Scratch Build – In Progress WORKLOG: 'IOU' – GAM's QubeLok Cube Case with IO connectors facing Up (Apr/Aug 07)

GAM, how do you will do to sound isolating? It will be some acoustic material you'll use?

Also, you don't tell the colors of your work. Will you paint it anyway? The drawing in first page don't tell so much about it.

Thanks,

Pedro Torres.

 

Hey Pedro, thanks for you support and complimentary words

I'll be lining all the interior panels with the following from MNPC Tech (click for details):
2x SONEX Mini Willtec Acoustical foam sheets


LOL, everyone is asking about the finish... For the moment, I like the 'brushed' aluminium look and intend giving the exterior some more consistent brushing and then either 'clear powder coat' or several coats of 'clearcoat' to give it a good durable finish and add a little depth and lustre. I just love the shiny alu and black combination so much that I find it hard to contemplate other finishes. But, as these things evolve and minds change, anything could happen in the future. The panels are removed easily enough and can 'refinished' any number of different ways.

Cheers
GAM

ps. I should apologise as I haven't been back to the first page since I started this. I will put that down on my list of things to do... 'update first page'

 

The polished aluminium gets really beautifull. It's a good choice. I badly can't wait for the updates.

Do you have any idea of how much of this foam you'll spend? It seems to be a little expensive, but, your case will be a real silent one.

Nice mod this one.

Congrats,

Pedro Torres.

 

I agree. It's a great read and worthy of archiving for future modders.

 

Ha! I voted and it went up to 5 stars!


H.B.

 

couldn't of said it better myself anyway keep up the great work

 

It's a five star or what?!

Your work desirve it GAM.

Congrats,

Pedro Torres.

 

Hey THANKS guys! I really appreciate the comments and support... realising what the voting system is all about, I'm glad to get the votes too. Thank you.

I must apologise that I haven't had any updates lately, I've very busy with business matters... but I'm hanging to progress the case.

Cheers
GAM

 

Workshop - Day 29: It h1ng3s 0n M3

Workshop - Day 29: It h1ng3s 0n M3
Note, click on images for higher res. versions.

Finally, I am back with progression on this case. It's been a while, but I've had good reasons.

Mostly a thinking and experimentation day today, with plenty of time on the drawing board redesigning the hinge mechanism for the motherboard side panel (left side). I wasn't happy with the original system as it had a few flaws:
1. The holes in the vertical tubes where the hinging screw hinged was irregular and had too much play, which gave an unsatisfactory open/close action
2. The hinging point wasn't close enough to the outside, which meant that the attached IO panel on top would catch on the top-left corners of case (hard to explain)
3. The release/removal procedure was awkward—a little too fiddly to unscrew the hinging screws which held the removable panel in place.

Experimentation with horded bits and pieces
Hunting through the various aluminium and plastic tubes, I was looking for a suitable hinging piece that would fit nicely into a piece of 10mm x 10mm x 1.6mm u-channel aluminium. The first idea that I actually tried was a piece of plastic tube over an M4 button head screw-can be seen loose in the left of the picture and above the channel in the next pic. This was slightly oversize and meant filing down which I was trying to avoid. I went through various steel and plastic spacers and various other options until I realised that the head of an M4 capped socket head screw was almost perfect. It was slightly oversized, but I fixed that with a little improvised turning…

M4 to the rescue
I mounted the M4 capped socket head screw in my drill press with the head exposed, switched it on at a medium RPM and hit it with a smoothing file - (pics laters). The result, a perfect fit with good clean rotating action-see below. The piece of 3mm alu flat bar which the screw is attached to will be cut and shaped appropriately and attached to the side panel. The u-channel, or alternatives that will come later, will be fixed to the inside of the vertical tubing of the case.

​

U-channel recepticles
I came up with this idea, but later scraped it too.

​

Notched flat bar recepticles for M3
Instead of the u-channel recepticles that were irregular and difficult to make, I decided on trying some notched flat bar which is easy to make regular and also allows for height adjustment by a slot in the centre for the fixing screw to the case. Also you will notice, I have also gone with an M3 capped socket head screw which allows the hinging centre to be closer to the exterior and yet still provides sufficient strength.

​

I started by slotting the end on the table saw, but then relised that a drill hole and some filing would be much better.

​

Example of how it will fit with an M3 screw. The piece of flat above will be cut down and drilled and provides the mechanism to secure the sidepanel and provide the release function.

​

Eliminating the rattles
Anyone who has constructed a case using enclosed tubing like this will know that you end up with rattles from the waste material from drilling etc that gets trapped inside. My solution: 10mm hole in one of the bottom corners and then some appropriate tilt-rotate-shake action.

