Scratch Build – In Progress Lean and Green - 15-12-14 - as complete as it's going to get

Olivebrown looks nizzzzze... btw

 

I would NOT have the patience to cut all those parts, no chance
+1 for you of course

who does anodising for you, btw?

 

I hope you are working! Dedication my friend dedication!

 

Thanks wejjy I intend to not disapoint also anyones skills at anything will only get better with practice mate, should have seen some of my first things I modded & not talking about my first scratch builds neither, used to be an absolute case butcherer.

I like quite a few of them but feel if I can make 1 of the greens work with the project then I might, only problem with anodising is if I want multi colours they will have to be seperate layer pieces but it's an option.

Could end up spoilt for choice.

I don't know but would be nice to do a 2 or even 3 tone rig though.

Ugh it is but if I just grind away at it with some hefty sessions I can do it.

Thanks Angel I got off to a slow start on this deadline cutting so I'm really going at it now (minus this little break ), got to else I will slap myself for talking too much.

Cheers alain, good idea about the coffee but it will do me good to stretch my legs every hour.

I knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park but it is all quite nice & straight forward to do, like you say though patience & persistance is key mostly, my mind & body seem to handle doing a couple of days up & then a good sleep allowing me to do a lot more than just regular sleep pattern & know when to not do that so I keep things ok, colours we'll see when it's together, cheers Alex.

It does

Ahh, I'm probably 1 of the few modders who really does have too much free time.
Not done business with them before but I'm hoping prices are ok & they are in my city Manchester so could drop parts off & pick them up in person but they do do a pickup & delivery service also mate.
http://www.anodising.com/index-flash.html

Not at this moment but break finished & back to it I go, thanks Cleveland216.



Learning as I go still with the scroll saw.

I found 12 TPI fretsaw blades are best for 3mm alu that has plenty of fine cut outs to be done, they are also stronger than the higher TPI ones, the higher TPI go blunt too fast on 3mm I found, also slimmed a band saw blade down to about 1.8mm wide & it does a good job of faster cutting but not as clean cuts as the fretsaw blades & pretty prone to breaking.

So now I really know the optimum blade to use it is going faster now but will still take ages to get these detailed panels done & it is quiet enough to continue through the night so hopefully a super hefty session will produce some great progress, don't want to have to slap myself come the 10th lol, never used a deadline before so had to make something random up.

 

Checkpoint 4AM but I'm going to treat each of the rows as checkpoints now I've got my technique good, each thickness takes some readapting to.




40 min break for each checkpoint & no more picture updates until tomorrow.

 

Haaaahahahahahaha have fun sanding that!

(I laugh because I've been there...).

 

Think I'll pass on sanding these just cutting them is taking a hell of a lot longer than I anticipated & can easily picture myself running out of the 12 TPI blades even though I'm trying to make them go as far as possible, even flipping them upside down when they stop cutting effectively, good news is though I've not snapped 1 so far.

I do believe these gamer side panels are the hardest bit out of it all, not the 10mm alu, I estimate I'll have the side panels done in 2 or 3 days & that's if I don't slack.

On a none moaning note it's looking awesome so can already see it's worth doing but my focus is drifting off a bit & can only stand doing like 4 cut outs at a time before I need a change of scenery for 5 or 10 minutes.

 

awesome... but so much work... nevertheless it'll look great once you're done with it

the anodizing chart has some very very nice looking colors. But I guess the name of the project kinda pushes you in a certain direction

 

I would recommend either sanding the cut edges or finishing them with a needle file, otherwise the scratches from the blades will show through the anodizing. Come to the perfectionist dark side!

 

Really is a whole lot of cutting I was getting in a rut of putting more effort into moaning than just getting on with it & when I realised this I just got stuck in.

I think it probably takes 2 & half days at about 12 hours per day of putting in a solid effort for each of the gaming side panels. Also I stayed up for a dual run day, wasn't good idea because my focus was slipping & by yesterday afternoon I was almost falling asleep while cutting you need a sharp eye to do this so I'll stay in this good sleep pattern now to make good progress every day instead.

