Vertical Benching Station

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Vertical Benching Station






(**** This project is now complete. To skip to the Completed portion of this thread (which includes selective summary of the build) the link is --> here <--).






I got this idea when I was setting up shop in my new house 2 years back. I put up a bunch of standard pegboard for holding my tools:








I had a few extra panels of the stuff.



I pictured each panel being sort of an individual unit--one panel for the motherboard, one panel for drives, one panel for the motherboard:






(motherboard unit)








(watercooling unit)









And then you could link the units with some hinges, ala Asian panel style:

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But of course we wouldn't be making this from Home Depot particle board, would we....

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Now I could not leave it at particle board peg panels, could I?


So a couple email conversations with delvie’s plastics and:











¼” holes, 1” on center spacing, light gray plastic peg board panels.

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For the top hinges I’m using these lockable hinges. There a bit pricey (something like $15 apiece), but they make arranging and locking the panels super easy.













Add some bottom trim, the hinges, and the structure looks good:











Fits standard pegboard accessories.

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Now that I’ve got the basic structure designed, I took the time to knock out sub-units.

Tackled the power supply unit.





Started with some nice ¼” red acrylic:

















Attached some triangular pieces with plastic bond:















Then added a bunch of bracketry to hold the power supply down..










The hold down idea I actually developed from my previous build, Brass Tacks, see this post here.












To mount it, simply push the screw ends thru whatever hole spots you desire, then secure on the other side with some knurled nuts.














And on goes the psu:

[BeepBeep2]

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This being posted right on the edge of the Sandy storm landfall in Boston. I'm stuck in my hotel while on travel here, so I figured I'd catch up on my posts.


On to a new subunit, and this is going to be good:

Motherboard unit.




Started with a board of ¼” translucent red plastic and a PCI rack unit (Dimastech bench component).
















Drilled my motherboard holes, added standoffs, and mounted the rack:













Got the protective layer removed (yah looks a bit different).

Added the under-CPU opening.

Also added these aluminum brackets.






The brackets do act as feet when the motherboard isn’t upside-down.









But it is also paired with this bracket:









This is going to let me tool-free quick mount the motherboard.








First, you mount the catch unit wherever you desire:














So the motherboard just drops right into this bracket:












And there you go!

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Not quite done yet, tho.

I wanted to build in some cable management.




First I took some of these re-openable cable clips, but they were too wide.










Got to get them trimmed to ½”. This was surprisingly annoying. This sort of heat-formed plastic really just gums up cutting wheels.


So I made some quick guide grooves and hacked the sides off with a sawzall:















Mounted them to some angle brackets:












And attached them to the motherboard at the important spots:












Ready for the motherboard:











Drops on tool free:











Mount the video card:









Hang the unit:










Secure the unit on the backside:





(Red arrows are the mounts for the hanging bracket, Blue arrows are thumbscrews to the feet on the motherboard unit).







Yessir!

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Now that I got the motherboard system all set, I couldn’t resist installing some of the watercooling elements.



First I placed my pass-thrus:
















Then I added the blocks, fittings and tubing:








I think this just looks super clean. 2 simple tubes going to each component. Since these will be the only visible portion of the tubing (rest will be behind the panels), I can also easily swap them out, depending on aesthetics, maybe even experiment with some mayhem dyes.

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I have got a pair of Swiftech Maelstroms for my pump/res:







So I tackled making some mounting brackets for them.




First I generated some side walls:














Next I mounted these sidewalls to the bottom plate:















Added some support struts to the bottom:















Added the bracket for mounting to the pegboard, and it was done:













Mount the Maelstrom:














And double it up:

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Next I tackled my 5.25 bays.








I started with a 3x5.25 bay rack and placed it on a ?” thick red plastic base.











Added mounting brackets to the top and bottom for the peg holes.












And mounted it up:

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At this point, I took some time to make some decisions about the overall layout.


I linked up all my pegboard panels:















And stood it up for the first time!













