Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build -------56k warning =D-------

[Waynio]

Feet are looking good and love the little alu guy

Thanks Jacks I know it's dragging on all this cutting but wow I didn't quite think it would take me this long, epicly underestimated it all.

40% complete feet. More exciting cutting but it is good progress so I'll shut up.


















I'll try to finish these tomorrow, not much more to do & will have the first bit of filing to do on the front pieces of the feet.

[Jacksb4]

Looking awesome and good to see your fully applying yourself now
But for goodness sake man, take a break, I won't mind, honest

[dexta211]

Looking really good mate, consider me subbed!

[Waynio]

Looking awesome and good to see your fully applying yourself now
But for goodness sake man, take a break, I won't mind, honest

Thanks Jacks, it's ok I've caught up on needed rest & right back into it.

Looking really good mate, consider me subbed!

Thanks dexta appreciated mate.

Progressed a very good bit for the feet, all I need to do now is 5 drill hoes going about 7mm into the plates ends but then I need 6mm aluminium rod, I could buy some or I could sand down the 1/4 inch rod I have, cut a few pieces & JB Weld them in place & these feet will be rock solid but I'll save the JB Weld for after anodising.

Also then need to do some well placed holes for mounting the front plates & then mounting holes for attaching to the bottom panel.


Did these 2 yesterday.




Completed the other 2 today so that's the set, next stage for these 4 pieces is a big filing session to get the angles how I want them.


Last 2 side legs.


Drill helper in action.


Finishing the holes to desired depth.


More cutting.


More sanding.


Ta daaa, interlocked.














Parts pile grows again.


I'll try to complete the feet tomorrow if I can, thanks for looking.

[Waynio]

Decided to start doing more actual WIP pictures but don't want thousands of pictures to upload over the course of the log so I'm starting to bunch them together either in 2s or 4s so it shows a more complete progression & showing full pictures for finished pieces or near finished, I'll put a / in-between descriptions of each picture cluster.

It's cool in the cellar but not like 0c or below like it was in the garage when it got colder which made me leave my camera in the house so I can keep it aside on every session now without worrying about it causing damage, even my mp3 player used to crash when over in the garage because of the cold, it's probably about 10c in the cellar virtually all year round, really nice temperature to mod in.


Back to hand tools woo hooo which let me use my full force, I missed it so much really, it exhausts the body which is a way I'm far more used to, whereas the scroll sawing exhausts the mind mostly with having to go at it's pace instead of my own so that tires me more than this, this just calls for regular recovery breaks & more showers because it makes me sweat a lot & it's cool in the cellar, usually need a fleece on.



Here they are just after carefully scoring them with scalpel & ruler so I have perfect lines that won't come unstuck while they get filed. / Templates removed showing the lines. / Harsh file, medium file & soft file. / It begins.


Busy / busy / busy lol / done 1 edge.


I was having difficulty clamping the small pieces on the workbench so decided to cut up to the peg holes in it so I could get them further in, the peg holes are supposed to act as a type of clamp but I never use them because they are rubbish, so no loss & all gain. / It worked excellent, I had to place a bit of same height scrap so I could catch the angles right.


Busy / I find throwing my leg over helps to prevent back ache & lets me throw more force into it.


Done the filing stage of 1 of these pieces, I started late & it was getting very late so called it a day, up next for these is a quick drum sanding session which will make them very nice.


A few pictures of the result.






And I have thought of how I can fix these to the legs without making it an impossible assembly which could be tomorrow if I start early enough.

Next update should be less wordy too, just had some things to mention with changing the style of the log a little.

[Waynio]

Taking a little longer than anticipated to do the feet, what a surprise.

Filing / Weren't the same as each other which I expected with them being complex-ish & only doing a partial template. / Clamped them both together & filed them to be the same or at least very similar.


Pretty nice I think after a few swipes of the drum sander on 240 grit.




Tried doing the small pieces the same way by clamping them but they are too small to do that so I first tried to grind them down on the disc sander, didn't seem a great idea so fixed up a massive vice which was wasting away in the back yard so I could file properly, I used a little of the grinded angle as a guide for what angle I needed to file at & then finished off on the disc sander, these small pieces were far more work than the bigger triangle pieces but all parts are now ready to fix together.




I then got my drum sander on the go in the drill press to make all visible edges a bit nicer, they still need more finishing but they are quite nice now, the smaller pieces mount upside down to how they are in the pictures.








I'll try to complete the feet tomorrow, careful bit of drilling, cut a few rods & it should be a pretty simple process, would have done it in this session but I was feeling wasted so called it a day.


Sound card came today.


Found another place which had the extra drum sanders in stock, a rocking horse specialist shop so I cancelled with the one I been waiting about 2 months for & bought from the new place, should have them soon hopefully.

