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Project: Server

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by frodo, 28 Oct 2005.

  1. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    Hello all

    VERY long time no update, sorry for the lack of updates, I haven’t been feeling to alive lately and just couldn’t be bothered to save some crap yabbling…

    So, last week sometime I noticed the panels on server were rusting due to me having totally sanded them so I decided to spray them with primer, and got a bit carried away and did a coat of black, and I like the way it looks, but still want to get it powdercoated (or I may get it professionally painted deep blood red – if I can)

    After doing some more work on the chassis, mainly just cleaning cuts and sorting the motherboard tray out so its all nice n’ straight, im proud to say its near ready to be shotblasted/powdercoated/painted

    So after all the chassis stuff is done (bar my hdd/dvd rack thing, need to sort that out tbh) it was time to do some work on the ugly front…

    First off I decided to strip it to its individual pieces (the front is made up of 5 pieces) and make them all flat and ready to make one piece :p

    [​IMG]

    ^ front of the case without the 4 snap-in panels

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    ^ id already trimmed the back a bit to allow the 120mm to fit for mockups

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    ^ after some sanding drum action, nice n’ smooth, and slightly lighter…

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    ^ mocking it up with the fans

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    ^ as I said, I got carried away, but I managed to stop myself before I started to wet sand :p

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    ^ orange peel, but nice n’ smooth (and very flat :p) – shame its getting powdercoated :p

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    ^ the fdd panel without all the moulded things for the FDD and power etc etc, looks better and will be easier for me to mod in the future (you’ll see :p)
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    ^ how it will look once all glued together – no difference tbh, but it will be easier to work on :p and will look cleaner

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    ^ ahhh… that badboy shows its face again :p sitting there folding as we speak, the q-tec psu is actually better at powering this rig than the old Jeantech! So yeah, just need a lot of modifying wire wise :(

    [​IMG]

    ^ the inside of the front of the case after some sanding

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    ^ what happens when I get bored with an orbital sander :p

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    ^ an offcut of acrylic, seeing as bondo cant jump huge gaps without support, I needed to use something to make a bridge… but how to attach it….

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    ^ GLUUUEEEE (mr epoxy :p) being mixed on a spray paint can lid :p

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    ^ applying a lot of pressure (any less and it would pop back out of shape :( ) hence the red fingers :p lol

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    ^ all done :p finally, took about 10 minutes to dry, longest 10 minutes of my life

    [​IMG]

    ^ after some primer – you may notice its all cracked etc etc, that’s because I rushed it and it was freezing cold in the garage…. Doesn’t work if you rush it.

    Plan is to finish the hdd rack (and dvd rack) and then get the case powdercoated.
     
  2. Deathrow

    Deathrow Minimodder

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    I know how you feel having to paint in the cold, the first time I tried to spraypaint I set up my tent in the back garden and used it as a spray boothe. I dont have to tell you that it blew over in the night and the paint dried with the parts stuck to the tent :duh:, lesson learned :).

    Im liking the look of this log, makes me wish I had ordered 3mm acrylic instead of the 8mm though, the 8mm is really heavy and really thick, but whats done is done.
     
  3. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    hey deathrow

    yeah, i got 8mm, 5mm and 3mm, so im pretty much sorted acrylic wise :p

    i really need to make the hdd rack soon, the sooner thats done the sooner i can get the case powdercoated.... then its just wiring and some more acrlyic work
     
  4. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    Ok

    I really need some input now

    Ive just sanded down the front of the case, and I thought of this last night, since its my server I don’t need an internal drive, so the front of the case will basically be an entirely blank canvas (plus, if I do have a 5-1/4” drive it means I’ll be limited to about 3 hdd’s)

    So, the front of the case will be totally empty, as in there will be fook all on it, absolutely NOTHING (the power and reset are going on the back)

    So after some thinking I thought how about I make a new front out of acrylic, square, with mesh behind it.

