is good for like 10mm, 25TPI is good for 5mm or less, 32 & above is good for thin material & they go up to silly high TPI for jewelers type superfine metal work the 48 TPI ones I accidentally got because of wrong listing but I'm sure I'll have a use for them at some point .

The band saw blade I use is 25 TPI but is a sturdy blade so is good for straight cuts on anything I've thrown at it so far .

Acrylic seems to be my favourite material to cut up, does it so easily , but I will give it a go with the different ones just to see if it makes a better difference on the 10mm alu .

The machining marks I'll be able to get rid of easily with DIY sanding strips adapted to the scrollsaw it looks kinda rough as if you could scuff your skin on it but it is really smooth feeling.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by bugeye

Looks like you've got it covered then

This is already looking sooooooo good , something about properly thick bits of metal and you went with my favourite out all your designs

Cheers mate I'll give the other blades a try on the 10mm alu because there is still quite a lot to do of that & I don't rule out tips ever, could well be right & the 12 TPI or 25 TPI cut it easier.

I love the way Attila left frames made from bars in the past, just looks really cool while adding a ton of strength compared to normal bars & my alu supplier really improved to get customers back so the option to go chunky was a real one now without it costing heaps, but there is some basic bar frame work going on in the gaming case but it's all hidden from view & it's a pretty complex self supporting frame work that plays an essential part of the rigs functionality, glad I managed to put a lot of thought into the design this time.

Hope to get the HTPC side panels done tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Mosquito

Dang it Waynio... I've spent the last hour looking at scroll saws now.... You've got me wanting one!

Sorry can't be helped as I'll be making a lot of it with the scrollsaw , I feel the same about mills & lathes & even routers but think a router is within my reach at least .

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Mosquito

I have a router... or two.... But I wouldn't mind a mill either oh the fun that could be had with no budget restrictions.....

Certainly would be fun eh.

And like people with mills say, you always want something even better & I expect it's very true.
And then people with full access to the best stuff, they just say lets make something amazingly awesome.
And then you get average joe modders often making highly excellent stuff with normal tools but takes forever to do.

I only know how satisfying it is to do the long way when you have all your pieces ready to put together but it is a really awesome feeling putting those final bits together.

Originally Posted by Combatus

Seeing as you pulled the last one off in spectacular style, I'll be keeping a close eye on this one!

Cheers Antony.

Originally Posted by KidMod-Southpaw

Can't bear to miss any of this! Wonderful stuff once again!

Cheers Kidmod.

Started a bit late but because of skipping yesterday I just wouldn't stop until I got 1 of them done.

Tried the 12 TPI & they cut really well but only for about 2 inches & then they get pretty blunt & struggle to cut more so I'll stick to the 18 TPI, seem to get a whole lot more done with those on the 10mm alu.


Snap, this happens more than I like but not too often.


Continue




Neeeeeed fuel awesome pasta pesto 10 minute quick fix of goodness with a good kick of scorching chillies.


Woo hoooooo feeling 50 times better so time to get this panel finished.






More soon

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by KidMod-Southpaw

Wonderful stuff! And a great meal.

But it really takes a big toll on the patience thanks mate.

Originally Posted by Monsieur R.

Finally you're done with this part. Will you file the inner part, or are you satisfied with the finish ? I'm amazed how this tool can create regular edges. Very nice and clean.

I'm sure I could have used a jigsaw for this getting it close to where I want it & filed it in a far quicker time but for some reason I cut right up to the lines which takes a lot of concentration with it moving so slow, but with it being up to the line it will only need a light sanding to get them exactly how I want them & I have an idea for making my own sanding blades to make quick work of it, an easy idea I started doing a while ago of using strips of paper pulled tight on both ends & pull back & forth through the material to get it smooth, I'm thinking a piece of card with various grits of wet dry paper stuck to it on both sides & use it as a scroll saw blade, the saw allows for a slack tension up to tight where you place the blades.

At this moment though I'm unable to do zombie endurance focus mode so need some better mental stimulation so I'm going to have a gaming session for the rest of today.

Working the scroll saw is fun but only for easier materials, the band saw blades eat through the 10mm alu really well at a good pace so I'll mod a couple of them to allow me to do curve cuts easier & I should be able to get a lot done tomorrow then.

It takes an incredible amount of time to get through while keeping it so the edges only need a light sanding so I'm going to grind down 1 of the band saw blades so they are able to do curves better, my patience to get through the 10mm with super thin fretsaw blades has vanished.

[Waynio]

Figured it would only take a couple of minutes to mod a band saw blade by grinding it so went & done it & tested it & it works awesome.


Took a few seconds to get from the start hole to be just inside the line for the cutting & can easily do the curves I need it to while eating though it nicely.


And since I'm not 100% happy with the front chunky piece for the HTPC because of a tiny error while getting used to the 10mm alu I will continue to do the whole project & make notes of any bits I botch so I can make another order to re do any bad parts so it all stays to plan.

I looked on ebay for 10mm alu plate & it is far more expensive than the place I buy from, to get a replacement piece from the shop it would be £3 on ebay it would be £21 for double what I need so if I wait until I have all panels & bars ready to fix together then I won't waste money on postage unnecessarily.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Angel OD

Sticking to the line - Check!

Good job man, can't wait to see this beast come together!

Cheers Martin it was going unbelievably slow when using the fretsaw blades but think I should get all this 10mm alu done nice & fast now & even get the edges cleaned up with the sanding blade idea, might even be able to do that simply by folding over some wet dry paper & placing a piece of card in between so it can be held in without ripping, I'll test out the sanding idea today.

Originally Posted by quizz_kid

Looking good mate!! Good thinking with the band saw blade... Never figured me for an ALU guy, but that 10mm looks sweeeeeeet potato!

Cheers mate & switching to the modded blades will let me breeze through the 10mm now compared to the fretsaw blades.

Hope to make some significant progress today especially with being up at a good time.

[Waynio]

Soooooo much better than days getting nowhere, took about 2 hours to do.








Next up is the bigger plates shown here.