[Scratch build] Lignum Cube

[Piotrek_PL]

Hi

I finally started new project, I hope you'll like it
This time I think I'm going to write a little more, since I have quite a lot of thoughts about this build.
I'm going to do something I have never seen in any worklog - I'm gonna post animated gifs

Introduction
My previous build ReactorMod was cool, but what looks nice isn't always practical and it doesn't really suit my desk. This time I wanted to make a case that would be neat so I could put it on my desk.

Structure
I wanted this case to be as small as possible, but it has to fit ATX motherboards. It's not a big deal to build a tiny case for a tiny motherboard. After many excogitations and considering avaible for me tools and materials I've decided that the best dimensions would be 360 x 270 x 190 mm.
I divided the case into two 'floors'. The upper one will be basically only for motherboard, lower floor would hold PSU, pump, 240mmm radiator, reservoir and hdds.

Materials
Since I want the case to be neat I decided that aluminium and wood would do the job. So the front and rear of the case will be made out of plywood. Sides and the top of the case will be bent from one piece of 2mm thick aluminium sheet.

Decided to make the cover first, so I coud adjust front and rear panels to fit it perfectly.
I needed to nicely cut 910mm of aluminium and I only own a 20cm long guillotine. So I headed over to a workshop of a friend of mine.

That's my 2 mm thick aluminium sheet.

That's what I call awesome machine! It was made in 1957 and still runs perfect. And I bet it will run smoothly for next 60 years.

Once I got the sheet cut it was time to fold it. 160 tons pressure, made in 1971.

On the left side of the pic you can see the folded cover. Now I cut sheet for the bottom of the case, which doesn't need folding.

Back at home. That's how the cover went out.

Having the cover made I could got down to the front and rear of the case. I ordered plywood cut in correct dimensions. It's 9mm thick

Wanted the case and plywood to fit nicely so I had to mill it a little. My milling machine doesn't have so big range of motion so I had to improvise. That's mine WS15 bench drill.

Filled out the edges.

I think it went out pretty well.

That's how it looks like temporarily assembled with a beer can to see the dimensions.

That's all for now, hope you like it and sorry for any mistakes

Sponsors
I'd like to thank the following companies:

for providing DEUS M1 550W power supply unit

for providing SSD Premier Pro SP900 128GB

and XPG 2x4Gb PC3-12800

 

[Stevennoland]

Too soon for mistakes. Good luck!

 

[deadlift1]

Love me some scratch builds!

 

[Piotrek_PL]

Thanks! Hope you won't be disappointed with the outcome

To safe some time I decided to use a mobo tray from my old case.

And it's out in 3 pieces.

Went on a quick shopping. Bought 4 meters of square aluminium rod.

Firstly I cut the rear panel a little.

Scribed lines on the rear panel and cut it the same way I did eariler.

Assembled.

Then it was time to make some kind of fastenings that will be attached to the front and rear of the case.
Firstly I cut it from a 10mm square aluminium rod and evened it out on a lathe. Then just some drilling and M4 rifling.

I needed 10 of them. I'm quite glad with the outcome.

Now needed to make the rods that will go along the case.

Evening out.

Here goes a gif where I make a countersink for ISO912 bolt.

Rifling.

That's my cats reaction... Think he was not impressed.

In the next update I will be making the mobo tray and the case will be ready for assembling

 

[DraginDime]

awesome machining work sir. This should be a very cool case, I will be watching for more updates.

The GIFs are really cool also, not something we see often.

 

[shadowlord]

a worklog with animated gifs ......... awesome !

 

[LooseNeutral]

..been awhile since I've been snoop'd around the forums here. Nice to come back and find this little gem in progress. Really enjoy your use of the gifs. A bit out of the norm and quite refreshing, the content you've chosen for them augments the log nicely. Nice to see that mill work done on the old warhorse machines..kudos

 

[Piotrek_PL]

Thanks guys, glad you like it
That's a short update this time, but I'm quite far with building the case. Only a matter of time when I post it, should be soon.

