Project Quintessence

[voigts]

Quintessence: (from Dictionary.com)

1. the pure and concentrated essence of a substance.
2. the most perfect embodiment of something.
3. (in ancient and medieval philosophy) the fifth essence or element, ether, supposed to be the constituent matter of the heavenly bodies, the others being air, fire, earth, and water.

I hope this build will end up being a good incorporation of antique styling, elegance, function, and performance.

Featured in the August issue of CPU Magazine

FINAL PICS ON PAGE 9



Current Renderings:








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List of Updates:

The Build Begins - Cutting out panels and bending aluminum for base – 26May2010
Transferring Spacing for Cutouts on PCI Panel and Mounting Holes in MB tray - 31May10
Panel Work - 16Jun10
Putting Parts Together, PSU & HDDs Mounts - 22Jun10
Motherboard Mounted, PSU Wiring Insert, Decide to Remake MB Tray and PSU Panels -03July10
Redone MB tray, PSU tray, Top Panel, and Center Spacer/Support -03Aug10
Base Pieces Assembled, Center Airflow Divider in Place, GPU Fans Mount in Place- 22Aug10
Starting Front and Top Scrollwork - 20Oct10
Front and Top Scrollwork Cut Out - 10Dec10
Front Panel Contour - 21Dec10
Front Panel Scrollwork Sanding Done -02Jan11
Top Panel Scrollwork Sanding Done -19Jan11
Edge Moulding - 23Jan11
Bottom Radiator Mount - 26Jan11
Top and Front Panels Mounted - 01Feb11
Top Panel Front Sanded Flush and Base Cut and Mounted - 03Feb11
Edges of Top Panel Routed & Various Adjustments - 05Feb11
Power and Reset Buttons, Radiator Drain, Res Plans - 12Feb11
Bottom Radiator Leaktested, Mount Remade, and Airflow Piece Done - 15Feb11
Reservoir Made/Mounted and USB Port Mounted - 22Feb11
Res Cleaned up and Polished - 24Feb11
Bot Fan Assembly, Rear Grille, New Parts - 22Mar11
Side Panels Scrollwork Cutout - 04Apr11
Side Panels Mounted - 10Apr11
Steam Bending, Fillport, Wiring Cover, Fan Contr- 23Apr11
The Painting Begins - 30Apr11
Putting in Parts, Lighting, Watercooling, etc. Part 1-11May11
Putting in Parts, Lighting, Watercooling, etc. Part 2-21May11
Forming Tubing, Flushing, Filling - 03Jun11

FINAL PICS ON PAGE 9
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I haven't started building anything as of yet, but have been again spending time in Sketchup modeling what should become my next build. I'm in no hurry with this build, and have been gathering better tools and materials over the last few months. On this build, I plan on using an aluminum frame with a wooden shell. This should allow easier access to the case internals as I plan on having the side and top wooden panels merely stick on via magnets, rather than have the frame made out of wood. I haven't decided on what wood to use yet, but now that I know I have a local source for hardwoods and hardwood plywoods, I plan on using something like Cherry or maybe Walnut that isn't very grainy. My objective here is to design a case that is as small as possible yet incorporates 6x120mm rad cooling. I will be using a Micro ATX MB. Although the renders show black behind the front panel, I will probably put an opaque sheet of acrylic behind it with lighting so that the front fretwork will be lit up. Underneath the top piece will be mesh. I also want the case to be laid out in a way however that allows for access to the components without unnecessary complication.

For the first time, I've started working with Kerkythea on rendering to give good clear pics of what I have designed in Sketchup. I would like to get feedback/criticism/ideas on this design. Let me know what you do/don't like about it and why. Any constructive help on the renderings themselves is also welcomed as these are my first attempts. Thanks.









Thanks for taking a look.

[CptDreadFlint]

Love the intricate design idea of the fretwork.
I've admired your woodworking skills and appreciate what you bring to XS...elegance, simplicity and sleekness.

But I would have lurked/followed wherever you posted.
Looking forward to your progression.

[josk1]

gotta be a good craftman to do that... but it does look good!!
will follow your work closely

[shazza]

Ahhh ... just woke up from my nap and this is what I see - this looks like it's going to be amazing.

So = 3 x 220 rads? Interesting design for the airflow on the top.

What tool(s) do you use to cut out the intricate designs on the front and side?

