Had to do a quick check that everything was flush/square, and also the right length before proceeding
Had to mark some squared lines so I knew where to drill my holes for the dowels.
Also had to do some measuring for the legs dowel holes too
And shavings be flying everywhere!
Time to get Drilling dem leeeegs!!
After some glue, good to see everything lines up!
Now let us clamp it together, also making sure that it has still remained square!
The next day, I opened the shed up.. to find my cat -_-
Anywho, after the cat had been vacated to somewhere else. I tacked on the back rimu sheet on. Though it looks a bit 'odd' After everything has been stained it'll look better, and besides. Who sees the back? Note; the other side of it is unstained
It is now time to plan everything out and make final adjustments, eg shortening the width of the desk by about 200mm because I will be using the Extended mouse mat by Razer, and want the mat to look "in place" when it is on the keyboard tray, also makes less "dead space" in the lid
Here is the big piece of recycled Rimu that will be used for the BOTTOM of the lid, as well as the FRONT too. Lots of room to work with
Checking to make sure that everything is the right sizing. Turned out I decided to take (Purposely done) 200mm of the length, so now the main compartment with all the PC goodness will have less 'dead' space in it, Which I guess is a good thing!
The next thing was to router the FRONT, and the two SIDES, leaving the back normal. Though the corner isn't perfect at the moment, it will be sanded in due course to make it look better The 4 sides will sit on the INSIDE of the round.
after happy with the lid bottom, it is time to give the top and bottom of the sheet a nice sand with the belt sander to smoothen everything out. The worst thing though was... Just as I was about to finish it all up... I smelt something "odd" thinking nothing of it, CRACKLE AHFUHFA SCBASCB ADSA the bloody thing died on me ahh well, have to buy another one tomorrow, as I really need a belt sander to finish everything else!
But here is what it looks like with the vanish off/on
Got the two rails sorted, unfortunately there was not another piece long enough for the back. However, if I have the join behind the middle compartment rail, it will be unseen!
So got all the rails cut to the right length, everything is lined up perfectly!
So I got my new mouse mat, the keyboard tray will be slightly larger then the mouse mat, just to make it look even better!
YAY new belt sander!! WOOOO, let's start using it!
Vanish and graffiti, gone
And it is out with the biscuiter again..
The lid will be biscuited together instead of dowel'd, mainly because I find it easier, and there is more play in what I can do with it
just right
Testing the join between the two back pieces since I couldn't find a single piece long enough for the back
Perfect!
Now it is time to get the Router and Jigsaw out and get the rad grill cut out sorted for the middle section piece (Note: there will be 2 rad grills on both sides, no fans on this piece). Let's start marking!
The initial hole for the jigsaw to begin its work!
The crappy work of a jigsaw, to be perfected with a router
Router time!
So now both sides of that piece of timber have been made 1.5mm larger in vertical and horizontal lengths, and a rebate of 1mm larger than the rad grills, so that they will sit just below flush of the timber
That is all for today, not sure what is next but will certainly find something
It is time to sort out the exhaust fans for the right side of the desk, and take into perspective the PSU size, as well as my front bits (fan controller, some switches and a Blu-Ray drive)
Happy with where it was sitting, I started to mark everything up, hoping it would allll be perfect!
As you may tell from the next two pics. The two sides have different measurements. One side is to make the fans sit in a rebate in the wood, and the other is so that the Bitspower 240 Grill will sit FLUSH against the wood. This is where my router becomes very handy
Time to start the jigsawing here is the first pilot hole. This time wanting to be more precise then the last so will cut a bit slower to contain a straight line. The blade will never run PERFECT which is why again.. The router fixes everything!
All the pilot holes drilled, and some jig sawing commenced
Not 100% perfect, but after the router has done it's job it will be!
Time to start the rebating process. The wood is 20mm thick, so -4mm for the 3mm grill, and then -9mm for the rebate you will be left with 7mm of wood and the fan will be sticking out 18mm which then the fan will be able get screwed using taping 6-32 screws when the time comes
Going down in small steps at a time, as you can see from the different layers in the top right
All went perfectly! The fans all sit at the same height in each corner, and fit in there nice and snug, barely needing to use any screws! And no, the propellers do not hit the outside casing so a top result
And this is how she sits!
Note: Every single cable in the desk will be made to a custom length, EVERY SINGLE ONE!
So been a busy series of weeks and haven't been able to do as much as I would have liked
So here is the what I left the desk lid like for about a week, because I didn't have time to work on it
So now the lid is together, it is time to start laying things out and check that I have done the correct spacing for everything intended
The back side of the middle section was screwed together, as it is 10x easier then gluing the two sides together and gives some tolerence if say the side that got glued moved 3mm, to which I screwed the other side knowing that everything is square
After a lot of thinking completed of how everything will be done (40 mins worth), It is time to say goodbye for 3 weeks
After the a week or two, I ordered the first installment of items from an online store which is the Rad Grills, Rads, and the two 3-pin fan hubs that I will be using for each rad and its fans
Thank you so much for the reservoirs! They really do look amazing
Since I have the main components, gotta lay them out to see how we are for space. looks like we are dead perfect!
(Yes the grills do have mesh, but took it out just while measuring everything up)
Unfortunately that is it for today, though coming soon is the glass top which then leaves me with the easy jobs left when I get it, all that is left to purchase is the amount of fittings which which there are about one hundred coming in... WOOOOOOOOO!
Right, it has been a while. Basically been waiting for my glass to be done, taking it back, yelling at them for doing a shitty job and making them do it with a bit of class instead of giving me some glass that looks like someone has used a rock to sand the edges
so here we started the big cut out for the small glass front to sit in, followed by a router to make it all square and THEN a rebate so that the glass could be glued onto the recess
This was how I routered the rebate for the glass to sit in, aswell a very well put together professional looking base for the router to sit flush on.
We are left with a perfect recess!
Now, with my PPCS gear arriving it was time to get my 480 radiator holes sorted out. I got everything measured up and got some low adhesive tap and plopped the rad grill on and traced around it.
If you have an old machine lying about taking up space, you could set it on fire, just make sure to surround it with bricks/stones so that you don't set your house on fire. If you don't have an old PC I hear jumpers and woolen clothing burns very well.