Archers custom chassis work log

Heh, he finally got this thing of the ground :p

Congrats man and stay healthy, whats another week or 2 of no pics :D....
 
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Ok, got some photos for you addicts ;)

General view of the front panel. Came out pretty well, just needs a little fine sand paper to get rid of some of the burrs
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Then a close up, enjoy
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Thats all for now, light is pretty horrible at my house at night. Will take lots more pictures tomorrow when things really get going, stay tuned! :D
 
Archer said:
Ok, got some photos for you addicts ;)

General view of the front panel. Came out pretty well, just needs a little fine sand paper to get rid of some of the burrs
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Then a close up, enjoy
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Thats all for now, light is pretty horrible at my house at night. Will take lots more pictures tomorrow when things really get going, stay tuned! :D
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^^^This :love:
 
Very, very nice Archer!

I really like the little corner cut-out thingies in some of the hexagons. It makes a really cool, symmetrical pattern and looks HAWT :D

It came out great!
 
Gah, things are taking way longer than expected. Even though aluminium is a soft metal, drilling into a 12mm square bar still takes forever. So what did I manage today? Well, I got the longer bars cut to the proper lengths (though some may need another 0.5mm shaved off), got most of the burrs off the laser cuts, and sanded two panels. And something else... Ya, like I said, not much... This is actually the first time in over 10 years I picked up proper tools and done something. So it was really slow going, and looking back, perhaps I have been overkeen, haha. But I will persevere!

But on with the pictures!

A couple of shots of all the panels...
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5.25 Bay holders. It has 5 slots, 3 of which will be accessible from outside the case. The other two will house a HDD + SSD
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The right side panel
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Front, back and top panels (from left to right)
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Ugly steel panels :p Need them for the magnetic filters. Bottom andhidden front (from left to right)
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And all the square bar that needs to be made into swiss cheese so that some bolts can hold everything together!
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Tired yet? :p Continued in next post (limit of 8 pics per post, sigh)
 
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First order of business was getting the basic framework up, and for that needed to drill some holes in the bar at each end. This was my first attemt at countersinking. Not too bad (I think!), the bolt sits almost flush. Next I had to drill straight into another bar and get it threaded. Skip ahead a hour and the last picture shows you how it fits together at the corners
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Next up (first forget you already saw those threaded holes in the previous pic!), getting all the holes drilled and tapped for the left side panel to attach to the frame. Trying to test fit as much as possible each step so that I dont miss something big... And... test fit succesful. Everything looks to have lined up just right, bolts are in, hooray! Only managed two bars though lol... better luck next time I hope!
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And thats that. Hope you enjoyed following so far, hopefully more to come over the weekend
 
Very cool Archer! It looks like a hell of a lot of work, but fun at the same time!

I'm enjoying following the thread and look forward to more updates ;)
 
Ono'rach said:
I'm enjoying following the thread and look forward to more updates ;)
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Well based on the way you keep going on about making him put up photo's I sure hope you do:D

@Archer, I just want to say again... :love:

So when does mass manufacturing start? I'd like to place my order!
 
Ono'rach said:
Very cool Archer! It looks like a hell of a lot of work, but fun at the same time!

I'm enjoying following the thread and look forward to more updates ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm gonna need some encouragement since it seems like its taking forever!

Libertas Computers said:
@Archer, I just want to say again... :love:

So when does mass manufacturing start? I'd like to place my order!
Click to expand...

Thanks :D Maybe if you ask very nicely I can design and/or make you one ;)
 
You're slow :p
Been following the progress of that for a while. Epic build, but waaaay outside of anything I could afford right now. Plus I like being able to move mine around, haha
 
:(
Got almost nothing done yesterday. Worked for about 30 minutes and then this happened:
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Broken bits :mad: Went and got three replacements (just in case one breaks again, haha) but it was almost time to do something else I had promised to do.

So I decided to leave it at that and go help out my grandfather "quickly." I had made him a map of his home country (The Netherlands) on a clear piece of perspex. Add some leds on the side and it lights up quite nicely :D Going to do something similar with my case window, but will obviously use green lights instead of white.
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That took way longer than expected so I only got back to my case at 15h00, and then a short while later the wife unit called and told me to come home. But on the plus side I got some new clamps that have made my life much easier, and I reckon with a bit of luck next weekend I will have the frame 70% complete, and have it 100% done by the next weekend. And in doing the frame I get everything ready for the panels as well, so I will be pretty close to done (hopefully).
 
Stuff breaking FTL :(

On the plus side, that map looks really cool dude! :D What design or pattern are you going to have on your case?

You should let us decide! :p
 
Update will follow tonight, was too lazy yesterday :p In the meantime I'll say that I should have something very case looking by next weekend...
 
As promised, update time!
So after failing hard last week with broken bits and stuff I was quite determined to finally get that side panel done. And guess what? Its done!!
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Not too shabby for a days work eh? Nah, I got a lot more done... Basically repeated the whole process with the other side panel. You'll notice there are two screws missing. That because somehow I drilled the holes in the wrong places and so they are 2mm away from where they are meant to be. Fail on my part even though I marked everything right, used a center punch, everything. Could actually hide it, but I decided at the end of the day that I'd do it over. Bit of a mission but if thats what it takes for perfection then thats what I am going to do
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Next up, both panels next to each other
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Now what have we here??
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And from the other side...
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If you guessed the bottom panel then you are right! Thanks to the clamps I bought I was able to 'cheat' a bit and get this on in record time. I clamped the panel exactly where it needed to be (sorry forgot to take pics) and then drilled the pilot holes through the holes already in the bottom panel. Now I dont need to worry about misaligned holes.
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Continued in next post...
 
Then at the end of the day I decided to do a quick test of my idea for case feet. Here is what it came out like
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I'll probably shift the hole over so that it doesnt stick out at the end. I'll also put a piece of rubber there, to protect my desk for one, and to help damp any vibrations. Each of the three angled pieces on the side panels will hide a foot, so with 6 feet the case should be fairly stable

I had to take pics of the clamps. They were simply so super useful, haha
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Finally, check out my 'new' aluminium coated drill bit. While drilling the aluminium gets quite close to melting point despite me using coolant as much as possible. So now its stuck to the bit. You can see the unused one on the right for comparison.
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Thats all for now. I hope I can bring a nice big update next time! :D
 
Looking good so far! I know you still have lots to do, but you've definitely broken the back of this huge undertaking :)

Good luck for the final stages of the build!

Nice clamps by the way :p
 
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