OC & Modding Scratch Build: reWenge

[xanan]

This is all thanks to Mohit Garg. You see, a few days ago, I was discussing with him about a rig he wanted to make, which was to be made out of wood. Now, i haven't worked on wood before, and seeing how I like challenges, I thought it might be a good time to try my hand at some old-school carpentry, since Flux is on hold at the moment due to non-availability of funds.
The best part about using wood is that it is cheap (atleast the one that I'm planning to use), and is relatively easy to cut without resorting to power tools. I have ordered the material that I need already, and am expecting delivery either today or by Monday. I thought that I'd post this when I have something to show, but there is time to kill now and posting it right now felt like the best idea. Once I start modding (which I hope will be tomorrow late at night) I don't know whether i'll remember to take the pics
Any way, keep checking this thread for updates.
Oh and yes, about the build's name- I know how to spell 'Revenge'- its just that I'll be using Wenge for the finish, and this sounded like a good name at the time. In hindsight, it feels kinda lame. Once the build starts to take shape, I'll be counting on you guys to help me out.

A disclaimer, of sorts- First time using wood, or even thinking about it. Keep your expectations low, and the flaming even lower.

Wish me luck.

 

[xanan]

So, after waiting a full day, doing nothing but twiddling my thumbs, I got the first shipment of materials, namely this:

Doesn't look too bad. I'd liked something that was a bit more reflective, but whatever. The spots are from my wife's feet- she almost trampled the thing and broke it. Well, she does have a knack to end up doing these things. i should be getting used to all this by now.

Boy, is this thing huge? As you can see, its taken all of the space my wife has generously allotted to me for my modding activities, or as she prefers to label them "Huge headache and mess generating, serious waste of time and money causing, fruitless whims".

My modest collection of modding related items, unceremoniously dumped into boxes by my OCD-inflicted wife. Not much in there, except for old PSUs, screws, waterblocks, pumps, maybe a rad too, somewhere.

And a bonus: Look what I found under the kitchen sink (no, seriously, this is where I found it). Will have a dekko soon to see if it fits my bill. I guess it must have belonged to the previous owner of the house. No stand-offs, sadly, but Mav has told me he'd be shipping them over for me tomorrow, so not all hope is lost.

Well that's about it. Not too sure why I bothered posting all this- extreme boredom I guess. Well, at least you got to see where I mod. I miss the old house- the hall was so much bigger, and it was all MINE.

Beggars can't be choosers I guess.

Got another bunch of stuff today, and spent almost 20% in getting there and coming back. I really have to get some means of transport now, or soon I won't have money to even spend on cigarettes.
Anyways, here's a quick update on what I got. Camera courtesy my neighbour. Sorry about the bad pics- I'm no photographer, and the camera isn't exactly what they call half-decent.

Case Feet:

Extra Long SATA Cables. And I thought these weren't available in India. Any one in Bangalore who wants these can go to Aashirwad Computers. Anyone not in B'lore can send me a Pm and I'll ship 'em across. These cost, if I remember, a 100 bucks each. Less if you buy more than two.

Crimps: These saved my life. No more cutting up PSU wires for sleeving, no more ruining your warranty, no more ATX extensions. At 2.5 buck each, these are really cheap

These are for the molex connectors, and cost 4.5 bucks each.

ATX Male Connector, at 70 bucks

Now these are a real life saver. I used to cannibalise them from old cabinets- never knew they were available. You require these to connect your power, reset switches, HDD Activity LEDs etc to the motherboard. Sorry for the poor picture, but these are really small and its hard to take a proper picture.

CM 120 mm Red LED fan:

Bought this, and realised I cannot use it- if any one wants this, he can pay me 450 bucks and take it off from my hands. The pack is not even opened. Damn you Krash.

Door Magnet:
Dunno whether I'll use it or not, but bought it anyway. Don't remember the price too.

Brass Hinges, 1/2 inches. Some bling for the wood. I likes.
Some golden screws. Hehehe.

And finally, my Zippo collection, or what's left of it. These have provided endless service during these long hours

Total damages this far= 2800 bucks, travel included.

Plywood, 1/2 inches thick, 4ft by 6ft

If you are observant enough, you'll notice that all the space so generously allotted to me has run out...in fact, the laminate is spilling out on the drawing room floor. In fact, the dining table is the temporary storage area for all the stuff that I bought today. Anyway, I still feel too tired to actually start sawing the plywood so I guess I'll devote tonight for making a drawing of the pieces that need to be cut.

By the way, I'll hopefully be posting CAD drawings with the dimensions here, so in case you get the urge to do something similiar, please feel free to use them as reference. Like I mentioned earlier, wood is cheap to work with, and this whole build is not gonna cost more than 3-4K at the max. So much for spending 13 grand on your HAF-xs and A71s.

 

[vivacious_tg]

cannot see images!!

 

[stalker]

:rol: linking direct from e rodo v :rofl:

 

[xanan]

:rol: linking direct from e rodo v :rofl:

Well, i am a noob when it comes to forums. Apparently, I cannot upload pics here, and I thought why not use the pics I have uploaded on e. Hopefully I haven't broken any rule.
Will post pics as soon as my posts stop getting moderated.

