Project: Serverama - Frame finishing - 9th Oct

One thing I dont get is why are you fasening the rails with glue? Glue has a tendency to get weak with heat, and 26hdd's are going to generate a fair amount of that heat.


At least if you glue the l-shapes together you should pull out your dremel and scare the meeting sides of the bracket so the glue has a place to grip.

I still say your better off using countersunk screws. but thats my two cent.


Awsome work btw keep it up.

 

After all the work you have already done on this thing, adding 2 screws per rail would be nothing

Nice stuff

 

I agree about the glue, but ive been trying to think of an easy way to fasten them, then the glue is only there to hold it in place while its fixed by another method.

The screws are perfect, except for the middle supports, cant have anything stickout out, hence the countersunk heads, but the other side is the problem. That would result in having to tap each one which is 52 seperate holes, and thats time consuming. Its not so much a quick fix im after, just something less timeconsuming that tapping 4 dozen holes, even if that is the only realistic way of doing it.

 

you dont have to tap the holes actualy. Just drill em out and use some wood screws from one side to the other and when its completly sunk on one side grind down the other with your dremel giving you flat surfaces on both ends and also being able to hold two brackets with two screws.

my two cent.

 

The problem i have is i dont see how suing screws (of any variety) would hold both brackets in place, sure they'd hold one side in, but the other would be sitting on an open ended screw, so you'd need another one to hold it in the toher direction. Also, if they're not tapped then there is nothing, or at least, very little for the screw to grip on to and brace against to prevent loosening, locktite would be no good as there wouldnt be enough surface area between the thread and the metal to work properly.

 

So... when's the next update due?

 

hello.
great mod,
could i be ask a teensy weensy favour please?
would it be at all possible to get a picture of the corners of the case where you've got the 3 'L' extrusions connected at the corners of the case, the thing is im making an office organizer unit, and its going to go into a rack, its made of wood so around all of the edges is to be 'L' extrusion for it so slide into the rack without damaging the wood.
could you take a pic of the corner with a ruler next to it, and if poss a protracter too?
im having troubles getting the corners perfectly 45 degrees, its always a little out on one of the sides and its getting annoying, plus its for school and ive gota go in during the hols to get it completed for my GCSE's!!
it would be greatly appreciated if you could.
thank you!

 

potentially, memory permitting (ive forgotten my camera the last few times (doh)) there'll be an update tomorrow of the new and improved, or "square" case which is actually square, rather than equal on almost all sides Not alot to see, but theres a load of new pits of metal to put together and prep, so thats the next update.

I'll sort those pictures for you, i dont actually think i own a protractor which isnt broken/chipped/scratched. as for the 45 degree corners, theres a special slide rule type jobbie (i know, im great with names) which i use to mark out 45 degrees, then cut it rough and file it down to the exact size.

In an earlier post theres a picture of a jig i made for holding 2 pieces at 45 degrees to each other when i drilled the corner plates. This could be used to check that all the pieces are going to make a 90 degree corner properly. I've got to take a few more pictures of it for another guy, so i'll do them tomorrow too and write up some kind of guide for making it.

 

Right, massive update, 28pictures so again i'll do it in 2 parts, firstly, requests.


bixie_62


Thats the corner of the case where the 3 sides join. To get the 45degree corners on the side pieces accurate i used....


... one of these. I cant actually think of the name, but its handy non the less.


Once the cut is market it give a perfect idea of the angle and wether more filing is needed (and it _always_ is)

Once thats done i use...


... my corner jig to hold the pieces at 45 degrees to each toher to make sure they join perefctly before the brace is drilled. In your case where you're attaching it to a wooden frame, you could still use this to check the accuracy of the cuts.

To make one, take 2 pieces of your angle aluminium and a small piece of flat aluminium. Cut the 2 pieces so one looks like this...


... use the tool (really should find the name, answers on a postacrd...) to check its 45degrees and cut the other piece likewise to make a corner of 90 degrees and use a standard corner square to check.

Make sure the aluminium base is also square and drill 2 holes in each side piece to fasten to the base. then put them on the alu base, and drill through, then pop-rivit.

Get 2 pieces of your aluminium angle and cut them to form a perfect corner, check in the jig too, but dont rely on it yet. Once they're accurate put them in place and take a sqaure (or triangle like mine) and make sure that is also 90 degrees and fit that tighly against the 2 pieces to hold them against the back of the jig. Clamp and drill, then poprivit this in place too. And in true blue peter style, heres a picture of one i made earlier



This should be enough for yours, if anyone else needs to make braces tho, take another triangle of alu the same thickness as your braces, and put that ontop of the first triangle. To fit it, first make a perfect brace, put that in, and then put the piece on top of the triangle and drill it, pop rivit, and you're done. The only other thing i'd say would be to mount the whole thing on a piece of wood, the alu is ok, but it can bend if its not 1/8" thick (iused 1/16" and it bent). that way it wont twist and ruin it.

Any questions, ask. Antoher update to follow with work that been done.

 

THANK YOU!!!!!! thank you mr phat ass!! lols.
yup. will make one of them 'jigs' tomorrow when i go in to do DT during the hols!ARGH! lols.
but kewl mod and thank you!!

 

Right, actual work, and such.


This is case as it stood, almost square, just one side to change, but thats not important atm.

In the front there'll be a lip which sticks out the front to mount a door or something more in the way of a grill, if not a door for the fans.


The lip is made of 4 pieces of 5/8"x5/8" alu angle. and this is to be stuck onto the inside of the case, previously i would have bolted it, but the bolts are too far down to work (damn).


Due to the brackets which hold the sides together th pieces have to be cut down.


With them all cut around the brackets, the ends are filed down so they meet right in the corners.


All the pieces fit properly in the case and can be pushed through, although not glued yet.


The pieces protrude from the front by 3/8" and cover the edge of the side pieces and brackets where they have been cut out.


The internal look is also neater now with the Lip installed.


The next pieces to fix are the cross members which hold the back of the HD Rack. These are put in place and clamped securely then drilled through the existing hole in the case as im not going to replace those aswell.


Once in these give a much MUCH better mounting point for the Rack. Before there was a much more complex system. The vertical piece of the rail was held to the side of the case by a small 90 degree bracket. The bolt holding this to the vertical piece also holds another bracket on the other side which holds the cross member in place to support the middle of the Rack. So the total number of joints was 4 to hold the middle in place, now it is 2
The cross member fastens to the case, and everythign else attaches to that.

The next thing is to fix parts of the HD rack in place. However, as ive come to realise, you rarely get pieces of metal the same size. so i checked the pieces i had for the brackets...


...All 20something of them, and theyre not the right size either, but screw it, im too lazy to go get more.


Using 2 pieces of scrap metal 3/4" wide and a mini G Clamp, 4 of these can be held and ground down.


They were quite a bit out

After a couple of minutes they're even enough to use.


Now another problem, i need to hold the blank bracket in palce while i drill from the existing hole. Solution, yet another jig.


A piece of scrap wood with some 1" alu Angle down the side holds the pieces securely at one side.


The Alu is drilled and held in place with a couple of 1" screws.


Fixed in place, the rail should hold the side properly.


Another piece fixed in palce on the opposite side centralises the pieces.


The only problem with this is the 2nd piece is too short so another smaller piece of scrap has to be added to hold it securely.


And it works, thank god.


Once the holes are drilled and half of the bracket is attached, the other piece can be fitted to the case through the same hole as the cross member.


Finally finished for the day, got the middle pieces to fix yet, same with the front pieces for the 2 sides, but its going easier than before.

Another update later this week hopefully.

 

Having some problems posting updates, will put them up asap.

 

That's a cool looking rack for the HDDs. Good metal work!

 

Thanks, i've done shed loads of work today, and typically i forgot my camera, not that it matters as i cant post anything which has more than 2 or 3 lines of text for some reason and my hosting is playing up too, i'll take pics tomorrow and update the last wrok asap.

