Scratch Build – Complete [Scratch Build] - Victorian Desktop - Mosquito - Completed 2nd Jun. 2015 - Done!

Victorian Desktop​

My wife’s laptop is no longer working happily, so she’s asked for a desktop. Well, I can’t leave well enough alone, so why would I build her one in a stock case (of which I have several laying around), when I could do another scratch build project?!

This case will be another wooden scratch build, as many of my projects are. I have some old cast iron pieces that will be incorporated into this project as well. It’s going to be built out using solid mahogany, and will be finished in a way to emulate a lifetime of use. I don’t really want it to look brand new, as the cast iron parts are not, and we like the look of them as they are.


A special thanks to G.Skill for sponsoring the memory for this project!

 

First things first, I decided to throw most of the hardware parts together to make sure it all works happy before I get too far.

The main idea behind this build is a cube style case, with one side to house an ATX power supply, and the hardware on the other side. I wanted to keep it as compact as I could. I ended up going with an ITX board, a 90 degree PCIe hard riser card, and a low profile GPU.



I know I know, “Stock Intel cooler?!?!?”… Just running on air to make sure it all works. There will be a 200mm radiator once things get rolling.




The Gigabyte Phoenix-WiFi motherboard has built-in orange LEDs on the underside of the motherboard.




The hardware (motherboard + GPU) is about 9.5” (~241mm) in length, which is about perfect for what I’m hoping to do.




The 200mm radiator is the perfect height to match the hardware.




And what’s more, the cast iron grate my wife picked up at an antique store a while ago, is dead on the size of the radiator. That works out quite nicely.




G.Skill Ares RAM 8GB 1600MHz kit goes superbly with the color scheme of the motherboard.




The internal color scheme will be based around the orange, and I will be using orange tubing as well.




Next thing up is to get started on the woodworking! A big piece of mahogany. 4/4 rough sawn, about 8’ long and 14” wide.




Time to get started cutting it up. Next update will be prepping the main pieces of the case.




Thanks for checking it out! I look forward to this project quite a bit (and so does my wife, as she wanted it a month ago…)

​

 

Oooh, this looks good. Is the watercooling through necessity, or just because we love to?

 

Subbed... love these kinds of mods!

 

hi can you write a hardware list? tnk you

 

Thanks guys!

I'll throw together a parts list in the first post, as I go along

 

Looking awesome! Subbed.

 

I'm interested in seeing how you cram that all in.

 

Looking forward to tis one.

 

Very intriguing, interested to see how this develops.
Mos woodwork check, good looking ironwork check and the madly orange illuminated Phoenix ITX mobo for the 'inner magpie'; it's ticking lots of boxes for me.

 

Thanks!

It will be a little tight, but shouldn't be too bad. Unless I screwed up some measurements lol

Thanks

I love the cast iron parts that will be going into this (there's more later). It may be a little tricky to get the woodwork to match with the cast iron parts, as I haven't yet gone for the "old" look yet

 

Right, so time to get thing’s kickin’.



The rough cut board had a bad end when they crosscut it to length, so first things first; cut a nice clean square end and go from there.




I could have used a panel saw (or power tools, for that matter), but I prefer my backsaws for cross grain work, at the bench. The board is wide enough, that the cut angle has to get shallow to get all the way across.




Nice clean end. Now repeat 4 more times.




The 5 main panels all cut to rough size. They’re almost cut to length, but all will require ripping to width.




Using a handplane on the end grain always requires a bit more effort; let alone 3 boards at once.




All 3 will be the same length once done, by clamping them all together and checking for square.




Next up, I marked out the width on the pieces, and ripped them to width.




Luckily although it’s a hardwood, mahogany actually works quite nicely with hand tools. It’s a bit rough on sharpened edges, but that’s why one learns to sharpen their tools themselves.




Next up, a little edge planing to get the edge straight, and clean up the saw marks.




On to planing the face of the board to take out the cupping in it; it was kind of bad. First diagonally across the board one way, and diagonally across the other way, then with the grain.




This process makes quite the pile of shavings. For reference, this is only two boards so far.




