Project Athena: A Custom Case Build

[Deblow]

Great job with the CNC
I really really want one & a 3D printer 

[nmil]

Great job with the CNC

I really really want one & a 3D printer

The X carve is actually quite cheap,a small one like mine costs $800 and a fully decked out one costs $1500 I believe. As for 3D printer, maybe go with the robo 3D

[nmil]

So in order to give you guys some stuff to see while I'm on holiday I got some pics of my setup

 

IMG_0443 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

 

Mandatory night shot

 

 

IMG_0441 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

 

Close up of the stuff on my desk

 

 

IMG_0430 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

 

I went to Daiso and picked up this banana holder for $2.80 to hang up my headphones

 

 

IMG_0384 by nmrci1, on Flickr 

 

 

While I was at Daiso I picked up some polycarbonate mats to protect my desk from scratches. They are lizard approved!

 

 

IMG_0374 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

IMG_0372 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

 

Here is my super cheap cable management solution

 

 

IMG_0389 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

 

Please tell me if there is anything I can improve or change. 

 

That's all for now guys, hope you enjoyed.

[JT8101997]

So what do you guys think, first one or second one?

I like the first one a little better but they both look nice btw the case looks great so far cant wait to see more

[MEC-777]

@nmil - Nice bearded dragon! They make awesome pets. Very docile and gentile (the ones I've met and handled). What's his/her name and age? 

[nmil]

I like the first one a little better but they both look nice btw the case looks great so far cant wait to see more

Thanks man

@nmil - Nice bearded dragon! They make awesome pets. Very docile and gentile (the ones I've met and handled). What's his/her name and age?

His name is Drago, yep. Drago the bearded dragon. He is 4 years old and he is the best pet I have ever had. I would probably even go as far as recommending one for a first time pet owner, since all you have to do to take care of them is feed them in the morning and clean up their waste when they have done their business. And you can let him run around the house and he'll amuse himself for hours. For some reason he really likes to check out the computers in the house, I think he gets it from me and my dad

[MEC-777]

Thanks man

His name is Drago, yep. Drago the bearded dragon. He is 4 years old and he is the best pet I have ever had. I would probably even go as far as recommending one for a first time pet owner, since all you have to do to take care of them is feed them in the morning and clean up their waste when they have done their business. And you can let him run around the house and he'll amuse himself for hours. For some reason he really likes to check out the computers in the house, I think he gets it from me and my dad

 

It's also fun watching them hunt live crickets when you feed them.

[flibberdipper]

@tmcclelland455 

HOW DID I NOT GET THE NOTIFICATION ABOUT THIS NAME STEALING BASTARD!  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:

 

But seriously, I am intrigued. It can never be better than my bae, but whatevs.

 

The name should be the least important thing but I'm pretty sure there are already build logs named athena. Otherwise I highly recommend you post a picture of your work too instead of just a video, many of us just skim through these posts and are not in the place or time to look at a video.

*cough*Mine*cough*

[flibberdipper]

Note to self, pissing Travis of by stealing the names of his builds will lead to regret, watch out @alpenwasser or watch out @tmcclelland455

MY FURY SHALL BE ENDLESS

Naw but really I kinda want to see where this build ends up going.

[flibberdipper]

Then again Helios is the same name as @alpenwasser rig

There are only so many Greek gods, though...

[nmil]

It's also fun watching them hunt live crickets when you feed them.

Yeah, it never gets old.

There are only so many Greek gods, though...

Sorry about the name, I only found out after I named it.

Note to self, pissing Travis of by stealing the names of his builds will lead to regret, watch out @alpenwasser or watch out @tmcclelland455

Never again, I will search up if there are any others first from now on. Promise, cross my heart hope to die.

[Deblow]

looks great & i love your bearded dragon
cable management around the back/bottom looks like mine only better lol
I still have to install the holder

[nmil]

looks great & i love your bearded dragon

cable management around the back/bottom looks like mine only better lol

I still have to install the holder

Thanks mate.

 

Sad news is that I won't be able to work on this for a couple of months because I am pinned down with assessment. 

 

But I should be back at the end of the year to finish this build.

[JT8101997]

Thanks mate.

 

Sad news is that I won't be able to work on this for a couple of months because I am pinned down with assessment. 

 

But I should be back at the end of the year to finish this build.

Aww poop. But yay!

[Deblow]

Thanks mate.

 

Sad news is that I won't be able to work on this for a couple of months because I am pinned down with assessment. 

 

But I should be back at the end of the year to finish this build.

well hope the assessment goes well

[nmil]

Aww poop. But yay!

 

well hope the assessment goes well

Thanks guys, I hope to try and finish my assignments off as soon as possible, so i can get this build back on track.

[nmil]

Moar?

 

Well exams finish tomorrow, so yes there will be moar.

[nmil]

Ok, so finally an update.

