Project: Little Rascal - Mini-ITX Gaming Rig
- Thread starter Nixeh
- Start date
Hey - I've seen your attempts and you never seem to get them finished... how long have you been putting this one off for now?
Ah but that was the v300 mod, this is a completely different mod and has been about 3months in the planning on and off. Until you come back with youre own project log that gets worked on i suggest u hush up
Btw stop emailing me about the cubit, whilst im at work... as if work doesnt geeky enough. Though try mini-itx.com or something like there, or ebay
Soldato
looks very nice. cant wait to see the finished product. though i dont think i like the way those sata connectors are placed on the motherboard.
great job so far !
great job so far !
Associate
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2006
- Posts
- 285
Can't wait to see the case finished.
Small Update for you guys 
Currently waiting for my cutting discs and metal drill bits to arrive, in the mean time all i can pretty much do is start filing down which is going to be fun.
That said, it obviously means that ive done the cutting As youll see from below all the parts have been cut (apart from the front) but theres still more that needs to be done but sadly that cant be done until the tools arrive.
So here you guys go
The back wasnt too bad to cut, though due to the size of it when unfolded and only having a small bench, it was a tricky mother.
As some of you might tell theres no curve, which is ok as im going to be doing that with something thats better at doing curves than a jigsaw. Though i am worried that the curve is too small and wont be noticable on the final product. However im not changing it as in the model everything is to scale and it looks like it will be fine *i hope*
You might notice that i slightly went ever so slightly into the line on the right side of the hdd caddy, but this will be fine once filing and sanding is done.
The PSU caddy had a small change from the original design as even though i planned for most, there was something i overlooked which i knew would happen somewhere down the line. I added another 1cm wide brace that will be folded round 1 of the struts as i was worried to how they would join and it will also add structural support.
Ths psu back was the easiest part to cut and for some reason one of my fav parts, mainly because this little bit will mean that i dont have to take my whole pc apart to get the psu out, and will mean a lot more room inside to tweak things.
Had no problem doing the rad caddy but it was the most troublesome, though this was down to a sneezing fit i decided to have everytime i was working on this bit.
At the moment im liking the way things are going, though sadly work is meaning that the pace isnt at the speed i would like
Im currently planning to markout all these pieces again with fresh masking. You can see the reason for this on some of the pictures. I made the rookie mistake of covering everytyhing in masking and then not marking it out or cutting it for at least another week. Its annoying when youre using a jigsaw and parts of your markouts are peeling off
Anyway hope you guys like the small update. Im hoping atm that i can get some sponsors onboard, though that wont be for a bit yet as this is early stages of the project. If anyone knows anyone or any contacts that might be able to help with this, send me a PM... would be greatly appreciated.
Also on a final note, metal metal workshop is great (listening to metal and rock whilst modding) think ill start a small thread titled 'Modders Playlist' to see what everyone listens to whilst modding.
Peace out till next time guys.
Currently waiting for my cutting discs and metal drill bits to arrive, in the mean time all i can pretty much do is start filing down which is going to be fun.
That said, it obviously means that ive done the cutting As youll see from below all the parts have been cut (apart from the front) but theres still more that needs to be done but sadly that cant be done until the tools arrive.
So here you guys go
The back wasnt too bad to cut, though due to the size of it when unfolded and only having a small bench, it was a tricky mother.
As some of you might tell theres no curve, which is ok as im going to be doing that with something thats better at doing curves than a jigsaw. Though i am worried that the curve is too small and wont be noticable on the final product. However im not changing it as in the model everything is to scale and it looks like it will be fine *i hope
*
You might notice that i slightly went ever so slightly into the line on the right side of the hdd caddy, but this will be fine once filing and sanding is done.
The PSU caddy had a small change from the original design as even though i planned for most, there was something i overlooked which i knew would happen somewhere down the line. I added another 1cm wide brace that will be folded round 1 of the struts as i was worried to how they would join and it will also add structural support.
Ths psu back was the easiest part to cut and for some reason one of my fav parts, mainly because this little bit will mean that i dont have to take my whole pc apart to get the psu out, and will mean a lot more room inside to tweak things.
