Apologies!
It would appear ive been a terrible human being and forgotten to update this thread...
I hope this offering appeases, rolled up updates..
Evening, its been a while.
Firstly excuses
Got a grown up job, moved house, desk stayed put, now work in a different part of the country to where I moved to... (with the desk nicely placed smack in the middle)
On with the good bit,
put it back together and make some holes for wires...
Also some holes for tubes...
And more wires...
Add some bits n pieces
Sata Cables
I needed to raise the SSDs up by about 6 mm so the plugs fir correctly were I'm putting them, so I made these plinths for them that turned out rather well
Hopefully they'll look good once they get anodised too (brushed first)
Got a few of the more wierd and wonderful bolts I needed too...
Then my sleeving arrived...
Decided to sleeve the power cables that go under the cards in the SATA sleeving, which turned out really well.
I had hoped to use the bitfenix extensions I had managed to get hold of... but they looked too different to the sleeving I was using, so I made the executive decision to re-sleeve them...
A few people commented on how long the sleeving took... this may have been why... also if you sit down and work out how may cables are in this desk... you'll realise why this was a soul crushing exercise.
but...
it looks so much better for it
Dual PSU link sorted too.
and after running out of sleeving... got some more and daisy chained all the fans
usb cable here looks a bit grubby, I may have to do something about that...
and then put some better sleeving on the PSU...
Now for the bits you don't really see every day...
The issue of the screen stand I haven't really touched yet, the problem being, I cannot have my screen mounted to the wall as some desk builds do and I refuse to have a dirty great screen covering my motherboard that I've gone to great lengths to have in the middle.
So I got a triple monitor stand... then the upright...
needed to be bigger...
Make a push fit bung with a copy of the thread
and you get a 2.4m monitor stand... (shortest piece of that strength Aluminium I could get
)
now for again a more fun bit, another issue, I have a set of 5.1 speakers that I love, so how will these go on? well, make a drop in mount on top of your screen stand, this was really fun to make, probably one of my favourite parts so far.
So now my speaker can perch above my screen without wall mounting, which will keep my land-lord happy.
A new addition to the workshop made this next piece very simple, everyone, Id like you to meet the future of "home" pc builds...
and it does things like this...
then you swap some bolts around
and after a while
Put some more holes in the back of the desk and voila...
A screen stand clamp, with floor plate
That's about it for now, this has been going on for a while but I'll be up at home sleeving the last (hopefully) of the PSU modular cables this weekend.
Then just the finer details to be done before coating the metal... I've hopefully got access to a polishing machine so I can brush the frame before it gets anodised too
Cheers everyone who's still interested, more to come.
Sam.
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Evening, been a bit busy as usual, working, holidays, moving house again, the usual stuff that gets in the way.
Firstly, my apologies for the quality of the pictures, the DSLR that I've been using is on it's holidays at the minute.
So...
Bored out the screen stand to fit the extension bar from the last update
This meant I could put the new screen on to cut the pole to length once I'd measured up with the speaker
Should be getting the side screens this week and I'll be mounting the left/right speakers to those
So I've been making my way through the little jobs that are finishing touches, ideally I wanted to do these whilst it was getting coated etc, but I was waiting on a few more bits n pieces.
Firstly a bit of a rant I never had at the time. If anyone else has used the EK SR-2 water block, you will be aware of the spacer shipped with the block. The instructions for which are shown below.
As you can see... it shows an EK compression fitting and the 3mm spacer that is in the box...
Here's the thing; if you compare the length of the thread on an EK compression fitting to the thread on an EK barb fitting, you will notice that the thread on the barb is about 1.5 mm longer than a compression. so this happens.
without "unreasonable" force you cannot get this fitting into the block.
HOWEVER... EK do (or did) sell a 1.8 mm spacer which you can buy separately. My point is this, if you're going to tell me I can use your fittings in the instructions, at least draw the instructions with a type of fitting that will actually work.
rant over... handily with the liberal application of a lathe you can work around this, just slap a fitting in and take a couple of mm off. I'm sure not that many people have this issue, but even less of those will have a lathe handy to fix it.