Out of the greens I like the dark green especially after seeing it on The GNU's mushroom case nice colour but I actually think the grey looks good for this build but would be good to use some bits in the titanium colour also & I do want to have some colour in this also so might design some additional trim pieces to make it a bit livelier, I do want it to brighten my eyes when I see it.

There's semi perfectionists & there's full on hard core perfectionists, I have been edging more & more towards being a proper perfectionist though with each build but I'd say I'm just semi perfectionist & have no problem with minor things but the 3 holes I cut with a modded band saw blade I agree & I'll sand those because those are the roughest cuts & do look out of place with the other cuts, just hope sanding those doesn't make them even more out of place so it begs me to do the rest.

I found flipping my blades upside down so the teeth point up wasn't such a good idea, it gets the cutting done well but fluffs up the template guide line badly so can't properly see where I'm cutting so it isn't an option for this.

I've had a needle file set before but they were cheapo poor quality so could do with getting a good set, same with some main big files, my big ones aren't crap but they are ancient much older than me lol & probably way past their best so think I'd be amazed at some good new ones, this is why the cutting is taking extra long with trying to be able to pass on filing.

Plus the oodles of flush fitting acrylic windows will have a little extra to grip to if I leave super minor teeth marks on the internal edges.

Got to say going small will be nice much less materials & work depending on how fancy you go so you can go OTT on the quality I will have to have a go at doing a small rig, all my future projects after this main personal rig will be for fun & for the love of modding, not for personal use but for others, some as gifts & some for sale but all of them 1 off rigs, depending on if this rig will take a short time I will be wanting to do a nice compact low power rig this year for a present to my dad.

Anyway enough waffling on & I got to get back to the cutting so I have something worthy to show later.

 

I think waynio... mounting a cnc for less 800 euro, it´s a good choice....

a lot of work.... i know the result will be great

 

Dam that's a lot of scroll sawing, I wonder if you could sand blast the edges for quick removal of sawing marks.

 

Thanks Raikkok
It would be ultra nice to have CNC at my fingertips but I'd imagine a cheap CNC to be pretty limited in what I could do with it, same with a cheap manual mill & lathe & they are expensive too compared to the types of tools I use, I'd rather leave CNC for factories or pro workshops really where they have very awesome machines unless I some how become rich.

If I wanted to mass produce though it would be the sensible option but I see quite a few modders all driving towards that goal & see possible oversaturation occurring in the future so I'll keep out of it & cheerfully mod on just keeping it as a hobby.

If I ever came into a nice amount of money though I would definitely buy some über tools & be making stuff none stop but for now the über scroll saw is my only über tool & is keeping me very happy, I just made a loooooooot of work for myself with the patterns on this.

Ugh it certainly is but press on I must getting rid of the sawing marks on the outer edges will be easy once my drum sanders come & have already figured how to do internal edges quickly & perfectly but the panels with many many tiny internal edges I could use the same method of internal edges on the scroll saw but use really thin strips, I imagine it would take less than a minute to do each hole but it might not be necessary with them having flush fit brown tint acrylic in them but will be necessary on any that are not filled which are grills.

Had to pop out to supermarket & had some food so lost a couple hours cutting time. Time to get busy again.

 

OOOHHHH shame on you... wasting valuable cutting time
j/k... this is going to be so awesome... been imagining lots of possibilities with that nice thick alu for a new case in the last couple of days... but alas, so little spare time... so I'll just get my kick here for the time being!
Oh, and Waynio: don't forget the occasional beer.

 

MAN, Waynio, You are freakin' CRAZY! Looks awasome, but the amounts of work.. Insanity.
I have trouble with just some woodworking, let alone this kind of work. I want part of your persistance please.

On a sidenote, WOW , Looks epic. I want!

 

Come on Wayne! Move it!

Looking great.

 

Waynio i thought also the cnc was very expensive, but if you had time, and a good plans, you can do it a good machine, and won´t be limited because is homemade... i see simply art machines on youtube, and they are homemade...

you can do with aluminiium, wood, etc..

when i earned some money i want to build one..

 

Why in the hell would you not have these laser cut?

What are you crazy?

 

Because he likes real scratch builds, not manufacturing cases


This looks fantastic Waynio, keep up the good work! Hopefully one of the ways that you try for sanding works well, because all that by hand would be quite the adventure....

 

He likes the handywork