xanan
Broken In
So, after waiting a full day, doing nothing but twiddling my thumbs, I got the first shipment of materials, namely this:
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2136
Doesn't look too bad. I'd liked something that was a bit more reflective, but whatever. The spots are from my wife's feet- she almost trampled the thing and broke it. Well, she does have a knack to end up doing these things. i should be getting used to all this by now.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2137
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2160
Boy, is this thing huge? As you can see, its taken all of the space my wife has generously allotted to me for my modding activities, or as she prefers to label them "Huge headache and mess generating, serious waste of time and money causing, fruitless whims".
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2138
My modest collection of modding related items, unceremoniously dumped into boxes by my OCD-inflicted wife. Not much in there, except for old PSUs, screws, waterblocks, pumps, maybe a rad too, somewhere.
And a bonus: Look what I found under the kitchen sink (no, seriously, this is where I found it). Will have a dekko soon to see if it fits my bill. I guess it must have belonged to the previous owner of the house. No stand-offs, sadly, but Mav has told me he'd be shipping them over for me tomorrow, so not all hope is lost.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2139
Case Feet:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture362-dsc01966.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture361-dsc01965.jpg
Extra Long SATA Cables. And I thought these weren't available in India. Any one in Bangalore who wants these can go to Aashirwad Computers. Anyone not in B'lore can send me a Pm and I'll ship 'em across. These cost, if I remember, a 100 bucks each. Less if you buy more than two.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture363-dsc01967.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture364-dsc01968.jpg
Crimps: These saved my life. No more cutting up PSU wires for sleeving, no more ruining your warranty, no more ATX extensions. At 2.5 buck each, these are really cheap
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture365-dsc01969.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture366-dsc01970.jpg
These are for the molex connectors, and cost 4.5 bucks each.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture367-dsc01973.jpg
ATX Male Connector, at 70 bucks
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture368-dsc01974.jpg
Now these are a real life saver. I used to cannibalise them from old cabinets- never knew they were available. You require these to connect your power, reset switches, HDD Activity LEDs etc to the motherboard. Sorry for the poor picture, but these are really small and its hard to take a proper picture.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture369-dsc01976.jpg
CM 120 mm Red LED fan:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture370-dsc01978.jpg
Bought this, and realised I cannot use it- if any one wants this, he can pay me 450 bucks and take it off from my hands. The pack is not even opened. Damn you Krash.
Door Magnet:
Dunno whether I'll use it or not, but bought it anyway. Don't remember the price too.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture371-dsc01979.jpg
Brass Hinges, 1/2 inches. Some bling for the wood. I likes.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture372-dsc01980.jpg
Some golden screws. Hehehe.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture373-dsc01981.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture374-dsc01982.jpg
And finally, my Zippo collection, or what's left of it. These have provided endless service during these long hours
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture375-dsc01985.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture376-dsc01986.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture377-dsc01987.jpg
Please welcome my new friend, Mr. Jig Saw, the latest addition to the Happy Tool Family. Got him from SP Road (yes, I went there again, today) for Rs. 1600 only. The owner was kind enough to throw in a set of four, or five blades to sweeten the pot.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture378-user9009-pic2167-1292420961.jpg
Here's my make shift work bench...as you can see, you can find a use for everything, well almost everything.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture379-user9009-pic2168-1292420961.jpg
Anyway, got back home at about 5ish since I was helping a friend find a place to live , and got straight down to work.
Working with a jigsaw is not easy as it sounds, and you can easily lose a finger if you're not careful. Also, cutting a straight line if you're a first timer like me, can prove to be tricky. The first cut that I made was almost an mm or more off from the line. The saw vibrates a lot, and will tend to slip, so I made a guide out of two pieces of plywood, and nailed them to the board that I was cutting. Care must be taken that the edges of the guides should be parallel to the line you are attempting to cut, and the distance between the two should be as close to the width of the saw's base as possible, while still being wide enough to let it move smoothly. Here's a pic to give you an idea:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture380-user9009-pic2169-1292420961.jpg
The jigsaw I bought has five speed setting, ranging from 1 to 5, 1 being slowest and 5 being the fastest. I reckon the first two speeds won't help you cut at all, while the last one will probably induce a large margin of error.
