Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

[Waynio]

Getting sharp bends without a mechanical bender is tough.

It is but the thinning down bend lines worked perfect.

It sure can be, the brake folder I bought was worth every penny and I could not have done without it on my present build, it saves so much time and instead of shelving ideas because they are going to be too much hassle I now enjoy doing it.

I bought this folder on ebay UK built by an engineering company it's heavy duty compared to most of the other cheap folders you see on ebay and I've easily folded ali up to 3mm thick with it, they have them for sale on ebay now.

If you don't want to spend that much on a folder these vice jaw benders (ebay) work well and are good for folds up to six inches wide.

Got a table top bender but a budget one by Sealey not bad for 750mm wide by 1mm thick at full load but would be better off with one like yours & bought 1 of those small vice benders when I started modding but they are very hard to use accurately, when tightening it the sheet can slip out of place making for bends where you don't want them, I'm sure they are accurate once you know exactly how to use them though.
Thanks Beta-brain.

PITA piece take 2.
Freshly cut & flattened external edges, scored the lines with scalpel.

Snipped a piece of hack saw blade off, clamped a steel ruler along all the lines & shuffled until they were decently thinned, I went deeper for the actual bends.

Took a 30 min break from the tedious session hehe.

Time to bend & yes indeedy the workshop is a heck of a mess & no, DOF couldn’t do anything about this shot unfortunately, lets focus on hitting that deadline instead lol.

2nd bend & with it being so close to the other one & it being an opposing bend I had to use the bender unconventionally, clamping the piece on the wrong side & then flipping it upside down on the floor & carefully pressing something flat against it.

Main 2 bends done & this is the result I was after, sharp defined bends.

Now the fun part, faint curves, tried many silly ways at first but realised I just couldn't do it in a good way due to the bends, here is 1 of the silly ways I tried.

So I straightened out 1 of the bends & did faint bends on the lines & then re bent the last bend point & the faint bends made too much of a curve so had to tweak them as good as I could, this took far longer than I anticipated but knew it wouldn’t be an easy part.

I'll use button head screws so I can be sure of it fitting how I want it to, I'll just paint the screw heads to match the anodise colour, need more brass inserts though, only got 1 left so I'll leave doing updates until I have something good to show which I hope will be tomorrow & every day after leading up to the 9th of December.

[jdbnsn]

Dude, when I look at your work on a timeline, I'm taken aback at how quickly you have progressed from a "dabbler" to a skilled craftsman/artist. For those of you who may have not seen Waynio's prior projects you should take a stroll through his old worklogs. It is proof positive looking at "Frankencase" (below) built in just 2008 that with hard work and attention to detail can develop awesome talent. And from that simple case fab to this...it's humbling. Great work my friend, you are teaching all of us alot!

[Waynio]

Dude, when I look at your work on a timeline, I'm taken aback at how quickly you have progressed from a "dabbler" to a skilled craftsman/artist. For those of you who may have not seen Waynio's prior projects you should take a stroll through his old worklogs. It is proof positive looking at "Frankencase" (below) built in just 2008 that with hard work and attention to detail can develop awesome talent. And from that simple case fab to this...it's humbling. Great work my friend, you are teaching all of us alot!

Thanks jd first ones were barely worklogs though really, they were projects but I didn't keep a proper log of them like I do now, the frame work on Frankencase looked like swiss cheese from miss drilling & tapping, was an important one to make though, got to take that first step & the rougher it is the more you will want to do another to get better, I got obsessed with getting better.

Mid session update since I got interrupted, this must be why I prefer modding through the night, can just go at it none stop.

The HDD level covers before bending.

Using that awesome rod centre drilling tool & oh yes it's awesome makes very quick work of precision rod drilling & with using a drill press it should last a long time.

Tapping takes as long as it always has though lol.

Threw some parts together for the fan but still have 2 1mm pieces & the hoop to make & to file some edge off all 4 rod pieces but I got to say it feels nice & solid like this & it slots on the perch perfectly, very happy with it.

HDD cover loose fit but I didn't like how the bending went for the mounting tabs so I'll remake them without the tabs & just make them a perfect height so they hold in on their own when tightening the screws for the level above.

29 Days left arrrrrrrgh lol.

Having fun though now I'm really seeing it coming together more & I have 2 brass inserts which is enough to fix 1 side of the stand cover in place, that's a sweet fit too, loving how this is going & should have another update later on, going to fix the front corner rods in place & remake the HDD cover, that will probably take a fair bunch of hours so I don't know if I'll get to complete the fan today but the HTPC & stand is sooooo close to complete on the initial fabrication side.

[Beta-brain]

Dude, when I look at your work on a timeline, I'm taken aback at how quickly you have progressed from a "dabbler" to a skilled craftsman/artist. For those of you who may have not seen Waynio's prior projects you should take a stroll through his old worklogs. It is proof positive looking at "Frankencase" (below) built in just 2008 that with hard work and attention to detail can develop awesome talent. And from that simple case fab to this...it's humbling. Great work my friend, you are teaching all of us alot!