[voigts]

Love the intricate design idea of the fretwork.
I've admired your woodworking skills and appreciate what you bring to XS...elegance, simplicity and sleekness.

But I would have lurked/followed wherever you posted.
Looking forward to your progression.

I appreciate your feedback and encouragement.

gotta be a good craftman to do that... but it does look good!!
will follow your work closely

thanks. I'm not sure about me being a good craftsman, but I am perfectionistic and persistent!

Ahhh ... just woke up from my nap and this is what I see - this looks like it's going to be amazing.

So = 3 x 220 rads? Interesting design for the airflow on the top.

What tool(s) do you use to cut out the intricate designs on the front and side?

yes, 3x220 rads. This allowed for a smaller case than using 2x320 rads. 2 of them have their airflow isolated from the case interior, while the top rad exhausts out of the case.

As for the designs, I plan on using my new-to-me scrollsaw that I bought from a friend at work.



The fretwork is going to take a lot of work to do. I am going to try to cut the top and front at the same time one on top of the other as they have the same design. I still have to work out how I'm going to go about curving the front piece. I'm thinking I'm just going to use a belt sander and router and sand it down like I need it to be. It's going to be a bit tricky though.

[Anemic]

Very intressting project. Wont it be really heavy?

[voigts]

Very intressting project. Wont it be really heavy?

No, it won't be. The case dimensions are: 15” (381mm) deep x 11 1/4” (286mm) wide x 15 5/16” (388mm) high, so we aren't talking about a large case. The aluminum frame will be light, and the sides and top I plan on making out of 1/4".

[Red-5]

Looking forward to following your log for this build. Great design and renders.
That fretwork is gonna take some doing.

[kgtiger]

This will be nice to follow voigts.
Unforchantly your last build was just finishing when Rise pointed it out to me about the res you had built.

One thing I did think of for the front panal was, since it is curved, you could laminate it.
As you said earlier, you have found a local source for hardwoods and if I remember correctly, sourcing good quality hardwoods at a fair price was a challenge before?
If you could just find someone locally that has a bandsaw to use, as I don't think from the photo of your scroll saw you will get the hight to cut a nice piece of
hardwood (I vote Cherry ) down into, say 3mm/3/16th sheets. Then you could laminate the sheet back together but with the right size radius cuvre in it.
As to making the jig to form the curve, for a man of your skill that shoulden't be that hard, should be fun actually, well, atleast more fun than playing with a beltsander for an hour.

Looking forward to your next update mate, good luck with it.

[Waterlogged]

Ooooo

*goes and grabs some popcorn*

[voigts]

Looking forward to following your log for this build. Great design and renders.
That fretwork is gonna take some doing.

Given that this was my first attempt at doing renders, I really am pretty pleased with how they turned out. Needless to say however, there is plenty of room for improvement. For several of them, I would start Kerkythea and let it run all night resulting in like 600 passes or more.

I am planning on cutting the front panel and top panel together since they are using the same design. The cutting will take long enough, but the sanding and touch up will take even longer. It is going to be a time consuming deal, but it should be a lot of fun!

One thing I did think of for the front panal was, since it is curved, you could laminate it.
As you said earlier, you have found a local source for hardwoods and if I remember correctly, sourcing good quality hardwoods at a fair price was a challenge before?
If you could just find someone locally that has a bandsaw to use, as I don't think from the photo of your scroll saw you will get the hight to cut a nice piece of
hardwood (I vote Cherry ) down into, say 3mm/3/16th sheets. Then you could laminate the sheet back together but with the right size radius cuvre in it.
As to making the jig to form the curve, for a man of your skill that shoulden't be that hard, should be fun actually, well, atleast more fun than playing with a beltsander for an hour.

Looking forward to your next update mate, good luck with it.

I really do appreciate the idea, but I have thought about your idea of laminating, and I don't think it will work. Its kind of hard to tell by the renders alone, but given the way I have it put together, I am looking at using a piece of 3/4" thick wood and sanding/carving out the front curve and curves of the edges, and then cutting the fretwork from the flat backside.

I pulled a couple of shots of just the front so that maybe I'll make more sense.

Ooooo

*goes and grabs some popcorn*

I figured I had better post this here for fear that if I don't, you will show up at my house out of the blue and I'll get beaten with the first piece of this build that you lay your hands onto! I could see myself trying to explain that one to my wife.

