Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

Made a hiccup when extending the holes for the 3mm rods on my last session, I simply drilled too close so left the outer edge is a bit knackered on the top & bottom panels, I'll re make the affected panels moving them further in by 0.5mm so might need to get more 3mm aluminium, not sure yet.

Showing the 3rd revision of the hdd cover pieces a bit clearer, still unsure about filing the 2 layers above to be the same or to bevel to the 3rd layer.

Marked & drilled the first 2 mount points on the stand cover which makes the whole look more together.

Then held the cover in place & poked a sharpie marker through onto the acrylic.

Drilled & bunged brass inserts in.

Testing & getting more marker points added.

Decided to use the top mount points to share the way it mounts to the stand so it's screwed in on both sides, had to shorten 3 screws by about 3mm.

To get the accurate marking of the upper mounts I just squeezed the assembly together & drilled through the brass insert on the drill press with a 2mm bit & then took apart & used a 3mm bit.

Put it together & it was nice & solid piece ready to install.

One tiny problem though, the custom fan pass through hole on the cover is I'd say about 1mm too low so it won't let me slide the HTPC in/out so it needs some careful filing so it will allow it to slide in/out, going to be difficult making sure it doesn't produce a significant gap spoiling the look.

I think it looks so much better with the covers, enjoy the shots. :)

I'll fix any of the mentioned issues in this update on my next session. :)

Absolutely gorgeous work. Love it. Can you elaborate a bit more on using those brass inserts in acrylic? Those look really handy. Are you simply heating them with the soldering iron and pressing them in, or are you screwing them in while heated?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TLHarrell

Absolutely gorgeous work. Love it. Can you elaborate a bit more on using those brass inserts in acrylic? Those look really handy. Are you simply heating them with the soldering iron and pressing them in, or are you screwing them in while heated?

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Thanks TLHarrell, :) they measure about 4.5mm at the thickest point where the spikes are & 3.8mm where they will just sit in the 4mm hole, then you press the soldering iron onto it guiding to keep it going straight it as it sinks below the surface, the heat causes the acrylic to swell raising the surface a little & then if needed I file that down so it's nice & flat again, they are really handy for easily adding reliable threads in acrylic. :)

Thanks, man. I'm gonna have to get some of those ASAP. I've got several projects in acrylic that need to be screwed and I hate tapping the stuff. Sounds terrible and cracks way too easily.

Keep up the awesome work. Can't wait to see more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TLHarrell

Thanks, man. I'm gonna have to get some of those ASAP. I've got several projects in acrylic that need to be screwed and I hate tapping the stuff. Sounds terrible and cracks way too easily.

Keep up the awesome work. Can't wait to see more.

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Don't think I've ever tapped acrylic before, can imagine it being problematic though, those inserts are awesome. :)

Sorry for taking forever on replying, I needed a bit of a time out, this is mostly a status update & an early look at something I'm going to make as an interval project



Here is a preview of a HTPC I'm going to make before I continue with lean & green, it's for my dad & I want to get it completed before he gets home from Australia in February.

It holds mini-itx, sfx psu, 2x 2.5" HDD, 1 3.5" HDD, 140mm fan & marble power button new improved mini version, :D the form is simple & the cut work isn't complex so should be able to get it done quick once I start. :D

Because of where I made the psu sit I went with regular expansion slot height.

Slot for ventilation under the motherboard.

Got all the hardware & aluminium ready & waiting for action, everything in the design is covered this time so it should be a nice enjoyable project that I can quickly do before I step back into steep challenge mod lean & green.


I also upgraded my main rig to 2 670s in SLI after selling a bunch of parts I had getting no use :) but I lost my SLI bridge so had it performing as 1 card for a week, the SLI bridge I ordered came today though so I'm eager to have a good play with it, tried a run of 3dmark11 & heaven & wow it kills my previous 580, gave something like 3x the performance, so is an awesome upgrade. :D

Designed a dual layer homer eating his way out of the rig grill but I made the mesh holes too big so doesn't look too great, much smaller mesh holes & it should look OK, requires quite a bunch of hours to do though so some other time for perfecting this grill. :D

In more neutral colours.