Having the mobo tray I could start modyfing it.
That's a place where a alu rod will be.

I needed to make a six of them in both parts of the tray.

Test fitting.

Ready for riveting.

Done.

Except that I recorded unboxing of EK RESX3 250. That's my first movie and it's in Polish so I'm sure you won't understand a word I believe it's the first Polish video about water cooling gear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTrS4N4laA8

 

[Piotrek_PL]

Basically, the case itself is now made. Have to make vets and a window but this has to wait until I decide what hardware I'll be using.

Had to cut the bottom sheet a little.

Then I quickly drilled holes to mount the sheet.

Ready to mount!

These pics were shot with my old hardware just to check how it fits. Final placement of stuff like PSU or radiator might be different.

I also recorded a movie where I assembly the case, there are English subtitles, I made my best and hope you will understand them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyi-ZOez4OQ

 

[Piotrek_PL]

It's been a while since last update beacuse I was looking for a new hardware.
Decided to buy: i5 3570k, asus p8p67 evo and sapphire 7950 OC.

Wanted to introduce you the first sponsor:

Silentium PC provided DEUS M1 550W psu.

Motherboard.
I was going to buy a p8p67 PRO, but I picked up a great bargain and bought EVO version quite cheap.

Those boards are almost the same, the most visible difference is that third heat sink beside pci-e socket.

I was curious if it actually cools something, since I didn't notice anything under it while looking on the back of the board.

It turned out there's only one tiny part underneath. I don't know what it does but I'm pretty sure that it's in the same place in PRO version without a heat sink.

So I think that additional heat sink is only for the thrill of it Well played Asus, well played...

3570k in da house Seller says it made 4,6Ghz @1,3V and he didn't want to go further because of his lame cooler. We'll see what I can do with it.

 

[Piotrek_PL]

Just received delivery from ADATA, which kindly decided to support me with their SSD and RAM.

SSD Premier Pro SP900 128GB

XPG 2x4Gb PC3-12800

I could be starting up the computer right now if there weren't any trouble with the video card. I bought Sapphire HD7950 but it was bugged, I returned it to the seller and I'm just sitting there waiting for my money

 

[Piotrek_PL]

While I was mounting the water block on the mainboard I thought to myself that it looks kinda...naked without that third heat sink. So I cut the heatpipe and mounted it

The case is so small that I'll probably have to make custom cables, so I started with a pump.

And that's how I connected 2 ssd's and a hdd.

Here's new version of the lower part of the loop, used a 3-way bronze adapter I made earlier.

All tubes are bent and ready for mounting.

After a long while I finally connected the whole loop, but I need to finish few things in the case before I fill it.

Thanks for watching and please tell me what you think

 

[PixelsGC]

Can I just say, the gifs are fricken awesome! LOVE IT!

 

[Reality]

you mounting the card flat against the motherboard? gonna just use a pci-e extender cable?

 

[deadpool_]

Did you use a special process to make such tight clean bends in your plastic tubing? Your workmanship is amazing, nice build!

 

[lilfiend]

Did you use a special process to make such tight clean bends in your plastic tubing? Your workmanship is amazing, nice build!

It looks like acrylic tubing, hard, not flexible.

 

[wesnerer]

Did you use a special process to make such tight clean bends in your plastic tubing? Your workmanship is amazing, nice build!

That is rigid acrylic tubing.

 

[Piotrek_PL]

Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it Sorry for not responding, somehow I didn't receive any information about new replies.

It's been a while but here's next update. I'm going to get down to work on the case and if I'm lucky I will finish it till the end of the week. I've already done the lion's share of work, just didn't have time to update the worklog.

The biggest change, I think, is that I bought a sheet of walnut vaneer and decided to use it on the front and rear panel of the case.

That's the front panel, on the right hand side you can see mounted power and reset buttons, the holes on the left side will be described later. As you can see the burl is glued on the sides of the front panel, but it's not cut to size yet.

