First visit to this log and It rocks! I must say I prefer the wooden top look as the plexi will scratch pretty easily and fingerprints will become the bane of your life Is there any way to include the vents into the bottom side of the case with ducting to CPU? (surely you don't wanna interrupt that beuoootiful wood curve ). The PSU should be fine venting to the back of the case if there's a little breathing room there. That front plexi wondow looks cool, is it going to include a simple LCD? Might be useful for MP3 playing or something with screen turned off. Anyway, just a few ideas and opinions, keep up the good work!
Kodiakstar, I like your idea with standoffs But on the designs, I actually prefer the black top. Now, there's nothing that says I can't use standoffs when I have a black plexi top either, but that would perhaps interfere with my plans of having a tinted window. But I might just scrap the window plans and go with the standoffs. We'll see. About the LCD, I've never actually connected an LCD, so I'm not sure if this is the project to start experimenting on... Perhaps a CPU duct is a good idea. Those are pretty cheap, so I'll look into it. As for other venting, I might try to mount the HDD rack raised from the bottom, which will free up some space under, where I can put one, or even two 80mm fans. Thanks for your interest and good suggestions! Keep them coming!
one thing you *could* do for cooling, might be more trouble then its worth because I dont know how you are planning on making your slope on the wood sides, but could do a cutout then add mesh (black maybe?) to the opening so It looks like you have speakers mounted there (although they would be "pointing" down, so might look kinda silly and then could have the wind tunnel effect going on in one side and out the other...
I think I will try to elevate the HDD a bit from the floor of the PC and have fans in the bottom. I don't want to mess with the curves. I bought the wood today, 4 meters of 48x21mm. Each curve will consist of five of these, with one side angled to 18 degrees, which equals a 90 degree curve: The curve will then be sanded to become completely round. I think I'll call this project "1970", because it reminds me of design from the 1970s.
Hi, Again, really nice project and idea. You are definatly the wood master. But I agree with one of the previous post that a plexi top isn't such a good idea. Because plexi is pretty soft and will scratch very easy. Have you tought about making the top out of glass? It will scratch too if you don't treat it well, but I reckon its alot more scratch resistant then plaxi. But it is much much much, and I mean Much harder to process. so it should be one right shape, and nothing fancy. I'm looking forward to seeing this taking form. Personally if it turns out nice and smooth, I would leave the 5 18° Degreed pieces of wood. Without sanding them in a smooth curve. It gives alot more charachter with the 5 pieces. but its your project just giging my honest opinion. Good luck, I'll be keeping my eye on this one. L
ok this really reminds me of early space invaders table top games, one idea which you could mimic is to use a dark glass for the top, and place a tft under it so you can see the screen throught the glass. [rant] you could also get a roller mouse (the big ball things which move like mice) fix it into the top of the table, and a laser projected keyboard thing (not evan sure if these are out yet)[/rant] i love the clean style of this, so i wouldent go to heavy on the leds, follow the 70's theme for the front panel and get a vfd. Check out some of the old bang-olufsen stuff for retro htpc inspiring ideas. this looks so clean and tasty you made me post
Lovah: Yeah, using regular glass might be an idea. I can get it pre-cut, and it's cheaper than plexi too. It's a bit heavier, though, and non-toughened glass might chip if someone for instance put a drinking glass hard onto the surface. My Multitech Interactive Leisure Station (table), which some of you might remember I built in 2003, has a plexi top which still not has many scratches, even though I use it for alot of stuff, and drag my laptop case across it every day. About leaving the five pieces without sanding, I'll look at it when I get that far. 72dpi, I like your ideas, but they sound a bit elaborate and expensive for this particular project. I'm trying to keep it clean on this one, and go easy on the gadgets... But thanks for your kind words
I started making the curves today: I used an electric planer to create the 18 degree angles on the boards: I cut the pieces to their exact lengths of 38.2cm with a miter saw: I numbered the pieces, and will be using the same number piece on each side when constructing the bow. The reason for this is that when planing the pieces, I probably didn't achieve an exact 18 degrees. The two pieces named 1 and the two pieces named 2 (and 3,4,5) both have the same angles, as they were made from parts of the wood close to each other. This ensures that the curve will be equal on both sides. Now here comes the interesting part. I have never tried anything like this before, so let's hope it works... I put the pieces next to each other on the table, angled sides facing straight sides. I then used masking tape where the pieces meet, and end up with this: I can now pick up the whole "sheet" of wood, and form the curve. I put glue in the gaps And ended up with this, which is currently curing in my basement.
Glass: Yeah, If you can get it pre-cut then that would be cool. But your right It would add alot of weight to the table. Especially if you take some thicker glass so it doesn't chip that easy. You could try with plexi at first (polycarbonate, perhaps). And if it scratches too much, you could try it with glass. Unsanded: Yeah, I think the effect would be very nice, but it leaves little error for mistakes in the building stage of the curve. So it might be alot harder then I thought. As for the work: Brilliant idea how your gluing them! I hope the turn out gorgeos! Its looking very promising. L
Just a suggestion if you have to redo the curve(not saying you do but if somthing happens) then i would due 2 things one only due to peices at a time and clamp them and 2 use pegs in between the boards dowels it will make the bond alot stonger.
Lovah: The glass will be fully changeable, as it will only be placed on top of the wooden top of the table. I think I'll start out with plexi, and if it gets really bad scratches, I can just buy a new one As for the unsanded effect, I think I have to sand the curve anyway, as I have to fill the small gaps that form some places with plastic wood. But it'll probably look just as cool when it's completely round. infered101: I might be able to get slightly better results by doing only two pieces at a time, but due to the planing work, there will be gaps no matter what. As I said earlier in the post, these will be filled. Not sure how I would clamp two angled pieces, though Pegs are a good idea, but it seems like veeery high precision work to get those to go in the right place when putting the angled pieces together.. However, I think the structural integrity of the case remains even without the pegs.. I won't try it, but based on my previous experience, I think I could stand on those curves without them breaking (when they cure that is). And if they were to break, it would not be in any of the glued joints...
If your worried about the sides the stregth when you nail the front on make sure you nail each board then it will be alot stronger
Small update: I removed the masking tape from the curves, and it actually looked even better than I had expected. Almost no gaps I sanded them with some 60 grit just to see the curve forming, and here's the result so far: I just wanted to see the size of it, so I put the base plate together with the sides:
For the "plexi" make sure you get pure extruded acrylic sheets. Acrylite and other blends are crap. It's eay to cut with a table saw (which I assume you're using to cut the wood) if you use an OBS/Plastic specific blade, but I do suggest wearing a filter mask or having a fan blowing because the resulting fumes can give you quite a headache. Acrylic is very scratch resistant and it would take some serious gouging for them to even become visible. Polycarbonate however is not scratch resistant.
