SentryOptic

The Weighted Companion Cube Case

UPDATE, February 1st: Well, the case has been sitting in my closet for a little over 5 months now, doing absolutely nothing. After seeing all the newer Valve mods popping up, I dare say it is definitely time to finish this case once and for all. I'm unfortunately out of time this weekend, but I'm definitely going to be working on the cube all of next weekend, where I plan to finish it and get all the lighting finished inside the case. Join me then. Next weekend, WE FINISH THE COMPANION CUBE!!!!! *storms off triumphantly*



Updates (Build Logs Edited to Front Posts)


Worked all weekend to get the box built and the corner pieces cut and all the extra stuff mitered and chamfered.


Descriptions will match the picture directly below them. Let's begin...


Got a 4x8 sheet of MDF board and cut it roughly into thirds. Here's one of the boards all marked up to be the sides of the cube...


Basic cube all nailed and glued together.


I constantly had to deal with the wood splitting... The MDF board I used is made up of layers and isn't always the sturdiest material when it comes to nailing things in.


Cube all sanded here and test fitting the shelf for the motherboard.


Here's the setup with the scroll saw I used to cut all the chamfers and beveled edges on the corner and edge pieces.


The scroll saw work was going very smoothly until I was just about finished with cutting my 5th piece, and this happened...


While the scroll saw was down, I moved my work over to the table saw and started cutting all the edges for the corners on that with the blade at a 45 degree angle. Here's how those cuts look...


Here you see how the table-saw was angled, and in the foreground is the stack of the corner pieces ready for beveling and angling.


Using the table saw, I cut out 24 corner pieces and then laid them on the cube. I used a big dinner plate we had as a template for marking the corners... when they were all marked, I took them to the scroll saw and then cut them on the angle with the curve.

The process:



The result:


Edge pieces were a different story. Had to use a complex little jig that I made in order to get a 2 inch piece closer to the table saw blade than my fingers... Didn't get a picture of it in time before the table saw got a hold of it and ripped it in 4 pieces
Anyway, here's the template and pieces all cut and ready for scroll-saw work...


The pieces had a curved edge on the front and a 45 degree cut on the back so that they can fit without a hitch with other adjacent edges.
What one finished edge piece looks like... (x24)



And of course the obligatory "what does it might maybe look like when all put together..." shot...


You might notice in that picture than my routing job really... um.... sucks. Yeah, the routing jig slipped and the router slipped with it. Oh well, nothing a little wood-putty and some extra care won't fix

SentryOptic

My favorite shot of the cube, thusfar through the project...


Took some time off of cutting tons of stuff on the scroll saw to get to work on installing the rails I ordered...



Next thing I did was sand down all the sharp edges with a band sander. Turned out very nice, the whole thing looks a lot better . You can't see a lot from far away in the picture, so here's just a close up of what it looks like...


Ghetto-rigged the computer again just to install all the parts and make sure everything was in working order. After replacing the CMOS battery and battling the computer for an hour, it finally booted up to good ol' Windows I have also decided that this computer will sit in the corner of my room and fold all day long.


U P D A T E 1 / 2 2 / 0 8

Last thing for the weekend was to cut out the center circles on the scroll saw and then sand them down to a fine finish. I cut them at about a 34 degree angle on the scroll saw, and i think they turned out pretty nice. And I just got back from the hardware store... got some 3/4" wood screws, so I will be putting those corner and edge pieces on as soon as I can


One of the things I had been anxious to get moving on was gluing all the parts on. With them all glued in place, this is what the cube looks like:


Definitely what I was going for.

After I had let the glue cure for 24 hours (kind of a mandatory waiting period for any glue, i would say... just to be safe), I hauled the thing down to the garage and busted out the sandpaper. Originally I had planned to use a random-orbital sander to grind down the sharp lips on the edge pieces, but with further analysis and a little testing, I found that a single piece of 150-fine grit sandpaper rubbed at alternating angles did the trick just fine, with no need to wake the neighbors at 10PM So with the corners all sanded, here's what we have:

B E F O R E


A F T E R


Aaah, much much better. The rounded corners add a ton of dimension to the overall shape.

And with hardware installed on shelves, just to get them off the carpet for now until I get painting...


For the rear doors, I have not decided on a hinge yet, but I do need a hinge that will move the doors (there will be two doors opening, like the flaps on the Thermaltake Armor, except with a more... useful purpose ) out and away from the sliding shelves. When I get the money, I will definitely put a better rig into this case. It's just too nice to waste on a crappy old Compaq.

Next update will likely have paint!


U P D A T E 1 / 2 5

Alright, a lot of stuff has happened since the last update

First things first, I ordered a Lian Li V-Series.... power button (I know, what a letdown...)

But seriously for the power switch, this is exactly what I had in mind. I don't know where I'm going to mount it yet though... hmm...

Anyways, moving on. I got the first coat of lovely primer gray on all the parts of the cube that needed it.



I wasn't too concerned with masking anything that didn't get painted in this round, because it will all be painted over anyways. I will mask on my next coat of paint. The corner and edge and circle pieces will be painted a lighter gray, *almost* white. I will be mixing that same color of primer gray and "Ultra Pure White."

And all finished with the first and second coat of gray. This will be mildly sanded with fine grit sandpaper so I can keep all the brushmarks out of there

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ice_owl

Sounds very interesting

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Frayed ends of sanity

ImmortalKenny

If you can pull this off, I would marry you.

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FireMarshallBill

As you can probably figure from my avatar, I'm quite the Portal fan, can't wait to see it done.

SentryOptic

check back, it's already in progress everyone

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McStuff

Good, a true portal fan wouldn't make the hearts red.

Run N. Gun

+ Rep Great idea for a case!

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My Radioactive Gaming Rig Work Log

Work Log: Fusion Antec 900 White/Black Mod

TwIsTeDbOi

Hahah that is awesome.

myerz635

haha hmmm for airflow you could install fans where the hearts are and make some heart grilles to put over them? (lot of work im sure) I am not sure how that would actually work out in RL but it looks good in my head lol....great idea for a case man, very nice work

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