Wooden Case : Pretty pics! (1 Aug 2004)

Hey

Never mind first project, first post on here!

I've been loitering around bit-tech for a while now, first drawn here by G-nome's ORAC. I was impressed then, and ofcourse had to say, hey .. I can do something like that..!

It began when i found a piece of perspex at work, it was part of a shelving unit, but had been left to go dusty in a corner.. I took one look and knew it had potential, so it was aquired and hence remained in my living room for many many months ...



I had planned to modify my case at the time, and just have clear sides and top, but since the inside of the case didn't look so pretty I didn't bother..

Time flew by, and I got myself a Chieftec, and as more time flew by, i started to regret buying the chieftec. It was nice and big, but never did anything for me, and was always referred to as the "radiator" by people. woo.

However, i also like things made from wood. If they're finished nicely they look reallly sweet So, it was decided to make a computer case out of wood, but as a funky twist, use the perspex sheet in there somewhere too.



This is my artists impression of the case, I never managed to figure out how Sketchup worked.. so i broke out the pencil crayons yes, i do realise it's a super magic computer, thats' all the wrong way round .. but u get the idea!

I decided to go for a pretty standard looking case design, but with a sloping front panel. This hopefully shouldn't be too tasking for my (very) limited woodworking skills.

What the image doesn't show is that the side panels would be made from the wood and perspex sandwiched together, and with a few lights inside, should hopefully give the case an overall glow around the edge.

It's the start of easter now for me, so i'm going to give it a go and get started on this. Hopefully I'll manage to get it done sometime soon! But as we all know, lots of annoying things (uni, work, n stuff) have a habit of getting in the way.

Anywhoo, that's my project intro, hopefully the rest of this might turn into something worthy of reading

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Edit 16/05/04: Changed image server, all pic links updated.

 

looks similar to pilouxs dark crystal case
good luck i love wooden cases

 

A super magic computer, thats' all the wrong way round? Where?

 

for some reason the idea of flipping the image around just didn't occur to me .. *shrug*

 

Doodles

I started scrawling some quick drawings of what i wanted, dimensions and stuff. Originally I wanted it to be quite a compact case, but after fiddling around with the bits n whatnot, i just couldn't find a "nice" place for the PSU to go..


Trying to arrange the bits

After a bit of trying i came up with this:



That would be a door made from the perspex to cover up the CD's n whatnot. Not sure if I'd cover the perspex in something, semi silvered would be kinky, but i've heard it costs money

I've got some ply, not the greatest stuff in the world, but should look nice enough once i've sanded /varnished/sanded/varnished/sanded...

Will post my adventures with the wood later

 

Looks similar to another wood case ive seen in these forums. But go at it as it looks promising.

 

Aye, it's a lot like the beginnings of pilouxs dark crystal project.. But hopefully should stand out in it's own right soon..

I cant' remember if i'd seen his thread before designing mine, so .. I dunno!

 

It looks like the case from the person doing the HL2 case. Interesting ideas though...

 

He said that it looks a bit like piloux's dark crystal Looks interesting... and different enough from dark crystal to be original I'll be following this

 

Woo, cutting stuff

I started cutting stuff today, not that exciting really..

That's me measuring up. See, I told u it was exciting!


And in amongst the pile of wood are the two sides for the case.

I now noted that the jigsaw has a funky setting on the side, it adjusts the angle at which the blade enters the material. So I happily turned it to the setting for "wood" and zazzed away..

Yup, altho the jigsaw cut the wood in no time, it had made a horrible mess of the edges. (as you might be able to see in the pic). The blade jus ripped thru the wood, so as a note for future, for good wood cuts, use the "metal" setting!

Hopefully, as i was planning on sanding the edges curved it wouldn't show up..

So I sanded the edges a bit curved, and then thought hey, , lets try the parts inside, have a look what it'll look like...


Damn.

As u can see, I'd made the window in the wrong side of the case. (aka the super magical reversed case...) My woodworking skills never cease to amaze. And as I'd already started sanding the edges of the wood, I couldn't just swap the pieces round...



So, we now have two windows! since one will most likely have the glamourous picture of a motherboard tray, I've got to think of something to put in that side of the case. I was thinking either the silvered sticky stuff you can get for car windows (altho i've no idea on cost / supply) , just spraying the back of the window, or something else that'd be funky .. tin foil mabbe..

After this fun, I set about the perspex sides. Cause this stuff was 8mm thick, and i'd no idea if it was actually perspex or not (i've just been blind assuming it was) I was a bit dubious of jigsawing it, and what the finish would be like once i'd done, but none the less..


It worked beautifully! (ish - i can clean up the edges with lotsa filing)



Here's a pic to test using an old case for support. I quite like it so far, just got a hulluva lotta sanding to do now..

 

in order to spice up the window on the 'wrong' side, how about mounting the hard drives to the back of the motherboard tray? or even mounted on a wooden panel there?

you could easily space out the sides if you need more room.

 

Nice!! I like it.

Ya know, the TinFoil idea isn't a bad one. I bet if you took some Heavy Duty TinFoil (thicker) and crumpled it all up, then unfolded it and put it like 1"-2" away from the inside of the Plexi. Then mount a CCFL on the Top/Bottom (out of sight of the window) the effect that you would get from the light hitting the previously-crumpled TinFoil would be pretty slick, IMHO. Inexpensive thing to try, at least...

 

Yeah, I like the idea of the tin foil, only I'm trying to keep the case as "normal" sized as possible, so a 1"-2" gap might not fit in.

On a similar note, anyone know how thick that EL tape is? I'm trying to figure out how to get a uniform glow around the edge of the case, but there will be fixing brackets and whatnot along the inside edge (which is where i'd like to put a ccfl..)

I'm thinking would it look obvious if i sandwiched it between the wood and acrylic? or would a groove be needed to seat it properly..

 

I exaggerated, CCFL's are what, maybe 1/2" at most??

 

I guess it's quite do-able then.. might have a play once I get the ccfls..

However, look what I found outside..

 

LOL, what did that come off of!!

I just picture a Mains-Box outside now, with no warning logo...

 

Hehehe, I found it in my garden, has been there yonks and i've just remembered it.

It's from back in the days when i was a rebellious yoof.. I seem to recall I have quite a collection of signs off various stuffs .. oh what a naughty little tyke i was!

 

Sanding and Staining

Started finishing the edges of the acrylic today..


So far I've done the right hand one, the filing is super tiring tho


I also found this that my dad had made .. I like the colours on it so i'm going to try and recreate those on my case..


It was done using Colron Wood Dye, in "Indian Rosewood". So I grabbed an old t-shirt and away I went..


Before ...


And after, as u can see, it looks nothing like the colour I wanted! hehe, oh well, it still looks nice, and it completely changes colour when u bring it inside.

I've also started cutting the pieces for the top and bottom. Going to be busy staining/varnishing all of this !

 

You have to remember that that tool has probably been setting around quite awhile and will have gained a patina. Even though you may know exactly what stains were used on the tool, you wouldn't be able to recreate the colors exactly due to aging (it's usually darker due to aging and use). But remember, if you use the same stains as were used on the tool, your colors will eventually darken to match the tool color. It just may take a couple of years to get there.

 

Varnishing

just a picture to show how the varnishing is going. I think this is the third coat so far, one more and it should be boootifully smooov..



The colour varies a hell of a lot depending on how it's lit, the differences between natural light / flash and normal (tungsten?) bulbs give lotsa different colours. It's also quite hard to photograph for some reason.