Scratch Build – In Progress Project - Silent fibreglass PC

The next pics are awaiting the adminstrators approval.

 

What? Isn't it just to post the pics or am I missing something here? Again, great work.

 

Thanks. For some reason when you put pics in a post it says the admin must approve the pics before they can be posted.

 

Maybe too few posts? Are you hosting the pictures on Bit-Tech?

Interesting.

john

 

Well, he does only have 9 posts so far. I could see the admins getting worried about # of posts vs # of pics, if only for spamming reasons. But come on! Can haz worklog? Plz?

Looking good so far!

 

The pictures are held on googles picasa website. What does "Can haz worklog" mean?

 

Heh it's just a way of saying 'I want to see more!!'. And I agree, this mod is looking exciting. I've seen fibreglass before and I've always thought the finish looked too plasticy like a McDonalds toy but I think yours is looking pretty good so far .

 

Heres a shot of the inside view of the 2 USB ports:



I then used plaster filler to fill in the gap around the acrylic and sprayed primer over the acrylic so that I could see whether it was smooth or not:



It still needs a little more filling and smoothing but I will do that when I get round to painting the whole thing.

Once I get some aluminium I will cut out a circle to fit into the round hole, this will then become my power switch as explained earlier. The main reason I am using acrylic here is so when I finally get round to spray painting the whole thing I will mask a small line around each USB so that the acrylic is still visible after painting. I will then shine blue LEDs through the line. I also current making a circuit which will make LED's through out the case fade in and out slowly.

The next acrylic panel for the rest of the sockets was cut out using a dremel as usual:



The acrylic tends to melt onto the drill so I had constantly stop milling and pull it off the drill bit:



Once the panel had been cutt out I sanded the acrylic to make it a cloudy colour so it will pick up the light from the LED's better:



I've drawn lines onto the acrylic so that I can cut out the holes for each computer socket (DVI, audio, LAN e.t.c) tomorrow using a scroll saw:

 

Thanks Dreaming. Ill keep uploading pics as soon as I complete each task.

 

Looks very promising! Have you tried use a little less RPM on the dremel? High speeds will often result in materials melting and it's always a bit annoying.

 

A higher RPM actually improves it. If I slow it down the drill bit just gets stuck in the acrylic

 

Wow, this is looking great! I really like the sleek and unusual look of the original render/sketch.
Very nice work with the fiberglass and mold-making. I can't wait to see more.
I like the switch and fading leds circuit ideas... any links to circuit diagrams would help me a lot and be much appreciated!
Regarding the acrylic melting while you cut it... do you know if it is extruded or cellcast? Cast is better at melting prevention. You might try wetting it with water as you cut, too.
BTW... for more on "can haz worklog" joke... you can look up lolcats, or check out http://icanhascheezburger.com/


subscribed!

 

Thats impressive, I wouldnt call myself an expert but you definately made your first time look easier than mine was! Yeah thats what i wanted to know about the CNC... I wish I could get some CNC machinery in our shop, number one on the list being a vertical axis mill, closely followed by a flowjet! I like the rest of what you've done on the project, shall have to follow this one closely

 

Thanks ModMinded and Unicorn. Ill try and draw you a circuit diagram on saturday as I'm abit busy on fridays.

 

I used a Scroll Saw to cut some of the holes for the sockets but I then decided that it wasnt worth taking the blade off the machine each time I went onto the next hole so I went back to using my dremel:




Once the holes where made I then began gluing the sockets into position:




Heres a pic of the acrylic panel carefully balanced in the case:

Im planning on having this panel backlit with LED's as described with the other previous panel.

If your wondering why theres a large gap at the top between the case and the acrylic its because I had to heat and bend the acrylic slightly to get it to match the curve on the case, however in doing so I think its shrunk the acrylic. The next stage of the panel is to solder on the many many wires so it can be connected to the motherboard back panel, however in order to do that I need to know the distance from the panel to the motherboard so I'm going to start on the motherboard fittings now. I've ordered lots of aluminium bar and sheet so I'm hoping it will arrive by the weekend and I'll be able to get on with the internal frame thats going to hold all the components.

 

thats looking good

 

That's very amazing, you are very good, you really know what you're doing

 

wrt the above, please review the following

(great build by the way)

ICHC

 

No finer site to waste half a day on. Iz a winner.


john

 

Those are seperate sockets for DVI and USB, right? Im assuming you are planning are wiring them and connecting them to the board, either via Mb or gfx card? just wondering... fiberglass looks great