Starting the frame

I was a little peeved to discover that the mini chopsaw won't even do the 1/2" stock...not at a 45 degree angle, anyway. So, screw it; I went to Menards and got the 8-1/4" one they had on sale for $40.



It's not bad. The only (minor) problem is that 8-1/4" is a somewhat non-standard blade size, so my choices are kind of limited. I got the only one they had at Menards with more than 40 teeth for $11. I still came out ahead of getting a $75 saw +$5 blade. Got it set up and started cutting pieces.



After cutting out all 12 posts, I had a fair bit leftover. That's good, because I'll need some for drive brackets and such. I did a whole shitload of filing and test-fit the bottom together.



That's where I'm at this very moment. Next, I'm going to cut out the mesh for the bottom so I can start assembling the frame.

By the way; sorry for the small pics. I found that Vignette (for Android) is 10x better than the stock Droid camera app, but I need to get the paid version for higher-res. Will probably do that soon.

Discovering and resolving problems

Today I found out that I was being a moron when I read the part about the mini chopsaw on Troy's site. He had specifically said that it wasn't big enough for the 3/4" alum angle, and I didn't see that.

So, rather than drive an hour to return the chopsaw (which I'd have had to do to have enough extra cash for a bigger saw), I returned the alum angle to Menards and got 1/2" instead. It's small enough to fit in the mini saw, will still be sturdy enough for a frame, and was a fair bit cheaper (spent $10 for 16' as opposed to about $1/ft for the 3/4"). I also got some post screws and faucet washers to use for mounting the motherboard.

Rather than drive all over hell (Dubuque) to find someplace I could walk in and buy sheet metal, I took one more look at Menards. Man, that shit is expensive: 24x24" of 22ga steel for something like $40. Are you kidding? For that money, I could buy an appliance with more metal in it than that.

So, I did:



Well, I didn't spend that much, of course. Went to Goodwill and found this bread machine for $7. Perfect. The outside of the machine is fucking filthy, but that's Goodwill for you. (Clean up someone else's old crap before we sell it? Why?)



So, apart it comes. There, in the first pic, is everything we won't be needing (well, I'll save some of the screws, and that LED display might be fun to play with sometime). And, in the second pic, the one thing I do need.

And...I cut myself on a sharp edge in the process. This, boys and girls, is why we should wear the fancy gloves we just bought. Oh well; nothing serious, but rest assured I'll be wearing those gloves for the next step.

I even almost got out of re-bending it, but it's a little too narrow one one side and way too wide on the other. Certainly, I could re-design my case and fit everything into the bread machine case as-is, but that ain't how I roll. So, it's time to flatten it out and plan the cutting!

I think I like the vents being there, but if they don't line up right when it's cut down to size, it's Bondo time.

Here we are, gloves and all, ready to pull the thing apart at the seam.



I got some of that crap out of the way to start with. That's a flat-lock seam...that'd be a bit of a bear to get apart if I didn't know the trick.

I had a really nice tool for this at a factory I used to work in, but for a small job like this, a good metal putty knife works just as well. Just work from one end to the other, prying it up a bit...



...and it comes right apart. Now that piece will be easier to work with.

Last thing I did tonight was to start the flattening process, mostly to get an idea of the consistency, to make sure it's what I want.



You can see the edge has a bit of a lip on it. I nibbled it out at the corners so it will flatten properly, and filed them just enough to knock the edges down (even with the gloves on, I don't want a saw blade sticking out of my workpiece).



There it is, carefully opened up. When I get back to this at an hour at which pounding it with a mallet is acceptable, I'll work on flattening it the rest of the way.

That's it for tonight; gotta go back to work in the morning. Thursday or Friday I'll be back to it; I'm getting anxious to start cutting and piecing the frame together.

Today's Booty!

Today's Harbor Freight haul (woohoo!):



Have I mentioned I love Harbor Freight? Yes, these tools are cheap, but in my experience, they're much higher-quality than you'd expect, and they get the job done. Same goes for the Menards brands, actually. They're for the hobbyist like myself who's working on a budget, not necessarily professional-grade (though they do have some higher-end stuff as well, for very good prices).

So, here's what I got, starting in the back: mini cutoff saw (main reason for the trip), heat gun (cheap, and may be handy when forming the plexi), smallish vise (cheap, and I still didn't have a vise at all until now), cheap tap/die set (mainly needed a tap for threading the motherboard standoffs), 1" painter's tape (already have some 2"), extra corner clamp, half-round file, mini bar clamps, and some extra epoxy (I already have some industrial-grade stuff, but it's kind of hard to work with in some situations).

And last, but certainly not least, back over on the right: a nibbler. I searched high and low around town and couldn't find one (besides a very expensive one at Ace); HF saved me from having to order and wait for one, and saved me a few bucks in the process! I have a feeling I'm going to wonder, "Why, having done at least 4 relatively major case mods, did I not take modders' advice and buy one of these a long time ago?" I'll find out tomorrow, when I get to play with most of this stuff. :-)

Also, a couple of goodies from Goodwill:



Yes, that's a potato masher. I think the design of it fits my theme, and it would make a pretty snazzy fan grill for the top. How snazzy? We'll see when I get the render updated; I figured for $0.88, I'd take a chance.

The tripod isn't strictly related to the mod, except in that I might start using my regular camera (instead of my phone) for the pics, and for about $5, I thought it would help. It's in reasonable shape, just needs a bit of screw-tweaking to tighten the leg hinges.

Shopping Trip!

Mod-related items from today's haul:



Following the advice from Troy on materials, and some painting tips from the guys at MNPCTech (the only place worth ordering modder's mesh from, by the way), I did some shopping today.

I followed most of the painting tutorial on a test piece once, and was quite satisfied with the results. I never quite got to the "mirror finish" stage, but their tips are valid for any great finish. I've read that epoxy primer is better for metal that has already been "etched" (sanded, treated, etc.), but I think I will trust these guys on it. The etching primer is supposed to provide a nice, smooth surface and bond well to bare metal. Then there's a painnstaking process of paint/sand/paint/sand/paint/sand -ing; the sanding will be done with the 600 and 1500 grit sandpaper in the pic. After that's cured well (about two weeks), it gets buffed with the rubbing compound. About a month after it's done, I'll get some glaze and carnuba wax to finish it off.

The PVC pipe is going to be used to create a form for molding the acrylic sheet (an idea I stole from read about in Troy's logs). That will be for the "pods" on the sides of the case. The acrylic piece you see in the back there will be more than enough for the pods, and it was a scrap at Ace Hardware that cost me $0.50 (w00t!); I have plenty of other scraps of plexi for the windows. I'm hoping the pigskin gloves there will be good enough for working with the hot acrylic. This will be my first attempt at anything like this.

Troy is the only one I've found so far who has built shuttle-style cases from scratch, so I'm finding a lot of his techniques very interesting. The other one you can see evidence of in the pic is the aluminum angle stock (there's also an 8' section not pictured) for the frame. Another idea I got from him is to ventilate the entire bottom of the case; I'll be using a piece of modder's mesh I have leftover from my last mod. I decided that should be filtered, so I picked up that package of cheap heating vent filters you see there.

That's it for today's loot; I'll be making a trip to Harbor Freight tomorrow, and coming home with (hopefully) the same cutoff saw Troy was using (it's the perfect size, and cheap; I love HF), as well as a nibbler and probably a bunch of other toys I don't really need. ;-)

New render coming up in a bit. I think it's very nearly done.