Project: Onyx

Well, here we go. I've decided to embark upon my first mod. I've been building systems for years now, but always bought the cheapest case available that would work for the job and hid it away somewhere. A couple of months ago I built a new one for myself and used the same old boring generic bargain-bin case I'd had the old guts in. I figured why buy anything cool since I couldn't fit it on my desk to admire anyway? Then I discovered this site, quite by accident, and it changed my whole perception. I then found the Ultra Microfly SFF case with windowed sides and thought I had my answer. I would just buy that and sleeve my cables, add lights and some UV-reactive glitter and all would be well.
Not so. This case is extremely cool, but it is TOO SMALL. With two hard drives, two optical drives, an ATX power supply and a 20-pin to 24-pin adaptor cable (the PS came with the bargain-bin case), there is NO room to do anything cool. So....
I love the cube shape for cases. Just seems the tower is everywhere and I want something different. That's what brought me to the Microfly. But I have yet to find a cube with the space I need and a decent look to it, so I've decided to build my own, from scratch. Lots of firsts here for me: first mod, first opportunity to work with acrylic, first time sharing any work I've done in my shop while it is ongoing. This is obviously also my first worklog, so if I break any rules or violate any traditions, please feel free to let me know. I only hope I don't embarrass myself.
The case I have in mind will be a cube, as mentioned, designed to fit the available space on my desk, roughly 18 inches on a side, and made entirely of acrylic. Plenty of room, which is good because I will be able to adapt the case to hold future upgrades if needed. None of you know me, so I thought I would throw in a few pics of what I have to work with.

My new router table. A recent mod of an old maple-topped kitchen table and I absolutely LOVE it. Time to put it to work!

My grandfather's old Chicago drill press. At least twenty-five years old and still runs true.

My table saw. Grizzly rocks!

My homemade workbench, made from scraps and a solid-core door blank.

My wall of most commonly-used layout and hand tools.

Enough about my workspace, let's talk about this case. Once I decided on acrylic I started doing my homework. As most all of you know, there are 2 kinds of acrylic: cast and extruded. The difference is density, hardness, melting point and price. The design will call for extensive machining of at least five parts so those at the very least have to be cast acrylic, and four of those five are rods, and have to be at least 1 1/2" in diameter and 2 feet long. The other is for the top and needs to be 3/8" at least. Sticker shock!!!!

But the lords of modding were smiling on me today. I'd been kind of down thinking it woud take a LONG time to save the cash to do this thing, with the materials being so high, but I went out to the only two local plastic suppliers we have today and hit the jackpot. The first place happened to have two pieces of drop (scrap) cast sheet, one 1/4" and the other 3/8", and guess what? The 3/8" piece is big enough for my top! While I probably won't have a use for the 1/4" piece, it will be excellent for practice since I've never worked with it before. They offered to order the rod I needed for the tiny price of my left arm and the soul of my next-born child. Down the road I went. The next place didn't have any sheet or any clear cast rod, but they DID have a large bin of colored cast rod that they had ordered for a customer six years ago and was never picked up. They want to get rid of it bad. I didn't want color, but they happened to have two 4-foot pieces if 1 1/2" gray cast rod, and would sell it to me at cost. Normally $19 a foot, I got it for less than $7. Only problem being, it's machine-grade which means it's not polished. I will have to polish it myself, but at that cost I couldn't walk away from it.

My 2 new rods (smaller clear extruded rod laying on the bench behind them for internal work).

My scrap sheet, a mere $20 for both of them!

Closeup of the rod, as you can see, it is FAR from polished.

Some sanding and polishing supplies I was told I would need:

I do not have a bench grinder, but can anyone tell me why I can't use this adaptor to put buffing wheels in my drill press?

Some problems I foresee with this scratchbuild:
Polishing that rod. Would be easy as pie of I had a lathe, but I don't. I could probably sand/polish it laterally and have it end up nice, but it would be much easier and a LOT faster if I could get it to spin. We will see.

Machining the rod. Holding perfectly round and polished material perfectly square to a cutting blade on a flat surface while moving. Without scratching it. Will have to build at least one jig for this, likely three or more.

Edge-polishing the top. The edges of the top sheet will be rounded into a half-circle with a router and will have to be polished to a glass clarity since the viewer will be looking right at it.

Making the flat sheets match the newly-purchased gray-tinted rods. Window tinting film, perhaps?

