Scratch Build – In Progress Datsuzoku: An Update!!! August 26, 2016

Joinery Begins

Thanks for all the comments.

I had some time in the shop recently so I finally got started on the woodworking and joinery of the project.

I played around with using all sorts of wood and veneer combinations for the case but in the end (at least for now) I've decided that the entire wood portion of the case will be curly maple which looks like this:


First step was to cut it to size. Right now I am working on the front and the back frames:


For the joinery I am using two different saws. For the cross cutting, I am using a crosscut filed Japanese style saw:


And for the rip cutting I am using a Western style dovetail saw:


The joint itself is a mitered dovetail that I adapted from an article in Fine Woodworking magazine. For this type of joint, especially since I haven't done dovetails before, layout is key:


And starting with the hardest cut first:


One more cross cut:


The piece ready for rip cutting:


Two cuts later:



This particular piece was the top rail and apparently I forgot to take pictures of the vertical piece but it is basically the same thing with some chiseling to get the waste out. Here is the joint coming together:


Its not perfect but its a good start. Here are both top joints done:


And a little while later, all 4 top joints were done. The bottoms will be a little different so I did not do those yet:



That's it for now, thanks for reading.

 

Looking good so far. I do love a good woody, going to be following this build. nice work dude. + rep

 

Got wood? I have now. Nice job, it's a very elegant design.

 

Personally i think that was a darn good join for the complex nature of it. well done!

 

Very very nice start, sweet joins .

 

An okay joint for you is an amazing one by almost anyone's standards, man. Great work once again.

 

wow, i'm really glad i decided to log in for the first time in like 3 or 4 years. your previous builds were inspiring, i cant wait to see how much your skills have improved (even though they were already WAY above my level back then)

 

New Tools, Sponsors, and Progress 5/8/2011

Thanks for the comments everyone. I finally had more time to work on the case this weekend and I wanted to share the progress, as meager as it is.

First off, Thanks to Richard and my new sponsor, ASUS for providing me with some hardware for this case:


Luckily the Motherboard's color scheme goes along with I have designed:


And a very pretty cooler on the GTX560:


Thanks again ASUS!

And now for a little more gloating. The one good thing I have found about being out of college and having a job is you can afford bigger tools. I have been saving

I have had this for about 6 months at least. It is indispensable for so many things.


This is a new edition to my shop as of last month. Mostly my last one died so might as well upgrade right?


On to the building. The part that I am working on now is highlighted in the render below. The arrows show the grain direction. Essentially I want the case to be as cohesive as possible and without too many crazy grain direction changes.


To cut such a small piece safely I made an auxiliary fence for my miter gauge:


And piece put in place:


All together:


Where the two parts of the case that move, join, there will be a spline where the one side rides along. Where the pencil line is on the vertical peice is where the spline will go:


For the spline I have decided to use Wenge and some copper pins to hold it in place. Making little pieces like this is easy on the bandsaw:


Pieces cut. I will clean them up later:


This is where they will go. It will be a nice contrast:


And finally, Its time to glue up the little pieces. These need to be done before the next phase of joinery can proceed.




I cleaned up this joint a bit. Its looking better.


Thanks for watching. I hope to get back into the shop this week.

Thanks again to Silverstone and Asus also

 

They look complex joins & they are done perfect .

 

Lucky man. LOL. Skill looks outstanding! mod on!

 

Finishing the Dovetails

I had some time to work on the case recently and I made some good headway. I'm pretty sure this is the hardest part of the case so I was anxious to get it over with. Anyway, here goes.


Today, I needed to get the dovetail joints done for the bottom of the cases:



And the tools for the job; mostly marking knives and gauges:


Layout completed. It is the same as for the top dovetails but mirrored to both sides:



First cuts done with the dovetail saw:


Cutting out the waste with the bandsaw:



Trimming the workpiece with a dovetail chisel:


This is what the piece looks like after cutting the tails and cutting the miter. In hindsight I should have waited to cut the miter until after I layed out the dovetails on the corresponding piece but oh well.


Apparently I got a little caught up with what I was doing because I forgot to take pictures after this but here is the joint. Still needs some clean-up work:


And a few hours later they are all done:



Well that's all for now. The next step is to make this look a bit more like a computer case

 

great woodworking here !

 

If I remember from school that's a dovetail joint. Nice work so far mate then you get a house and tenon joint. damn feeling old here last time I did anything like this was in 77

 

You make everything look so easy...

 

I'm not dead

This log has been neglected for far too long and after returning from the Maker Faire last night where Yuugou is being exhibited at the ASUS booth along with cases from Darth Beavis and Bill Owen, I am newly inspired to get this thing on the road.

I have been working on it off and on over the last few months (er almost a year now) and got some good progress done. I'm working on it all day on my days off this week though. Anyway, here we go.

I thought long and hard about how to join the front and back parts of the main frame to the cross piece but in the end I decided to cheat a bit and just use some biscuits:


Basically it is a piece of compressed wood that expands a bit when glue is applied. You use a special biscuit cutter which cuts a slot in the adjoining pieces:



I wont glue these up for a while. Next is the side door panels. Another tricky joint. This time I decided to go for a half lap which is extremely strong and very easy to make:

First, I mock up the doors with some scraps to see how the proportions are looking:


The pieces to be joined:


There are many ways to do this but I use a tennoning jig on my tablesaw:


Part one is done, I'll cut out the waste later. I use the same technique on the adjoining piece and slowly take off more material until its a perfect fit.


The finished joint:


Checking how it fits in the case:


And more mockup:


Im not sure how the doors are going to work. Either the whole thing will slide up or they might just pop off. We shall see. Until next time, thanks for reading!

 

Hooorrray he's back

 

Well, hell has frozen over. So glad to see you back!

 

Awesome. It was Sangaku that drew me onto bit in the first place. Can't wait to see this unfold.

 

+1 on what Mankz and Kayin said. I'm sure whatever you have planned for the door mounting will be awesome.

Short of a catastrophic failure, I bet your old saw could be repaired. In most cases it's either sawdust gumming up the bearing oil, or aged motor brushes.

 

Doors and mockups

I'm back with some more progress of the case. The next thing I needed to do was work on the doors.

First thing is to cut the pieces to fit:




Cut and mocked up:


The joinery will be simple but effective dowel joints done with a jig, a drill bit and a clamp:




Marking this correctly is very important:


Getting ready to drill:


Dowels installed to mock up the doors:



Its starting to look like a case:



Next, I need to route a groove in the front and rear assemblies for the aluminum front and rear panels to slide into. It will start directly to the left of the top piece:


And done:


Thats its for now. Im ordering the aluminum shortly and working some more on the doors. Thanks for reading!