09/10 Project

[callen_1]

callen_1, I really love your approach to building workspace photo studio is good as well, just tweak color balance and brightness a bit
Things go well here, looking forward to your next update!

Edit: oh, please clean that rad, don't leave it laying on the floor

I'm back at home now looking at the pics through a different screen and your right, the pics are way too bright. I'll try and fix it soon.

Thanks mate


Edit: I'll have to change the originals as editing the resized pics just made things worse.

[martensch]

beautiful work again, and very nice choice in hardware, i bet it fits very good into your project!! big up!!

[Antioch]

I was away for the holiday and came back to this - my favorite build! Glad to see things are ramping up. It's turning out excellently!

[callen_1]

beautiful work again, and very nice choice in hardware, i bet it fits very good into your project!! big up!!

Thanks, i hope it fits well too

I was away for the holiday and came back to this - my favorite build! Glad to see things are ramping up. It's turning out excellently!

Really appreciate it mate, cheers. Hope you had a good holiday too

[charles_h]

Just so much awesomeness...

Callen, truly inspiring stuff M8, this is going to be something very special.

[Kibbler]

Holy poop how did I lost track of this build?! You have a way with metal that I seriously envy. And your backdrop and lighting setup is effortlessly miles better than anything I've jerry-rigged together. Want moar!

[callen_1]

Just so much awesomeness...

Callen, truly inspiring stuff M8, this is going to be something very special.

Thanks a bunch mate. i'm looking forward to showing you guys some of the stuff i've been working on. I bought a new router table and router for x-mas, a present from me to me i guess, and i'm having a lot of fun with it. Works much better than the home made table and laminate cutter i was using.

Holy poop how did I lost track of this build?! You have a way with metal that I seriously envy. And your backdrop and lighting setup is effortlessly miles better than anything I've jerry-rigged together. Want moar!

hey thanks man, but a backdrop doesn't make a difference when you can't shoot photos lol. I've still got plenty o' learning to do before i can catch up to you guru's

[chuky]

[...] lighting solutions [...]

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4fioqPTlKLw/Sz...0/IMG_1533.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4fioqPTlKLw/Sz...0/IMG_1534.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4fioqPTlKLw/Sz...0/IMG_1535.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_4fioqPTlKLw/Sz...0/IMG_1536.JPG


Next pics are with both sides of the acrylic sanded -

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4fioqPTlKLw/Sz...0/IMG_1538.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4fioqPTlKLw/Sz...0/IMG_1539.JPG


I'm pretty happy with the results, it should be quite useful.

hey callen,

I know it's a bit late but I'm new here.
Could you please tell me the size (espacially the thickness) of the acrylic you used and the size of your leds (3 or 5mm)? I'm interested in doing a similar thing at the back of my shelf so these information could be quite useful to me!

P.S.: I really LOVE your Mod, your custom front and all the other special parts are amazing and I'm looking forward to see the finished case.

greets, chuky

[callen_1]

Hi chuky, the acrylic is 6mm and the leds are 3mm and thankyou for the complement, i appreciate it mate.

I was only about 2 minutes away from a new update too lol

[callen_1]

Hi everyone, i have a relatively small update today, but once i recieve my GPUs and blocks everything should
come closer to completion.

For now i have some new hardware, some small case mods, and the SSD holders i whipped together.


First off I have some new tools -







And some Cobalt bits -




This were all X-mas presents... only they were from me.



To fit the larger rad i bought i had to make some minor changes to the centre divider -





Using a looped piece of masking tap i stuck on some wood to the back to make the job easier, as well as more
acurate -




The new router is much larger than the trimmer and holds 1/2" shank bits so i needed to use an adapter with my
old bits -




My absolute favourite new toy, i'll show you down further some of the things you can do with it -








First up a test cut to gauge the distance of the bit from the fence. It also allows me to adjust the stopper arm
(on the right side of the pic below) so i don't accidentally cut too far -




Both Sides now done -




No point in routing all this -






Now it's just clean up -






Now the larger rad will fit, but I'll have pics in the next update -




I'll get onto the interesting stuff now. I needed a place for my new SSDs and i didn't want to put them somewhere
they would be seen. Personally I think they're ugly, so i took yet another leaf out of Charles' DIY PC mod book
(specifically Daniel's murderbox) and decided to use acrylic which will also act as lighting. I did put my own little
twist in it though to keep with the whole diagonal theme (and make it partly original)


So first up some 10mm acrylic cut roughly to size and routed -








That worked well so i made 2 more -




Because they're all run through the same routing cycle, 1 after the other, they end up identical (but it may be
hard to tell) -






Next up I needed to rout out the middle -











SUPER MATHS!!! -






Test run (I'll always do this!) -




Done, and because everything i did to the first i do to the other, they all end the same -






Gotta get rid of that black thing. Pity it's holding the drive together, but i think i can fix that later -




Now for the top -










Once the top piece was cut slightly narrower than the bottom i re-routed the bottom so both pieces were identical
in width (not that it really mattered as you will see soon) -








Welding -




This is where it started getting complicated -




Unfortunately i didn't have a 45 degree bit big enough so i improvised -



Reverse sticky -



Good to go -






This is after both sides were done. It's also on it's side so this isn't the same orientation i had been routing it (i.e
the wood block should be rotated 90 degrees clockwise) -










Now to get the drive to fit. I wanted to (and had to) remove the black bracket however the screws were too
long to hold the drive together without it. This actually worked to my advantage -












This only holds 3mm bits, I needed to use 2mm -




Improvise again -




Adjust the max depth to be safe -




I didn't take any action shots of the drilling but i left the black bracket taped to the outside and drilled through
the holes in each corner. This is afterwards -




Next up was countersinking -




And the end results -







All 3 done -




So I still didn't quite like it and figured i'd add covers (sorry about drawing this on for so long) -














The top cover is 85mm wide while the bottom is only 80mm -






Both sides routed and cut to size -




Now the rest -










These covers need to stay on somehow so i picked some fashionable blue M4 socket head screws that i'll be using
in many other parts of the case. I also had to draw out the location of the previous screw holes so i didn't drill
through or too close to them. 18.5mm from each side worked well -






This next bit may be confusing but i'll try and explain; to screw on the covers i not only needed to drill holes into
the acrylic, but i also had to tap them. T tap them, however, i needed to drill the entire way through the acrylic
as the tap is quite long. So to do this without putting 4 extra holes in each of the aluminum covers i needed to
remove one cover, drill all the way through the acrylic and remaining cover, remove the cover i had just drilled and
replace it with the previously removed cover, and finally re drill another 4 holes. The pictures may help understand
what i mean but basically I'm left with 4 holes in each cover (1 cover on each side of the acrylic) and 16 holes in
the acrylic (8 on each side). i made an error with the line marking and that's why there are 2 lines close together
in the pic below -

1 cover removed to the side -




4 holes drilled -




Swapped covers and re-drilled -




Now you can see there are 8 holes on each side of the acrylic -




And 4 holes on each cover -




Repeated for all drive bays -




Next i re-drilled each cover with a slightly larger bit. This was to allow the screws to slip through the covers and
screw into the acrylic -




Here you can see the tap and how long it is. This is why i had to drill through both sides of the acrylic -






After tapping i gave each cover a sand down -




And the almost finished product -








Another job for the powder coaters.

I hope that wasn't dumbed down too much, most of you probably knew what was going on anyway, but if it helps
1 person then that's good enough for me.

Tomorrow I'll make the mounting plate so the drives can sit just under the fan controller. Then Saturday i have my
sisters 21st so i think i'll take some time off to recover.

Have a good weekend everybody

Hope to cya soon,
Callen.

[ipuoL]

absolute amazing work!!! Could the heating be a problem for the SSDs or get the SSDs not so hot?

regards
Marcus

[aka_GK]

omg, please help me to get my jaw back from the floor, that is absolutely amazing

[GregSG]

absolutely stunning...

[Kenjiwing]

very interesting project.. subd bc I cant wait to see how those ssd holders look.

[shazza]

Nothing much to add ... absolutely amazing / stunning / jaw-dropping stuff (told ya nothing new to add)

[nlancaster]

pretty.

While reading thru that build of those hard drive holders. I thought you were just going to leave them in the bare acrylic make it look like the driver are just standing in open space sore of thing.

But still looks really good for mounting them.

[josk1]

dude, I dream of a garage like yours.... want your tools too !!!!

oh, and by the way: most awesome job!!!!!!!

[Elpy]

Crazy... First I started looking that damn it looks cool... Then it turned into jealousy... And now I simply hate you for having all those tools!!!! Give them to meeeee...

But seriously, amazing... Suddenly I lost the motivation to build my PC because it will be so lame compared to this

[Goran_O]

Truly amazing work there, Callen. I envy your workspace and machine-park. I'm confined to my living room to perform my humble modding.

Keep up the work.

[chuky]

Hi chuky, the acrylic is 6mm and the leds are 3mm and thankyou for the complement, i appreciate it mate.

I was only about 2 minutes away from a new update too lol

Hi.