 

Right, another update. Had some problems with updating, so i'll post agian tonight hopefully with the weeks work.

On with the update. The pictures may not work right now, but im working on it. Bare with me


Finished fitting the new vertical supports for the HD rails. They looks wuite good and much better than the previous method.


The front bezel is pretty much fixed in place without actually being fixed with glue yet, not got around to it and if i do stick them now, it'll only cause problems (more than likely).

Next step is mounting the rails in place again(!).


Using one of the spare 3/4" long L brackets i had from mounting the vertical rails i decided to use it as a spacer to hold the rails at the correct height while it was drying.

Around this time (or at least when i had the idea to do this a few days before) i had a cunning plan, which, while not solving all the mounting problems of epoxy/araldite does make it more reliable.

By placing one of these brackets at the bottom of the stack of rails, the weight is transfered directly down through the bracket to the bottom of the case, so the stress on the expoy is less. and if this were continued all the way up mounting L brackets underneath each rail at the right height, it'll support itself more and transfer the weight down. A cunning plan, whether it'll match a Baldrick (tm) cunning plan remains to be seen.

Never the less i set about making the bracket for the first rail support.


Putting the bracket in this position presents a problem, namely the nut and bolt which holds the vertical rail in place.


And when its put in place over the screw to mark out where it will sit, the piece, as with many of the tohers, is too wide, so that needs fixing too.


After 15 minutes of drilling from 2mm increasing by 1mm each time, then 0.5mm when it started to get close to the correct size, a perfectly places and sized hole is finished. And it fits. I also decided to flip the bracket around so it will support the rail better, and match all the other brackets.


The first bracket is epoxied in palce and a rail is put next to it to hold it easier.


i stuck a clawhammer on the rail to hold it down and push against the bottom of the case to make sure it didnt move.

I actually did this to another 5 rails, and stuck them inplace but forgot to take a picture before i left.

The brackets for the rails are made of 5/8" alu angle and due to a pile of work at the metal shop i couldnt get them to cut it until a week alter, so i foolishly decided to do it myself.

This wasnt entirely successdul as each bracket needed to be filled to take the slight angle off each one as a result of my dodgy cutting and mitre block (its about 10-15 years old). A friend of the family however had a manual mitre box (couldnt find a power metal cutting mitre box for hire anywhere). and typically once i got this, there was no where locally which carried the right length blade with 24 tpi. so i tessted it with the 14tpi blade that was in as it was quite rusted but still reasonably sharp, and it cuts fine.

Next job will be to mass cut all the brackets, as it is substantially faster with a decent cutting system. Then start to stick the rest fo the first side in place, once thats done start on the toher outside edge or the inside section, either way theres a week or so work just in that.

It probably wont be ready for when i need it (*gasp*(!)) only the 3rd or 4th dead line ive missed, but never mind.

 

Pictures don't work?

 

wow, your level of care and workmanship is amazing. keep it up, i like this project.

 

yes yes i know, i ddi say at the begining of that post but nevermind, i'll explain the problem properly.

currently i can only connect o my isp's ftp hosting once or twice a day, i have no idea why but it keep complaining about me already being connected which i know im not, and they know im not, so thats the first problem. Once ive connected, when i try and transfer anything to them, they dont actually move anything, its sits and gradually decreases in speed until it hits 0, then stops and crashes.

I have rung nildram (god bless 24x7 tech support) and they said (or at least, lvl 1 tach support said) "rem, thats complicated, email everything and we'll look into it asap". so i shall and hopefully by tomorrow i'll have a working ftp accepting uploads.

Until then, deal with the X's, and imagine

Cheers, im hoping to have this done for next wednesday/thursday when i go to a lan and need it running to erm... run games servers and the like, yes thats its purpose... with all those drive bays an' all...

Anyway, i'm going to try and find some temp hosting and at least type another post of the work from the last few days up, i might post it and then work on the hosting, you never know.

 

great job - love the fact that you take the time to make jigs. I am way to lazy to do that! really enjoying this thread...

 

hyper cube dechavue (please ignore my spelling)

but good work