Thanks. Will be working on it regularly now until it's done.
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Thanks. Will be working on it regularly now until it's done.
but...if you finish, we wouldn't have anything to look forward too. ;)
regardless, i cannot wait to see how this turns out. keep up the good work, mate. :)
OMG! You have to see this! I didnt get to spend a LOT of time in the studio but I did get several hours in. But within those several hours I made the back portion of this compartment and it is FRIGGIN FLAWLESS!!! I can't believe to it came out so well. I mean there was like 2 mishaps but,... just read a see. 40 pics! LOL!
Feb-02-2007 (Blackout)
Taken a shortcut. Before I use to razor a line on the aluminum and then file to that line and then make all my measurements from that straight edge. Wll this time,... I used the ruler and the router:) Done in seconds:)
Router cuts through it like butter. nice and straight.
I cut out the general size from the larger sheet after cutting the one side of the larger sheet straight. Now im going to do the same thing for all the sides.
You cant see it in this pic but the edge is lined with tape on on that tape was a line. I split that line in half with the router. Seriously.
All sides straight as hell.
400 grit wetsand on both sides.
Polished?!?!? Having trouble trying to figure out the whole polishing thing. In this pic,... it looks kind of hazy right? Well,... thats because it is! LOL. I tried using the table grinder the way I use to do it. Wasn't coming out right. So I rigger the buffing wheel up to the drill press and ran the wheel at a slower speed and thats what you see in the pic. It's good because there are no buffing marks. But there are tiny little scratches giving the hazy look. After that I threw one buffing wheel on the table grinder because last time I had three of them together on it. It worked great. I think you just have to keep clean the wheel and only use one wheel to do your final buffing. I didnt get a pic of it all super shiny but the you'll see the final product in a bit.
Ok,... taped off the aluminum to protect the surface. I marked my lines and cut away the tape.
Notice the double lines. This is where the bend is going to be. I'm going to cut away some material within the double lines to get rid of the pinch point. It will bend nicely. I did this for the brackets for the xPO/ sPL order.
Cut everything out and now im filing it all down nicely. God I miss this.
Stupid camera,... all nice and even. Lovely.
All done and ready for the removal of materail for bending,... hmmm?
Yes,... I useda dremel for this task. Had nothing else to do it with. It worked nicely but very inaccurate. didnt like it.
Bending the tabs fost. Bending towards the grooves I cut. I uses my hands to bend this entire piece. It was still a bit hard but I'm strong:) I got it. It did bend a lot easier because of the grooves. No doubt about that.
All tabs bent.
Now because the aluminum springs back a bit I wasn't able to bend the tabs at 90 degrees becauase of the fact that the bending jig whatever was 90 degrees. It would have to less for me to achieve the 90 degree bend the first time soooooo,.... I'll bend them a bit more by hand. You put the tab FLAT on a surface and push down hard foucing all that pressure on the bend and not the tab. While doing that you bend a little until you reach your degree. If you just try and push the tab it will bend and wont bend at the,..... bend?!?!? LOL. Make sense? LOL.
There all tabs at 90 degrees.
After doing the same thing to bend all the sides,... this is what you end up with. How cool is that! Look how perfect it is.
Off with the tape!!! How friggin nice is that! OH,... forgot to mention that I marked and cut this thing on the wrong side. So the buffed surface is on the inside instead of the outside. Thats ok because I just went ahead and buffed the other side, tee hee. It looks great but does it fit! Ho s@#$?!?!?
It's good!!! IT'S GOOOOOOOOD!!! Oh my god it's good. This thing fit better then I though it would! It fits like a glove! All the first shot too! My measurements were on! Even my 1/16" bending factor worked. thats cool.
Fan in place.
!!!
Wait a tic,... oh s@#$. That lip isn't suppose to be there! DAMN! I mixed these two measurements up. Was suppose to measure 1" fromt eh back not the front. Oh well,... have to start all over.
This is the way it's suppose to be,...
!!!
Taped it up again. the piece you see exposed needs to be cut away.
Lucked out. The scroll saw fit nicely in there. It's in it's top most position so it will clear.
All better. Thats how it's suppose to fit.
Oh yea. flush.
So nice. You see the top right hole. It's messed up a bit right? Tjhats from not drilling a pilot hole first. Pilot holes people! Key.
Damn,... that was a crazy number of pics. Phew. It's looks like I'm going to be able to go back to the studio tonight. I'll start and finish the front piece. Well,... depending. The front is going to have deisgn work cut out of it. I have to figure out what I want for teh design. I am was thinking about making another of that LED cover window thing on the one side of the front cover for this thing. I need to atleast make another one of the LEd window things. I cant say I really like that window thing though. what do you think?
After you polish your metals, do you apply anything to them to keep them clean from smudges, fingerprints, etc?
No,... atleast right now I dont.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdbnsn
Ok,... here's what I'm going with,...
You like? OH! I forgot my camera at the studio when I came home the other day so I was not able to update:( So when I go today and come home tomorrow there will be two updates. The first one is somewhat small but still nice. Today I plan on getting a lot of work done! So this is going to be a huge update.
Ok,... a very late update. I forgot my camera at the studio when I left the next day. So her it is. It's very small but kind of cool,...
Feb-03-2007 (Blackout)
Here's what going to be the other piece or ront piece of the fan box. I got a much better shine this time around. There are still some light light scratches on it from sanding but they can be hardly noticed. This plate is literally a mirror. Later on down the road I want to figure out how to get thee most perfect shine! I need something softer to buff with.
Taped the whole thing off to protect the finish. i really need to get some paper mask. I dont really like using the tape like this. I need paper mask.
I finished drawing out the pattern in which to cut and fold.
I added the holes for mounting and the holes to hold the lower box thing together. Rivet holes.
A small stupid update. Check out the next update,... it's much better.
Ok,... this update is cool. check it out.
Feb-05-2007 (Blackout)
Here's the design I went with. Just like in the pics of the paper mock-up but I switched the number of grooves around on each side. I like it this way better. Before it seemed like there was tomuch on one side. I think you'll like it this way too. I drew the design out on the aluminum and cut away the tape. Looks cool with the shiny aluminum pooring though.
Drilled all my holes.
Everything here is cut out and filed nice and smooth. It was fairly quick with filing because I was cutting right up next to the line,... cutting hairs, literally. So thats less to file.
First bend. How nice is that! It was a lot harder to bend because there's more to bend with this piece. I had to use a board to bend it. Also,... I wasn't able to cut the bending grooves as deep because my dremel crapped out on me. I fixed it though.
Look at that bend! So nice.
Next! Hot.
Look how dead on that is! I love it! You see the paper towel? You see how its rolled like that? Thats to focus the pressure on that specific area to bend that piece in a bit more.
The paper towel wraps around to keep from scratching the piece.
All done. All is bent and holy s@#$ is it dead on! I measured everything and it's exactly what I planned! Dead on.
Here you go! No tape. Riveted. Done.
How cool is that!
The grooves on the fan box match the grooves on the front of the HDD shield.
