Scratch Build – In Progress Lean and Green - 15-12-14 - as complete as it's going to get

Just to say I've not been getting lazy been getting my monies worth from sleeping dogs.

I'm getting back onto the project right now.

 

Drilled & heat pressed brass thread inserts into the rear IO pieces with the soldering iron, the inserts are 4.3mm diameter by 5mm long, I drilled 4mm holes & placed a marker on the drill bit so I knew where to stop so it wouldn't go all the way through the 7mm thickness, took it to about 1mm short of drilling straight through so they are nice & neat.








Time to move forward with this switch.
I find clamping pieces to what I'm fixing to to be most accurate way when you didn't cover that part of the design with intentions of just bunging it all together when the time is right but make sure it's square before going forward.
Bottom, the blue tape is a quick rough guide for the 10mm panels so I just drill in the middle, did 1 on both ends.


Top fixing, same as bottom.


Tapping.


Woo hoo, the marble & switch case is loose fit for now & I needed to sand nearly 3mm off the bottom of the 10mm piece which supports the switch in the correct place, took a while to get this done right.




Here I drilled & tapped & countersunk the rear 2mm piece into the 10mm support, the gap you see is the resistance the switch has got from the spring & rod inside, the support piece needs fixing to the bottom panel but I was far too tired to carry on.








Doesn't look like much done but I had no plans for doing the fixing together so had to be ultra careful to not botch any of the work gone into it so far, more soon.

 

I have that "kid in a candy store" feeling seeing this come together!! nice progress mate, and thats a clever little thing, the brass inserts.. they give a really clean neat finish, just what we would have expected

And I had completely missed your knobs update ( i will refrain from commenting ) they really came out nice!!

now... when is the spindicator getting a test fit so we can see its awesome-sauce through that marble???? *drooling on keyboard*

 

You have done plenty. Big-ass buttons will be making a comeback.

 

How have I missed the project? Awesome work dude!

 

So much awesome! Those brass inserts look nice and tidy. Well done

As I was scrolling down I was so hoping for a lit up button, guess I'll have to wait

 

That is going to be the Power Button to end all Power Buttons.

Truly amazing, I can't wait to see it in it's full Power On Glory!!!

 

Its still amazing now for the spindicator

 

looking sweet man, definitely some impressive work so far!

 

Looks awsome

 

Not checked here for a while but man nice progress.Its getting better every time top notch dude keep on going.

 

Thanks Squigly, decided I need to stop thinking about getting this done for sometime in November & just roll with it until it's done, think an ETA date was starting to spoil the enjoyment of the project so screw ETA's in modding but "if" I manage that would be sweet.
I'll get right onto the spindicator today & I'm 100% sure of that too.

Thanks cheaps

A scroll saw cutathon, pretty boring as a stack of flat panels I think so easily missed, it's progressed a good bit now though & heading into construction phase, thanks Kyle.

They work really nice the bass inserts & sink in nicely when holding a soldering iron against them, really glad I managed to drill just short of going straight through, everyone including me wants to see the lights behind the marble in action, video might be pretty crappy though with my kodak first camera.

Thanks Ron

Thanks Sarakon, yes the spindicator must be done now.

Thanks sixfootsideburns

Thanks Phyonics

Thank you Paslis I'm feeling good again now so time to get back at it.


Got a decision to make though, OK floor standing drill press or Canon EOS 550D so I can do better pictures but mostly so I can shoot nice video too with the nice lenses I've got now, I'll think about it over the next week or so, the drill press has laser guide, easy speed change & will allow drilling with big depth with it being a floor standing one & it has a good drill depth thing so I could take out the guess work on how deep I drill, will be far less prone to overheating too, would definitely be a good upgrade to the workshop compared to the rickety one I use.

Really want to make a start on the spindicator now, been getting my energy & focus levels right, have to have both working nice or I thumble about in a semi useless way, was doing fine on the sleep for a change but running on empty fuel for too long so was just wasting time in the workshop mostly which was just frustrating, example I was in the workshop for about 6 hours & all I got done was fix 2 bolts on both ends of the HTPC 10mm side panels, both sides in place, there was a fair bit of making it so it's perfectly square though, 6 hours for that.

Spindicator is up next though.

 

Can I ask what you were considering for the floor standing drill press? For what it's worth, your pictures look fine to me...

Would you rather spend 6 hours fixing 2 bolts on both ends, or 2 hours going too fast and screwing things up?

 

I went for the drill press & also bought a cross vice for it so will be able to line things up nice & easy now & also a bunch of none slip bench blocks for panel face sanding tasks.

