Scratch Build – In Progress Big Black Googley Thing: Update 1/04/08 {Big Progress! - Holes Everywhere!}

Started in i think october or november ive been working on not only my first computer ive built but im also building a custom case from scratch. Sadly i am often tired in the evening and have no enthusiasm for working on it i dont get too much done on it. But i do now have my frame mostly complete.


click image to enlarge

I have used 3/4" angle aluminum 1/8" thick. I am actually a little regrettful on some of my choices of what ive done but that always happens and its working well. because i dont have a aluminum welder and dont know someone who does i used aluminum epoxy and it actually has worked quite well. I had quite a few struggles at first with it falling apart but realized that just cause it says 24 to cure doesnt mean its true. More like a week or two.


click image to enlarge

So i have epoxied the whole frame together and it been together for a couple weeks now and is cured awesomely. I was worried because even a couple days after expoxying it i could use my fingernail and pick bits out. But now it is cured and is rock hard.

I have ordered a bunch of screws for my case (100 - 8-32x3/8", 100 - M3x6mm, and 100 - 6-32x1/4") They will be for the components like hard drives and etc and for the acrylic panels I will use.

Also drill bits and taps will be coming so I can drill all the holes i need.

With my panels I am using Black Translucent Acrylic from Delvies Plastics. It is 1/8" thick. I bought i think 5 sheets of 2'x4'. I have already cut the basic sizes for all my side panels. Now I need to mount them and then sand them down so they line up exactly. When I cut them I tried to cut them about 1/32" larger than what i need as just in case im off on measuring i can always sand it down.


click image to enlarge

I am really happy with my case in that with having nothing to hold the aluminum pieces square when curing except for tape and some clamps the most anything is not square by is i think 3/32" about. And once the panels are on it wont even matter.

What I need to do next besides mounting the panels is make 2 braces across the bottom of the case where a blank panel with sort of tracks will be for the motherboard tray to be able to slide out.

I also am makin the rear I/O port panel myself and an planning on insetting the the motherboard about 1.5"-2" instead of being flush with the rear of the case. This will make it easier to disconnect watercooling lines of the video card inside the case if I need to.

You will notice from the pictures I will post and that are in my album I have used little pieces of square tubing to help brace the corners. I am a little frustrated of what I should do with them. Should I leave them as they are? Or cut them down but still have them helping brace the corners?



click image to enlarge



click image to enlarge


BTW my pics are actually in my photo album under "Computer Stuff" if you want to look at more pics already

Update: Now sponsored by Petra's Tech Shop

 

I would say make the outside panels out of the black acrylic and then do some etching. Is it smoked acrylic or just plain black? It probably wouldn't work so well with plain black because you couldn't use a light to shine through an show up your etchings.

 

it is translucent black. etching would work for it. i will be having a window on the big top angles piece. It will probly used smoked acrylic so it can be seen through with lights on.

I should mention it is going to be watercooled with 240mm radiators on each side of the case.

I was thinking of probably leaving the outside plain unless someone can give a good idea of some sort of design or trim to put on the outside. I want to paint the frame and the inside of the panels.

here is a layout i just made showing the basics of what all the side panels are



Besides the usual comments and suggestions of what I can do to improve I am really asking for help with what color to paint it. I would like to case to look ordinary when you first see it but when you tunr the lights on and look inside or whatever it then looks really sweet. I dont want to paint the outside a compleetely different color but even some sort of deisgn that subtle yet really awesome would be great. Sadly I am not creative in those apects.

For paint suggestions as I have said it can be absolutely anything. My cousin can get me any paint I want pretty much. And its automotive paint too. It can be basic colors, custom colors, pearls, candys, etc. anything that would look sweet.

To maybe help you help me colors that i like are Black, White, Grey/Silver, Red, Orange, Yellow.

I had seen someone elses case and they did it completely white inside and it looked really sweet and thought that may look good along with a bright shiny red frame. But if there are better ideas im open to them.

Also I am building a Steering Wheel, Pedals and Shifter for my racing games and would like to have a color scheme and have them match sort of.

Here is two pics of my desk which is where it will be sitting on. Maybe this helps?



Click Images To Enlarge

Im going for sort of stealth yet exciting look as my dvd drives will be stealthed and im thinking i'll use touch sensors for buttons (QT110 buttons).

BTW here is the hardware I got last month for my case. Its not all of it yet but its what I got so far.


Click Image to Enlarge


The specs for it im planning will be.

ASUS M2N32 SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition
AMD 6000+
Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 x2
HT Omega Claro+ Sound Card
8GB (4x2GB) OCZ or G.Skill DDR2-800 RAM
250GB Seagate SATA HDD x2 (Raid 0)
Samsung SATA DVD-RW w/ Lightscribe x2
Floppy Drive with card reader
Silverstone Strider 750Watt Modular Power Supply

and then watercooling the CPU and GPUs.

