Tarantula Case Desk [kustom pc mawds, india]

[de.das.dude]

~click images for higher resolution~
Long time no see... time for a weekly update.

first i had to adapt the hdd easymount mechanism onto the drive racks for this one. i decided to use 2 easy mount for each rack, one sliding mechanism at each corner.

First i had to cut the easy mounts to size



Then finishing








Now since this build is a dual pc build, i had to make space for another PSU which meant that the larger motherboard needed to be trimmed.
these are after triming. still has mounting holes for hptx






then came to attaching these to the hdd racks
i used double sided tape on the working edge and rubber based glue on the other edge to secure it in place before i drilled and riveted them into place. the rubber adhesive and the double sided foam tape will help absorb vibrations as well.





time to cut the rails from the hdd bay to size:-





rough idea of how the sliders will work. here the channels from the drive bay are placed over the slider on the corners




the rack after riveting has been completed

you can see the foam





after measuring the distance of the sliders on the racks, its time to mount the other half of the mechanism onto the vertical holds that will be a part of the base of the cabinet



at this point i cut my index finger severly by trying to rambo off a sharp burr. bleeding... but the show must go on.




test fitting and doing the measurements for the hdd rack fans whose holes will be projected onto the front of the front of the cabinet

looks good enough





time to do it the other way

nice
unfortunately that will be the end for now. cant press triggers with the gash... so i will finish up the calculations for the front fans and hope to complete the construction part by this weekend.

thanks for reading

 

[de.das.dude]

long time no see, yet again!
as usual click images for bigger resolution


since some of the rails i used were new and unused in the rosewill cabinet it still was tight and the paint was thick, so i had to grind down the paint to make it smoother and easier to slide in and out





Got a spray paint can! finally got some good stuff, online. Its written as acrylic lacquer; goes on wood, metal and plastic like. No primer required.. and smells like primer in general.
Time to paint the lian li mobo tray. This is my first go at any sort of painting

before: dirty, and oily residue.


cleaned and scruffed. wiped with acetone.
first coat tack coat. this wasnt let to dry. as i wanted the rosewill like texture and thus this is a tack coat


second coat


third coat

it was really hot that day, so it was taking less than 2 mins to completely dry. lol.

final 4th and then drizzle coat.

success!



Rear, i had already traced the design onto the wood stock and started, but i had to made some changes because of dual psu.
Design completed and cutting started


rough cutting complete


Rear complete


so much wood shavings




Now client wanted a matte finish on the wood, with that old vintage speaker look with wood grains visible. Since dyes are not available here, and this is plywood i tried something different.

First i smoothed the wood with 80grit sandpaper
then cleaned and sprayed the wood with the same rattle can paint as before
then finally to give it matte look, used a scoth brite pad to rough it up before it dried completely.

this works


The final face: The front.
This is very essential and vital as this is where everything lines up, drive bays and what not.

design drawing complete


test fitting with components


fan holes first drilled by hand with a smaller 2mm bit


then completed with the power drill


drilling all the jigsaw blade holes


starting cuts with curved blade


rough cut complete


Complete


again.. lots of shavings!!


total time till now = 73.5hours!
thanks for reading

 

[blobster21]

Crazy amount of time spent for this build.
An overall very well documented project, with a lot of ingeniosity, a lot of shavings and few drops of blood...

How comes this is your first time using paint in a modding project ?

 

[de.das.dude]

never required to use paint before. for the bare metal edges i used a q tip/cotton swab and normal enamel paint

 

[de.das.dude]

Yes i am very much alive! And so is this project!
Sorry i was away because of my final semester in engineering... Now thats been done with, LETS GO GO GO!


First let me update till what i have already accomplished during the little gaps i could find b/w studying.


Painting the Panels Black
First smoothing out all the rough grains on the plywood with sandpaper

looks good
Then cleaned it with non oil base stuff.

Painted and drying



I have notice that, as i paint more and more, i need less and less paint to cover a a definite area experience FTW


This is when i hit exam time. so packing them up all sealed for storage. Note that i did not matte out some of the panels. That will have to wait unfortunately.





Midway i had some time so i painted the aluminium cages too

they had to be taken apart.
total cost 1 can only

Fixtures collection

M4 x50 50pcs
angles - 25pcs
imported screws.. 24 pcs
and some assorted tempered screws for other bits.

Total 84hours.

 

[de.das.dude]

Woke up at 8am to start working.

Hello old friend, we meet again...


looks to be in the order i left it.


Matte finished the rest of the panels.

this is front panel.

Cutting The Perforated Sheet

this will cover the front and sides... and a mystery piece for later.
these will be painted red.

scrap?