[Waynio]

At a stage where I need to be extremely careful so I don't screw up the effort to cut the pieces so I made a new drill guide to support 6.5mm bits now because that's the needed size for the 1/4 inch aluminium rod so have a load of 6.5mm & 2.5mm guides for rods & tapping holes, also the square bar I use for this is 3/8 inch thick so 0.5mm too small so I made it up with about 5 layers of masking tape on both sides.


However drilling deep with a power drill is still too unpredictable with a 10mm thick guide, I'd guess maybe a 30mm guide is needed for deep straight drilling, I'll make one for further deep drilling later in the project but this went ok just about & got my rod pieces plugged in.


Plugged & slotted all pieces together & was flipping perfect, I was really happy & still am.


This one I have to explain in words because it was difficult & I couldn't be bothered messing with the camera, it was pickling my head & was getting late & I was wasted once again.

Then had to mount the underside front bevel pieces, I sat & stewed on how I should do them for quite some time & then just decided to make them join the bottom stand panel, I first placed masking tape along the line for where they should mount, drew rough lines for where not to drill, then dotted 6 marks to drill on the bottom panel, then came the tricky part, aligning it right & clamping it so I could do starter holes to finish off on the drill press into the bevel pieces, I used 2 stacks of 10mm aluminium to support the bevels & spent ages getting them aligned & clamped properly, then finished off on the drill press, then used my quality new dorma 3 stage taps (awesome BTW), countersunk the panel & installed, was perfect.


The stands bottom panel just slides into place nicely.


On with the pictures of the base & man am I glad this went ok, could have easily been a wreck with 1 faint wrong move, it was pretty intense doing this today so have no doubt doing all the rest of the fixings will be similar.






























So yeah only screws for the base are on the front small pieces, was a nice challenge but it's back to scroll sawing next time, these feet will get further finishing done on them but they are totally functional now which I'm happy with.

[Waynio]

Started on the HDD cage for the HTPC & started the fan mount stand, all 5mm black acrylic, also cleaned up the workshop (needed it).




Might get them stuck together before I go bed, might.


Ordered the rest of the mini-ITX parts, Asus E45M1-I DELUXE on-board CPU/GPU & Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB & 4x 20w per channel fan controller & because I don't trust fan controllers after a couple of meltdowns a dedicated 92mm fan to cool it, fan controller is for the gaming rig. I'm Broke again.

[Waynio]

I should have gone bed lol, finished sticking at 5AM.

HDD's slot in place on plates, 4 HDD 1 SSD. I first seen this method done by oliverw92 on his POLARity case mod, I liked how neat it was & said at the time I want to do that & now I am.







HDD cage almost done.

7AM HDD cage able to handle it.
Just done a loose fit test to see how it all looks together up to the stand... But no sneaky peaky yet.

[Waynio]

After doing a loose fit the other day & seeing it kind of together I just couldn't keep it to myself so while waiting for a delivery today I did it again & took a few pictures & remember all of this is fresh raw cuts that are to be cleaned up a lot & there are a few more decorative pieces to be made.
And yes the back panel is on the wrong way around & so is the PSU rather than have cables poke out the front.






I'm not 100% sure but think the edges of most parts are like 0.3mm too big or about that so just need a faint sanding on edges, just glad nothing is too small because then I'd have a problem.

I was going to use some different methods for fixing things together but it's probably silly & not worth the extra effort so I'll do same old screws to begin with but the option will still be available for the alternative tool less version but screws will be visible in places but won't have to use a screw driver for maintenance other than securing expansion cards, everything else will click & slot in place by the time I call this complete which is still a long way off I think.

[gray.woodford]

dude that is looking awesome already, you have some great skills keep up the good work

[yassarikhan786]

It's been a while since I last checked this and my God the work you have done is utterly amazing. I can really see that your metal working skills are improving as the cuts and everything looks perfect. Awesome job man!!!!

[msparsons]

Looks like a stove/fireplace! In the best possible way of course ^^

[Waynio]

dude that is looking awesome already, you have some great skills keep up the good work

Thank you gray, appreciated.

It's been a while since I last checked this and my God the work you have done is utterly amazing. I can really see that your metal working skills are improving as the cuts and everything looks perfect. Awesome job man!!!!

Thanks a lot yassa, was an awful lot of boring saw work still have some to do but I'd guess probably at least 80% of it is done now & a tiny bit of 3mm left to do, a little 2mm & a little 1mm so is in easy territory now.

Looks like a stove/fireplace! In the best possible way of course ^^

Cheers msparsons.

Just got the mini-ITX mobo, 8GB RAM.

Installed on the mobo tray & powered up to make sure all is ok & it is, the RAM goes perfect with it too, it's got the sweet efi bios on it too.






I sliced a piece of the tip of my thumb off when cutting some bread earlier.

Hopefully the tip missing from my thumb won't prevent me from carrying on, was only a 3mm loss but will need to be well covered when doing anything for a bit while it repairs, just glad it wasn't more than what it was. Blooded thumbs up.

[msparsons]

You do all this metal work then cut yourself slicing bread...typical xD