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Scratch Build – In Progress Negative Space - May 27 - Side Panels

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by B[x], 18 Oct 2007.

  1. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    I'm with Sethnmalice. Sanding and polishing will kill you, but you will love the results. (urr, not the killed part, the shiny part.)
    Of course you could put the frame together, epoxy fill the seams, and then machine polish everything. If you use aluminum rivets they will shine up too.
     
  2. B[x]

    B[x] What's a Dremel?

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    As nice as polished aluminum looks, I'm going to be painting the frame black. Once filed down, the corner's seams shouldn't be that noticeable. Once the panels are on, they won't be visible at all.

    Thanks, mvagusta. I put together a little gif for you guys to visualize how the frame is held together with the corner brackets.

    [​IMG]
     
  3. hotdog

    hotdog What's a Dremel?

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    Looking good so far....keep it up.
     
  4. 500mph

    500mph The Right man in the Wrong place

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    nice gif.
    btw, i'd go for purple
     
  5. B[x]

    B[x] What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks guys. It seems purple is the color of choice. If someone wants to toss another color into the mix, I'd be more than happy to take the 30 seconds to mock it up.

    I don't think I'll be getting any more work done in the next couple weeks. At least I shouldn't be. This Saturday is my FE, an 8-hour test for graduating engineers. The following Friday are my GREs which are essentially SATs for graduate school. So like I said, I shouldn't be modding but no promises on that.

    Also, big thanks for the 5-star rating, it's really appreciated.
     
  6. radodrill

    radodrill Resident EI

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    I'd say a medium-dark gloss blue would be nice

    Have fun with the FE; I took it this past spring. I actually did virtually no studying for it and passed the first time around; only printed of the review book and skimmed through it to get an idea where the equations were each type of problem.
     
  7. B[x]

    B[x] What's a Dremel?

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    Medium-dark blue? You got it. I'll do it up when I get back to my house in about 9 or 10 hours. However, just envisioning it, I think I'm still leaning toward a dark purple.

    I'm not all that worried about the FE, it's the GREs I'm more concerned about.
     
  8. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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  9. B[x]

    B[x] What's a Dremel?

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    Here are those blue mock-ups, added to the first post as well. I like it better than the red but purple still has my vote.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Brett - I'm liking that purple from the GTO but the purple on the Lambo just doesn't sit right. I think it reminds me too much of a blow-pop. Perhaps it's too glossy. When it comes down to picking a final color, Sketch-Up isn't going to be who I turn to. I'll have to sift through spray paint colors that are easily available. If the color is a shade off right now or perhaps a bit too light, I'm not going to get too worried.

    Also, someone from another forum asked on the size of the case. Excluding the case's shields and feet and the bolts that hold the panels to the frame, it's dimensions are 14.6-in (W) x 12.5-in (D) x 9.8-in (H). That's 37.1-cm (W) x 31.8-cm (D) x 24.9-cm (H) for those over the pond. Since there's not a predefined size for SFF cases, I followed the rules in this contest which state the maximum dimensions to be 40-cm (W) x 40-cm (D) x 30-cm (H).
     
    Last edited: 25 Oct 2007
  10. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    ya that photo doesn't do it justice it's more of a deep metallic purple.
     
  11. B[x]

    B[x] What's a Dremel?

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    Sorry for the lack of updates. The GREs and the FE combined with car issues have kept me busy for the past few weeks. However, I was able to get some work done last weekend.

    Despite my careful planning, the bending of the corner brackets produced minor discrepancies in the hole locations from bracket to bracket. As a result, once I marked up and drilled the member holes to accept a corner bracket, only that specific bracket would fit. To keep track of everything I labeled all of the frame's members and brackets using a 3-axis coordinate system.

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    After assigning a bracket to each corner, I used a caliper to denote where each hole should be drilled. A hammer and center punch was used to aid in drilling. The alignment for the holes seem off, and they are. As previously stated, this is due to my bending skills not being perfect. Some of the holes are intentionally not in the center of the tubing. I don't have a picture of it but the brackets do line up with the holes and once the panels are in place, it won't be noticeable.

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    Here's the end result of a couple hours of drilling. The smaller holes are for the 1/8-in rivets and were drilled to 9/64-in. The larger holes were drilled to 13/64-in to be tapped to accept 1/4-20 screws. These screws will be used to affix the side panels to the frame.

    [​IMG]

    After about an hour of work using a regular spiral fluted tap and a t-wrench, all 44 holes were finished. The rear bottom member (flat stock, not tubing) has to be recut due to a minor mistake and was therefore not drilled.

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    The holes still need to be cleaned up a bit and the members have to be sanded down but it was late so I called it a night. I have to spend the next week or so finishing my applications to graduate schools so I probably won't get any work done.
     
  12. compmodder

    compmodder What's a Dremel?

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    very nice.....i absolutely love watchin scratch builds as i really want to do one myself, but not 100% sure how do do certain stuff. I can't wait to see how you progress, keep it up :clap:
     
  13. jokkos

    jokkos too busy to mod *sigh*

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    Nice work, I really like you method with the corner pieces.
     
