You shouldn't need a support for the psu if the frame is built right. You could simply bolt it to the back panel. You will have issues with the weight. My Hypnotoad ended up being around 40 pounds, and It's a really simple and small system compared to yours. The center wall will help you with shear, but the edges will need beefing up if you plan to lift this thing. Part of why I recommended the frame rails is that because it stops the squeezing/warping of the side panels when you lift. The other reason is you have access to a laser cutter. Take advantage of that. Curves and fancy edges are eye catching and can improve your grade. They are a lot easier to do in autocad than with a hacksaw too.
hmm... I'll talk to my design teacher next time I'm in lesson (still ill unfortunately) I would love to be able to cut out things like ALU with the laser, but we don't have a high enough wattage unit, we can only etch into things like marble and ALU. Also, as the designs are currently, the side panels is 455mm deep * 605mm high, and the cutting bed on the laser is 457mm*812mm But it looks like I'm going to be off tomorrow, so I'll get SketchUp-ing on some even MORE revised designs (ones i was working on had a few errors anyway), and I'll post them up toward the end of the week
I am, i am, i saw the error of my ways when i had a daydream of the case just falling in on itself! So I'm going to try and go with the frames, but without compromising anything about the build. Maybe attaching the frames to the side panels with glue? (Btw, the side panels in the new-ish designs were designed to fit snugly into a space made by the front, rear, top and bottom panels and can then be bolted into place, so I'm having to shrink down all these panels as well)
That was the idea. Plexiglas fusing glue rules. You can easily build the main body into a single solid part. -You just have to think out how things mount and fit into the case carefully. If you haven't already, check out the Hypnotoad log in my sig. I retrofitted the case into a single plastic unibody. You could probably get away with something more delicate looking with 10mm. You shouldn't need a lot of extra bracing thanks to the divider panels in your design. Edit: Re-framing is on page 4. You shouldn't need any of the 1/2" braces I made. The inside divider walls should hold your setup square and keep the seams from cracking.
I just checked out the Hypnotoad log and i like a lot! I WAS going to buy extruded plexi before I saw your problems with melting and re-fusing, I was only going to buy it because of it's less variable thickness, and thus not having to run the laser again or overcompensate for the variation in cast acryl. Another thing I take away from reading that log is that beveled edges on acryl look amazing, so I'm appyling this to the frame design as i speak (or type, but i think speak flows better) And I have made the side reinforcing/bracing panels look very good in design I think, should look very nice when made up
Ok, while designing, i was looking at screws for fixing the side panels and bracing panels on, and i have narrowed it down to two options, either a countersunk bolt, or a socket button bolt I would prefer to do the countersunk option, Cheaps, have you got anything to say about making countersinks in acryl before i go ahead and include them in the designs? Or would it be better to have a socket button bolt? Both are the same thickness and length (6mm wide, 30mm long [i need to get through two 10mm panels before getting to the tapped cube, so that's 10mm of the bolt inside the tapped alu in the beefed up cube, holding the panels steady])
I'm confused at this point. Are you still using the cubes? What size screws are you using? (M4 or M5 at least?) A countersink with flathead machine screws will work good. You can get the screws perfectly flush with the surface and will look much cleaner.
Yes, but only using them on the side panels M6 That was the main reason I had for wanting to use them. Are there any hidden pitfalls to making countersinks in acrylic though? Should be getting the designs up either tomorrow or the day after (going to my grandfather's funeral tomorrow, so may not have time) Almost done with the designs, just need to draw in the drive bays and add a few finishing touches Anyone know a quick way to draw a similar design to AC Ryan's Baycolumn510's? Names for the project are still welcomed as well! Had an idea though, what about a waterfall-style effect on the right side of the drive bays? the space wasn't being used for anything except the lighting faders, which can be easily moved to the top panel
Ok, designing update: Drawn the baycolumns, so don't worry about finding how to draw them effectively And In this new design with the re-jigged arrangement of hardware, there's only 50mm of vertical room for the res under the motherboard, and it would be smaller than it was anyway, so I'm scrapping the idea and using that waterfall effect idea with a reservoir at the bottom of it. The effect will be created by having a coolant input at the top , pushing water into a 1-2mm gap which stretches the height of the system or whatever you wanna call it, forcing it to spread out over the space, then there will be a reservoir at the bottom with the out nozzle
Pics! For countersinks go slow. It's easy to cut too much out. If you use a drill press use a little water and don't clamp the work down.
There could be serious crackage with too tight clamps. Lock it down and have chippage. Been there. john
I am sorry for you loss Yourmum366!! Looking forward to seeing you new design, and in the mean time here's another name suggestion: perPLEX / perPLEXity .....seems like this case is (/was) something of a perplexity at this stage .....if you include some fancy 'invisible' cable routing, optical illusion or other cool design elements that make ppl perplexed, it will be more suitable.
Ok, finished the designs, uploading the print screens to Photobucket now...(it's stuck on the tenth one, NNNNOOOOOOOO) The funeral was really weird, actually, no, lemme rephrase that, I was weird, i walked in there keeping myself together more than my South-African uncle (who used to be a professional rugby player), and walked out not so much crying, but leaking. My facial expression was completely neutral, but the tears were there i assure you. About Perplexity... good name, but not for this I don't think, the structure isn't really that confusing Maybe something about the waterfall feature? I would use Niagara, but I swear I've seen that used somewhere else
NO clamps for drill press countersinking. The sink bit automatically centers in the hole, (well, if you hit the hole.) If you use the name 'Viagra', the case will need to be taller. -and the quest to find milk colored coolant begins again...
Oh dear god, all this talk of hitting holes, viagra, creamy coolant... It makes me want to ACTUALLY use the name! [deep breathing] no, maintain rationality...[/deep breathing]
