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

It is nice to see that your imagination never seems to run dry! The marble idea is awesome and the light reflections look spectacular!

 

I kinda want to see some assembly soon. It feels like you have been cutting forever and you have enough panels to make 3 cases.
I imagine you ran into the same problems I did when shopping for marbles and stone. The hippy wiccan-power crowd has bled into both markets. I don't want to know what it's imaginary healing properties are. I want to know it's composition!!!
-Sorry, still a little cheezed.

 

Awesome!

 

Thanks Sam hopefully it will be this year.

Thanks Sarakon I get most ideas midway through a project it seems if they overflowing I write them down & do a rough drawing if they are good.

Me too cheaps I'm pushing for it now anyway so shouldn't be far off mate.

Some of those fancy stones grant magic powers don't you know yep there is some silly writing that goes with some but they look awesome & that's what matters.

Thanks Frosty.

With some wanting to see this start coming together I measured everything relevant for the HTPC again to see how things are going because when I did the loose fit it a bit ago the height was a little off but all the parts I made was spot on, turns out it was the psu & optical making it 2.1mm higher than it should be.

So had some troubleshooting to do, I made the psu level 86mm for a perfect fit, with the stock grill it's 87.8mm, no good, bye bye stock grill.


Not certain if the optical drive will be a problem but probably will be, it's 41.3mm instead of 41mm, the optical level has 41mm space but I might get away with it but it will be a ultra tight squeeze, but if not I'll have to sand the panel above the optical to give it that tiny bit of extra space so it can slide in/out easier, think I'll do this anyway to not put needless strain on the threads.

I fixed the design & applied a partial template to the bottom 2 levels which bring air in for the psu to make the hole be in the right place & removed the psu fan grill & tested some 1mm material in place of it & it will work so I made a replacement, same grill design as the others & I'll paint it matte black.










I would have been busy busy a heck of a lot lately getting all the other panels done or giving it a very good shot to but instead was in a pickle of what to do to fix some bits that needed fixing, absolutely knackered already but I'll continue tomorrow refreshed.

Moving into 1mm cutting time & wow it's a heck of a change of pace, I have to be very careful because it cuts heaps faster.

Also turns out I need 5mm rods & 2mm, I can't get 2mm alu rods but can get 2mm craft wire but it comes on coils so I'll have to straighten it out perfectly.

Got some milling needs doing so I'll drill the heck out of the plate & finish off with files, the scraps of the 10mm plate have been really useful & got quite a bit.

 

Tell ya what Wayne, you're getting to dam good on that scroll saw mate..Nice work.

 

what jeff said.

One Question:
Do you export the 2D drawings of the design from Sketchup in some way or are you using a different tool for them? (Sorry if I have overread it)

 

Cheers Jeff.

Cheers Blooddrunken.

This is for sketchup pro with layout, I use a student license (far far far cheaper I couldn't afford the regular pro version if not using it for profit).

Model made.

Select the top layer, copy paste & orientate it so it will fit on whatever size page you want to print to.




Changing the style to engineering gives a white background which helps save ink & so does colouring your model white, my printer has been running on pretty much empty for ages now.




When your model is where you want it go to the camera menu, parallel projection, standard views, top, save.




Open layout, I use a4 plain paper layout.


File, insert, your model.


Looks tiny, stretch it to the top & bottom (if doing a big model stretch in all directions until all the model is showing).




Look for the sketchup model menu on the right & change from current scale to full size 1:1 & click render (you might need to expand the selection box if it's big as the size changes when doing this).


There it is & note the pages part on the right below the sketchup model, this is important for big models so you can arange it right for printing.


Export, pdf, choose highest quality.


Load up the pdf file, print, actual size, printer options, 100% to scale, print.

If it's a big model use the tape measure say for a4 sheet use something like 180mm x 280mm & add 2mm square boxes with lines going through them, 2 for each joining edge, makes it easy to align after printing & the small size stops them interfering with the model & it's an easy reference to check to make sure it's the right size & cut in the middle of the printed line with fresh xacto blade or scalpel & a steel ruler on a cutting mat, I use normal cello tape to tack them together & then cover the entire line with tape so it stays together well.

