Case Mod - In Progress Project: Mission

It looks like a 'bespoked' piece of furnature you are building there! Looks lovely! But please don't add a fish bowl on top when it's finished

Perhaps you could make a panel that consists of diagonally orientated wood grains? Like in a \/ or /\ orientation? Or a combination of orientations like on this picture of a Zenith Model 6-S-222 from tuberadioland.com? You could have the vertical orientation behind the spokes and het diagonal on the left and right.

May not result in the world's flashiest panel, but perhaps you could take the idea from there to your own level of pizazz

I'm currently working on a scratch build myself using diagonal wood grains in my front panel. Looks great, I think, apart from me being considerably slower an less skilled in the building process than Lord Slippery here Perhaps someday. Someday...

Keep up the nice work! I'm enjoying this build!

 

Thanks! Welcome to the forums. That Zenith looks interesting. You should post your work here so we can all see your diagonal panel work.



I glued my upper railing alignment blocks to the appropriate strategic locations. This is not done to secure them but to accurately position them. Just gluing them to the face of the thin veneer is not going to be strong enough.






Wood screws will be driven into each block to gain the strength I need. Pilot holes are drilled out. The blocks facing the center are too close to get a drill positioned so I'll have to drill these by hand using my taped-up drill bit. I twirl the bit between my thumb and finger using the tape as traction. The tape also gives me a more comfortable diameter to work with.






A single long wood screw is driven deep into each leg.






The upper rails are glued onto these blocks.






I used my wood saw to cut 2 1/4" off the length of the table top board giving it a final dimension of 12" x 21 3/4". I then started putting some veneer on the table top edges. I went this-a-way and then went....






...that-a-way.






Turned the project upside down and inserted the computer. Used a pencil to draw the outline of the opening onto the aluminum case.






Using my Dremel I cut out an opening in the case bottom that should now align perfectly with the vent opening in the outer shell.






Finished removing the rest of the internal drive cage by drilling out the appropriate rivets. This was much easier to do now that I had a huge hole in the bottom of the case.






Result of efforts.

Thanks for looking!

 

Absolutely can't wait to see this beauty come together.

 

Me too. I wonder how it will turn out.



I knew that gluing the veneer to the table top was going to be a thrill ride. The top needs four 3" wide pieces of walnut glued side-to-side. The center two are tricky because I don't have any extended-reach clamps so I had to improvise with a selection from of my library.






While waiting for that to dry I marked up the case top for the two 120mm fan holes. First I marked the shell opening just as I had for the lower inlet vent. Next, I temporarily installed the PSU to determine the space used up by it. The remaining space is divided between the two fans. The small space between the fans concerns me but the spacing is exactly the same as a standard 2 x 120 radiator grill.






This photo sequence is for the fourth and final top veneer piece.






Laid out the appropriate amount of glue in an esthetically pleasing pattern. Using my fingers to spread out the glue I concentrate my efforts on the edges and corners.






Clamped it up.






I go through a process I call "unclenching". Basically, I dismantle all the clamps after five minutes to look for slippage and to make sure I'm not gluing my clamping boards to the piece. I then reassemble the clamps in a slightly different position. I repeat this every five minutes for the first twenty minutes. In my mind, the release and reapplication of pressure helps the quality of the adhesion by "working" the drying glue. I have no proof other than demonstrated success.






Result of efforts.






Cut some 1/2" square stock to a friction fit at the back...






...and the front.





Turned the project upside down and glued the new boards to the bottom of the table top.






Table top with new cleats. Not a permanent solution but it is a tight friction fit.



Thanks for looking!

 

OMG, that looks so so good, very smooth and stylish.

 

^^ Indeed! This is beautiful, it's replaced all your other works as my favourite.
And it's not even finished.

 

Stunning, as always

 

Yupz als always

 

Stunning!+2

-but I fear the flat top was so your wife could put a vase or potted plant on it.

 

Cool! Thanks for that.

Thanks! There is still plenty of time to screw it up so you better hold off.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Could be. Maybe I should re-name this project "Doily Bait" huh?.

Back to it.

I decided early on that I wasn't going to spend the money on a 120mm hole saw and that I would be using my Dremel instead. I've never done this before so this is me making things up...again.



Just inside the marked line I make 50-60 small shallow cuts . This results in something that appears to be one continuous circular cut. I don't trust my limited skillz in this area to pull off a smooth continuous perfect circle in a single pass.






Once the first shallow cut is done I feel that it is easier to attempt the full circle cut.






I cut inside the line because I figured the cleanup filing would expand out to it. I was right. I'm not real happy with the overall results.