With just getting the SLI bridge I'm going to resume modding on new years day or when the acrylic tube arrives so I can be 100% sure of accurate measurements, was going to get right onto it today or tomorrow but I only just completed this side project design & it would do me good to take some more days off so I can go at this new project mentally energised & not neglect my gamer side, would you believe I still haven't played all the way through the witcher 2 & I bought it on release day. :)

I must have just got bored waiting for the SLI bridge with doing the homer grill. :D

Here is the tweaked updated model with scrapped double 2.5" drives, relocated SSD which will also make cooling better & internal e-sata HDD dock replacing the double 2.5s which can be switched on/off with easy remove mini side panel, side & top panels plug in place with little rod stumps by the way so the slots cut out will provide grips to pull them out, front, back & bottom are screwed in place.

The rearrangement gave some more breathing space too. :D

SSD relocation which will also aid in directing incoming air down to the motherboard.

HDD dock side has 2 side panels for quick easy access to the dock.

The sliding spring loaded block with gripper.

Bit of structure hidden to show it better.

One more look before I do this thing.

I'll make it printable & then enjoy the rest of this year before getting into it, I might or might not start before new years day, depends on if I get a sudden urge to make something or game on until new year. :D

All the best everyone. :santa::up:

Have you had a chance to re mock the homer grill with smaller holes?

Also do you know how you'll go about the grill because even for you it'll be a horrible job haha and that is another ball start button I see?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stonerboy779

Have you had a chance to re mock the homer grill with smaller holes?

Also do you know how you'll go about the grill because even for you it'll be a horrible job haha and that is another ball start button I see?

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The homer grill is 2 layers & I've not got around to doing it again, takes so long to do that it wouldn't surprise me if I could make it faster than design it but that's due to making the separate coloured sections where in reality I'd just make a stencil set & then paint & could actually do it as 1 layer.

The most difficult bit would be having to manually cut the semi circle mesh holes that merge with the frame, the rest could just be drilled.

I pretty much did the homer grill while waiting for the SLI bridge. :D

More, please

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheGreatSatan

More, please

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This is paused for the moment, I'll continue as soon as I complete this side project. :)

I'm having a Midlag Crisis. :D:up:
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...551#post374551

Re made all the motherboard trays overnight, seems I didn't account for the extra 1mm allowance for the motherboard IO shield so had to squeeze motherboards into place, they are good now, done it for Midlag Crisis & both systems in Lean & Green, also added a light line for the PCI/IO piece on the ATX mobo tray. :)

This goes back to paused now. :D

Been stocking up on new hard drives too, would have stung me so much if I bought them altogether so I bought 1 whenever I could afford 1, got the last 1 the other day, the HTPC in this will now have 14TB of storage, bought Hitachi Touro external USB3 drives, they have 5400RPM cool spin drives inside them, got 3 4 TB ones & a 2TB one, I'll have to hack them open voiding the warranty but I'll get a pile of spare parts & I saved £80 on each one vs the OEM drives. :)

LAG by name LAG by nature. :D:up:



I grouped many of the pictures together trimming from near 1000 to below 100 in 8 updates which I'll do 1 per day & already started new progress on it so I can seamlessly move over to current progress & I'll post this everywhere I post that was interested as a recap to properly resurrect this project.



Design play for a modular dual PC to cut back my power usage, yup it's heavily detailed but I wanted something that lights my eyes up whenever I look at it, :) low power for when I don't need it which is most of the time & power system for when I do, will save £200 off the electric bill per year which sadly so far I've missed out on £400 which could have paid for the ps4 I want to do a case for, that's the downside to knowing what I'd have saved & taking a year break from this one while I do another project to help get my mind recalibrated. :)

Coupling section.

HTPC

ATX system

Altogether with pedestal which I'll make 2 draws shorter for mystery reasons which you'll see eventually. :D

Materials, some of the bars was 4m long so had to cut them in half on the stairs so I could move them to the cellar, this load weighed a lot especially the 10mm plate.

I worked the project going from most difficult or time consuming working my way through to the easier stuff so the project would get easier instead of harder, this is the 10mm aluminium plates & I realised how much I had ahead of me so I just had to try & switch my mind off while I did it as if I was sleep walking (modding), which helped. :D

Turbo speed video of 1 of the coupling pieces being cut.




These ATX system side panels took ages to do.

Back HTPC panel.

Back ATX panel.

Front ATX panel.

Group hug & stack o parts. :D

Awesome more progress on this :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stonerboy779

Awesome more progress on this :D

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Only a year later lol. :D
Still really don't know how much longer it will go on for but piece by piece it will form together. :up:

Started printing my designs using an a4 printer so had to precisely cut & join the templates, huge time saver & produces highly accurate templates, I use sticker sheets because glue spray didn't work too good for me.

Parts for the ATX PSU section.

Remake of the ATX front panel to support a fan controller.

New fan controller panel.

How it will look.

The ATX PSU section curve pieces which will have rods going through the holes.

More ATX PSU section panels.

Switcharoo of the PSU fan guard because the stock one made it too high & I wanted to test how difficult the fan grill would be to make, practice that turned into a part of the project, won't be seen though.

Wasn't going to make feet for it, felt no need to but with many saying it's top heavy I designed & made funky feet based on a flying squirrel but not just any flying squirrel, mighty flying squirrel that will hold up a heavy load. :D

The parts all interconnect making them really strong, also used rods for holding pieces in place, aluminium dowel rods.

Recap 2 of 6 complete (cut it back to 6 instead of 8).

HTPC little front power switch section with a lot of detail in multiple layers.

HTPC side detail panels.

Pattern panels to friction fit into the coupling piece.

First I made them a perfect fit.

Then cut the patterns out.

Put in place.

How they look with the extra detailed pieces.

Loose fit.

3 more to go before regular progress.

Dropped the ball on the daily updates, dermatitis has come back due to prematurely stopping applying the ointment but I hope it goes away ASAP & I will try to not let it prevent me from making new progress.

Luxury jumbo power switch because I had to use my pinky to switch Stealthlow on (16mm vandal switch) big 40mm ball based on how vandal switches work, :D I wanted it to sit flush through the layers so had to countersink the insides of the layers with files.

Designed & made a bunch of replacement fan controller knobs because the stock ones were plasticky & boring plus I wanted to see if I could even make them with being so small. :D

Made the rear IO/expansion motherboard tray pieces for the ATX & the mini-ITX with low profile expansion card size, drilled expansion card mounts & used hot soldering iron to sink brass thread inserts into the holes.

These motherboard trays were remakes, previous ones were 1mm off with not accounting for the IO shield that comes with motherboards.

The assembly for the marble button.

Fixing the button assembly in place & fixing more panels together.

Squigly on bit-tech pointed out the spindicator LED mod to me & Riekmaharg2 on bit-tech really helped me by making the electronics part of the Spindicator leaving the LED soldering to me, I'm a total newb on electronics but seem to be good & happy with that fact other than knowing a large chunk of my imagination is untapped potential so I blag myself I'm happy about being an electronics newb, it works somehow. :D

Simplified the wiring a bit by making a copper washer I drilled holes for the negative pegs of the LED's to go through & I later caked liquid electrical tape over it all making it look real messy but insulated it all to prevent short circuits, cut a bunch of acrylic discs & pasted transparent vinyl's to them so I can select the colour with whatever looks best which I won't know for sure until final assembly.

Spindicator in action.

Few videos of it made with a kodak pointy shoot with 720p high fuzzyness, not high definition :D want to upgrade my canon eos 1000d to a 550d so I can shoot nice clear video because videos can say a lot without saying a word & I like that a lot. :D






Made a case for the spindicator electronics which only just fits in next to the HTPC PSU.

2 more to go. :D

Ladies and gentlemen, the evolution of a true modder:

Then:

Now:

By the way, those knobs are incredible. :bowdown: +rep

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueonblack

Ladies and gentlemen, the evolution of a true modder:

snip

By the way, those knobs are incredible. :bowdown: +rep

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Thanks Blue :D just trying to not think of what I might do after this one, something smaller lol. ;)

I slipped up on the updates so to get it right here's another 1.