I'll see about that...

thats a lot of cutting of 1mm stainless steel. NOT good for the hands.

wow palm such sore much pain


Total 86.5hours.

90hours was my estimate :S

 

[micropage7]

you need glove, at least it wont tear your skin anymore

 

[de.das.dude]

i cut my hands twice only. so its cool

 

[de.das.dude]

Hi there.

Integrating the I/O with the front and side


I would be using the lian li's I/O on the front.
marked out


I got some snips recently. so ill be using them to cut the piece i want.
First straightening out the edge.

that thing is Bloody hard.

snip snip


cut and straightened with the power of heat


cleaned up and scruffed ready for paint.


Drew out the part to cut off.



looks cool?




onto the side
This will be done using the rosewill



marked a bunch of positions and cut one that suited best.




I have to add these USB 3.0 to the front one (lian li only has 2.0)


making provisions for that(wood bits are the parts where they will screw to)


Done!


Time to paint it !



Glued the Rosy one to the side.

 

[Bo$$]

should have cut all the holes then painted. those light areas look quite bad... otherwise nice work!

 

[de.das.dude]

should have cut all the holes then painted. those light areas look quite bad... otherwise nice work!

i did paint after cutting if you follow. you dont think i pay so much attention to other details that i would leave something as "goping" as that out?

those holes will be coloured differently with brush. hence i am waiting till the end as brush paint takes a long time to dry. If i colour them after assembly i dont need to have them all over my house drying in secluded places

they will be red as in the renderings of the original design.

 

[Bo$$]

i did paint after cutting if you follow. you dont think i pay so much attention to other details that i would leave something as "goping" as that out?

those holes will be coloured differently with brush. hence i am waiting till the end as brush paint takes a long time to dry. If i colour them after assembly i dont need to have them all over my house drying in secluded places

they will be red as in the renderings of the original design.

looks like not all the photos are loading when using my phone haha, looks neat

 

[de.das.dude]

looks like not all the photos are loading when using my phone haha, looks neat

yeah most phone browsers are appalling.

 

[de.das.dude]

Bending The Perforated Sheet.

Material - Stainless Steel
Mesh - 1.6mm holes

The reason why i bent it is two fold.
1. its springy and wouldnt straighten out completely even after i used a rolling pin on a rubbery surface. Hemming would take care of this.
2. the edges are sharp. REALLY SHARP. cut my finger twice. and i have really thick deadskin.

Marking and cutting it to size


Dont have an anvil at home, so makeshift anvil from railings.



hammering it down first along the line, then completing the bend. Then Turned it over


Hemming completed. Hemmingway be proud?


3 more sides and done (i didnt use the larger hammer since it was too destructive, also i taped the hammer since i didnt want it to risk falling and hitting the car below)


Assembly
Here's my dad lending me a helping hand. This kinda skills were passed down to me genetically.
Each side is secured with angles, as well as screws that are drilled and screws through into them from the rear and bottom. Plank placement was such that no visible screws would be there on the front, sides. The edges were Glued with wood glue. The paint was scraped off first ofcourse.


Turned upside down and secured from the bottom.




Some electrical itty bitty bits
Time to clean these switches


Texture matched.


Taking them apart to reverse, since the mounting on the front has been rotated.

Didnt work out. its irreversible (clips dont match up)

So i had to file another guiding notch into the aluminium with a small file. It fits


looking pretty. wiring to go


Wiring loom added.


all done (note: painted the inner flip cover to match the outsides)



Final pics of the day. Sorry for the dust, had a bit of a storm.


yes i added a little holder to the side wire loom since the wires are soldered directly without hot glue reinforcements. this will prevent the solders from breaking if the wire is tugged.

Total 100 Hours spent. going good for time i think.

 

[de.das.dude]

Finishing off the power buttons
If you had noticed earlier, i haven't wired up the power and reset buttons on the front. The lian li uses an unnecessarily complicated system wherein the mechanical buttons go push down on a separately mounted small momentary buttons on a PCB. Since its separately mounted, I it had to be maneuvered in 3D to get it to the position i wanted. This is the end result.

This will be glued onto the front over the switches. The wood bit itself is expoxied onto the metal bit and set under pressure. The wood will be glued to the wood with normal white wood glue.


Fitting the motherboard

Had to machine the tip of the rosewill tray a bit to fit over the angle.


Then attatched the PCIe Card and rear I/O for both the trays. (lian li not pictured here)


Mounting the motherboard.
First i glued together two wood pieces that came out of the fan slots. Then cut them into 30x30 cubes. They are of 24mm height since the wood itself is 12mm thick.

