Project NANO -- A Scratchbuilt Home Server

[flibberdipper]

I think it's looking great so far, dude!

[davidbuss]

IIt sucks that its steel but I guess that doesn't matter toomuch. It just means it will be heavier. Looks like About 2 days left of work. Too bad its going to hide in a closet

Ya the steel thing has literally no affect. Its so thin that there's really not much of a weight difference and even if there was it wouldn't matter at all. Just as easy to work with too I've found. Almost easier in a way and It was pretty cheep too. It is about two days full plus a day of painting off I would say too but I'm leaving to Colorado for about a week on Friday so I know I can't get it done before then. It should be really visible in the closet. I leave it open most of the time anyway 

[nick99n]

really cool i wish i had one of these 

[davidbuss]

Awesome, Nice design, truly unique~! 

 

I think it's looking great so far, dude!

Thanks guys!

[davidbuss]

really cool i wish i had one of these 

Someone else said the same thing earlier in the post. I'd be interested in doing some commissions if anybody wanted one. Just PM me if your interested.

[davidbuss]

Update 7

I continued working on the front panel but all I really had time to do was cut the holes for the fan grill. Enjoy the update guys!

I started out by making a template in cad.

I tried to just use a glue stick like I used for the screw spacing templates but the glue sticks a lot better to aluminum than it does to steel so I had to come up with a new way of transferring the template.

I started out by using two popsicle sticks for support and then I put two pieces of tape length wise to hold the template in place.

I stuck the template to the back of the supports.

I then covered the rest in more masking tape. You can see the template through the masking tape.

Here's the back of the whole thing.

When I peeled back the template, it was left as a sort of carbon-copy on the tape.

To get the new template square on the front panel, I drew a right angle to orient it to.

I taped it up and removed all the excess tape so that it was just one layer.

It's kind of hard to tell but I traced over the lines to make it more visible while I was cutting.

I started the cuts by drilling some holes...

And then finished it off with the jigsaw. I'll be honest, that looks like crap, but that's what files are for right?

Viola, some filing later and It looks much better. The shadows kind of throw it off but It looks much better in different lighting.

It's not screwed in or anything but there it is just leaning against the rest of the PC.

That's it for a while guys! I'm leaving on a vacation to Colorado tomorrow morning so I can't work on this project for about 10 days. When I get back I should be dying to work though so it will get done pretty soon after that. Tell me what ya think! See you in 10.

[Kittke]

Nice

[davidbuss]

Nice

Thanks!

[nick99n]

have fun at Colorado  

[davidbuss]

have fun at Colorado

Thanks! The trips going great already.

[davidbuss]

Update 8

So I'm currently sitting in the car on the way home from colorado and I thought I would just let you all know that I'm not dead. There should be an update for the project within the next few days if all goes well. The trip went great and just cause I'm bored I thought I'd share a bit of it with you. My dad and I climbed Quandary Peak yesterday, right outside of Breckenridge for those of you who know where that is. It was my first 14er and hopefully not the last because I had a blast. Enjoy the pretty pictures guys:

 

We got there right before sunrise at about 5:30.

 

 

 

These guys were all over which was pretty awesome.

 

Beautiful view from the top.

 

And of course, what would it all be without the proof.

 

I'm itching to get back to work on this project guys! Sitting in the car is making me a little crazy. I'll get back to y'all in a few.

[davidbuss]

Hey guys, not an update but I have a few things to say. I do have part of an update from work I have done this week, but my SD card got corrupted and I didn't have time to "re-create" the pictures that were lost. I am leaving for a camping trip tomorrow and will be gone for about a week so I just thought that I'd let you all know that I'm not gone, but this project will have to wait a bit longer before it gets finished.

[davidbuss]

Update 9

 

Hey guys, long overdue update. The project is getting so close to being done and after not being able to work on it for a while I am really excited to get started again. As I said in a previous post, I lost some of the photos I took of this update so it's a bit shorter than it would have been. I hope you guys enjoy the update; a new one will hopefully be out tomorrow.

 

I finished the cutouts on the front panel.

 

This was the only drill bit I had that was the right size for the vandal switch but its not at all meant for metal so I kind of had to jerry-rig a jig (yay rhymes) that I did have a picture of but it was one of the ones that got corrupted.

 

I don't even really know how this happened but when I was drilling, the bit got to a certain depth and then literally ripped a washer-shaped piece out of the metal. It's not really relevant but I think it looks pretty cool. 