Due to the cupping in the boards, these ended up being just barely over 1/2" thick once done. If they had been flat, they would have been about 3/4" thick instead. Oh well, this gives me an extra half inch inside




That’s all I’ve got for now. More work to be done to get the other 3 boards ready to go, then it’ll be time to get these things joined together.

Thanks for watching.



Special thanks again to G.Skill


​

 

Sub-a-dub-dub!

 

I'll be watching this one. Wood builds are my cup of tea...

 

Thanks!

Thanks Voigts. Not sure it's up to your level yet, but I'm workin' on that

 

I’ve now finished flattening all the panels for the case. They were pretty cupped, so there was a fair bit of effort to get them flat. They started at 3/4" thick, and now are a shade under 5/8”. No issues with that, though, as that just means more space (by about 1/4”) inside the case.




This illustrates how badly they were cupped. They were all about the same, coming from the same rough cut board.




I’ve penciled some lines on the face of the board to show the process.




First I take some passes on the outside edge, and work in towards the center.




I start with one wipe on the edge, then another on the edge and one further in, then to back to the outside edge and go 2 more in etc. I work my way across until I almost reach the middle. This means I’m removing more material on the outside than the inside, to help get rid of the cup.




Much better already, though still slightly cupped.




After that, I go diagonally across the panel in both directions. This helps even things out a bit more from side to side.




Now this face is nice and flat. If I wanted to pass it through a power planer now I could, with this face down. Not having one, I just do the same process, except working from the middle outwards to get rid of the high spot in the middle of the other side.




So there we have it, now I’ve got a stack of panels all flat and ready for the next steps.

I also made a time-lapse of working on the two side panels here. It includes cutting and planing them to width, and flattening as shown above. Getting both the panels ready took about an hour to do total.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p6JpiOG84s



Next step will be laying out the opening for the front, and starting to make this thing look like a box…





​

Special thanks again to G.Skill

 

Enjoyed watching the table walk across the room in the video.

Excited to see more.

 

Thanks! Yeah... my bench isn't the heaviest, and the leather pads on the bottom of the legs were all packed with sawdust, so that didn't help. I cleaned them off before doing the rest, and it was a lot better, but still moves. Oh well, someday I'll have either a heavier bench, or a less smooth shop floor... sure beats the old workmate I used to use while planing

 

Alright, so now that I’ve got a pile of panels all dimensioned and surfaced, it’s time to start getting some things together.




So with a combination of squares, pencil, and some guestimations, I put the vent grate on the front panel to figure out the spacing.




The back of the grate has a section further in from the frame that sticks out. This is what I have marked out here. The frame will sit against the wood, and the recess will fit into the hole I cut in the front panel.




To the scroll saw to cut that out




The hole has been cut, and will be cleaned up with some files so the grate fits tightly.




A nice snug fit. It holds in place just by friction, but I will be securing it with screws once final.




I turned my attention to the top panel next. I cut a shallow rabbet (step down) on the front, and will use this to align the board for dovetails.




I mark out the dovetails, cut them out with a handsaw, and then use a fret saw and chisel to remove the waste in between.




I use that rabbet to line the board up, and then use a pencil to mark the pin board (front panel), so I can get that cut and chopped out.




I square the lines down to the depth of the tails. I’m doing half-blind dovetails, so you can see them from the top, but not the front. They’re a little more time consuming than through dovetails, but I don’t want to see the tails sticking through the front once it’s done.




I used my saw to cut just inside the lines marked from the tail board, and cut a few waste cuts in the middle to make it easier to chop the waste out. I can only saw at about a 45 degree angle, though, since I can’t go through the front. Rest is cleaned out with a chisel.




And there we have it. Top and front are now dovetailed together.




Repeat the above process for the bottom board, and now we have top, front, and bottom.




That’s all for this one.



Next time, I’ll start work on the side panels, and get those figured out.

Thanks for checking it out.
​

Special thanks again to G.Skill
[img=http://themodsquito.com/images/worklogs/VictorianDesktop/thumbs/Mosquito_Victorian_Wooden_Desktop_G.Skill_0.jpg]

 

Oh yeah, Victorian craftsmanship. That's what it's all about.