1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Project Perspex - Finished - *pic heavy*

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by profqwerty, 25 Jan 2007.

  1. profqwerty

    profqwerty What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    2 Jan 2006
    Posts:
    1,262
    Likes Received:
    18
    Unfortuneatley I did not take pics of the earlier incarnations, but it's still far from finished!

    A completely clear PC case. It's my DT A2 project, and will fit my present components (see sig for existing case!)

    [​IMG]

    The components fitted are courtesy of our electronic dept + ch424, I'm just using them to model what it's going ot look like.

    [​IMG]

    This shows how the mobo is fitted; the bolts are tightened to the outside panel, then go through a sheet of smoked acrylic for some reason (i might get rid of it). The nuts allow the height of the board to be adjusted and the angle it's at.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Sorry about pics on their side!
    This is front/back - the mobo is inverted to let the power reach comfortably. It also gives a nice large area ontop of the tray, where the pump/reservoir will go.
    The optical drives can be moved for/backwards and up/down to fit perfectly.
    There will be a 120mm fan in that hole at the bottom.

    Oh yes - the bolts are too long i know. There are 100's of those length in the stores, but none of the shorter ones that I need. I'm using those to hold it together for now, and they are only put a short way. I tried shortening a batch, but they looked crap, and tore the thread to shreds.

    The bolts are mostly tapped into the acrylic (nothing broken yet touch wood!), but some (like on the CD drives) use nuts as well.

    I managed to make a small bracket to hold the expansion cards

    [​IMG]

    another side on view - clearer to see the mobo.

    [​IMG]

    close up of the front - the front/back/top/bottom are from 12mm acrylic, so can cope with laod bearing better.
    I cut several holes near the edge/corner of a piece of 12mm, and put a bolt through into a vice. bend is around, and the bolt sheared off without marking the acrylic - it's tough stuff!

    The HDD holder bits are made by tapping holes into the base, and using long bolts to hold the HDDs up. rubber gromets go between the bolts and the HDDs to reduce vibration a bit.

    [​IMG]

    another side on.

    It's being made in our school workshop. There is a laser cutter, that with a little tweaking can be made to just about cut the 12mm acrylic (it's not meant to do more than 6mm ;).
    I used the laser to cut the panels, and some of the holes. Through the 12mm the laser flared out as it was focussed to the centre of the acrylic. This made any holes cut end up oval shaped - not ideal!
    However it is really useful to do holes in the middle of sheets, as they are perfectly accurate.

    I designed the whole thing using the dimensions thread in 3d CAD (Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt - what the school uses), putting perhaps a little too much faith in the measurements!
    I used that to generate the cutting lists etc.
    Lately though i'm making it up as i go, as small things aren't so easy to model.

    All the edge holes were drilled by hand with a simple jig, then tapped. I got fed up with the hand tap, and resorted to using the drill to hold the tap. Using plenty of oil/water lube kept the acrylic from fogging up, giving lovely clear holes :) the hard part is getting the swarf out without damaging the thread to much.

    It's going to have the radiator mounted at the top, with the grill ontop of the case.


    It's a long way from being finished, and I have essentially the next 3 weeks, so I'm open to any ideas for stuff to add. I suspect there will be an LCD on the front aswell.

    I intend to make the majority out of the clear acrylic, and maybe use UV reactive for small parts.

    Thanks for reading!
    profqwerty
     
    Last edited: 16 Mar 2007
  2. kylelnsn

    kylelnsn What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    19 Dec 2006
    Posts:
    350
    Likes Received:
    0
    Sweet, this is a nice lil project. will keep tuned.

    nice one keep it up
     
  3. bumfluff

    bumfluff What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    18 Aug 2006
    Posts:
    707
    Likes Received:
    0
    Yeah, shame they don't do D&T in Scotland, just to be bloody minded they split it into three subjects: Technology, Craft And Design adn Graphic Communication.

    C&D is the building one but it is nowhere near as complicated. I took technology but all that is is electronics, all theoretical. I did Graph Comm last year as well and that is just Technical Drawing and CAD work.

    All the same, it looks awesome. :dremel:
     
  4. kylelnsn

    kylelnsn What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    19 Dec 2006
    Posts:
    350
    Likes Received:
    0
    at my school the dt teachers are gay! they dont let you use the machines, or let you do custom prjects, there all gay, so many lovely machines grr i wana use dem!
     
  5. profqwerty

    profqwerty What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    2 Jan 2006
    Posts:
    1,262
    Likes Received:
    18
    They're usually pretty cool about it....just keep quite and they don't notice lol!
     