Anyway, more news as it happens, cutting and polishing the rod are up next. Wish me luck, I won't find a bargain like this again.
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Aprilia tuono

check out some of tribaloverkills work, he has often used drills and drill presses to polish tubes and rods that wouldn't be easy otherwise. Good luck on your first mod!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oldskool

Your ma boy blue... your ma boy...

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lmao!

Sweet deal you got yourself there on materials. You havent built one single thing and your allready into this for at least $50. I cant wait to see your skills, this should be an intresting build.

BTW, im sure there is an easier way to polish that rod. Perhaps you should send a msg to tybrenis, he's a guru when it comes to plexi.

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BTW, im sure there is an easier way to polish that rod. Perhaps you should send a msg to tybrenis, he's a guru when it comes to plexi.

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This is true, Ty is the plexi go-to-guy but he's been away alot working on a secret project. I can contact him if needed though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdbnsn

This is true, Ty is the plexi go-to-guy but he's been away alot working on a secret project. I can contact him if needed though.

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Hey, if he can help me do this I'd love it! My initial plan is to cut it to length (2 feet), drill the end of it and tap it to 5/16" coarse thread, cut the head off of a 5/16" bolt, screw it into the rod and use that to chuck it into my drill press. With a plywood bushing at the bottom to keep it straight, of course.
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Colorado marijuana dispensary

I'll track him down for ya.

Got it started.

The first thing I needed that I didn't have was a zero-clearance insert for my table saw. I could either go buy one for $25 (I actually did that once, doh!), or I could take a scrap piece if 1/2" MDF and make one myself. For those who don't know, this is an insert made specfically for an individual saw blade, and when done it will have, you guessed it, zero clearance around the blade. Helps reduce chipout and is crucial for smaller parts.

Here is the stock insert from my saw alongside the scrap I will use.

Traced the outline onto the scrap in order to cut it down closer to size...

Now to use what is possibly the greatest invention of the 20th century: double-sided tape! Apply to the scrap, then press the insert onto it, inside the pattern you drew earlier.

To make this cut you need a flush-cut bearing-guided bit. This one is a shearing bit, meaning that the cutting blade sits at an angle so that it has more of a cutting action than a chipping action. Important with materials like MDF. And acrylic, I am told.

Put the work on the table MDF-side down and raise the bit so that the bearing rolls along the factory insert. Pass it along the bit all the way around, pry it apart gently and...

Cool, it's cut to size. But it's not the correct thickness, so it will sit lower than the table top. Not good. Just about all table saws will have small horizontal areas under the insert for leveling screws:

All we have to do is screw short screws into our MDF where these leveling areas are and use them to level the insert. Ok, so I got it to fit nice and snug and level. Clamped piece of scrap plywood over the insert...

And SLOWLY raised the blade through the whole thing. Lift off the plywood and presto, perfect fit.

I have read in more than one place that to cut acrylic you need a special saw blade. Triple chip, certain degree of rake blah blah yadda yadda. Quite honestly, I can't afford one. What you see here is a Freud Diablo 7 1/4" 40-tooth combination blade. I've been woodworking for a while now and have tried a great many blades, but this little miracle is the best ever. Looks a little funny sitting in a saw made for a 10" blade, but what the heck? The arbor hole is the same, it runs quieter, is less likely to bind in the work, cuts smoother (REAL smooth), and is thinner than any 10" blade you'll find anywhere, thereby making the cuts easier and producing half the waste. These are $15 at my local Home Depot and I can't say enough good things about them. I have to cut this 4-foot piece of acrylic rod in half now, so let's see how it does...

Not bad at all! No chipping or melting, just the unavoidable machine marks but even those are so faint you can barely feel them.

Now the part I've been dreading. This rod is dull. It looks like a piece off of a stealth bomber it's so dull. My initial plan to tap the end and use a bolt to chuck it into my drill press didn't work #@^&@!!!! The distance from the chuck to the base of my press is less than 2 feet. I couldn't figure out any other way to make this rod spin so here we go the old fashioned way. 220-grit wet/dry sandpaper to get out the milling marks (did you SEE those marks in the pic above??). Arm is tired already. Move up to 320, then 400, then 600, then 800, then 1000 with rubbing compound. Almost there. I really don't want to chuck this rod in a vise of any kind, so I needed a way to buff it while holding it.