For wood, i found the medium to work best.
I marked out the pieces for the mobo enclosure, and began cutting. In about three hours, i was able to cut all the panels required and assemble them for a test fit.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture381-user9009-pic2173-1292432958.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture385-user9009-pic2174-1292432958.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture386-user9009-pic2175-1292432958.jpg
As you can see, the gap is a result of the first cut I made. The rest of them came out pretty okay, all things considered.
Here's some pics with a cigarette pack thrown in for comparision of size:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture387-user9009-pic2176-1292432958.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture388-user9009-pic2177-1292432958.jpg
Over all, I'm satisfied with the results. The gaps don't really matter as they'll be covered up by laminate later on.
Well, that's it for today. Apparently, there's some rule here which forbids people from a racket after 10:30pm so I had to call it quits for today. My old place was so much better. Hopefully, i'll get more work done tomorrow. Keep checking this thread for more updates. i hope you are enjoying reading this, and some of you might get around to building your own rigs in the future.
Sorry for the late update. Progress had been slow as somehow I had been unable to get any real work done. Henceforth, I gifted myself a little something special to liven up things a bit.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2199
Anyway, the first order of the day was to cut a hole for the PSU. I marked out the dimensions for the PSU, leaving about 2 mm on each side for tolerance. It pays to measure twice and cut once. As you can see, I had marked out a line incorrectly. This would have resulted in the loss of a rather big panel. Thankfully, I discovered it in the second round of measuring.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture382-user9009-pic2183-1292693977.jpg
With the marking done, I drilled two holes on each corner where the saw had to take a 90degree turn to facilitate cutting. Be careful to drill the hole a little on the inner side- you can sand them a bit if they aren't aligned, but if they are on the outer side, it'll only mean trouble.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture383-user9009-pic2184-1292693977.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture395-user9009-pic2186-1292693977.jpg
Anyway, the bottom panel cut, I moved on to the PSU enclosure. Sorry about the missing pics of the panels before the assembly- i kinda forgot to take them
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture384-user9009-pic2185-1292693977.jpg
the panels didn't align properly, probably due to my clumsiness with the jig saw. This was easily remedied- i simply made a mixture of sawdust, water and fevicol and filled the gaps with it. Once it is dry, it can be sanded smooth. Always remeber to keep the saw dust- you never know when it might come in handy.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture390-user9009-pic2193-1292694842.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture391-user9009-pic2194-1292694842.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture392-user9009-pic2196-1292694842.jpg
The next step was to make the HDD and DVDRW enclosure. Again, no pics of work in progress. i have a tendency to get carried away. My wife proved that she was not completely useless, and that she could do other stuff besides breaking my things- i don't have a vice or a clamp, so I made her sit on the plank so it doesn't move around. 45kgs can be a lot of motivation for the plank to stay put.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture389-user9009-pic2187-1292693977.jpg]
Anyway, while cutting the panels, my hand kinda slipped and here's what happened. Nothing serious- it just burns a lot and itches like crazy.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture393-user9009-pic2200-1292695929.jpg]
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture394-user9009-pic2201-1292695929.jpg
Here's the completed HDD/DVDRW cage. The HDD slots will get a healthy dosage of foam to help reduce noise, hence the bigger size relative to the HDD itself.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2192
And finally, a shot of the mobo enclosure. The door has a gap because its not been mounted yet- I just propped it against the cage to see if the alignment is okay, and it is.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2190
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2189
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2188
Well that's about it for now. I hope to cut the base tomorrow. The back plate will have to wait as I still haven't gotten the stand-offs. Whew. That's almost a weeks work in a handful of pictures. Keep following the thread for more updates.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2136
Doesn't look too bad. I'd liked something that was a bit more reflective, but whatever. The spots are from my wife's feet- she almost trampled the thing and broke it. Well, she does have a knack to end up doing these things. i should be getting used to all this by now.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2137
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2160
Boy, is this thing huge? As you can see, its taken all of the space my wife has generously allotted to me for my modding activities, or as she prefers to label them "Huge headache and mess generating, serious waste of time and money causing, fruitless whims".
