Project: The Unidyne PC

Looks great man. I've been wanting to make something in the style for a whyle now. Just love the way the old mic's look.
 
I used mostly studio mics throughout my short broadcast studio career in college, but I always loved those old Shure's. I actually found on old one used for gospel recording. Very cool design. :)
 
Thanks to Steve I got this thread's title changed.

The Shure 55 Unidyne truly is an amazing design. It was first drawn up in 1937 and it is still in production today. Not too many products can claim the same.

I've been obsessing over this project for several months. I watch a lot of VH1 and Comedy Central. It seems like I see a Shure 55 Unidyne every single day.

I considered it a sign...you know...like the mountain in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
 
Once this is done, how do you intend on mounting or displaying this? Maybe build an oversized version of one of those tabletop mic stands like Letterman has on his desk?

 
032.jpg


While I'm taking a break for my thumb to heal from "sander's thumb" (caused by gripping 60 grit sandpaper for too long) I decided to chop up some scrap into some detail pieces.

I notched both ends of the 3/8" x 1/2" stock with a 3/8" round file. It will be more difficult to remove this material once the blocks are installed so I performed a pre-emptive strike.

033.jpg


I left plenty of material around the notches so I can smooth them in later. I guess I'll have to work in a fake seam later on also. The real microphone breaks apart along a seam that runs down the middle of these blocks.

034.jpg


1/2" cubes are placed down the center of the front panel. The center piece on the real microphone is a very complex set of four curves that I have chosen to put off 'til later. The power button will be mounted in place of the original's logo in the center of this panel.

035.jpg


Here's the equipment cavity I have to deal with. I have an interesting solution I'm going to try. It involves building a type of cartridge computer. Some fun!
 
uzor said:
Once this is done, how do you intend on mounting or displaying this? Maybe build an oversized version of one of those tabletop mic stands like Letterman has on his desk?
Click to expand...

Interesting that you bring that up. I have been struggling with different ideas including the one you suggested. I don't want to get too cutesy but done well, a mic stand could look good. Short one? Tall one? Adjustable? Include a line of guitar pics. Maybe a Frampton setup? OK. I've gone over the edge. :p

I definitely want the computer (mic) to be tilted back in the classic Shure 55 pose.
 
036.jpg


I've trimmed up the lengths of all of my side panel cooling fins (14 of them). Next I take one of them, actually it's a spare, and freehand the curve I want. I sand it down to the curve and install it back onto the side panel. Time for artistic squinting. Adjusting. Obsessing.

That done, I trace the resulting curve onto all fourteen blocks. This picture shows my template and three of the pieces I'm about work on.
 
037.jpg


After rough cutting the curves I assemble all the players, including the template, into this medieval torture device. The template can be seen in the middle. The dark line that you see is my original free hand curve.

I'll use my sandpaper block and take out material until I get down to my template. I call this parallel sanding because I have no better word for it.
 
038.jpg


After a couple of hours of sanding and more than a few cups a coffee, here is the result. I also started on cutting the curve into the top cap.

I've run out of 1/2" x 1/2" stock. This puts a grinding halt to the wood portion of this project until I get to the art supply store. The nearest store is 80 miles from my house. :eek:

This means that I can start on the computer portion of this project.
 
Looking really good. You've put a lot of effort into this, and it's paying off! A lot more to go yet, but I can see that it's going to be worthwhile.

What hardware are you putting into this thing? The comparison pic with the soda can makes it look like even a mini-itx would struggle to fit.
 
Legion© said:
What hardware are you putting into this thing? The comparison pic with the soda can makes it look like even a mini-itx would struggle to fit.
Click to expand...

It will be a mini-ITX board, which one I'm not sure. These photos show a VIA M10000 but I hope to end up with something a little more exotic than that. ;)

039.jpg


Wow what a lousy photo. Oh well. Shown here is my mounting system for my cartridge. The idea is to have a self contained unit that plugs into the case.

040.jpg


In this picture you can see the picoPSU. It's a 120W power supply plugged directly into the ATX power connector. I'll NEED the world's smallest power supply to pull all this off.

041.jpg


The hard drive and exhaust fan are loosely fit in this pic in order to show their placement. They will be supported by the two pieces of aluminum angle stock when I'm finished.

042.jpg


Everything mounted into the case. Tolerances were so tight for the mother board that I actually had to cut a very shallow groove into the inside of the case in order for the board to fit. Since I haven't glued the thing up yet this error may take care of itself when the layer of glue adds it's depth to the dimension. That's tight! :eek:

I'll make the I/O plate out of a sheet of aluminum. Something I learned while building the Neo-Deco PC
 
I used to have one of those motherboards - it struggled to play xvid movies with win98 and VLC! If you do end up using it, I hope you don't plan to use it for anything fancy.

