hmm, thanks for all the feedback, I have been playing around with all the ideas you guys have given me. My final decision will be made tonight. Another way suggested by Captain Slug to mull over. Thanks for the quick calc TheoGeo, I'll try and figure out roughly what gap would be needed as not to hinder airflow too much. More info posted tomorrow, and hopefully a start made by the end of this week.
I have a gr8 Idea! move the fan intakes -> to a window with fan holes. that way you get good vent + no fan grills in the wood.
I've had new renders ready for a week, I've just been extremely lazy and haven't got around to uploading them, well here they are : What do you guys think, I decided to offset the front panel by 25mm to gain more air flow, thanks for the people who suggested this. The front will be held by 4 metal tubes in each corner. I have also used mesh for the fan grills. Lighting is something I haven't thought of properly yet, except for getting the zalman coolers with blue led fans, and the bulgin vandal switch in blue. I have 2 old Icy Box external hard drive enclosures I don't use anymore, i have ripped them up and salvaged the blue led's that surround them. One idea I had, was to use them as underlighting, kinda like on modified cars (even though I hate them on cars lol). Any better ideas? Right thats it, hope you like the new design, thanks for all you're input, keep it coming!
How about a simple design on it? Maybe etched. Branded would look good actually, though i imagine you would need the right equiptment to get a good finish. The design looks solid and sleek, looking good so far. I'll be interested to see how this turns out.
I wouldn't go with lights or anything, you have a really good looking case done. It's made out of wood so I'd etch something it in or bring it to a local shop to have something lazer scribed into it, some cool design or if you game your online name or a pictures, anything. I just don't think lights would go that well with this. -aaron
I think lighting done right can accentuate this case's best features, IE the plain front bezel. I think a small halo of whit elight behind it might make it look very nice, but the only way to find out would be to try it. Worst case scenario, turn off the lights I dont know how visible this case is going to be IE: sitting in a bookshelf under a TV or ontop of a desk.. If its out in the open, perhaps a standoff section for the rear to allow onl power/usb/video cables through and to 'cover' the fans similar to the front would be nice. Also if its out in the open, perhaps some mesh around the gaps would be nice. If you painted a nice woodgrain on it, it would look great i think...
& Whelan_999 I might see what my furniture maker friend has to say, mayb he'll be willing to do something to finish it off for me. I think it's about time I get making it, I can play around with lighting when It's finished to see how it looks. I like you're suggestion with the white light, we'll see. I had thought of that, but wasn't too sure. I will deff have some mesh left over, so I can experiment. Yes they are pretty sharp. They are speaker spikes, I think they should reduce a lot of the left over vibrations after all my anti vibration stuff inside. Plus they look cool imo. Thanks again for all you're input, much appreciated.
If you are not 100% on the front cover you might want to look into wood register vents, I saw some at my local hardware store that looked like an oriental puzzle not just simple slots like you see in the metal ones.
Unfortunately, I have no way to gain access to my mates workshop at the moment due to him working on a full kitchen in his bosses workshop most nights after work. Luckily for me, he said he'd plane a sheet of ash to the required thickness of 15mm, cut all 7 sheets to the right size, and mitre the edges to 45 degrees. This isn't a hard job, just setting up the machines and chucking the wood through, it'll take him an hour. Last night i made a cutting list for him, and he's gonna try do this for me this week. With this done, I'll be able to get on and start all the routering, drilling, filling and sanding thats needed. I forgot to post the exact measurements of the case, so here they are : 465x300x280mm, d x h x w. Well thats the latest, look out for the project log starting soon. Oh yeh, got an analogue audio gauge to fit in from my old hi-fi too.
I used Autodesk AutoCAD 2007 to make the model (I want 2004 back but lost the disk, 2007 is an overbloated piece of s**t). I then used Autodesk VizRender to add the materials, lights, cameras etc. and to render the final images. I'll make a quick movie of it if anyone wants, dunno if i can really be arsed though, with the project getting underway. I really can't think of a good name for this project, anyone got any ideas? Something to suggest that it's made of wood would be good.
Hmm, I quite like the tree bit, I'll try and think of something more creative than pc though. Thnks for the suggestion, even though i don't think you were 100% serious. If anyone has any ideas that don't include the wood bit, don't hesitate to post. I just thought of SimplePlan, as it's a no fuss design. (Sorry to the band for stealing it!)
If its going to be made from ash then why not use that in the name? Ashtray AshBox HotAsh BurningAsh You get the idea
Cheers TheoGeo, thats a great idea, i'll give it some thought. [Edit] I have decided to go with the name AshTek, great thinks to TheoGeo for the idea. (Anyone think they can do better?)
Just to give everyone an update on the state of things. My friend finished the things i asked him to do, huge thanks goes to him getting it done this quickly considering how busy he was. I have the basic shell ready for all the routering to take place. Unfortunately one of the pieces has warped, which is not a huge deal, but a bit annoying. The project log won't begin imediately because I think this will be a pretty slow moving project, I will start a project log when the main construction has completed and when I can start working on it at home. I'll upload a few pics later on tonight or tomorrow.
Thanks for the interest. Unfortunately no progress has been made on the case as of yet. I always seem to overplan things, therefore yet again there has been slight alterations to the constuction. I wasn't happy with the way the way the case opened. I don't think the Mitre joints would have been strong enough with the top and both side pieces coming off as one. The design has now been changed so that the whole computer will slide out of the back on drawer runners. This causes a few headaches to the wiring of the front 2 120mm fans and the power switch & led. My solution is using copper contacts which will touch when the computer is slid back into the case. Over the last few weeks, I have been looking around for a local supplier of drawer runners (you wouldn't think it would be that hard to find) with no luck. I will be ordering off the internet this week. Hopefully I will start the project for real a week saturday.
