Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Metal Gear Mk. IV Case (Update Oct 07- Final Construction Shots Posted)

the PCI-e riser ribbon you showed a few posts back is a good idea. Somewhere on this forum a guy was building a SFF case and benchmarked his system with & without risers. The performance difference was just a few %, and never noticable. I can't seem to find the post again though :/

The one nit-pick i can make is the placement of USB...
I like the star-arrangement a lot, but the placement seems impractical. Maybe you are one of those people that don't use a lot of USB, but i sure am, and i really need my USB on the front where it's easy to reach. Withe those good looks, why not place USB in the front, or mabe on the bottom of the screen?

Subscribed btw, this is gunna be good

 

Mechs

I've played with the idea of making a BattleMech computer case but size and shape is always an issue. I'm anxious to see how this thing turns out.

I'd really love to build a case of a 'Mech, to sit on a shelf somewhere. Your project is the closest I've seen, someone building one that looks right.

 

Well, sorry for the long delay... I got back from Orientation at UT (very cool, architecture is gonna be awesome) only to find that A) I'd lost my cellphone, B) my transmission is dead in my Accord ($3000 to fix it.... yeah... thats not happening), and C) COMMIEcast has raised their rates from about $30 to about $65 a month, so we dropped ém like a rock. Anyways, I've got my old phone re-SIM carded, still no transmission, and still no internet, so I'm borrowing a friends.

Anyways, the case is proceeding. I've purchased the wood (3/4 birch plywood for the sides, 15/32 5-ply aucaudo (spelling?) wood for the rest), got my bondo (down at NAPA, I kid you not we were buying airfilters for Leopard I tank), and various other bits of hardware such as the socket screws, small casters to canabalize for the monitor swivel, and the 19" 1680 X 1050 monitor is in the mail. Parts will be ordered as soon as I get internet.

This project is a "go" so look forward to the project log... I know I am.

 

Well... I should have my internet back up and running by this evening... I've got supply pictures to post. All of my wood and screws and nails and such has been aquired for the main case. I'm going to dismount the monitor as soon as I find the time (hopefully tonight) so there should be some fun pics there too. Anyways... this Saturday is woodcut day, so this case should start takin' shape pretty soon.


ADDED LATER:
Wow, what a day... and its just getting started! Its nearly 4am and its the 4th of July, so I've really gotta go crash and get some sleep now, but first: status update.

I've got 8 tabs open in my FireFox 3, and as soon as I get some rest, I'm going to go down that list purchasing all the various odds and ends I've got left to buy for my case. Took a while, but I came up with all my parts and such. As it turns out, I'm gonna jump ship and grab myself an ATI Sapphire 4870. I was heartset on getting a 260gtx for this build... but I couldn't deny the benchmarks or the price... so I wen't back to good ol' Sapphire. Anyways, various fans (all AeroCool chromed fans on this build, white LED lighting), Bulgin Switches (again, white), laptop DVD-RW and adapter, cabling, PSU AC power extenders, computer components, and quite a lot of usb/audio/video/ethernet male and female jacks and plugs to wire up.

The wood and all my tools are in order and all thats left is to start tracing out my cuts as soon as I finish clearing out somewhere, anywhere, to use as a workspace. The camera battery is charge and ready to go, so I look forward to transforming this into a work log.

Lastly... a last render... soon enough photos will take over.


You can see how the side will open and how the Mobotray will fold out for access.


Final Concept

 

UPDATE - July 5

Well, I hate to triple post... but work has begun, so thats just too bad, lol.

So, the pictures basically speak for themselves, but basically me and friend drew out alllll the lines for the main case body. The monitor shell and mount will come after this is cut. Also, I disected an old psu to get the plug out of it, even though I currently don't plan to use it. Also salvaged a few good parts out of it.

Disassembled PSU.


Got a few decent parts... two 80mm fans, two fan grills, and various screws and switches and plugs.


Profile of the side of the case.


You can see the outline of the case side in the wood, this isn't the right motherboard and its not on the right size, but you get a sense of scale.


The two 640gb HDDs, the Zalman CPU cooler, and the Corsair 620w Modular PSU. The only parts besides the monitor that have arrived yet.


The 19" acer 1680 X 1050 I'll be using.


Drawing out the base lines to make a consistent width.


First row of drawings done. Whew, takes a lot longer that you'd think.


Close up of some of the panels.


One more panel to draw...


K, well thats a wrap, finally finished all the components for the main body of the case (except of course the stand)


Everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING, is in the mail. The next update will probably come when I start cutting wood... most likely monday.

 

pretty much where to get all your little adapter needs:
http://www.logicsupply.com/

ive personally ordered from them, and their shipping/service is top notch

Great concept cannot wait for the final product

 

I grab most of the connectors from AllElectronics.com, but this supply logic has some nice equipment... I'll have to look into them for my next build.

Damn, I've got so many great ideas now... I just wanna keep designing! *looks are bank account* Yeah... definitely can't build these type of things too often... Bummer.

Lets see... might as well use this post for my spec sheet.