 

[princeoo7]

u'r web sites address is missing and nothing else... just edit the post and where ******* is their put the sites name ...

 

[RD274]

@ Xanan

Do you have Google ID (eg. Gmail, Orkut, Picassa,..?). If yes, then sign into Google Web Albums and then download Picassa.

- Once you have downloaded and installed Picassa, open it and from File select Add Files to Picassa.

- Then holding CTRL select all the pics from the Library you want to upload and click Upload at the bottom.

- Sign in to your Web Albums account.

- Create a New Album and choose upload size as small and click Upload.

- After it has uploaded, click View Online.

- Open each image you have uploaded, right click on that image and select "Copy Image Address".

- Paste it here as an image.

This is the easiest way to upload your pictures fast and post them on forums.

 

[ragzdiablo]

@xanan..upload the images to imageshack.us..

then post the links..

 

[xanan]

There you go. Fixed. At the time of writing this, I've already made some progress. Will post an update soon. Keep watching this thread and remember to rate it if you like my work.

 

[princeoo7]

hey
my post is missing

 

[harishgayatri]

Hey images load only half way.

Is there any way to fix that.

 

[xanan]

Hey images load only half way.

Is there any way to fix that.

Just hit refresh after the page has loaded. I guess there are bandwidth issues with imageshack.

 

[princeoo7]

upgrade the post
tell us the progress

 

[xanan]

So, here's the update:
Please welcome my new friend, Mr. Jig Saw, the latest addition to the Happy Tool Family. Got him from SP Road (yes, I went there again, today) for Rs. 1600 only. The owner was kind enough to throw in a set of four, or five blades to sweeten the pot.

Here's my make shift work bench...as you can see, you can find a use for everything, well almost everything.

Anyway, got back home at about 5ish since I was helping a friend find a place to live , and got straight down to work.

Working with a jigsaw is not easy as it sounds, and you can easily lose a finger if you're not careful. Also, cutting a straight line if you're a first timer like me, can prove to be tricky. The first cut that I made was almost an mm or more off from the line. The saw vibrates a lot, and will tend to slip, so I made a guide out of two pieces of plywood, and nailed them to the board that I was cutting. Care must be taken that the edges of the guides should be parallel to the line you are attempting to cut, and the distance between the two should be as close to the width of the saw's base as possible, while still being wide enough to let it move smoothly. Here's a pic to give you an idea:

The jigsaw I bought has five speed setting, ranging from 1 to 5, 1 being slowest and 5 being the fastest. I reckon the first two speeds won't help you cut at all, while the last one will probably induce a large margin of error.

For wood, i found the medium to work best.
I marked out the pieces for the mobo enclosure, and began cutting. In about three hours, i was able to cut all the panels required and assemble them for a test fit.

As you can see, the gap is a result of the first cut I made. The rest of them came out pretty okay, all things considered.
Here's some pics with a cigarette pack thrown in for comparision of size:

Over all, I'm satisfied with the results. The gaps don't really matter as they'll be covered up by laminate later on.
Anyway, the first order of the day was to cut a hole for the PSU. I marked out the dimensions for the PSU, leaving about 2 mm on each side for tolerance. It pays to measure twice and cut once. As you can see, I had marked out a line incorrectly. This would have resulted in the loss of a rather big panel. Thankfully, I discovered it in the second round of measuring.

With the marking done, I drilled two holes on each corner where the saw had to take a 90degree turn to facilitate cutting. Be careful to drill the hole a little on the inner side- you can sand them a bit if they aren't aligned, but if they are on the outer side, it'll only mean trouble.

Anyway, the bottom panel cut, I moved on to the PSU enclosure. Sorry about the missing pics of the panels before the assembly- i kinda forgot to take them

the panels didn't align properly, probably due to my clumsiness with the jig saw. This was easily remedied- i simply made a mixture of sawdust, water and fevicol and filled the gaps with it. Once it is dry, it can be sanded smooth. Always remeber to keep the saw dust- you never know when it might come in handy.

The next step was to make the HDD and DVDRW enclosure. Again, no pics of work in progress. i have a tendency to get carried away. My wife proved that she was not completely useless, and that she could do other stuff besides breaking my things- i don't have a vice or a clamp, so I made her sit on the plank so it doesn't move around. 45kgs can be a lot of motivation for the plank to stay put.

Anyway, while cutting the panels, my hand kinda slipped and here's what happened. Nothing serious- it just burns a lot and itches like crazy.

Here's the completed HDD/DVDRW cage. The HDD slots will get a healthy dosage of foam to help reduce noise, hence the bigger size relative to the HDD itself.

And finally, a shot of the mobo enclosure. The door has a gap because its not been mounted yet- I just propped it against the cage to see if the alignment is okay, and it is.

Well that's about it for now. I hope to cut the base tomorrow. The back plate will have to wait as I still haven't gotten the stand-offs. Sorry for the late update, but uploading images off on to imageshack, and then switching off between windows to copy the url is apparently too much for me, and having a FUPped connection makes matters worse.
Keep watching this thread for more updates, and thank you all for being so patient. Sincerely.

 

[princeoo7]

its a good progress tho u have injure u'r self be a kind of carefull with it and best of luck for the further proceedings ..... will wait for updates