Building the case pt.2

Now I needed to put the endframes together. First I started to grind off the rust form the ends and frame corners like in the previous phase.


Then I grinded the sharp edges off from the corners so thet the connecting pieces would fit nice and tight. There was a gap between the ends but it diddn't matter because the connecting piece would go over it and would be welded on the frame.


We laid the other frame on the table and clamped it down so it wouldn't move and working and measuring the corner pieces would become much easier. We pre-welded the pieces slightly with a right angle and then measured the distance between one end and the others. We also measured the cross distance and after some bending and more measuring everything seemed to be right. Then we fitted the other endframe between the connectors and checked the angles before finishing the welds.


The outside joints were grinded clean too, so I could see If the frame welds were OK and If I needeed to strenghten them too. There was only small gaps and I decided not to put anything on them because the cover plates would fit better. The corners we about to come quite strong and I didn't want to grind all day (altough I love to see the sparkles fly :D ).


I also welded the inside joints to make the frame as strong as possible. It only has to support the frame itself, the water cooling parts and the plates, but better safe than sorry. I bet that frame could actually take a small car, but I'd rather not test it.


Then I grinded off all the excess material from the outside welds. At this point I congratulated myself for not doing the endframe corners and doing the connector welds quite small and neat.


One of the finised connector welds.


That's me wondering "Did I really do this and not screw up on anything?"


Here are the tools I used to make the frame.


And here's the half-finished frame. I still need to install some support beams for the drives, water tank, radiators and stuff, before I can go and have it sandblasted and painted. Then some netting for the air intake and exhaust need to be cut and installed. After all that is done I can mount the cover plates on and I think I'm going to have a killer case here. The measures of the frame are 81x52x26cm if I remember correctly. That CD-ROM is there just to give you some scale how big it is.