Mounting the coupling plates to the bottom plate, had to retrofit templates in place with not including mounting points in the initial design, this made fixing everything together a lot more difficult.

Mounting support bars to the top of the coupling piece, wanted to use 3mm but was all out so went with 6mm bars.

Back to the squirrel feet adding pegs to the front making it a good solid fit, they are also fixed in on the short ends so they don't move about.

Optical plate mounting.

Added rod & grub screws to bridge the gap from HDD section to motherboard section.

Added the layers to let the mini-ITX tray slide in/out.

HDD sliding slots to replace a HDD box I made but wasn't quite right.

Fan perch & more sliding slots.

HDD trays.

Sticking the slots in place & mounting them to the panels.

Works nice but more work will be going into it so the power & sata plugs don't have to be touched & I just slide the trays in/out of place hot plug style.

1 more to go, then I can carry on at normal pace. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Waynio

just trying to not think of what I might do after this one...

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Oh dear God, I'm painfully familiar with that feeling. Can't even finish one project without planning the next.

I'm that position right now also. %$^*#^&*!!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueonblack

Oh dear God, I'm painfully familiar with that feeling. Can't even finish one project without planning the next.

I'm that position right now also. %$^*#^&*!!!!!

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:D I have a ps4 or xbox one in mind to redesign. :banana:
PS4 looks a good design that shouldn't have a meltdown from what I've seen so the only reason I have to make new case is to get rid of all the plastic so might try & make the same case but in aluminium & a few more details, silly probably but why not lol.

Final catchup update. :)


Fan perch, fan just slot on top of it for a good snug fit that has no movement but can be lifted off for maintenance.

More work on the optical plate.

Both pieces in place.

Now the rods for the front corners, they all had to be ultra precise lengths & some of them needed drilling directly in the middle so I made a drilling jig to help on that, typically need a lathe for this kind of drilling, not got one so had to improvise.

Now, the piece I love, aluminium blades on these prolimatech fans, expensive, noisier & not as good performance as akasa apache fans but I couldn't resist the aluminium fan blades, perfect for the custom fans I'm doing, full aluminium fans, yes please. :D

First bunch of rods went in OK, the tapped ones.

The 3mm rods though I drilled too close to the edge of the panels so 3 easy panels need remaking which will let me fine tune the design of these corner rod parts to be spot on.

Work on the curved & bent front support piece & a fan mount for the ATX system which I did some rough but good enough milling with the drill press.

The sharp bends I wanted made doing the curves smooth really difficult, might remake the piece from 0.5mm sheet instead of 1mm so I can do it perfect & instead of using screws to mount it, JB weld to the support piece.

More work on the curved front & that brings this up to date.

Few bits to remake & tweak, then I can start making new progress, already started on new bits though so should have good new progress along with fixed sections for first new progress update for a year soon. :D

Wow, this is one seriously awesome custom build!!! :bowdown: The all aluminum fan is ludicrously awesome in its extravagance of attention to detail.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Waynio

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Just looking at this makes me feel insignificant.

Carry on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheMainMan

Wow, this is one seriously awesome custom build!!! :bowdown: The all aluminum fan is ludicrously awesome in its extravagance of attention to detail.

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Thanks Main. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueonblack

Just looking at this makes me feel insignificant.

Carry on.

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When designing this I didn't think for 1 second of how long it might take, figured it looked good so just threw myself into it, was only when I started cutting the first few panels I realised this is going to take a while but bought the materials & dedicated to it so wasn't going to back down from it. :D

Back to normal progress, completed a couple of new pieces for the ATX system, the expansion area cooling mount, used lexan because I had no clear acrylic.

It's been a fair while since I designed this & realised the panel I made would have covered up anything inside too much & also cancelled the fan ducts so I could have more expansion height space if needed so I tweaked the design to properly accompany the changes & made a new one.

Been a while. :redface:


Making spacers.

Square bars for the ATX framework.

Disc sander broke down so slapped a face on it & got a new one.

All 28 fan layers done.

Front & rear ATX panel remakes, needed extra internal space for the change of cooler & fancied a different front, but a nasty deep scratch revealed itself on the rear panel when I pulled the protective backing off, that'll need a heavy sanding session.