Worked pretty well:

Only polished a small test area on this rod to see if it would work. Short answer is yes it will. But there's four times that much left on this rod, and three MORE rods after that! I have GOT to find an easier way. :)

Next up, going to try my hand at machining and polishing the edge of some of this thicker sheet I got for the top of the case. Until then...
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No-Fault Insurance Advice

Finally figured out how to hold this rod still and level while cutting it, thought I would share the steps in case it might help anyone else in the future. Here is the jig:

Those lever clamps were left over from another jig I made several years ago and used once, had forgotten all about them. You can get them at Grizzly.com for about $10. You can see I mounted then on some scrap 2x6 and mounted THAT onto a piece of flat straight 3/4" plywood. Now I needed some way to apply the pressure from the two rubber pads on the clamps evenly to the rod. I cut a section out of a short piece of 1 1/2" PVC pipe (same size as the rod), applied double-sided tape to the inside of it, and to that I stuck this rubber sheet product that is sold as a shelf liner or drawer liner for tool boxes. Also sells as a non-slip routing/sanding pad at some wood stores.

Here are the three pieces together...

And here's the final product. The pipe spreads the clamping force of the 2 lever clamps across the rod, while the rubber liner keeps it from slipping. A little adjustment to the clamps and here we go.

I'll have to machine slots in these rods lengthwise, so here is how it will work on the router fence.

And it also works on the table saw. :)

Took me a while, burned several hours last night with no results (didn't have the pipe, that was the key) but it turned out just fine. Hope it helps someone in the future.
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Buy vaporizer

My original design called for circuit patterns to be laid out on the sides of the case in vinyl, with the center open to view as a window. I still love the circuit pattern option (like on a printed circuit board) but the vinyl's not going to work for me. I've decided to tackle another first and etch the plexi. Lay out the circuit pattern in vinyl or paper or tape or whatever and etch it so that the outer rim of the side is frosted and the circuit lines are clear. Have a couple of local vinyl shops that could probably cut the mask for me if I could bring them a pattern, but none of the software I have seems suitable for this and I can't draw them by hand. Can anyone recommend a way to produce this circuit effect on a computer so I can make this pattern? Also, can anyone recommend an etching agent that will etch plexi but not vinyl?

Solved one of the above problems today and just ordered the rest of the flat plexi tinted the same as the rod. Still using the clear scrap, the thinner piece will be the bottom (since you'll barely see it anyway) and the thicker one will be the top. Wanted the top tinted also but for a piece like the scrap I got for $10 they want at least $65. I can always cut a new top later.
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Essential Vaaapp

Quick question.. When you use the jig to cut the acrylic rod on the table saw, do you use a regular toothed saw blade or one of those friction blades?

As for the etching, one way would to be to get some of the 3/16th striper's tape, lay out your circuit pattern, then sandblast the exposed area. I have seen them do it with glass, so I figure it would transfer to plexi as well.

Just an idea.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OvRiDe

Quick question.. When you use the jig to cut the acrylic rod on the table saw, do you use a regular toothed saw blade or one of those friction blades?

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Will be using the same Diablo blade in the above pics for all of my table saw work on this project. Those things are absolute magic! Turns out I have to buy a special router bit to cut my slots since 1/4" plexi is NOT 1/4". It's 7/32" and I don't have a 7/32" router bit. Most people don't. That's another $25. This is getting expensive. :)
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MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SLR HISTORY

Well, I got more parts in. Found four pieces of 1/4" gray tinted plexi to match my rods for $20 each, cell cast acrylic, very nice stuff and it's actually 1/4" thick! Have enough of that for the sides so I'm done buying the sheet material.

Also got what I THINK is all the rod I will need for the internal support structure. I've decided not to use any factory-made supports like drive cages or power supply bays. Going to make my own support network out of plexi rod. :)

Power supplies have arrived, have UV lamps, temperature probe and Bulgin switch in route now. Scored myself a sweet cordless butane soldering iron and am about to start a 4-day weekend. Let's get some work done! :banana:
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Health Shop

Well, I had planned to do this with a printed circuit pattern, but honestly, that turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. I think this pattern turned out nicely though. Both side panels are now complete and ready to fit.

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Marijuana Seed

got your header placed

Finally got back to work on this thing, all my parts are in, had a heck of a time finding the tools to machine these large acrylic rods but it's done!

I'll be using four of these vertically as the main support for the case, with a sheet of 1/4" acrylic glued inside a groove in the side of each one. Needless to say, the grooves had to be perfect. Here's a shot of one of them with a single groove.

These grooves couldn't go all the way through the rod, as the tops are going to be visible and polished, so I had to set up a stop block before cutting any of them so they would all be exactly the same length.

