**** PHINIX NANO TOWER **** Smallest and most powerful mITX rig !!!

[aka_GK]

wow, dat looks sick

[M40TURBO]

Wow that yellow acryllic plate looks awesome. Wish i had skills like this. And was as good a rendering things like you and people like you. Keep it up..

[Elusid]

Epic epic epic build! I can't wait to see how this ends up. I keep coming back every few days and checking the progress.

[Bill Owen]

Agreed ^ all of the time phinix is investing in this project will have a nice payoff in the end

[Rise]

nice work, it's really starting to come together!

[phinix_mike]

Thanks for the updates/pics, gotta love sexy m-itx builds

Thanks man! I love m-itx and I think I will never go back to full atx mobo

That looks very awesome Mike, can't wait to see actual pictures of it .

Thanks! It will take a bit of time to measure, alignand drill holes for leds and attached all those acrylic pieces but I should have it done soon.. and soon I mean this year

wow, dat looks sick

Thanks man!

Wow that yellow acryllic plate looks awesome. Wish i had skills like this. And was as good a rendering things like you and people like you. Keep it up..

Thank you! You should try it out - google sketchup is very easy to learn, 20 minutes and you can do things like that easily!

Epic epic epic build! I can't wait to see how this ends up. I keep coming back every few days and checking the progress.

Thank you very much! I'm glad you like it!

Agreed ^ all of the time phinix is investing in this project will have a nice payoff in the end

I hope so! Thanks Bill!

nice work, it's really starting to come together!

Thank you !

[phinix_mike]

UPDATE TIME! YAY!

OK, again, it is pretty small update. Basically what I did was I measured up and drilled holes for rivets in side panels. It was pretty hard, cause the holes had to be in exact same place on top cover nad main panel, so I spent few extra minutes to make sure holes are all align perfectly... To be honest I hate this kind of job cause there is no second chance, if you screw it up, you need to cut new panel...:eeek:
But it all went well, I didn't have to re-drill any of the holes so they are all fine
First I marked holes on top cover, then drilled them. After that I aligned covers on side panel and started making marks in the drilled holes...

Here it is, top covers landed on side panel... pen in my hand.. no breathing.. steady... point.








This one here is the side panel screw hole, one hole on each panel ended up half uncovered, so I will have to file a nice hole around it, hex shape hole, to match the theme. Rest of the holes are under covers, so I just drilled them through.




Now, here's the QUESTION!
I need to attach those covers to side panels with something.
Which should I go with - black rivet, cap head screw or button head?






See, really nice holes drilled through both alu panels
I'm really happy that all went well. It was around 200 drills made! Including cleaning with coutersunk drill bit of course
I attached covers with small M3 screws for now to keep them together.





All holes drilled and cleaned, second panel to be showed later!

Now, I should do some more work this week, if not, then weekend, so stay tuned!!!:rock:

[aka_GK]

super super super

[yngndrw]

Why didn't you just stick them together and then drill right through both panels at once ?

Looks great, I prefer the rivets personally.

[UrbanSmooth]

You da man, Mike!

[Alexandr0s]

Sweet update Mike . I'd go with the rivets. You're unlikely to take those 2 plates of each other anyway.

A small question, how did you get the design onto the plate? A template?

[unrlmth]

Just read through the whole thread. Amazing work, can't wait to see it finished.

[phinix_mike]

Thank you guys!
I decided to go with button head screws. I also have black rivets, but I thought I could always do something else without drilling the rivets, like maybe put some spacers between and add leds between to make nice light effect...
Just for the future

Sweet update Mike . I'd go with the rivets. You're unlikely to take those 2 plates of each other anyway.

A small question, how did you get the design onto the plate? A template?

I drew it in sketchup and sent it to ChilledPC shop, where Tom cut it out on CNC.

[phinix_mike]

I have been thinking about the color fo the panels: should I powder coat all matte black or maybe frame black, main panels on some brighter color, like gun metal or dark grey then cover panels on black again? Then those gaps between would be more visible...
What do you guys think about colors?

[Alexandr0s]

I'd suggest giving the top panels a brighter color than the main panel. That way, they'll stick out more, and it creates more depth.

[phinix_mike]

I'd suggest giving the top panels a brighter color than the main panel. That way, they'll stick out more, and it creates more depth.

