Scratch Build No name yet ...

[haggisathome]

Were to start ...

my first project went a bit tits up , it never got completed due to family reasons . but that's in the past and we are here today . my very first pc has finally died a horrible death , first the gpu went and finally my old crosshair decided to burn out a voltage regulator in a smelly twist of fate ( the room still smells of burnt pcb ) . i was very lucky in October last year to come into some cash and managed to get my mobo , psu , ram , gpu , waterblocks , cpu and a quad 120mm rad , thrown into that was also a canon 550 dslr . i hoped i had enough to finish the rebuild but time and realising i was skint threw a spanner in the works . so fast forward to today and , i am now in a situation to start making my dream into a reality ...

This is not going to be as fast a build as i want , but i have learned patience ... and working full time with three kids , and a lack of tools will slow me down . but as they say rome was not biult in a day .

hardware wise so far :-

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 980 Black Edition
ASUS Crosshair V Formula AMD 990FX
1200W Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold Modular Power Supply
OCZ Solid 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-III Solid State Hard Drive
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (i want to take this to 16gb)
24" ASUS VS247H Widescreen LED Monitor
EK Water Blocks EK-Supreme LTX AMD - EN
EK Water Blocks EK-FB ASUS Crosshair V - Acetal
Magicool XTREME QUAD 480 Long Radiator
480mm Stripes Radiator Grill - Black
Lamptron Fan Controller FCT Touch - Black
Push-Button 19mm Aluminum Black, Orange Ring Light
and last but not least a low pressure high volume spray gun .

And that is the list so far , but there is more to add .

an other gpu
2 x water blocks
1 x dual 120mm rad
two D5 pumps
ek D5 pump top
2 x res
cable sleeving
hose
and other lamptron touch
6 80mm or 120mm fans
slot loading br/dvd drive
1 or possably 4 ssd,s
i know there will be more but i can remember atm .

Now why am i doing this ? , my first pc lasted me a while and i believe if i pull this off i will have a pc that will last me for some years as well as my last one did .
i am trying to get a very gloss almost piano black finish with orange ( tron like ) glow to it , i got my self a spray gun and hope to do all the panel work myself and as you can see i have had a play with the psu and mobo io plate . its not 100% but i learned a lot from those two pieces .

now its not a log until you have pictures , so here are some to keep you going .

the first four are the frame being made , one thing i have still not got to grips with is welding alu . so my very good friend from cardiff made me the frame , and delivered it to nairn ( NE ) scotland this weekend . so a very big thank you pete ... with out you i would not be starting this so soon .





the rest of the shots just show the frame & outer skin



and one with the parts



and some with some of the hardware i have











and these i am planning to use for cable management



looking forward to entertaining you and my self for a few months

H

[haggisathome]

**RESERVED**

[haggisathome]

**RESERVED**

[haggisathome]

managed to get the mother board tray cut out roughly to fit in the frame



and cut the support brackets and filed them from this

into this


and this is what they are for


seeing as i have the week off work i will try and get as much done as i can , and will try and update every day this week with progress .

H

[Cown]

Looks very interesting, looking forward to see more

[haggisathome]

thank you cown

i am off to see my local sign maker today as he has a cnc bench and said he could help me with some work . manged to get all the mobo tray support brackets drilled , i only wish i could get my self a work bench to work on

update later all

[haggisathome]

so after tearing my hair out numerous times , i admitted defeat that i was not happy with the way things were turning out and included in that was my poor measurement skills !

but after a day of thinking and heaps of fresh coffee i think i am on the way back . what i think i was doing wrong was jumping ahead of my self , so staring with the basics i decided to tackle the frame and try and get it 80% ready so i can at least get the measurements right for the rest of the parts . i didn't get down to the bloke at the sign shop as my wheel bearing went on my car , and not haveing my work van ( crashed into ! ) means i have to keep use of the car to a min until i get it back on monday .

ok let me show you what i did do and were i am hopeing to go , i cut and drilled the mobo tray . with that done i mounted all the corner brackets and decided i just did not like the look of the screws ( and to be honest stevie wonder could have done a better job than i did )





but as you can see , the screws are to close to the edge . so i had a bit of an ambitious idea to save the tray and improve the looks .





that is all i am giving away on this plan so far , but i think it will look cool ( if i pull it off ) . then it was time to start on the frame , the welds had to go ... so they did





and after a shot of angle grinder




then , a way to hide them





filling is not my strong point , and i know it can be a laborious job shaping it . so i thought i would cheat a bit ...



good old 1/2' tubing to the rescue lol , after the filler had set i got my very unused dremel clone out and got to work .




after all that i need a bottle of wine ! , but one more thing i did manage was to cut the mobo tray down and figured out a mounting system that will serve two uses . and as i said i dont want to give away to much at the moment , so tomorrow i am going down to see if i can get some metal strip bent up seeing as its pay day

last two pictures ...




untill next update

[haggisathome]

going back to work after a long time off is not fun ! , but some more progress ...