  14. Cornerrage

    Cornerrage What's a Dremel?

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    First project i could follow from the start, so i reckoned that i might as well register :p
    Looks nice, your skecthup skills seems fairly good and if you keep up the quality i've seen so far... It'll be a great mod.
    I too would go for the purple, the red and black is the next blue and black to me :)

    [edit] And first post btw :)
     
  15. Koolkidd2004

    Koolkidd2004 What's a Dremel?

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    hey

    like the design alot. maybe a green/black would look nice.
    wouldnt mind seeing chrome or even using some carbon fibre vinyl/decals

    just throwing out some ideas.

    anyway ill be sure to watch this one
     
  16. B[x]

    B[x] What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks guys.

    Well if you post any questions over in the Modding section, I'm sure you'll have them answered.

    I wish I could take credit for those but the idea came to me from this thread.

    Welcome to the forums, Cornerrage. I'll put up a poll when it comes time to painting it to see what the forum's opinion is. Granted I'll probably disregard the poll if I don't agree with the result but oh well.

    I appreciate the suggestion but I'm really against the use of carbon fiber. I feel that 9 times out of 10 it's overdone and looks tacky. Carbon fiber can look nice if it fits the theme (like ssR's Enzo Tribute) but this build doesn't call for it.
     
  17. B[x]

    B[x] What's a Dremel?

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    Sorry for the complete lack of updates, I guarantee that they upset me more than they do you. It turns out that going to school full time and 3 part-time jobs tend to eat up quite a bit of time. Anyway, I'll spare the details but bottom line is I've got some time to mod and I intend to take full advantage.

    [BORING]

    I've also decided to start over. Over winter break I was riveting the frame together and noticed that the corner bracket holes weren't lining up exactly with the holes in the tubing. I tried filing the holes down to match and though it worked to a degree, I was extremely unhappy with the resulting gaps that formed at the corners. I realized that I went about constructing the frame in the wrong order. I had originally waterjet the bracket holes and then bent the brackets, drilling the tubing holes afterwards.

    After being disgusted with my first attempt, I decided it was worth the extra time to start over with a new construction order. I would waterjet and bend the brackets without holes to start. Afterwards I felt it best to drill the bracket and tubing holes together to ensure an exact fit.

    Anyway, most of the text in this post is a rehash so skimming the pictures is kosher.

    [/BORING]

    I cut out the members that would make up the majority of the frame using a compound miter saw with a 24-TPI blade. This allowed me to cut the 45° angles necessary for the corners to sit flush. These aluminum members are made of 0.75-in square tubing with 0.125-in walls.

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    I don't have a shop in my house so this temporary setup will have to do.

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    All of the pieces are finally cut after about 5 hours of work. The piece of flat bar will be the bottom rear member of the case. This is to allow a lower position of the motherboard tray.

    The frame will be held together with corner brackets. The blanks were cut using my school's waterjet and then bent with a vise, rubber mallet, and scrap wood.

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    Each leg of the bracket fits into a section of the square tubing. Three legs make a corner.

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    The frame and corner brackets will be held together using blind pop rivets. To ensure that the holes line up properly, the bracket and tubing will be drilled at the same time. Since the tube's opening is 0.50-in and the brackets are 1/16-in thick, a 7/16-in square spacer will be needed.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  18. B[x]

    B[x] What's a Dremel?

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    The spacer was drilled out with 0.25-in holes so that it would not interfere when I was drilling the brackets and tubing.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I used one of my school's 3-axis mills to drill out the tubing to ensure that the spacing was precise. The smaller holes (9/64-in diameter) are for the 1/8-in blind pop rivets. The larger holes (13/64-in diameter) are to secure to case's panels to the frame and were tapped to accept 1/4-20 screws.

    Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the process. Even without stopping to take pictures, it took about 7 hours to drill and tap out the holes.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I numbered the tubing and the corner brackets were numbered using an x-y-z coordinate system to make sure that the matching pairs were riveted together.

    You might ask why the spacer has 3 holes when it's only needed to drill the bracket's 2 holes. I might tell you that I'm an idiot and drilled the first set of holes in the wrong spot.
    I might.

    [​IMG]

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    The assembly process begins.

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    The frame is completed and the panel screws were added to make sure the threads were good.

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    I only put in half of the rivets in the vertical supports since I'm going to take apart the frame later on to add the supports for the HDD, optical drive, and motherboard in addition to LED wiring.

    [​IMG]

    Perfect fit. Not gonna lie, that wasn't easy to get into or out of, it's only a 13" x 8.25" opening.

    [​IMG]
     
  19. brinkz0r

    brinkz0r Minimodder

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    Lol, never saw someone wearing his casemod frame before :hehe:
     
  20. Macros_the_Black

    Macros_the_Black Yup.. I'm a f-ing reptile

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    Excellent craftsmanship B[x]! This log will be very interesting to follow! 8D

    It's going to be a Constructicon (see avatar :rolleyes:) costume right? :lol:

    Keep it up! :rock:
     

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