If you look at the other pics I have in the album you'll see some are blurry and I apologize for that as I was in a hurry and needed to use the *facilities*

 

Is that 2x 3870 or a 3870X2??

 

two 3870s

 

Still, very nice!!

Good metal work too!

 

For the square suports I would give them more than one use, (Besides holding the frame together.) For instance: you can use them to hold wiring looms, or make them into LED spotlights.
Edit: Smoked transparent plexi won't need a window, So you can skip that part. (Unless it's for airflow or something...)

 

all the panels are Translucent Black. So i will cut out a hole and use a piece of Smoked Grey acrylic as this stuff only allows light through as far as ive seen and tested. if it ends up working then i wont cut out a window but otherwise I will need to.

well they arent big enough for holding wiring. they are 3/4" and only like 2" long at the most. but that LED spotlights sounds like a good idea. id like white light along with uv light or other color in the case so i could have white/colored leds in them and then have uv ccfls. thanks!

heres some old sketchup pics of the case. they arent exact as some thing changed along the way but it gives you the basic idea.

im just gonna give links tho as i dont have smaller thumbnails for the thread and dont want to make the page too long to load for 56kers.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g238/Brian_D_photos/Misc Pictures/Computer3D2-5.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g238/Brian_D_photos/Misc Pictures/Computer3D2-5.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g238/Brian_D_photos/Misc Pictures/Computer3D2-1.jpg


And here is the direct link to the sub-album with all the pictures.

http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g238/Brian_D_photos/Computer Stuff/


Thanks "'91"

I had many problems with epoxying it. the flat base was easy as i just got them all square and taped them down and filled in the cracks. With the top part it got annoying i had got some of it real good and i had it proped up and somehow someothing happened and it wrecked. It took a couple trys to get that all sorted. And that is where its the most unsqaure. Luckily I had some fast epoxy too. JB Weld takes a couple hours before it starts to get harder. The fast stuff was nice as it took 15 min to set so for upright pieces I got it in place and held it there for 10min then used a little square to make sure it stayed square for the last few minutes before setting.

I wish i had proper stuff to cut my aluminum when i needed to. At first i was using a wood saw in a miter thing. lol it worked OK but not too straight. A metal hack saw we had didnt cut straight either. Then used the bandsaw with a blade meant for wood. It took a while before I got straight cuts as using a miter gauge didnt help. Finally just drew a straight line across the metal and cut it free hand. Then there were the angles.

But for the scroll saw im ordering special blades for the plastic so i can cut my panels proper. No messups I hope.

 

Proper tools definately help no end. I am slightly confused, what is the difference between translucent black and smoked?, to be honest I think it would be good just all smoked and with good lighting and itll look great. Smoked, lighting and etching though would just be wow!!!

 

Translucent Black is basically totally black. If there is a light behind it you can see a light but you wont be able to see the parts inside. With smoked grey you can hardly see through if at all when the lights in the case are off. But when you turn on lights in the case its almost like looking through clear acrylic.

I am doing it like this as I dont want to see through the whole thing. But I may change my opinion. Painting and cutting out a window will be some of the last things I do.

 

Am I missing something here?

 

The wire loom thing is still an option. I meant to say you could make a plexi part that 'plugs into' the holes in the square tube.

 

Vader- that is just what the motherboard is called. nothing to do with not supporting crossfire. unless im wrong then someone please tell me.

cheap- what do you mean plugs into it? what would it do? i like the LED idea anyway.

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=405137

So long as that is the same Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless edition then it doesn't support Crossfire.

 

Looking good so far. About the drive bays.. how about putting the 5.25" drive bay in the front center with the DVD and display above each other, and then having two 3.5" bays on either side of that one (the 3.5" drives can be mounted vertically if there isn't enough room on both sides for horizontal mounting). This way the front will be symmetrical... not sure it will look better.. it might. Why don't you two test renders with symmetrical and asymmetrical looking straight at the front and post em, so we can see what it would look like.... that is, IF you even want any input on this at all, heh. <=)

 

that arrangement was just to see if it all fits

not having lcd display. 2dvdrws floppy/card reader and fan controller is all.

 

well i sold my motherboard to someone. Just shipped it this morning. But good news is im gonna get one that is even better and probably cheaper too!


Also my screws, taps and drill bits finally got here.

I only could order in packs of 100 so i got:

100 M3x6mm screws
100 6-32x1/4" screws
100 8-32x3/8" screws

#29 Drill bit
#36 Drill bit
#40 Drill bit

M3 Tap
6-32 Tap
8-32 Tap

So im gonna try to get workin on it.