I remember that build, I think I said that "It reminds me of a machine from some mad professors laboratory" Considering what Waynio is building now I'm sure that was quite an accurate description

Seriously though as Lean and Green comes together and things fall into place it really is looking quite stunning, although I do worry that Waynio may suffer serious scroll saw withdrawal symptoms when he's finished

[Waynio]

I remember that build, I think I said that "It reminds me of a machine from some mad professors laboratory" Considering what Waynio is building now I'm sure that was quite an accurate description

Seriously though as Lean and Green comes together and things fall into place it really is looking quite stunning, although I do worry that Waynio may suffer serious scroll saw withdrawal symptoms when he's finished

Remember the comment lol was it here or at OCUK?.
Withdrawals, lol I'll have plenty of spare or scrap material to make other things after this, also got a corsair r400 case from a magazine article for stealthlow, might make it my first case mod, cheers mate.

1mm Aluminium for the last 2 fan pieces & the new HDD cover, old one wasn't too great with the tabs not working out well.

All panels made for the HTPC 140mm fan, cut the new HDD covers & put them aside for when I do the front corner rods & also cut the 5 140mm & 2 120mm fan ring pieces, to shape them perfect I'll look for a hard round object about 20mm smaller diameter of the needed ring to get that bit of needed over curve, a bit of spring back will be good for it.

Still need to file the inside edges of the rods so they are level to the 2mm panels before I can add the fan motor with blades, I'll just do a loose fit for seeing how the fan looks with the motor & blades in because the fan is going to be JB welded to the anodised piece.

How it currently looks, not bad progress & keep in mind all the scruffiness on edges & surfaces will be cleaned up but later in the project.

I'll have to take apart stealthlow real soon & install the noctua cooler to get hardware measurements so I can design the triple fan mount in case I need to make the fans with extra mount points & possibly design a shroud for the motherboard & maybe the GPU & sound card too, we'll see but I will sure be cutting it fine for completing in time, feels a bit like a mission impossible but I'm giving it a good go.

[Beta-brain]

Truly looks beautiful

Remember the comment lol was it here or at OCUK?

It would have been here I've not posted on OCUK, incidentally, I want to get a scroll saw and obviously yours must be a good one to endure the workout you have given it, what size is your saw I've been checking Excalibur scroll saws the cheapest is the 16" EX-16 which about £490 which is a bit more than I thought but I know you get what you pay for especially with tools.

[Waynio]

Truly looks beautiful



It would have been here I've not posted on OCUK, incidentally, I want to get a scroll saw and obviously yours must be a good one to endure the workout you have given it, what size is your saw I've been checking Excalibur scroll saws the cheapest is the 16" EX-16 which about £490 which is a bit more than I thought but I know you get what you pay for especially with tools.

Thanks mate yeah these saws are expensive, I went for the 30" model, they are trade rated so good for long sessions like I've been putting it through, I usually cheap out on tools but I believe the saw is worth every penny if you intend to use one a lot, I did buy a cheap one not sure if I'd like it & loved what I could do with it so when I had a grand from a wind fall I got the saw & a DSLR camera & nice lens with change left over.

Another tool I use a lot is the disc sander, that is an essential for me now, lets me do rough quick cuts of the exterior of pieces & then just grind it down to the perfect point making it nicely flat, great for bevels too, a belt sander would be better but the disc one is easier maintenance & more compact.

[Beta-brain]

Wow, that's the 30" model that's a serious piece of kit, I'm not that envious

[Waynio]

Wow, that's the 30" model that's a serious piece of kit, I'm not that envious

It's so nice & another way of looking at the price of it is it's not much more expensive than a high end single GPU but the saw will last a lot longer than a GPU.

Went to do a session but figured I should design the spindicator electronics case, it's not quite a simple box but it will help to clean up the mass of wires to do with it & will prevent it from having an accidental short & it only just fits into the space by the PSU.

I'll make a start on it along with getting the rods installed, 10mm plates rounded, HDD covers installed, fan completed & get the stand cover installed so I'll be modding all night with an update or 2 tomorrow some time.

[Waynio]

OK I was a little bit too ambitious about what I said I'll do on my previous update but I made some progress.

Got a start on the spindicator electronics casing 3 5mm acrylic sheets.

Stuck together.

Both aluminium covers.

Then made a start on the fan by filing the rods.

1 of them went nicely because I took care doing it, the others I got careless, they work nicely but don't cling to the hoop because of taking too much off so with this one being on full show I'll likely make new ones & use these ones for fans that aren't on full show.

Making the hoop, used whatever I could to get a basic hoop, the strip was too long so had to grind ?mm off bit by bit until...

It finally clicked in place.

Then you align the 2mm panel & work the hoop into it until it sits flush.

Then you put your fan in there or as I done mount the front 1mm panel.

I bent the 2nd set of HDD covers, they are good but making them join to the rod & look good how I designed it is really difficult to do, I tried using the mill bit to flatten a length of the bar so the cover would sit flush but I screwed up, I'll work out a way, an idea has already formed while writing this out & it's a good one but does require a 3rd fabrication of the covers.

But yeah, I couldn't resist chopping up 1 of the aluminium fans to put it in there lol, snipped all the LEDs off it & cut the outer frame off & the fan & 4 plastic legs slid in perfectly.

So I got 1 bit done & 2 other bits semi done, really can't wait to complete the HTPC so I can move over to the gaming rig.

Loving the custom fans, you have to wrestle the hoops into place but when they click in it's just an awesome satisfying moment.