i should have asked for more parts to be made up for me ! , i just had to part with forty quid for some aluminum to be bent up , that if i had the equipment could do for a quarter of the price ! thieves i tell you ... thieves ! . but he can get it done i hope for wednesday , and i went to a local supplier and managed to order some countersunk black allen bolts/screws for monday . i have been measuring the frame again and again and should hopefully get down to the dude with the sign shop some time this week to give him the drawings for part one . apart from that i managed to get off work early tonight as there was more activity in my bank account that there was out on the road . so started wet sanding the frame , starting with 240 and a bucket of warm soapy water i managed to get the top and bottom faces sanded to try and remove scratches in the frame , and then a bit of filler to make up for the heavy handed attack of the angle grinder and flap disc





i also sanded the top lid , to help the edges a bit . but sorry no pics for that , i can assure you it was not exciting ! . tomorrow i am hopeing to carry on with the wet sanding the frame and the rest of the outer panels to help keep every thing square .

i hope i am not boring any one !

[kelmannen]

looking good! loves aluminium builds! =)

[haggisathome]

its a easy material to work with , its just a shame it costs so much . thanks for the feedback kelmannen

[haggisathome]

evening all

i did not expect to update so soon but i had an unexpected phone call today from the company that were making my mobo support brackets ...

they are done , and two days early . thank you inverfab . so with them sat in my van and work quiet i managed to get home quick and measure them and then some measurement and some more measurement , and just for good measure a bit more measurement . and i have the rough shape of them , i do need to do more adjusting as i forgot about the angles were they will meet at the corners , but that can sit tight until tomorrow .

so sorry just one picture but think of it as a bonus

[haggisathome]

just had a bit of a find , i was on a breakdown at an old business that was going out of business and they were clearing out the last of the rubbish . something caught my eye and i asked whats in the box






he told me to keep it , so i am . i think i can find a use for them somewhere . only problem is the "3" bottle seems to be missing , but still not bad for free

[haggisathome]

a few days off and a little progress , but also a little bit of fail for good measure ...

the brackets for holding the mobo tray have been cut and filed , they fit well but i will get them welded to stop any light leaks , the tray its self is now scrap . not haveing the proper tools for the job is a pain , but it will teach me to take my time and stop rushing . so some pictures of the tray .






i will get a new tray cut when funds allow , but please any comments or criticism please let me know .

[haggisathome]

managed to get a new bit of 3mm plate

[dbradford32]

we all make mistakes. I rush from time to time. lol we learn from it.

[mikeyandrewb]

Looking Good!
Keep it up!

[haggisathome]

Originally Posted by dbradford32

we all make mistakes. I rush from time to time. lol we learn from it.

i know , but looking at other alu builds on here ... mine was crap . but as you said i am learning from it

Originally Posted by mikeyandrewb

Looking Good!
Keep it up!

thank you

i am off work on tuesday and wednesday , so i am hopeing to update soon .

[haggisathome]

ok an update ...


first , i dont know why but i am exited . seeing two panels go in today makes me feel so happy , may not mean much to you but i am now seeing my case slowly starting to take shape . its been a good day today

ok on with the show . i went down to my not so local engineers and got them to chop a little bit from the new mobo plate , sorry no pictures of this . i only thought about it after walking away from the place , so after getting home i measured and remeasured and did ti for a third time just to be sure and with a big gulp started drilling the four corners of the mobo tray . after getting four screws in and checking all was well the rest was marked out and drilled out , then countersinking and tapping


and a back and front shot with all the screws in




do exscuse my self in the reflection

after rechecking every thing as good i thought about what to do next . well the bottom would be a good place to start , now for some reason i could have sworn i took pictures of the measurement's but they are not on the camera ! . so i will take pictures of the top tomorrow , just so you know what your missing . but here is the bottom of the case , just missing three screws at the ends



and also today i did a bit of experimentation on a bit of scrap from my first attempt , this was going to be a cd rom tray draw . it has been acid etch primed for about a month so last night after finding it i started giving it coats of gloss black . it had three last night and two this morning , on the second coat i put the oven on to 120' and put it in the oven for a hour ( much to the wife's bemusement ) . so after loosing the light i decided to bring my bits back in and got the Tcut , polish & polish cloth out . here is the piece after being hit with a bit of 1200 grit and some warm soapy water .

i did not want to go to deep into the paint as i am still learning and i want to see what i can achieve for my second go at this , so far i am happy with the results .

and that is as far as i got today . so that's the bottom panel eighty percent done and the mobo tray seventy percent done , i am supposed to be day off tomorrow but i am off down to livingstone for a work conference so i will try and get some pictures of the top panel ( and if time permits the front ) .

until the next time

[haggisathome]

small updated with no pictures ... yet , the first three pieces of plastic are on the cnc mill at the sign makers . i hope to get them monday , i also got some more pieces of 3mm aluminum plate from a source i know . with some new tools in my armoury and other pieces , i hope to have a picture update soon for those who are still interested in my work .


so untill i get the bits ... see you soon