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2138
My modest collection of modding related items, unceremoniously dumped into boxes by my OCD-inflicted wife. Not much in there, except for old PSUs, screws, waterblocks, pumps, maybe a rad too, somewhere.
And a bonus: Look what I found under the kitchen sink (no, seriously, this is where I found it). Will have a dekko soon to see if it fits my bill. I guess it must have belonged to the previous owner of the house. No stand-offs, sadly, but Mav has told me he'd be shipping them over for me tomorrow, so not all hope is lost.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2139
Case Feet:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture362-dsc01966.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture361-dsc01965.jpg
Extra Long SATA Cables. And I thought these weren't available in India. Any one in Bangalore who wants these can go to Aashirwad Computers. Anyone not in B'lore can send me a Pm and I'll ship 'em across. These cost, if I remember, a 100 bucks each. Less if you buy more than two.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture363-dsc01967.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture364-dsc01968.jpg
Crimps: These saved my life. No more cutting up PSU wires for sleeving, no more ruining your warranty, no more ATX extensions. At 2.5 buck each, these are really cheap
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture365-dsc01969.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture366-dsc01970.jpg
These are for the molex connectors, and cost 4.5 bucks each.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture367-dsc01973.jpg
ATX Male Connector, at 70 bucks
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture368-dsc01974.jpg
Now these are a real life saver. I used to cannibalise them from old cabinets- never knew they were available. You require these to connect your power, reset switches, HDD Activity LEDs etc to the motherboard. Sorry for the poor picture, but these are really small and its hard to take a proper picture.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture369-dsc01976.jpg
CM 120 mm Red LED fan:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture370-dsc01978.jpg
Bought this, and realised I cannot use it- if any one wants this, he can pay me 450 bucks and take it off from my hands. The pack is not even opened. Damn you Krash.
Door Magnet:
Dunno whether I'll use it or not, but bought it anyway. Don't remember the price too.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture371-dsc01979.jpg
Brass Hinges, 1/2 inches. Some bling for the wood. I likes.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture372-dsc01980.jpg
Some golden screws. Hehehe.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture373-dsc01981.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture374-dsc01982.jpg
And finally, my Zippo collection, or what's left of it. These have provided endless service during these long hours
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture375-dsc01985.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture376-dsc01986.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture377-dsc01987.jpg
Please welcome my new friend, Mr. Jig Saw, the latest addition to the Happy Tool Family. Got him from SP Road (yes, I went there again, today) for Rs. 1600 only. The owner was kind enough to throw in a set of four, or five blades to sweeten the pot.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture378-user9009-pic2167-1292420961.jpg
Here's my make shift work bench...as you can see, you can find a use for everything, well almost everything.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture379-user9009-pic2168-1292420961.jpg
Anyway, got back home at about 5ish since I was helping a friend find a place to live , and got straight down to work.
Working with a jigsaw is not easy as it sounds, and you can easily lose a finger if you're not careful. Also, cutting a straight line if you're a first timer like me, can prove to be tricky. The first cut that I made was almost an mm or more off from the line. The saw vibrates a lot, and will tend to slip, so I made a guide out of two pieces of plywood, and nailed them to the board that I was cutting. Care must be taken that the edges of the guides should be parallel to the line you are attempting to cut, and the distance between the two should be as close to the width of the saw's base as possible, while still being wide enough to let it move smoothly. Here's a pic to give you an idea:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture380-user9009-pic2169-1292420961.jpg
The jigsaw I bought has five speed setting, ranging from 1 to 5, 1 being slowest and 5 being the fastest. I reckon the first two speeds won't help you cut at all, while the last one will probably induce a large margin of error.
