Scratch Build Project: Black and White - 05.12.2012 Finished

[Dk_vr]

Hello everybody,
For the last few days I've decided to build a new project from scratch.
It will be a small, stylish and theme based project for a small case/stand based on mini ITX motherboard with as few as possible peripheral devices.
The idea of the project is to be slim stand/case hand made mod with some visual effects.
The base of the machine will be Intel® Desktop Board DN2800MT mini ITX, which I dont have yet.

Sponsors: 

- Cold Cathodes

- Mini ITX motherboard

- Cooler Master Excalibur 120mm fan

- 64GB SSD and 2 x 2 GB SODIMM kit

Before I start I want to share some details. There is no scheme, no drawings, no lasers . Everything is in my head and will be build by hand on the move. For now I cant tell what will be the end product.


Here we go..

After I finished drawing and choosing place for the motherboard my camera betrayed me. For that reason I couldn't make pictures from the begining.

First cut on the base platform:



Few more cuts:






Sanding the first platform:








First platform at 30% ready with motherboard mounted:


This is for now, more updates on the way:

[Dk_vr]

After I went back to my home tome for the fast 4 days(Easter celebrations) I've decided to use that time and work.

Except the plastic, I was thinking to use aluminium or stainless steel plates but after all, the choice was aluminium.

Cutting process:














After I got some of the parts needed I had to invest a lot of time sanding them:























Lets say they are ok, so it was drilling time





















With motherboard on:





To be continue....

[SuicideNeil]

Protip: use the embedded images / thumbnail links to the full size images; no one likes having to click hundreds of links to view pictures.

Welcome to the forum though

EDIT: that's much better- looking good so far

[Dk_vr]

Hello,
thanks for the welcome and I will try to upload next updates as thumbnails.

Best Regards

[Dk_vr]

After I finished the first part, it was about time to work on the second:







Before I started sanding the plastic, I've decided to drill and attach the aluminium plates, so they can be my guide while sanding.







It was too late, but I did some sanding.

[Dk_vr]

New update:

After I've mounted the aluminium plates to the plastic and finished sanding the part looks like this:



First test with light:





And both parts together:





Meanwhile, Elitegroup promised to sponsor me with: Elitegroup CDC-TI (V1.0A) and Revoltec with RM131 and RM130.

[Dk_vr]

Ok... one more piece of the puzzle

Today I had some free time and I've decided to make the second plate, which will be the base for SSD and CCL invertors.



Its absolutely the same as the first one, but this time I've cut it faster and nicer.







After I finished cutting and started sanding, an urgent job popped up so I will finish it other time.

[Dk_vr]

Hello to all moderators,
May I ask this thread to be moved to the Project Logs section - http://forums.bit-tech.net/forumdisplay.php?f=42.

Thanks in advance

Best Regards

[Dk_vr]

Before I continue with the project I want to show what parts I got so far:

1. The cold cathodes from Revoltec



2. The power and reset buttons:



Ok here we go.
In Bulgaria we had 4 days off from work and I used that time to go back to my home town and use our workshop:



Last week I cut the second acrylic plate and I had to do some sanding and make the aluminium plates for it:





I did those plates and I've decided to do some sanding on that acrylic plate. After 20 mins if sanding and my father watching me he decided to help with some serious machine sanding. After 2 mins the plate was complete and my ego was ruined:



All parts so far:





Next step was drilling the holes to mount the acrylic and the aluminium plates together:







After those parts were mounted together I had to do again some small polishing to make them fit perfect:





After all was done on that part my job continued with assembling those 3 full parts together and drilling the holes:





The last step for that day was to drill the holes for the buttons:





More pictures incoming

[Dk_vr]

Hello guys,
so far I was only posting pictures but I faced a dilema with unknown solution and I need some help from modders with much more experience.

Two days ago I realized that the 2 UV cold cathodes are not bright enough and they can’t make the acrylic panels glow.

For that reason I’ve decided to go for LED strips but I am not sure if the motherboard will be able to handle the power.

According ECS, the motherboard can handle powering up to 2 HDD and 1 ODD via headers but I wonder if the motherboard will be able to power up to 1 HDD/SSD and for example 4 white LED strips.
I tried to calculate the consumption, but I don’t have information what is the power adapter provided with the motherboard.

Any help will be appreciated

Best Regards

[Dk_vr]

Last week I showed only half of the project's progress and it's time to show the rest of the pictures.

After I drilled the holes for the buttons it was about time to assemble those main parts to see what they look like.



After all parts were together, I decided to make the holes for the bolts bigger and increased their size from 3mm to 4mm.

At the beginning of the project I was thinking to make it like 4 parts with some standoffs between those plates, unfortunately the regular long nuts with inner diameter 4mm were only 15mm long and that wasn't enough. For that reason my father took a new big and noisy machine and we had to cut some 27mm pieces from stainless steel:



At the beginning we cut only 6 pieces at size 27mm and polished them with a drilling machine and sanding disc so I can mount those parts together:


To be able to assemble both parts together I had to cut long bolts into different size smaller bolts and attach them with round nuts.
After I had the first bolts and tubes ready I assembled the first parts together:





Since the drilled holes in both plexi parts were more, my father cut a few more stainless steel tubes at 27mm and I prepared the bolts plus polished the tubes.



After all the mounting parts were ready we installed the third main part of the project and all together they look like that:







After all parts were together I had to install the plexi feet that I had bought a few days before.



All parts were mounted together and the project looks like that:

[Mr3D]

Looking nice mate! Tho i would suggest a countersunk screw instead of the screw heads.

[Dk_vr]

Originally Posted by Mr3D

Looking nice mate! Tho i would suggest a countersunk screw instead of the screw heads.

Thanks mate,
Next pictures will show the first tests with the attached white LED strip.

I thought about the countersunk screws, but in my country I cannot find longer than 70mm at Ø4mm and for that reason I had to cut bolts at custom size.

Best Regards

[Nexxo]

Moved to Project Logs.

[echo three]

Looking very nice indeed.

[Dk_vr]

Originally Posted by Nexxo

Moved to Project Logs.

Thanks mate!

A small unofficial update with the lights. I say unofficial because I just had some fun and the lights are not ready yet.







Enjoy

Best Regards

[Dk_vr]

Been awhile since I played with lights and they looked quite nice, but really could not stay that way. Since the total thickness of plexi plus the two aluminum plates was 7 mm and the LED strip is 8 mm, I concluded that I should install the lights inside the plexi.







After I installed the first LED strip I just had to test how it performs



Once I finished the first part I did the same with the second platform on which the motherboard is mounted. Once it was assembled, it looked like this:



Of course, I had to see how it looks assembled:



Seems I turned the connector, but was too late.



"Fear of the dark"



Best Regards

[dream1]

Looks very good

[biojellywobbles]

Looks great, love the lighting idea, did you think of hiding the wires that power the LED strips in the spacers on the bolts between the levels? They look like they would have space inside them.

[Dk_vr]

Thanks guys for the feedback.
Yes I thought about hiding the wires inside the stainless steel tubes but the case wont look so stylish as you think
Stay tuned

Best Regards