Had no problem doing the rad caddy but it was the most troublesome, though this was down to a sneezing fit i decided to have everytime i was working on this bit.
At the moment im liking the way things are going, though sadly work is meaning that the pace isnt at the speed i would like
Im currently planning to markout all these pieces again with fresh masking. You can see the reason for this on some of the pictures. I made the rookie mistake of covering everytyhing in masking and then not marking it out or cutting it for at least another week. Its annoying when youre using a jigsaw and parts of your markouts are peeling off
Anyway hope you guys like the small update. Im hoping atm that i can get some sponsors onboard, though that wont be for a bit yet as this is early stages of the project. If anyone knows anyone or any contacts that might be able to help with this, send me a PM... would be greatly appreciated.
Also on a final note, metal metal workshop is great (listening to metal and rock whilst modding)
think ill start a small thread titled 'Modders Playlist' to see what everyone listens to whilst modding.Peace out till next time guys.
hey hey hey.
Yup its time for another update. The tools arrived and ive managed to do some extra work on the project. Im hoping to get quite a bit done over the next few days.
First off, the motherboard has been ordered and should be with me on Thursday. Ive also ordered a boat load of stuff such as watercooling stuff like the radiator and tubing and that should be with me sometime this week aswell
Well first off, what was i waiting on to arrive before i could do anymore work?
Now that my Reinforced dremel discs, clamps, jigsaw pieces and metal drill bit set have arrived, i could get on with some more metal construction
So i decided to start off with some smaller bits of work first. Now that my trusty g clamps were available instead of my crappy spring clamps i could finish doing some jigsaw work without the metal slipping.
First off to go was the rest of the PSU Caddy
To do this i decided to drill 2 holes that would be large enough for the jigsaw to fit into so i could do the straight cuts. As you can see from above it went ok, that said im still having problems with bits of the bloody masking tape masking my view, or slightly flapping once cut.
That said, these problems were small but could cause me drifting into the marking lines, or worse still, over them.
That said, once it had been cut, and the filings and loose bits had been brushed off, it didnt look to bad. Its now starting to look a lot like the mark outs ive done in sketchup.
The PSU Caddy was the easy bit to cut, but the HDD caddy was a little bit more fidly and also had quite a few more cuts to do.
Once again i started out with the drill so i could easily jigsaw away from the inside, but due to the struts being marked up on the inside of the square i had to be careful. So i decided to do what all modders would probably do and call upon thy trusty dremel.
First off i think i need to get a better dremel with more torque as i cant keep the pressure applied to the metal, its all quite stop starty.
Due to there being several parts of the caddy which needed cutting, it required a lot of cutting, then moving and reclamping then cutting again and repeat several times.... sadly this gets quite boring but i know its going to be nothing like the boredom of filiing and sanding *joy*
And after about 20-30mins, the caddy was cut
Thats it for today. Im hoping to start work on some more stuff a bit later today. Sadly ive got to mess with my bending brake though, as i tested it last night and it doesnt do 90 degree bends right, it slightly over shoots it. So depending on how confident i am tonight with the brake. i might have some bending goodness for you.
Anyway heres a pic for you all that sums up the bit of work i done last night.
Anyway, shall hopefully have a post up for you tomorrow.
Hope you all like the post, feel free to leave comments.
Yup its time for another update. The tools arrived and ive managed to do some extra work on the project. Im hoping to get quite a bit done over the next few days.
First off, the motherboard has been ordered and should be with me on Thursday. Ive also ordered a boat load of stuff such as watercooling stuff like the radiator and tubing and that should be with me sometime this week aswell
Well first off, what was i waiting on to arrive before i could do anymore work?
Now that my Reinforced dremel discs, clamps, jigsaw pieces and metal drill bit set have arrived, i could get on with some more metal construction
So i decided to start off with some smaller bits of work first. Now that my trusty g clamps were available instead of my crappy spring clamps i could finish doing some jigsaw work without the metal slipping.
First off to go was the rest of the PSU Caddy
To do this i decided to drill 2 holes that would be large enough for the jigsaw to fit into so i could do the straight cuts. As you can see from above it went ok, that said im still having problems with bits of the bloody masking tape masking my view, or slightly flapping once cut.
That said, these problems were small but could cause me drifting into the marking lines, or worse still, over them.
That said, once it had been cut, and the filings and loose bits had been brushed off, it didnt look to bad. Its now starting to look a lot like the mark outs ive done in sketchup.
The PSU Caddy was the easy bit to cut, but the HDD caddy was a little bit more fidly and also had quite a few more cuts to do.
Once again i started out with the drill so i could easily jigsaw away from the inside, but due to the struts being marked up on the inside of the square i had to be careful. So i decided to do what all modders would probably do and call upon thy trusty dremel.
First off i think i need to get a better dremel with more torque as i cant keep the pressure applied to the metal, its all quite stop starty.
Due to there being several parts of the caddy which needed cutting, it required a lot of cutting, then moving and reclamping then cutting again and repeat several times.... sadly this gets quite boring but i know its going to be nothing like the boredom of filiing and sanding *joy*
And after about 20-30mins, the caddy was cut
Thats it for today. Im hoping to start work on some more stuff a bit later today. Sadly ive got to mess with my bending brake though, as i tested it last night and it doesnt do 90 degree bends right, it slightly over shoots it. So depending on how confident i am tonight with the brake. i might have some bending goodness for you.
Anyway heres a pic for you all that sums up the bit of work i done last night.
Anyway, shall hopefully have a post up for you tomorrow.
Hope you all like the post, feel free to leave comments.
Soldato
This looks awesome! Much admiration for people who can build things from scratch.
In my opinion though i wouldn't put the name of the project on the side. Ive seen a few cases like that on here (A couple of UFO's iirc) and it just spoiled it for me. IF you want minimalist you should let the project speak for itself!
However, that's only a little thing and either way this is gonna be an awsome case
In my opinion though i wouldn't put the name of the project on the side. Ive seen a few cases like that on here (A couple of UFO's iirc) and it just spoiled it for me. IF you want minimalist you should let the project speak for itself!
However, that's only a little thing and either way this is gonna be an awsome case
Soldato
That does look like you've done a fair bit of hard work on that, hope it keeps going well. Oh, and remember to hang on to your aluminium offcuts, that stuff could be worth a few pennies down at the local scrap yard! 
PK!
PK!
Associate
keep up the good work! been following this for a while!
Update time
Well this week has been eventful in more ways than i would have liked. I started work on sanding down the pieces i had already cut (HDD, PSU, Rad Caddies and the PSU Backplate)
I managed to get a jigsaw and sander for like £12 off ebay brand new due to a company going bust, i thought this was a steal and now ill get to see how both of them fair up. Im hoping it will cut down a lot of the build time, but i also know there will be fidly bits which ill have to do by hand with my trusty assortment of files and some hand sanding (note im not using my hand to sand metal)
Heres the sander, and the assortment of sandpaper in various different grit grades to test and see what type of finish i want on the panels, as im still not sure if i want a brushed aluminium, smooth solid colour or mirror finish.
So it was time to start the long and arduous task of filing and sanding and sanding and more sanding. The original cuts were near enough spot on apart from a slightly slant on one of the sides of the hdd caddy, which you dont notice until youve been told about it. (like then, and its noticable in 1 pic especially) Though there were still a lot of loose bits which obviously needed to go to get the clean line look i am aiming for.
(note that these pictures were still taken whilst the filing and sanding was being done)
I noticed though that i was going to have to get my dremel involved for some cutting action to clean up the slant on the caddy, as there was a bit too much to sand or file away. (Dremel Discs were lost in the production of this picture)
1 and a bit sheets of sandpaper and 30mins later, it was looking a lot cleaner then it had done an hour before. There are times though where im a bit anal about things being 100% perfect, but i started this project knowing that not everything would go to plan.
This is how it turned out, though this isnt completely sanded down as im plan to attack it with some of the finer sandpaper later on to get it looking near enough perfect. I just needed it to be cut and clean enough so that i could get on with the next bit for the caddy....... the bending.
I was lucky enough to be able to nab a decent* bending brake off ebay brand new, not long after christmas. Ive been waiting a while to be able to test it out and see what its like, as its possibly one of the most critical tools that ill be using throughout the build.