    Last edited: 12 Mar 2007
  6. profqwerty

    profqwerty What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    2 Jan 2006
    Posts:
    1,262
    Likes Received:
    18
    Well, it's finished, so I guess this should be in the mod section, but as I've already started a (short) thread....
    [​IMG]

    On a shelf in my room. Features:
    virtually totally acrylic case
    Watercooling of CPU, GPU, Nbridge
    pump in near-perfect vibration mount
    HDDs in vibration mounts at bottom
    HDDs & PSU draw air through their own air tunnel at the bottom
    UV lighting system

    [​IMG]

    (uv pen courtesy of Thames Valley Police)
    relay operated pump (a small leak made it go bang. luckily that blue box is fairly thick plastic (turned out a couple of drops had shorted across the copper stripboard!)
    top CD drive has an acrylic lid (can see the cd's spinning!)
    acrylic fronting on optical drives
    LCD screen:
    -controls UV and fans
    -runs LCD smartie, so can do stats etc
    custom fan grills
    status lights on the front
    virtually all the holes were hand drilled and tapped


    The whole thing was designed with CAD before hand, then modified in the workshop. Specs in sig.

    Main problems:
    weight
    strength of acrylic
    scratches!
    like an oven - needs good airflow
    quite tight for room in the middle
    some holes not drilled as accurately as I would have liked
    rubber feet are designed to leave lovely black streaks on everything they touch

    I hope to add some etched logos etc at some point - any ideas for graphics on the case?
    Also there's a lot of real estate under the cd drives that needs developing.....

    I'm happy to keep fiddling/adding stuff, so ideas are welcome!
     
  7. Axel

    Axel What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    20 Feb 2007
    Posts:
    43
    Likes Received:
    0
    whats that ress?
     
  8. Supra55

    Supra55 What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    10 Oct 2006
    Posts:
    423
    Likes Received:
    0
    Very well built for it being a clear case looks very sturdy.
     
  9. profqwerty

    profqwerty What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    2 Jan 2006
    Posts:
    1,262
    Likes Received:
    18
    It's an eheim (can't remember which one exactly), intergrated res/pump. VERY quite when sealed up on the vibro mounting.

    It's certainly sturdy - it's 12mm acrlyic for the frame so does not bend (not always the best thing!)
     
  10. profqwerty

    profqwerty What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    2 Jan 2006
    Posts:
    1,262
    Likes Received:
    18
    pictures of the making of:

    [​IMG]
    the school laser cutter - it's focused to a bit below the surface to make it go through the thicker acrylic. the acrylic is held off the metal bed with strategically placed supports - without them the plastic melts onto the metal!

    [​IMG]
    the acrylic is held between two thick pieces of wood to support it. the jig is clamped ontop - it keeps the drill perpendicular to the acrylic and keeps the holes in the middle of the edge.

    [​IMG]
    drilling into the acrylic

    [​IMG]
    adding a bit of lube - keeps the side of the hole clear and the acrylic cool - without it just melts onto the drill and goes fuzzy.

    [​IMG]
    checking the depth - they're mostly drilled to about 30mm including the jig. gives room for the tap - the school doesn't possess an M5 plug tap for some reason....

    [​IMG]
    fill the drilled hole with lube ready for tapping

    [​IMG]
    tapping the hole. wrist fell off after n holes, so used a drill instead - much quicker:D

    [​IMG]
    finished hole - swarf is iompossible to get out, most holes with some in the bottom.

    [​IMG]
    there is it! a neat hole intot he side of an acrylic sheet!

    [​IMG]
    acrylic sheet on the line bender, i left the middle tray bit on too long and it melted through :duh:

    [​IMG]
    a useful sheet bender which rests at 45 degrees...

    [​IMG]
    using a bench clamp to make 90 degrees
     
  11. profqwerty

    profqwerty What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    2 Jan 2006
    Posts:
    1,262
    Likes Received:
    18
    [​IMG]
    rear shot plugged in

    [​IMG]
    side shot

    [​IMG]
    water pump with it's vibro mounting. the smoked acrylic is glued onto the reservoir, and it's suspended with some elastic bands (the water turned blue after a few hours of UVing)

    [​IMG]
    GPU block.

    [​IMG]
    random shot of the BT card and the USB header (with usb cable to the LCD)

    [​IMG]
    in/out of the rad. i coudln't get hold of any right angle connectors (long story), so made some up. kind of a feature now :)

    [​IMG]
    hdd mountings. the bolts tap into the base, and use rubber grommets into the acrylic.

