^This is not a phone post. The coping saw works faster than a fine-tooth hacksaw, and it's a lot lighter to yank back and forth. You can kiss the blade goodbye a lot sooner, though.
Thanks for the rag tip Actually, as I am working in my living room, and because the floor is made of oak (old parisian appartment architecture), I avoid using anything with grease, alcool or even water. (But don't read me wrong, I still clean the floor very often. Indeed, I vacuum clean it every 10 minutes before there is too much aluminium dust flying in the air.) About the position, or the "kamasutra of the handmaker", I'm constrain by the small, and light, workbench I have, not especially intended for this kind of labour. Ah ah, poor Edd ! As far as I know, "Wheeler Dealers" is not an especially popular TV Show here in France. We have a french version of it (as we have a french "Top Gear"), but those two are so bad that I would prefer cutting my eyes with a Dremel rather than having to watch them. Thanks ivory ! Hi Dave ! Nice to see another camera nerd here To be honest, my "collection" is mostly a spare parts collection. Most of the cameras don't work, except, luckily, my favourite ones : the Leica M2 & M10-D (of course), the Yashica Electro 35 GSN (which I bought in pristine condition, for something like 30 € !) and all the Lomography toys. One of my favourite, because it's nice and historically wise, is the 4th Generation Praktina FX, which come with it's Carl Zeiss Biotar 58 mm f/2. What is very interesting, and thrilling, with this one, is that it has "Germany USSR occipied" engraved on top of it. Anyway, one day, I'll managed to get my hands on a 2005 Nikon SP Black Now, back to modding. About using hand tools instead of electric tools, or CNC/laser/3D printer, I think it's a question of available space (there is none in my living room), noise, productivity needs and... philosophy. I think (electro)mechanical tools are great if used to produce parts impossible to do by hand, or if you need to be really accurate, and doing it as fast as possible. Which is not my case (no pun inside). In my opinion, there is no special reward to do so with one way or another, everything requires different skills, everything is interesting. But, there is one thing I don't understand : why using "heavy tools", as CNC or 3D printings, when, for some parts, it could be faster and as accurate to do it by hand ? If I had the opportunity to use these king of modern tools, I would only use them for specific mechanical parts impossible to produce by any other way. 3D printing is helpfull with complex shapes, with a lot of inside holes and voids, or when you want to connect moving parts with using bolts, nails or weldings. CNC is perfect for big chunk of metals, a little bit less for wood. Laser cutting is also perfect for big parts, or when you need really accurate cuts. I think the design of anything (computer case or not) must be thought of according to the manufacturing tools available, and vice versa. Sometimes, they don't look... right, and there is no sense of matching. When doing so, you can explore different paths to get to the same final shape, and that's why in my case (still no pun) I went for joinery, because I have nothing to drill perfect straight holes and cuts. Furthermore, I think hand tools makes you feel closer to your creation. When I file aluminium, I can really feel it, smell it and, sometimes, I also have to listen to its music to know if the angle of the tool is good, if the cut is right. Of course, it's not always perfect, but perfection in manufacturing is a kind of "western victorian concept" which pollute us since the Industrial Revolution Era. In Japan, they have this philosophical concept called "wabi-sabi", which praised the beauty of imperfection and small irregularity, which invites us to step back a little bit, and take time to enjoy the happyness of evanescent life and things... But I'm not sure this forum is the right place to talk about philosophy and sociology of manufacturing ^^ And kissing the blade goodbye sooner than expected I did About next updates, it will come soon. Sorry for the delay, but I was in holidays a few weeks ago and, these last weeks in France, we are housebound because of Covid-19. But here is a sneak pic of where I got so far today See you soon, and take of you (And don't forget to wear masks and wash your hands 42 times a day. At least. )
I really admire your work, likewise your words and philosophy, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one, and IMAO, I believe it is a right place to discuss about it...
