^ Me too about a course & a good tutor, really it is that good it made me dribble nonsense in a stupid misplaced rant like Achron said, I'm still having trouble picking my chin up from falling so low with the nonesense I said, again Achron I'm sincerly sorry for being an a$$, I would like to say I don't know what come over me, but I do, it is the superiority of the work that blew me away. I do have issues with cnc, only because I think to myself can it be out done by hand and like you said in an earlier post "Ha...by hand...ha...I can't even fathom." so yeah my brain must have had a melt down trying to fathom and I ended up splurging tripe, I do wish I only said HOLY BLEEP like some others from astonishment, would have been much better, but went the wrong route & tried to fathom like I do with all mods lol, hope you don't think too little of me from my misplaced rant and dude sorry, this mod will stay in my memory for good & not good reasons, hopefully only the good reasons will stick. And to be honest I can't wait to see the finished piece, going off the unfinished shots of this, I might faint when I see the finished article .
Just read the entire log, one of the best 2 hours of my life I love CNC stuff, got a laser cutter at school which i have exploited ridiculously (it says never do more than 20mm acrylic on it, so i had a go at 30mm ). CNC milling is a whole different kettle of fish though, and i hope to have a go at it someday Out of interest, what is the course you are doing? I'm going to be doing Computer Science next year and the uni i am going to allows you to take a module in whatever subject you want apart from your main one. Really want to do something like you do The design is really nice man. I love the flowing shapes etc. I think one of the hardest things in modding is combining materials together successfully. One of the advantages of you using CNC is that the acrylic and aluminium looks so perfect together! Are you going to light the acrylic up at all? Bravo man, Bravo
Sweet CNC porn! How are you clamping the parts you cut out? Did I miss the clamps moving, or are you glued to the plexi? @DarkHarlequin - I'm pretty sure they won't let you near the machines without taking several prerequisite courses. (Yeah, I thought about doing the same thing. -It was cheaper to buy the machine.)
I typically use a mix of double sided tape, clamps, and a 'thin web'...meaning that on the final pieces I don't cut all the way through the stock, I leave a few thousandths of material on the bottom so the piece has some support. Fortunately the opportunities at a university are immense, so the timing couldn't have been better. I've also heard of a tech shop around here that has a monthly subscription and allows access to their entire shop (pending some safety classes for each machine). I'm a grad student in Mechanical Engineering, and the course I'm taking is in the same department (Computer-Aided Product Creation). The lab here on campus is available to the students, albeit a fee, but check with your university and their resources available. A lot of students from different university's that I know have had some prior machining experience.
http://techshop.ws/ That is the place that allows you to use their machines with a monthly club fee. Classes are required to "qualify" to use each machine. Be warned last I know there was a long waiting list to get membership. I live in Portland, and the techshop up here is currently closed trying to find a new location.
@Cheapskate - Figures. Why did I mess around at uni with a pointless humanities course when I could have been "studying" in a machine shop trying to come up with something as genius as this
Well I haven't had any progress on the case since this weekend, but I figured I would post a little somethin' somethin' to keep you busy until I do. I ordered some sleeving from MDPC-x quite a while ago. I just never got around to posting the pictures! As for color choice, I got some red, white, black, and grand bleu (which is the most gorgeous color ever invented). Wait a minute...that looks a little lighter than grand bleu! Yup, most definitely is. They must have sent me the wrong one! After a quick conversation with Nils, they sent me the grand blue rather quickly! As a side note, I must say that their service is impeccable and attitude and generosity to their customers is amazing. Great people and service. Thank you guys! So, after getting the grand bleu...here's a few shots of each color. The finale! I also ordered a ton of acrylic polish...because let's face it, I'll probably need more than this! This stuff is awesome, by the way. Hope that keeps you enticed until the weekend!
For the lab I'm taking, we have to design and machine something (anything) within the next 4 weeks. I'm buying a Harmony One, and I think I may mod the cradle (charger base), aka make it out of aluminum or something to match or mesh better with my HTPC. Thoughts?
Nils is awesome. I always email him before and after I place an order and he always replies personally. That's why I like buying from MDPC-X even though it can be pricier. Nice sleeving pictures btw
Not a bad idea, but I hate to get up after I plop my ass on the couch, and that's where the air holes will be for the heatsink. You actually just made me cringe. Literally. Not a bad idea, as well. 3-4 weeks is a big time crunch, so we will see what nifty designs I can come up with in the next week.
Hmm, perhaps you could mill a heatsink. [I skimmed through 9 pages and only looked at the pictures, so if I missed you solving the HSF issue, sorry. :S] Or you could just buy heatpipes and use the gigantic aluminium surface on the top as the sink. :S
I thought about milling my own heatsink, but a) copper is extremely expensive and b) most heatsinks are not milled, they're extruded. This is so the fins can be very thin (something you really can't do on a mill). As for the "making the shell the heatsink" idea, I have thought about that. However, the logistics of putting the case together are tricky enough, I don't think that would be possible. Also, the acrylic layers would ruin the heat transfer capabilities.
The top layer alone should be sufficient - heck, it's so huge! Well, you could attach the heatpipes to the CPU block first, fasten (the mobo) to the bottom aluminum piece, then place screws on the other end of the block, thread it through the top piece, fasten it together, then fasten the entire case into 1. Could get quite hot, though. :S
I would love to chip in some useful knowledge about cooling as that has always been a main goal of mine when making a case, but I don't know what temps are like for mini ITX systems so don't know if there will be any thermal issues, but perhaps if there is, maybe a slight underclock would help if needed, but it would be ultra amazing if the case could be used as a heatsink, even if it were just the top or bottom piece, should be way more than sufficient. So glad I did not completely run off with my tail between my legs with embarrassing myself with my baloney rant, I might have an ok idea here, would it not be possible to mill 2 small copper or aluminium blocks, wedge a couple of heatpipes between them, 1 going to the left & 1 going to the right and shape the pipes to go either side of the bottom piece and have drill holes going a little into the thick areas where the heatpipes could snugly slip inside having thought about it the bottom piece would be best as it would be easier to reassemble & you could also make a nice platform with a fan inside to cool the bottom piece if needed like a laptop cooler, just a rough idea so not cirtain if it would work.