Subtle differences.

Bought a sheet metal roller for doing smooth precise curves since I had to buy a new disc sander, step backwards, 2 steps forwards. :D

Some change of direction because I had to make it likable for myself again for 2014.


One piece triple 140mm fan component which slots & clicks into the frame.

Out the box layered fan along with desktop saver stilts.

Changed the pedestal to a shorter shelf unit without walls because of the xbox one being a wide load with an extension to the top of the HTPC for a ps4 shelf & a TV mount.

Designed a multi layered HDD backplane for the HTPC.

Yep I still have the silly stack as an option because I at least want to photograph that option since that was the idea from the end of 2011.

Focusing on doing bigger chunks of progress from here now for updates so they'll be few & far between rather than bitty regular updates, wish I did this from the beginning but I didn't so oh well. :D

Hi all. :)

It's grown up a bit, yaaaay. :D

No progress shots, been getting stuck into it with wanting this complete before 2015.

Designed & made a very tall (2.4m) shelving unit, blu-ray rack/cable stash unit, another shelf unit & hide away keyboard desk under a shelf for a massive expansion of places to put things in a smaller space.

More when I've got more to show. :)

Good to see you back at it! I've been missing this project.

That's a pretty slick looking desk area you've got there. Are your walls actually patterned like that?

You're case is looking very organic yet industrial at the same time, loving the look!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TLHarrell

Good to see you back at it! I've been missing this project.

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Had so many timeouts but I'm really back onto it now, thanks. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheMainMan

That's a pretty slick looking desk area you've got there. Are your walls actually patterned like that?

You're case is looking very organic yet industrial at the same time, loving the look!

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Thanks & yeah I painted my walls like that, bit different. :D


Been sorting the framework to get the gaming rig together, still a way to go but can pick it up by the lower rods like a trophy, load of filing & sanding & a little more framework to do now, had to do the curved pieces twice.

I'll do final assembly shots so it can be seen how it all goes together since I've skipped progress.

The detail in this is terrifying glad to see it progressing once mpre

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stonerboy779

The detail in this is terrifying glad to see it progressing once mpre

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:D Thanks mate. :)

Done extra framework using the optical drive as part of it, added the fans & side windows & fan controller window & added holes to the mobo tray.

It's getting closer. :banana:

Popped the front window in place.

Awesome. I am honestly still blown away by those knobs. The whole thing is obviously a work of art but there's something about the effort and originality involved in something as simple as a knob that really appeals to me.

I can only hope I live to see the day when this thing fulfills its purpose. :)

(Unless its purpose is to make me feel inadequate, in which case you can stop now.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueonblack

Awesome. I am honestly still blown away by those knobs. The whole thing is obviously a work of art but there's something about the effort and originality involved in something as simple as a knob that really appeals to me.

I can only hope I live to see the day when this thing fulfills its purpose. :)

(Unless its purpose is to make me feel inadequate, in which case you can stop now.)

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Those knobs was at a time where I really liked a challenge & didn't care about how difficult the designs would be :D future projects will be simpler than this one. :p

I still hope to get it put to use this year, it'll happen as long as I keep at it regular like I've been doing lately. :)


Triple fan mount begins, so many rods cut, drilled & tapped, I'll try to complete it tomorrow, should be a sweet solid piece that snaps in place by tiny magnets in the ends & in the frame, hopefully they'll be strong enough to hold it firm. :)

Just test fitted the triple fan & I don't like it so will stick with the noctua fans, the wire clips won on easy maintanance, took a picture of it installed though.

So I've put it to use.

Specs
P67 MSI motherboard
i5 2500k @4.2ghz
Noctua d14 heat sink
8GB DDR3 @1866 Samsung low power
4GB GTX 770 SLI Gigabyte windforce
Corsair 860i PSU
Prolimatech, Akasa & Noctua fans
Lamptron fan controller
256GB Samsung SSD
1TB WD black
DVD optical

So much metal. I love those bars to hold the CPU cooler in place. Very cool. the fan controller looks awesome where it is as well. Great work.