[Scratch Build] --Mahogany PC Build [Complete]

[PandaSnatcher]

While on work placement for my 3rd year at university in design engineering, I was given the luxury of using metal turning laths and mills as well as access to materials. One of the employees had also just moved into a new house, which had a wood workshop built on the side, I was very jealous none the less. With my old Dell Pc kicking the bucket the previous month, I was due a new Pc. with all this equipment at my disposal I though it would be rather novel to build my own wooden Pc and so it began...

...I had never built a Pc before let alone making a case for it. As a design engineering I stop at nothing!! Mwwhahah

WIth my firsts months wages and without a care int he world, I bought up all the parts

- Fx-8150 8-core processor
- Sabertooth 990Fx R2.0 motherboard
- Gtx 680 x 2
- Vengeance 8Gb Ram
- 2Tb hard drive space
- Noctua Fans throughout 2 x 120mm, 1 x 140mm
- Cool master V8 cooler]
- Corsair 850W power supply

The first step is always the hardest, especial if that step is 40 miles, mahogany is hard to come buy I found out...


Multiple CAD models where created, deleted, re thought and redesigned and cried over to get everything lined up with the standardised parts. Eventually engineering drawings where produced and cutting began.


Creating the side panels by glueing and clamping two length of wood together plus a TINY strip because someone got some height measurements wrong, my bad


wood routers, files and saws where used to create the interfaces to which each panel will join. not shown in the picture, but was design to create a seamless join


The first mock up of the case (unglued) Ensuring every lines up and i'm happy with the joins
Picture also including my house mates elf foot


Using the motherboard from my first ever "gaming" Pc ensure everything is lining up. It had an amazing 250mb of ram and a single core 1Ghz processor, such a beast. Could just about run the original Farcry on medium. I swear the monsters where made scarier with largest pixels.


LET the REal FUN BEGIN!
Working on the metal mills creating aluminium panels that are to be stuck to the inside of the case, to help despite heat and avoid any potential hot spots on the wood. this also gives a nice surface for taped holes to hold components with screws.


MORE MILLING!
Despite the simple shape, I had to use a massive rotary table to create a clean circle with the mill,it was quite a lot of hassle to even lift it. heavy stuff... some people may think that a tolerances of 0.003mm for a fan hole maybe overkill... and their probably right


PC case was put on hold while I went on holiday for a bit, here's a picture of me making a friend.


Getting back to work on the case, I finish machining the panels, including the front panel, where i managed to secure a piece of aerospace grade aluminium free of charge. Some company i'm not allowed to disclose got their bill of materials wrong for a product, which i was machining for them on work placement, they had no use for it so into my pc it went.


Annoyingly I have lost the photos of the manufacturing of the front vents.
It was a case of cutting out the aluminium with a bandsaw, then bending each one by hand to create the final shape. I ran them over a felt wheel to knock of the burs and used 1000grit wet and dry paper to create a smooth surface. the felt wheel work really well with this and created an almost chrome finish.

If you hadn't already noticed the PC is on it's side, this is me constantly worrying that everything still fits. making sure there will be enough space for wires .


While building the case, I had the pc layed out on my desk in the open, so could use for work and gaming, after a while and much consideration, I thought another 680 would look badass... plus a game to make them sweat


Once everything was positioned i decided on a mounting orientation for the hard drives and milled out some supports.


First time starting with everything in. So stressfull, I ran in to issues with the graphics cards. apparently the motherboard had a favourite card and would only work with the right card in the first PCI e slot... My gosh it was a long day....


Here it is in all it's glory!
Despite numerous difficulties and mistakes, it has finally pulled through and just in time for my final year of university. Although these post don't show it, I ran in to ever problem possible, every stage needed a tweak here or there. but I glad it has finally come together.