This is going to be my main system, and so it will sit on a coffee table next to me. In fact this is what it currently looks like, being occupied by my last project Brass Tacks.




My main monitors sit on my desk to the right of my laptop.

















So my panel layout is going to be something like this:






Motherboard facing me, radiator panels curving around the back, almost like a column.









Radiator units will be here, under the pump/res?s.











And the backside of this semi-column.

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Hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving in the US!


Let’s make some hard drive trays.



Cut some stock red plastic:













Heated them up:












Bent them on a self made jig:















Crank out some little solders:













Added mounting screws and mounting holes:











I wanted to keep it simple and flexible. Hard drive screws to the plate. Drive plate can mount anywhere on the pegboard.















For 2.5” drives, I could easily add the smaller spaced mounting holes, but I’m going with some of these Akasa bay mounts, allows me 2x 2.5 drives in the same slot.












Again, I could mount these drives any which way, but I think I will bunk them like in a row:





















While I was at it, I cut some larger storage trays. Using the exact same method to bend:











Some nice approx 11.5” x 3” trays.













This is going to store my phone, camera, etc. I plan on mounting a USB hub behind and having all the cables nice and ready to go.

[dernettemann]

looks awesome

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Updates have been a little slow as I've been working on a side project, that will be implemented on this station.


I give you:


Building a Custom Radiator Shroud, Navig Style.

--> Link here <--




.

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Well, that was a fairly massive side project!

But I think worth it in the end:

One of my big goals was to have a watercooling system in which I really would never have to worry, do I have enough cooling capacity. I think this’ll do:






I have two complete radiator systems, one dedicated to the cpu and one to the gpu.

Each unit has:

1) Alphacool Monsta 360 radiators.

2) Intake is 3 38mm yate loons with custom radiator shroud.

3) Exhaust is 3 25mm yate loons with custom radiator shroud.

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Time to fabricate the last station unit:



Custom switch panel


Put together some custom cables and cut out a panel.












Folded it with the same techniques I’ve been using:













Plan is to mount it like so:









There are going to be several cable bundles visible, so I think I’ll keep them clean like so:













Finish it up:

[dernettemann]

Wow looks awesome

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For the past few months I’ve been focusing on all the individual units, now its time to start putting it all together, and that’s pretty exciting!



I needed to start all the finish work on the paneling, so I started with the motherboard panel and the 5.25 bay panel.












First I cut all the necessary pass thru holes:






Plus I took the time to sand down and finish all my machined edges.









Looking good:

















Then I set the upright and it was time to remove all the protective paper!









This is the first time I’ve got the panels up and finished. I think it looks pretty unique.









Started adding components.



















At this point I took a day for a little side project.



Given how far off the motherboard sits from the surface of the panel, and also that it is an end panel, I wanted a little more stability in the plane perpendicular to the panels.





So I took some ?” gray plastic (same as the paneling) and started to put together a side strut.












And here it was assembled, with leveling feet:












It is easily detached, if I don’t need it. But installed, you can see how it stabilizes the panel from forward/backward wobble:

[editor22]

Great idea for unlimited customization man! how stable is it now with the new feet?

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Stability is dependent on a number of things, but primarily the configuration of the panels. I will demonstrate in a few posts. Interestingly, as I added components and weight, the standing structure actually gets more stable.





Next I went to work on the radiator panels.



Here were my methods:

I cut the large cutouts with my scrollsaw:





















Holes were cut with a unibit to ⅞?.












The holes were carefully placed to match the barbs on the Swiftech Maelstroms:














And while I was at it, I took the mess of cables that comes stock on the Maelstroms:













And cleaned them up a bit:

[k.3nny]

I love this!

[CrazyNutz]

Very cool man. I like this idea

[dernettemann]

Awesome again

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Next I tackled fastening the radiators to the panels (well actually given the size of my radiator units, maybe more like how to attach the panels to the radiator).



Clips:











Attach:











Added a foot for stability:











Now I?ve got a completed radiator panel: