Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Serverama - Update! 28th July - I swear it'll be done this year...

You can buy convertors from places like Mini-itx but they're not overly cheap. particularly not for postage, i spent ages looking for somewhere that had them where it wouldnt cost the better part of £20 for it. I got lucky and Kameleon put one in the post that he had spare (Cheers again ).

Hoepfully be putting up some pics tonight of the part sprayed case.

Edit: Linitx Much cheaper place for cd adapters.

 

Good work on the paint

 

For those of us in the US and Canada, Logic Supply has 40- and 44-pin adapters for significantly less than £20. Also, Tranquil was selling some on eBay a month or two ago, but their eBay account is no longer active. (I bought mine for £0.99 + £3.50 shipping (to the US) from them.)

 

Thanks Pyrthas

On with the update.


As i was saying before about the frame, i got a couple of coats of black all over to a good finish.


The problem is that the case is coming appart in two places at either end of the same piece, not sure entirely how it happened but with some careful tweaking and spraying it should be ok.


From slightly further away its not as bad, and the flash makes it look worse regardless, but it doesnt need to be sorted.


Most of the other corners look like, or look similar to this one, which is quite good. The front piece had to be put in temporarily to stop the case crashing any more and keep it as stres free as possible.

Currently spraying the frame with clear coat, then the front pieces need doing from scratch. Also got some new bolts and washers today, the other washers were locking which will certainly scratch the paint and chew it up when they're nipped tight. instead of using any mechanical method to lock them i'll probably use locktight or similar.

 

As promied, more pictures. Not a great deal, but there'll be more to come as currently i dont think i'll be sleeping tonight. (at least not till this afternoon anyway)


Finally got round to spraying the final parts of the frame. Although unfortunatly not both pieces. This one is undercoated and should get sprayed tomorrow (or rather today) with more black paint.


On the other leg I noticed a large hole on the front between 1/32" and 1/16" in diameter and about 1/32" deep, which is fairly large considering these have barely been moved since they were taken off the frame and when they have, they've been handled with great care. Curious indeed, but it should look fine once its been filled (just means it'll be another day or so before it gets undercoated.

When I took the frame out of the garage to spray I the cloth i had put down to replace the dust sheet which was sticking to the paint over night (even after it seemed dry and had been for a couple of hours) had also stuck to the paint. This wasnt too bad as the linen didnt leave a rough surface like the dust sheet had, just marks which rubbed off leaving a slight residue. A light pass with some 800 grid wet and dry and another quick coat of clear coat sorted it.


With the clear coat touch dry i turned the case upside down and supported it on some scrap wood so that i could put in some of the new fastenings I bought on Monday. These new bolts have few imprints on the heads compared with the previous set and the hex fitting appeared larger although it was barely bigger. On the back of each bolt to prevent the nut scratching the paint theres a small washer not much bigger than the nut (i think about 10mm od). Frankly, i couldnt resist putting together one corner, even though i havent got an loctite to fix them properly.

The fastenings seem to hold well, even only lightly nipped although i did hear some cracking sounds when i tightened them sugesting the pain under the washer has cracked . On the upside if it has cracked, its not cracked outside of the washers area, so any damage is covered, so easier to repair should i need to do so.

More pictures later today (if i'm awake)

 

Done some more work, not a great deal, but some.


Decided its time to rebuild the case structure, whihc is actually harder than i thought given its all bolted now and had a few weeks to dry rock solid. The HD Rack is 1/4" longer at the front than the distance between the inside of the top and bottom of the frame, this is due to the 2 1/8" pieces which hold the panels going around the legs as a design afterthought.

The result of this is a lot of creeking and cracking noises and some slight change in the levels between the framework at the back .


The next parfts to go in are the side pieces of the rack, which take very little effort to get ready, but can be tricky to slide into place, as the previous test fit proved.


Peasingly the side pieces slipped into place easier than last time, although there was still some light marking of the pieces, nothing too bad or visible tho.


The DVD brackets which attach to the fram and the HD rack are also done and can be fitted with the dVD drive, which still works remarkably well.


To prevent against vibration of the panels i started using electricians tape along the edges of the case.