There's a word I didn't use in my previous message "shape". And "sashimono" (which is traditional japanese carpentry). And texture. Ok, that is three words... As far as I remember, I felt in love with modding 10 years ago, with the legen... wait for it... dary Cygnus X-1 from Attila Lukacs. Back to those days, his nickname was Oldnewby, which was, of course, ironic as hell considering its master skills. Attila did something that never happened again : winning MOTY two years in a row, first with Cygnus X-1 in 2009 then with Na'ir Al Saif in 2010. I've always regret Cor Leonis did'nt win the MOTY 2011, because he already had a lot of ideas which became trends years after : tilted GPU with PCI riser, home-made waterblock, complex outside shapes which then have been spread out by NZXT (remember remember the first gen NZXT Phantom co-designed by craigbru) and Cooler Master in its Cosmos 2. For me, Attila was a little bit too far ahead from its time and people needed something more... conventional. Not winning MOTY 2011 was a sort of "punishment" for being too different. Too good. Ok, L3p D3sk was all but conventional, but computers integrated in desk took modding scene by storm later (The Next Level from Paslis was MOTY 2012, and MOTY 2018 was also a desk, even though Mahogany was delightful). Most of the other MOTY were custom commercial cases, MDPC/Murderbox look-like to me. To put in a nutshel, in the late 2000, it was a "tick" for modding : a lot of new shapes, new ideas, original ideas, but very artisanal executions. The 2010's have been a "tock" : less exotic inspiration, but more accurate and professional execution. Don't read me wrong : there are still a lot of creative modders here, and I'm especially thinking about cheapskate and abbas-it, who are able to follow their own path, and there are new refreshing ideas here and there, but to be honest, I tend to get bored by the combination distribution plate + hard tubing + sleeved cables. Todays's mods are cleaner than ever, but I think we need to re-explore how traditional materials and new materials can be handled and used. For exemple, not using wood because it's wood and looks good, but using it because of its mechanical properties. Trying new metals (titanium, tin, bronze, etc), materials (paper, cardboard, bamboo). Borrowing technics from other disciplines. Fail. Try again. Fail again... But I stop there, I don't want to be THAT typical arrogant french guy. Eh eh. And you are more than right because I realized yesterday that it was the first time I was doing joinery "matter on matter", both parts being made out of aluminium. So, even if it was quicker than expected since my previous post, it's time for a new update (better sooner than never). UPDATE 4 : REAR CONNECTOR IS BACK In Update 3, I started cutting the hexagonal piece intended to connect the core parts to the back of the frame. This fourth update will exclusively be about shaping the two aluminium parts so that one can slide into the other. I decided to do it with a "three way" joint, in order to get something as strong and regular as possible, so the two parts would not twist once connected to each other. I know, it's a little bit stupid and useless considering the hexagonal shape of the interlocking, but even if "less is more", I preferred being a little bit too cautious rather than too optimist. First step was to file down the excess material from the central aluminium part I did in Update 2 so it would be as flat as possible, and exactly 10 cm wide : This was really quick and easy. Now, the tough part : carving the back side as a male part, which would slide into the hexagonal key of the back. I first wanted to do it only with the thin face of a file, but it turned out to be too complex and... hard. I'd prefer using a combination of metal saw, file and brute force. (Oups ) As you can see in this third picture, there was a flaw in my design, because there was just enough space to fit a file between the central hexagon and the lateral pins. But I finally managed to get to this point : From there, holes had to be drilled to create the connection : Then I had to enlarge the holes and give them this sort of triangular/diamond shape with a variety of bunch of different files : Of course, I had to remove the excess material on the other part, so I had to thinner the pins (because male and female part are both made out of 20 mm aluminium, there would have been a problem) : OK. Now let's begin the adjustment part ! It took two weeks. Because even if male and female part looked "compatible", they were not. At all. In order to make the connection possible, I had to remove thin layers of aluminium, by increments of 0,1 mm : Almost there. 20 mm done, 20 mm left ! Till there : What a relief, it fits, after hours of work and liters of sweat And because it's the end of this update, I'll leave you with these last pictures, so you can see how everything looks when (roughly) combined together : Everything is now strongly bonded together (more or less). But there is something I will have to fix later : the weight. These four parts weigh 2472 grams. And this is heavy as hell Thanks again for reading, for your kind and constructive comments, and as always, see you very soon
I 'v just read your reply and I don't want to pollute your extarordinary thread by starting a conversation, so I would be content with telling you that Oldnewby and his Cignus x1 has been equally the first mod (I should say masterpiece instead), that made me fall in love with modding, and lead me to discover Bittech forums, and that I totally agree about your vision of modding, and all your words sounds like what I feel, except that I like Murderbox cases . Abbas it and Cheaps are also the most creative and innovative modders for me as well, however, some Italian modders from the last years are stunning too. So after telling you once again that I am really impressed by your handwork on aluminium, I quit, before beeing mistaken for that typical arrogant french guy ...
Hi! Well, because of the lockdown in France, there was a shortage of material and I also was a bit far away from home these last weeks. But I'll be back on track as soon as possible
Yes I know, i live in France too, in Paris ! Was à rude period ! That's why I used lot of scraps aluminium à and Steel and recycled them.. No other choice to finish my build. So I perfectly understand Good luck, show must go on. Still looking after your thread Bonne reprise
Hopefully, you got locked down at a vacation resort or girlfriend's place. A cruise ship or aircraft carrier would be a bad place for lockdown. I should have showed up at Santorini with luggage full of TP RIGHT before they locked down.
