Scratch Build – In Progress Project: MPi-L (Mac Pro/G5 Acrylic), quite back..and a realization

Yeah. Me too. I have 3 banged up g5 cases that need some love and this looks like something to watch. Mod on!
John (No I'm not a Macaholic - the cases are just way sweet)

 

Yep, all transparent.. I wish i had the time to render it in 3d...i had a rusty intermediate Plasma skills (old beginner's 3d tool from Discreet) but the design tho simple looking is quite complex on minute details.. I'll try and see if i can still make one

 

Yeah ... when I was done with my Flash layout... a friend(hir0da) of mine keeps on inspiring me by sending links of G5 mods and then I saw your amazing work

when i saw your outer piece and said to myself "hey...somebody got it first!" but it was kinda late for me already... i've been using all of my estimations from Mac Pro pics at apple website and google images.. imported it in Flash and tried to create paths to those pictures, and unite them all using a single scale...

once they were united in scale, i tried to scale all of them again using the size of the USB at the front port as the reference with a real USB port size dimensions...

The most challenging part for me in "borrowing" this sweet design was how to deal with the optical media door like the Mac Pro that slides down, and not the pop out Very scarce screen shots (in fact, i didn't have any luck with one).. but it was real fun to figure it out and finalize it

 

I haven't had any experience using jigsaw, but i think jigsaw is much faster in cutting time than dremmel.

In terms of how easy... mmm.. easier... if using flexishaft hehe otherwise i think jigsaw is better if you're in a hurry. Cutting with dremmel really needs a lot of patience if your still going a long way ^_^; For round edges..i just take it easy by doing polygons inside and grind them to perfection. Hole cutter is more perfect tho, and faster.

How fast is your cutting speed in jigsaw? I average around 1 inch per minute with the default cutting dis(c).. with the mod cutting disc, i can go like 1 inch per 20 seconds.

 

I so second that!

 

moving along that day... i proceeded to bend the real thing...

i ready the outer piece and mark them up for bending...




based on my experiment, it is safe for the iron to touch the plexi surface (i guess for this iron only) so i removed the protection to see the bending better as the paper will somewhat get annoying, and also its adhesive sticks on the surface.



Bending Time!


OH YEAH!! (wtf?!)



The result... pretty nice bend ....me thinks me likes



Doing the other side...

 

proceeding with the other ends... i only have this pic... as it was getting so exciting that i forgot to take pictures along the way how stupid..



at the end of the day, time to keep the beloved outer piece...


(it's just plexi-dust from the newly removed protective adhesive)











That's all for the 13th January 08 update... Thanks guys for the nice comments

 

Really nice bends, very interesting and good looking case so far, i'll keep tabs on this, good luck!

 

Well... with jigsaw you could have like... 1inch in 5 seconds I use metal bit to cut plexi - it has small teeth and makes pretty nice straight cut. But gonna have to use dremmel for cutting some small bits of plexi soon...

Very nice job there - I love the way you bent that plexi! Was it so easy using iron??? Did it melt plexi somehow or didnt left any marks? Looks even better than using hair dryer! I have to test it !

 

Oooo! That bent piece looks sweet!! ¤_¤

As I am curious about your manufacturing process I have some questions: =)
1a. Looks like you didn't use some (wooden) guide when bending, were you still able to get all the bends the same?
1b. Will the side panel line up with the gap, while the case is standing flat on the floor, and if not, do you think it will be easy to adjust this with some more "ironing" later?
2. Did you bend a little on the front bend (on handle/foot), then a little on the back bend and so on until you had a 90° bend?

Keep up the great work!

 

Nice idea on the iron trick. It has worked fantastically.

 

I've reread the whole log and looked at the labels on the plexi but can't figure out what thickness did you use? It's really sweet. Any thoughts on the case itself? My G5s and Mac Pro cases have a bazillion holes in the front and back.
John

 

It was kinda easy using the iron, it just takes a bit of patience too...and a lot of practice ^_^;

I did a small figure on how i did the bending..


Once it has a good rockable angle, focus on the target area. The plexi will get really really soft(meltlike) like a bubble gum...it will stick to the iron but it won't really stick...hehe.. i hope you get the idea of the softness.. i think once you "mastered" the trick, you'll have seemless bends... i'll see if i have time to do it on youtube

However, i think a heatstrip would be better to use than this cause it is less of a "dirty job" heh.. easier for long bends, and also i just like the idea of a no-contact bending.

p.s. seems like it doesn't bubble... i reckon the distribution of heat using iron is better than blue flame..

 

holy smokes... i dont want to try that I would ruin plexi right away

great job !!!

 

That's some nice work there! I'll be following this one for sure!

 

An iron? I didn't know they got that hot. I've had one all along and never thought to try it. That's genius!
You might have some problems with weight on the bottom legs later on.
Nice work so far. This has the potential to be really cool. Dremel cutting the sheet tells me you have the patience to make this work.

 

Your idea of using an iron to bend plexi just saved my life/project. Thank you SO much!

 

One more thing - you have awesome modding skills! I mean, a bottle cap for a cutting disk, an iron for bending plexi? Pure genius!

 

Darn I HAVE to give that bottletop-cutting wheel a go! Also didn't know an ironing iron would be hot enough for acryl bending. Mindblowing methods there, never thought of either of those!

Looking forward!

 

1a. Yep, no wooden guides. I did look for the cylindrical object (bottle, pvc pipe, wood, etc) that has the required radius i based on my measurements, but i have wasted a lot of time looking for the perfect one. What i did instead is when the plexi is soft, i then let it stand over a paper guide printed with actual measurements as to how it would fit good..and also trying to fit it with the front + top strip (half of the center piece) width too

1.b Yep, if i follow the measurements according to plan, it will

2. Nope, i just did as what the sweet original design has. Some of my friends thought it might not be strong enough, but i did test a few scrap plexi to see how heavy it can take...it seems to hold my 19" CRT and half a laundry basket(~5kg i think) pretty well... i think the curve is just about the tip of the "weak" range, balancing strength and beauty.. I could be running into problems with this later(specially if i just put on a little more weight) on but i'm crossing my fingers...

Thanks..very interesting questions you had there