Problem solved and it didn't involve me shipping a spacer from Slovenia
The Bulkhead fittings needed shortening down as they were huge
And then finished off the sleeving
I had a quick test run of the soft felt topping to the frame which the glass will sit on
Finally one of the last pieces, got some grills for the underside of the rads, I was going to strip off the black anodising and redo it red to match the frame. But its just so pretty as is, I might just let it blend in to the black underside.
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Hello!
Busy weekend, I was planning on having the desk finished by the 20th, as I'll be moving into my new place, but it doesnt look like ill be able to get the metal work polished this week, so it may take an extra week or two to get the coating and anno sorted.
BUT
In theory, the metal work and building.... is done... the last of this was the side speaker stands.
First, turned some bits to mimic the current base for the speakers
Milling a slot in the back of these at the right angle to have the speaker vertical, then drill n tap the mounting holes
Then for the extension bars
Made some conical washers for mounting the bars onto the groove in the screen stand
That's it for this weekend, this lot took a bit longer than expected and I only had one day for desking this weekend.
Next week should be taking it all apart and I've got a plan to make the DVD drive a bit more entertaining too, so ill have a bash at that.
One word.... Soon...
Sam.
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So, been getting stuff sorted for moving and getting the desk coated, a final count of fittings etc and then...
waiting to be brushed we now have the Red pile of bits,
waiting to be powder coated we have the black pile of panels and bits
and all boxed up and ready to go to the new house,
Bolts?.... anyone?
So, as soon as I can get it all coated it's good to go!
Sam.
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Hello!
Just to give a quick update; I've moved house, I have a room full of computer parts and no desk to put them in yet and getting the frame polished is proving annoying as the machine I was planning on using is broke.
However, it should be fixed this week, then all will be well with the world.
Also I polished up the screen stand as the machine I'm waiting on can't do round stuff properly.
You will all be please to know that the glass survived the journey to the new house and made it up the stairs without incident!
I also had to get my new landlords permission to move a radiator to accommodate where I'll be putting the desk... nothing like a nice simple move...
Also fun, try describing a computer desk to a contents insurer.
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Hello! picked up the metalwork from the powdercoaters this morning...
Soon
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Quick apology, some of the pictures aren't quite right, as you can imagine. lighting was a bit of an issue
Right, so I basically gutted my room, took the bed out to give plenty of space to work, you can also see where I had to move my radiator to fit the desk into the room
First time I unwrapped all the metalwork...
I'm not sure of the rules on here for posting outside companies (if they aren't competitors etc) but if anyone would like the information on the Metal finishing company I went to, PM me, I couldn't be happier with them.
Firstly, I put on the felt strips which the glass will sit on
Cleaning out any extra powder that made it into the threads
Starting to get the brackets on and getting the frame together...
The switches go in as you assemble the frame
Love this photo...
Panels!
My flatmate laser cut me a matte black disk to cover the hole in the DVD drive, its simple and looks rather smart (about a million times better than the horrible sticker that was on it)
Now a "fun" part, group your PCI-e cables in overlapping groups of four and bind them together using a matching red thread.
Creating a core group which you can then attach the outer cables around.
(top part done)
This took a very...very long time, but was completely worth it. this was the most time consuming part of the build, but I used this approach on all the cables and they all now hold their shape without cable ties.
Starting the tubing
I then put the screen stand on, This is where the problem happened... I obviously needed to sand out the clamp so it would fit the newly powder coated pole. the clamp went on fine with some persuasion. However, the monitor stand armature which holds the screens did not.
Instead of making their screen stands out of aluminium, they are in fact made of cheese, sheared the clamp straight off the bar. I've got a new one on the way which has a more practical design which I can modify to fit the screen pole.
The moment of truth...
So currently the desk has all the screens just stood on the glass until I get the screen stand sorted, so I'll have some yummy pictures for you all in a week or so.
Current Clock/Cooling
Cpu(s) clocked @ 3.8Ghz
40 degrees Idle, 50-55 under load.
Gfx cards 45 Degrees Idle 55-60 under load
All with the fans at 70% (inaudible)
So the loudest things in the desk are the pumps so two D5's set to 3... its blissfully quiet.
Thank you to everyone who maintained an interest over the two years it took to make the thing, sorry for the wait, but I hope this makes up for it.
Sam.