This should cusion the panels enough and give a reasonable seal, however, its irritating, difficult and trimming the tape in situe with a stanley blade risks the paintwork a lot (ive already nicked it twice i think). So i need a new idea.


So this is how the case stands now, nearly finished frame wating for panels, wiring and a couple of ideas.

More soon.

 

Very cleanly works.
I am impressed

 

Looking awesome.

 

take a sharp knife (x-acto) and cut the tape when it's still on the roll?

 

nice nice
i cant say enything else
great work man

 

Lookin sweet, keep it up!

 

Sadly thats not accurate enough to get all the width perfect as some of the vary depending on the piece. I did think of a solution, i just dont know where to buy it. I know ive seen U section edging for sheets of etal which would otherwise have sharp edges. Dad and a mate have also seen it and neither know where to get it. Not the curved stuff you see in some cases, the solid edged stuff. Same principal though. any ideas?

 

Check the weatherstrip section of your local Lowe's, they'll have something that should take care of it.

 

car door stripping works well. it is fairly thick, but it does the job well.

 

Good ideas, i'll go and visit my local B&Q/etc tomorrow and have a look round. Check the window and sealants sections then hit Halfords and other DIY places.

 

As promised, more work - delayed as it may be.


After a bit of thought on how to adjust the motherboard tray rails to allow it to slide, or rather fit, into the case. As suspected the support at the back of the lower rail had to be chopped slight, made a bit of a mess, but ultimatly theres nothing visible so for the most part, it doesnt matter.


The first fit and the second (pictured) were both a bit tight to start with, and i can only assume that with further use and more paint being removed from the edges it will become slighty easier.


From there the tray slid fairly easily until this point where it got still again and I didnt want to shove it incase it chipped the frame anywhere (it did anyway)


The tray does now fit which is at least a small sucess.


At sompoint the frame of the case has moved, i dont know how, its bolted together fairly well and hasnt had any strain in this area. Needless to say the old crack has reappeared, thankfully its at the bottom of the case, and on the motherboard side, so probably unlikely to be seen, small miracle perhaps. I'll be trying to colour/fix this at some point to make this less apparent anyway once i'm done.


The back of the case looks good with the tray installed, All it needs now is the blanking plates fixing in once ive decided which ones need them and which dont.


The inside also looks good, fitting in well with the rest of the case and not looking as ghettoly mounted as i thought it might.




The Tray also helps balance the case both in terms of weight and looks (at least at the moment with the panels off).


Where the motherboard tray caught the frame at the bottom, its not *too* bad, but its still a bit annoying. The whole back panel is going to be remade in thicker material to help support the weight of the psu once its installed so this should cover this mark party and a touch up should do the rest (although it'll be retouched before the panel goes in too).


the motherboard tray looks fairly bad from the two test fittings, again, this isnt as bad as it could have been. The scratched areas were anticipated and cant be seen once its installed. I'll probably get something easier than spray to touch this up with periodicall when the tray is removed, just to say its covered (perhaps a think marker).

Next on the list, or rather still on the list are the panels, top and bottom first as these are fairly easy both to trim and fit. First however i still need the protective strip which eludes me to this day. Depending on what i find ii may attach the strip to the frame over the panel supports instead of the panels, this way they're not visible at all from the outside, still doesnt fully protect the case, but its better than nothing if i cant find anything else.

More probably next week sometime.

 

Use a permanent black market on the scratches. You wont notice it at all.

 

look in this Shop.... http://www.maedler.de with this artikel number: 64900630.

 

Found a site with loads of seals which actually cover both plans, so now i'm pretty much spoilt for choice. There one for 1.2mm sheet which is 10mm deep and would probably cut down to say 5mm and fit over th panels, or theres square section whcih is ~3mm which would fit over the lip on the frame.

Tempted to do both but i think that'd be over kill. The panel edging seems the more attractive idea as it should protect the frame from scratches if the panel slips being removed.

 

I also got these small scratches on the edges of the frame. first I tried to fix them but it really doesn't make sense cause the side pane always makes a new when put on, so I have to live with it, hope you wont have that problem