Plexiglass I went to Home Depot and bought 4 pieces of plexiglass. They were 24x18. Once they were cut to size, I needed to clip the corners. I first put them together and did this by hand... Here is a close up... And the finished hand cuts... But that was too time consuming. So I made a few adjustments to the table saw and cut the corners on it. Here is a shot of the case with the 3 sides put in. I still have to build the access door for the last side. Here are the models for the Power supply unit, DVD and 80mm fan. Here is a close up of the fan. The next step is to cut the holes for all the computer components. I'll start with drilling the holes for the motherboard. The trick to drill holes in plexiglass is to go slow, about 200 rpm max and take your time. There is nothing worse than cracking the plexi. Next would be the holes for the fans, IO devices. More to come...
Layout lines Here are a few shots of the lay out lines for the front. They will be walnut as well. The plexiglass will be covered in gold leaf. Still trying to decide where and what color to put lights on this thing. It will be in the living room near the TV, so everyone will see it and I don't want a lot of lights blinking, when the hard drive is moving. Probably just a single power light on the front, along or as the power button. The gold leaf will be a little tricky, I've already done some samples... will have to take a few pictures... I'm not sure if I want the highly reflective look or the older "weathered" look. More to follow...
Weathered. After all, the Fibonacci sequence IS rather old. Seriously, it could look good either way. I figure that's one of those things that only you can decide since you see it in RL and have the vision in your head. In my imperfect vision from a distance, I think weathered would look better.
I'll take some shots of the test pieces and let you see what I'm talking about. I'm partial to the weathered look, since, as you said, he is old and the time it would take to burnish all the sides, well... it would be a lot.
Couple of test pieces Here are a couple of test pieces. Although they look a little like brass, they really are gold. This is the first one I did, just sprayed the adhesive on, let it dry and then added the gold leaf... Not what I orginally expected but it was fun to practice. With this one I took more time and smoothed out the surface... Still not the shiny look, but getting closer. Lastly, this on I wanted to see if I could tape off areas and still get the effect I wanted. Not sure on the outcome... Here is a blurry shot, but it shows more of the gold color.
The title of this project gave me flash backs of high school. As for the actual case, WOW! amazing skills and quality workmanship! I also think the middle one looks best.
Middle one too! Got the half-weathered look in a genuine way imo. Superior craftsmanship, wish I had your skills! Good luck with the project, I'm eagerly following it! /Frido
Jig I had to make a jig to cut the slots for the top and the bottom. Here it is. I had some scrap pine around and made up this simple jig. The rails go in the slot in the middle and are held in place by the walnut stops. Here is a shot of the four top rails routed out. And here is my router... Lastly, here is the finished top.
Thanks... and there will be more to follow. I just finished to top and bottoms today. I may be able to get the pix on later tonight, otherwise tomorrow.
