Scratch Build – In Progress Placatus - my first mod, a scratch-built minimalist HTPC

Drilled the holes to attach the front (hex screws) and rear (rivets) panels today, as well as gluing more of the chassis together.


The longer strip of angle is just there for support, if you look carefully you'll see why it's clearly needed and the ideal thing to use. Note also the position of my coke glass.




And here are the 'after' shots. First, Pepsi.



Complete with Aluminium filings. I was feeling a bit low on Vitamin B12 anyway...


And the holes here, pictured is the front panel, with 3.2mm pilot holes drilled, prepping for a 4mm drill to fit the M4 hex screws - not sure of the correct term, they're not hex head, they're round head with a hex/allen face; if anyone knows please enlighten me




So on to gluing - I fitted the bottom two angles today which will connect the front and rear chassis parts (pictured in earlier posts) together.

Here's the Araldite applied liberally, as it semi-exploded and started coming out from the bottom as well as the top -_-. Plenty wasted. I'll be emailing for freebies.



And finally, here it is all shaping up - the beam on the top is just balanced to give more of a pictures, the bottom two are only glued on the left (what will be the front).

 

Socket Cap/Hex Cap Screw?



Looks like you're making good progress. Keep up the good work

 

That's the one Mosquito.

Took me ages to source exactly the right type I was looking for though. Had such a clear picture in my head, but nowhere seemed to sell it! Found some in the end though, I'll post a picture of them soon.


I've just glued the first side of the two 'L' frames together, complete with a drillbit box on top to apply some pressure.

 

Well there's good news and bad news.

The bad news is, no updates for a few weeks (or anything to update on) as I'm going away.

The good news is, the chassis is finally done - so when I'm back I can crack on with fitting the panels (they're already cut) and internals.




Here's the socket cap screw that took me so long to source - got what I pictured in the end though!




And finally, here's the chassis in place above my AVR, where it'll reside on completion:




The beige box next to it is the current home of my HTPC!

 

I meant to post this a few days ago, just to say I'd drilled the holes for most of the side panels. I didn't take any pictures, it looks just like above, but with more holes.

Today I affixed the bottom panel, though unfortunately I hadn't quite made the chassis perfect to the millimetre. With hindsight I should have left ordering the panels until I could measure the actual sizes I'd need, rather than trying to build to it.

Ah well, live and learn, not sure what I'll do about the overshooting bits yet. Maybe just leave it, and buy a bigger panel if I'm ever bothered enough.

I'll post pictures with the panel on later.

 

Looks good so far.

 

Here's the promised pics of progress:

Bottom panel riveted on, and some patching up of the chassis (mallet and file used to apply pressure for the Araldite to take hold).




One of the rivets failed, so I just took a hammer to it. Tougher than they look though, I had to bend it over rather than squash it.

 

Woooot? Thor's hammer! This will sure be an electrifying mod! (easy joke...)

 

Today I tried out brushing the aluminium on what will be the inside rear panel. Or not used at all actually, I've got two rear and two front panels. Two of each size, and the front and rear are slightly different. I got two anyway because obviously I'll have to chop bits out for BD drive, power switch, mobo I/O, etc. and it might go wrong

But I digress..

I used two grades, first a 120, and quite liked the look of it:








I meant to get a picture of my wood-masking-tape-clamp contraption to keep the lines straight, but totally forgot. I'll take one when I'm next out there.

I was pretty pleased with that grain to be honest, once painted I thought it would have the effect I'm after, but I tried moving up to 240 anyway:







And liked it even more. Might not seem very different in these pics, but in person it just makes it seem more a of subdued modern look, than a loud clashy vandalised look.

Should look even better when I do it on the clean and shiny sides (that are still wrapped currently) - this side had some pretty deep scratches on it from being unprotected.


One last one:

 

Just been looking through Scan, as I have a hard drive failing as it is ... I've disabled it temporarily until I can get all the TV off onto a new one.

Reminded me partly why I want RAID though, so I think I'll be purchasing a RocketRAID 2720 and a couple of SAS breakout cables soon, too.

For now I'll just grab a 4TB drive and a new SSD for my desktop (turns out 64GB isn't enough, and I've been holding out on a fresh Win8 install until I get the new one, laptop can have the 64).


I'm going to mark up the internal layout now, motherboard, PSU etc, so I can decide where to cut holes for the fans.

Probably won't cut the holes tonight though, need to brush the panels first.


Watch this space...

 

I've just been sizing up the components from my existing beige box (new components, archaic case) to see where everything will go, so I can drill holes for fans etc.



My beverage is approved.

Next job on my list is to cut slots in the trays I made (seems ages ago) for the fans, so they don't disrupt airflow.

I'd be quite interested in any feedback at this point for the positioning of one of the fans.

On the left hand side (viewed from the front, top down, as below) it must go fairly far forward, as the PSU is behind it, so that's pretty much set in stone.

The right hand side however has a lot of slack. I would just put it symmetrical with the other - so there's symmetry to the airflow and no weird effects (noise or heat). However the motherboard will be against the back on that side, so I'm also tempted to put it at the back, pulling air across the CPU and chipset. Which would leave the other fan blowing air through the hard drives at the front.

What do you think?

 

Love all of these HTPC build coming about lately, keep up the great work

 

Thanks
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I've just been back out to the garage to have a crack at the fan tray type angle-y bits.

I tried using a bench grinder, but I was gonna be there until xmas, so it just gives me another excuse to buy a dremel .

