Nick Falzone Design - Ikigai

[Nicholas Falzone]

Distro Plate Part I

 

This will take a while but here is the first part of the distribution/pump/wiring plate.  I decided to start on the smallest part in case I screwed it up and needed to start over.  For all these cuts, I used a single flute bit, either 1/4 inch, 1/8 inch or 2mm for all the small stuff.

 

Here goes nothing, this will hold the pump:

 

 

First cuts made:

 

 

Threads proved challenging for me, partially because I forgot what I had figured out when I did them the first time.  Eventually I got them to work though:

 

 

 

 

After this I flipped the piece over and cut all of the screw holes as well as water channels:

 

 

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

Distro Plate Part II

 

This is a little out of order but it will all make sense later.  I was going to put wiring access on the motherboard side but I eventually figured out it made more sense to put it on the GPU side.  I did many iterations of this design that I used for mockups but I'll cover that more in the wiring section.  However I decided to cut the wiring channels while also doing the water cooling part of the distro plate to minimize setups:

 

Blank Slate:

 

First blood. The beginnings of the wiring channels.  This will lead to the RGB header on the motherboard:

 

 

More channels.  This will hold the CPU power cable along with RGB lighting hub:

 

 

 

 

From here I started the water-cooling section again, first by drilling about a million holes:

 

 

 

After that, I flipped over the work piece and routed the channels for the water cooling along with the O-Ring channels:

 

 

 

 

Practice vs the real thing:

 

 

With fingers crossed I combined the two sides with some practice o-rings to check fitment.  To my delight everything worked out:

 

 

 

More to come soon...

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

Since I am making a pretty small PC I needed a pretty small power supply.  Luckily I got my hands on a Cooler Master 650w SFX power supply which is surprisingly small for how much power it has:

 

 

I wanted to make a holder for this that goes with the rest of the case and since Wenge is so strong, I decided to make a thinner holder with this.  As usual I made a few test pieces to get the basic dimensions:

 

 

I then needed to get the stock ready.  I resawed some Wenge stock with my bandsaw:

 

 

 

Resawing left a surprisingly smooth surface but I cleaned it up with the drum sander anyway. First things first though, time to glue up!

 

 

All cleaned up:

 

 

Similar to the main case Wenge, I wanted the grain to be continuous so I cut it accordingly:

 

 

 

I wanted to showcase dovetails as a design element in case so I chose to use them again here. Luckily these were much easier as they were much smaller.

 

Marking:

 

 

First cuts:

 

 

Marking some more:

 

 

 

More cutting:

 

 

And after some cleanup we end up with more dovetail joints:

 

 

 

 

I needed to make the cutout to mount the PSU to so I cut this out on the CNC with a 2mm O flute bit:

 

 

 

 

 

It works!

 

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

I decided to attach the PSU bracket to the acrylic with both screws and a dado joint.  To do the dado, I used my trusty router table:

 

 

 

 

 

With this done, I located some holes to screw the bracket into the acrylic and used the same 6-32 screws I've used on most other things so far.

 

 

 

 

 

Next I needed some vent holes for the PSU fan and some holes for the power supply cables.  I decided on a simple design that would get the job without attracting too much attention to itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

Once I had the holes for the GPU and Motherboard made into the central acrylic panel and knew where they were going to sit in relation to the bottom wenge portion, I could make the holders for these along with corresponding holes in the Wenge.

 

They would look something like these:

 

 

 

I used more of the 12mm acrylic:

 

 

And cut them out:

 

 

 

From there, I marked their placement on the Wenge and matched up the holes on the real thing vs the CNC model:

 

 

 

 

Luckily I measured well and got the holes in the right place:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next I made holes from the bottom to attach the acrylic with countersunk screws:

 

 

 

 

Lastly, I sanded the edges and made a slight chamfer:

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

I needed a little piece to hold down the GPU to the acrylic mount.

 

 

Eagle-eyed readers will notice how the photo above does not match the final version.  This is because I kept messing up and made this three times.  Slow down to speed up is my motto but sometimes I forget.  I also cut out the profile on the bottom as seen in the photo:

 

 

 

And the final version:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

To further hold the heavy GPU assembly up, I decided to attach a bracket at the top that slips between the PCB and the waterblock.  I made a quick test one to see if this would work well enough:

 

 

 

I had plenty of off cuts of Wenge to make small parts with and I liked the grain of this one:

 

 

 

My plan was to CNC route the holes but use my router table for the rabbet:

 

 

When I started to route the rabbet, the hardness of the wood combined with the small size of the piece made it seem sketchy so I instead CNC'd it as well:

 

 

 

Next I needed to make a little cutout where a standoff was blocking the Wenge:

 

 

 

Once I drilled/filed this out, it fit great:

 

 

From there I drilled and tapped holes in the acrylic:

 

 

 

And lastly I chamfered the edges:

 

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

Earlier I routed a hole and groove for the PSU power cable and fan cables shown below. I wanted to put a cover on this to hide most of the wiring:

 

 

I picked a piece with matching grain to make this as hidden as possible and ripped it to the right size:

 

 

I thought about using the CNC for this but hand tools worked better in this case:

 

 

Getting close, I just need to do the rounded corners:

 

 

 

 

And a small slot for the cable to pass through:

 

 

All done and ready for sanding:

 

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

I wanted an elegant way to hold the PSU power cable to the acrylic and decided on some little Wenge brackets.  This took a few tries to get something that I liked:

 

 

 

 

Final version:

 

I chamfered the edges to match the rest of the case:

 

 

I wanted the same countersunk holes and this required some creative work holding:

 

 

But it worked:

 

 

 

Once they were all cut I drilled and tapped corresponding holes in the acrylic:

 

 

 

 

[Nicholas Falzone]

One reason I moved the wiring access to the GPU side is so I could put a cover on it without hitting any motherboard parts with screw heads and shorting out the hardware.  Luckily I still had some 1mm brushed black aluminum from A.C.Ryan to make a cover out of.  

 

First I made a practice version:

 

 

Once I was happy with the size and hole placement I started cutting the real version.  I used a 2mm Single flute bit with a bit of alcohol to make it cut more cleanly.  Ideally I'd have a mist system for this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It fits just like it should.  Next is programing in the corresponding holes on the acrylic side: