Scratch Build – In Progress Project: AshTek (Update, 04 July - Motherboard tray & Drive bay)

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been quite buisy lately, have been doing some architecture plans for a friend after work which has taken up the last week, but finally finished them last night.

I have alot to show, just need to write it up, stay tuned for an update tonight (finish work at 4 on fridays ).

 

Right, time for the promised update.

First new renders of the case.








From now on, when I'm working on a piece I'll post a render to show exactly how it fits into the overall scheme of things.

On with the modding:

Here's a quick render of the front panel that I have been working on previously:


The next thing to show you are the two round holes I made for the 120mm fans. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take progress shots of this, but I basically used an adjustable holesaw in a bench drill.

Here's a picture of the holesaw I used:


Unfortunately this didn't work all that well, to begin with I had to weld it back together after less than 30sec usage, the joint in the middle came loose. Another majour problem was that it would throw itself off course just as it finished the cut and actually cracked the rear panel of this case, luckily easily fixable, can't even see the crack anymore.

On to the pictures of the close to finished front panel, I need to finish off sanding the bevels around the circular holes and of course sand the entire surface ready for a finish to be applied.

From the back:


A closeup of where the twin 120mm fans will sit:




From the front:


As you can see, needs a bit more work to get the circles perfect:




Another update a bit later tonight.

 

I would consider using a biscuit jointer if I were you. There is no strength in your mitres. Biscuits would help, and not be seen if you use a #10 biscuit. (#20 may be too large) I personally use a locking mitre router bit. It may not be any use to you unless you have a router table or a shaper.



This locking joint has been used to create wooden dice so it would work in your case. The biscuits all like a small spline to lock the two mitres together. A spline cut would allow you to do something like the locking mitres. There are hundreds of ways to add strenght to the joint but don't expect it to last too long of you just use glue.

 

I am confident that the mitres will easily be strong enough. I built a set of floor standing speakers what I was doing A-Level Design Technology using the same jointing methods. I will consider using a biscuits to add strength, but due to the fact all the edges are going to be baveled there won't be much depth to work with. The advances in glues nowerdays as I said earlier in a post, makes jointing like this increadibly strong, easily strong enough for my needs.

My mate (furniture maker) has confirmed that it will work, just that it can be difficult to glue it square, I think i'll make a quick former out of scrap wood to help.

Cheers for your concerns, I'll take them on board and do some more reserch.

Edit: I like the look of those locking mitres , a bit late to do that now though . I'll definately use that tecnique in the future.

 

Rear Panel

Here's the next panel I worked on:


This is a rendering of the rear panel.

At the top there's a space for another 120mm fan, then ther's all the motherboard IO ports. The horizontal slot is to hold the wooden (MDF )botherboard tray. Underneeth this is the space for the PSU which is recessed 10mm, again to gain all important space inside the case. The Hiper 580W Type-R I'm using has an 80mm exhaust fan.

There have been changes made since producing this CAD model.

I'm not going to cut every port out individually like shown (too much work), instead I'm cutting out a rectangular hole to accomodate the IO shield that came with the motherboard. The same with the add-in cards i.e. graphics card and tv tuner card.

The recess and hole for that fan cut out:


The recess for the PSU routered:


Routering the slot for the motherboard tray:






Overall shot:


For cutting the 80mm fan hole for the PSU, I used my Dremel clone instead of the piece of **** holesaw. Here's my setup in my flat:


Beggining the cut:


It's a very tight circle to be cutting with such a large cutting disk, hence the very messy end result:


But after some sanding, all looks good:


And another overall shot from the back:


That is as far as I've got with the outer shell, but I have finished construction on the motherboard tray, supports and drive cage which I will post in the next week . Sorry for the delay, but this is a slow moving project and I don't wan't to show everything I've already done straight away and then have long waits for the updates therafter.

Cheers.

 

This looks like an awsome project, even though I'm not a big fan of wooden cases.

BTW, where are you getting those drive rails

 

How are you using the hole cutter? Its made for a drill press not hand drill. Its not impossible to use a hand drill but no comparison to the drill press.

 

Cheers. Which drive rails do you mean?

Yeah I was using a drill press. Just shows, don't buy cheap tools, they are usually cheap for a reason.