    I’d make it out of some old acrylic ive got, then paint it like the rest of the case, so it blends better, the mesh would be behind tribal cut-outs (like what I was planning for the current front) – only difference being the cut-outs will be a lot cleaner as they are on a set thickness (5mm)

    I need your input because I don’t know whether I should carry on modifying the current front bezel (which won’t look that good tbh) or if I should just make a new front out of acrylic? (actually, just had a thought, if I make it out of acrylic I could frost it and put mesh behind it, then light the entire front panel :p sick – cause it would glow around the tribal cut-outs :p)

    So people, leave a comment saying what you think I should do… old panel mod, or make a new panel… or even gimme some suggestions!
     
  5. Klekkus

    Klekkus What's a Dremel?

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    I wolds mod the old front

    My apinion
     
  6. Deathrow

    Deathrow Minimodder

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    I would make a new front. It would be alot more work but I tihnk in the end it would be more than worth it as it would have that custom built look, which is pretty much what everyone likes :).

    Hope this helps you out.
     
  7. Klekkus

    Klekkus What's a Dremel?

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    Wjat about making the whole front i green acryl? :D Or aluminium :rock:
     
  8. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    ermmm... read... i said i'd make it out of either acrylic, or green acrylic....

    i dont have access to aluminium so thats kind of hard, unless i get a decent sized sheet of it soon, it wont happen, if i could find a nice sheet of say 1-2mm aluminium i'd love to use it, might have a look actaully

    i think the new panel would be easier to use than the old, as when i cut the tribal designs it would be alot more work on the old panel (due to the varying thickness)
     
  9. Deathrow

    Deathrow Minimodder

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    What about making it 2 layers? Make the front out of 2mm aluminium sheet get your designs cut and everything and then make an exact duplicate in green acylic and maybe add some LED's to the acrylic to give it some nice lighting effects that would make yout tribal design edges stand out and look sweet.

    Just an idea :D.
     
  10. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    wow, like franklins project... damn that would be sweet!

    great idea mate, think im'a gonna do that!

    just means ive got to move the fans inside of the case (they were going to be on the outside of the chassis, but inside the front - if that makes sense) but tbh that isnt going to be too hard, or i could make hte front aluminium piece 30mm thick (by bending and soldering it :p) and then make an acrylic front :p damn

    time to find some 2mm aluminium
     
  11. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    Hi all

    Very long time no update

    Reason for no updates: college work and the fact the garage is a complete and utter bombsite at the mo’

    Soooo

    Today Im going to tidy the mofo garage and do some work (finally)

    Its sooo damn cold in there (worse than being outside, no damn sun!) that im having to resort to moving the cases into my room for storage while they aren’t being worked on, to prevent them freezing and what not… so yeah, my rooms also a mess cause ive just moved downstairs :p

    Sooooo while I couldn’t work in the garage, I decided to use sketchup to design a new hdd rack, that instead of being bent will be made of 5mm acrylic, and this time, screwed together, using 3mm bolts I use on my rc truck very often, which I’ll take a picture of later today as im bored….

    The new hard drive design will work a lot better, but at the moment im still debating its positioning, as the sketchup design shows im putting it where I modified a 120mm fan to go, but after a quick look, it shows it may be too close to the motherboard, so I may have to move it up quite a bit to where the dvd drive WOULDVE been :p (ohh yeah, im getting an external dvd-rw for this rig :p)

    The good news is that my new design allows for 5 hdd’s to get into the space of about 2 cd drives thick…. (well 2 cd drives = 90mm, my design = 110mm) so yeah, not bad :D

    [​IMG]

    ^ the design of the new hdd’ rack, as you can see there are slots and a hole to allow the fan to cool the hdd’s

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    ^ one possible location for the hdd rack, as you can see all that space above the hdd rack is not used, so I may move it there….

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    ^ how close it would be to the mobo tray!