CPU - e8400 3.0ghz (link) with Zalman 9500A 92mm cooler
Motherboard - ASUS P5K-VM MicroATX (link)
GPU - ATI Sapphire 4870 (link)
RAM - 4GB OCZ Reaper HPC (link)
HDD - 2 X 640gb Caviar WD (link)
Optical - (link) with IDE adapter for desktops
PSU - 620w Corsair Modular (link)
Fans - Aerocool SilverLightning fans on all the fans. Two 80mms, one 120mm, one 140mm. (link)
All of the stuff I've bought over the last two weeks or so... meaning that most of this was on sale/free shipping when I bought it. Its funny watching sale prices and price drops, I definitely like seeing sale + free shipping, heh.

In slightly funnier news, I was trying to see if Best Buy carried wire fan grills since I've got some gift cards from graduation and I think my ACRyan fan grill for my 120mm exhaust may block to much airflow. While looking... I came across this... thats right, bestbuy.com lists fans with English units... seriously? Lol.

 

I have bunches of laptop cd to ide cables. I will send you one if it will help you.

*edit* The best buy link is some strange stuff. lol

 

Well I bought an adapter from a site that a friend of mine has used before, so I should be good, but thanks for the offer man. I suppose if the part is DOA or something, I've got a good alternative. http://www.directron.com/cddvdadapter.html

In other news, where abouts in Oklahoma are ya based? I lived in Edmond, OK for 6 years.

Lastly, I've been crankin' out prints from Inventor with dimensions and such of all the various parts I'm gonna have to make tomorr- er, today. At least 17 unique parts to cut from wood, and each part has at least 2 funny-angled cuts in them so that they'll all fit together nicely. Should be a fun day, lol.

 

Hey that's pretty cool, Edmond is about 2 hours from here. I'm currently living in Wagoner. I like the adapter you ordered because the cable isn't part of it. The dell ones have a shortish cable attached but they are flat and look sexy when sleeved. You are/were one of the closest "neighbors" on here, so let me know if you need something. Dell computers are good for one thing - strange spare parts!

 

Update - July 7


After a few hours of Inventor work, I'd printed out dimension sheets for every single part. Whew. I just hope once the plans are analyzed, a weakness can be found...


Thats no moon... that's a massive compound miter saw. Worked wonders on all the cuts I'd drawn out. Its currently in its 90 degree cut mode, but nearly every cut it made was at some angle to the vertical.


I didn't take a picture the cut process, but you can see the piece that resulted. Basically took a long peice of steel and clamped it down on the wood and ran a circular saw down the edge. Worked fine.


Seeing as I don't have many tools, my friend David has no shortage of nice tools. This miter saw did everything needed. You can see I'm cutting the side panel out with the 45 degree cuts to get the nice bevel on the sides.


Sweet, its turning out much better than I'd thought. Thats the only blade burn we had too.


The rear 90 degree beveled cuts also came out fine.


As we cut the pieces, I stood them up on the side of the panel to make sure it all went together fine. As is always the case with this sorta thing, the plans had to be adjusted a bit to account for cutting tons of angles with a large blade (IE making some pieces 1/32 or 1/16 longer, etc).


It doesn't look like much, but it's got it where it counts. Small stack of wood, big chunk of time.


Odd, after a quick break for lunch there was a massive dragon fly in the garage, easily over four inches.


Well, after 5 hours of drawing and slicing, all the parts had been cut for the body of the case. 15/32 wood in the left stack and the two 23/32 wood in the right stack.


Back at home, the dining room has been turned into the work room, you can see the wood fits together nicely.


Excellent fit, and thats all just gravity and friction.


If you can shut out the rotated background, thats basically how the case will look sitting on its base.


After a rather lengthy trip to Lowes to grab the last bits of hardware (nylon spaces for the mobo stand offs, hinges, screws, nails, washers, drop cloths, tape, etc), it was time to call it a night. Btw, thats the dremel I bought sittin' on the table. The circle cutting attachment will do all my fan cuts (unless I go buy a hole saw for the 80mms... which I'm tempted to do, you think its worth it?). It was so much cleaner and more organized... but then I decided to try and get a rough parts list of hardware, so all my order was gone by the time I remember to take a picture.


Well, that does it for today's update. I've got a minimized firefox window with 12 tabs... all of shipping trackin' numbers. Wednesday and Thursday are going to be D-Day for packages at my front door.

 

Well, this isn't really a full update... just more of a status report. Though I'm about to start cutting the 120mm fan hole and the IO board.

Significantly more organized now.


All the various bits of screws and mechanical hardware I'll be using. Plus whatever I'm sure I've forgot to buy.


It looks so deceptively plain when set out.


A large open spot for the rest of the computer parts... soon it won't be quite so empty.

 

that's a sh*t load of parts! (or maybe its because all layed out that it looks deceptive).
is that a digital 400 dremel? it shows the amount of precision in the picture of the case holding it self up. great work so far!

 

Oh don't we all love d-day, it's like christmas time in, well whatever time of year it is when we get computer parts of any sort. Looking forward to see how this project progresses. Keep up the good work.

