. . . FINAL PICS . . . Hi everyone! After a while, I'm back with another machine from scratch, project BETA. As a name may suggest, it's going to be a secondary PC. The plan is to put together very compact, microATX based computer, capable of most every day tasks including some gaming. Also, to save even more space, no watercooling in this one (sorry). In fact the target is to use only ONE big fan for whole case airflow(excluding cpu, vga, psu fans). But, with option of adding some extra fans if needed, as I aim to oveclock the system as well. We will see how that goes... As I've used aluminium as my primary building material for ages now, it's time to try something new. So here is the concept in short. Aluminium chassis and fibreglass body panels. Yes, it's the fibreglassing that is new to me and this is where I'm going to start. If I can manage this part, the rest should by ok, as I worked with aluminium a lot. The colour pattern will again be white and black, but probably with some extra spice, like green cabling or some other detail inside of the case. No concept pictures of rendering at the beginnig, but the idea is a simple, but attractive design, and I'm sure you will catch the clues quickly if you will follow the work log. Oh, and with this project I'm going to start a video log on youtube as well, and I'll be putting up and linking some videos of ongoing work every now and than, for some pure DIY action So, lets get to work! For start I ordered some styrofoam to sculpture a model for 2 main fibreglass panels. Left and right one, both the same shape. And here is how it went so far: time lapse video: and some pics: All the questions, comments, etc. are welcomed, and stay tuned for next update!
Hi, well you can spot one in the first photo, other than that, its just lots of numbers and some basic sketches about components layout, and some other details... nothing interesting. But I will post more photos and videos of every step in project with more detail explanation...
Back with a first update. Did some more work on the styrofoam model. Well I'm actually done with it. All I need to do is to apply a layer of bodyfiller and and sand it down to get a nice smooth surface, before actual fibreglassing process. Chceck out new video and pics: video: pics.:
The shape of those really curves really reminds me of the turrets in portal. Subbed and waiting for updates
So, after a couple of layers of body filler and lots of sanding, its finished. Everything looks just fine so far. Surface is nice and smooth, edges sharp... Its all ready for fibreglassing i guess. video
thanx, I just finished some work on fibreglasssing. These styrene fumes are... next update tomorrow...
Ok, so with a short delay, but here is the fibreglassing update. I waxed the plug with a couple of layers of mould release wax, and after an hour or so starded the mess. I prepared lots of smaller sheets of fibreglass matting and polyester resin. Once resin mixed with hardener its kinda race with time, as it turns into gel pretty quickly, depends on ratio. I laid just like 3-4 layers of this matting as its thick. I've also got a nice fine woven sheet, but I will use that one for the actual part not for the mould... And the best bit at the end. For some reason, I simply forgot to take photos of the whole process. ... but I've got the video:
