Vento By Jwatt - THE IMPROVED WORKLOG

[DonT-FeaR]

SECTION: Introduction
Hello my names Jeffrey Watt or Jeff for short.

A little bit about me. I live in South Australia; I have been following the modding scene since around September 2007. My first project (still unfinished) is called Moditor the concept for that is to take a CRT monitor and build a computer into the housing of the screen. This project has been but on hold as I am having a break from that mod for a while (until this case is complete). I started Moditor in December 2007. I am born on the 9th of September 1993. I have enjoyed working on my computers ever since I started.
But enough about me.
This work log will not be in the order of when I made these pieces but I will explain and make one part before moving to the next. This will make it easier for the reader to understand rather than skipping from place to place.
This is my newest project; I started toying with ideas for this case around 25th of November in 2008. I have done countless hours of work on this and still have many hours to go.
Ill get the main ideas out first. The reason I have decided to make this case is because of the major heating issues some computers have, as I did not want to get my computer to fry I have decided to make the coolest case I could think of (pun intended). The main airflow pattern in this case (if you know about that) is all fans intake and then the air is forced out of the side and top vents to create a reverse suction pattern. This case when complete will have 5 120mm fans; 2 long life silent coolermaster (located in the base) and 3 120mm long life silent blue led coolermaster fans (on the front bezel) and last but not least (fan wise) it will also have 1 92mm silver stone FM83 calling it home.
As for this project I am taking of the generic bezel and making my own “vented”, fan holding bezel I needed to relocate the switches. So I moved them to the back of the case (as you can see in the bottom right of the first CAD) this is also to stop those “oh wow nice computer! What does this button do?” “AHHH” moments..
SECTION: Design

So without further ado… I bring you... Project Vento!


Some renders a friend did for me. In black (final colour will be black)

In white just to show you it in white I guess

Using Google Sketch up 7 I made some perfect scale CADs (computer aided designs)(not 100% detail)
These two show the back (with I/O panel and PSU) also this shows the top and side

The Side design. Notice at the bottom that there is an extra part added. This is the custom base I will be adding later. It will house the CDrom and two 120mm silent Coolermaster fans.

Here are some of the Design pics and measurements.

And some of the front designs.
Black = raised panels
Green = raisers
Red = base aluminium
Green hatch = base

SECTION: Left and right side panels.
A lot of the designs for the side panels are shown above. So showing them again would just be pointless..
MARKING OUT
when it comes to marking things out. These 2 objects are your best friends. A sharp point sharpie and a roll of masking tape

Here is one of the panels taped off and ready to be marked out.

Here is the panel all marked out and ready to be cut out.

CUTTING OUT

Now most normal modders would use a dremel or a jigsaw to cut out this panel. But me… I am far from normal. (plus didn’t have my dremel with me and didn’t know how well jigsaws worked on metal) so I used a technique I thought of…
HAMMER AND SCREWDRIVER !!!

Now the trick is to get a large headed screwdriver to speed up the process (if it is an unneeded screwdriver feel free to sharpen it)
This is the screwdriver head compared to my finger.

It is safe to say that this takes forever! (around 15hours to cut two panels) for anyone planing to do this.. if anyone is as crazy as me.. do not line the screw driver up on to the line as this will create a bur that may need to be cut up to a centimetre back so cut 1cm inside your line
The two smaller holes cut

All three holes cut and ready to be de-bured.

By using tin snips to cut along my line I have taken the bured edge away. This leaves me with the shape I want although the metal is still sharp (ill fix that later).

But because of the glue masking tape uses you do not want to keep it on a surface for too long. This is why I have re taped the side panels.
(notice the original vents, I will fix this later)

(There are still some edges I need to touch up with the dremel)
That’s the first panel done. Heres a pic of it sitting next to the second panel waiting to be cut.

Just repeat this process for the second panel. (Is done but no photo).
MAKING THE RAISED PANELS
The next step for my side panels is to make the raised panels shown in the original CADS.

These raised panels will be made with 3mm Aluminium. The place that was nice enough to give me some supplies LEquip build and repair trucks, so this is quality material. The owner of this business Steve, a friend of my fathers let me go through the “scrap bins” to find what I was after.
Heres what I came home with

Side panel for size reference

And also this lot too!

I am very appreciative to his kind donation and the only thing he wanted in return was to see a teenage boy actually doing something for himself.
Next marked out the size of the panels needed, then added the exact cut line with a pen and ruler.

HDD for size reference

[DonT-FeaR]

SECTION: Hdd Holder.
My original sketch of the hdd holder. It will when made hold two 3.5inch hard drives for the storage of vento.

Then this is the cad model of my hdd holder just for the last step of design.

First off to begin fabrication of the hdd holder I got a piece of 1mm aluminium and marked out the size I needed the sheet to be.

Then used the dremel to cut it to size using the EZ lock attachment (I love it,, great attachment)

Then after cutting I sanded the edges flat with a bench sander.
Then using my vice and a hammer (along with a piece of wood to stop the aluminium from denting) I bent the two ends up like so.

