Scratch Build – In Progress T.R.O.N [V4]

Hey. Yer' doin' great.

 

DOES THE MOUSEPAD REALLY DO THIS?

 

Light tape looks great, so does plex pieces!

 

THAT TRON KEYBOARD.....

Can i ask, does the LightTape plug into a standard 4 pin molex connector?

 

very nice can't wait to see it finished.


wolfie

 

Looks great! I love the glow that the EL strips give off.

Couldn't help myself...

 

Me likey

 

Oh boy I love the colours

 

Nice work so far dude that will be a neat case if this all works out. the lighting looks ace top job

 

I debated long and hard on what thickness to go with, but after looking up what the average PC case is manufactured from (scouring the details on Xcase.co.uk) which typically is .96mm or 1mm thk Aluminium or SECC/Mild steel and reading this thread - http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=191040&highlight=metal+bend , I opted for 2mm. Easy enough to work with (cut and bend) but more rigid than your typical case material (very tough to bend by hand as I found out with a tester strip). As mentioned in the attached thread the strength mainly comes from the bends. The piece of aluminium I'm going to use is one continuous sheet with lots of bends/folds in it (tabs too), which will be epoxy glued together and pop-riveted for extra security/strength. The acrylic being 5mm thick and essentially an extension to the aluminium (being glued together) will add even more strength to the case (I hope) as well as hide all the pop rivets. It might be a little overkill but I'm hoping this case will last for a long time... well, least till the next project

I hope so... will find out soon enough, I believe that the set is due out for sale very soon, been a long time in the waiting

The Light tape just comes with bare wire +V/0V line. I just used a spare molex connector and wired it for 12V. You have a selection of DC Voltages / PSU's to choose from, can even go a.c if you wanted. As a warning though, the more tape you use the larger the PSU gets (they are sized based on the load i.e area of lit tape you intend to use) but theres a chart in the download section of the lighttape sight for guidance.

It had to be done

 

nice build

 

That's the Aluminium cut completed. Not much to say about the cutting, just used the sandwich of MDF as described on the previous post, aligning all the cuts with the jigsaw, then clamping and zipping along with the jigsaw. Next to come, the bit I'm dreading, bending that sheet of Aluminium into the main structure of the case. My main concern with that is the degree of accuracy and aligning the tabs with the main section etc.



The sheet before cutting.




The first cut, not too bad, fairly close along the line I drew and pretty straight. The Guide really does help keep it neat. Just a quick file and should be good to go.




The finished product.


A trip to B&Q tomorrow for a couple of vices and some wood to make a homemade bend and brake.


Enough work for one evening though, time for the pub me thinks!

 

Yeah yeah show how you make the brake please!

 

Armagetron better be the first thing you install after Windows..

 

Or space paranoids...

 

I would love to say that what I intend to do here is unique but there's no real big secret on how to make your own bend press, here are two sites that give you two very different means of achieving the same results:

http://www.ch601.org/tools/bendbrake/brakeplans.pdf

or

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=127450


I intend to use the second method, simply because it’s cheaper and more adaptable for bending metal that already has complex bends along the other edges of the sheet (by cutting notches into the wood or sawing the wood to the lengths required). The only thing I intend to do differently is to use my heat gun to soften the Aluminium slightly first to make it easier to bend.

The toughest part will be getting the long rounded bends which you would typical require a roller set up ( http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12-1/2"-x-32m...973024&cguid=6349fe281240a0e20273cd93fffb3046 ) which I don’t have or can afford at this moment of time. Was thinking in using my mould for the acrylic, heating the strip of metal with the heat gun and hitting it with a block of wood and hammer around the bends in the mould. Will have to practice a little to see if this will work, otherwise its back to the drawing board on that one. Might have to make my own roller set-up, which will be an interesting challenge.

 

Both will be on the list!

(Will be installing Prime, Vantage, RivaTuner and RealTemp first though as I'm dying to see what I can OC the CPU and GPU to and see how the cooling setup deals with the temps )

 

Cool project...looking forward to more updates

 

Cheers, appreciated!

Just had a look at your own project, looking good! Love seeing logs on SFF cases. Not even finished this project and I’m feeling the urge to start designing again.

Unfortunately I'm off to Inverness this afternoon for the Loch Ness 10km run first thing tomorrow morning . Not to worry, I'm off work all next week and guess what's on my agenda , though will have to take a day or two’s break to treat my wife out at some point to make up for my obsession .

 

Wow this is looking sweeet, especially with that light tape