Here it looks like something went wrong, but it's a pic taken in the middle of cutting the burl to size.

Aaand it's cut. This stripe is about 3mm wide, but it's doing the job.

Burl looks interesting with glue on it. Wonder how it's gonna look like with a varnish or wax. Haven't decide yet if and which one I'll use here.

Vaneer glued to the front panel, back view.

Front view.

After a couple of hours burl is glued and cut to size. Also mounted the buttons and LEDs to see how it looks like.
Yeah, that yellowish dot on the left side of the panel is a power led. I really didn't want to put there some ordinary leds.

Here the led is off.

I really like the effect, so I can't help but posting more pics.

On this pic the burl colour is the most accurate, at least on my screen.

View on the pwr and reset leds.

That's all for today, hope you like it, next update should be tomorrow, I've been really eager beaver lately.

 

[CMadki4]

I LOVE the ghost LEDs. A really cool effect.

On the power and reset switches, I recommend getting a nice circular brushed patter on them to really clean them up. Chuck them in a drill (use a socket if you have to) and spin them into a piece of ScotchBrite to similar abrasive foam. I did this on some of my vandal switches to remove the chrome plating down to the copper subplating and bare stainless button insert:

 

[Piotrek_PL]

Thanks CMadki4 !
You have a really good eye I had some problems with getting a nice brushed pattern. Your idea seems good, I'll have to try it asap. I'll probably use a different foam, but the idea itself is good. I used just ordinary sandpaper and didn't thought about foam. Thanks!

I couldn't make up my mind how to paint the veneer, after a couple days of thinking I decided to go with half-matt clear varnish. Must say that effect is awesome, the veneer looks just like I imagined. Sadly, the veneer on the front of the case fell off, it seems I didn't glue it properly, I'm gonna have to try this again.

So I'm waiting for a packge with veener, and in the meantime I got down to cables and other stuff. There's pretty much work to do, mainly with the cables. I needed to shorten the 8pin and 24pin atx cables from the psu, make cables for LEDs, buttons, a internal USB cable to connect Aquaero and much more.

I cut the mobo tray and mounted standoffs. Pic was taken before cutting holes for cables.

Finally I could get down to extension cables provided by bit-tech.pl.

Had to drill 50 holes so I printed tamplates and sticked them on a 10x20mm aluminium flat bar.

Punched the holes

and started drilling. I wanted to make a nice gif and set my camera on a tripod but it run out of battery... so there isn't many photos.

Nope, it's not blood, just paint.

I'm pretty glad with the outcome, but im not a CNC machine They're quite big but I had this flat bar at hand.

Just a bunch of pics to enjoy

Extensions look good on the background of painted veneer.

That's it for now, stay tuned!

 

[Piotrek_PL]

Brace yourselves, the end is near!

Back of the case with PSU mounting and cover for motherboard I/O ports and VC. That 4 holes are where the Aquaero will be mounted.

Front of the case. Had some problems with the veneer but after 3rd try it's perfect

Mesh that I'm going to put into side of the case.

Main part of the case, before anodizing (black). On the top will be graphite pmma.

Bottom of the case. I cut a large hole, I'm also going to put mesh here. I'm trying to make the air flow as good as possible in such a small case.

Don't now if Aquaero is popular among you, but for me it's the best controll panel for water cooling. Wanted to use a relay integrated in it to switch cold cathodes. Sadly it was too weak with max switching current 0.5A since my cathodes draw not less than 1A. So it was time for some AquaModding ;P

Soldered out the relay.

And soldered a 3pin fan socket instead. I will connect there new external relay.

Luckily I managed to put the relay in the cold cathodes converter casing.

Closed converter case . Black and green - relay control (from Aquaero). Black and red - cathodes power (12V from psu ). White - cathodes.

Powered it up, works brilliant!

I used HF3FF relay, but you can use whatever relay you want just make sure that its coil doesn't draw to much current , I think that 500mA maximum is safe.