If some of you out there dont know what a bending brake is, well its a bit of hardware that helps you bend metal. What you do is you sandwich the metal between 2 clamps and pull up a plate that bends it.
So now that the caddy was quite tidy, it was time to line it up, clamp it down and bend some metal
Well this week has been eventful in more ways than i would have liked. I started work on sanding down the pieces i had already cut (HDD, PSU, Rad Caddies and the PSU Backplate)
I managed to get a jigsaw and sander for like £12 off ebay brand new due to a company going bust, i thought this was a steal and now ill get to see how both of them fair up. Im hoping it will cut down a lot of the build time, but i also know there will be fidly bits which ill have to do by hand with my trusty assortment of files and some hand sanding (note im not using my hand to sand metal
)
Heres the sander, and the assortment of sandpaper in various different grit grades to test and see what type of finish i want on the panels, as im still not sure if i want a brushed aluminium, smooth solid colour or mirror finish.
So it was time to start the long and arduous task of filing and sanding and sanding and more sanding. The original cuts were near enough spot on apart from a slightly slant on one of the sides of the hdd caddy, which you dont notice until youve been told about it. (like then
, and its noticable in 1 pic especially) Though there were still a lot of loose bits which obviously needed to go to get the clean line look i am aiming for.
(note that these pictures were still taken whilst the filing and sanding was being done)
I noticed though that i was going to have to get my dremel involved for some cutting action to clean up the slant on the caddy, as there was a bit too much to sand or file away. (Dremel Discs were lost in the production of this picture)
1 and a bit sheets of sandpaper and 30mins later, it was looking a lot cleaner then it had done an hour before. There are times though where im a bit anal about things being 100% perfect, but i started this project knowing that not everything would go to plan.
This is how it turned out, though this isnt completely sanded down as im plan to attack it with some of the finer sandpaper later on to get it looking near enough perfect. I just needed it to be cut and clean enough so that i could get on with the next bit for the caddy....... the bending.
I was lucky enough to be able to nab a decent* bending brake off ebay brand new, not long after christmas. Ive been waiting a while to be able to test it out and see what its like, as its possibly one of the most critical tools that ill be using throughout the build.
If some of you out there dont know what a bending brake is, well its a bit of hardware that helps you bend metal. What you do is you sandwich the metal between 2 clamps and pull up a plate that bends it.
So now that the caddy was quite tidy, it was time to line it up, clamp it down and bend some metal
As you can see here its all lined up and partially bent..... but some of you might notice a slight problem. Lets highlight it...
Yup thats right, mother-humping slippage. My worst nightmare. Its not too bad as i thought it had bent most of the way i can just hammer the rest over a sturdy edge of a thick table or something, that is exactly what i done and had no problems correcting the problem.
However, i tried it again last night on the other side, and once again it slipped. I done it this time with 4 clamps whichy were hammered shut to make sure they were tight and it still didnt bend properly. I want to try it with a part that isnt lip to bend, though im obviously worried that it could seriously screw it up and ill have to completely redo that bit.
Im wondering if its my clamps that theyre not holding right, but to be honest 4 should do the job. Im going to see if i can nab 2 big chunkier clamps from work today, and if that doesnt work im going to have to rethink the folding part of the mod as at the moment its making me cry deep down
Though on the upside......... Christmas has come early \o/
Got into work and look what was waiting for me....
Time for the giddy like a child nerdy unboxing
So what did it contain i here you ask. Well its not any components as of yet but it is some of the watercooling setup
Well thats it for today. Yes i know not the update some were hoping it would be (myself included) but sadly that would be down to the brake. Im hoping to be able to slave on with a lot of stuff this weekend, and hopefully that will include bending.
Hope you guys are enjoying this mod at the moment and please feel free to leave comments.
Btw when the hell is this thread getting moved to Project Logs. Its getting beyond a joke now :S
Until next time.
Yup thats right, mother-humping slippage. My worst nightmare. Its not too bad as i thought it had bent most of the way i can just hammer the rest over a sturdy edge of a thick table or something, that is exactly what i done and had no problems correcting the problem.
