Catherine - updated - 27th September 2012

[sebtiger]

[sebtiger]

Welcome to Catherine,

A neo Victorian wooden case design that will be featuring a number of wood carvings, a kinetic sculpture, a few nixie tubes and an old piston air pump.

The design is the culmination of many ideas and past projects; and aims to provide my view on the steampunk movement and its many sub-genres.

1.1 A serious neo-Victorian engineer

My name is Seb, aka sebtiger, I have been away from the modification community for a few years while I have been at University, and am currently coming up to my final year in Avionics at Liverpool. Although I have been updating and maintaining a homebuilt CNC routing machine, which is currently on its fourth major update.

This competition has arrived during a quieter period of my year but gives me around a month before the heavier work kicks in. As such the majority of the larger parts will be done earlier on and working on finishing touches after that.

The case to be dissected is an ex-school workhorse that has seen better days. It is going to be taken down to the very bare frame to act as a mount for the main panels and PC components. By the end of the project it will be neither recognizable or seen easily.

The plan is to have the case primarily air cooled, while allowing for a full vga water cooling system to be installed if the budget allows. In total there will be space for 5 120mm fans allowing for high airflow while running at lower speeds.

1.2 The base frame of the case after a much needed wash

The main areas that are going to be removed are the front mesh area, the top 5.25" cover, the extended motherboard plate and the base. The rear fan grill and pci-side mesh currently do not provide a significant obstacle, although the raised fan grill may need to be removed. Furthermore the two hard drive cages are being removed as they will not be required.

1.3 The masked up front of the frame

1.4 The masked up rear of the frame

The rear side motherboard panel is being adjusted to allow for pass through/ hidden cable routing.

1.5 The masked up base of the frame

The base of the design is being constructed from wood as are all the other panels so it is being removed to allow easy access to the base panel.

1.6 The work begins

Following an extended session with the Dremel Multi-tool and a significant number of cutting discs, a very bare frame has been released. Furthermore while cutting, I decided to remove the rear fan grill to reduce interference further into the project. I also decided to hold back on cutting the side of the 5.25" bay after considering the function it was designed for and the actual requirement of the contents.

1.7 The cut front of the frame

1.8 The cut rear of the frame

1.9 The cut top of the frame, note the cut base too

The frame is in a state to begin the painting process. As yet I am still undecided as to which colour to go with. However there are still a number of holes to be made for bolts which would only chip any paint I applied now. As such I will refrain from painting until the bolts locations are finalised.

From here there is some final design work to do and some bits and bobs to order. If all goes well a number of wood sections will be completed within the week.

Stay tuned and thank you for reading.

sebtiger

1.10 Inter-universe travel is becoming far too cheap these days

[sebtiger]

Welcome to the first major update of Catherine.

The past few weeks have been an intense time filled with finalising designs and big decisions , followed by extended machining periods, not to mention moving back to university.

The wood to be used for the case had been reclaimed from an old bureau desk. After breaking apart almost 2 years ago it has been awaiting a worthy project.

A large amount of time in the past weeks was spent on the design. After testing a number of 3d programs for suitability for the project and the output file types I needed, I gave up, resigned to not find any solution worthy of time, considering I had a full design made up in Sketchup. Until a late night last ditch attempt found a plugin for Sketchup that allowed export as an STL file, ideal for importing directly into CAMBAM, the G-code generation program.

2.1 The current complete design - minus small add-ons

This was ideal for the CAM software I was utilising for the production of machine code (G-code). So literally overnight the outlook changed for the better and the parts were ready to be produced. All the paths were made and some test cuts performed. After some very successful tests the real cutting began.

2.2 The inside of the base panel being routed to accommodate fans

From experience I have found that to maximise the impact of a case the side must be on display rather than the front as many cases focus on. As such I prefer to place switches on the side panel rather than the front. However in exception to this, after difficulty locating a suitable position, it became evident that the switches needed to be relocated. As the case is intended to be raised off the surface the base became the preferred location.

