Scratch Build – In Progress Project FiveWood - Complete!!

Those rings are awesome. But I have to ask, you cut the outer rim with the drill bit and then scroll saw'd the interior or the other way around? And how did you get them so round? BTW, if I haven't said so lately, this is a great mod. Well done and keep up the good work, I really enjoy watching the progress...

 

Thanks for the props, I do appreciate it.

For the rings, I used a scroll saw for both the inside and out. This was not my first idea as I had other I thought would work better. I tried a circle cutter with the idea of cutting the inner radius and then cutting the outer radius. Seemed like a good idea, but it turned into a splintery mess.

Anyway, I had the idea to make some scroll saw guides out of stainless steel. Using a waterjet, I cut several rings of various size in addition to the rings I needed. I used these guides by keeping the backside of the blade against the guide as I traversed the ring. Ditto for the inside. These guides also help in touchup sanding afterward.

Why not just cut the rings on the waterjet? Two reasons; 1) it's cheating to cut wood on a waterjet when you own 5 woodcutting saws and 2) strange things happen on the waterjet with wood. All the grain get infiltrated with water and sand. Plus, what's the fun of wood working if there's no sawdust?

thanks again

 

Will you be aligning the grains of the rings with the grain of the panel?

Great work thus far, I'm sure it'll continue.

 

Thank you. To answer your question; yes, I have aligned the grains. It may not be so apparent in this picture, but I'll capture it next round of photos.

 

I see a little split on one of your rails. Hope it does not turn into a problem for you.

 

Yea, it split when I was testing it for flexibility. I've already cut it out and repaired it.

Good eye though!

 

Having a finger removed due to a bandage would be horribly ironic...

Awesome work, the more wood cases the better.

 

Thanks, I do appreciate the props. It's what gets me back t0 work on a project when I'm running low on creative juice!

 

more work

03.29.08

This is gonna be a bigger post than usual. I've been quite busy and, although I feel I've been productive, I'm probably still in the same place I was a month ago. Why? Well, I probably should rename this project from FiveWood to FiveBays. I'm just about finished with the third iteration of the drive bays.

Remember, I am building this case utilizing fly-by-wire design. In other words, I'm making it up as I go along. I have designed a lot of things professionally and personally utilizing very strict planning and design methods. This project is all about doing what feels right and since using your feelings as a guide for anything is a BAD idea, I end up making THREE (or more) drive bay systems!!!

If you remember, her is a recap. Drive bay #1 (the 3.5" model)



Drive bay#2



and now I'm about through set number 3. Why? Set number 2 was not integrating well with the case. Both in the physical layout and the aesthetics.

Here's the log:

So, back to shredding up some mahogany to get stock for this project.



and the wood gets smaller and smaller.



The plan is to cut dado slots for walnut rails or drive rails. Here I have marked on piece so that I can line them all up for dado cuts.





Here, everybody is lined up for dado cutting.



Now, with four dado slots and the walnut cut to fit. I'm ready to get serious. This is the 5.25" bay parts.



and the part for the 3.25" bay parts



I spent some time preparing the burled walnut as well. I won't show all the steps for this, but the stuff just looks so darn good when it's done.



Let's take a moment to enjoy this fine grain pattern.



the 5.25" drive bay completed...no, it's just roughed out using my favorite accessories, double-sided tape. Her I confirm the concept will work.



The 3.25" drive bay roughed out.



The 3.25" bay held together with 2 sided tape.





and now let's check in on the 5.25" drive bay. Oh, it's just a pile of wood now?! I'm prepping this for prelim sanding.



Now for the fun part. I plan to 'hang' the 3.5" bay from the top of the case. It's going to get a little more complicated than that though.







The 3.25" bay looking a little closer to what I want to see in the end.







mocking in some supports.



Here is the 'mocked-up' hanger for the 3.5" bay.





