Scratch Build – In Progress Project Air Cube v2

Time to sort the ugly brown & green fans out, the fan blades pop off easily.


I looked around the house for something that could quickly cover the fans motors & found spice jar covers to be a perfect fit .


Primer


Shot to show the spice covers doing their job .


I cut a load of circles from card board & stuck the sharp end of a rivet through the centre & popped them onto the fan blade.


The fan blade colour was not as light as I was hoping, originally wanted a close to white ice blue so this is way off that plan but I'll settle for it, not putting more paint on the blades, anyway, much better than brown/green, got the frame colour exactly how I wanted it at least.










Now, I need to make my mind up if I'm going to paint the internal panels or not, & if I am what colour, so I'll put that bit off until I'm sure.

I'll take some better pictures of the fans when I have some good daylight.

 

This is how how my pc has been the past few days while I've been painting, had it functioning purely for media & internet.



Spent a bit of time sanding all the work on the back panel & it's all nice & smooth now, painted both sides too.





The front panel needed the countersinks to be a little deeper so the bolts sit flush, painted the rear of the panel too.





Painted the back expansion/io piece.



Here is a better shot of the hdd cage I made, the ssd can slip in the top space just perfect .



The blue gigabyte motherboard goes really well with the fans & back panel & the braided cables you can see are extensions (got them for pcie, 8 pin atx, main atx, I would rather buy them like that than void my warranty, especially with a decent psu (they cost too much to void them), the sata cables could do with being swapped out or even braided, I would love to shorten the psu cables because they are way too long but I can tidy them into the front right corner just about, got rid of the rounded ide cable, it is supposed to be clear but it had turned nicoteenish lol, the flat ide cable routes better anyway.





withgpu






























I think the back looks better than the front now lol.

Everything is done on the front, back & insides, I'm going to come up with an alternative for the right side grill, either make the bars slimmer or get another sheet, then all thats needed is the left window removing to clean up the white mounting tape & replace with clear mounting tape, then the air cube v2 is complete, still waiting for my drill bits to arrive before I can do anything else, so I'm having a few days off from it.

 

The air compressor went faulty (won't go above 53 psi & doesn't turn off automatically & when I was doing 1 of the taps on the stack it broke & got completely stuck so had to turn my attention to other bits I could be doing.

Heres what I've done while waiting for the new drill bits & taps.

Grinded the stuck tap so it's level, relocated the holes, ordered some new taps, got them today.

Received the changing LED's, wrong version, sent back, waiting for the alternative which looks better .

Put a bit more work into the right side panel grill, lots of filing & sanding so no more wonky lines & put some mesh behind the grill & painted it haze blue with a light mist of matisse blue .

Removed the window & it took a whole load of elbow grease to get the white mounting tape off, painted the inside upper half haze blue on both sides, need to order 2 windows, thought I had a couple spare, thought wrong lol, so I'd expect to receive some time next week, also buffed up the inside top panel so it's better than it originally was now.

Very tempted to sand the front grills to get really nice edges like I did with the rear, but would probably require painting again so I think I might pass on that, once the windows are installed the air cube v2 is done, but I think I'll always wish I sanded the front grills, so with that in mind I think I should lol.

Painted the xbox, I'm especially pleased with the hdd , done it all matisse blue & the power button is haze blue because I ran out of matisse lol, doh!.

On with the pictures of the finished sides, buffed inside top & the finished xbox, just wish I made enough space to add some meshx for the back fan, it's already a tight fit once the top piece is on so no room for it, oh well.



























Now I can fully focus on getting this stack put together, so more soon .

 

Walked into a wall with the stack build .

The taps I got seem to be the wrong pitch size thread, not only that but the guy I bought them off on ebay also only sent me 3, was supposed to be 6, so thanks to the ebayer I bought them off the stack build is fubared for the time being.

So I'm quite unhappy with how the base is turning out, all tapping related, the pieces for the 1st base are turning into swiss cheese, making me think I'd be best off making another order of aluminium to get it right, 1 bad hole was bad enough, now there is 4, if I do order more aluminium I'll make the postage worth while & order enough to do another project at a later date, I would like to do a mini ITX media case at some point, was also thinking of making a desk, I was a little short of flat bars anyway so maybe this was supposed to happen, I also wanted to add some trim bits to the stack to give it a little flair .

So other than putting windows in the air cube, noting more to do until I get the right bits & new aluminium so it could be a couple of weeks before the next update, sigh.

 

It's looking at me
Nice work, man. Been a while since I've seen a cube!

 

Thank you duckies, 3 eyed monster duck .

Wow, was nearly 3 weeks since my last pictured update, many problems with the rrod xbox's leading me to just say the hell with it & buy a new late 2009 one (jasper) to put it in the modded case so had to mod the hdmi bottom half & the internal metal case again, I should have originally known getting a new one without previous problems is the best way to start off an xbox's life inside a well cooled case, anyway it's now a green 4 life 360 .