 

I had to do a bit of surgery on the fans because of these two capacitors.

 

I just cut off part of one corner.

 

I also filled the holes with some epoxy putty so it would look better from the front panel.

 

The smaller fan's fan-piece (does that make sense?) protrudes out farther than the fan's frame (I really hope that made sense) so I had to use washers to give it a bit more space.

 

There is the front panel pretty much complete.

 

Seriously, I promise it's much cooler in person.

 

Because I wont have the LEDs on all the time, I wanted to build a box to kind of "contain" the glowing piece. I started with two small pieces of angle.

 

There's the actual cover I cut. It isn't perfect but every build has it's hidden blemishes right? 

 

I JB-Welded the angle to the cover but I couldn't drill the mounting holes because it needs time to dry.

 

That's it for today guys! I can't wait til I get to paint it because I'm getting tired of seeing the bare metal. Let me know what you think!

[nick99n]

Update 9

"I had to do a bit of surgery on the fans because of these two capacitors."

why don't you cut the capacitors?

it started looking really well i like it!

 

[davidbuss]

why don't you cut the capacitors? 

it started looking really well i like it!

Dang! I wish I had thought of that before 

Thanks!

[davidbuss]

Update 10

 

I was planning on taking a bunch of pictures and having an update almost every day since the last one but the stuff I've been doing is pretty boring to look at pictures of and I haven't had as much time as I thought I would. That being said here's an update of what I've been working on.

 

I started by mounting the LED cover I made in the last update.

 

I made the back panel.

 

It doesn't cover the entire area of the back but it will sit pretty flush with the wall so that shouldn't matter much.

 

I also started the bottom panel. I'll need to add some support for the PSU later.

 

I cut another piece of angle to add some support. It also pulls the bottom and curved pieces together to improve the asthetics a bit.

 

That's it for now guys. Sorry its nothing crazy but I'm getting there. Tell me what you all think!

[d33g33]

This. Is. Amazing.

 

Fantastic so far! Subbed

[EpicGeekonFire]

Looks great, any plans to make the edges smoother? Sanding? Rubber or something?

[nick99n]

Looks great, any plans to make the edges smoother? Sanding? Rubber or something?

imo rubber is a must 

[nick99n]

Update 10

 

I was planning on taking a bunch of pictures and having an update almost every day since the last one but the stuff I've been doing is pretty boring to look at pictures of and I haven't had as much time as I thought I would. That being said here's an update of what I've been working on.

 

I started by mounting the LED cover I made in the last update.

(.....)

That's it for now guys. Sorry its nothing crazy but I'm getting there. Tell me what you all think!

why you are sorry ?this started looking really good 

[davidbuss]

This. Is. Amazing.

 

Fantastic so far! Subbed

Thanks! I loved your work on the shuttle btw. It was a sad day when that motherboard died 

[davidbuss]

Looks great, any plans to make the edges smoother? Sanding? Rubber or something?

 

imo rubber is a must 

 

why you are sorry ?this started looking really good 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Some stuff on the rough edges:

1. They should look a lot better once the case is painted.

2. The pictures I've been showing are without all the nuts and bolts in just because its a pain to constantly put them in and take them out. Once all of the panels are completely bolted down, everything sits much more flush.

3. I've thought about adding some rubber trim to the front and back panels (the same stuff some people use for window mods) but I don't really want to order it until I'm done painting because it might turn out great anyway.

4. They're really not as bad in real life. I have a decent camera but, as you can probably see, the lighting and background in my basement are far from great so the pictures really don't do the build much justice.

 

Thanks again for the feedback guys! It helps to have the perspective of someone other than myself sometimes.

[d33g33]

Thanks! I loved your work on the shuttle btw. It was a sad day when that motherboard died

Indeed it was a sad day however now I'm building a HTPC with a 3570k so, can't complain

[davidbuss]

Hey guys, small update. I did about 6 hours of work today and had a ton of pictures to show but halfway through editing the photos, (I was too dumb to download them off of the SD card first) they all magically corrupted and disappeared... I'm trying to recover them now but if that doesn't work I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about the pictures. It's the second time this has happened and its really pissing me off now but I guess that's just life... Oh well, I'll see what I can do and have another update later. Wish me luck guys 

[davidbuss]

OK good news, I got most of the photos back  but I don't think I'll be able to upload them until tomorrow.