​

Best not to have all that rubbish rattling around inside your case, eh?

​

Connection decompression
Of the beaten track again… this section of the tube frame had separated slightly which was causing some dimensional errors. With a clamp compressing the connectors into the tube properly you can see the bowing of the back panel. I detached the top panel rivet to relive this and will make the necessary corrections to the panel later, but while I had the tubing/connector exposed, I decided to add a countersunk screw to help keep the connector and tube correctly inserted without a panel fixing.

​

Hopefully I will get the hinges done today as I really want to move on to other things, but little design/function issues like this really nag at me until I have resolved them.

Later,
GAM

 

Workshop - Day 30: Still hinging, but it's not in the balance... yet
Note, click on images for higher res. versions.

Glorious… but I spent much of it at the computer and in the workshop, with fist under chin

Drawing board
Despite wanting to get up super early and get stuck into some work (paid work), I slept in and subsequently couldn't help myself going back to the drawing board and resolving/finalising some of the details I was left with yesterday.

Refined design details and new dimensions to work with. Ignore the overall shape, it is the location of the pivoting M3 socket head cap screw and the recepticle that I am really concerned with.

​

The workshop… hinge recepticles
Despite my efforts yesterday, I started again from scratch on the left and right hinge recepticles for the fold-out motherboard tray side panel.
Two new drilled and filed slotted hinge recepticles… or seats. Not really sure of the correct term (I should have done engineering at uni rather than dropping out of school ).

​

I've drilled 4mm holes in the recepticles, but for the moment I have used M3 button head screw to secure them. This allows some play and adjustment which was planned. The screw size and corresponding threads in the tubing may change later if I deem the M3 fastening inadequate.

​

Hinge pivot points – M3 Socket head cap screws
You've seen enoug of my techniques with a scribe and the table saw so I didn't bore you with the details getting to this, but here you can see the result of some notching/slotting with the Triton workbench table saw and subsequently lots of fine filing to get them just right. As will be seen later, the extending radius around the screw must be dimensioned correctly so as not to interfere or fowl with the external panel which this sits behind.

​

Secured to the left vertical tube of the frame with a single M3 screw.

​

An example of the action of the hinge and the reason for the notch. Note that the M3 pivot point socket screw is located in the slot of the hinge recepticle. The first pic shows that a little more filing is required on the outer radius as it fowls with the out panle ever so slightly. That said, every other part of the movement is perfect—no other fowling.

​

Here the hinge brackets are held with double-sided tape, connected to the existing, but to be replacedm sidepanel. The location on the right is reasonably accurate, but the left hinge fowls with an existing rivet and doesn't sit correctly. You get the idea though.

​

Boring I know, but essential for the quality and unigue design elements that I'm trying to incorporate into this case.

May not update again for another week, but hopefully I'll manange to fit in an afternoon or two during the working week.

Cheers guys and have a good week!
GAM

 

Glad to see you back in action, the quality of your logs set a standard for everybody else to follow.

Oh, and you're work's not half bad, either.

 

Thanks B[x], very encouraging and appreciative words.

 

Absolutely fantastic case :O Keep it up!

 

Cheers Jegerjon!

I'm flat chat trying to meet a deadline this Friday, so no mid-week modding unfortunately. ...come the weekend though, watch out buhahahaaa

 

Nice job on those hinges and the quick release mechanism for the bays! "Boring"?? Not the least, I for one, love to see the thought/creation process behind ppls work. I also applaude you for designing you own hinges in the first place. Originality is the ****!

Keep it up!

[edit] heh, I said the s-word <=D [/edit]

 

Big thanks MtB! Haha, tutt, tutt, wash your mouth out

Those hinges have to be completed this weekend so I can move onto other things... sooo looking forward to the weekend.

Thanks again for the kind words and very glad you appreciate the 'extra' content.

Cheers
GAM

 

Well said MtB

Great seeing you back at it GAM! Look forward to seeing what transpires from your time in the workshop soon

 

This is quite a piece of work. The worklog leaves nothing to the imagination.

Congrats on the contest win!

Does anyone know of someplace stateside that might sell Qubelok or a knockoff? **EDIT ** After much searching and reading worklogs linked to other worklogs, I found a place called www.8020.net that carries soemthing similar.

 

no update in the last month?
this is grat work please UPDATE

 

@mnpctech, I can't believe it has been nearly 6 weeks since I last touched IOU! Oh the guilt. If you can believe me, I think there'll be some progression again soon.

@maxinflixion, good find (80/20). Their 'Quick Frame' product looks the same. They also have additional profiles that I didn't realise were available. Good luck with your creation.

@widmod, refer to '@mnpctech' above. Hopefully soon

Cheers
GAM