Scratch Build – In Progress Project FiveWood - Complete!!

Thank god...monkey, thanks for the props. I am working on finishes as I go along with the rest of the project. I actually put some sanding primer on the motherboard tray last night. The bad news is that it darkened the wood a lot more than I anticipated. I still have to sand that and then I will put a clear coat on it. If it lightens like I hope it will, then I'll just clear coat it to protect it. I'll post the results of that experiment.

CC

 

Very nice, I like the sketches. And the wood looks real good.
How could I have missed this mod...

keep it up.

 

You have some UN-sanely beautiful work going on here!

 

back to it

Okay, I am back in the groove. I have been a little wrapped up in getting my workshop ready for some new equipment. I have made some progress though.

Although I have mocked up the Barkley-panel's function in software, I just had to do it where I could make sure things would work. Here I have mocked it up in tiny scale.





You can't check things like this too many times.



This is what I'll settle on. I'll use GIANT nails hammered through holes made like so





The Barkley-panel alone is taking as much time as anything else to-date. I spent more time working on the trim work for each of the four panels.



This is close to what the final will look like (sans copper).



and back to the drive bays. This rather simple setup has occupied too much time as well. I'm starting to believe it's me that's the cause of all these delays. I have the drive-bay completely assembled with dowels and dove-tail groove-slides. Now it's ready for priming.



Here are the drive-bay parts after applying the sanding sealer. Now there will be more sanding and it's poly time!



as well as the trim work.



Here's the motherboard tray completed.



On a sidebar, here's one of several new items adorning my shop. You can't do too much to handle sawdust.



back to the project at hand. Here's the next sub-project I have started on this project. The top-rails.



Here goes my foray into wood bending. This will probably result in wood breaking! I took a stand-in and bent it and traced it so I would have a guide for cutting the supports.



template





Again, I have to do a mock-up. It takes time, but it saves much more time.



Here's the mock-up glued down to some scrap pine as a test to see what kind of force the bent wood will be under.



Since this concept will work, I took the stock rails and cut dove-tail slots (for copper!!)



I marked the walnut using the template so I could get the angles right.




I clamped everything up and drilled holes for dowels. These will provide extra support for the heavy tensioned bend.



On to other things. There were portions of the top panel that just didn't have the quality that I desire. Plus, elements were conflicting with each other as well. Here I have cut a piece of polystyrene for a template to cut the next piece. I'll let the pictures explain the rest.









I used the planer to angle-cut this piece. This is done by putting the piece on top of an already-cut piece of angle-cut wood. I needed this so I can have some tapered stock for other detail pieces.



This is where I stopped. Lots more work to do on the pieces here just to catch up.



This project had an aggressive completion date of 02.25.08. Duh-umb! I'll be lucky to finish this one in April! The deal is that the FiveWood project has turned into about 10 sub-projects. The reason this project has gotten scattered like this results from the elements that depend on each other so that the whole can come together. I imagine that it will all come together at once. I just hope I am there when it happens!

to-do list:

• Finish up back panel including trim for bay area.
  Build PSU enclosure
  Cut fan guards (3) for the top panel
  Finish Barkley-panel.
  Build right-hand panel
  Finish top rails
  Sand all frame structure parts
  Build front panel including function of the ##### feature
  Build wiring duct
  Finish cutting the second ****** and complete trim for both ******s
  Build sand liquidizer for smoothing trim parts for ******
  Finish smoothing big trim femals and figure out where they're going?
  Build feet

Thanks for looking and see you next time.

CC

 

The look of the mobo tray is still very nice. I love the almost rustic look of it! The rest of is it coming along quite nicely as well!

 

and more

Okay, it's been a good two weeks since I've updated anything. I've been busy improving the workshop in addition to working on the project. I have made some more progress on the 'skunk works' part of fivewood and you won't see that here, I promise not to talk about it anymore either because nobody likes a douche bag that talks about stuff he's not going to reveal.

One thing (of many to come) I have added to the shop is a new panel sander (drum sander). I've been drooling over this model for a while and couldn't hold out any longer. It certainly has made life easier. If you don't know what this is, it's operates using a drum wrapped in sand paper. This drum spins as the wood moves underneath. This sands the board evenly across the entire width and length. This tool can be used to reduce the thickness of wood like a planer (when using some low grit sandpaper) or it can be used to provide a nice and clean finish to wood when using very fine sandpaper. The other advantage over a planer is that you can use this on very small parts as well as large parts. I spent a whole evening just making sawdust with this thing. Anybody need a bunch of sawdust?



I did go ahead and cut the fan guards for the top trifecta of fans. The 2 x 80mm and 1 x 120mm. they turned out pretty well. As you can see, these are cut from copper. Copper may not have been a wise choice as it's as expensive as it has ever been now.



