Planning Noob needs some opinions on case design. (carbon fiber)

okguys thisis my first thread on here so take it wasy. Im wanting to build a case that resembles the scale sphape and size of a North american P-51D.

My original planwas to use the nose of the aircraft and scale my drawings up to the size of my current case(coolermaster Eite 310). that brought my case to 17' tall and 27.75" long. My original desine was to have a wide singe leg base that mounted from the rear of the nose and was about 1/2-3/4 the length onf the case itself. it will be made mainly out of carbon fiber. the shell will be one molded piece cut into sections to resemble the panels of the actual plane. thesib structure would be carbon and aluminum with an emphsis on molded crbon panels, tubes, etc.

Igot to thinking and looking at the hi end art tuffover on carbonfibergear.co and realized a side view silhouette of the whole aircraft would be awesome to mount on thewall as an art piece and computer. I too would be made mainly of carbon fiber.

here is where I need your help/opinions. If I did design number 2, I would have a problem with all the connectionson the back of the case. I inno means want any cables coing out in od places on the aircraft. it would ruin the whole apeal of it beinga piece of art. I suck with manufacturing my own electronic parts/connections so that's not an option.


have to get back to work but I'll post a couple pictures of my first design later

thanks, Mike

 

Couple pictures of first design.

12" rule

 

Anybody?

 

I'm not sure what your getting at mike.

Can you sketch a perspective view? (Back and Front).

 

I'd make the complete shell out of fiberglass, consisting of basically a single piece. The details would only be painted on it, or maybe done with some Delrin-stripes etc...

Some quick SU-mockup of the shell...





So. Start with the square frame, basically taking an old case removing the sidepanels etc, and then you scale the shell to match the size of the frame. The shell then only gets attached to the frame on a few spots.

 

Since this is a pretty cylindrical shape, you could use the technic used with RC models :



Then, you make you fiber skin around this wooden skeleton

 

Im really looking to make a complete scratch build. Thanks for the SU-mockup. It's hard for me to show you guys stuff like that because I haven't messed around with SU that much. I'm great at hand technical drawings but not CAD.

Funny you suggest that. That is actually the basis for my design. I have been building models for years. My father has made a few models for the movies and worked in a wind tunnel model builder for a major company. I do have some experience working with carbon fiber and I'm a Certified Aircraft mechanic.

As for the computer, sorry I wasn't clear before. I was at work and had only a couple minutes to type that up on one of those cheap roll-up silicone keyboards. What a pain in the ass.

My idea was to make a model of the case using the technique GuilleAcoustic posted. Then fill the spaces between the wood with a foam board. After, sand to shape and hard coat. Then pull the mold off of that. Like this.





Here is a quick sketch of placement. You input is welcome. Still have to ficure out where the cd drive is going. Even if i have to use a slim type with just a slot.





As for the second design. Its a side view of the whole airplane. It would only be half the aircraft mounted on the wall as a piece of art. the promle im having with this desigs in where would all my stuff plug in? On a normal computer its in the back. On my case i would have to turn the mobo 90degrees to where all the plugs faced down. That would work but it would force the case to be 6' long.

 

Carbon Fibre is conductive so be careful with your components

 

Thanks for the heads up. How would carbon fiber with a clear coat be different from aluminum with paint?

 

Well, you've placed the cardbore in the first picture totally in the right way imho...



The size would perfectly match up with the components.

If you make the shell out of five parts (nose + four parts for the body [top, bottom, sidepanels) then it's basically like a normal case.

 

thanks for the help. I had originally planned to run the cd in the radiator air scoop like you show. But i was afraid i wouldnt have enough airflow from just pulling some air around the spinner. Thats when i decided to just use the exhaust as an inlet.

Just did some measuring and calculating to make sure the air scoop was big enough. It's going to end up being 8.395" wide so we have plenty of room.

One question. What is the reason for moving the psu to the bottom?

 

Searched through all the aircraft plans I have. Found a nice set of P-51 plans. Did some comparison and found the airplane is a little different(more curved) than the drawing but that's easily fixed.

 

*watching*

 

Hi, here is my little help to your project. This is the blueprint reference database I use when I have a vehicle to model : www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/

and here are the North American WW2 planes (the P-51 D is among them) : www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/ww2planes/ww2-north-american/

 

The reason is, that the PSU can draw cold air from the bottom of the case. This way the PSU stays more silent, as the fan in the PSU is temperature-controlled.

Additionally, as the PSU is one the most underrated parts - very cruicial however - in a PC, I'd make sure it's properly cooled to begin with.

 

Is mine temperature controlled even though it has an external knob for fan speed?

I'm going to try this weekend to see if I can get it all foamed and shaped. That is if I can get the cross sections I need to the shape I like.