Scratch Build – In Progress [Bit-Tech/Intel NUC Competition] Vesper - Prize arrived and some new plans :D

those last pics look great already...even if its just primer.

 

Looks great maki! I love the magnet idea, def gonna keep that one in mind

 

Aah but this way I can also keep them in an organised pair of boxes, rather than a pile of boxes

Cheers! Yeah I love the way the light plays with the shape, feels very organic and dynamic in person.

Thanks!

You should definitely give it a go! You can simply experiment with so many different forms that would either have been exceedingly difficult or impossible to make through other means. As it continues to become more affordable, we should be seeing more 3D printed stuff around in project logs, should be exciting.

Loving how your's has come out too! The two tone finish is really great, that lacquerdising technique is really something.

Must admit I really liked the primer look too, was just so matte and smooth. Sadly the finish isn't hardy enough, plus the panels look really great now.

Thanks! The magnets were one of those spur of the moment ideas after closing the bay door on my large case. Realised it would be neater than screws, whilst also being strong enough to bear the weight of the NUC easily enough. Those Geomag magnets are just so ridiculously strong!

UPDATE TIME!

Sorry for taking so long with this update, been a really busy last few days for me so I wasn't able to take many pictures, not that there was much to photo, however.

Much of this time was spent dealing with trying to paint the sides their final shade of white. I planned to use my airbrush (an Iwata Eclipse I picked up for cake decorating of all things) along with some specialist paints to get a really smooth finish with a slight sparkle. I work around the corner from the London Graphics Centre, so went there to pick up the paints and ask the staff some questions about how to use them (they have a dedicated airbrush section).

Turns out the advice I was given was all a load of crap, and now my airbrush has been temporarily disabled whilst I figure out how to give it a thorough, deep clean. So instead I trekked down to Halfords and picked up some BMW Polar White, which was bliss to use. I was so surprised by the quality of the aerosol finish, it's exactly how I envisioned it.

I've also veneered the centre section, although I'm still waiting for that to finish drying before I can work on it.

And without further ado, pictures!

Aluminium arrived for the back panel IO shield.


Veneering the centre, eh the ruler works well enough.


The sides are now finished, they're really smooth.




The metallic sheen is really hard to photo, tried my best to capture it here

 

Dang. I was hoping to see the wood because of the title. I'd call that "gluing."
Sides look great. Photographing on glass works excellently too. That last pic is all floaty.

 

Had to maintain the suspense somehow eh? To be fair, I had "glued" the wood by then, just the glue was still drying tis all. And now you get to have a look at the wood in it's setting finally!

UPDATE!

Well the veneering was a complete success, the wood is now firmly attached to the centre. I also went and re-primed, sanded and sprayed the centre again to better match the sides in their finish. The sides now fit together and resemble the final product somewhat. Just need to cut out the necessary holes and apply the French polish (don't worry, it looks great with the vavona) along with finish up the IO plate.

 

Yay, Cheaps bullied you into posting the wood pics

Looks very classy ... wonderful

(I wonder if you can persuade cheaps to post his project complete pics )

 

Ooooh that looks tasty.
@Asouter - Wot? Here?

 

Had a moment this morning, thanks to a dental appointment, to get the sanding and cutting done whilst beginning the polishing of the wood. Trying to cut the front USB hole was tense as hell. The veneer is prone to splitting along the edges when you cut it thanks to it's burr nature, the grain simply goes in any direction it wants! The other issue, is that because it's now glued on, this is the only chance I get, especially given the approaching deadline.

Luckily, it went pretty smoothly, although it took me the best part of an hour to do that one little bit. For the sanding I went through 180, 320, 600 and 1200 grits so as to get it really smooth for the polishing.

I took a pic after only the first layer of polish and with the on/off switch in place, dayum I love the colour of this wood. The maple looked great too, but when polished it had a similar tone to the vavona, which was a more interesting piece of wood, so I went with that instead.



After only one coat of polish:

 

dang man - that is amazing looking.

 

Looks great! I tend to work in reverse when doing USB ports like that. Cut the hole in a slightly larger piece of veneer, line it up, glue it and then trim around the outside edges. I'm not as brave as you.

 

Thanks!

See now that would have been the clever thing to do. Sadly, it was 11pm and after a long day my head was all fuzzled and I just did the first thing that sprung to mind. Certainly a good tip for the future that I'll definitely make use of!

UPDATE!

After adding another 5 layers of French polish, I believe I'm at the finish I'm after. I've been using linseed oil to aid the process, which means the finish shouldn't be ridiculously glossy, but have a nice sheen instead.

I also got to work remaking the IO shield. The original one I made was a bit crap to be honest, it had some very questionable filing and bevels that simply didn't belong there. So I started from scratch and used the old one as a template to help make things much more accurate. I then sanded it all the way up to 1200 grit and then polished it a bit. I didn't want a mirror finish, so did it by hand (wanted it to match the front button). Annoyingly enough, I found out that I didn't have any countersink head M3 machine screws, only rounded pan heads in 20mm. I'm going to be picking some countersunk ones up later today so I can finally complete this thing.







My current rather "ghetto" workspace


To give you guys an idea of how close to finished this is, I took some shots outside of the whole thing put together. Damn those pan head screws really get in the way though, should look much better with countersunk ones.

 

Very, very nice......

 

It was tasty. Now it's delicious.

 

Thanks man!

Aah, but those were just the entrées, are you ready for the plat du jour?

Finished!

So I trekked down to a shop that basically only sells various types of screws, around the corner from where I work, and picked up some 10mm countersunk M3 hex socket machine screws. Upon arriving home I then set to work countersinking the fixing holes. That was the last step involved with the creation of Vesper, and it's certainly been a fantastic ride.

I'll be taking some proper studio photos in the coming couple of days. Until then, these ones of the finished article will have to do:









The back is now all neat and countersunk




I wanted the inside to be neat and ordered too, also sleeved cables are cool




In real life the switch has a deep, vivid blue colour, fits very nicely with the blue internal status LED




Tried to capture what it looks like with all the lights turned off. Again it looks much better in real life as the blue is very subtle and soft, it looks much harder in the photo.


Thank you to everybody who's offered support and feedback along the way! Remember to stay tuned for the final photos

 

Ah! Death by after dinner mint!
Lovely. Your internals are a different world compared to mine.

 

Excellent result, The blue LED's give it that lil bit extra in a not in your face kinda way ... very subtle. The grain on the center strip is awesome .... Cracking build

 

Great little build there Maki!! The blue light trickeling though the wings looks beautiful. Everythings real nice. Personally, I'd change the start button to something a bit more unique than the standard PC vandal button that you see everywhere...

 

Ah but my internals don't also include a touchscreen and all the related paraphernalia.

Thanks Asouter, yeah the blue lighitng was a bit of a surprise. When teh NUC arrived I didn't realise there would be that status light on the mobo itself. When I gave the NUC a test run, I saw it, then decided to order a blue switch instead of white, worked out quite well.

If I had more time, or was better equipped to make my own suitable switch, I definitely would have liked to do so. I actually really like the vandal switch look, but I would have loved to make a touch sensitive one (like those found on the Xbox 360 Slim), that would ahve been awesome.

 

Great work! Excellent build.

 

Very nice - awesome build!