Had various tapping problems with the stack & problems marking the chunky angle bars accurately which has made me decide to use black rivets on the corner angle bars, the levels are fine, just the main corner angle bars, not all the mounting holes line up perfect but at least every levels corners does by at least 1 bolt which will enable me to rework them easily to take rivets instead.

Got all the base levels put together without nuts .
Made another temporary jig for getting the marking done on the chunky angle bars, was a real pita to mark accurately & took quite some time before I figured out a good method, then it went quite smoothly, but still a few holes don't fully line up which is why I'm going to drill the holes with a 3.2mm drill bit & use rivet washers & black rivets.

I decided to do away with the 0.7mm aluminium sheets on top of each levels frame base & instead get some clear polycarbonate sheets & paint all the frame work so you can see through it all, should be pretty sweet, The sheets of aluminium became too messy with failed taps causing me to need more sheet aluminium which I didn't have.
Any polishing I do on this stack will be given a coat of clear so it keeps the polish.
The end of the framework is close to finished now, phew, was a bigger mission than I anticipated .

Not been taking my camera along to the work space & instead just been pushing forward so it's straight to the form which made me do a whoop de doo jump & gave me a cheesy grin .

















More soon.

 

OK, painted the levels, cut the angle bars to size & smoothed off the top edges by filing & sanding & spent today polishing the angle bars, the plastic sheets for the 1st 4 levels needed a smidge filing off the ends & trimmed little corners out to make way for the rivets & then started fixing it all together, at last .

















Still more to be done like little extra support bars, guide rails placed inside, switches, but the main effort is now done phew, was a mission & half lol .

I'm also going to put some more effort in on the air cube by sanding the front grills so they are nice round & smooth edges.

More soon .

 

That looks really sweet! Nice work!

 

Thank you oliver , all feedback is appreciated (pointers, compliments, dislikes etc) .

 

Ooooooooooo very nice i look forward to seeing that in use

 

Which leads me to do this post .

Update time .

Skip to the pictures if you're not interested in the details on what's been done .

1200mm high
400mm wide
380mm deep

Weight air cube v2 empty ??? very light but won't be known until I upgrade to a i7 or amd hex core rig or given the speed of new tech these days & my money flow being slow & low maybe something far more awesome once I have enough.
Weight air cube v2 fully loaded ? I'll update soon
weight empty stack ? I'll update soon
weight fully loaded stack ? I'll update soon, it'll be heavy

Since last time where I got the main basic structure done, I have been busy getting the trim supports made.

The front & back of level 2 & 3 I put 1/8" polished angle bars for a support for the various sized flat bars to stop dvd's falling out, I gave the flat bars a simple brushed finish, also put 9mm x 6mm flat bars for a dvd stop & psu slot, put a flat bar with switch mounting holes for turning ps3 fans or xbox fans on/off, upper 1 is for the ps3, lower is for xbox. All the extra trims are put on with araldite rapid steel adhesive, very very strong 2 part adhesive.

Cut solid square aluminium bars to the size of the ps3 with extra for a slope on both sides, cut angles & super glued them perfectly aligned to the ps3 base to keep it easy for putting it on the level how I wanted it, this doesn't void the warranty btw as I can easily remove the bars if needed , so the ps3 has very good ventalation now above & below so the side vents should be able to take new air in, much better than just having it on my desk, I no longer have to worry about it having a melt down so now I can get really stuck into red dead redemption .

I was thinking of cutting solid square bars to size to put in the corners of each level to give even more support but I'm not sure it needs it to be honest, it's very rigid all over, I'll have to think about this.

The braiding could have been done better, I'm a n00b at braiding, but I'm ok with the result, they're out of sight , the psu wires are folded over & over & wrapped with cellotape to keep them in a compact bunch with a paper clip in the green & black pins to run the fans, the switch cables I chose the lazy route & bought 2 off ebay, 900mm long though so just folded the cable to the length I wanted & wrapped tape around them so no cables interfering with the games/dvd's area, hmmm nintendo wii in the bottom space, hmmm probably not, currently or planned to play games/films, ohhhhh yeah .

The xbox wouldn't fit into the level, so it was either refabricate the top piece or cut the rear off so I could slide the top on, I cut the rear off for the time being, after the amount of space left over with the air cube & wanted it all to be a good fit, must be less than 1mm spare above it, the missing rear piece can only be seen from behind so I can live with that.

One problem I've come up against is the floor in my room where I want to have the cpce (Console PC Entertainment) is not flat so I'm going to cut a wooden piece to size, put something underneath the wood at the front so it makes a level surface to keep it on, need to do this asap as it's a bit like the leaning tower of pisa, keep expecting it to collapse all of a sudden, so yeah I need to do this asap .

This stack project was something I was not very sure about, mostly needed something to keep me busy for a while & was a bit of a spare of the moment kind of design, but man am I glad I went for it , I mean I'm sat here & I look to my side & I'm surprised it's me that made it lol .