I cleaned up the welds and started to design panels using CAD (cardboard aided design)

 

IMG_0938 small by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

IMG_0941 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

The motherboard tray will be mounted off of the back by about 10mm, in order to fit a led strip behind, to make a floating mobo effect. Speaking of mobo tray, I managed to clean up the edges today on the grinder, but there is quite a lot of flex, so I'll have to weld some reinforcement to the back.

 

On another note, I came up with these nifty case feet that I think match the build quite well. 

 

 

IMG_0943 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

IMG_0942 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

In other news, I'm having some more upgrades coming to my X-carve setup, which I know you guys will like. And I finally got a MIG welder.

That's all for now guys,

nmil

[nmil]

 

Got some cad work done today. Here is the side plate.

 

side plate by /]nmrci1, on Flickr

 

 

 

I hope to mill it out tomorrow, it has 800 lines of g-code  (the stuff that tells the CNC what to do)

 

I also made the back plate

 

 

 

back plate cad by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

 

 

Thanks for looking,

nmil

[nmil]

Just realised I posted the same picture twice, I fixed it now. I'm thinking of removing the 2 fans at the top after watch Linus' video on fan configuration. I also can't decide whether is hould go with a matte finish for the white on the case, or an automotive gloss style finish. For reference I plan to make the blue a metallic gloss (maybe even metallic flake?) so that it stands out. What do you guys think?

[nmil]

I made a time-lapse video of the panels being designed:

 

 

I haven't been able to get much actual work done because of some issues with Draftsight exporting SVGs  . Unlike inkscape or Illustrator, that have a constant ppi and scale for every drawing, Draftsight scales every model to the same height when exporting to svg. This means a model that is 5x5cm will end up the same size as one which is 50x50cm. So I tried to import the dwg files into Autodesk fusion, which was even worse, somehow my 45cm long sides ended up being over 7m long :angry: . So finally I decided to try and just scae the parts to their original size in makercam. I figured out that the size Draftsight scales the models to is around 28.8cm, so with some maths you can work out the scale factor, but this is not very accurate since the sze isn't exactly 28.8cm and you have no way of actually measuring the dimensions in makercam  . So if anyone can tell me about a free cam program that works well and accpets dwg files I will be very happy. :lol:  

[iasianxmofoii]

Can you post a link to your Ikea desk mod or put instruction on how you did it? I'm really quite interested

[elfensky]

I cleaned up the welds and started to design panels using CAD (cardboard aided design)

 

LOOOOOOOOOL, ahahaha great pun.

[nmil]

Can you post a link to your Ikea desk mod or put instruction on how you did it? I'm really quite interested

Basically started with one of those beds with the desk underneath, but it was too tall for my house, so I removed 15cm of the bottom. This meant I had to create a custom desk, I used an IKEA tabletop and some kitchen cabinets. When I finish this PC build I can make a video going over it if you want.

 

 

LOOOOOOOOOL, ahahaha great pun.

Thanks :lol:

[nmil]

 

So finally an update for the build, I was trying to save up for one massive update with lot's of progress, but that didn't work out.

 

I finally got around to brazing the feet to the case.

 

IMG_1033 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

IMG_1034 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

Pretty spiffy if I say so myself. Speaking of spiffy, here's how to make a pop rivet disappear nmil style

 

IMG_1035 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

Here you can see the mobo tray flex I was talking about before:

 

IMG_1037 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

 

Now to the bad news, I spent the past 3 days machining the back panel on the X-carve. In the process of drilling the holes going around of the outside of the panel, I wore down 2 of the 3mm bits that I have, one of which has lasted my family 7 years or so. May it forever rest in peace.   Then it was time to actually mill the piece. This was one of the reasons why  the panel took so long, it is actually bigger than the machining bed of my X-carve, so I had to do it in sections, meaning that I would have to first take gcode from cam bam (by far the best cam program I have used) and then splice into 2. Here you can see that the cut is going fine:

 

IMG_1009 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

But then  when the bit made it all the way through the steel, all hell broke loose:

 

IMG_1018 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

You can see in the photo that the bit is cutting where it shouldn't be, so the piece is ruined. :angry: When the bit fully penetrates the steel, it gets stuck and cause for the x axis to skip a few notches on the drive belt, meaning that everything goes out of alignment. I tried to increase the spindle speed when the CNC fully penetrates in order to try to stop the bit for getting stuck, but that didn't work either. But, I'm not gonna let this piece of steel defeat me, so I have to start all over again suppose. This time I got some drill bits designed for doing many shall holes in steel so that I don't have to sacrifice any more expensive drill bits.

 

IMG_1038 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

And I got some more sheet steel

 

IMG_1040 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

I updated the CNC setup (I'll have a video coming out on it tomorrow)

 

IMG_1012 by nmrci1, on Flickr

 

The new plan is to just engrave the letters instead of fully penetrating, and all the other cuts will only be done to have the depth then finished with a dremel or jig saw depending on how lazy I am.

Thanks for looking,

nmil