2.3 The switch mounts being routed in the base panel

2.4 The first of the significantly more intricate cuts

This first set of panels consisted of the front, top and base. Production went to plan with no major issues. The first three panels came off the machine in their unsanded state. Originally the plan was to task the machine with doing a fine finishing pass on each panel, however after a couple of simulations it became evident that the finish achieved was not worth the quadrupling of job time. As a result the mouse sander was unleashed upon them during the machining of other panels.

The base cut out, first to grace the machine, has two 120mm fan holes along with the switches and mounting holes.

2.5 The unsanded base panel

The front cut out includes a window, single 120mm fan mount, 5.25 drive and the frame mounting holes.

2.6 The unsanded front panel

The top panel has space for two 120mm and 240mm radiator with room for its accompanying pipe work. Unlike the other panels, it secures to other panels with wood screws and as such does not require the same mounting holes.

2.7 The unsanded top panel

Following a router bearing failure a few days passed while a replacement was obtained. Once the new router was in place work resumed producing the final panels.

The rear panel was designed to hide the mess of wires that seem to accompany every computer I have ever seen by binding all the cables into a single cable.

2.8 The unsanded rear panel

The inside fan cover was designed to cover the unsightly rear of the switches and fans while providing a solid base for the piston motor that will be mounted in the front window of the case.

2.9 The unsanded internal base panel

One of my favourite panels in the entire case is the small side panel that will support the main door of the case. It obviously features the name Catherine, yet proved to be an annoying piece to machine. After finding the exact font I was looking for the scale of the letters in the area available had a width of around 5mm. Considering the cutting tool used for the entirety of the machining thus far was 6mm, none of the letters would be engraved. Subsequently the machine was fooled into thinking it had a 5mm end mill resulting in the "bold" font that is shown. Regardless the result is still as clean as was expected.

2.10 The unsanded rearmost side panel that will support the main door.

Once again I found myself in the position of having to find a method to route cables internally around the case without restricting airflow or being an eyesore. So found myself averting the entire issue by taking them outside the case. This move deemed pass through holes a necessary inclusion.

2.11 The unsanded back panel with pass through holes and mounting holes.

The main door of the case is split into two main sections one of which will have the carving mounted on, held together by a pair of wooden bridges at the top and bottom. A large hole was incorporated into the design to allow for air to be drawn into the case to the CPU cooler.

2.12 The unsanded front side of the case

The last standard panel is a composite piece that contains two internal panels that cover the unsightly metal rear of the frame. Each contains a pass through for electronics cables and the frame mounting holes. A further four pieces were on the sprue two of which have since been discarded, electronics covers. However they were unsuitable for the job they were intended for. The remaining half moon pieces are the bridges for the main door whose function will be revealed at a later date.

2.13 The unsanded final panel sprue comprised of internal panels and the main door bridges

To close the machining section of the build a carving was performed. This is the first of its kind on the machine and the process left me in awe as the job progressed. As such precaution was taken to ensure a montage of the process was recorded. If only the power cable for the video camera was not being elusive at the time. The carving was produced from the same wood as the other panels yet due to its thickness required the gluing of two separate pieces of wood to achieve it.

2.14 The wood block prior to any machining

2.15 The carving begins, the first shape breaks the main surface

2.16 As the process progressed the glued wood layer was passed

2.17 Although requiring a large number of passes the carving began to take shape

2.18 The split in the two pieces is highlighted by the dark waterline

2.19 As layers were progressively removed the rear channel began to clear

2.20 The final layer is removed revealing the profile

2.21 The design left a frame to hold the profile during the final stages of machining

2.22 On completion a layer of just under 0.3mm remained along with the holding tabs

2.23 Final carving, awaiting removal from the frame and sanding smooth

Throughout the entire machining process an extensive sanding regime was underway. This brought the panels up to a level ready for staining at a later point when a colour scheme is finalised. The machine began the rounding process of all the external edges however left the final smoothing pass up to the sander.

2.24 Complete sanded panel collection

Finally the holes were drilled into the metal frame to secure the panels too. This still left a number of free standing panels as they are reliant on fixings with other panels rather than the frame itself. Photos have been taken of the case in its constructed form however they shall be withheld until it is more finalised and all the fixings arrive.

The next update will delve into the electronics of the case and a number of enhancements to be added to the frame.

Thank you for reading

sebtiger