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

Amazing work that marble will look awesome when in place

 

Thanks Mads, the sun showing itself a little bit has been why I've not been doing anything, hardly had any sun this year so had to catch some, felt starved of it.

Thanks bluc

Improved the design & got it ready for the spindicator & managed to make it less deep so has a touch more space again, lol about 3mm extra space but it all makes a difference.


Got it printed, had a good rest, caught a few rays from the sun so feeling gooooood, time to get busy until I have a good scoop of progress.

Next update I aim to do the back pci/io pieces for the HTPC & gamer rig, get this switch assembly made & fixed together & have the soldering done for the spindicator, I'll save the spindicator until last though because I might have to ask Keir about the negative part of the LED's again, might.

 

Mini update while I take a break.

Chop saw time, I need to figure out exactly where I need to place the piece to be cut, also the clamp is a bad combination with the mitre guide because the clamp has decent force to hold things in place but the mitre guide is an easy push over so throws it off whatever angle you set it at so I recognised this & fixed the angle & only clamped so it was touching & held it manually, helped do a straight cut & wow it blitzed through this 45mm pipe with 3.2mm thick walls, took about 3 seconds or less & safety glasses should be worn using this as chips fly everywhere, I will mod this tool at a later date for the clamp & guide combo to function better as well as add a marker for where it actually cuts.


Like said I need to figure out exactly where to place pieces to cut, had about 5 or 6mm excess I had to file & sand down to get it correct length, nice & square.




On to the design.


This is another nice thing about the scroll saw with 760mm throat I can cut a slither off a 1000mm panel easily by doing half 1 way & flip it around & go at the other side but I only needed a tiny bit off this sheet of acrylic lol.


Used scraps for the aluminium bits.


10mm aluminium takes some time to cut so I just took the needed piece off & got busy with files.


Using that sweet precision helper for drilling on both the 2mm alu parts.


Because it's 4 layers that need the same holes I completed 1 of the 2mm alu ones & then aligned that to do the acrylic ones & quickly got it drilled & because the other alu one was on the same panel I decided to just do that one too but same as the first one.




All the needed bits with switch slotted in.










I need to get the multi layer front panel mounted to the bottom HTPC panel before I fix the switch parts together so it functions 100% spot on.

Next up, pci/io pieces & I'll get back to completing this switch when I get to fixing the pci/io pieces together, should have another update in a pile more hours.

 

looks awesome, keep it up!

 

This has ceased to be a mod. It is now a way of life.

Looking incredible Wayne. Keep it coming.

 

Brilliant work

 

I'm impressed by your ingenisoity

 

Loving the switch, its a work of art in its self

 

Words are failing me good sir... Can't wait to see more

 

The spindicator housing is a thing of beauty bud!! its going to be all that AND a bag o chip's!!

 

That will look good. Are you putting felt or something inside the tube to keep the marble from scratching? -'cause you should.

 

Thanks TeenGeek

Yeah it's not a casual effort, I'm possessed again but I'm enjoying it I should learn to approach modding a little more casual though else I'll have time for nothing else.
Thanks Gary.

Thanks p0Pe

Thank you thegyufi, it's one of those times where I've impressed myself too, my thinking just wasn't anything like this a couple years ago.

Thanks Phyonics

Cheers Mosquito, I bring another update.

Thanks Squigly, can't wait to get it fixed together, wired up & check it out.
Video will be poor quality though on my old kodak 950, need to upgrade to a 550d when I get chance to.

Thanks Cheaps, good thinking as always on the felt tip, will help pad out the 1 to 2mm rattle space too.

Didn't meet the goal of completing the switch & PCI/IO pieces but.

PCI/IO pieces, 1 low profile for the HTPC & 1 standard ATX for the gamer rig.

Started first by printing, cutting, tacking together the templates & I made 2 for 2 slightly different aluminium panels on each one so the IO shield can pop in/out properly & just the 1 for the triple layer acrylic sandwiches which I stuck on the outer layer of the sandwich & roughly cut around it & drew around the master one onto the other layers & stuck together with tensol 12 acrylic adhesive & left them clamped for a few hours, I moved it around so it was 100% caked & squeezing out of the seams on the joining surfaces.


While waiting for the adhesive to get an awesome bond I focused on doing the 1mm aluminium panels.




Cutting the 13mm acrylic sandwiches proved tricky, when using normal blades they would get hot pretty fast even on a slow speed & start melting the acrylic causing some very unwanted problems of the blade going in any direction it wanted to with ease & melting the greenish dust from the black acrylic onto the opal frosted stuff making it look a heck of a mess instead of like a liquorice allsort lol, so I had to drill bigger holes so I could get a modded band saw blade in which still gets hot but not as fast & gets further before it needs a cool down, after cutting it all out I had a good bit of removing that dirty green mess away with files & razors which made my nice cuts dull full of uneven levels & requiring much more finishing, I want to get them to a shiny polished state so still have my work cut out on these.




Loosely fit together, I like them & can picture how sweet they will look if I do polish the acrylic edges & polish the aluminium, they still need mounting holes adding & brass thread inserts pushing in, Ill do the mounting holes next.




Would have posted this at 8PM but I desperately needed a nap or it was a natural hangover coming my way drooling into my keyboard lol.

 

Can now.

Hmmm, Can't log in to OCUK for some reason.

 

I can well imagine, I tried 5mm and had the same issue, at one stage I cut 2 designs apart but cut fairly quickly, only to pull the piece away and find that it had melted back together the 13mm must have been a mare to cut!

but I have to say.. the acrylic layers look

 

Thanks Squigly

Think I might make fan mounts so it can cool the blade from above & below with high CFM fans, will also keep mechanical parts clear of dust & the work piece completely free from build up of dust.

I know it won't cool the blade much but would help keep the cut line on the material cooler than usual & it will never clog the blade with a good constant push of air, if I made a funnel connected to the high cfm fan pointing right at the cutting area of the blade that might keep the blade cool.

Would be awesome to end the blade welding to metals problem & this problem with cutting plastics, I'll have to test the theory out ASAP.

 

You do an amazing job at detailing your worklog. Whatever that assembly is for, great job at building it!!! Keep up the great work.

 

Looks great, but I'm not sure if I missed something somewhere... but how are you going to be mounting cards in these I/O plates? Like normal? I'm asking because I didn't see anything that made it look like it allowed for the 90* bend at the top of the PCI brackets where the screws usually go...

 

Cheers Cleveland216 will do mate.

Thanks Mosquito, like normal, still need to drill the expansion card holes & fill them with brass thread inserts, hopefully I can drill the area cleanly not wrecking the other side of the holes.

Seems I burnt myself out after that modathon so need to recover a bit more, focusing on some parts until you get them to a stage your happy with can really take it's toll on you creating a day or 2 of feeling completely knackered.

 

Ah, ok. I was wondering if that was what you meant the brass threaded inserts for. I just wasn't sure. I didn't know if there was enough clearance for the pci brackets to go over the top or not.

I know what you mean. I worked for several days straight on a wood project last week, and since then I have only installed the hinge and latches, otherwise I haven't touched it since... still needs a top handle, and some finish... sometimes you just need the break

 

handyman number one !