Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Rustic Computer: FINISHED!! 19-12-2007

Introducing: Rustic Computer

This computer will be a present for my mum, she lives in the country and this computer should fit in well there.

The hardware for this build isn't exactly cutting edge. Only needs to be able to surf the web and do other general computing stuff:

CPU AM2 X2 4000
RAM 2 x 1GB 800MHz Corsair DDR2
Mobo Abit AN-M2 Mobo
HDD Samsung 320GB Sata
Optical Samsung 18x DVD Sata Burner
HSF Zalman CNPS9500 AM2
Cooler Zalman NB32K Chipset
Fan Antec BigBoy200 (got this for free coz it was broken)
PSU Spire 450W

The Design:

The design process for this computer started in mid July this year. I have recently finished building it and am quite happy with the result. I'll feed it to you guys in small chunks, as I write up the worklog. Here are some renderings from SketchUp:






Hopefully the finished product will resemble the design .

The material I've chosen to use is Tasmanian Oak. It's light in colour, easy to work and not terribly expensive.
The other main material I'll be using is leather.

The Construction:

First to arrive is the lumber:



The frame sections are 45mm x 45mm and were quickly cut to lenght:


Using a table router, tenons were cut into the cross members:


Then for the time consuming process of chiseling out the mortises.
First holes are drillled in each corner:


Then bigger holes to remove some of the bulk:


Then each one is carefully chiseled out:


All done...


After more than a little fine tuning, they began to fit together:


However I wasn't happy with the way the exposed tenons looked. My woodworking skills just aren't up to that standard. So another way was devised
to make them look a little better. Using some of the spare lumber, small end caps were made for each joint. Both the tenons on the cross members and the end caps will be cut in half diagonally, so that they fit in nice and tight. Then they'll be held in with 1 screw in each joint, that way I can disassemble when necessary:


Yet more fiddling around, and eventually the all fit together:


Any comments you guys have would be greatly apreciated, suggestions are also welcome but wont change anything since I've finished already

...more to come shortly...

 

Interesting concept. I hope your mum appreciates it.

 

Nice design.

 

@macroman:- Thanks, it really means a lot to hear from you, since Macro Black was one of the first great mods I ever saw and has really inspire me into attempting a little myself

@Mankz:- Thankyou, i was pretty pleased with the disign myself.

On with the building...


With the end frames roughly constructed, I moved on to the other panels of the case. The top and bottom panels are made from 19mm x 240mm board. Two of these are doweled and glued together for each panel. The panels were then cut to the exact size required on the router table (the small notches in each corner allow clearence for the legs):


Some aluminium 'L' bar will be used to make brackets so that the top and bottom panels can be screwed to the front and back frames:


The side panels also required 2 peices of wood to be doweled and glued. As with the other panels, these were cut to the correct dimensions on the
router table, then a window was cut in each panel. A template made from a scrap of masonite (or something like that) was used to guide the router bit.


After that the outer edges of the side panels were rounded off with a 12mm (1/2 inch) raduis bit. Chanels were cut in the back side so that the windows
will just slot in (hopefully) and also to allow room for the window material (I'll get back to that later):


Now for a test fit:


Some (most) of the brackets for the rear of the case have been cut away, to allow for the back panel and mobo tray:


Now on to the front panel. A shallow grove (about 5mm deep x 19mm wide) was cut in the inside of the fronnt frame:


Then a piece of the 19mm timber was cut to fit in here:


Now on to the back panel for a while...

I managed to scavange a sheet of 2mm Aluminium (a bit thick for what I needed, but it was free ). This was cut to fit the inside of the back panel
and the hole for the PSU was cut. I had to be accurate here because there would only be 2 or 3mm spare between the fan, mobo and PSU:

note: the countersunk screws used for 2 of the PSU screws. This is because they'll be behind the back leg of the case once it's assembled. This will make it a little time consuming to remove the PSU (so hopefully I won't have to do it too much).

Once I bought the mobo, I could cut the hole for the IO panel (I held off buying hardware as long as possible, since the prices drop fairly regularly).


This next bit is completely out of cronological order, but it fits in here. Once I had the mobo, I cut another piece of 2mm Alu to make a backing plate.
Then I put 25mm standoffs on it (was expecting to have to cut them down a bit, but they were a perfect fit ). This way, the mobo can be removed by removing 2 screws. It's held in the other side by sliding under the back plate:



...still more to come. Hope you're enjoying it so far...

 

Great design Gumbatron, looking forward to seeing this finished !

 

like americans say...tight!!

 

oh very cool, I always like wooden cases

 

very well thought out.
looks good very nice work.

 

Looking nice

 

nice wood and metal work.

 

This is a great design and execution! Good job, mate! Your mother should be proud of what she's getting.

 

Thanks for the kind comments guys. I'd put up the next update, but I'm stuck at work. Will be having a busy weekend so you might have to wait a couple of days until I get time

 

Ok, circumstances have allowed me a few minuites to put this update on. The next one will be up in a few days

Now for the drive bay...

Another piece of 2mm Aluminium is cut out (using my sketchup design to figure out the size/shape:


Then it had to be bent into shape. Luckily, my anvil jus happens to be the exact width of a 3.5" HDD:


Using a combination of the anvil and vice and some not so gentle persuasion with a hammer, the drive bay takes shape. You might notice that there
are quite a few marks on the metal from hammer strikes etc. Don't wory, this is deliberate, I wanted it to look like it was beaten into shape with a
hammer :


A quick test fit with an old hdd and (Very old) CD Rom:


Now, to get it attached to the rest of the case...

Once the drive bay had been positioned, the exact final location of the DVD burner could be known. This was marked out on the inside of the front panel
and a recess was chiseled out to allow the DVD burner to sit further forward. The opening in the front of the case will be just big enough for
the tray to come out of:


Now to construct a face plate for that DVD Burner. Here's a pic of all of the pieces that go into making it:


So... starting from the bottom left of that pic. We have 2 really tiny countersunk screws. These will be used to screw the face plate assembly to the
original face plate:


Then there's the original face plate, with holes drilled and countersunk. then a 1mm thick Aluminium backing plate. This has threaded holes
to take the mounting screws and countersunk (sort of) holes for the copper rivets. Then there's a piece of leather, roughly dyed brown, a
very small piece of Tassie Oak to hold the leather on and the washers for the rivets.

Once it's all put together it looks a bit like (there is a small crack in one end of the wood, just one to many hits with the rivet setter. It's not noticeable in real life unless you look very closely. So I'm not going to worry about it):



And it attaches just like a normal face plate "click":


Next up will be the power switch and eject switch. They were an adventure in themselves.

hope you are enjoying it...more shortly...

 

that's a sweet-looking drive tray!

 

Switches

Originally I was going to have the switches look sort of like very old typewriter keys, with copper rings around the outside and backlit acrylic centers. But I didn't have any copper pipe lying around and didn't really want to go out and try to buy 2 inches of copper pipe , so I thought up something different using what I already had.

I found a little 8mm acrylic and some clear plastic rod. Using a holesaw I cut 2 wheels out of the 8mm acrylic. These were then drilled out further to fit the rod and another roughly cut piece of acrylic was stuck on the front. These were then epoxied together. I've already started to round off one of the buttons in this pic:


Using my drill press and a light rasp, files and sand paper I eventually made the rough bottom layer match the round one:


I think I should have taken more pics while I was doing this...

The next pic shows three different bits. The actual switches themselves were donated by an old microsoft mouse that I had managed to kill some time ago. These were mounted onto some small bits of veroboard (think that's what it's called) that I found lying around. I also made a backing plate from 8mm acrylic. This will hold the entire assembly together. Two holes either side of the switch holes are tapped to take standard mobo stand offs. This will give enough clearence to attach the buttons (just):


I found an old spring in one of my piles of junk which was just the right size. It was cut down and fit to the button shaft so that there would be just a little movement of the button (only a millimeter or two are needed). The end of the spring is bent so that it fits into a tiny hole drilled just below the
button shaft hole:


The button shafts were then cut to length. I really didn't want to make a mistake here, because cutting them too short would have ruined them. Once cut, a small hole was drilled through the shaft to take the locking pin. This pin holds the button in and also prevents it from spinning:


A quick test fitting. In the end I had to use some 1/8" washers to space it out a little more:



Now for some lights in those buttons. Macroman will probably be familiar with this bit . A couple of 5mm holes were drilled in the back of each switch along with a small chanel cut with my Krusty brand imitation Dremel:


The LEDs and resistor were soldered up and a generous layer of epoxy seals it all in. I really hope I don't have to change any of this (don't worry, I did test the LEDs before I glued it all up):


After a little test fitting, I found that the whole assembly needed to be moved back about 2mm. So some off cuts of 2mm Aluminium were cut out. These will be glued to the acrylic:



Now, you're probably thinking that backlit acrylic buttons aren't really in keeping with the theme... don't worry. I can fix that. Using some light leather
(OMG I feel like I'm playing WOW) which had arrived some time earlier I cut out some covers for the switches. Each have the symbol that relates to
their function (eject and power).


These were dyed and sealed, using dye and sealer funily enough (I bought it with the leather):


With the front of the buttons masked off, the sides and back of the buttons were painted. First coat was in silver, then matt black. I was hoping that the silver would reflect a bit more light out, but it didn't seem to make much difference. I might experiment with that one day, but for this build, bling is not high on the adgenda (it is for my mum after all). Then the button covers were glued onto the fronts. Another small piece of veroboard was used to mount pins for the switch lights and a single hole was drilled in the middle to allow the whole assembly to be screwed to the case:

note: If you are able to read my apauling hand writing you might have a clue as to what I'll be doing next.


Here's a shot of all (well most) of the components layed out in an exploded view:


And here's what the switches look like in their new home. Oh, yeah, I also cut out 2 holes in the front panel with the same holesaw that I used to cut the original buttons with:


That whole process took, well ages. A little over a days work from start to finish but I find making my own buttons satisfying.

Stay tuned, there'll be more to come shortly...


As always, coments and criticisms are most welcome.

 

Straps and Hooks

The general idea for this is to have 2 thick leather straps to hold each side panel on. They will acually hold the panels on too, they're not just there to look cool .

First off are the hooks. These will be bolted to the top panel and allow the leather straps to be attached with just a small hole.

I got some 38mm x 3mm steel bar from the hardware store and cut 4 pieces about 85mm long. One end of each piece was roughtly tapered.


Onto the bench grinder. All of the corners were rounded off and burrs removed.


A 1/4" hole was drilled in each plate. This will take a small length of 1/4" rod. The ends of the rod have been rounded off by putting them in
the drill press and using a file, then sand paper (they sort of look like bullets).


I made up a little jig to hold the pins in the right place while I welded them in (it's just a scap of wood with a 1/4" hole drilled to the
required depth). Even though I wet it before welding, it didn't take long to heat up, and caught on fire several times


Once they were welded in the pins were bent over slightly, so that the straps would stay on. Then the welds were ground flat again. A couple of
them needed to be rewelded because the welds had cracked while I was bending the pins, but that wasn't a big deal.


The plates will be attached to the top of the case using 2 1/4" coach head bolts. These will be belted around with a hammer a bit to make them look
like iron rivets. Luckily I don't have to do anything extra to achieve this since the square head of the bolt has to be fitted into the round hole that
I had drilled (nothing like killing 2 birds with 1 stone ).

I made this coach head bolt setter for a previous (non computer related) project. It's just a bit of flat steel with a hole drilled in it and a
cross cut in the surface with an angle grinder. The cross allows space for the steel to be pushed when you hit the bolt in.


The bolt to be set is put through its hole then through the setter and placed on an anvil (mine has a hole that the rest of the bolt can go through
too). The bolt should be aligned so that the corners of the bolt head match up with the cross cut in the setter. like this:


Then it's just a matter of hitting it with a hammer until the rounded head of the bolt is flush with the surface. On the other side, there will
be a small amount of steel pushed out, this can be filed down later.


Do that twice and one of the hooks is done. Nice square holes that fit the bolts perfectly.


Do it 8 times and they're all done.


The finished hooks were laid out on the top panel and holes were marked, then drilled to 1/4".


On the underside of the panel, I used a 19mm hole saw to countersink the nuts.


The hooks were then painted matt black. This is one of them in the finished case.


The leather straps were cut to length and a hole was drilled in each one to go over the hook. Yes, you can drill holes in leather, you just have to
clamp it between two pieces of scrap wood first. Very handy when you don't have a hole punch.


Originally I was going to use some sort of adjustable latch to attach the straps to the underside of the case. Unfortunately the local hardware stores'
selection was a bit limited and the ones that they did have looked pretty useless. So I had to make my own way of attaching them.

I sort of forgot to take photos of the construction process for most of this, but I'm sure you guys have seen a bit of aluminium cut before.

Ok, each attachment is made out of 3 pieces of aluminium 'L' bar. Two pieces of 1mm thickness stuff is used to make a clampy thingy that will
be rivetted on to the end of the leather strap. A thicker piece of 'L' bar (3mm I think) was used to make a block that the clampy thingy can be screwed
to. I also found some nice long screws, this will come in handy if the leather stretches over time, they can just be tightened a little more.
Here's an exploded view of all the bits:


Here's a pic of the clampy thingy riveted to the strap, I used countersunk pop rivets for this (because that's what I had ).



And here's a pic of the bottom of the case with the straps installed. You might notice the extra set of holes that have been drilled there. That
was because I temporarily forgot how to add and cut the straps 50mm shorter than I wanted to.



In the next installment the case will start to look a little closer to finished finally. And You'll get a better look
at the straps. I didn't want to give too much away for now.

Comments and criticisms are welcome as always

 

excelent!! can you plz upload a video with switches in action?? they're lovely!

 

I'll see what I can do about a video of the switches. They really aren't that spectacular in action, coz they don't use very bright LEDs. The next set I make will probably use brighter LEDs.

It might take a while to get a video though, as I'll be overseas for a while soon.

Glad you liked them anyway

 

Dude, you have to fix the steel pieces in another way. heat them and do them as the vikings did. i cant remember the process tho. And the switches "fronts" look a bit untrimmed to me. Pardon the roughness of my post. Other than that you are making an awesome gift for your mother.

 

Thanks for commenting Spaceraver, I think you're thinking of forging the steel pieces. Believe me, if I had a forge, I'd give it a go. It doesn't really matter in the end as most of the steel hooks are covered by the leather straps.

On the switches, maybe the photos make them look a little rougher than they really are. Anyway, they're suposed to look hand made so I'm happy with the result. I think the only way to get them perfectly round would be to use a punch to cut them out. Unfortunately, I don't have one

Thanks again for commenting