 

Well its not the digital one, its just the Dremel 400 XPR. Either way though, its reallllly nice. Lookin' forward to adjusting a few of those parts with the planar, and plenty of sanding/tweaking with it. The spiral saw attachment and my good old fashion cordless drill will be how I'm cutting me I/O board too.

In address to the hardware.... yes... yes it is a lot, lol. But fear not, for nearly all of it has a dedicated spot. I'm sure I've got a few extra screws and washers, but not as many as you'd think. That was the amazing part of laying it all out. I'm thinkin': wow, everything here is going to fit into this little box, its like some sort of dissappearing act.

I'm takin' another day off work tomorrow to work on my case too. I'm also gonna be using the dremel to help cut a friends case window that we're workin' on. (I'll post pics when we're done, but its not really a project log type of event). Expect the IO board and the fan cuts tomorrow... and way too many photos of parts.

*goes to sleep by the door in case the UPS man comes early*

 

Update - July 10

So, first things first, printed out the parts I'd made on the computer so as to have a nice template...


A few cuts of the scissors and covering of tape. Good to go for cuts.


Quick pilot cut...


...followed by the nifty dremel circle cutter....


...results in a whole thats too big!!!! Oopss.... well thats no good, gotta cut that piece of wood again.


So more strait edge clamping to compensate for lack of circular saw. Again, dremel Cheesecake! This time multisaw attatchment.


Ironically I tried to use these as the "sawhorses" originally... but the just vibrated too much. A pitty, the pizza was good.


Well, these certainly turned out perfect.


...especially after a bit more dremel touch up. (I love this tool).


Test fit of the grills... excellent. Sorry about the focus... it was hard to get a decent pic for some reason.


Drilling the other four screw holes caused a bit of breakout on the last ply of the plywood... so a touch of woodglue and some clamps for 10 minutes...


Ta da! Sweet. Now I realize that the fan grills look offcenter in the pic... odd... But they aren't in real life.


Parts table is almost complete... just a few fans now. The new 4870 is huge. And very very red.


*sniff* Goodbye monitor... hopefully I don't break you in the process of... breaking you.


CRRAAAAAAAAAAAACK


Ok, so that was a bit tense. But once the little bit of plastic sheared off the whole front bezel just popped out.


And we've got ourselves an LCD screen... I just hope it still works.


As does my friend Kris, who's been helpin' me all day and will be around for the next update.


And I hate posing for pics. So yeah... That's me. Btw, that render that's framed behind me is the robot I modelled for my FIRST robotics team. I actually got an award at the international competition for it... heh.


NOOO! ITS CRACKED! Just kidding. Itunes visualizer. Sweet, the monitor still works. Whew.


Very cool. I'm thinkin' my next mod will involve LCDs too.


And now its all dimensioned down to the half millimeter and modeled so I can fully design the monitor housing.



I realize I'm nearly two days late on this update... but a combination of power loss and busyness kept me back... I've actually already got another update to write about today... but I'll write that tomorrow. lol. The rest of the parts are actually here atm. I love the fans.

 

It's a wonder

With the skills you have in creating your design in a 3D Model and the plans drawn in CAD, It's a wonder why you don't create your design with a CNC milling machine, much like G69T's computer build (here on bit-tech). CNC milling isn't hard to learn, as a matter of fact you have the hardest part out of the way as it is...the CAD/CAM programming. Check out cnczone.com and look up 5bears.com cnc machine, he uses rhino CAM to mill out a design in aluminum.

 

Very nice concept, but steel/aluminium would be better for construction, imo.

 

Hmmm... Well I do like the idea of all CNC'd, but this designed seemed a bit too simply to call for that. I'm sure future cases I make will evolve in complexity. I really wanted to make this out of aluminum and such, but I've never really had any experience working metals from scratch, so I thought for a first case, a familiar material that's relatively cheap and easy to work with would be best. Though I do very much like the idea of making it out of aluminum.

I have a design for a case in my head that I've always wanted to build... but lets just say the... complexity of it puts it out of reach currently. I've got an Inventor file started that I work on from time to time... just don't expect it anytime soon (aka, not for at least a year). However, eventually.... eventually it will be brought to light, but not till I've got it down to a T what I need to build it and such. Due to its nature, this one will most likely be exclusively CNC'd. I just hope thats before I run out of funds, lol.

Also, the update coming later today does actually use a CNC, but not really for anything complicated, just my monitor bezel. I really used the CNC to help a friend with a case window he's making, I'll post it up into Modding when we finish it.

Lastly, the render in the background of that picture, up close and personal.
http://firstbasefrc.autodesk.com/ama/orig/competition/756/1477/Team_1477.jpg
http://firstbasefrc.autodesk.com/am...7/Team_1477_Easily_Accessible_Electronics.jpg
http://firstbasefrc.autodesk.com/ama/orig/competition/756/1477/Team_1477_Start_Position.jpg
http://firstbasefrc.autodesk.com/ama/orig/competition/756/1477/Team_1477_Catapult_Raised.jpg

 

Amazing job on the robot design mate, I must say that you put my schools entry to shame.
Beautiful 3D model, very done.