Then used the same bending method to create the bend in the middle of the holder.

And in the end the hdd will sit like so.

Polished it up to make the paint turn out better but you cant tell in this picture very well.

To stop this mirror shine from being scratched or becoming duller I laid down 3 layers of primer.

I then did a cross section line from corner to corner to find the centre of each panel and them got my hole saw set out and drilled a 87mm hole on either side.

Once I did a mock up of this in my case I decided to make it taller so that the graphics card power wire could go under the holder if need be (although I am going to change my system) and also to get the hdds out of the fans dead spot.
Here is the holder with the hdds in action.

Here is the plan for the new raisers.

Without.

With

And here is the extension bracket after fabrication and priming the hole that has been cut is not perfect but it will not be seen and it is for cables and they will occupy most of the area.

When installed the extensions will look like so.

Engraved Name Panels.
These panels I will be getting Engraved by a Professional engraving company are to show the name and who created the case.
Here is the first design

But that needed retuning so here is v2

These are obviously just sketches. Here is a v3 with actual dimensions and but still only rough.

Here is V4 and this is starting to resemble what I am looking for.

So after working with pen and paper I decided to make a sketch up model specifying exact dimensions and font.

Once I had done this and worked out exact dimensions I copied this to paper so the company can copy it into engraving. So here is the inside final name panel to get engraved.

Here is the inside panel accompanied with the two exterior panels that I will get engraved.

Switch plate and cover.
As you can tell from the bottom right of this cad model I have decided to place the switches at the back of vento. Here is the cad model.

Here is the cut out for the back of the case, this is so the switch backings can be concealed inside the case.

To conceal the back of the switches I had to make a switch cover as I like to call it.
So to start this cover I got a piece of about 0.5mm thick steel and marked out the plans for the cover.

This is the panel half cut out. I then proceeded to cut out the rest of the steel and bend it in my desk vice. Added with a steel right angle length.

This is a roughly bent cover. I have fixed these bends since.

Just to check the level of this cover I used my spirit level.

This was close enough so I continued to bend the cover.

Here is the finished bending step of the cover.

Here is where the cover for my switches will sit in vento.

If you will notice the top mounting tab is getting in the way where the fan is, I will need to cut some of this tab off to avoid this conflict.
At the top of the switch cover there is a gap I could not bend out of the cover. To fix this problem I need to use 2 part putty called Knead it.

Here is the picture of the cover with putty and the angles on the mounting tabs cut. (un sanded)

Here is the switch cover mirror sanded, putty cut and a few coats or primer on it.

Base.
The base on Vento will house the CDROM and 2 120mm fans, I am unsure of what metal this is but It is stronger than aluminium to cut but as soft to bend. I believe it is intended to be used on fly screen doors. I spotted this out the back of a friends place and knew it was perfect for the base. He then gave me the metal. To start this base I Snapped the metal into rough lengths of what I need for the base, like so.

Here is the base lengths compared to the case.

Here are the lengths marked ready to be cut to size.

[DonT-FeaR]

Here are the panels after I cut them on the bandsaw at school.

Here are the corner brackets before being cut these will hold the 4 sides of the base together.

Here they are after being cut to size

The brackets will fit into the C channel base like so.

For this base to work I needed to see if my CDROM will fit in the c channel. Here is the CD ROM
minus the face plate.

Here is the CDROM fitting into the C channel. It is a perfect fit and squeezes in for a tight fit.

This is the layout for the bottom panel of Vento. It will provide air to cool the graphics card, like so.

CD ROM on left which is the front.
The next step was to mark out the fan holes and cut them out.

so after knowing that the fans and CDROM will fit into the base with ease i decided to mock up the base and see what kind of outcome i will get.

that was looking as planed so i decided to mark and cut out the CDROM faceplate so that the tray has somewhere to slide to

(this will be covered up later it is just to show where the tray will go through the base.)


the next step was to make the CDROM stay in the base when connected. so i qiuckly cut up two of these

then with a few quick measurements and holes i had them mounted to the CDROM

not nearly done with this..
lots to come
will keep the other thread alive..
if this is breaking a rule please tell..

[p0Pe]

still looks cooool love the first shot, with you and the ski googles xD is there a teddy bear or something inthere? could look like garfield lol

[DonT-FeaR]

/\ rofl ... yeah i love first shot to..


just for you pope...

this one was taken in a shop when i was in america

[p0Pe]

HAHA is it a bird, is it a plane?
nope... its wolverine himself xD

[KiLLERMAN21]

Most of you dont know this but DF works as an Elvis impersonator part-time! LOL!

[DonT-FeaR]

lol i got the hair for it and all (not in that pic tho)

[madd0ct0r]

I know this is a bit late, but have you considered the wires coming out the back of the CD rom?
they might block your fans a bit.

[DonT-FeaR]

yeah they will block a bit but hopefully not to much... thanks for the imput...

alot to come.. did a bit this weekend.. ill update maybe tomorrow night