However, i tried it again last night on the other side, and once again it slipped. I done it this time with 4 clamps whichy were hammered shut to make sure they were tight and it still didnt bend properly. I want to try it with a part that isnt lip to bend, though im obviously worried that it could seriously screw it up and ill have to completely redo that bit.
Im wondering if its my clamps that theyre not holding right, but to be honest 4 should do the job. Im going to see if i can nab 2 big chunkier clamps from work today, and if that doesnt work im going to have to rethink the folding part of the mod as at the moment its making me cry deep down
Though on the upside......... Christmas has come early \o/
Got into work and look what was waiting for me....
Time for the giddy like a child nerdy unboxing
So what did it contain i here you ask. Well its not any components as of yet but it is some of the watercooling setup
Well thats it for today. Yes i know not the update some were hoping it would be (myself included) but sadly that would be down to the brake. Im hoping to be able to slave on with a lot of stuff this weekend, and hopefully that will include bending.
Hope you guys are enjoying this mod at the moment and please feel free to leave comments.
Btw when the hell is this thread getting moved to Project Logs. Its getting beyond a joke now :S
Until next time.
Soldato
Looking good so far, will love to see the WC in the case.
Me and you both My colleagues at work are wondering how im going to cram it all in
My colleagues at work are wondering how im going to cram it all in
Soldato
same here
Good afternoon everyone.
Once again its update time, though its only a small update this time, but one i think most of you would want
Well after my bending brake went **** up and wanted to annoy me more than bend the stuff i wanted bent (not gays were hurt in the making of this pun ;D). Well yesterday i worked around it, though i was annoyed as i know it wouldnt get me the accuracy i wanted, but then it was better than nothing.
The white on it is toliet roll which stuck to it after i gave it a good clean as it had so much gunk on it)
Then today a kind gentleman name Pseudonym over at overclock3d.net suggested another work around
.... so i decided to give it a go. Sadly it didnt goto plan and when i was modding the bending brake one of my drill bits decided it didnt want to help me out.
Though i slaved on and managed to get it done and dusted
As you might notice, i didnt have any dowels, but i did have carpentry drill bits that i didnt think would be able to help me with this mod at all.
Thanks again Pseudonym, was a fantastic idea that got this mod back on track
Once again its update time, though its only a small update this time, but one i think most of you would want
Well after my bending brake went **** up and wanted to annoy me more than bend the stuff i wanted bent (not gays were hurt in the making of this pun ;D). Well yesterday i worked around it, though i was annoyed as i know it wouldnt get me the accuracy i wanted, but then it was better than nothing.
The white on it is toliet roll which stuck to it after i gave it a good clean as it had so much gunk on it)
Then today a kind gentleman name Pseudonym over at overclock3d.net suggested another work around
.... so i decided to give it a go. Sadly it didnt goto plan and when i was modding the bending brake one of my drill bits decided it didnt want to help me out.
Though i slaved on and managed to get it done and dusted
As you might notice, i didnt have any dowels, but i did have carpentry drill bits that i didnt think would be able to help me with this mod at all.
Thanks again Pseudonym, was a fantastic idea that got this mod back on track
Now that i had the bending brake up and running, i decided to carry on with the work that was meant to be done. I didnt have much time to do things as im a bit pushed for time today, though the hdd caddy is now finished with regards to the bending Here are the screenies.
I was going to post this the other day, but was a bit worried with doing too many updates
So i was at work the other day and the delivery man came in and asked for me and geek Nick broke out and a huge cheesey smile was on my face as i knew what had arrived. I shall shut up now and let the pictures do the talking.
Yup it arrived, and its even smaller than i thought it would be. Im in compelte awe of this motherboard and cant wait until its up and running in its new home.
Anyway guys, until next time, i must shoot. Feel free to leave comments or questions.
Regards
Here are the screenies.
I was going to post this the other day, but was a bit worried with doing too many updates
So i was at work the other day and the delivery man came in and asked for me and geek Nick broke out and a huge cheesey smile was on my face as i knew what had arrived. I shall shut up now and let the pictures do the talking.
Yup it arrived, and its even smaller than i thought it would be. Im in compelte awe of this motherboard and cant wait until its up and running in its new home.
Anyway guys, until next time, i must shoot. Feel free to leave comments or questions
.Regards
And what plan would that be?