Scratch Build – In Progress Project Stealthlow - Completed - preview of project next

Ahhh, got past a fiddly time consuming bit, the hdd cage mount clamps & still managing to avoid adhesives completely except for the acrylic adhesive, all the metal work so far has been countersunk bolts & tapping , finished this bit at 11pm & was a rather chilly -5c .

What you are seeing is 4mm sheet, then 19mm square bar, hdd cages inbetween a slim 3mm pieces & another 3mm piece on top that overlaps the hdd cage base & meets up with the angle bar of the cage, it's such a good fit that I might leave the extra clamp I was going to make for the front & back of the cages as it takes a little force to make the cages slide out .

 

Looking good. The slide out action is a neat idea.

 

This is E P I C man! Even that part of the mod is really unique, the sliding function is awesome idea and well executed! Moar please!!!!

 

That hdd cage is is the bollocks!!!! ...your putting a lot of effort in dude and it's paying off big time, everything is super neat and of top quality!! Can't wait to see it all done an lit up with that side window, it's gonna be so unique ...it's a lovely design dude! +rep

 

Bloody hell Wayne, this things moving on well quick, looks pukka mate. Well done thats a nice bit of handy work. Have some rep..

 

Thanks voigts it's a really good fit but still might make the extra clamp for good measure .

Thanks AnG3L mate , I think I'll do the optical mount & extra clamps next, then blend the fan holders together.

Thanks Kojak neither can I .

Thanks Jeff been trying to put in at least a smidge of work into it every day virtually since starting, infact even on days off I've been marking pieces up .

Been thinking about the cutting I'll need to do on the further bits ahead, the intricate bits like the pci/io pieces & grills etc so have a feeling I'd be best buying a scrollsaw as my current tools might botch them up a bit, got my eye on one on ebay so I'm about to break myself again lol, but it will be an awesome addition to my tools & could make pretty much any grill designs I want with one. I have to say though with all these tools I've slowly been gathering I'll have to be making things more often to make it worth it .

 

I'm a bit down, the fan holders just aren't gonna happen, the thickness of the sheet was 4.9mm not 5mm & I never knew until after I made the holders that cast acrylic sheet varies in thickness, this made the slot for the fans shrink by 0.5mm I tried filing & finger sanding to make the gap bigger but failed making a dogs dinner out of it so no striped lit up parts now, I sure don't fancy spending another £50 to replace the acrylic & rebuild, I'd sooner put that towards a scroll saw so I'm gonna time out & think about an alternative, actually I'm really disappointed with acrylic now after finding this fact out the hard way, sure it's fine for single layered tasks but for layered stuff that requires absolute precision it really isn't good if you don't know about this lack of precision in the material, however if you know about the varying thickness & plan according to that fact then it's not all bad & workable so I'll know for the next encounter I have with acrylic, also I messed up by not making jigs for while I stuck the holders together so they became rather wonky & required heaps of sanding to blend them seamlessly, done the sanding on 1 of them but wasn't happy with the result, they were supposed to be perfect fit & like I said, dogs dinner lol, so it's time to forget about the first big hiccup & focus on an alternative .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPWaQKuqENU

I wrote this a few hours ago, was tired & hungry, since had a meal, awesome far better alternative ideas already brewing so there will be a surprise in this log after all , I might let the silly season pass through until I get started back up though & enjoy a bit of that GTX 580 goodness while it's still a beast , so over & out until January .

 

Was about to post a why I can't fix it splurge of text & thought damnit I aint quitting on it yet lol, just checked what 5mm acrylic I have left over & only just have enough to remake the 1 I really messed up, the other 2 only got a light mess up so I got the 2 ready made ones put them in a tuppa ware box perfect fit & poured boiling water on them & put a lid on it & left for 5 min & simply hoped it would loosen the adhesive a little & it did, had to use a very thin blade to slowly force them open & finally got all the pieces for the 2 holders seperated so I have a lucky 2nd chance to do these holders correct with jigs which I will definately make this time

Here is the redesigned fan holder which accounts for the 4.9mm pieces so with this they should work perfect.


Did a loose fit together with a side & back panel to see what it looks like for the overall height.

 

Very little done but made the basic form of the extra hdd cage clamps, just need to shape the flat bars now & trim any excess material away from the stand & the hdd cages for it to work 100% correct.

 

dang that HDD rack is sweet! I'm working on mine right now and this is good inspiration!

 

I love the design dude! Great work on the acrylic and metal. Going to be fun watching this one evolve

 

Thanks mate , your welcome to pick away at ideas & evolve them .

Thank you p0Pe , wish I could get the materials for making the jigs but too busy to get to the local diy center at the moment, I seperated all the acrylic pieces so I can re stick them, wasn't happy with how they slipped slightly out of place while the adhesive cured so luckily I have a 2nd shot at doing them right & making them so a stock 120mm fan can slip in the fan holders .

 

After seeing voigts awesome fret work on Quintessesnce & thinking about the awesome possibilities I went & bought a variable speed fretsaw & a range of blades capable of cutting aluminium from 0.7mm to 6mm I might never use a dremel again , even if the throat of the saw can't reach in on some deep pieces I could always make add on grills.

This is my dream fretsaw & this is the one I bought lol can't wait to start playing with it .

 

You lucky $#^%#$@^ you bought the fretsaw!!! Crazy Voigts got us all addicted to new machinery, even though its in my mind for 3 years now its an obsession!!
Cant wait to see what you are about to create with your new toy! Now go back to creation!!!

 

Just couldn't resist getting one, but on the project, can't do anything more until I get the jig materials, actually that's a fib I could do the optical mount , my bro keeps saying he'll take me to the store but keeps letting me down saying tomorrow all week so hopefully he will do tomorrow .

 

Kudos to you Wayne! You're making this look easy! This things moving along so bloody fast.

 

Thanks KidMod .
Yeah I probably am, if this was my first case it would probably look like this lol.






Ahh the fun frustration I had with learning from scratch .

 

I've seen plenty worse than that effort mate...lol

 

That is a tall case. I like you hdd mounting system, but I think that the air flow is not ideal. The air flow could make some aditional noise.

 

Thanks mate .
Think I had a hacksaw, dremel, drill & rivet gun & a bunch of files my dad had in a box when I started scratch building . Just got the ready to use form & used it for about half a year before I wanted to try again , it was a pretty solid case though just not quite right in a good few areas .

Thanks ringo, I found with the air cube my last case, the fan grills I cut into the front panels generated much more noise so I created 10mm spacers which cut that extra noise out, so a similar thing with this one, they are very low speed fans & very well spaced out so the low flow should be fine & any excess air will be picked up by the psu, I expect it to be fine.
I do know that top curve in the design is not ideal so I'll be slightly changing that part so that it is ideal .