Fan: BIG metal hub, 5 blades, "Delta".... Yeah, I don't think there will be any taming of that devil. If it could be waterproofed, I bet it would make a nice boat motor. I really like how it looks with the dark / light contrast right now. Also, Fry's dog.
Thanks. I appreciate that coming from another "woody" That's why I always make sure my bong isn't in frame because you never miss anything. I've had that FFB Delta for over ten years threatening to use it now and then. Apparently just the threat works. I'm using the Sunon MagLev for now but if that doesn't work... A computer harvested from a single block of wood. In the 1930's. OK. I'm onboard. Too much indeed. I call it Cartoon Deco. ************************************************** ****** So it's 4AM and I'm working on this project. I'm feeling chatty so I thought I would go on about some of the design ideas in this project, especially the optical illusions. My first job was working at Walt Disney World the summers of 1972 and 73. The first two summers they were open. Part of the extensive orientation was to equip us with fun facts and trivia to help amuse the guests. The leaves on the Swiss Family Treehouse were all hand painted and how many of them there were. I once knew. One area discussed was the role of the Disney Imagineers, their term for engineers/designers who were responsible for the optical illusions used at the park. The best example was the size of windows and outdoor fixtures on the second floor of buildings on Main Street. They were approx. 2/3 scale so as to give the illusion of greater height. Why build tall buildings when you can just make them look taller? The Imagineers sparked my interest in engineering and motivated me to pursue that occupation. I have a lot of fun doing this modding thing and it's primarily due to the illusions I get to design and manipulate. The above post is a prime example of this. It may seem mundane but I consider it clever enough to inflict it on to you. The crack line (as I call it) is the where the exterior case separates from the internal chassis. It's how you open it up. It can be the most challenging design task in a scratch build. It is much easier to build something clever if you don't have to open it up and actually work on internal components. My philosophy is to make it possible but not necessarily easy to access the components. Once the crack line is established then the job becomes hiding it. Tight tolerances of course but there are other things. For this project, the decorative element running across the top and down the front terminates at the crack line around the base. Instead of trying (and probably failing) to make all those tolerances work I have decided to plunge the element below the visible plane. The resulting illusion is the element ends perfectly at "street level" when in fact it is a bit of a mess just below the surface. Even just a slightly imperfect junction here would point out the crack line that runs through it. Another illusion is a classic that all women know and some use. Vertical lines are slimming. I post this following render to illustrate that the center box is, in my opinion, a fatty. What I have done is split the box and added vertical lines to hopefully give the illusion of a tight, slender middle box. Another more complex illusion that harkens back to the Imagineers is the widths of the ledges. Starting from the very top split section, each succeeding ledge is smaller than the one above it. The top "ledge" is 3/4" wide while the bottom ledge just above the base is 3/8". This gives the illusion of a much larger size and depth. The wife saw the project yesterday and commented that it looked taller than she imagined. It's really not that tall. It only looks it. The final illusion is the easy one. Black makes things disappear. That is why the center section is painted black so that spaces between the aluminum trim appear to reach deep into the case and ventilate it. For the record, the black paint also shims the aluminum trim. I control it by adding layers of paint to achieve a snug fit. That's it for this edition of "How Clever Am I?" See you next time.
Chatty is good. Bong, Disney: There's a Goofy Suit joke in there somewhere, but I haven't had breakfast yet.
The case looks great. I thought that the issue with small fans is that they are a lot less effective at the lower speeds. Hence small fans usually being fairly high rpm (and dBA). If you slow the delta fan down to acceptable audible levels will it still be move enough air?
Thanks! The Delta will get the job done and protect the equipment. That's job one. Noise level is something you fine tune nearer to the end of testing. That is why I designed the fan mount to be friction fit and thus (Ooo fancy word) fairly easy to swap out different fans in spite of the cramped space. I have an inline rheostat that I also use for testing. It's all a big unknown but that's kinda why this is fun. Just as an aside, I consider my projects to be working prototypes. As first (and only) prototypes, none of them are perfect or ever will be. These aren't consumer ready products which is one of the reasons I don't sell them. ************************************************** ***
I'm currently designing/building a video card backplate to help hide the PCIe cable Raw Sapele sanded to 220 and a teak oil finish test piece. This post brought to you by a new sponsor:
Good assumption. The M.2 slot is on the back of the motherboard so I decided to store it in it's bracket until I got to it. I was more concerned about losing the tiny screw than anything. Some photography testing....
Outside= ArtDeco Insides= Brutalist -and I like it. A great source for those screws is old laptops. Gut a few of those and never worry about tiny screw loss again.
Hi, maybe not being mothertongue I don't grasp completely the meaning of the word "monolithic"; to me it doesn't seem appropriate to define this build. It's the opposite of monolithic! It has lots of overlapping planes and angles and shadows that break his "monolithicness" But maybe... paaa paaa paaaaaaaaaa PAPAAAAA! dumdumdumdumdumdumdumdumdum Have I said that I like it?
Thanks. I get the PS2 comment often with my projects in spite of the fact that I have never owned (or played) a console. PC gaming rules. Thanks. Younger people know it as Bioshock style. Us old farts call it Art Deco. I'm happy that Bioshock was so successful and introduced the style to a whole new audience. My original design was for a high end ITX gaming rig centered around an AMD Nano card but apparently mine got lost in the mail. It was a pure Brutalist design. It can still be done in case certain people come to their senses. Long story short, I made lemonade. I wouldn't describe it as monolithic. Bioshock, Gotham, Dick Tracy cartoon deco, stuff like that might work better. If it doesn't work out as a computer I'll make it into a lamp. Thanks for commenting. *************************************************** Final photos for the interior structure. I'm doing this in two parts because I consider this two separate projects. My next project could easily be just another cover for this.... Thanks for looking and stay tuned for Part Two.
Spoiler It looks great. I'm wondering - if you did go for a different cover, what might you do with it? The large, flat sides make me think of the exciting possibilities for inlays, but that may also be related to the fact I just watched a series of videos on french marquetry. Off Topic ahoy: A monolith is a thing made from a single piece of stone (mono = one, lith = stone). Compare with a Megalith, which is a large thing made of stone. Here's an ancient monolith: Spoiler But there's no reason they can't be complex - I imagine Mount Rushmore probably counts as a monolith, if it was carved. In the book/film 2001: a space odyssey, several monoliths appear throughout earth's history, causing weird effects. They look like this: Spoiler As a result, people have a tendency to say "monolithic" when they mean "black, shiny and tall". In fairness though, 'monolithic' had also been used to mean "big and powerful", "Impressive" and so on for many years before 2001 as well. Given that Skip's creation is made largely of wood (well the outside anyway) and from multiple parts, I guess it's less a monolith and more a... polyxyl i guess? doesn't really roll off the tongue! Sorry. Edit: I spoilered my images to avoid massive repetition of SS's post, but it doesn't seem to have worked. Apologies. I'll fix it if someone can tell me how?
Sapele wood with a teak oil finish and polished T6511 aluminum trim. Up skirt shot List of donated equipment: A huge thanks to my friends at: Thanks for looking. It has been great gun!