The end of one groove:

One groove was pretty easy really, but the other groove on each column had to be exactly 90 degrees to the other, since they are corners. How to do that? Found a simple solution:

Set two grooves side by side, connect them with a narrow piece of scrap:

And bingo. Leave them connected like that and run them over the router, the groove that's cut on the bottom is a perfect 90 to the one on the side. :D

All done:

Now there also have to be short grooves *across* the columns for the top and bottom pieces. And they have to be perfectly 45 degrees to the two grooves I already cut. Same method:

Hook two *equally sized* pieces of scrap into the two grooves and set the rod on these pieces. Automatically sets the angle perfectly to 45 to the router bit.

This is a rather poor shot of the front piece with the layout for the holes on it. Ran out of time to actually cut them tonight.

I did, however, get the columns and all four sides put together loosely just to see what this thing will look like. I like it.

And I just had to lay some of my UV tubes in there to see if they were going to shine brightly enough through the tinted acrylic. The picture is awful, I know, but it looks like the lights will work. I have more coming anyway. :D

That all for this week, will start cutting the top and bottom next week, finish designing the inner support structure and hopefully get some components in there!
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Suzuki gs1000s

looks pretty sweet so far +rep

:eek: That is one wicked start to a project. +rep and /subscribe for sure.

Awesome work so far!
+Rep and +Sub from me, too.

Finally got busy again, last night of my 5-day weekend. Not going as quickly as I would like (of course), but it's going.


Got the front panel cut out:

I decided I didn't want to look inside the machine from the front panel, so I bought some Krylon Fusion in satin black and painted the inside of it.

Got my plasma ball apart, did some testing on it (only fried one circuit, woo hoo!). Discovered that even though it runs on 12V DC the little coil in there steps that up considerably. (Forgive me my electronics ignorance, but this just seems to be how I learn.) First clue was the tremendous shock I got off it, then the purple arc of electricity that followed my test lead off of the top electrode when I checked it. Be careful!

I've also decided that I cannot in good conscience build this thing and have to look at the dull black surface of a stock card reader bay either.

So I cut my own.

Lots of polishing yet to do <gag>, plus laying out the rear panel and cutting it and drilling and threading support rod before case assembly can begin.
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Bmw m2b15

It was suggested to me that I show a little more detail on the etching I did on the side panels. As you can see from the pic, I used a product from Plasti-kote that simulates frosted glass. I had my doubts at first, but the results are excellent. Perfectly even coverage, and you can control the amount of "frosting" you want on your acrylic. Highly recommended stuff!

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Chrysler patriot history

Looking good! That frosting spray seems to fit the bill, pretty good. Like you I had my doubts, but it seems to be perfect for your application. Nice work!

Just a small update tonight, got the rear panel laid out...

I had to make a concession here. I wanted to build this thing with as few factory made components as I could. That included cutting i/o slots & circles in the rear panel. But I wondered how I was going to upgrade? I plan on having this thing for a LONG time, and who knows what components are going to do?

I've decided to steal the removable motherboard tray out of my Microfly. It's metal and therefore the enemy, but it solves SO many problems. The big hole on the bottom of the layout is for the rear panel of this tray. Large expanse of metal in my beloved acrylic, but I think once I spray paint it satin black and cover it up with all the other stuff it will blend right in.

On to the title, when I started this thing, I went dashing around frantically looking for case components. I even deluded myself that this hobby wasn't all that expensive. (yes, I actually believed that) I mean, you add a light here, $20, a window there $50, some copper heatsink shinies on your boards $10.... So I was looking for shinies. I came across these:

These are 400-watt Ultra X-connect modular ATX power supplies, with the heap of cables included. I came across these at TigerDirect and ordered them. The design has always called for two power supplies, and now I'm glad. I learned a lot about wattage, amperage, number of 12-volt rails, thermal protection, oversurge protection, etc etc etc. Running both of these in tandem should give me all the juice I'll need. I've read reviews on these from every different perspective, from God himself uses them on the Divine Server to them being agents of Lucifer sent here to steal our souls. Me in the middle, I already bought them, hook 'em up! At least they glow nicely.

Hope to get the rear panel cut tomorrow and start on the bottom shelf, have to nip the corners on it to fit the grooves in the columns. Catch you guys later!

(Hey, that "Front Page" thing isn't anything like the piece of paper hanging in the post office with all the black and white pictures, is it?)
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Medical marijuana

Sweet Build wish I had thought of that designr + rep!

grats on front page...go to the home page to check it out

this mod is shaping up quite nicely

This is looking to be an awesome mod. Great work so far. Keep it up.

