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| Expandable Modular CP – Finished - Mouse buttons Update |
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| drventure:
Nice job! I love the whole swappable CP concept |
| TopJimmyCooks:
--- Quote from: eds1275 on April 20, 2011, 08:37:47 pm --- Can you give a little more info about the "faux carbon fibre" paintjob? --- End quote --- I will do a full post about the painting in the next day or so, but it was done with the mesh shelf liner technique. I found it online discussed on some car sites and also some casemod sites. (just to be clear, I am not a casemodder! Yuck. computer = tool not art in and of itself. ;)) I could make an exception to recase a pc inside a marshall 2x12 combo with amp emulator software. --- Quote --- --- Quote from: drventure on April 20, 2011, 08:55:37 pm ---Nice job! I love the whole swappable CP concept --- End quote --- --- End quote --- I appreciate it and have enjoyed reading up on #18. If you're a reader check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Difference_Engine, a great SF book featuring mechanical computers. |
| thatpurplestuff:
Great design that hopefully functions as nice as it looks! I've considered doing an expandable CP as well and this blows my idea right out of the water. Awesome job! |
| TopJimmyCooks:
A few last pics on the carpentry and metalworking: Since my top mounts were going to show I templated everything. Trackball inner and outer plate, trackball ball opening, inner and outer for 2 different sizes of joystick, etc. While routing for the trackball plate I came to the startling realization that my template bearings (nice, Porter Cable) were not anywhere close to concentric with the center of the router, (nice, Porter Cable) so I switched to a top bearing pattern bit with much better results. I learned the hard way you have to be very careful drilling the .187 lexan from home depot. It is brittle. Basically I only drilled it with a sharp 5/16" bit to get a hole started and then routed it from there, otherwise it's going to crack. If I ever do this again I am going to fork out the $ for the 1/2" mdf (would have to buy a full sheet) and the 1/4" plexi. It would have added about $100 to this project though. Rogues gallery of templates. Tops routed, lexan routed with a laminate trimmer bit to match the tops. I didn’t have a trackball mount plate, so I got a piece of 3/32” mild steel from Lowes and cut this one out. I used a utility knife to mark the cuts, angle grinder with cut off wheel to make the cuts, laid out the four mount bolts and center punched to locate them for the drill, 3” hole saw for the hole, rounded off the corners with the grinder and belt sander. The four mounting bolts are countersunk to be flush with the top of the plate but they are loose in there. Later I sanded the top to get rid of a few scratches and prep it for paint. TB mount plate fab. Next Up: the expansion mechanism . . . |
| TopJimmyCooks:
@Thatpurplestuff - Thanks! What was your idea? For about 6 minutes I had concepts along the lines of those dining room tables where the center leaf rotates and folds under the table top, but when I figured out it would require a joystick up/down lift mechanism it started to hurt me brain. :dizzy: I had to stop and go get a beer. |
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