Ok, then I know what acrylic I need. Could you please tell me the other sizes, too, so that I can see if the leds are bright enough for a acrylic of the size I need?!

Next point: Your update is the most amazing acrylic-mod I've ever seen. Further to cover your ssd-boxes with the brushed metal looks very nice...I'd be very happy if I had the opportunities to build such things on my own, but I don't have a small part of your talent or your machines!

So I rest to wish you lots of fun at the birthday, and, to be egoistically, I hope to see an update very soon

greets

[mattlef]

wow.... all I can say is wow...

sub'd

[Oli4v]

undiscribable mate !

[Antioch]

Sorry to draw this out for so long...

Draw it out for as loooonnnggggg as you need - and then some, please!

I've said it once and I'll say it again: favorite build log! Outstanding work. I can't wait to see the finished product. On second thought, I can wait because I'm sure I'll only suffer from a fit of jealous rage

[callen_1]

absolute amazing work!!! Could the heating be a problem for the SSDs or get the SSDs not so hot?

regards
Marcus

Thanks! as far as heating goes SSDs run much cooler than HDDs and were barely warm to the touch after an hour, so i'm confident they will be ok.

omg, please help me to get my jaw back from the floor, that is absolutely amazing

lol thanks mate.

absolutely stunning...

I really apreciate it, cheers

very interesting project.. subd bc I cant wait to see how those ssd holders look.

I can tell you that they're going to be mounted at an angle if that helps

Nothing much to add ... absolutely amazing / stunning / jaw-dropping stuff (told ya nothing new to add)

Thank you very much

pretty.

While reading thru that build of those hard drive holders. I thought you were just going to leave them in the bare acrylic make it look like the driver are just standing in open space sore of thing.

But still looks really good for mounting them.

To tell you the truth i really liked the look of the acrylic by itself but the welding process leaves flaws where it's joined. I also don't like the look of the drives so i decided to add the covers.

dude, I dream of a garage like yours.... want your tools too !!!!

oh, and by the way: most awesome job!!!!!!!

Thanks mate. The funny thing is i hadn't bought a single tool before i started this build, hell i hadn't even used a router before, but i knew i'd use them on future builds and figured it'd be a good time to buy. My parents aren't too impressed though, they don't even have a place to park their car any more haha.

Crazy... First I started looking that damn it looks cool... Then it turned into jealousy... And now I simply hate you for having all those tools!!!! Give them to meeeee...

But seriously, amazing... Suddenly I lost the motivation to build my PC because it will be so lame compared to this

Besides the router and drill press i really don't have anything out of the ordinary. I mean i have a hand drill and jigsaw but most people have those anyway. I'd definitely recommend a router table to anyone thinking of modding like this, it's the next best thing to a cnc (i drool over those things) and works great for simple mods like those drive bays (and by simple i'm talking over 12 hours work!!)

And keep at your build, i still have plenty of work left to mess up this project so i wouldn't worry about that too much lol.

Truly amazing work there, Callen. I envy your workspace and machine-park. I'm confined to my living room to perform my humble modding.

Keep up the work.

Thanks mate. You can always come over and work here, but it may be a bit of a drive lol

Hi.

Ok, then I know what acrylic I need. Could you please tell me the other sizes, too, so that I can see if the leds are bright enough for a acrylic of the size I need?!

Next point: Your update is the most amazing acrylic-mod I've ever seen. Further to cover your ssd-boxes with the brushed metal looks very nice...I'd be very happy if I had the opportunities to build such things on my own, but I don't have a small part of your talent or your machines!

So I rest to wish you lots of fun at the birthday, and, to be egoistically, I hope to see an update very soon

greets

That little piece is only about 15mm x 12mm. I would also recommend putting LEDs in the sides too for a better effect. Thank you for the kind words and i hope to get an update for you asap

wow.... all I can say is wow...

sub'd

Cheers bud

undiscribable mate !

Thanks mate, appreciate it

Draw it out for as loooonnnggggg as you need - and then some, please!

I've said it once and I'll say it again: favorite build log! Outstanding work. I can't wait to see the finished product. On second thought, I can wait because I'm sure I'll only suffer from a fit of jealous rage

haha don't be like that. Thanks mate and i wish you the best with your build


I kinda screwed up by showing this update. Don't get me wrong, i'm really happy with the bays, i'm just not sure if the rest of the project will work out as well as they did? And now people have expectations! aww geez I just hope i can keep up.

Thanks again everyone,
Callen

[alphadog009]

WOW this is absolutely amazing... i honestly cant tell what hasn't been modified... its amazing attention to detail. Please draw it out longer... the explanations make the worklog and you work so well i would like a little insight into your process!