Case Mod - In Progress Battlestar Galactica Mod: Complete!

Thanks for your lead, however im very noob in machine nary so here is the question: I am looking for the machine that would alow me to cut alu and acrylic flame... would this machine do the job? http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47158

I want to cut flame and alu but still leave the frame, for example i want to cut a flame in the middle of the PC case side panel... would it fit ?

Sorry for bothering you with this noob quest

 

@Modfreak: Throat depth: 5-1/2'', so I would say: not a chance. The mill bit wont be able to reach far enough into the panel. =\ And even if it did, it would be _VERY_ hard to mill out curved lines nicely on a manual mill.
Do you have to cut the alu and the acrylic at the same time? If not, then a scroll saw with suitable blades would do the trick nicely I think. It might be possible to saw both alu and acrylic at the same time, but I'm worried that the blade might become too hot and the acrylic will start to melt. ...then again maybe not (too hot).

What do the scroll saw wizards have to say about this?

 

Uhmmm A scroll saw... What does it look like

 

*CHEAPSKATE joins thread hijack*
-hi
-@Modfreak - I've seen one of those mills before. They are tiny and not good for cutting big stuff. You are better off with a dremel + drill cutter bit.
-@Macros the Black - A scroll saw is good for up to 1/2" CAST plexi. For extruded plexi it is useless because it melts easy. Our boy Modfreak is in Vietnam, I'm not sure he can get cast plexi there.
*CHEAPSKATE leaves thread hijack*

 

Heck yeah! I was hoping to have the case done by the time season 4 rolled out, but that aint happening. lol So I will just enjoy the premiere and maybe I will be empowered by the gods of Kobol to finish this project!

@ Modfreak: scroll saw

 

HOLY CRAP AN UPDATE!!!!

Ok, it's been way too long since I last updated, and I apologize for that. Life, as they say, got in the way
and I was extremely hard-pressed to get myself into the garage to work on this project.
So enough with the excuses, let's get on with the goods shall we?

Last time I posted, I had just thrown the case together temporarily to get up to PDXLAN. None of the special
features of the case were funtional (blast doors, mini lcd's, landing bay), it was just a case with a bunch of crap
glued onto it lol.

Well, these last few weeks I have been silently working on the blast doors. And they have proven to be a lot more
difficult than I had originally anticipated. The basic idea was to have them roll up onto spools that are housed in a
removable module mounted in the drive cage, with the spools being connected to servos. Well, rolling them
up is not the problem. The servo motors are more than capable of reeling up the doors. Where I ran into a bit of
a snag is when the motors are reversed, and they attempt to push the doors back closed. Being as flexible as
the doors are, this was not to be an easy task, as they would just buckle at the first sign of friction, regardless of
the fact that they were contained in a set of tracks.

So I devised a plausible solution: add another spool and servo on the opposite end that will pull the door closed.
This is the main focus of my come-back post.

Now that I have given you more than enough back story, I can proceed with the pics!

Here is a shot of the blast door in its tracks. You can see I added a 1/16" aluminum flat bar support on the right side,
and some bracketry to hold the tracks in place along the drive cage.




Here is the bracket i made to hold the servo for the closing spool.


The bracket riveted to the vertical support bar, and case frame.


The servo mounted in the bracket.


And here is a shot of the closing spool mounted onto the servo.


It doesn't look like much, but trust me, you're looking at a month's worth of work here! Granted my modding time
has been severely cut down to nil, but I still think it was a lot of work! I will show more detailed shots of the
spool later, and how I devised the upper pivot point, which happens to also be the means of removing the spool.

Next update sometime this weekend! (I promise!)

Glad to be back, and I hope to keep trucking on this until its finished!

8)

 

you mad some cool looking blast doors
please give us a video of them closing and opening

 

DUDE! So glad your back! Was beginning to wonder where you got to.

Nice progress. Can't wait for this next update!

I praise you for your skill and patience.

 

Thanks. I still have a few things to do before I can record the door in action. I need to mount the limit switches and controller board, then wire it up. Hope to continue working on it this weekend, now that I'm on a roll!

Thanks man!

 

It's good to see you back at it! The door fix is brilliant. I never would have came up with that solution. (It costs more money, after all.)

 

WWWOOOWWW!!!

