Project: Large Wooden Tower

Pretty much finished the "false" back.





All that's left to do is route some slots along the edges of the motherboard tray and maybe another slot for the wiring for the optical drives.

Nice work!!

indeed man, lovin the look!

I completed the the external drive cage. I used a couple of drill bits to align everything, just to make sure both pieces were identical.




Yet another feature of this case is that each one of the drive rails can be removed for easy modding or for a custom configuration.

I like the look of that drive cage How sturdy is it?

Originally Posted by Elledan

I like the look of that drive cage How sturdy is it?

Hmmm...its definitely not flimsy. Its made entirely from 1/8-inch thick aluminum.

Originally Posted by Spotswood

Hmmm...its definitely not flimsy. Its made entirely from 1/8-inch thick aluminum.

That should do the trick

Two new 5.2mm router bits arrived yesterday afternoon. In an attempt to reduce bit breakage, I "pre-grooved" the 3/4-inch oak on the table saw, cutting an 8mm deep saw kerf. Then it was two passes on the router table, one pass at 5mm deep and another at 10mm. The end result was I only broke one bit.

Right side panel is done:



As soon as the 120x4 radiators arrive, I'll route out holes in the panels and apply some aluminum mesh, as modeled here:

Where skill and the proper equipment meet. Nice job

i find it weird that you break so many bits on wood. how does it happen? are you hitting knots or something? do you think you can find the bits you need in high speed steel? they probably wouldnt break...

I decided to fasten the top to the case with some 'T'-nuts, but I didn't have any lying around the shop so I fabricated a simple "plate"-nut. A plate-nut is just a 1/8-inch thick piece of aluminum flat bar, taped for 6-32 bolts. The nut was bolted to a dual layer of 1/4-inch plywood which was then glued to the top. Hard to describe, but very simple to make.







In order to accurately determine where to drill the corresponding holes in the front frame, I made some pointy marking thingies from a couple of bolts.




The top with the pointy thingies were then pressed down onto the case, indicating where to drill.



Perfect alignment!

Interesting. I'll be watching.

do you have like blueprints and spec sheets or just kinda winging it as you go? Either way its going to be awesome. You have talent!

Originally Posted by rjolin01

do you have like blueprints and spec sheets or just kinda winging it as you go? Either way its going to be awesome. You have talent!

The entire case (except for all of the fasteners, obviously ) were drawn in sketchup first. Pieces were cut and assembled within 1-2mm. However, even with such tight tolerances I managed to make a couple of mistakes by not taking that into account. If I make the next case 1.5mm shorter, I'll be able to use those two "mistakes."

Nice looking so far.

Wow!

I love wood cases, but I haven't the skill and all of my projects turn out to be simple boxes cut from six slabs of wood or cabinets built from construction lumber (I also love the pine look). I can only dream of building a case like this one. Great job! I'd love to see the final pics with all the hardware installed from the lucky guy who commissioned this case.

The side panels are held onto the case via four magnetic catches.



I'm quite pleased with the holding power of these babies. They will eventually get a coating of black paint.

i like! *thumbs up*