I did have to cut up some more stock wood so that I had more options. I have a nice supply of wood, but it is all too thick to be used on this project. I grabbed another hand full of 4 foot boards and split them up before planing and sanding. Here's a big cherry board before I rip, split and have my way with it.



Here's all the boards post-splitting on the table saw.



I split some cherry, mahogany, oak and walnut as well as another type of wood I am trying to identify. Here's a shot of the walnut. I love this stuff.



Here's the cherry all split up.



and the mahogany and the mystery wood.



I could use some help identifying this wood. If you know, please inform me.



I am just about finished with the top panel assembly. I have re-worked parts of it and have gotten the rails fit the way I want. The rails are not secured to the top yet. That will come soon, but there's a few more tweaks necessary.



another shot of the top.





So I started work on the power supply bay. the idea here is that the PSU will be enclosed into a section that will manage the hot air coming off and out of the PSU. I plan to vent the hot air out the bottom and back of the case so that no other part of the case is affected by the PSU heat.

Do the side walls look familiar? They should. Here I am working up the enclosure.



another shot. Take a good look, I scrapped this plan to reuse the V 1.0 drive bay panels and moved on to another.



Instead, I used the mystery wood and trimmed it out with walnut.



for the top of the PSU enclosure, I used a center-piece of cherry bordered by a split piece of cedar and that trimmed with more cherry. Hope this works out like I think it will.



another shot of the lay-up before gluing.



Post-gluing and prior to cutting to fit.





The best way to do this is, again, using a stand-in. I am using some plastic sheeting that stands in well. Once I get it exactly like I want it, I transfer those dimensions to the wood piece.



The finished template.



and here's the final cut top for the PSU enclosure.



and here is how it sits in the box.





At the same time, I am putting in a wire-way to handle the wiring bundle. This will hide the nasty-narley bundle that must travel up the case. The yellow box shows where this will go. Actually it will go on the other side of where this photo was taken from.



here's a piece of light mahogany that I will use for the main vertical for the wire-way.



The same post-routing.



And how it will look from the right side of the case. There's more work to do on the wire-way. This will be posted next time.



That's all I've got to show this time around. I expect to have another update pretty soon. I am putting in some serious time on this one this coming weekend. The project is still scheduled for a mid-April finish and I still think it will happen.

to-do list:

* Finish up back panel including trim for bay area. [not started]
* Build PSU enclosure [in-progress]
* Cut fan guards (3) for the top panel [done]
* Finish Barkley-panel. [in-progress]
* Build right-hand panel [not started]
* Finish top rails [95% complete]
* Build bridges for top-rails. [not started]
* Sand all frame structure parts [not started]
* Build front panel including function of the ##### feature [not started] ##### feature [cancelled for better idea]
* Build wire-way [in-progress]
* Finish cutting the second ****** and complete trim for both ******s [not started, but I thought about it]
* Build sand liquidizer for smoothing trim parts for ****** [cancelled, sand liquidizer was a mess]
* Finish smoothing big trim femals and figure out where they're going? [done]
* Build feet [not started]
* Look into peghole idea [not started]


Thanks for looking and see you next time.

CC

 

Lookin great man! Boy I suck at woodworking lol. Nice workshop you got there also

 

Quilted or maybe flamed maple?

 

verry nice work. Dont thinks get verry hot inside a wooden case ?

 

Just one more post for now

Just one more post for now. Here's another idea I am playing with for the doors. If this is more technically feasible, then I will go with this. Don't frag me on the trim-work getting in the way. I haven't worked that out yet.



CC

 

Beautiful work and great craftsmanship. This will yield an excellent end result indeed! I also thought that it could be cool if you put some kind of soft white light near the fans at the top of the case that could operate by battery or something when installing components since this just reminds me of some kind of real nice house. Perhaps white lights for when computer is on too, who knows.

 

Interesting concept. I do like the white-light idea. I'll test it when I am lighting.

 

I have once again started playing with the idea of another drive bay setup. I just can't settle with what I've got so far. It's a shame because I've put a lot of work into the current drive bay (and it's the second one!).

Bottom line: don't settle!

 

Yoda says "Do or Do Not! There is no Try." He got it wrong.
"Try until you satisfy yourself."
That is why we do this isn't it? Personally I like the closed up one better. The electronics everyone has seen. Show off the woods and your skills.
My $0.02
John

 

I like the closed one better than the new design too ............


Alan

 

perhaps

an enclosed version.

 

Both good, but somehow, I'm leaning towards the more open version of the drive rack. Wooden cases tend to be a bit "heavy" looking, so that would help in that case also.

Oh yes, almost forgot to tell you that the mod is looking really great and you'll be having 5 stars from me, top notch project.

Darkened

 

yes, i agree that a more open look to the internal parts would help take away he heavy look of the case.

 

I like both new designs.. having a hard time choosing between em... but I can say that I think that they are much better than the existing one, imho! =)

 

Lol, I was thinking something along those lines before I got to that part, then I just started laughing.