Im wondering how to drill holes through my side panels so that they match up with the holes in the frame and that the panel sits even on the frame. The panels have been cut a little larger than what i needed so I can sand it down so measuring it wont work I dont think.

What do you guys do?



BTW, how do I get this into project logs? I think this is ok for a project log or would it not be considered one as I havent started it like one too much?

Thanks!!

 

Thanks for moving this to project logs Bindi.....

Anyways I've finally got another update and to start it off I am proud to say that this so far unnamed project will be sponsored by Petra's Tech Shop. w00t!! They will be helping me out on my watercooling supplies and whatever else I order from them.



Now, case progress..... I have as mentioned in my previous post I finally got my screws and drills and taps so I could start drilling holes and mounting panels. In case anyone is wondering where I got them as finding good prices is hard I ended up not getting them from McMaster Carr as planned as they supposedly dont ship outside of U.S. and even though I have a U.S. P.O. Box they wouldnt sell to me because I live in Canada. So I looked around and found a way better deal and got 100 M3x6mm screws, 100 6-32x1/4 screws, 100 8-32x3/8 screws and drill bits and taps to go along wth it for $27 before shipping from www.industrialboys.com . The drill bits seem to be very good quality and worked wonderful on my aluminum frame which is what I was mainly worried about.


-Heres most of what I got from them (click the thumbnail to enlarge pic)

Anyways Ive been working on this as much as I can and have now gotten all my main panels attached to my frame except the window panel which wont happen for a while as I need to complete most everything else first.

I am sorry that I didn't take any 'action' shots. I never remember to take out the camera when I work and I would rather get a bunch of stuff done then take pics. Plus they wouldnt be too exciting shot anyways. So I went out on wednesday night and took a bunch of my current state.


-Here is the view from the front of the case with all panels attached. (click the thumbnail to enlarge pic)

I made a few mistakes with how to drill the holes to attach panels. Because of these mistakes there are a few holes that are a little larger as for some reason the hole in my panels didnt line up with the ones in the case. After the first 1 and a half panels I instead of trying to draw a dot through the frame hole onto the panel to mark where to drill I did it all by eye and made a mark and it worked perfect.

What I should have done is not drill any holes in the frame first but instead clamp the panel to the frame and then drill through both resulting in perfectly lined up holes. And that is exactly what I did after for any holes I didnt have drilled in them frame already.


-View from the back. Looks like a big blank space but will be cut open for motherboard and PSU yet. (click the thumbnail to enlarge pic)

Because of some of the holes in my panels being too big I may use washers under the screws which may actually make it look better, or I will use some extra pieces to remake the panels. Time will tell.


-Here it shows part of the right side and top panels (click the thumbnail to enlarge pic)

You, im sure will notice and may be wondering about not having screws along the sides of the panels. Well I havent gotten that far yet. I have just gotten all the panels attached and aligned good and will measure out and put extra screws along the side.




-as these pictures show some of my panels are overlapping and I need to sand them down. (click the thumbnails to enlarge pic)

For my right and left panels I attached them and then drew a line and cut them with a jigsaw using a find blade for a primary cut. Now they are overlapping a little along the window frame and all the side panels are overlapping the bottom which will be cut/sanded down.

A question before I go crazy and wreck my panels. How can I sand these down so the edges are smooth and straight? Should I be using a dremel? Or sandpaper.

Also what do I use/do to get the edges to a shiny finish like the sides?


-Heres the aftermath of the drill bit going into my hand while working on this case. Happened 2 weeks ago. Healed up real good. (once again click the thumbnail to enlarge. )

I just ordered on monday my new motherboard MSI K9A2 Platinum (my other one was not compatible , thanks for pointing that out to me bumfluff and DaveVader) , OCZ Reaper DDR2 800 4GB(2GBx2) RAM, Saitek Ecplise 2 Keyboard, and Vista Ultimate 64bit from Directron. I hope to have it soon and then can make my motherboard tray.

In the meantime I hope to make some braces at the bottom of the case for the mobo tray and cut out a little bit of the braces to make room for video cards. I will be using 1/2" Nylon for the brace which I got from work (regular price is SUPER expensive).

Well, I think that is it for my update today. And once again thank you to Petra's Tech Shop for sponsoring me.


There are more pictures that were taken throughout this so far but I have not posted them as they are not needed in the log but you can take a look at this link: http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g238/Brian_D_photos/Computer Stuff/

 

I'd say use sandpaper to get the edges nice and smooth; the dremel sanding drums will take too much off.

To get a shiny edge, simply keep sanding with finer and finer wet sandpaper once you get to 1000-1500 grit, then polish it up with Novus #2 and give it a nice shine with Novus #1

 

8 gigs of ram?! lucky!!