The clearance for the motherboards underneath is 27mm. The rest is made up with 3mm nylon washers which double up as vibration absorbers.


Similar tactics used for the power supply supports as well


Then i used high gloss wood enamel paint in 4 layers painted with a number 6 brush to color the exposed edges.
Here is an overall view


Close up of rosewill (not yet screws on with washers, just standing on the uprights).


Close up of lian li (not yet screws on with washers, just standing on the uprights).


Closeup of power supply mounts.



View from the outside. The other holes you see are for mounting the motherboard tray rigidly to the pcie bracket part. Its removeable for wire management.



The Front
Dry fitted the front (without glue) for taking measurements for the HDD bays. i will glue the front after completion as removing the front gives me good ease of access.


Painted the mesh for the front and sides.


total 112hrs of physical labour.

 

[de.das.dude]

The mesh
It came out nicely after painting.


Putting the top lid on to check fitting and also to take measurements and cut out the acrylic.


Time to assemble the 3.5" bays.
Positioned the right upright after leaving enough room for tools to go into the gap for tightening up the front face,



It is secured at the top as well with the help of a wood spacer. The wood spacer is permanently joined to the right side, a screw will tie the hdd support to this spacer as well as the right side.
Spacer glued under pressure.



Finishing up the front 5.25" drive bay, by attatching a spacer and nylon washers.


this would require more tweaking later.

Note: the spacers were glued. However, the cage is screwed onto the front face with nylon washers as a vibration dampener.


To end for now here is a shot of the Front power button that has now set hard



More posts coming in 30minutes.

 

[de.das.dude]

Dry fitted the top again to check clearance. The acrylic has also been cut to size. But not shape


Acrylic mounting holes drilled. First with a small bit then with a larger bit according to the bolt size. This prevents cracking.





Time for a hard bit. Mounting the motherboard with screws.
First there are locator screws on the left that bind the PCIe/IO part with the tray itself. The nuts are glued to this side, the particular size of the nut keeps it from rotating when the bolt is screws on from the outside. This is just to make things easier during assembly.


First the mouting holes were drilled onto the Rosewill Tray then they were transferred to the wood and drilled.

Too much power


Completed and motherboard screwed into place.


Ditto with the lian li


Note: these were screwed on with nylon washers again. to absorb vibrations.


After this no more proper access required so i attatched the front

Note that there is a bracer for the HDD bay. This just ties the left stand with the more secure right one and stops the top from spreading out after hdds have been loaded.
The rest of the edges have been painted as well.

Another view. The paint still needs to be touched up and given a second coat in some places.


The precision i am proud of Just enough space to reach and tighten everything up.


Cant forget to paint the spacer.


More coming in next 30 minutes

 

[de.das.dude]

The front IO had to be matched to the rest and so i roughed it up first

Then polished it


Used four 3" steel hinges to attatch the lid from the back. Also used two 6" hooks to hold the lid up once its up. These hooks rest on small hookes suspended from the top of the lid to stop them from interfering with inside wires once the lid is shut.
Here i am screwing the hook in


It was 40C with 90% humidity. So excuse the nudity.


Aforementioned hook retention mechanism

keeps it away from the fans. You may notice that the paint has been touched up and completed.

Two heavy duty magnetic catchers were also used to keep the lid stuck to the case.


Up on its own strength.

The camera angle and position of the desk makes it look crooked.
The height of lift was calculated as per my height since i would be the one working on it pretty much.

Uniform 1mm gap to the front. The front had a lot of fans per area so i kept this gap to keep the lid from rattling


Adjusting the magnetic catcher height. Right side is OK, but left one needs to go down a bit.


Thats all for now.

More coming soon!

 

[de.das.dude]

All ready to be shipped over to his place for the completion.












final picture with it in my room.

 

[de.das.dude]

After that i had to go over to his place a LOT of times to finish up.

And the part we have all been waiting for.
(sorry i am a terrible photographer)

 

[de.das.dude]

There were budget restrictions hence there is no 2nd PC in it at the moment.
Sleeving and extenders will be added in the future! Also the stray cables for the other PC will get tidied up then as well!

Thanks for reading.

 

[VSG]

Nice build man, glad to see a fellow Indian making the most of it. Looks great!

 

[micropage7]

so far it looks run well, just take your time and it will be done

 

[de.das.dude]

Owner will have it sleeved Really needs some red and black sleeving

 

[blobster21]

Very impressive build, I can't wait to see it again after a bit of cable management is done.

Not meant to be disrepectfull, but be sure to vacuum thoroughly to achieve your best photos ! ( a canister of compressed air might be handy too)