I've only ever tried 1 type of spray adhesive & I'll never bother again, was pretty crap, found the best thing to use is a4 sticker sheets & they work out cheaper than spray adhesive also & not messy in application but can be for removal.

 

Nice tutorial

Have you tried paint thinner to remove the sticker?

New fan grill looks hot, Wayne. Good work.

 

Cheers Craig I'm happy with the outcome of the grill & I'll get it painted now so it's ready for an update along with some new panels later, my dad suggested paint thinner also, I'll give it a try on some scrap.

 

The build is looking fantastic so far. I wish I had your scroll saw skills.

 

Dat fan grill !!!!!

 

Cheers Cleveland, I'm sure anyone could if they had patience & practiced, I came from doing terrible right up to pretty damn good dremel work but the seemingly affordable dremel I got tired of them burning out on me so it turned into a really expensive tool, then to jigsaws to scroll saws & straight away I found it so much more doable than other tools, a good scroll saw helps too, cheap ones are a hassle for changing blades & can conk out on you easier so a premium one can work out a very worthy price if you love modding.

Cheers Alex.

Primed, wet sanded & painted the grill matte black & might sand the inside edges later after I do the front detail panels so I'm hoping to have another update ready for tonight.

Time to mod.

 

Thanks for the tut Wayne.

I'll have to check this out soon.

 

Those marbles are sweeet. Nice job on the PSU grill too looks like it required a lot of patients and skill

 

Ohh man...Watching your magic with that scroll saw makes me want one again... and the grill design is stellar, and easily recognizable as your unique style

 

Pleasure to be of help mate.

Thanks Kier, should make for a nice power button, mostly concentration, felt abnormal after making it, quite spaced out because of only focusing on that grill for a few hours, worth it though.

You got that one in while I was posting, thanks Bill appreciated, the project is definitely becoming more enjoyable because of the way I approached this project doing all the hard time consuming stuff first so it get's easier towards the end, well no, not easier but feels like making much more progress because it's quicker to do, think I'll do things this way from now on, will make a nice change to be full of life at the end of a project rather than like a happy zombie.


For some reason I decided to do the last 4 2mm fan assembly panels instead of the front panels, I held off doing them until I come up with a better way to stick the templates so they wouldn't come loose & flap about while cutting, stick them directly to the aluminium, had to re do the sticker sheets since the ones I done earlier & stuck was very bubbled up & useless, here is this batch tacked together before I cut them with the scalpel.


Only downside to this is it is more hassle to remove the sticker, have to scrape it off with finger nails & then rub paint thinner on & it cleans up perfectly, thank you Craig for the 2nd opinion on that.


This what they look like after cleaning them with paint thinners.


All the 2mm fan frame panels to make 2x 140mm fans, 2x 120mm fans & a 92mm fan, got the same amount to do in 1mm now & 16x 19mm rods to cut, file, sand, drill, tap & file before I can assemble them together & then use the drum sander to really clean up all the edges.


The PSU fan grill, I primed, wet sanded & coated matte black earlier today with spray cans, thought I'd show it as it is before I sand the internal edges to see if people think I should or not, it would highlight the pattern more with the contrast when seen at angles.






Now I'll do the detail panels, tomorrow.

 

Now you know why your mother told you not to bite your nails

Glad that made it a little easier for you. Looking good mate.

 

ZOMG want! That's gorgeous.

 

Leaves it as clean as it were before placing it, very happy when I seen how good it cleaned up, gave it a wash with soap afterwards also to get rid of the thinners.
Cheers Craig.

Thanks wratterus.

Woke up feeling like garbage from passing out at the computer, creates a natural hangover but I'll still try to get back onto this today.

 

PUNK! Now i have to do something awesome to my psu grill too