[Neox69]

This is awsome.... can't wait too see the end result!

[Waterlogged]

I figured I had better post this here for fear that if I don't, you will show up at my house out of the blue and I'll get beaten with the first piece of this build that you lay your hands onto! I could see myself trying to explain that one to my wife.

That could be difficult to explain.

As for the wood, I do so love Walnut, darker the better.

[voigts]

As for the wood, I do so love Walnut, darker the better.

I'm actually leaning towards cherry, but the jury is still out.

[Waterlogged]

I'm actually leaning towards cherry, but the jury is still out.

Love the smell of cherry. I used to work for a lumber yard that made shipping pallets, always enjoyed cutting the boards for the ones made of of cherry. Walnut has a majestic look and feel all it's own, to me, it screams "filthy rich".

[Elpy]

You are making me wanna make a wooden case . Much familiar on working with wood than metal.

I'm not really one for antique but other than that I like the quality of your cases

[kgtiger]

I now see where your coming from mate.
I thought that the curves on the edges were only from the sides and not part of the front panel.

I'm still voting for Cherry for the front panel.

Good luck with this mate I will be following your every move.

[Aphellyon]

I'm actually leaning towards cherry, but the jury is still out.

Hmmm... tuff call that... my vote would be for walnut. Poll?

[voigts]

Love the smell of cherry. I used to work for a lumber yard that made shipping pallets, always enjoyed cutting the boards for the ones made of of cherry. Walnut has a majestic look and feel all it's own, to me, it screams "filthy rich".

If I make it out of walnut, the "filthy rich" part would definitely only be a false impression!

You are making me wanna make a wooden case . Much familiar on working with wood than metal.

I'm not really one for antique but other than that I like the quality of your cases

I appreciate that. I try to do quality work.

I am the same way. I see some builds that while I don't particularly care for the style of the build, are well made and creative.

I now see where your coming from mate.
I thought that the curves on the edges were only from the sides and not part of the front panel.

I'm still voting for Cherry for the front panel.

Good luck with this mate I will be following your every move.

I don't know if you would want to follow my EVERY move because if you did, you would be making plenty of mistakes along the way!
+1 for cherry

Hmmm... tuff call that... my vote would be for walnut. Poll?

A poll might be an interesting idea. I have to use something that is relatively knot free due to the fine fretwork, and preferably something that doesn't have a heavy grain when stained (i.e. oak). The local hardwoods place has probably 10 or more different kinds of hardwood and their corresponding plywood in 1/4" and 3/4" available.

I might go by next week and get a list of what they have available so that I better know what there is to choose from and the characteristics of each.

[voigts]

Time for an update. Although I have not made a single cut or bend for this project yet, I have been steadily ordering and getting tools and materials. I haven't bought all of this at once, but have been getting things a little at a time over the past 5 months or so. Its something when you can spend hundreds of dollars before even starting a project. I am trying to avoid the situation where you start on something and then keep having delays because you don't have what you need during the project. I also am getting some things that I have needed for some time (finally!) and am stocking up on some things that should last me through several builds.

As shown in this picture, I have already bought: five 12” x 12” x 1/4” sheets of cast acrylic -$45; two 10” carbide hollow ground saw blades for aluminum and acrylic- $45; a new Craftsman router with switchable bases- $120; a new Dremel 300 with a bunch of sanding drums and bits- $45 + $30ish; a punch set $5; carbide router bit set- $35; clamp on bench vise $5; 18” metal bending brake that will do up to 16 gauge- $30; two metal sawhorses- $20 (not in pic); sandpaper; drill screw bits; files; and other various bits and pieces.



I also have bought: a Lian-Li micro ATX MB tray to use as a template- $35; an old micro ATX MB just to use for test fitting- $10; 75' of 1/8” & 50' of 1/4” thick black sleeving- $20; 2' of 1/8”, 4” each of 1/4” and 3/8”, and 2' of 1/2” 3:1 adhesive lined black heatshrink- $23; used MCR320 rad- $30; used MCR320 stackable rad- $30; eight Gentle Typhoon 1450rpm fans- $120; two Bitspower black 45 rotary elbows- $20; Western Digital Black 750gb HD- $55 ARs; 2x2gb OCZ DDR3 12800- $35 ARs; various connectors such as black 3 pin male and female plugs, PCI-E plugs, etc.