A couple of shots of where I had to weld the thing together. Did the best I could considering I didn't have the right welding rods for welding carbon steel so it's very messy:




Can't drill that much thickness, 5mm max I think. I had to turn the piece over half way through or the cutting blades would catch on the wood, closeup of the cutting blades:

 

I used mine to drill 3/4" of wood. 5mm is very thin I agree. My cutters look simular to yours. But mine was a $32 USD tool.





I have cut so many large holes with it and its still sharp. I understand that a cheep tool can ruin your day believe me.

 

Mine cost me £5.99 and is capable of cutting up to 300mm diamater holes. Normally I wouldn't buy such cheap tools, but I thought it would do the job for the 5 holes I needed it to do. Certainly tought me a lesson.

It really did ruin my day. Not only did I have to drive 10 miles to my parents to use my dad's welder 10 min after I arrived at my mates workshop, but it also meant a lot more work than should have been required to get a nice cut.

I used an adjustable holesaw for one of my Technology projects in school and it worked great. Got a perfect finish first time.

Oh well it's only a minor setback.

 

Glad to see this coming along nicely

I'm surprised you didn't use the router for the fan holes, however. Surely it'd have been better to cut them in scrap and use that as a template?

Maybe it's just me that uses a router for everything

 

Right, a samll update on the new fangrills I installed on my PSU.

Forgot to take a before shot, sure most of you know what the Hiper 580W Type-R looks like, for those that don't here's a quick picture i found on google:


The Mesh-X fangrills I bought to replace didn't quite fit, so slight chopping needed:


The 80mm fangrill installed:




Closeup trying to show that I had to trim all sides and make the prongs for the screws alot thinner:


.

Had to take the lid off to get the old fangrill out and install the new 120mm one, woha dusty!!


Sorry forgot to take a pic after I cleaned the innards, just imagine the same pic without all the dust

All finished:




There next thing to do to the PSU is change how it attaches to the case. It's going to be secured from the bottom using 4 hexhead screws and some sound damdening, rubber grommets possibly, to aid the low sound requiremnts of this case.

That'll have to wait a while though!

Cheers.

 

Would have been a better option, using a holesaw should have neglected the need for a template though, ah well.

 

Motherbaord Tray & Drive Bay

Sorry for the delay in update, been busy. Well here's the next update -> Motherboard Tray & Drive bay.

Here's the CAD model:


The Mobo sits horizontally at the rear of the motherboard tray. Underneath this there's room for the NEC DVD-RW and my 200GB Seagate Barracuda. Above is space for a further 4 hard drives, 3 of which I already own, an 80GB Seagate for the OS, 320GB & 500GB Seagates for media, each of the hard drives have Nexus DiskTwin's attached to help with silencing. There are also support brackets either side of the motherboard tray to strengthen the entire thing and attach the drawer runners.

To start off, I made the supports, these were cut from some 5mm mdf (mate had some spare, but not what I would have hoped to use ) using a jigsaw:




Image to show how mutch sanding was needed afterwards, not much :


Next I cut some tabs that will help join these supports to the motherboard tray:




I cut two of these, clamped them together and sanded them down at the same time to make sure I ended up with two identical pieces:




Finished:


Next was to cut the motherboard tray out of the same 5mm mdf using a scroll saw:






I then needed to cut out all the slots for jointing everything together:


I later ramade this piece where the slots for the supports didn't go all the way though to leave a smooth finish on the top surface:




With the supports inserted:




Next was the two pices that would hold all the drives:


The middle slot slots into the similar one on the motherboard tray to make a very strong and easy to make joint. And the piece cut off on the top-left is to accommodate the 2no. 120mm fans at the front which protrude into this space. Showing one drive piece inserted:




And finished, inserted into where it will finally be glued into the slots on the rear pannel:






I'm not entirely sure how to finish this horrible mdf, considering either painting to create a glossy black finish, or maybe it's worth just sealing it as none will be visible from the outside. Input hugely appreciated.

In the next update, fitting the IO plate. Untill then, cheers for looking.

 

Woha, looking very good this mod, i like wood-cases! Looking forward to more modding

 

thats one crazy scroll saw! great work