    And yes, that drawing is all to scale 100% - It took a while to draw, but is defiantly worth it as it means I can test things without having to make them :p YAY
     
  12. Deathrow

    Deathrow Minimodder

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    I like that HD rack, does come awfully close to the motherboard tray though, but if you can get it to clear it would look great. Is that acrylic your using UV reactive? If so I hope you intend on mounting some cathodes in there to make it glow :D.
     
  13. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    yup... uv-reactive *** :p

    got some uv accent pieces i need to make that will mount on the floor (tribal flames) - will also hold the pump off the floor with some anti vibration mounts :p
     
  14. westie

    westie What's a Dremel?

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    Looks cool and that acrylic looks good.
     
  15. ReFredzRate

    ReFredzRate Relix Headshot!!

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    Darn mate, that looks like one helluva great idea for an hdd rack.
    Respect!
     
  16. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    you'll like my next update :D
     
  17. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    Hello all

    As promised, an update :)

    I got some tidying done in the garage, ended up hovering for about 3 hours… bloody dust and hair all over the place….

    But I did do A LOT of thinking while cleaning… the last design of the hdd rack shows it mounted in the middle of the front, but I since decided I wasn’t going to have a dvd drive in this (it will be external… go figure) so I have all the space above the drives empty… so I thought why not just move it up there, that way its not as visible and gives me more useable space.

    Following are a few pictures of the garage before and during tidying….

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    ^ the wonderful garage how it was

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    ^ my second workbench – used for soldering and rc truck work

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    ^ talking of rc trucks :p my badboy t-maxx :D

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    ^ my e-maxx and road truck, notice how the e-maxx is one, but without wheels, and the road maxx is just totally stripped….

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    ^ another toy :D

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    ^ dell 2.66ghz and a micro pc that I love to bits… fits into my desk perfectly

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    ^ the sex that is Adamantium :D check it out :p

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    ^ahhh the graveyard of useless crap I will use somestage in a future mod :)

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    ^ server at the mo – it’s a flatpack pc! Ikeas dream!

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    ^ everyone has to listen to some decent music while modding

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    ^ maybe a future mod – featured on my site www.fredsoverclocking.me.uk – haven’t updated for a very long time now, but has some running piccehs of that rig!

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    ^ another pic

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    ^ the case I was going to use before I settled on Adamantium

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    ^ spot the similarity :D

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    ^ a future project – an at to atx conversion to put my 1.3 celeron in

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    ^ its even got a slidy front!
     
  18. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    Now on with the REAL update :D

    [​IMG]

    Everyone loves acryan acrylic :p its simply the nicest stuff to work with :D

    [​IMG]

    ^ cut it down to size

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    ^ PERFECT CUT!!! Go me :p

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    ^ from the front

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    ^ the perfectness :p

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    ^ the other side :p its soo damn good :D and yes im being bigheaded….

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    ^ after some trimming, it fits buetifully…. Damn perfectionist I am :p

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    ^ how it will be with another cut piece

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    ^ after drilling 5 holes

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    ^ using a piece of aluminium L piece to make it 90 deg

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    ^ DRILLY DRILLY!!!
     
  19. frodo

    frodo What's a Dremel?

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    [​IMG]

    ^ drilled and tapped – I was REALLY scared doing this, as there is sooo little room for error and I was crappin’ myself all the time…. Was soo worried, but this acrylic has shown me a whole new world of modding, its just damn buetiful and strong!!!

    [​IMG]

    ^ after countersinking the m3 csk bolts its all sexy

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    ^ mmm the yummyness :D

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    ^ just looks yummy

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    ^ LOADS of space now :p how happy I am now :D :D :D :D :D :D

    Well… that’s that for today, while modding I made some mess, so tomorrow its another bit of a tidyup, and maybe ill get the hdd rack finished, and I can finally start the accent pieces :D yay
     
  20. Klekkus

    Klekkus What's a Dremel?

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    The hhd bay is men :rock:
    I love the idea and the design ;)

    Great work with the drilling and cuting then :thumb:

    Nice paint btw (comment on a old update)
     

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