Scratch Build – Complete [Scratch Build] - Victorian Desktop - Mosquito - Completed 2nd Jun. 2015 - Done!

The only thing I would like more than the pictures you have is video of you working through this. Very well done work.

 

Thanks! Still quite a few tools I would like, but it gets me by

I do have some video that I'll try to sift through. Sometimes it's difficult to balance between taking pictures and shooting video lol

 

First bit of internal work I did was drilling a hole for a bulkhead.
The bulkhead passes through the bottom piece, and connects to the radiator for a drain port.




Next up, I made a couple of pieces that will become vertical braces.
These will also be where the motherboard will mount to.




I cut some short tenons on the ends.




I marked out mortise locations on the top piece.




I chopped the mortises out with a chisel.




The mortises are about 3/8” deep.




I repeated the steps for the second one as well.




Assembled you can see they run top to bottom right now.
There will eventually be another piece horizontally on the bottom as well.




Test hardware in place.
Note that the low profile GPU still has the standard bracket on.
There’s actually about 1-1/2” of clearance.
​

Special thanks again to G.Skill

 

Woodwork at its best, looking very nice so far

 

Thanks

 

Enjoying your build, learning as well.

 

Thanks guys!

 

This is a really nice piece of work, I like how everything you've used is themed to the victorian look, from the old school tools to the oldschool locks. Very unique design too, I am impressed.

 

Thanks!

 

I love the build so far. Have you had or are you concerned about wood movement with boards that wide? Seems like it could put stress on anything rigidly mounted to the boards.

 

Thanks! I'm not too concerned about wood movement, as most of it should be alright. The bottom, front, and top all have their grain oriented the same direction, so any movement should be fairly even with those 3. The two doors have vertically oriented grain, and the slots in them run the full width, so any movement there will be handled. The front grate will be held in place by 2 screws one top and one bottom, so there won't be any issues with that, and the screw holes for the radiator were oversized enough to allow for some wiggle room (installing a radiator with out that wiggle room is a pain regardless of the case )

 

After a short, month long, hiatus to complete my Intel NUC contest build, I can now focus on this project again. Where did we leave off… ah yes, I had the vertical supports mortised into the top panel. I also needed to have a cross piece that these will mount into, so I can mount that to the bottom panel, and mount the motherboard to that (the spacing on the one ITX standoff location would have been off the rear support).




First I ripped a scrap piece of mahogany in half so I could use part of it as the bottom rail.




I also cut the vertical pieces to final length, and cleaned them up on the shooting board.




I cut tenons on the ends of the vertical pieces, and chopped mortises in the lower rail.




Nice tight fit for the mortise and tenon joints.
The bottom rail will be attached to the bottom panel.




It’s also a nice tight fit in the case as well.



That’s it for this quick update. Will be working on the window cut out and window next.





Special thanks again to G.Skill

 

That screwdriver!!! What a thing of beauty - is it a Lie Nielson or from somewhere else? And if so where? I know, I should be commenting on the build which is excellent as usual, but I just love your tools. I aspire to getting a LN plane or two, on day maybe!

 

I do find that woodworking tools are built to a totally different philosophy than metalworking tools. The latter tend to be very functional. The former are works of craftsmanship in their own right.

 

Thanks! No worries, I'm quite fond of my collection of tools as well I'm guessing you're talking about this one? It's the "parallel tip" screwdriver set from Lee Valley: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=70159&cat=1,43411,43417&ap=1

Don't use them on things that require a lot of torque, though. I was using one to adjust a screw on one of my planes, and it snapped the tip off. Luckily Lee Valley have really good customer support, so I sent a picture of the broken one, asking if I could buy just one (as it was my fault), and they just offered to send a replacement.

LN planes are quite nice... I've got a #164 and a #62 (both bevel up, smoother and jack). They're quite nice, but my afliction is still vintage planes. I've got a set of 3-8 (including 4-1/2 and 5-1/2) Stanley Bailey Type 11 (all corrugated), a matching set of 3-8 (complete set) of Keen Kutter KK series planes (thick tapered irons), and a whole bunch of others. It's part of the woodworking hobby for me, I suppose

At least the good ones are lol There's been a bit of a resurgence in in the hand tool market here in the US. High quality tools, though still costly, are much more prevalent now than they used to be. The appreciation of a quality tool is growing again, and outweighing the initial cost of entry. Good stuff.

 

Seeing as I was a chippy long before a plumber,I can appreciate hand joinery.

Could of made your life significantly easier with a trim router tho...

Looking forward to more.

 

Thanks man I do have a couple routers and a router table I could have used, but honestly it's quicker for me to do it by hand when it's only a small number of pieces. The power tools all live in the garage, so I'd have to get it cleared out, pull the tools out, get it set up, and then spend more time cleaning up and putting away. Not to mention, it was bout 10 to 15F (-10 to -12c) in the garage at that time too Can't wait until I have a better shop space for that... soon, hopefully.

 

That bit is the same in metal work. Half an hour measuring and setting up for five seconds cutting.

 

Yeah, and in woodworking vs Metal working, I don't feel that the work itself is that much different, just the tool speeds, feed rates, and tolerances.

 

Interesting you should say that. I think of woodwork as more challenging somehow. Wood is somehow alive: it has grain, density, it moves, expands and shrinks... It doesn't sit still. Metal alloys of course have their own characteristics, but it feels like a more homogeneous and inert material.