Project Sputnik by S.PiC

[SPiC]

How it all started…

As a child, all the boys wanted to become astronauts, and I was no exception. I've always been fascinated by science fiction novels about space exploration, space travel, robots, spacecraft and distant galaxies. It was inevitable that this influence would find its way into my mods at some point.

Video WorkLog here:
First Video:

 

Second Video:

 

SPECS:
Sponsors: ASRock, TeamGroup
PSU: Cooler Master MWE 750 Full Modular

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming-ITX/AC
Graphics card: ASRock Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX590 8GB OC
RAM: TeamGroup Delta RGB 3000MHz 2x8GB
Storage: 2 x TeamGroup Delta RGB 250GB SATA SSD
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 240

 

[SPiC]

I first got into modding when I was invited to participate in the Cooler Master Case Mod World Series (CMWS) 2016 competition. Since then, I have prepared my projects every year specifically for this competition, and in 2017 I even managed to take 1st place with my VEGA project. The Sputnik project was no exception and was made specifically for the CMWS 2020 competition.

 

[SPiC]

Preparing for takeoff

The first sketches of this Sputnik-inspired PC began to appear a couple of years ago. At that time, I had no experience working with aluminum and decided to start with a simpler project to avoid expensive mistakes. This led to the creation of my SimpleCase project, which helped immensely in learning to how to deal with laser cutting, bending and joining thick sheet metal. During the work with SimpleCase, I clarified how aluminum bends and stretches when bending. What are the tolerances and what is the maximum length of metal to bend on a manual sheet bending machine? As you can see in the Sputnik project, additional perforations have been made in the bending areas. The mounting points of the motherboard, video card, and power supply were carefully adjusted.

 

[SPiC]

As the year 2020 approached, the old pencil sketches of the Sputnik project were retrieved, and the project started afresh. Looking at these sketches now, I see how little the finished project has in common with those first drawings. The layout and frame were redesigned several times, and the perforations that are a crucial part of the overall design have changed a huge number of times.

 

[SPiC]

Both SimpleCase and Sputnik lean heavily on the use of laser cutting. As well as making it easy to cut out large sheets of aluminium and incorporate details like holes for fixings, it also makes it easy to create intricate shapes such as the perforations that cover this case.

 

[SPiC]

The case is constructed from 2mm thick aluminum. This provides a good balance of lightness and rigidity. Although the final case was relatively simple to complete once assembled, it took a huge amount of time to develop the designs.

 

[SPiC]

To design the laser cutting path, I used a 2D vector editor – which made it easier for me to work out each detail of the project separately. I think that's why I was able to draw all the modules in such detail.

 

[SPiC]

After many months of careful designing, the drawings were ready and I was going to give them to my local laser cutting facility, but something unexpected happened – a car accident. A car veered off the oncoming lane and into me and my vehicle: the car was a write off, but fortunately no one was injured. All available money was used to buy a new car, and the project was again frozen for several months.

 

[SPiC]

Time passed, during which the drawings were once again revised and refined, but finally the time came to get them cut. I was very thankful to the laser cutting company that they let me film and photograph the process.

 

[SPiC]

“I Am Speed!”

Sputnik was conceived as a high-speed spacecraft. Even static, standing on a table, it had to look dynamic. To create this effect, the front triangular section is sloped forward, like a sprinter coming up from the blocks.