The floor standing metal work drill press will allow a lot more things to be drilled with it unlike the one I use which is very limited to the height of things I can drill, especially when using a vice, it also has a good few perks on top of the current one like quick easy speed change & laser cross guide & a good drill depth setting.

The camera is mostly for video but it is also better on picture & low light quality & nearly double the resolution but I'll upgrade to that closer to the end of the project, to really show how this looks I'll need video to show some effects properly.

There is a hack to do video recording on the 1000D but it requires having it connected to a computer while doing it, big hassle.

And yeah, I'd rather spend a frustrating 6 hours than 2 & screw up, still frustrating though & worth whining about lol.

 

I stopped myself from buying a drill press a little while ago... I was close, but I ended up not buying one, instead spent the money on hand planes and hand saws

A newer cellphone would probably adequate for now anyway

 

I put it off quite a load of times for this one but I have a good use for one with a good height now, want one that can drill accurately too, hopefully it will be much better than my current one.
I still don't own a cellphone, when I'm AFK I like to be away from tech.

Photobucket is having tech difficulties of some sort at the moment so not been able to post for the past couple of days & it's a paid account. It's weird though because the pictures are still showing on here, I'll post the update straight after this one to see if it works so if it's only showing text then it'll have to wait.

 

If pictures aren't showing this will have to wait until they fix the problem, they aren't showing up on preview.

Guess an update is waaaaay overdue, tiny update due to a fat chunk of idling but an update, been having to rediscover improvising & patience with not following a script now so the stabilisers are off lol.

Had to countersink the steel washers for the HTPC side layer panels so they don't take up extra unwanted thickness like they were due to the wave detail panels being 1mm thick & ideally you need 2mm for a good countersink with m3 screws, had to place them in the vice by using a small file to guide 8 of them in place 1 at a time.




Fixed the 10mm HTPC sides to the base so is a little more together, the layer panels slide into place from the rear for easy maintenance, just remove the back panel & front fan which slots in place & slide the detail panels out which leaves room for hands to reach in & tweak things.




Here is the awesomely assembled spindicator done by reikmaharg2 for me, I'm pretty sure the project would be lacking that extra touch of awesome if this didn't happen so thanks mate appreciated, I also learnt the fist basic skill modders need when stepping up to electronics, soldering for keeping the wires numbered I prodded sharpie marker dots on them lol, either that or a lot of fun having to run them in sequence to find the right order after soldering which would make for messy wire work.


I wasn't 100% sure where the negative stems of the LED's should go on the assembly & just had a vague idea even though he explained to me lol, so used an AC Ryan molex pass through adapter with a wire crimped & soldered in place which I will run to the negative 12 to 1 wire for 0v, kier acknowledged that as being fine for the negative legs, so that's the main assembly waiting to be joined to the LED's.


So, made a start on the spindicator LED wire work & here showing the LED's plugged into place after I countersunk the exterior side so they don't bulge out at all & to make sure everything aligns correct, it does, or did after 2 of the holes needed drilling due to a super faint misalignment but got it done with minimal fuss.




My soldering used to be awesomely terrible, I found this surprisingly easy to do, an OK soldering iron with heat control & flux paste & helping hands really changed that pretty much instantly like magic, flux paste is magic for soldering.




And plugged back in place but I don't like what I did for the LED negative stem wire work on the LED end, soldering is fine but heck of a wire mess taking up valuable space for the 12 to 1 wire with the way I did that so I'll remove them & do those again while it's mounted in place to make it neater, I need heat shrink for it though before I fully solder everything together but I ordered some yesterday from phenoptix & it's been sent out so hopefully I'll get the switch & light complete this week with a video showing it in action but don't hold me to that.






Was thinking of mixing good inks or clothes dye with metal lacquer, the same stuff I brushed all over stealthlow, it has kept it all in very nice condition so felt like revisiting the idea to make it work.

 

Update on the ink idea, I added empty mixing bottles, syringes, main ink colours to make any colour & metal lacquer & looked at the price of just short of £40 & backed away from it thinking that's a bit of an expensive experiment really, I'd love to try it but not that much, that £40 could go towards a nice anodising job.

I do think the ink mixed with metal lacquer could work though but just don't know how well it would work without doing a couple of tests so the idea is there if anyone wants to give it a try but do it on scrap if you do just to be safe.

I also think maybe the metal lacquer might be usable as a clear primer for candy paint but not sure without testing, it does make a nice protective layer that is negligible on thickness yet offering good protection.

 

Nice! can't wait to see it in action with the marble. What colours are the LEDs? (forgive me if i missed the post)

 

Green

Got this coming today any moment now & will be looking at what I can mod on it.


I want to make an aluminium piece to replace the black plastic bit & possibly change the LED's to green, after doing those fan controller knobs I think I'll be able to do it no worries.