    [​IMG]
    pump switch. blue tape covers pump power + neon. the mains isneatly kept in its own little box. paid off during power up testing....

    [​IMG]
    LCD controller board. the one ch424 did, kindly donated. it powers two fans and the UV system

    [​IMG]
    rear without wires. there is a huage gap around the connectors etc, but that is what comes of guestimating.

    [​IMG]
    back of blue box - can see the scorch marks :D

    [​IMG]
    close up of power bits. i had to use long self tapping screws to hgold the psu in - couldn't find any proper long ones. I tried brazing a proper thread onto a longer bolt, but it didn't work (at all).
     
  12. profqwerty

    profqwerty What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    2 Jan 2006
    Posts:
    1,262
    Likes Received:
    18
    [​IMG]
    other side shot - all reversed with the inverted mobo mount

    [​IMG]
    neat little piece which hold the cards securely

    [​IMG]
    my A2-electronics project. it controls the fan speeds for the radiator from the water temperature. unfortunately did not realise it had fallen down until i hd uploaded the pics, but imagine it nicely square :hehe:

    [​IMG]
    messy!

    [​IMG]
    rear shot of hdds, and all the power cables cramming through a tiny hole (guestimating again!)

    [​IMG]
    my see-through cd drive. it works fine, and you can see the cds spinngin etc.

    [​IMG]
    cd trays sticking out. three cos i don't hold much hope for the survival of the top one (no reason why though lol) 'stealthed'; smoked acrylic bolted to the fronts of the trays

    [​IMG]
    the buttons - pressing the bolts bends the acrylic enough to press the buttons. v. pleased with these.

    [​IMG]
    sort of close up of the buttons and lights on the front

    [​IMG]
    front fan grill. provides (relatively) easy access to hdds. isn't qutie right - there's supposed to be a horizontal bar across the shelf, and the grill would extend up + down so it's square. never got round to it though (+ i think there wasn't any bar left)

    [​IMG]
    cd rack. took aaagggges to get the folds right for the width. ended up making lots of bubbles and it having several ripples in it :rolleyes:
     
  13. profqwerty

    profqwerty What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    2 Jan 2006
    Posts:
    1,262
    Likes Received:
    18
    [​IMG]
    top view - the top piece doesn't quite line up with the sides. i think mainly cos it was hand drilled, so there was PLENTY of room for error.

    [​IMG]
    general view including the scrreen etc

    [​IMG]
    mroe mess! back end of graphics card there. those fets get pretty hot without the air from the stock sink. i had to install a fan on the side of the case to dool them (good as it cools sbridge/board etc.)

    [​IMG]
    cpu block in all its glory

    (can anyone answer why the cpu might be running a game at 65C, where as the gpu (on the same water circuit) is only at 40C? i'm putting it down to poor cpu block performance....??)

    [​IMG]
    northbridge block. i sutpidly ordered the sli version, with the wrong mobo mount, so i had to make a lovely one from acrylic. the bolts ont othe mobo are a bit dodgy - bolt drilled out down the centre, with an eyehook brazed inside, :cooldude:

    [​IMG]
    plenty of real-estate there to fill

    [​IMG]
    welcome to the jungle. i didn't want to cut the pipe and waste some, plus it took some of the stress out of it :D. also there is the inline thermistor for the radiator fans

    [​IMG]
    psu shot there

    [​IMG]
    nice front shot there - stealthed drives nicely shown

    [​IMG]
    as it was on the desk not plugged in i tried to illuminate it with a 100% uv-b bulb. interesting to see the water additive does not react, although it does with uva :blah:

    [​IMG]
    magic floating fan! afterthough fan blowing on gpu fets and giving a bit of airflow:)

    that's all for now. hope to have more projects at some point.
    anything that should/ciould be added do say (e.g. graphics/logos etc)

    cheers,
    profqwerty
     
  14. wbdog206

    wbdog206 not me

    Joined:
    15 Jan 2007
    Posts:
    442
    Likes Received:
    1
    looks great nice job.
     
  15. Qbank

    Qbank What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    19 Jun 2002
    Posts:
    303
    Likes Received:
    0
    woow, nice job
     
  16. THEkorean

    THEkorean 42

    Joined:
    10 Jun 2005
    Posts:
    480
    Likes Received:
    0
    wow.. that is a nice mod, all you have to do now is sleeve and organize those cables and it will be awesome
     

Share This Page