I was trying that configuration on sketchup and it looked ok too. Only thing is like it a bit darker and brighter cover panels made the whole case too bright, but I will try to make some mockup and dee it in real, thanks for advice.

(I have to ask - what is THAT in your avatar? )

[phinix_mike]

OK.. I guess this is time for new update

This weekend I was working on top panel. That clear acrylic, god damn 10mm thick piece of plastic:wallbash: If you don't have router or laser cutter and all you have is dremel with small cutting wheels, then your work with 10mm thick acrylic will be full of pain, sweat and tears:waah:

But, after few hours spent on this I finished it and pretty happy with the result.

Basically after painful cutting holes for dvd and H50 fan, I measured and drilled 4 holes for top aluminum cover. Of course I used my famous threaded insert + soldering iron trick for mounts.
After few minutes with hot solder iron tip, I had this




Threaded inserts in the hole!




I know, dvd holes i a bit "funky" in left top corner, but no worries, it will be covered with dvd aluminium cover. Like this




If you noticed, there are black lines drew on each corner - that is where I need to file this acrylic panel.
Corners of the NanoTower will be cut off and flat, not sharp like regular square.

Now, I had an idea how I'm going to light up the top panel, even for a bit, so here it is: I fabricated small yellow acrylic piece that will go under the top panel. It has longer corners for mounting holes.




Also cut out small piece of mesh, which will cover the hole in top panel. Its a bit dirty on that photo but its after drilling in acrylic, acrylic powder was everywhere




This is how they both go under the panel. You can also see I had to cut out more acrylic on both sides for power button and USB socket.



It looks pretty cool. What I'm going to do later is I'm going to slap some frost film I got from Mark - mrdbristol - on that acrylic, few layers, then add leds behind it to light it up.

Here are few photos with sun light going through it...





Then I drilled and using small M3 button head screws I mounted mesh, yellow acrylic piece to the top aluminium cover panel, so it looks like this.




This acrylic panel will be spray painted matte black when the other bit will be done.
Right now I'm done and going to make some nice dinner after all that hard work
See you soon!:rock:

[Waterlogged]

Really starting to come together nicely phinix.

Wouldn't a jigsaw have worked on the acrylic?

[phinix_mike]

Really starting to come together nicely phinix.

Wouldn't a jigsaw have worked on the acrylic?

Thanks!
Problem with jigsaw is, when cutting 10mm acrylic, plastic melts, even with jigsaw on slow speed and holds the blade. I don't have any cooling liquid for it so decided to cut with dremel.

[UrbanSmooth]

EPIC build is EPIC!

Mike, you are insane! Oh, so insane! Mike, you are insane!

[yngndrw]

Try moving the jigsaw through the Acrylic quicker, I'd bet that would melt less or not at all. (Also make sure the blade is sharp.)

[Waterlogged]

A 6 TPI blade with a wide kerf should give a decent cut, at least enough to get you close to size.

[Johnny87au]

jesus alot of work has gone into this, cant wait to see end results!

[Alexandr0s]

(I have to ask - what is THAT in your avatar? )

It's a sobbing walrus .

And truly awesome frontplate Mike .

[phinix_mike]

EPIC build is EPIC!

Mike, you are insane! Oh, so insane! Mike, you are insane!

Try moving the jigsaw through the Acrylic quicker, I'd bet that would melt less or not at all. (Also make sure the blade is sharp.)

A 6 TPI blade with a wide kerf should give a decent cut, at least enough to get you close to size.

jesus alot of work has gone into this, cant wait to see end results!

It's a sobbing walrus .

And truly awesome frontplate Mike .

Guys, thank you for kind words and all advices!

Yesterday I received pack of nice small M3 full nuts, so that means I will be working on my side panels.
It is a bit tricky cause I need to drill trhough mainpanels and covers exactly in the same place, using drill bit smaller than 3mm, cause the thickness of acrylic "comb teeth" is 3mm. That means hole must be smaller, so each tooth will cover the hole. Then small yellow leds will be attached behind the main panel so the light will go through those holes and light up the acrylic pieces. Each comb has 6 teeth, I will be using 3 leds strips for each, that means I need to drill 18 holes for every comb and that is 72 holes in total!
That will be tricky. They must be aligned perfectly.
I think I will start from glueing those teeth together to rear acrylic plate, then measure and align points for holes. Anyway, I'm really scared to do that, but have to face this now