There will hopefully be another update with quality outdoor daylight pictures once I've sanded the front grills to a nice finish & repainted, it'll need it since it'll be taken back down to bare metal, then I believe I can call it a 100% finished for sure this time woohoo .

With it being summer & I like to keep a good overclock with nice temps the quiet small fans have a hard time keeping things really cool, so just for summer warm spells I will use a desktop fan on the lowest setting with the top & sides off, the results are better than peak winter & temps barely rise when gaming & pushing the pc hard.

OK I think I've covered everything about what got me from my last update to now so I'll shut the hell up & show a pile of pictures in it's 99% complete state, enjoy .























































Wow, took about 4 hours to do this post lol.

 

I was reading the log, and as i was reading it i was like 'no way, hes not putting that on top is he?' And then you did and i was like ZOMG THAT IS CRAZILY COOL! Seriouesly man, i am MIGHTILY impressed and I don't know why more people aren't finding this as cool as i do Really, REALLY decent hand craftmanship, really unique design - love the unified colour scheme A* mate, really well done (god i sound like Simon Cowell)

 

That's one impressive gaming tower

 

Now, this really is the final update.

LOL, thanks oliver, yeah I was a bit concerned about putting the air cube on top with it's weight , but yeah it sits very well, nice & snug . Thanks for the kind comment bud

Thanks Fabou .

Now, this really is the final update.

Final update .

Took some new pictures earlier today, the yellow light was nasty I think you all would agree .

















Now, back to my unlevel floor, I just took some scrap ply wood, placed the cpce on top of it, marked around the edges, got busy with the saw, filed the corners round & edges smooth, took it back to see how bad the unlevel floor was, was off by near 10mm, so I had these furniture slide pads & placed 1 underneath the front of the board, not quite, tried doulbling them up, spot on, luckily I have a bunch of others at a smaller diameter so I stuck them to it & thats my floor sorted, it stayed fine all the way to the top of the air cube, phew .









This shot shows how close the top of the xbox is to the next level, I'd say 1mm spare, talk about cutting it fine lol.



And so, the rest of the pictures are just to show it off in natural light .



















Back to the weight of this thing.

Air cube v2 fully loaded = 42 lbs
Stack with psu & fans = 27.4 lbs
Xbox 360 = 8.4 lbs
PS3 = 8.4 lbs
Total = 86.2 lbs without dvd's/games

And thats it, I've decided not to sand the front grills to a perfect finish which I know I could given an extra couple of days, but if I wanted it 100% perfect I would have had it done by a machine for me, I don't want or need to compete with a lifeless machine lol, I like the fact it is a little rough here & there, keeps it completely unique . I'm leaving the slightly rustic cuts so it remains an average joe made piece .

So thanks for showing an interest in this project & peace out & mod on all until my next unplanned mod , I definately had an all you can eat buffet of modding for the time being, I'm absolutely stuffed lol .

 

Congrats mate you should be proud

 

Awesome mate just awesome!

 

Little bit of a bump but i forgot to see the end of this but reminded me when i saw your name comment on someone elses

I must make one of these myself one day!
You don't have any objections do you? not going to post it as a log just make one for my consoles its epic!

Great work man!

 

Thanks Oli & AnG3L .

Thanks for the compliment DeadP1xels, & I have no problem at all with you making 1 & no problem with you posting a worklog for it if you want to .

 

Sweet

How much did it cost in ally angle and flatbar? you used pretty heavy duty stuff from the looks of things

 

Just added up what I actually used on the stack & it comes to £83 vat & delivery included, I always order a little extra incase I muck up though.

Delivery is £15 standard, if ordering big sheets over 1000mm x 1000mm though it costs a lot more, I think £50 extra because it comes on a pallet but service has been perfect with every order I made.
http://www.aluminiumwarehouse.co.uk

I tried a local stockist but they tried ripping me off at 3 to 4 times the cost of where I get it online, made me lol shaking my head when they said the price, was expecting it to be cheaper.

1 Aluminium Flat Bar - Imperial Sizes (6063T6) 3/8 in x 1/8 in x 2000 mm
1 Aluminium Flat Bar - Imperial Sizes (6082T6) 3/8 in x 1/4 in x 2000 mm
9 Aluminium Flat Bar - Metric Sizes (6082T6) 20 mm x 3 mm x 2000 mm
1 Aluminium Flat Bar - Metric Sizes (6082T6) 40 mm x 3 mm x 2000 mm
1 Aluminium Flat Bar - Imperial Sizes (6082T6) 2 in x 1/4 in x 2000 mm
6 Aluminium Angle (6063T6) 1/2 in x 1/2 in x 1/8 in - 2000 mm
2 Aluminium Angle (6082T6) 1 in x 1 in x 1/4 in x 2500 mm
1 Aluminium Square Bar (6082T6) 3/4 in x 3/4 in x 2000 mm