Here's the prototype hanger for the drive bay. I couldn't decide on which way I wanted the 3.5" bay to be oriented. I like the accessibility of having the 3.5" bay open to the sides, but I like the look of the bay when it's open to the front-back.
So, I am designing this one so that it's orientation is optional (insert joke here).



This is where I am playing with the function of the hanger. I'm probably going to scratch the blue tape before I'm done.



The glue-up for the hanger-bay.



another version of the hanger.



Another victim of shot-from-the-hip design. I put this hanger-bay together and completely disregarded the 80mm fan that has to go above it. Here, I have the hanger-bay dropped down 14mm.





The 3.5" bay sides.



The final hanger (for now anyway)



3.5" bay, just tacked together. Still rough around the edges.



with the bay-hanger installed.



Here are the 5.25" bay side panels.



The 5.25" bay mock-up



The 3.5" bay tacked together and hanging to test the function of the hanger system.



Top view.





Here, the 3.5" bay is turned 90 degrees.



Here's the hanger-bay assembly after some sanding. I'll touch it up some more to get rid of gaps.





The 5.25: bay roughed out.





The 2 bays dropped in for measurements. More measurements, I have measured prior to now.



Shot from the front with the 3.5" bay open to the front-back.



Shot from the front with the 3.5" bay open to the sides.



From the right side.



Close up of the 3.5" bay.



The hanger bay a lot closer to how it will function in the end.



Side shot of both bays.



The 3.5" bay after more tweaking.



I've still got a lot of things left to do to both the 3.25" and 5.25" bays, but they are in a good state. I've actually gotten some work done on some other areas too. The slot-rails for the main door panel is coming along as well as the top panel. I'm just not ready to post the pictures yet (spent too much time with the drive bays). I'll have those up tomorrow maybe.

thanks for looking.

CC

 

Looking good!

I have no idea how strong the glue you are using is, but I'm a little concerned about the hanger and hanger-bay being able to support the weight of five hdds over over a long period of time, especially if you're going to be taking disks out and installing new ones now and then. I'm thinking that the movement might cause a weak spot to break. But If you are sure it will hold, then I'm happy... I just don't want you to have a literal hdd crash. <=)

 

normally the glue used at woodworkin is stronger then the surrounding wood ... i dont think there will be problems.

 

I appreciate the thought. Maybe I'll do a fourth drive design...just kidding (I hope). The weakest link in this setup is the hanger itself, particularly the very bottom connection. So let's do the math (because I like the math), 0.25" diameter at 0.40" length = surface area of 3.14*0.25*0.40 = 0.314 inch sq. Titebond III is supposed to be 4000 PSI, but I'll be careful at 3000 psi * 0.314 inch sq = 942 lbs. So, will it stand up to 942 lbs? No way. The wood will break way before that. Well, it's oak and pine and the linear strength of both are high, maybe even higher, but there's opposing forces at play here.

Having said all that and with the ways things go, I could very well have a hard drive CRASH unlike any other because I had a bad glue joint or something similar.

Thanks for the exercise, it interested me any way.

 

Ok, goodie! ^_^

What about the thin areas next to the grove in the middle of the dark wood in this image, will that area be strong enough. Is there glue on the vertical faces between the dark and the light wood, or it is there only a 1mm (or thinner?) layer of wood fibers holding it together? Will that also hold?


Don't get me wrong now, I do like the intricate design and I think it looks great, I'm just concerned about the structural integrity (I'm a chicken, so I usually play it safe <=)). As I don't have extensive experience working with different kinds of wood, I have no idea how strong that would be. But I can recognize a _potential_ weak spot when I see one, and I just want to make sure you have taken this into account. <=)

Keep up the good work!

[edit]
Excellent!! You made calculations, I love it! =D Personally I wasn't so concerned about the bottom part of the hanger, cause of the vertical stress on a vertical AND cylindrical glue joint. I'm pretty sure you would have to apply some serious force to break that joint, that is, given that the joint is good. =)
I see now, that I can now sleep soundly, knowing you're on top of things. =D (ps. I'm not being sarcastic)
[/edit]

 

I do appreciate it and welcome the ideas that keep us thinking. It's what science in-general is all about. Without questioning things like this, people get hurt If I were selling this design to people, I would beef it up more abusive treatment.

