Project Mini Me: Scratch built aluminium case.

Project Mini Me: First Posting

2004-11-29

I'm hoping this will be a quick project, but knowing my luck something will go wrong half way through or I will run out of time so I wouldnt bet on it being quick hehe.

The basis for the project is to use the spare shuttle pentium 4 motherboard and p4 cpu I have lying around my office and make it into a small cube for the girlfriend to use.

I'm going to use sheet aluminium with square section aluminium to build the chassis. It will be taped so that I can screw directly into the sqaure sections.

Onto some pics, the first are of the parts I'm using, the shuttle mobo/cpu ,the 250w psu and a laptop slot loading combo drive.

The first step was to cut the aluminium to size, its only rough as I haven't decided exactly what dimensions I'm going to use yet hehe.

I then cracked out my drill and taps and set to work doing a test peice to see if it would work if I threaded the square section of aluminium.

It worked very well and was much easier than I imagined. I will decide the dimensions tonight and cut the aluminium over the next few days I think.

Project Mini Me: First update

2004-12-04

My first update on this project, I've cut the top and bottom pieces to size, I've also trimmed also trimmed the structural square sections of aluminium. Last thing on the list that I've done are the motherboard standoffs. I'm hoping to break the bak of this project this weekend as my main rig needs to be rma'd :(

Project Mini Me: Structural elements drilled and threaded

2004-12-04

Another update from the work I've done today. I spent most of the day drilling holes in the square section then making threads in the holes to allow me to screw bolts directly into them. This took ages and one of my threading tools broke, luckily I could use another to finish the job. I've screwed the two structural sections together and placed them onto the top plate to show you how it will look in the final version.

Project Mini Me: Chassis coming together

2004-12-07

I've done some more work over the last few days. First off I got the backplate cut and drilled to size, then mounted the back plate and bottom plate onto the structural elements.

I then started thinking about how to mount the hard drive and optical drive. I orginally wanted something really simple but due to the layout it will have to be slightly more complicated but much more secure and solid. I've done the first parts of building the drive bay, first are the L-shaped sections and then I mounted one side to show you how it would look.

Project Mini Me: Drive bays

2004-12-07

Another update for you kind folks, this time I've been working on the drive bay setup. Its almost complete , I just need to drill the holes for the drives themselves.

Project Mini Me: Motherboard mounted(08/12/04)

2004-12-08

Work has progressed well today, I finished the drive bay holder by drilling the mounting points for the two drives. I then attached the front panel to the chassis, and then the drive bay holder was also mounted into position. Finally I did a cut out for the mobo ports and put the mobo in place for a test fit.

Project Mini Me: Rear blowhole and 2 setbacks

2004-12-09

I had a couple of setbacks today, first was when I started doing a blowhole for the rear panel, the holesaw forced the panel out of the holding clamps and made the whole panel fit for scrap :(

I quickly made up a new one (isn't it frustrating how quick you can do something the second time hehe) I made sure the panel didnt budge the second time with 5 clamps holding it in place.

The second setback was that I hadnt check to see if the psu would fit where I wanted, and sods law being what it is , the psu wont fit grrrrrr. It needs a quick re jig of the drive bay mounting, it shouldnt be too bad hopefully. I will attack this tommorow.

Project Mini Me: Drive bays redone

2004-12-10

A quick update, I've done a few bits today mostly re doing the drive cage so that I can fit the psu. Only got the one piccy tho today.

Project Mini Me: Panels Completed

2004-12-21

I've made some more progress on the project over the last week or so, what I have done is ditched the panels I made before as they werent of the quality I was happy with and one of the support bits was out of true which made the cube not a cube. I've gone back and fixed this now and with some thicker aluminium stock I've made up all the panels required and done a test fit.

I've taken some pics of the cube for you all to check out, its still in its protective coating but you get the idea, I'm going to try to do some more work on it tommorow before I go away for xmas.

Project Mini Me: Front and back panels

2004-12-30

Another project update, I've been working on the finish for the projects panels. I orginally intended to brush the sides with a wire brush then clear coat them. Unfortunatly when I did the first panel there were lots of marks coming through after brushing that I couldnt remove. I tried various cleaners and vigerous scrubbing but nothing would shift it.

I thought about painting the whole thing black but I kept that as a last resort, so instead I took my hand sander to the panels which give an excellent finish and there was no nasty marks. I'm working through all the panels in turn to get them finished.

I've done most of them so far and here are the pics of them, I've done some before and after shots, for some reason the chrome switches look black but they arent hehe.

I'm going to try to finish all the panels tommorow.

Project Mini Me: Preview shots - Updated

2005-01-07

I've been working more on the project. Mainly just testing out my new metal bender which is ace. I'm going to redo the drive bays in a neater form. Using bends instead of lots of seperate peices. I've done a few test peices to see how best to do it. The bender produces great right angles but it has its limitation on how small the distance between bends can be so i tried out other methods as well.

Onto the shots the first two were taken a few days back of the panels in place after brushing to show you how the final thing will look.

These are my test peices for the drive bay, nd the bending brake itself.

Project Mini Me: Drive bays redone

2004-04-01

After having a play round with the new bending brake I've redone the drive bay with bending instead of L-shaped channels. Its much neater now. It needs to be brushed but you can see the shape in the pictures.

And a couple of shots with the drives in place. It needs the holes to be put in so its not finished yet.

Project Mini Me: Few more jobs done

2004-01-15

I've not managed to do much more work on this project as I've had guest staying in my spare room/workshop hehe. I have done some stuff though, first was me fitting a zalman northbridge heat sink. It looks great. I also installed a nice chrome/clear plastic hiper fan I found.

After these jobs I brushed the drive bay holder thing to fit into the rest of the project.

Jobs left to do are as follows:

Do the wiring for the switches/leds
Make a wiring loom for the psu
Tidy up the side panels
Install the cables for all the drives

Project Mini Me: New Fan Grills

2005-01-04

I've done a bit more on this project, but not much. I'm waiting on some parts to finish this off.

I basically added some custom fan grills I used on another project they are the bit tech logo and look v nice.