Hello to all! After a long walk on the desert, here I am again for another modding project. Probably, many of you don’t have a clue of who am I, or what I’ve done before. For those who don’t, here are the links to some of my old projects: - Linear - Redstak - Asi - This one was abandoned... The reasons for this Project are: - Make a use for acrylic leftovers from other projects, avoiding, when possible, mixes of colors and types; - Make the box “around” the hardware; - Make it the smallest and silence as possible. The hardware I’m going to use is fairly basic, but it will be enough. It has been working for about three years 24/7 without a problem. It has been mounted in a card box for the three years, with dimensions pretty close to the ones I’m building the new box, which allows me to have some degree of confidence in my design. Hardware: - Motherboard: ASRock - Cpu: Celeron - Ram: 2 x 256 Mb DDR - Psu: 250 watts - Hdd: 200 Gb Sata I’ve projected the major components in Sketchup, in scale. Exploded view: As you can see, some of the panels (front, rear, top and bottom) are made from two different pieces. This happens because I want to put in use the many leftovers I have from other projects. However I’ll try to keep the colors and types of acrylic uniforms. The first panels that will be made are the motherboard panel and the pieces to make the mitre corners behind the motherboard panel. These components are the base of the project, it was from them that I designed the rest of the case. The motherboard panel is 5 mm thick and the mitre corners 10 mm. The colors will be explained at a later stage, but I will be limited by the acrylic leftovers that I already have. Motherboard panel measured: Pieces for the mitre corners: Ready to be cut, filled and sanded. As always, your comments are very important to me and I wait them with great eagerness, expecting them to contribute to a better work log. Last, I would like to apology for my poor English, but it's not my native language and I'm a bit rusted, hope you all can understand me. Best regards, Bruno.
@Jelle46 - Thank You Wow!!! The Allmighty Cheapskate in my humble thread!!! I'm honoured. I assume that you also have some acrylic leftovers ....
I'm doing some Arylic work myself coming up here for my case, so I would like to see how you are working with the arylic! How u are sanding and cutting...etc, be a big help to me, even though, I have read a couple guides.
@Cleveland216 Well, when working with acrylic I, usually, use tools made to work with metal. That gives a better finish than tools made for wood working. So, use drills for metal, files for metal, wet n' dry sandpaper... To achieve a good polish, I normally go 100 grit sandpaper, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1200, 2000 and then polish compound normally used for car bodywork. Other than that, just follow the instructions to use the tools, like correct speed settings for drilling (different materials need different speed drilling), to manually cut a straight edge I use a metal guide, when filling also a straight edge I use a metal set-square and go very slowly... If you need a special advice in a special task, ask away, if I can I would surely help. Best regards, Bruno.
Update Some work done in the first pieces: Motherboard panel and mitre corners (no filling or sanding done yet) You’ll notice that the pieces for the mitre corners are different in color, this is due to I wanting to use the acrylic leftovers. Still, I think I’ve found a good solution for that. You’ll see later… This is how it’ll fit together. The motherboard will be on the other side. I apologize for the lack of focus, but this is due to an inevitable use of my phone’s camera and my shaking hands… A bottom corner… All piled up… The tools of the trade: That hacksaw has a blade for cutting metal, for me it’s the right kind to cut acrylic. The cuts were done with a metal rule serving as a guide to my otherwise freehand cutting. I use the square-set to get my cuts straight. And now, some filling and sanding waits for me. Best regards, Bruno.
Update - Kind of Filling and sanding are waiting for me… You can already see the marks for the motherboard standoffs. Best regards, Bruno.
Updated Well, the filling and sanding are going to wait a little bit, I'm not in the mood... Meanwhile, I've been doing the motherboard standoffs. I'm going to use some Lian Li standoffs, they give me the height I need and, as a plus side bonus, they use a metric thread, in this case M3. As I'm threading to 3 mm (M3) I'm going to use a 2,5 mm drill bit. Here she is, mounted on my dremel, which is mounted in a dremel's accessory column drill. The drill used, an example standoff and my M3 tap kit. Done. Close-up. Motherboard mounted. Best regards, Bruno.