Well i just saw this today(lucky me,didnt have to wait for updates up until now) and i was realy out of words.
you went inside the details and forgot to get out, and the LCD panel is Amazing.
you made me think for a moment that the thing could fly in the end!!!
outstanding work and patience. but i did see one problem in your work...you cant leave anything simple do you?
you have to keep finish parts after thier already finished,and somehow it always looks better...this looks like they made it for the show...
WOW is the only thing left to say...and it's been said about a milion times through this theard.
just Amazing!!!and you definitely made my eyes
The only down side that i can come up with now is that now i have to wait for updates...

 

Bod.. looking good buddy!!!

Ton

 

Well, it wont cost any more because I am using the servo intended for the other door. Yes, I am scratching that part, and will only have one blast door. Mainly because there is no room on that other side behind the motherboard tray for the second closing spool (and, as you mentioned, it would cost more money to buy two more servos!). So I am consolidating what I have into the one main blast door. The other side will remain open, and will display more lcd goodness.

Thanks Elio! But I promise you wont have to wait very long for future updates. I need to finish this thing and move on! I have many more concepts I want to start on, and I can't start on them until this one is done!

Thanks man!

 

*wants to be like bod when he grows up*

Damn man, that is looking awesome! I know how you feel about the ton of work with only a tiny piece to show for it! lol
But it's all in the details man, and in the end this will be your computer and you'll have to sit and look at it every day, and it will end up buggin the livin crap out of ya because you didn't take the time to do what you knew you needed to do. That's what i love about Tribal and your mods... details, details, details.

Do it right, or don't do it.
Do it right, love the results!


-Tolk

 

Well, since the final season of BSG has already started, I'd say you're now up against the clock!

This mod just gets better & better every update, but I can understand how RL has made the time between updates increase.
Keep going to the end, we'll all still be here, cheering you on every step of the way!

 

Hey Boddaker. As always, fantastic work.

 

Wrong idea. don't use a servo to help close the gate. But make the gate like Tank's track where two hidden pulley could allow very long plastic strips to go back to the servo. Tweak the tension of tracks (make it sligtly loose) to make sure the servo is pull the gate to open and pull it to close

 

Yeah, I was thinking about a pulley system, but given the fact that the main servo is contained inside the drive cage, there is no way to connect them. Not to mention the lack of space inside the case.
This way, I'll have two servos working in tandem off the same controller board. I will just have to adjust the speed of one servo to match the other, since I am using different spool diameters.

 

I might be wrong but i think i see a small problem... i don't see how you can sync the two servos, since the spool sizes will be constanly changing!
As one spool unwinds/gets smaller=less length of door per rotation and the other winds up/gets bigger=greater length of door per rotation.

This probably won't be a problem for the second half of the door movement, as the pulling servo will be basically just dragging the push servo along, but for the first half of the door movement, the push servo will be unwinding more door than the pull servo, which will lead to a bit of bucking.

Maybe you can sync them so that the speed matches at the start of the door movement, and after that, the pull servo is just dragging the push servo along? I haven't used servos like this, so i dunno if this would work well?

Driving only one servo at a time would be a problem i think as there is the large load of forcing the other servo, which probably isn't too good for it's health.

I earlier suggested reinforcing the top & base of the doors with steel cable, sort of like guitar wire. So one servo can be used for push & pull, and the flexible steel cable wouldn't let the doors buckle. I might be wrong but i think this would be a good solution.

Whatever method you end up gettting to work, just know that it's awesome to see this getting done! It really is truly excellent to see this case getting built, there are sooo many advanced unique features in the case, i'm pretty sure this thing is gonna be moty :bow:

 

You are correct in that the spool sizes will be constantly changing. However, the rate at which they will be changing in this case will be almost non-existant. The main spool in the drive cage is 1 3/4" diameter, which equates to about 5.5" circumference (pi x Dia.). The door will travel a total of 11" (the width of the window opening). So the door will wrap around the spool about two times. Given the thickness of the door (.050) and how it bends in segments, the spool increases less than 1/4" in diameter (1/8"x2). On the other side, the spool is only 3/4" diameter, but the segmented door never wraps around this one. In my next post you will see I taped a piece of clear 5mil acetate film to the leading edge of the blast door, which will roll up on the smaller spool and pull the door closed. So that one will hardly increase in size either (11" divided by 2.35" circ. = 4.7 revolutions x 5mil = .0235(2) = .047 + .75 = .797" diameter).

Sorry, I didn't mean to go all mathematical on ya there! lol Basically, you are right, but it won't make a difference here, given the short distance the door travels.

Actually, since you made me do the math, I now know that I must set the speed of the servos at approximately 2.5:1 ratio in order for them to be matched. Thanks!