Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

[modscases.com]

awesome job man this should be heavy

[Waynio]

That is a beautiful chunk of metal right there! I could never tackle that. +rep for the progress!

Thanks blue, I don't know if I could again I think 2013 I might take the year off modding or at least modding like this, could do with some lighter projects, been a bit of an endurance test this one.

That is a drool worthy drill press.... oh and the build is coming along nicely too

It's a nice one, my other bench ones wouldn't have been able to drill the tops of those panels without making up a makeshift precarious table lol.
Cheers Stonerboy779.

awesome job man this should be heavy

Yeah the weight is building up now it's coming together the diet I'll put it on later should help though.
Thanks modscases.

I hadn't got around to fixing the bottom nose plates to the feet all this time so finally got that sorted, they were just placed there all along until now.

I used 5mm aluminium rod cut into 3 25mm pieces & pushed them through the nose & also drilled the plates so they would slide on & for fixing to the legs I drilled & countersunk 3mm holes through the 10mm panel hidden by the side arch panels & for placing a marker on where to drill I held it all in place how it should be, placed a 3mm drill bit through the hole & gave the bit a tap with a chunk of metal which gave perfect position, then 2.5mm drilled the plates, tapped & screwed in place with 12mm countersunk screws.

The shoes & stand is now complete except cleaning up any rough bits & surface finishing but all that can wait until everything is together because it's the 2nd to last step before taking to the anodisers.

So sorry about leaving you to expect HTPC progress this time but had to get those plates fixed on & they were a bit tricky to do right.

HTPC is definitely up next though now.

[BS Mods]

Looks so awesome! Your mods force me to sit and stare for a while so I can take it all in. It's like looking at art.

[SXRguyinMA]

that's about all I can say

[Waynio]

Looks so awesome! Your mods force me to sit and stare for a while so I can take it all in. It's like looking at art.

Thanks BS, going to be fun photographing the completed project.

that's about all I can say

Thanks SXRguyinMA

I changed the optical cover to use a 10mm plate for a cleaner look.

Making the edges perfectly flat by filing & using the disc sander.

Applied the top & bottom templates.

Drilling nearly all the way through the optical plate leaving about 2mm as an alternative mounting point since I changed the design slightly.

Had lots of tapping to do in this session.

This is a sweet method for drilling exactly where you want to, 3mm hole, 3mm drill bit, give it a tap with something & it leaves a nice mark for drilling, just as good as drilling through a stack of panels.

Here is the 6mm hole I drilled which leads to 2mm depth 3mm hole for alternative mount point.

In place.

Fixed in square bars & round bars, used m3 grub screws in the round bar that go straight through the panel & into the square bars & then marked & drilled countersunk holes to fix the round bars.

Cut some 10mm round bar with hack saw, made the ends perfectly flat on the disc sander, drilled, tapped & added grub screws so they go through the panel & into the optical plate.

I called it a wrap at this point, think I started at about midnight & finished up around 4PM, was knackered.

It's been extra difficult with the design having 3/8" for the 10mm plate, it's a tight design so that tiny difference makes quite a difference on most of these bits I've been doing & I really should have tweaked the design as soon as I realised this when I got the materials but didn't so have had quite a bit of messing to make it all work still but once this HTPC is done everything else should be more straight forward, I've not been fully tuned in with doing this lately, I just got to go at it like I did last night but much more regular if I want this complete before December.

[Fuganater]

So awesome to see this coming together.

[jdbnsn]

This case is going to go down in history as one of the most incredible scratch built cases. Awe-inspiring my friend!

[Waynio]

So awesome to see this coming together.

Thanks Fuganater, had a little time out again but I intend to do normal sized session from now but every day so think things will come together faster now.

This case is going to go down in history as one of the most incredible scratch built cases. Awe-inspiring my friend!

Thanks jd

No step by step photos this time, this is some progress from yesterday & today, been trying to get back into making this come together but nothing new was done that you haven't seen already, drilling, tapping, heating brass inserts into the IO piece to fix to the sliding mobo tray, everything shown here now though is fully fixed together & it's nice & solid, alignment of the triple layer mobo tray holding pieces was off a tiny bit also which needed some filing so there aren't any steps you can feel, tiny problem of it looking slightly off now so I'll do something to make it look better than intended.

Already started on removing the steps but some can be seen still here.

After that they aren't steps but just surface differences in need of further finishing.

I could do with buying a detail power sander for doing all the outside edges as soon as I can, filing will be too iffy with it all being cut to the line, bit of power sanding will speed things up a little without taking too much off.

I'm stopping doing massive sessions & will instead just do a session every day, started this project with that in mind but didn't take long for me to start burning myself out by not pacing myself properly.

I paid for a 2 year photobucket sub so changed my settings to what I re-size my images to when taken off the camera but think I'll make future ones a little smaller than this & reserve bigger res for final shots of things.

[Fuganater]

Woot for frequent updates!

[Waynio]

Woot for frequent updates!

I missed yesterday but it was a busy day AFK.

OK, the HDD rack alternative version, earlier box version was missing a 5th slot unfortunately so I screwed that one up, this one isn't a box one & instead a plate with added slot pieces that fix to the aluminium above & below & has fixing plates for 4 HDD & 1 SSD.

Decided to use the 3mm brown tint acrylic.

Freshly cut.

Sanded to the lines.

Bunch of bits.

Drilling the fixing plates now so I don't drill in the wrong spots later.

The fan perch v2 it should fit perfectly to the custom fan when I get them made.

Because of how well the IO pieces worked out I decided I'll do that technique of using a template on 1 of the pieces, draw & cut around the extras & stick them together fully before cutting the pattern for layered pieces of acrylic from now on, I'll just have to go on the slowest cut speed so it isn't as prone to melting.

Here are the acrylic parts waiting to be glued together, might do this before I go bed.

4 HDD & 1 SSD tray.

Cut.

Sanded & drilled & countersunk.

End of latest session.

Looks like I should reduce picture size a little more, I'll try 900 as the biggest dimension next.