Morphosis

[Nicholas Falzone]

I wanted to refine the shape of the GPU bracket so I first started with a chamfer.  I used my router table and chamfer bit to accomplish this:

_9182797 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

Next, I wanted to make a bracket to help hold the card on:

_9182800 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I used some extra veneer covered aluminum for this:

_9182801 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I used sandpaper to give the piece a brushed finish.  I started with 80 grit and moved up to 220 grit. I will use this for the rest of the small parts:

_9182808 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

A couple stainless 6-32 screws will keep it in place:

_9182809 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

[Nicholas Falzone]

I wanted to put the case together to see how it was looking.  Here is the current state of it assembled:

_9192838 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9192840 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

Here we have the front and top panels and some hardware installed:

_9192846 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9192855 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

One more view for now, the top/front panels:

_9192853 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

[Nicholas Falzone]

Next up is the case window side panel.  For this, i wanted to incorporate brushed aluminum and inset it into an acrylic panel for a clean and cohesive look.  I made two models in Fusion 360, one for the acrylic and one for the aluminum.

 

If I was smart I would've done the aluminum first so I could perfect the fitment of it while the acrylic was still on the cnc table but instead I cut the acrylic first:

_9152767 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I used a 1/4 inch single flute endmill to machine out the space for the aluminum to sit:

 

Almost done!

IMG_6517 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

All done!

_9152771 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

IMG_6520 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I ran a finishing pass to clean everything up.  Unfortunately the aluminum didn't fit so I had to remount it to the table in order to recut parts of it.  Luckily Fusion 360 is awesome so I could pick which contours I wanted to be cut more.  This took a bit of trial and error but eventually i got it to fit quite snuggly.

 

Here's the aluminum part mocked up on the case:

IMG_6521 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

And here it is finally fitting into the acrylic:

IMG_6530 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

Mocked up on the case.  I need to work on attaching it to the chassis:

_9152775 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I aIMG_6461 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

l also cut a piece of acrylic for the inside of the front window section:

_9192850 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9192852 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

The case has an interesting power supply placement and holding solution that I liked so I wanted to incorporate a modified version of it.  Here is the contact point transferred to the new motherboard tray.

IMG_6462 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I made a little bracket to take up the space between the tray and the power supply carrage:

_9182815 by greensabbath911, on Flickr 

 

I used sandpaper again to give the piece a brushed look.

 

Here is where it mounts in the case.

_9182794 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

Soon I will modify the rest of the power supply shroud to more closely match the rest of the case.

[Nicholas Falzone]

As part of the illumination in the case, I will be using ARGB light strips.  These will be going in the two sides of the Res/Pump room along woth in the ceiling of the main compartment:

 

Here:

_9172779 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

And here:

_9182791 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I made a model and got to cutting:

_9182792 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9172786 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I needed something to hold the actual strips though so for this I decided to route out a 3mm deep channel in some 1/4 inch acrylic:

_1012868 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

_1012871 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

_1012873 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

Perfect fit:

_1012874 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_1012877 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

I thought about only watercooling the CPU but it made the most sense to watercool everything.  I bought a reference Radeon 5700XT and the Ek Vector Waterblock to go with it:

_1012859 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

After installation:

_1012862 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I also made a cover for the side of the case out of a piece of 1mm brushed silver aluminum, courtesy of A.C. Ryan.  This covers the edges of the panels and gives the case a more finished look.

_1012866 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

Back to the feet.  I wanted to carve the feet and add some chamfers to them to match the asthetics of the rest of the case.  I used a band saw, file, sand paper and a router to do this.

 

Basic design sketched out:

_9252885 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9252886 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9252887 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9262897 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

The front needed extra attention to match the profile of the front panel:

_9252892 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9252889 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9252893 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

All sanded and ready for finishing:

_9262902 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

Starting the finishing process:

_9262911 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

Next I wanted to make a wood accent piece that mimics the design of the case window and acts as a partition in the case.  I modified the same file I used on the window to make it deeper and cut a test panel.  I then mocked up the test panel in the case:

 

_9252882 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9242880 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I then milled some Walnut to the approximate size I needed.  I paid special attention to the grain to ensure it would look cohesive.

 

Here are the two pieces:

_9252883 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

Even without glue it is hard to see where each piece ends:

_9252884 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

After it was glued, I milled it to a bit over 1/2 inch thick and set it up on the wasteboard and got to cutting:

_9262895 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9262909 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

All done but before sanding:

_9262913 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

All sanded and ready for finish:

_9262916 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

[Nicholas Falzone]

I finished the feet with a few coats of General FInishes Arm-R-Seal and now they are ready to mount to the bottom of the case:

_9292949 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9292950 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

Checking the fitment to make sure the reveals are even:

_9292952 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9292953 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9292955 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9292956 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I fastened the case feet with four screws into each one.  The feet have chamfers to help connect the lines of the case.

 

Next, I turned my attention to the power supply shroud.  I like the system that the case uses so I'm going to modify that.  

_9272921 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I have a bit of veneer aluminum still so I'm going to attach some of that to the shroud and blend it into the rest of the case:

_9272918 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I wanted to make sure I had a nice mitered joint so I used some scrap wood to get the angles right:

_9272922 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

First piece cut, just making sure the fit is right:

_9272924 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I cut the pieces close together to ensure the grain would carry over from one piece to the other:

_9272929 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9272930 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9272931 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I also sanded the edges to give them a brushed look:

_9272926 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

With the panels attached to the shroud, I could mock it up with the Walnut panel I made last time.  It has a couple coats of finish but is not entirely done yet:

_9272935 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9272936 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

One of the last tasks before I could finally start putting the case together the final time was making the attachment points for the two window panels.  Two of these I have previously made but the other two needed to be done using the existing structure of the case.  In each corner is a little corner bracket made of steel but it is too thin to put threads in so I wanted to remake it out of aluminum.

 

The piece to be made:

_9272938 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I modeled it in Fusion 360 and cut out four of them at the same time:

_9292941 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9292942 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I drilled the screw holes and then made the counter sinks to match the case panels:

_9292960 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

_9292963 by greensabbath911, on Flickr

 

I threaded the holes and they were good to go:

_9292964 by greensabbath911, on Flickr