"Yuugou" Finished (1 Buy.com Lan pic)

Ha, that's what she said... Anyway, the radiator shroud is coming soon, although its being way more of a pain than i originally thought

I'm going back to school today, another update soon with full scale mockups of the enterior.

 

Alright everyone, i'm back at school and back in business. I spent a bit of time at the studio last night making a full scale mockup of the inner area of the case and I hope to get some good feedback from you guys.

I already think it needs to be more curved. The curves around the white part will have a plexi ring lit with white leds for the top and bottom panels. The middle panel will be lit with a white ccfl. Everything will be black aluminum with the motherboard try being koa veneer. Enjoy.















Thanks a lot in advance guys. I'm working on the front still and i'm thinking of an anodized black brushed finished for all the alu including the front but the front also needs an extra something to break up the blackness. Let me know what you guys think of all of this.

 

Loooking great, thats what I think..

Petter

 

It looks brilient also thanks it also helped to persaude my design and techno for gcse teacher to allow me to make a wooden case

I think its awsome and has a japinese or chinese look to it 10/10

 

very japanese! love it! i remember seeing sangoku? on teh internets a while back and the woodwork is awesome, my oppinion on the inside, the cardboard part should be a high glossed black coloured material!

 

Sweet, thanks alot guys. I think i'm going to paint the cardboard black and try to get some koa printed on paper or something to get an even better idea of what its supposed to look like.

Keep the feedback coming, its very helpful.

 

it'll look sweet with black alu and white leds/ccfl...great idea

 

brushed black alu. sounds great - that will act as a great counterpoint for the wood (which looks fantastic btw).

Are you going to diffuse the light in any way? paper screen?

For the front - what about a small section of inlay (or some engraving)?

 

i like it the way it is now, you got my blessing to proceed with the actual cover

 

Thanks a lot guys.

@Jokkos: Thanks man. With regards to the LEDs around the edges, i'm paying close attention to how you are doing yours with the terminal blocks to see if i can get a similarly clean result. Wiring LEDs always makes me nervous (too many stupid wires)

@tdkwarrior: For the lighting, i'm probably going to use ivory acrylic as a difuser and the same paper i have on the side and top on the outside to bring the outside materials in. I haven't actually tried this yet with real ccfls so hopefully it actually works, it should though.

For the front, it will have something along the lines of what Sangaku did. I kind of want to take a big chunk out of the front plate and make a curved recess in the alu, or at least a recess to give the front a more 3d quality but i have clearence issues inside so i don't know if that'll work. I also have clearence issues outside or i would add something on to the surface of the front.

Seeing the front in the pictures though, it seems like it would be cool if the front was at least partially black since it shows the intertwining of the interior and exterior frames. Whoa, long answer.

@ssR: Thank you very much for your approval. I'm gonna work on and refine it a bit more first and maybe put in a few surprises. I also need to figure out how to get my 1/8 inch aluminum to take the right curve. Sounds like its time for some shop experiementations.

Thanks again, I hope to have an update soon but the quarter is almost over and i have to actually start working on school projects now but i'll do my best.

 

curving aluminium will be easier if you heat it up with a blowtorch, but you can just use some aluminium angles to attach the inner curved side to the outer frame. if they will be on the inside they wont be seen. the only thing im worried about is that if you use bolts to attach it they will use the general expression, unless u use flathead bolts and cover them up with something decorative.

is it going to be bare aluminium or are you going to be covering it with veneer or smth?

 

My uni's shop has one of these http://vansantent.com/sheet_metal_machines/tennsmith_slip_rolls.htm
do you think that will do it or am i showing my metal noobness?

I was going to use bare aluminum with my countersunk flat head socket screws so they won't be that noticable. I want to anodize and brush (like you did) the aluminum too and with black screws i hope it won't be too bad. Any suggestions?

 

ye a slip roll will do the trick but only if your curve is a part of a perfectly round cirle. im afraid it cant do any custom curves. it also depends on the diameter of the curve you want to achieve. those rolls all have some sort of limit.

as for brushing the alu, i never anodized it, just wet brushed it with 180 grit and then clearcoated it to prevent the alumninium from oxidizing. perhaps you could use a decorative veneer strip to cover the screws, i like the general "screwless" look of the case and i'd like it to remain this way, but its just my opinion

either way black screws WILL stand out, if you can get some silver ones it would be less noticeable

 

You can get countersunk screws easily in silver. But as for bending it you can't hand bend gentle cures you have to hammer or roll it. Your unit should do fine.

 

hmmm, i'll just give it a go and see what happens, I really hate my school's shop though. The people that run it usually think i'm an idiot and try to show me how to do things "right". As for the screws, i wanted to anodize the aluminum black so the black screws might not be as noticable as silver but i agree without that no screws would be preferable. In some cases i'd usually use neodymium magnets but i don't think they're strong enough in this case. Also, i really can't cover up all the screws as this thing needs to be removable

 

Hey guys, I tried some stuff in the shop and the 1/8inch alu does bend at 90 degree even though it doesn;t really like it.

On a crappier note, I don't think i can get a gentle curve with the 1/8 inch alu with that roller thing so i'm looking for a new method. ssR mentioned heating it up to make it easier; would heating the alu up over some sort of form work? Or is there an easier method?

 

a form might work, but make it a more aggressive angle than you are looking for, the alu will spring back a little. if it is too much, you can always push it onto the floor or other hard surface to straighten it out some.

 

What's the radius of that 90 degree bend?

You could press the aluminum between two forms and then heat to anneal the stresses. Just be careful not to melt it. It melts like solder. No change in appearance before it goes liquid.
Some sort of roll press and a flat surface below could also make it curve slightly.

 

Thanks guys. How much heat do you think it would take to make it easy enough to get a nice curve (like the one in the pictures) with a form? Also does heating up the aluminum effect its ability to be anodized?

@Javerh: the inside radius is basically nothing, i used the big press brake to do the bending. The outside radius is right around 1/8inch if not less since the aluminum stretched a little bit (without braking though thank goodness).

 

i use inox bolts, may I recommend these over the plain stainless bolts, they look much nicer. They also go better with wood imho