Looking around for help I quickly spotted a nearby container lid that fit perfectly. Scary perfect. I wrapped some sandpaper around it and spun the "tool" until I was satisfied with the edge. Not perfect but sufficient.





Test fit. You can see some of my flat black paint work I started today.






I concocted the fan mounting system because I don't want any screw heads on the surface of the case. The case is a tight fit in the shell and I want it to slide smoothly in and out. Protruding screw heads have a tendency to make things un-smooth so I'm using these t-nuts instead.

The fan on the left is a Cooler Master unit that came with the case. I was impressed with its low noise and adequate air flow. The fan on the right is a bad little mofo. It is a Delta AFB-series PWM fan rated at 113 CFM.






After mounting the t-nuts I mark the bottoms with tell-tale lines and sand them down to ensure full contact at all four points.






Scuffed up the inside surfaces and used industrial strength super glue to adhere the t-nuts to the case. I've discovered that this super glue works much better than two-part epoxy.






Resulting fan mounts. I seem to have miscalculated the scuffing at 4 o'clock. Ooops. I tested it by trying to snap it off after inserting a screw. Passed.






The Cooler Master fan will be my primary fan running at a constant quiet speed. The Delta, being a PWM fan, will be controlled by the BIOS. It should just quietly idle along while waiting for a Far Cry 2 fire fight when it cranks up to 3600 RPM and 46 dB. I figure that I won't hear it with grenades going off in 5.1 surround sound.

I'm looking forward to the testing. My philosophy is to low ball the cooling system and prove that I actually need more.



Thanks for looking.

 

I really like your fan hole sanding apparatus , I must try that some time. Great idea withe the fan mountings also, I really should try to find some of those lol.

 

T-nuts. Filed away for future reference.

Nice update!

 

O>O ... that looks so sleek, so suave, it'd make armani jealous, i want.

 

Judging by your previous work i had high expectations for this project - and once again you present us with a stunning peice of art in the making. The quality of your workmanhip is truely that of a master of his craft. I really enjoy following your project logs mate, very inspiring and always full of useful tips. Aristotle said: "The whole is more than the sum of its parts" - and this project is definately proof of this! No CNC machined parts, no laser cut panels and no crazy expensive hardware. and yet, this thread is my favorite place to be on bit-tech at the moment!

 

the fan mounts are really nice
good work!

 

T-nuts shouldn't be too hard to find. I also used them on Ingraham and Decomatic as part of a custom case closing system. It seems they come in handy sometimes.

Thanks!

Wow! OK. I guess someone actually is reading this thing. Sometimes I wonder. I appreciate your kind words.

Thanks. It does look pretty clean from the exhaust side without all those screws showing. Too bad it will be hidden. LOL

I have a photo problem that needs audience participation. I have noticed that my photos get distorted when I use my rotation tool...or at least that is how it looks to me. Maybe it is my monitor or poor aged eyesight but I want to blame it on something else.

Here are two photos. The first one is original and the second is (or should be) identical except for being rotated 90 degrees. Anyone see a difference?





The second photo makes the project look much taller than it really is.

Help!

 

I wish it were that easy. I don't know the word(s) for them in the vernacular. Which means -

 

Interesting... If you measure the edge with a ruler on the monitor, the bottom pic is much longer. I've never seen that. It's not in your head.
Can you get the proportions of the original pic and resize/stretch the rotated on to those specs?

I've seen the t-nuts before, but at $1 each at the local hardware store, they don't fit my name.

 

Anytime you are thinking "Gee, I wish I had some screw threads right there" then think of t-nuts.

$1.04 for a pack of two at Lowes. The stainless steel variety are crazy expensive.

If you look at the photo properties they are both 480 x 640 (640 x 480). That is where the mystery gets deep. The "long" photo file is .06 KB larger than the other file. I don't know why they would be different but that certainly isn't much.

Here is a link to the original 3MP file just as it came out of the camera. Somebody please rotate it and tell me what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it. Either that or there is going to be a lot of head tilting from here on out LOL.

http://slipperyskip.com/Mission/Picture 2849.jpg

 

I did the same thing and they are the same length in both pics. I measured both the case's vertical and horizontal edge.

I did rotate your original and have uploaded it here so you can check it, but I doubt it is any different than your rotated pic... I did the measuring thing between this and the original, both displayed at 33% in my photoshop, and it was the same. Let me know if you want me to take the pic down.

Are you using crt monitors (mine's a tft)? Could it be that either your pixels are not square, or the dot pitch differs between the horizontal and vertical directions??

And after all that I have to say what a stunning case this is becoming! Am totaly in awe of your woodworking skills!