Scratch Build – In Progress Project: One Life (update 26/04/09) Frame test fit

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem)
Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 or The Bloodrage
OCZ Gold 6GB DDR3 PC3-10666C9
GeForce GTX 285
Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB x 2
Corsair TX 650W ATX


- The Inspiration -
My MNPCtech entry


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The hardware will be coming sporadically through the build so will most likely change as prices come down but as it stands now that's a rough guide of my parts hit list. Hopefully that should all work well together and give me a serious performance boost from my current P4 rig. If anyone has any advice on different / better parts feel free to say or slap me silly if something doesn’t look right or fit in that list

This will be my first mod/scratch build and although other DIY projects have been and gone successfully over the years it’s needless to say I’m a little apprehensive about jumping into the deep end and having never worked with plexi. First I figured that if the planning was 100% accurate then it would all just fall into place but hey where is the fun in that!

Failure makes for an interesting read so I hear

 

Just to be safe I grabbed a load of old card from work and made a really rough model of the case as a guide for how it should all fit together. The next day I was greeted by a messy pile of card... apparently masking tape is only good for a few hours lol




The sample pack of plexi arrived and after alot of trial and error combined with hours of asking my wife the same "how does this look" question I finally settled on these 3 colours.



So it now came time to finalize the measurements and place the order... 3 days later and this arrived. Seems like the guys at the plastic place have a dirty addiction to McDonalds! I would have enjoyed cutting it all myself but as there’s going to be a few parts that need cementing together I thought it better to play it safe… Still the good old £45 drill press and jig saw will get some use when it comes to fan holes and cable routing.

 

Today I made a start on the hard drive caddy, this was really a test piece to get a feel for the material and see if it will bend to my will or if it causes me to lose my hair by the handful!

With the plexi all marked out it was time to move over to the £45 power craft drill press. I made a start by drilling some pilot holes to help guide the hole saws. I'm using a 72mm one for the 80mm rear fan and a 25mm one for the cable routing hole.



Gotta say that I was surprised how clean the holes came out actually, still going to need some sanding but not a crack or chip in sight. After that I moved onto the fan mounting holes. (thanks goes to Bill over at MNPCtech for providing an awesome template)



So all done and happy with how it was flat now came the bit I was dreading .... the bending
I've read countless good and bad posts about bending plexi and it really worried me now that I was holding a lovely fresh cut piece in my hand but hey better now than never! There's no pics of the bending process but it involved a heat gun something heavy to hold it down (lack of spare clamps) and a square. Gotta say that it was a minor disaster leaving me with alot of work to fix the 8mm of excess on one side and a minor buckle on the corner but at least there both true 90 degree bends and the holes didn't distort

Threw in an old fan and hard drive that was laying in the garage to find that it fits perfectly so took a few teaser shots of how its looking now.




That's it for now but with another 2 days off for Easter there may be time to do some more

 

woah looking good already mate, subscribing to this!

 

wow. finally someone start the scratch build from the mnpctech case design contest.

looking forward to this.

bookmarked

 

This is one of the cases I remember from the contest thread, really glad to see it built.

 

Thanks guys/girls, there's some great entries in the comp and I cant wait to see someone build Scoobys! now that would be a real beast

 

Very good planning, good luck!

 

Have been waiting and waiting for this. So subbed. Looking good already, what did you use to bend the plexi?

 

There's an old bosch heat gun at work that only works if its set to max so had a play at using that. Then when it was hot enough to bend I got the square out and held it at 90 degrees until it set into place. It turned out ok but not perfect so Think ill make a jig from timber and reheat/shape it though and then use the jig process for the rest of the pieces

 

Amazing!
*subbed*

 

I jogged through the contest thread and your build was my favorite. I was hoping you'd actually build it.
Looks good so far.

Subscribed!

 

Looking good, love the color choice been wanting to do something with red myself.

 

Great work,this is going to look amazing when it's finished,sub'd

 

Good start! I'm going to be following this.

 

'Sup.
Bends are a beast. The thicker the material, the more it wants to buckle. coming up with a mold for both sides would help you.

I like the color choices. The smoked tint should make it more subtle.
For the front bubble...
If you haven't found it yet, TribalOverkill did a nice guide on how to make plexi domes in his Liquid Evolution log. -And I recently heard that you can boil the plastic to get it heated evenly.

 

@ Cheap

Hey there cheap thanks for dropping by

* Dont suppose you know a way to get the buckle out once its in do you? was thinking about making a wooded jig for the rest of the bends like you said but for this first one would reheating around the jig get rid of the nastyness?

* Think I got the bubble sorted thanks to a machine we use at work

Its a small scale pressure former which takes 120mm blanks so hopefully should just be about big enough for the bubble

 

I have a dirty secret!
I'm a horder!
yep that's right nothing gets thrown away and I'll reuse anything I can so with that in mind.... roll on the next update



So day 2 of the long easter weekend and at 6:30am I was out in the garage making a plan of attack for the mobo tray. The thought of getting a pre made one was pretty set in stone until I set eyes upon an old ally case that's been laying dormant in a spare room of the last 3 houses we've lived in. Time to hack it up and make a free mobo tray

Started off by drilling out all the rivets and just generally wreaking havoc on the old case.



After that with rotary tool in hand it was time for some more butchering! first off was the PSU mount then the fan grill and finally the lips on the edges.



Whilst in a world of my own (dremmeling will do that) the disc snapped sending sparks flying and shards of broken disc shooting all over the place... feeling lucky to still have sight I decided to head into work and pick up some safety glasses.

remember kids

Safety First

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So all safetyed up it was time to finish of the last of the cutting and file it down, here's how it stands now.




Also managed to salvage the scraps of the day and make some of these little things which will play an important role later on, the one on the left is pretty much there on the sanding and the others need to be done





Well that's about it for now, hopefully get an update on tomorrow evening but after that its back to work and weekend modding

 

ah the good ol motherboard tray, how I wish I could salvage more of them Nice progress mate, following this.

 

Well its not overly update worthy and I was hoping to get alot more done but alas I've been hit by the man flu stick

Armed with a Lemsip I headed out to the garage to make a start on the rear panel. Began by marking out the holes for the I/O shield and PCI slots and then moved over to my ghetto bending setup!



Now its not a perfect bend but it is a heck of alot better than my first attempt there's only a slight buckle and its still a true 90



That said.. Ive still been asking myself why on earth I chose to bend so much 5mm plexi

The next updates not going to be for a while as I'll be dragging my limp body back to work again tomorrow lol so any comments / suggestions would be cool so I can think it over before carrying on