A 2x4 and a couple C-clamps work quite well for that. ;) ..just make sure you get a straight 2x4...
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Yup, I just tend to gravitate toward wood more than not. ...that didn't quite sound right... Also, if you don't have either, a 2x4x8 at ~$2 is a lot cheaper than a length of angle iron. :whistler:
Lumber is a lot less likely to be straight or stay straight as it is subject to swellling and shrinking based on temp and humidity.
Sigquoted :D
and ya, finding a straight 2x4 is the issue. Also storing one LOL...not a ton of space here unfortunately. Still, my cuts today with the jigsaw were straight enough that it worked. The only time I've run in to serious issues was years ago when I'd started building a model of Orthanc to be a dual computer case. I'd made the upper and lower sections detachable for ease of moving it (it was over 8 feet tall and....heavy...) but my cuts were crooked enough that I ended up scrapping it when it came time to add all the detail on the outside. It's a mod I'll revisit at some point; I have very different ideas on how to approach it to make it better, not to mention lighter weight.
Anyway. I had a productive day today! Got the basic box put together, although I may have to remove a side panel to cut some more holes that I didn't think to do before putting it on. Specifically, an access hole for the power plug, and a hole in the back for the USB footpedal and keyboard cables. Also need to mount the power switch somewhere.
And.... :facepalm: Score one for my fiancee, who usually councils me against getting rid of things, even if I think I'm never gonna use it again and it's just taking up space. I’d planned on going to Fry’s tomorrow as I need more m/b standoff screws, not just for this case but for the one I’m going to build for my fiancée. But I discovered today I also need a (short) VGA cable and an IDE cable. I thought I'd kept one of each, but apparently I didn't. Argh.
Enough chat. Pics now! I air-compressored out the PSU and CPU heatsink. The heatsink looks a little better than before, the CPU fan looks no different, and the PSU looks a LOT better.
God look at that thick dust. Yuck! Unfortunately without completely dismantling it, I can’t get it off the blades. And I got the fan really spinning fast with the air compressor, and no dust came out…so I’m not going to worry about it.
The motherboard, as I discovered after peeling off an ancient HP sticker, is an Asus P4SD, which apparently they made for HP. I think I found the drivers online, so I should be good to go software-wise.
I’m gonna do something about this tomorrow…
Making the parts:
Test fit….yikes almost zero clearance!
Counter-sinking the screwholes:
Getting “help” – she knocked it over several times, amazingly without breaking it.
And voila! Box assembled and on the piano! That front panel is where the screen will be bolted, and it’ll have a hinge at the top so it opens. I will also remove the music stand when this machine is up and running, so it’ll all sit about a half inch lower.
Looks good. Not the way I would have done it, but my way would have taken a lot longer, and I think required thicker boards as well. :P
For the dust caked on the fan, I've found a wet q-tip works fairly well...takes forever and a day though, so if you can live with it being there you might as well leave it alone.
I trust there will be some sort of felt or foam on the bottom before it's done? I'd hate to see the finish on that piano scratched.
Ya, since this will be hidden behind the screen, and since it's essentially an interim solution til I have the money for something better, I don't really care much about rough edges. It resembles a bread box and won't win any awards, but it'll work :) And yep, I have some leftover thin foam rubber I'll be putting on the bottom to prevent scratches.
re: thicker boards, what I really wanted to use was sheet aluminum, but if I can barely get a plywood box together then I certainly can't work with metal...yet...anyway. the reason I didn't use thicker plywood was mainly for saving weight - it'll be heavy enough as it is, I didn't want it to weigh a ton. Still, screwing it all together would have been much easier.
There was a lot more dust in the heatsink than you saw when I got that computer from school; Me and my friend who were both working setting up the computers for the new school year got nearly all of the computers filled with dust like that, and spent probably a good half hour blowing out all of the heatsinks with his air compressor. All of the exposed parts where the air comes in were covered in dust.
I wonder if you might be able to flash a non-HP bios.
The school district just gets rid of these computers with the P4s when they stop working, because they're older, the PSU is a HUGE PIA to get out, and I'm sure that replacements cost an arm and a leg. Our supervisors were supposed to bring all of the non-working computers back to the technology office for somebody who "recycles" them to take, but they let us have most of what we wanted (minus hard drives, since they swap them when re-imaging the computers) when we asked. At the first school we did, there were a lot of bad computers, and they all went into the dumpster. I went with my friend and pulled them all out after everybody else had left to go to the next school. After that, they started taking them back, and we just asked for them (they told us not to tell anybody lol). We also got a nice almost new CRT for our MAME cabinet with only a few bent pins and deformed connector (a dremel fixed half of that).
Well...got the case itself done today and got everything hooked up and....nothing. Won't even POST. I'm assuming the motherboard is dead, although I've got no real way of testing it short of getting a new one (anyone have a micro ATX socket 478 that can take PC2100 they're willing to donate? at the very least it needs to be mATX as my case won't fit anything larger). Arg....
I might try hooking up one of the other computer's PSU's to see if that's the problem, but it doesn't seem to be as everything seems to turn on ok. It just literally doesn't do anything after powering on...doesn't even scan the hard drive beyond the initial spin up. (and I did try running it sans hard drive, to see if it was preventing POST...no such luck).