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

Yeah I used to hate going to the garage full of energy but not quite sure what to do wasting a day just pondering, should be a case of whenever I intend to make some progress now it will.

I'll get some panels printed stuck & drilled ready for working on now.

Worth doing though will help simplify the project a good bit, I'll be in night owl mode tonight & work horse tomorrow so should have new progress to show tomorrow.

 

Printed all the designs but got email that the 10mm alu has shipped so should have it tomorrow so I'll hold back until I can get that done again also the prints must have consumed about 100 pages so have a lot of paper cutting to do also & to be honest I need a cutting mat to do it better so ordered 1 & a scalpel & pile of blades & a 300mm steel ruler for doing the straight cuts, my 600mm & 1000mm are too clumsy for my limited desk space & also thinking on I ordered 60 a-4 sticker sheets so I can be sure the designs stay on for any of the pieces that have a lot of detail on them, the spray adhesive is fine for simple stuff but I think I'd have problems of it lifting if I tried it on parts that have a lot of cut outs.

Just got rid of a cold & think I might be coming down with the flu now thanks to my bro visiting for 1 night while he was ill coughing all over the place the git, he must have picked it up on the flight coming back from South Africa, hopefully my body will shake it off but can feel the warning sign of illness on my throat, whenever I get that I either get lucky & don't get ill or the next day it really starts.

 

By the way that tip what Cheaps said about doing an equal sized square, not sure if he meant for resizing images or for helping align multi page design printing but anyway I was using little circles with a cross through but all random sizes so not so easy to align, I started doing 2mm squares with crosses through & they are so nice & small to not interfere with the design they are also far easier to align spot on so all the multi page prints have them on now.

Still waiting for the paper craft supplies, printing was the 1 thing I overlooked while stocking up for none stop progress, I could continue but it's just more messy than it would be with the right tools.

Think I might have narrowly escaped the wrath of that flu so once the cutting mat, scalpel & blades arrive I can get busy again.

This log has been going bad with a full page of text instead of progress shots.

 

At least those of us who occasionally read in project logs won't mind. As for those who just look at pictures, oh well!

Good thing you managed to bypass the flu. That would have really halted your progress.

 

Wow, that is awesome work!! Great job on getting those side pieces cut out! How many blades did you go thru, did you use some sort of lubricant, and what speed did you cut at? Also how long did it take?

I love aluminium scratch build frames, especially ones that are elegant in design, like yours. Nice flowing curves. Great work once again, and I got my eye as always on this one.

 

Thanks voigts mate & yeah it was a lucky narrow escape from the flu I have done up a mini update of the process of getting from a sketchup model to an actual piece though to keep things moving.

Thanks Cleveland216 appreciated.

About 4 of the band saw blades popped out of the holder which bent them up but was able to bend them back in shape, only 1 of the modded blades actually snapped & not while cutting, was while I was moving the work piece after a break from doing it, so only 1 broken blade so far, time taken, hmmm I'd say about 2 to 3 hours for each of the cut out shapes now I know how to do it well & because I was laying the designs on the material & cutting all the way around them that took a very long time also it all took a long time to get my technique right with how to cut it at the saws own pace rather than try rushing it & I found either the slowest speed or a little bit more was the best speed to cut it at guiding it with a light push seems to be the best way to do it.

Did them all without any lube, found it made visibility really hard to see the cutting lines so only tried it with 1 blob of machine oil, it did make cutting smoother but with not being able to see the cut line clear I didn't bother with it again.

When I get around to making some sanding blades though I'll put it on about medium speed I think.

Update

Figured I should do an update of some sort & make this as a mini tutorial project interval, not been slacking much at all & this bit took many many hours to do overall although I have been enjoying some more skyrim with some of the time I been waiting for extra supplies but mostly been preparation work.

3d concept, I keep all individual pieces as groups which keeps them as individual components so they don't become stuck together in the design that are easy to move around so I can just select 1 & edit it whenever with minimal fuss.


Here is how I work out what dimensions of material I need for curve pieces, triple click a curve piece & measure each section on the outside of a curve which gives really close accuracy, would give perfect accuracy but when you get odd measurements like 1.56mm or 1.63 is says it like 1.6~mm so I add up to the closest big measurement which I note as 1.7 to be safe so I work entirely with 0.1mm difference for any pieces like that & then I can sand down the super faint difference to perfection & do the same for any cut outs like the round bars I'll be using on this piece, makes the holes a bit oval when it's laid out in 2d but should allow for the same as the model.


Separating every piece including curved pieces ready for 2d printing on a-4 paper & adding 2 2mm squares with crosses inside them for every joining edge, then finalise the last save with camera parallel projection & then standard camera view as top, ready for layout.

A-4 is 297mm x 210mm but when setting things up to print I pretend it is 280mm x 190mm which prevents where it won't print on the paper so you keep all your needed lines, yes you can choose to print without borders but I think this way give best accuracy especially on a budget printer. I could give it a bit more than what I do but I like to keep it safe.


Layout which lets you dump your sketchup model & make multi page printable pdf file templates, you don't get this part of sketchup on the free version though but if you look around you can find ways to buy a student license which is a heck of a lot cheaper than the retail version meant for commercial use.




Multipage pdf file ready for printing.


And all the little files ready to print.


Printed all of them & I have them in 2 different stacks, 1 for the gaming rig & the other for the HTPC, next stage is to cut them perfectly with a nice steel ruler & razer, tack them together perfectly measuring all the while & then using the spray glue to mount the templates to the materials ready to cut/drill, think prep work takes the longest to be honest but it should let the progress really flow fast once it's done.




One of the stands side panels after cutting, I have quite a bit of spare 10mm alu from the big cut outs & 1 of the pieces I will make drilling, tapping helpers which can clamp to any panels, even edges & ends of bars so I can drill perfectly where I want to & drill perfectly straight with a manual power drill, so yep more custom tools to be made for doing this how I want it.


Currently at 5 big steps forward & 3 big steps back but with a load of prep work done lol.

 

Level of Awesomeness = Over 9000!!!!!!

 

That's a big pile of paper Waynio

I just did a similar thing for a job at work .... only 6 sheets of A3 though

 

agreed!

 

That's awesome stuff, and it's on paper!

 

I understand that it's largely due to you patience and skill, but I would never believe such a tidy job can be done on 10mm alu, with a scroll saw. amazing. also, great job on all the preparations, this project cannot go wrong

 

The great thing about this is that it's awesome on paper now!
When it is transferred to aluminum, it goes beyond awesome!

Can't wait!

 

Thanks Alex

A3 would allow for a nice bit more printing room, could do full atx mobo panels etc I did consider using a cad printing shop for A0 but prefered the idea of DIY as usual got lots to slice though but now have the needed tools for that task so I'm well rested again so time to get busy with this.

Cheers jokkos

I never understood it neither until I bit the bullet & tried a basic scroll saw, just knew a good one could do great things, cheers mate.

Thanks Angel, think it will take a while to prepare the printed designs now but think I'll do 1 piece at a time so the work stays a bit more varied, so should get some updates regular again now.

The 10mm alu still hasn't come though but surely it can't come any later than Monday, the shop said it was despatched by express delivery on Wednesday so should have been here on Thursday but still nothing, I have contacted them though so I'm yet to find out what's wrong with that.

 

Wow, just got the 10mm alu.

But the courier the alu shop uses are really crap, they delivered it on Thursday next door & didn't post a note here & I was in waiting all freaking day & on Friday, muppets.

Neighbour just pulled me over today.

So guess I can get this 10mm alu done now.

 

Awesome news, can't wait!

 

If i was your next door neighbour, i would of made the case for you as a favour.

Ha Ha, not really, your on your own on this one Waynio.

Im very impressed that you got that 10mm cut that accurate with a scroll saw also.

I may of ended up having that watercut, so very well done, and alot of patience no doubt.

That amount of paper adds another tree required for the wood parts you will be doing

Carry on.

 

Can really roll on again.

It really crossed my mind for something like water cutting but it's nice to do it myself, just have to go at it without trying to rush.

Fair bit of paper I know, don't know if it's true but I hear if everyone recycled paper then foresters wouldn't keep on replanting trees, completely stupid since we all need them for oxygen. So I'm doing my part in making sure they keep on planting them my dad used to be in forestry planting crazy amounts of trees.

I'll go & get working on the 10mm stuff now.

 

Back to work now I see, happy cutting man and great prep work.

 

My thoughts exactly.

Thanks Craig

Seems my defences dropped too much & the flu managed to take over into full effect, must have been lingering, woke up yesterday with my head all bunged up but didn't feel so bad most of the day but got to evening & did some on the 10mm alu & while I was doing it I just started feeling like crap so called it a day.

Think it's gonna take a good few days or even a week before I'm feeling good again but even so my will to get this progressing won't let me stop only got 2 pieces done & itching to get past these last 3 10mm alu bits so I can move over to the quicker cutting stuff, the grind is back on whether I'm ill or well. I won't feel like I've made progress until I'm past the 10mm alu & got 1 or more other pieces made, so my unrealistic goal for today is get stuck right into completing these 3 10mm panels, just need to dig deep to get them done.

I don't think there is much point in taking pictures of a process that's already been done but I will take pictures of the new pieces next to the failed ones so you can see why they are fail pieces.

I lost my new prints for the htpc sides so had to print new ones & it turns out I did in fact print a wrong model first time around because I did it again but thanks to Angel OD saying about checking measurements on prints I could see this so went back & printed the right one which is spot on.

Can't say when the next update will be but the grind is on for today so hopefully I get through a good bit, I'm sure I'll get at least 2 pieces done today but I am aiming for all 3.