Getting some work done tonight, this is the setup I am using to bore the horizontal support rods for tapping. Never let anyone tell you that you can't tap threads into cast acrylic and expect them to hold. :)

If all goes well will have the front back and bottom glued up tonight with the support rods in place.
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Mflb Vaporizer

This thing is finally starting to look like a case. Got the front and rear panels glued into their respective support rods (the sides will not be glued but will slide out the bottom as needed for access), the bottom cut and glued in, and the horizontal support rods in place.

With one side in place:

And all put together (except the top):

:banana:
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MAGIC FLIGHT LAUNCH BOX

Looks very cool. UBER sexy lol.

I just realized that I haven't shared my cutting methods. Being new to this scene and this site, and seeing all the amazing work here, I just assume everyone knows how to do everything I've done. In case anyone cares, I used a double-carbide-tooth circle cutter on the drill press for my fan holes (had to use it in a hand-held drill for the big rear hole, ouch), cuts this stuff very well if you go slowly.

Cut the hole for the power switch with a forstner bit. I was amazed at how well those things cut plexi. Perfectly round, no burning, no melting, and you can get a pretty decent set at Harbor Freight for $30.

As for the straight lines, I am blessed with a large router table. I cut pilot holes in the corners of the holes I needed to cut out, then used a Rotozip spiral cutting bit chucked into my router (with an adaptor I got at Sears for $10), along with my router table fence, to cut the lines.

Again, excellent cut and perfectly straight this way. Only drawback is you can't cut square corners, but the bit is only 1/8" in diameter so the corners are only very slightly rounded.
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Tf103

Coming long nicely I think, got the supports for the power supplies finished, here are a couple of pics....

Managed a couple of nice touches to the internal rods, rounded over the ends on the horizontal piece under the power supplies.

And I'm trying to keep with the theme established by the main support rods with the vertical internal rods.

Got the plasma ball in place, decided on a pressure mount for this. The hole is 1/8" shy of being too big for it, so the ball fits snugly. The large (admittedly ugly) base is rubber. I cut a disc of plexi to fit it, then cut the single piece of 1-inch rod I have to length and drilled a couple of holes into it that meet in the middle to feed the wire through. On the other end I drilled a shallow hole, about 1/4" deep.

Here in the back panel is a screw that looks loose but really isn't. This controls the pressure. The hole it goes through in the rear panel is threaded, and the end slides into the shallow hole in the end of the rod. By tightening this screw I force the rod against the disc I cut and against the rubber base in turn. Seems to have turned out fairly well. The wire coming down out of the rod will of course be sleeved when all is said and done. The small coil for the plasma ball will sit on the bottom panel directly below the hole where the wire goes into the large rod. The circuit board will be hidden under the bottom panel.

Hope to have the power supplies cross-wired and reinstalled tomorrow and start on the support rods for the drives.
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STRAIN INDEX

Looks bloody fantastic mate, keep it up.

Wow. Impressive work.
+Rep

Beautiful Job!
Really like it.
Looks very slick.

+rep

Yieha! Didn't expect this to go into such direction of design... But wow, thats hot!
+Rep!

Thanks for all the encouragement and compliments, guys. This thing has taken on a life of its own and is *WAY* more than I ever expected it to be. My shop and my office have been disaster areas since I started but I press on.


Must. Finish. Mod........
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BUY VAPOR GENIE

Wow! This is turning out amazing.
+rep

Done with the work week so I get to mod a little. :banana:

Been working on the front of this thing lately, got my intake fans/fan filters/grills installed. Bought 2 UV-reactive 80mm fans from FrozenCPU, didn't even realize that they had four UV LED's built into the fan until I plugged them in. :)

Haven't decided on the fan filters, they look great with the lights out but I don't think I like seeing the metal mesh with the lights on, may flip them to the inside of the fan.

Also undecided on the fan grilles, still looking around for something better, who knows?

Also got my temperature probe/gauge installed.

Quick overall look:

Closeup of some of the newer additions:

Finally got the plasma ball working!!!! Still have no idea what I did to let the magic smoke out of the last one, but I did. You can see it working with the lights dimmed:

But of course I like the whole thing in the dark:

Don't have the bulgin switch lit up yet but that will be the last light on the front.

Did run into an interesting and unexpected problem: the temperature probe reads between 10 and 20 degrees higher with the plasma ball turned on than it does with the ball turned off. Obviously EM interference, but I have no idea what area I need to shield or how to shield it. Any input would be appreciated. :?
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List of toyota transmissions specifications

Man that looks cool with the plasma ball. sorry, I can't help with the EMI problem.

In regards to the EMI, your best bet might be to get some good ol aluminum foil and do a little bit of trial and error.