I also picked up this little $8 jewel called a Helping Hands for soldering. I am so sick of trying to hold wires with pliers and stuff when trying to solder.



I also paid $50 for the 48” light tent that I used to take these pictures in.

These haven't come in yet, but I also just ordered a 12” 24 pin ATX extension cable so that I don't have to re-sleeve the actual PSU ATX cable- $10; an 8 pin MB power cable extension cable- $5; an original Molex brand ATX/PCI-E pin remover- $25; one each black female ATX and 8 pin power plugs- $2; and since I can't decide yet if I am going to stick with water or try air, a slightly used Scythe Setsugen for only $27.50 (I figure I can always sell it and get my money back if I do decide to go back with water).

So not including the router (since it a larger ticket tool that also will be used for other things), I have spent $765 + I'm not sure how much on sandpaper, wipe on polyurethane, connectors, etc. I also invested in a new-to-me really nice table saw that I practically stole from Craigslist in Dec. for only $150, and a new-to-me contractor grade cast iron scroll saw from a friend at work for only $100 also in Dec.

I hadn't realize how much I've spent over the last five months or so. Ouch! The sheet metal and hardwood will be cheap in comparison. If I go with water, I'll still have barbs to buy, some tubing, and one more rad, or if I go with air, I'll need a good CPU heatsink. Then finally down the road a new MB and CPU will be in order. Since it will take some time to build another case, I'm not going to buy the CPU and MB until later in the year. There is no point in buying them now and having them just sit while something newer comes out in 6 months.

The one consolation in all of this that I tell my wife (and she agrees) is that my modding hobby is still a lot cheaper than restoring old cars, bass boats, fishing, hunting, jet skis, Harleys, etc. Plus now I've got some much nicer tools to make her a few things that she's been wanting.

I took a look at the hardwoods available locally, and I think that I'm going to go with mahogany. The samples I saw were gorgeous.

Thanks for taking a look.

[Xion X2]

Great tools, voigts! Looking forward to seeing how you put them to use.

Nice photos, too.

[Red-5]

Yup quite a selection of hardware there. Looking forward to your next update mate

[voigts]

Great tools, voigts! Looking forward to seeing how you put them to use.

Nice photos, too.

Thanks. I'm still working on the photos thing and I'm sure will be for a long time to come. I haven't quite gotten the lighting down to be able to light an entire 48" tent evenly yet, but I'm still working on it.

Yup quite a selection of hardware there. Looking forward to your next update mate

I'm going to be slowly plugging away at this. I've got to go out of town for the last 2 weeks of April, and have a project at home to finish up that is waiting on a bit warmer weather before I jump into this project with both feet.

[Waterlogged]

As shown in this picture, I have already bought: five 12” x 12” x 1/4” sheets of cast acrylic -$45; two 10” carbide hollow ground saw blades for aluminum and acrylic- $45; a new Craftsman router with switchable bases- $120; a new Dremel 300 with a bunch of sanding drums and bits- $45 + $30ish; a punch set $5; carbide router bit set- $35; clamp on bench vise $5; 18” metal bending brake that will do up to 16 gauge- $30; two metal sawhorses- $20 (not in pic); sandpaper; drill screw bits; files; and other various bits and pieces.

heh heh, I just picked up that sheet metal bender from Harbor Freight on Sunday for my one of my own projects.

Your picking up a lot of really nice tools, it looks like it's going to be another epic build voigts.

Snip... and have a project at home to finish up that is waiting on a bit warmer weather before I jump into this project with both feet.

You too huh? I've got a shed I started in Nov that needs finishing. I need the ground to dry out first, as I've got 6" max of topsoil on some decently hard clay.

[voigts]

heh heh, I just picked up that sheet metal bender from Harbor Freight on Sunday for my one of my own projects.

Your picking up a lot of really nice tools, it looks like it's going to be another epic build voigts.

You too huh? I've got a shed I started in Nov that needs finishing. I need the ground to dry out first, as I've got 6" max of topsoil on some decently hard clay.

For the $30, it isn't worth it to try to make your own bender. I picked it up with one of those infamous 20% off coupons.

As for the project, our 8' x 20' front porch was rotting and basically shot. We have an old house where you have to use tongue and groove. I completely redid the deck, but have to finish putting up the rails. I so want to get that done as I'm tired of looking at it being unfinished.

what kind of shed are you building? Storage?