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

Hey john ..i also expect when i was buying this half sheet that i could find the mark of the thickness just to make sure (meticulous n00bs heh).. it's a 1/8... around 3.2mm thick. I was considering 3/16 but i believe from the base pics i have and the resulting vector scale i did, Mac Pros are closer to 1/8 or 3mm, even the perforated holes were 3mm diameter ...do correct me if i'm wrong

For the perforation job... i sure wish i had some kind of tool that could perforate easily, or if there was just a machine shop that would be happy for me to pay them to do the boring... but yes...as of now, i'm so inlove with the design that i tend to look at the brighter side of it all. The holes for the front(same with the rear) has about 59(w) x 174(h) = 10266 holes to bore...for one side alone (yeah..wtf?!)... yeah i think i know what you guys are thinking about that figure... but its for the love of modding

as what my girlfriend always say... "positive thinking attracts positive energy"...so think positive!..... lol

i tried test drilling on another scrap plexi and i was kinda impressed with this JB dremel more... i could bore a nice hole in like 3 seconds which i thought would take me like 10-15. and that's boring a hole in "relax" mode heh.. the plexi was also solid enough to let me make a grate of 15 x 15 without a single hint of cracking in around 15 minutes.

 

if you can afford a heat strip or has access to one..i think i'd say you use that i'm just using the iron as i don't have a choice(nope the torch doesn't count heh)...but it turns out to be a very good choice as well.. if you opt to use iron, i suggest you practice to scrap plexi first..and a lot...to get to know your iron better ..

 

Yeah..i pray my experiments and math won't let me down.. *CF* ..thanks for the warning

 

just do practice first dude! ...like heart-to-heart one-on-one with your iron... i'm not sure tho but i don't think i'd use an iron that has steam holes with it... it might kinda leave those circle marks on the plexi ..just a feeling tho hehe.. rock on!

 

The one thing I was concerned with is the actual weight the bottom legs would be required to take. This is because the acrylic might not be able to take on the weight of a PSU, hard drives, optical drives, the heatsink/WC, motherboard, fans, and what not that you would put inside the case.

Testing on small scraps of acrylic is different with testing strength on large scraps of acrylic, as is with most materials. I'm really hoping this would stand up to the test though; I'd hate to see it fail. It's such a good concept. There would be other ways to strengthen the acrylic pieces, to spread the load of the case.

Glad to see my friend is getting a lot of looks for his modding efforts

 

BTW. My G5 is 3mm in thickness, and the perforated holes are 3mm. Just to let you know! Keep it up!

But a little hint, smack a piece of wood on the backside of the plexi when you drill it, it will make sure that you don't crack the back, when you get through... And also help you keep the stiffness of the plexi when you work on it!

 

lol i guess ull beat my record in hole drilling
I had 4mm holes so i had less of them

make sure u get template thats big enough - preferably that covers entire surface. Dont even think drilling holes without template. And make sure u fixaate that template real tight...

 

That was why I was concerned about how thick the plexi was! My 3 G5s were mishandled and all suffered bends and popped screws. One of the G5s was/is brand new from Apple and got banged in the delivery truck! Gorgeous case but not nearly as sturdy as one would expect for the price. I tested some 3/16 in plexi for replacement legs and it worked. If the case is show pieced and handled carefully I think the plexi will be alright. I love this mod already
John

 

Yeah, i guess you could say that ^^;... i tried to simulate the feet to as close as possible with the design on the experiment...just good luck to us all on the actual

 

this mod warrants my vote for mod of the month because of the way you use standard house things and make your own cut disks.... very awesome.

 

Your neighbours must love you!
I don't know what is happening with you and those cutting dissks though... Maybe you are cutting the wrong way?
I noticed that i had a much smoother ride going through plexi when i payed attention to which way i was cutting. Picture:

Maybe it makes no difference, but it worked for me. I only broke 1 blade so far, and i did a fair bit of cutting on my HDD brackets

I'm definately going to try your inventive modding ideas. Didn't you have trouble keeping the bottlecap round though?
The ironing trick might be perfect for me, it gives me a whole batch of new ideas. Possible a HDD bracket 3.0 *sigh*.

Lol, if we weren't in different countries, i'd think we have the same girlfriend

 

I'm running on your figure's "good" direction...i think the main reason why i always snap a disc is when my hands/arms get tired and i tilt the dremel forward accidentally

good thing this new improvised disc is flexible, thin, and doesn't snap hehe

 

1a. ok. I would have built a wooden rig or something (I'm not very good at making things easy for my self <=\), but your method is much less hassle, I like it!
1b. cool. I really admire that you where able to get the plexi bent to specification! I don't really know how hard/easy that was, but I know from my few experiments with bending sheet metal that it's not easy to get it exact w/o knowing something about sheet metal bending. *impressed*

2. Hehe, not really what I was asking about, but very interesting info non the less. =) What I was wondering (if not in a clear way) was, did you bend both the front and the back handle/foot at the same time, alternating between them until you had a _rounded_ 90° bend, or did you first bend one of them and then the other? Seems to me that the latter method would be difficult, so I'm guessing you used the first method.

 

..thanks for the confidence... AND for all you guys reading and the nice comments

 

1a. & 1b. Thanks. Something that i learned in this quest is you have to have a bonding with the material you'll be using ..

2. ahhh.. i see what you mean now heh, sorry about that ^_^;.... on the first try (the one you've seen on the pic) i actually bent the rear first for a few angles(straight) so it be lesser effort for the front to bend..then the front and i go all the way ...then finishing back the rear

 

OMG i am such a fool! I put the picture backwards!

I have all the resudu lying on top of the plate, that means i use the method labelled "bad" in my drawing. It is pretty counter-intuitive, that's why i messed it up

The "bad" method works better for two reasons.
First, to be able to cut, you want the wheel to have a lot of friction towards the plexi. It only makes sense if the wheel is moving TOWARDS the material, instead of away from it.
Secondly, and this helps a LOT for saving on the amount of disks you need for a project, the cutting disk doesn't snag into the plexi as much. Even better, if it DOES snag, it pushes the material away from the wheel, thuss ending the snag before it happened. Rotating the "good" way, you cause some pretty heavy snags, since the plexit is pulled into the wheel at each snag.

Even if that made sense to you, it still doesn't matter ofcourse, since you already solved this problem with that awesome-o bottlecap.

 

Yeah... i think i got a good sense of your style ... i'll try that when i'm going to cut for the inner parts of the case

 

You got my vote for mod of the month. Good job! Basically because you saved my life/mod with your plexi bending idea . I really want to see this mod done and how a clear Mac Pro would look.

 

[OT]
1a. & 1b. Cool.. I think I'll try having a beer (well, cider actually, since I'm a sissy and don't drink beer) with my modding material later ^_^
[/OT]

2. np. ^_^ ok, I see.. I would have thought the tension between the back and the front handle becoming too great to be able to get nice bends. Interesting.

 

I might be completely off. Like you, i'm an utter newb at using the . I remember breaking my first wheel pretty fast and thinking to myself: this is gunna be expensive!

Ah well, it seems your solution got you nominated, so i guess yours is better
Good luck, and keep modding!