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

Just a short update tonight, but a it'll start looking much more finished.

Side Panels (reloaded)

I showed a bit of the construction of the side panels earlier. Now it's time to finish them off.

In order to get a good amount of airflow through the system I wanted a side 'window' material that was fairly open. Unfortunately, modders mesh didn't really fit into the theme of the build. So I headed down to the local fabric store, looking more than a little out of place (I think I was the only guy there), and picked up some nice open weave hessian cloth.

After some hideous failed experiments for mounting the hessian, I decided that the most practical way would be to cut some thin borders out of ply wood (which I had lying around) and glue them on.

First, the plywood borders were cut out and glued on to a slightly oversized piece of hessian.


While the glue was drying, I decided to apply the finish to the sides. I'm using Danish Oil. It's pretty cool stuff. Well, I like it anyway. It makes the timber slightly darker, highlights the natural grain in the timber and forms a hard, scratch resistant layer on the surface. This particular brand also smells like oranges , made me a little hungry. Anyway, here's a pic with one of the panels done, so that you can see the difference.


After the glue had dried, the excess hessian was trimmed off.


Then some glue was applied to the inside lip around the window.


And the whole lot was glued together. Old UPS batteries are very handy for holding things down while the glue dries.


Once everything is dry, we have finished side panels.



At some point earlier on in the process, I forget when, it's all a blur now. I installed the main ventilation fan. The fan I'm using is a 200mm fan from Antec called the "Big Boy 200". I managed to get this one free from work since the case it was in had a nasty accident and two of the fans' support strust were broken. After repairing the fan with a little super glue it was installed in the case. Here's a shot of how it lines up with the side window.


The body of the case was actually designed partly around this fan. So it was suposed to just slide right in. However, somehow the internal dimension ended up being about 1mm too narrow. So I had to chisel out a small strip to allow the fan to sit in there. Then I used a standard fan screw to attach it to the top and bottom of the case.


Because the side panel was made from hessian, I was going to need something to stop the material being sucked into the fan. I didn't have any 200mm fan grills lying around. So I made my own. It's pretty basic and wont keep little fingers out, but it does it's job quite well.


hmmm... that's right. I said it would start to look a bit more like a finished case. While I was oiling the side panels, I disassembled the other wooden parts and oiled them too. After spending some time putting the whole lot back together again, here's what it looks like so far.

Assembled (without side straps):


With straps:




I really like how the colour of the wood changes depending on the angle.

Well, that's it for now. There's still a bit more to go until she's finished. You'll have to be a little bit patient though, coz I'm heading off on holidays for 2 weeks tommorow morning. I'll try to check in from time to time (depending on internet connection).

'Til next time, happy modding to all

 

Love the buttons, and the overall design too My dad and i are making him a wood case soon...he also loves your project

 

You could also tighten the hessian, nail it in place and then not have to worry about the "fingerguard".

 

Got to tell you, Gumbatron, this is a glorious piece of work. It would fit right in with normal furniture in any living room short of futuristic art-deco, that is. Beautiful work.

 

Both the design and the build are very good and unique. Well done!

 

wow!!! great work!!! and compliments for your avatar!!!! ;-)

 

I am watching this one from now on! Keep up the great work.

 

Nice The leather straps are a real nice touch - it sorta looks like a restored piece of british equipment, around wwII era. I like the filter/window aswell I'm guessing you might dimly light the interior like the buttons? I think dimly lit yellow leds, so they look ~orange would suit the rustic theme (saw it on a wwII pc log )
Maybe even have a switch to select no light/red/orange.

Ok, that's more than enough suggestions, so i'll shutup now. Keep up the excellent work

 

I like how it's turned out. Love the colour of the wood.

Nice job.

 

excellent... shoot that video if you can!!(switches)

 

Thanks for all the great comments guys. I really apreciate it

I'm still over seas at the moment, will be back in a little over a week. Then I'll be able to show you the cable sleeving. They're done in a way that I haven't seen before, hopefully you guys like them.


Well... I gotta get back to relaxing on the beach. I know... it's a hard life

 

It came out beautiful!
I would stretch the hessian stuff a bit, though. If you can stretch and tack it down to something, then glue the plywood to it, it should feel more like the old speaker covering.

 

looks amazing, can't wait to see the finished article

 

Ok guys, I'm back home now.

My apologies if this post is a little tired sounding, but I've had about 2 hours sleep in the last 2 days.

On with the show. Now that the side panels are done, the majority of the case structure can be considered complete. Now it's time to pay some attention to the internals.

Once I'd aquired all of the hardware, I gave it a good test run on the bench. The first thing I noticed was that the chipset cooler was a lot warmer than I liked. So I swapped it out for a nice cheap little zalman cooler. Nothing fancy, but a LOT better than the stock cooler.




I wanted to keep the internal wiring in theme with the rest of the case (even though it can't be seen from the outside). Normal cable sleeving just wasn't going to look right. I chose to use leather. It's not something that I've seen done anywhere before, and as I found out. It requires an incredible amount of patience.

To start with the PSU was stripped of all unnecessary cables. All that is left is 24pin ATX, 4pin 12V, Sata and 12v + Ground (for the fan).

Some strips of light leather were cut out (a little bigger than was needed). The ATX and Sata covers have flanges on one end to go over the plugs.




Then they were dyed a nice dark brown... well that was the plan. I had a slight case of knocking over the bottle of dye .



Eventually I managed to get them dyed. There are still some dark patches, but that wont matter in the long run, after all it is suposed to be rustic.



I stuck some scraps of leather onto a few spring clamps (so that they didn't scratch my leather) and the painfully slow process of hand stitching the covers was underway.



After a few hours, the first cable was sleeved.



After playing with a few ideas of how to attach the sleeving to the ATX plug, I finally decided that sewing it on would be the best way (even though it would take a bit longer). To do this, small holes (around 1mm) were drilled in the plug.



Then the thread (waxed linen) was woven in and gradually tightened up. The other side was done in much the same way.



After many more hours of stitching, one broken needle and surprisingly only 2 needles stuck into my hand, the cable sleeving is complete. The little black wire hanging off the Sata plug is for the power LED (I sort of forgot about that till the last minuite)




And it all gets squeezed into the case.



I wasn't happy with the red SATA cables, so I got a couple of Silverstone CP-04 cables. They're a nice color for this case.



Then it was onto the bench for a little stress testing. The airflow of the case worked out just as I had planned and everything remained nice and cool, nice quiet 200mm intake combined with the 120mm PSU fan blowing out all that nasty hot air.

There are still a few loose ends to tidy up, but it's pretty much finished now. Just in time for Christmas too.
I'll post up some more decent overall shots tommorow (hopefully).

...'till then, thanks for all the great comments.

 

That leather sleeving is just brilliant. I'm a bit confused because it is ugly as hell, but it still fits the theme! Did the brown stain leave any marks on the floor?

 

Thanks ... I think, lol

Yep, I know it looks a bit rough, and that's exactly how I wanted it to. So I'll take "ugly as hell" as a compliment

and yes, the leather dye leaves a brown stain on pretty much everything. Just as well I did it in the shed and not in the living room. A hand full of saw dust did a pretty good job of cleaning most of it up while it was still wet though.

 

Really well done case and theme, I think I might have to coppy some of your ideas for my next media center case

ZeroHerO

 

hehe yeah that leather cable wrap looks cool, great idea

 

Cool idea! Originality is the ****! =D I love the stitching to the ATX plug. I'm glad you went all the way with the old old-school theme, and didn't settle for some "high-tech" solution!

 

I love the idea, but I'm worried about if it may be a fire hazzard. (Forgive me! it's just that most of the computer failures I've personally seen involved burning wires. I've even walked up to one at a Fry's store and had it cook off. It's made me wary of using flammable materials.)
If you plan to keep it... A loop stitch looks good with exposed edges, and black thread would be less obvious. What I mean is stitch a in a spiral pattern over the edge. When you get to the end you can go back over it with a counter-spiral, so little Xs of thread cover the exposed edge.
(That didn't make any sense, did it... Maybe I should draw a picture...)