Scratch Build – In Progress Hide and Go Beep - PC/Media Centre

I agree with Cheapskate, although the dremel hasnt had a lot to do with this one this far!
i'm looking to source some nice black semi transulcent acrylic, andone any ideas of the best place to get it

 

UK- where to get Black Transparent Plexi /Acrylic

I'm having real trouble getting the transparent Acrylic or "plexiglass". Anyone know of a good UK supplier that will sell me the sizes for the panels i need?
Much appreciated

 

http://acryan.com/_acrylpanel/index.shtml

 

Very interesting mate. Subscribed!

 

Cheers Dean, its your design that got me thinking about the black acrylic, i was going to use stainless steel, but looked how your's was coming on when i joined up, and thought - "I gotta get me some of that plastic!"

Cheers to 500MPH, i could only find places wanting to sell me half sheets (2 m x 1.5 m!!!)
IO'm going away with work, and then on hols for a week, but already chomping at the bit to get going on my mod!
Think i'll use ti as a time of Zen like reflection, i may have a re-think about the MOBO unit being side mounted. I may make it front monting to show off the "gubbins" of the system.

 

Thanx man! Yeah, the translucent black plexi really does look awesome!! Try and get yourself some, you'll see what I mean

 

HOYL CRAP! OMG, Dude your dad or you wife will Kill you, Damm you missed that house heheh but really nice idea, Well done and nice job.

Wait update from you soon, Come on the house is missed up Good luck.

 

haha! luckily its my place, and the girlfriend is very "understanding". The walls were like that wen we bought it, so i'm just going to put it right!
Off on hols today, but i will have plenty to be getting on with when i get back!

 

AHH, Good! Now I can say I can't wait to see it done because you alive hehehhe

Good luck.

 

hey, just got back from away. not made much progress on the build, but i have got a bit of a change to the specs.
I had a little flutter on the horses while i was away, and won a bit of cash, so i've bought some better stuff for my media centre.
I was wanting a Mini ATX mobo, and so i bought an ASRock 775i65G motherboard with a 3GHZ PENTIUM 4, with 1GB DDR400 RAM. My buddy recommendede it to me and i'm hoping its going to be a lot quicker than the old rig.

This means a few changes to the design, so keep an eye out for a slimmer, front access media centre.

 

sketch up

Hey guys, been having a bit of a nose at what other people do to plan thier build, and sketch up seems to be a common theme to bash a concept together.
Havent used any CAD esque programmes in ages, but put this together


hopfully it will get me more focussed on the task ahead. as always, any comments greatfully recieved

 

Is that what the cabinet will look like where the pc would be installed into? Cant you maybe install some virtual hardware into it?

 

Sketchup

Here are the quick sketchup drawings i have done, CAD aint my strong point, but it is a great tool for working out where to positionj everything



this is a bit of a closer look. The frame cant be seen, but it would have taken me ages on my crappy pc


after a few unsuccessful attempts on ebay i have bitten the bullet and bought myself an ARC welder new from Screwfix. Hopefully it will be here for the weekend, so between rugby matches i'll be trying it out. Just need to teach myself to use it now!

 

Good job with the sketchup. Really looking fws to see more progress. How about using some smoked plexi for the window. I think it would compliment the glossy piano black on your tv. Keep up the good work. This is a great design!

 

Thanks, its been a while since using any CAD software, sketchup has awsome pc components to drop in place.
Ive bought some black smoked plexi (via special tech and ac ryan) the only problem is that they only seem to supply in 450 x 450 sheets. Could really do with extra lengh, so any ideas guys........

 

Had my welder delivered today (screwfix get stuff to you so fast!) ready for the weekend. check it out!


The steel the i will be using is quite small guage, 10mm x 10mm "L" profile, with a thickness of around 2 mm. This means that the weling is going to have to be pretty good.
Ive had a bit of a practice on some offcuts, and play around with the amperages. I've got 2.5 mm arc electrodes (rods) but would have prefered 1.5mm.
If any of you guys are looking to start up welding its worth a look at this website:-

http://www.expertvillage.com/videos/beginner-arc-welding-basics.htm

there is a series of videos by "john from expert village" (he says that at the start of each clip - made me laugh!) that might help.

Ive done various bits of welding in the past, my brother is a wicked welder, and has got both a MIG and TIG set up, but its around 300 miles away! bummer!

My first attempts have been pretty lousy, tacked the two pieces together with some of the 2.5 mm rods supplied with the welder, but when i swapped over t the ones i have bought specially it punched holes in the section!



Plenty more practice and refining the amperages before i try on the proper frame! hopefully i can have a decent day on it tommorrow!

 

had a few hours to myself, so i cracked the welder out.
i've started on the back section of the case, where the mobo will be mounted


the plate from my doner pc fits into the frame.



i have attempted to seam weld the mobo plate in place, but as it is so thin, its proven it be a bit tricky. its firmly in place with a series of 2-3 inch welds, and a couple of tacks. I will need to get some bondo to neaten it all up with prior to spraying.

Last bit for today was to weld in the brackets for the PSU



Now there is just a hell of a lot of filing to be done!
As you can see either side of the PSU mounts, there is plenty of space to mount a hard drive either side. Initially i will just put 1 into it, but when i get another it will fit the other side.

Fairly chuffed with todays efforts, there is something about fusing 2 bits of metal together that makes you feel like a man!

 

Welding issues

Hey guys, had a manic few days with work, so little progress until tonight.

Ive been trying to put the uprights in my cage, with great difficulty


Altrhough they dont look too bad on these pictures, the uprights arent perfectly straight. I used a jig to try and get them upright, but it didnt work amazingly well.
Although the cage is going to be fairly lightweight, and look quite minimal, i'm having problems with welding it.
The heat that is kicked out by the arc welder means that the metal is warping. I guess its one of the down falls of using such thin guage steel. I will have to spend a bit of time "perswading" it all back into shape.
Dont get me wrong, its not a million miles off, and i'm hoping that the top framework is going to pull it back into line.

The lighting is going pretty early now with the onset of winter, i'll have to rig up some lighting this weekend so i can pull a few late nighters.