I'll need one anyway I think, as I found out a few weeks ago that I can't use the laser cutter at school for aluminium (second guy I asked said it might be okay if it was thin, and I masked it so it didn't reflect, but I think he meant even thinner than mine).

 

Back to brushing, here's the pictures of setup I forgot to post the other day:





Basically I just taped the sandpaper (grades 120 and 240) down to the bench, and I've clamped some scrap ply over the top the correct distance apart to guide the alu sheet to get straight lines.

Just a simplified version that's described (but unfortunately not pictured - I couldn't quite understand his setup) in this thread.


Here's the sheets after 120:


And 240:



And finally, I started to look at cutting the holes for fans, but only got as far as fitting the hole saw and pilot mandrel into drill press.

Unfortunately my press only goes down to 545rpm, whereas the suggested speed for cutting alu with a 114mm holesaw is 105rpm.. So I'm not sure how well this will work.

I should have just bought the dremel sooner instead, and used the circle cutter attachment.


I'll give it a shot though I think, with plenty of lube and a slow plunge (ahem..) hopefully it won't bite too hard, or tear up on the edges. I'll clamp it between two bits of ply as well to try and prevent it ripping it up.


If any experienced metalworkers have some input there I'd greatly appreciate it - or if you know a guy who knows a guy, please, drop him a line.

 

Good news for the fan hole - the resistant materials department at school has a variable speed pillar drill (unlike my totally mechanical, with five discrete speeds, model) which should work a treat.

Only requirement was that I supply the holesaw. Not an issue, as I bought it and the mandrel months ago.

Pretty full day tomorrow; so I'll probably drill a pilot for the centre points - or at least centre-punch it - in the evening, ready to guide the holesaw through at school on Wednesday.

 

Nice brushing Fordy coming along nicely this.

Hole saws I think I'm 1 of very few who actually find them harder to use properly to create a nice clean hole than just cutting a hole with a dremel or jigsaw or scroll saw, I really fail at using hole saws lol.

 

Thanks Waynio, though that's not what I wanted to hear!

I wish I had just bought a dremel and circle cutter sooner, now that I realise I'm going to end up needing one anyway

Seeing as I bought the holesaw though, I now kinda feel like I should use it. We'll see how that goes.

 

I can only put it down to a weird anomaly where I do OK on most things but the things that are supposed to be easier I'm often no good on lol, I was probably going at it too timid.

If you use it & have success which you likely will, you'll probably use it whenever needing to do a hole.

Seen dremel on special offer on amazon for £30 recently & I should have grabbed one but I see the offer has passed now, you can get cheaper rotary cutters that will likely last as long or longer though, bit of luck helps on that, not too easy to do a perfect circle neither on your first try & dust mask & safety glasses are important when doing dremel cutting.

You can either do 90 degree cuts & then quite a bit of filing or get the technique right for cutting on a bit of an angle which lets you cut right up to your circle line making for a clean circle cut, thicker the material the more difficult it gets without breaking cutting discs.
I got my technique perfected from watching Bill Owen doing 1 of his video tutorials on YouTube , he also has tutorial on hole saws.




Can get far cheaper bulk packs of reinforced cutting discs on ebay of the same quality, I used to buy 100 packs from America but probably manufactured in China lol, works out far cheaper than DIY stores of dremel branded discs.

 

Thanks for that Waynio, I wish I'd seen that video earlier - he makes it look easy! I wouldn't have worried if I'd seen that.

On a metalworking site I found, I read about a guy making a botch job of it who used a cordless drill, and they were all like "well you've learnt not to use a hand drill with a holesaw!" etc. taking the piss.

That aspects not an issue for me anyway, as I do have a drill press.


Well, this evening I marked out the positions for both fan holes, and drilled the pilot for one.



With the position of the fan and tray sorted, I took the panel back out to the garage (the frame's living in my AV rack at the moment, to prevent having something dropped on it!) and marked out the centre point for the fan, and centre-punched that point. (I was pleased to watch the video you post just now, and have done everything the same so far, ).



Then I clamped it down, and drilled a pilot through the alu sheet, and straight through the ply as well. I'll be holesawing through the ply, so this seemed like the easiest way to mark up the outside.



Next I placed a second piece of ply over the top (I just bought a sheet in town this afternoon, and sliced it up on the bandsaw roughly, just to have something to clamp the alu sheet between, so excuse the wavy edges ), and flipped it over so I could use the existing hole as a guide to continuing straight through the ply on the other side.




Flipping it over and drilling again wouldn't actually have been necessary, in case some wise guy points that out, but I realised I'd drilled through the wrong side really, burring the outside edge. Doesn't matter for the pilot, because it's at the centre of what will be a hole. But in case I get a BUE from the holesaw, I'll drill outside in.

 

First fan hole done today - using a pillar drill at school which is continuously variable, unlike my five-speed, which only goes down to 545rpm.

No major issues, was glad I'd clamped it, I'd definitely recommend clamping between two bits of ply if you intend to use a holesaw like this. He doesn't in the video above, but that panels quite thin (as most OEM cases are; it's cheaper). Only hiccup was the drill's shaft detaching from the chuck half way through the top ply. I'm pretty sure that was a fault with the drill more than anything else, as the teacher I asked acted as though it did happen; just hammered it firmly back into place.

I didn't use any lubricant either, as I'd read would be advisable. Mainly because I remembered a bit late, and it didn't seem to have any trouble, otherwise I would have stopped to add some WD-40 or something. It's a new holesaw though, so that may well make the difference.





The other side will likely get done on Friday.