I didn't think there would be much room left even with a mini-ITX, but somehow you've managed to cram everything in there. What are you planning on using for storage? Or are you going to have the whole thing run as a thinclient and boot off the network?

I wouldn't count on gaining anything when you glue it up. When done correctly, gluing shouldn't change the size by more than 0.01 mm - when you clamp it, the excess glue is squeezed out (or into any imperfections) and the resulting bond is extremely close.
 
Wow it's a lot smaller than I thought when you show it with the hardware going into it.
 
Very nice - but there is not a lot space for air and wood isn ´t realy heat conductive - inside will be as hot as in hell.
 
Heat really isn't an issue with the M10000 board, some of them even came out with passive cooling on the CPU! It's a 1GHz Via C3 embedded CPU designed to run with low power consumption, and low heat output.
 
Ice_Frog said:
Very nice - but there is not a lot space for air and wood isn ´t realy heat conductive - inside will be as hot as in hell.
Click to expand...

Read up a little before you post. Judging from slipperyskip's experience, he knows a lot more than you do:

OK. I'll take this lull in the action to discuss cases made out of wood. The most common comment I get is..."it's a bad choice of materials. The computer will overheat."

No offense to all the junior and wannabee engineers out there but...that's so stupid it's almost funny.

Gather 'round boys and girls and let Uncle Jeff tell you about convection versus conduction. In the world of heat transfer, conduction is the transfer of heat from one solid to another. Convection is the transfer of heat from a solid to a fluid.

Heat generated by a computer's CPU is first transferred to the heatsink by conduction. The material of the processor is physically attached to the material of the heatsink. Heat flows from the hotter material to the cooler stuff.

Next, the heatsink material transfers its heat to the air surrounding it, which is a fluid. Yes, air is a fluid. This transfer is done by convection. Since a fan is involved it is more accurately called "forced convection".

This heated air is expelled from the case by other fans moving the fluid around.

Water-cooling isn't much different. Different type of fluid of course.

Notice that the material used for the computer enclosure has no role in this story.

True, you could argue that hot air trapped in the enclosure gets transferred out by contact with the case material but this amount of transfer is so small compared to the amount involved in expelling the air that it is almost irrelevant.

Case manufacturers who tell you that aluminum cases allow your computer to run cooler are...full of shit. Also known as marketing.

There are exceptions, of course. People making quiet, fanless systems attempt to create a direct path (conduction) from the CPU to the case material. This turns the case into a giant heatsink.

Wood has superior sound deadening qualities and is much easier to work with than metals.

Putting sensitive electronic equipment into wooden enclosures is nothing new. The most famous being the console radios from the 1930's and console TV's from the 70's.

Back to work.
Click to expand...
 
047.jpg


There is a lot of shaping to do but I'm pleased with progress
048.jpg


The back end came together...literally, Now I have to get my I/O plate made and mounted.
049.jpg


The sheer volume of optical illustions from such an abundance of parallel lines is enough to break off more than a few brain cells.

I'm done for the day.
 
Nice work. Sticky.

I haven't read the entire thread yet but are you going to make the shell separate from the hardware inside (like a box inside and the wood acting as a shell)? Would make access easier.
 
Qtip42 said:
Nice work. Sticky.

I haven't read the entire thread yet but are you going to make the shell separate from the hardware inside (like a box inside and the wood acting as a shell)? Would make access easier.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

I'm brewing up a thing I call a cartridge computer. It is self-contained including fan(s), power supply, hard drive and I/O shield. It "plugs" into the equipment cavity in the case.

Wow! A HardOCP sticky. Good news all round. My picoCluster is in the current issue (April 13th) of PC Magazine. Page 157. I just got my copy.
 
050.jpg


These pictures show the backside after I cut and fit the aluminum panel. This panel will actually become part of the computer equipment module and not part of the case itself.

051.jpg
 
058.jpg


Photo of computer with exhaust blower fitted up

052.jpg


A steel threaded rod skewers the blower casing. Yes. The duct is blocked somewhat by the rod but this foreign object is very aerodynamic in its profile and has little effect on over-all cooling.

053.jpg


Mounted between two aluminum rails with nylon spacers keeping things aligned..

054.jpg


Here is the M10000 board with my cradle installed. This mess is used to align the device into the interior of the case. It also acts as a handy place to hang things off of and install things onto.


056.jpg


This pic shows the blower frame being aligned to the computer frame.

057.jpg


And docking is complete.....

There is a lot more work here like securing the blower body and adding an additional cross brace. The cross bracing really adds strength to the whole "device".

The hard drive will be mounted in a similar manner.
 
WOW! I thought it was a huge case when you first started working on it, but now I see the true scale and I am AMAZED! Very nice design for a wooden case, and I agree with you on materials: You need fans for cooling more than you need aluminum. I think some people can get so easily misled and it scares me! :( I bought aluminum last time, but just because it's a heck of a lot lighter! In fact, it is still the hottest running computer I have ever built, but I am liking the quiet with this new one.
 
059.jpg


I took these series of photos while I was aligning things. I thought they were interesting shots.


060.jpg


All I need is a couple of glowing radio tubes. I finished the computer "cartridge" but in the process I created a few clearance issues that need resolving.

061.jpg


Glamour photo.
 
062.jpg


The completed computer module is 6.7" x 6.7" x 3.7" The unit is fully self-contained and includes the power supply, hard drive, motherboard, CPU, memory and a case exhaust fan.

063.jpg


This contraption allows the computer to fit inside the case and touch it at each of its eight points. Each point is adjustable to make up for wear to wooden rails.

The VIA North/Southbridge combo heatsink had to be removed in order to fit the hard drive. This heatsink sucks anyway. I'm replacing it with a couple of Microcool heatsinks.

064.jpg


Cartridge plug-in action.

065.jpg


Today's guest USC is brought to you by the good people at Bawls.
 
068.jpg


I've started on my third and last dimension. Looking straight at the front of the case there are two large curves to be cut. One on top of each of the end caps.

This picture shows a roughed-in domed cap emerging from the basswood.

069.jpg


I'm still keeping the two parts identical. Soon they will start to become much different as I start adding a bracket to the bottom piece.

071.jpg


Here is some work being done on the bracket solution. The bracket will be removable in case I don't like it.
 
072.jpg


All of the parts have been rough cut, glued and set for drying. Glue up is a major milestone for this project. It allows the project to move on to more accurate sanding steps but, at the same time, it represents a "no-going-back" step. I held off doing it until I was forced to.

073.jpg


I can finally get down to some serious sanding. The newly joined panels will need to be re sanded to maintain a common curve that goes through them. Each of the three dimensions will be revisited before final free hand sanding.

074.jpg


I decided to fill in the entire top space behind the face plate. This is consistent with the original design. I was tempted to leave in the finned look for this area.

I used various bits and pieces to fill in the slots. Glued them up and set aside to dry.

On to the I/O plate,
 
075.jpg


Just a few pics to document progress.

076.jpg


Sometime during the process I decided that the bottom cap looked better than the top. I turned the piece upside down and declared it the new top. God-like power.

077.jpg


The I/O plate work is languishing because the sanding is too much fun. Must....exercise....self-control.
 
slipperyskip said:
Sometime during the process I decided that the bottom cap looked better than the top. I turned the piece upside down and declared it the new top. God-like power.
Click to expand...
:p

awesome craftsmanship. great concept for a case, too... now if only you could fit a computer inside one of the mics...


the black knight always triumphs!
 
rogue_jedi said:
:p

awesome craftsmanship. great concept for a case, too...
Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

Here's my day end photo. It includes a USC and my supervisor.

It is starting to show some curves and a few details. I have retired my 60 grit sandpaper for something a little more forgiving. From here to the end of the project I'll be using mostly 150 and 220 grit.

I'm still working on the attachment lug that juts down out of the mic body. It will end in a large round bolt hole.

More and Other

079.jpg
 
080.jpg


These clamped-up bits will become the attachment lug for the mic body. The lug will mount onto the stand.

081.jpg


I still have quite a bit of milling left to do including boring a hole through it for the stand shaft.

082.jpg


I got this baby today. It's a 10" cast iron mic stand. The three concentric circles has a little art deco flair to it. I'll be cutting the stand shaft down to some appropriate height. Probably very short.
 
084.jpg


The glue has dried and I traced the profile of the lug onto my hunk of wood.

085.jpg


The lug is finished. I painted a coat of flat black paint onto all the background surfaces. I did this for several reasons. Mostly I was tired of sanding.

086.jpg


The lug inserted into the base of the case. Everything is upside down.
 
ah ha! i've sussed it! It's an old timey microphone! holy crap that's awsome. i was thinking this was a neat design, but then i saw the pole stand and then the black highlights on the wood and it became clear to me... i've been just looking at the pictures so i donno if someone has already hit on what it is... anywho..awsome stuff man, i can't wait till this is done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top