Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

[Aldersan]

All I can say is "WOW!" Wait, that's not true, I can also say I want to see more! Keep it up, this is going to be amazing!

[Waynio]

All I can say is "WOW!" Wait, that's not true, I can also say I want to see more! Keep it up, this is going to be amazing!

Cheers Aldersan I intend to stay up until tonight so I get my sleep fixed so nothing much stopping me from attempting to get the last of the 10mm stuff done today.

[Aldersan]

After the alu, what's next on your list of to-do's?

[d_stilgar]

Do you have to order those blades special? I can never find that stuff for my scroll saw.

[Waynio]

After the alu, what's next on your list of to-do's?

The plan is to do all the bits I think will be hardest first so it progressively gets easier lol, it sucks too much when you do it the other way around as your pretty knackered mentally & physically by the time you get close to the end if you not taking proper breaks & it will be nice to know it will get easier rather than harder, but I will need high mental focus when I start making everything fit together so I'll have a break to let my steam build back up for that, would be a nightmare spending all that time on pieces only for it to become a train wreck from 1 faulty drill hole.

After this 10mm alu I'll start work on all the custom fans, not sure how tricky they will be but think it will be a nice lighter task compared to the 10mm. Still unsure if I should add copper & brass into the rings for the fans could be pretty awesome but maybe too much bling looking, could end up looking like crazy royal jewels.

[Aldersan]

Lol, from the sound of it, almost anything would be easier than cutting that 10mm alu. As for the fans, try it out, see how it looks, take lots of pics, and post them of course! I loved your stealthlow, so I can't wait to see how this project turns out!

[Waynio]

Do you have to order those blades special? I can never find that stuff for my scroll saw.

I virtually never go looking at my local diy stores for most bits because they rarely have bits I need so I just order most bits online.

I noticed there are specific blades made for use on scroll saws & they look no different to fretsaw blades but the price difference is huge, for 12 listed as scroll saw blades they were like £8 but fretsaw blades are like £1.80 for the same amount & they do the job fine.

Someone else asked about this, making me think they only do fretsaw blades for wood in the US lol I find that really odd, anyway I mostly use Draper brand fretsaw blades for 10 TPI to 28 TPI the draper ones are stronger blades also or Faithfull brand fretsaw blades for 28 TPI to 70 something TPI these are meant for thin metals but found all cut any material nicely, I quickly gave up with trying to cut the 10mm stuff with fretsaw blades & used the band saw blade on them, got a 1/4 inch band saw blade & cut it into the same sizes as the fretsaw blades & modded a couple to allow for easier curve cuts, the band saw blade was by Draper also.

The lower the teeth per inch the thicker the material you can cut quicker with it & for the higher TPI you can do really thin material.

So look for fretsaw blades & piercing saw blades, you should find some in the US no problem I'd have thought.

[Waynio]

Lol, from the sound of it, almost anything would be easier than cutting that 10mm alu. As for the fans, try it out, see how it looks, take lots of pics, and post them of course! I loved your stealthlow, so I can't wait to see how this project turns out!

It's not so bad but does take a while to get through even with the band saw blades guess I just can't help but have a bit of a moan about it after sitting there for hours & hours & not cutting much lol, at least with the band saw blades you can see it is cutting, could hardly tell if it was cutting with the fretsaw blades.

Yeah, think I'll do that with the fans, could turn out they look completely amazing.

[Aldersan]

Lol they just might, you had some pretty crazy breakthroughs on stealthlow, so let's see you do it again! Anyways, best of luck, keep up the good work, and post lots of pics

[Waynio]

Lol they just might, you had some pretty crazy breakthroughs on stealthlow, so let's see you do it again! Anyways, best of luck, keep up the good work, and post lots of pics

Cheers Aldersan, the custom fans will have to wait until I can get some 0.5mm brass & copper sheet ordered but am keen to try the idea I have.

Ok Got all the 10mm alu cut but I have crap news & good news.

The crap news is the HTPC sides are 2 to 3mm too big on the size of the outside edges & inside edges so is no good for my design, I must have printed the design of an earlier revision, had about 10 revisions in my folder so mucked up good there, here is how they would have looked if I printed the right one.

And this is how it looks in reality, missing the inside lips because of the size difference.

I have checked all my newer prints & they all measure up spot on like the sketchup model so it was a pure muck up by me for using the wrong flipping model, d'oh.

Good news is I have ordered some more 10mm alu to re do them & the HTPC side panels made won't go to waste & I will make a tweaked version of the HTPC & sell it, but I won't be doing that one until I've completed Lean & Green.

So at least I have the stands panels done spot on at least & they were much harder to do because of the size & weight of them when they were stock plate alu.

Now I'm waiting for the extra 10mm alu it's time to pick what I'll do next, plan was to start off with doing all the difficult or patience testing bits first lol.