For wood, i found the medium to work best.
I marked out the pieces for the mobo enclosure, and began cutting. In about three hours, i was able to cut all the panels required and assemble them for a test fit.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture381-user9009-pic2173-1292432958.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture385-user9009-pic2174-1292432958.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture386-user9009-pic2175-1292432958.jpg
As you can see, the gap is a result of the first cut I made. The rest of them came out pretty okay, all things considered.
Here's some pics with a cigarette pack thrown in for comparision of size:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture387-user9009-pic2176-1292432958.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture388-user9009-pic2177-1292432958.jpg
Over all, I'm satisfied with the results. The gaps don't really matter as they'll be covered up by laminate later on.
Well, that's it for today. Apparently, there's some rule here which forbids people from a racket after 10:30pm so I had to call it quits for today. My old place was so much better. Hopefully, i'll get more work done tomorrow. Keep checking this thread for more updates. i hope you are enjoying reading this, and some of you might get around to building your own rigs in the future.
Sorry for the late update. Progress had been slow as somehow I had been unable to get any real work done. Henceforth, I gifted myself a little something special to liven up things a bit.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2199
Anyway, the first order of the day was to cut a hole for the PSU. I marked out the dimensions for the PSU, leaving about 2 mm on each side for tolerance. It pays to measure twice and cut once. As you can see, I had marked out a line incorrectly. This would have resulted in the loss of a rather big panel. Thankfully, I discovered it in the second round of measuring.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture382-user9009-pic2183-1292693977.jpg
With the marking done, I drilled two holes on each corner where the saw had to take a 90degree turn to facilitate cutting. Be careful to drill the hole a little on the inner side- you can sand them a bit if they aren't aligned, but if they are on the outer side, it'll only mean trouble.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture383-user9009-pic2184-1292693977.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture395-user9009-pic2186-1292693977.jpg
Anyway, the bottom panel cut, I moved on to the PSU enclosure. Sorry about the missing pics of the panels before the assembly- i kinda forgot to take them
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture384-user9009-pic2185-1292693977.jpg
the panels didn't align properly, probably due to my clumsiness with the jig saw. This was easily remedied- i simply made a mixture of sawdust, water and fevicol and filled the gaps with it. Once it is dry, it can be sanded smooth. Always remeber to keep the saw dust- you never know when it might come in handy.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture390-user9009-pic2193-1292694842.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture391-user9009-pic2194-1292694842.jpg
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture392-user9009-pic2196-1292694842.jpg
The next step was to make the HDD and DVDRW enclosure. Again, no pics of work in progress. i have a tendency to get carried away. My wife proved that she was not completely useless, and that she could do other stuff besides breaking my things- i don't have a vice or a clamp, so I made her sit on the plank so it doesn't move around. 45kgs can be a lot of motivation for the plank to stay put.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture389-user9009-pic2187-1292693977.jpg]
Anyway, while cutting the panels, my hand kinda slipped and here's what happened. Nothing serious- it just burns a lot and itches like crazy.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture393-user9009-pic2200-1292695929.jpg]
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/members/xanan-albums-misc-picture394-user9009-pic2201-1292695929.jpg
Here's the completed HDD/DVDRW cage. The HDD slots will get a healthy dosage of foam to help reduce noise, hence the bigger size relative to the HDD itself.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2192
And finally, a shot of the mobo enclosure. The door has a gap because its not been mounted yet- I just propped it against the cage to see if the alignment is okay, and it is.
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2190
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2189
*www.erodov.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=346&pictureid=2188
Well that's about it for now. I hope to cut the base tomorrow. The back plate will have to wait as I still haven't gotten the stand-offs. Whew. That's almost a weeks work in a handful of pictures. Keep following the thread for more updates.
Last edited:
