Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Cubeleon

Maybe the paint reacted with the acrylic. If you make the first few coats very light, then let them flash off (only takes a few minuites in good weather) then you should be able to avoid this.

BTW very nice work, keep it up

 

Very nice work. Love that vent you made from the bent alu + spacers.
What's with the dutch all having huge stacks of tools avail

 

I used a plastic primer before spraying the paint on, so I guess that wouldn't make any difference? The primer should prevent the paint from reacting with the acrylic. I appreciate the input though

I'm glad I can use all those toys at school, but I remember Franklin just bought a scrollsaw for his second mod. The first one he did by hand. Koradhil just started studying at my school, so I guess he will do some work there also On the other hand I've been collecting tools since I was about 8 years old, getting more every birthday. I just turned 21 so you can imagine I've got quite a collection now That belt/discsander is really usefull btw, it saves ages of filing.

 

Update 3

There we are again This is where the last update stopped:



It was time to bend that thing I could use the bending brake at school, but I wanted the bends to be with a 3mm radius. So I used a sheet of 6mm plexi and a 6mm alu tube.





Stuck the tube to the plexi with double sided tape, to prevent it from coming loose and screwing up the bend.



The prevent the piece from scratches, I clamped it in between two polishing cloths





After a few minutes of bending, and a few ours of correcting, this is the result. The aluminium likes to bend at the weakest point, and that would be where I cut the slots. I had to work hard to prevent that from happening.





The two sides are the same size, but the bends were a little off Luckily they were off even, so it still looks good. I just had to grind down the pump feet with my disc sander



Now it does fit



Instead of the molex connector seen on the last pic, I attached a fan connector. This makes it easier to route the cable through a hole in the case, because it's a lot smaller.



I just have to remake all these parts





Easy said, easy done. Cut, drilled and bent:





I didn't like the top plate anyway, it was too boring. Because of the feedback I got here I decided to go for the top inlet, so that hole had to be cut also. Printed out the design on a 1:1 scale, and stuck it to the aluminium.



Cut:



This one fits through nicely, after some filing



Viled the slots at this picture. They don't look that tidy, but they will when it's being polished



This is a picture of the dvd burner I will be using. Obviously it's a laptop dvd drive. I bought it second hand for a small price.



I recieved an adapter for it now. Bought this one for just 6 euros in a dutch webshop



The nicest part of the dvd player is that is less than 20mm thick, and thus will fit between my double plating. No one will see it when it's fit in place

I also started painting the radiator grill. Primer first, followed by spray bondo. I showed the fact that my bondo work from before wasn't good enough, so I also started applying the third layer. This thing will be painted matte black later.



I am also designing the outside of the case, that hasn't been done yet I am planning to make three more of the things pictured earlier, and then place 2 on each side. Those will become my three windows I will post my design when they are almost ready, so you guys can give me feedback.

And this is the end of this update, now it's your turn to post someting

 

looking good, and excellent metal bending

 

I like the design for the pump cover, and it was well made !

 

Nice work log mate keep it going

 

great work, keep it up!

 

Thanks everyone

 

That is some very impressive work up till now. Can't wait to see more

 

you can clearly see the progress in your mod-skills grow with each update!
Great to see this evolution and to see your project grow out to be something very impressive!

 

Wow, thanks It's hard for me to see it myself, but I guess you're right 'cause Franklin noticed it too

 

Not really an update this time, just a post to show you guys some of my designs. I hope you can give me your opinion, because no one responded on the dutch forums I hope you remember the outside radiator grill, the rest will be quite similar. I am planning to use the same cornered profiles for the 3 windows.

This will be the right hand side, with the radiator grill on top and a window underneath. The usb hub will be on the top also.



This is the same side, with the aluminium removed. What you see here are the cornered profiles and the black plexi. Each plate will be mounted with 6 hex bolts.



And this is de left hand side, as you can see without the usb hub. The rest of the dimensions will be the same as on the other side.



The design are not completely ready yet, because I have to add the hex bolts which are already there and see if it doens't interfere with the design.
As you can see, the front and top are still completely blank. The ideas for the top are starting to grow, but it seems like the front will be quite empty Anyway, I would like some opinions on the sides What could I do better or should I keep it like this. I will post a real update pretty soon

 

I'm not clear as to what the plastic pieces inside the angle bar is for.
could you explain the plan (again if I missed it in all the text)

 

The plexi is to give the aluminium a little offset, so that the the grill mount will fit and the angle bar is covered. In the future, it will also be lit

 

That's a nice aluminum job here. I'm eager to see the result!

 

Update 4

It's time for another update, let's go

I was able to get quite a bit of work done during the past few weeks. I started with buying a new jigsaw, because the old wouldn't clamp the sawblades anymore. You can imagine how many I've been using it I also bought some stuff with it, thought it might be useful.



I used the plastic thingie for about one minute, then threw it away. When I was sawing it bent, so I was unable to cut a decent line. I'll buy myself a wooden one, like they used back in the days At least those ones did what they were supposed to.

The last update I posted was kind of a little update, with just a few pics. I didn't get a lot of opinions it my designs, so I just went on with execution To begin with, I adjusted the angle aluminium so they would fit my designs.



Then I printed the design on a 1:1 scale and cut off the unnecessary parts:



And again, used the spray glue to attach it to the aluminium. Love that stuff





Cut the hole with the jigsaw. My electric saw is broken, so it took a little longer. I'll buy a decent one soon



After that I went into the workshop at school to cut the outer contours. I really like those tools, they make it so easy to cut these things fast and straight.





I will file this one down soon (in fact I just did that today ) and then I'll start on the plexi part. The aluminium part has to fit around the radiator grill, so that will take some time too.

I also made some progress on the pump cover. I sanded this part down to 400 grit at this picture:



Because theory and practice never totally match, I have to adjust the top plate a little. I marked it on the top. I'll have to file that off.



After just a few minutes of filing, this is the result. A part that matches the rest of the parts a lot better I won't file the corners on the left, because the pump housing won't have a curve there. Just another day in the chase of perfection



Sanded with 600 grit:



The rest of the progress is with the usb hub. It all started with removing the one screw that kept it together.



I'm using the usb ports of this old backplate to connect the usb hub to the motherboard. My first casemod had 3 cables running from the back to the front, and I didn't like that. This solution will make the connection invisible



I then attached a longer cable to it, with a little connector in between. This makes it easier to connect and disconnect the usb hub.





It should work, but didn't Ofcourse I double checked all the wiring, but I couldn't figure out what went wrong. So I threw it away and bought another hub



It's a little different from the previous one, it has only three ports (on this side), the other one had 4. But I think this'll do also I modded this one also, I held it to the belt sander, so it has a flat surface now I'll have to adjust the side panel just a little bit, because the new hub is a little higher:





A little overview picture:



Again a part I have to remake. I used 1mm aluminium, it's easy to cut and easy to bend. No CAD-model needed here, so at this pic I'm drawing it out



Cut:



And bent, matches the hub nicely:



The third bent went a little wrong, so I cut off most of that part. I said 'most', because I need something to prevent the hub from moving. As you can see, the bracket is still floating above the ground. I did this on purpose, so that it will be fixed against the wall:



It looks nice and clean when mounted:





At this is all for this time folks You don't have to wait long for the next update, I already made some nice progress and this will be update-worthy soon I'm also trying to spend a little more of my time to this project, because I really want to see it finished. I've been working on this so long, I need something new. And I want to participate in casemod championships See you next time, and thanks for reading

 

Note so self: Adjust the date of the topic when you post an update I wouldn't click on a topic when the last update was on november 10th

 

nice work man!!!! i like it really much!!!! check out my mystery box 2.0 (plz)

 

Your work and attention to details is very impressive. Keep it up and you will have a kickass case