One concern I have had with this 3.5" bay design from the beginning is the swing. It will swing without some serious compression springs, but it still swings a little (I tried). SO to alleviate this, there will be a guide rod going from the bottom of the 3.5" bay to the top of the 5.25" bay. This will span a 2" gap. I shall call this the "stabilizer bar". Sounds good huh?

 

I like the way you think! ^_^

[edit]
I _mistakenly_ wrote 5.25" instead of 3.5" in the text below. I discovered my error further down in the thread, and thought I'd correct it to 3.5", so any first time readers won't get a headache.
[/edit]

Aaa, so that's what that hole in the bottom piece was for. Hmm.. is it going to be possible to remove the 3.5" bay from the case? Cause, having that bar going up through that hole will make it difficult to tilt the bay to get the hanger out of the hanger-bay.
I'm thinking that perhaps an "A-shaped" thingy, with it's base pivoting around at horizontal bar going through the front pillars/rods, and it's top pointy side being at the hole in the 3.5" bay, would be a nice idea. Not only would it look great if you made it out of relatively thin pieces of wood, but it would be much sturdier than a long rod (because of it's triangular shape), AND it would make removing the 3.5" a lot easier by just swinging out of the way. =)
Hehe, I hope you understand what I mean.. if not I'll whip up some illustration in solidworks, maya or just free hand it.

[edit]
This is what I meant (click to zoom):

I have some ideas on how to make the shorter bar (I'll call him.. "Mini-bar" *puts pinkie at the corner of my mouth*), that goes through the hole at the top of the "A-piece" and the bottom of the 3.5" bay, removable. You want to be able to pull Mini-bar out of the hole in the 3.5" bay before swinging the A-piece out of the way. You probably understand why.
As for the actual design of the A/V/Tiangle-shape I leave to you.. that is, if you choose to do it this way at all. =)
[/edit]

 

I've read your post a couple of times and although I get some of your ideas, I can't get the entire idea:

And I just thought about it, I won't want to remove the 5.25" bay unless I am doing some serious rebuilding on the case. In fact, the plan is that neither drive bay needs to come out for regular drive exchange. Similar to what you'd see on most cases. The 3.5 can stay in since it revolves.

Make sense? I'm still interested in understanding your idea.

CC

 

Hehe, I'm a total idiot when it comes to explaining what I mean. <=\

Ok, non-removable, check. .......oooooooh, now I see why I'm being so unclear... I meant 3.5" bay when I wrote '5.25" bay'... sorry!

Just to make sure, I'll explain my idea again using the image I made earlier... first, let's get our bearings right.. the two vertical pieces in the pic is supposed to be the two front corner rods of your case, looking at the front from the outside. The 3.5" bay would then sit behind these rods and above the A-shaped piece. A shorter "stabilizer bar" would go through the vertical hole in the A-piece and into the hole in the bottom piece of the 3.5" bay. This construction should keep the 3.5" bay from swinging around. =)

 

Okay, horizontal A shape. That makes sense. May look good too! I've certainly got enough little cuts of wood to do it with. If I use it, I call it the Macros_the_Black horizontal A-frame vertical-bar support structure

 

Yup. Yes I think so to, a nice little design element that also does some good. ^_^ You could even "go crazy" with it and make the pieces connect half-in-half (is that what you call it?) and have the ends stick out, kind of like these wind shielding boards on the roof of this viking house:

The same could be done with the non-angled piece of the A-frame. Hehe, a lot of nice design ideas comes to mind while writing this, but I think I've already said enough. I don't want to ruin the _all_ the fun of designing it. <=)
LOL, now that's a long and complicated enough name for sure (makes me think of how long it took me to explain this properly)! But you don't have to name it after me.

 

nice example for your point. Viking house