Project Five Wood
My Grandfather, August Cook, and his wife Irma were amazing artists. August was a fantastic craftsman as well. His works included oil paintings, wood carvings, sculpture and furniture craft. My other grandfather, T.J. Nuckols was a very creative woodcrafter as well. T.J. (or DD as he was called) always had creative ways to make things from wood.
It is this great gene pool of craftsmanship and creativity that I am abusing here.
| Vermont House - Woodcarving by August Cook |
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Facts about Project Five Wood
| The specifications: |
| motherboard |
eVGA 680i |
| CPU |
Intel Q6600 |
| RAM |
2 Gb 800 Mhz |
| Video |
2 x nVidia 8800 GTX in SLI |
| PSU |
750w SFC |
| HDD |
2 x 320Gb |
| ODD |
2 x DVD/CD R/W |
| O/S |
Windows XP |
What types of wood are in this PC case?
| Mahogany |
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| Red Oak |
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| Cherry |
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| Maple |
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| Figured Walnut |
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| Padauk |
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| Aromatic Cedar |
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| Red Cumala |
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| Aspen |
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I started the Project on January 2, 2008 and worked on the project until July 4, 2008.
Almost 350 hours went into this project. Sounds like a LOT of time and it was. When I did the numbers I really couldn't believe I have put this much time into it. If anything, I may have calculated too low. This is all I'll admit to.
| The schedule would usually go: |
| Monday evening |
1.5 hours |
| Tuesday evening |
1.0 hours |
| Wednesday evening |
1.5 hours |
| Thursday evening |
0.5 hours |
| Friday evening |
0.5 hours |
| Saturday (am & pm) |
8.0 hours |
| Sunday (am & pm) |
6.0 hours |
| |
19.0 hours/week total |
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|
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averaged ~15 hours/week over 24 weeks = ~350 hours |
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Of those 350+ hours
- Close to 50 hours of work into things that never made it to the case.
- Spent about 50 hours re-sawing and preparing wood
- Spent 3 hours gluing rear panel V1.0 back together after the three drops
- A majority of the time spent sanding
Activities not counted in the 350 hours
- 15+ hours on concept art and sketches
- 20+ hours updating the project site on my web page
- 30+ hours going to Lowe's, Woodcraft and several other places
- 10+ hours drooling over tools in various catalogs and web pages (probably more than 10 hours)
Other nuggets
- No finished boards were purchased. All of this wood was purchased raw, re-sawed, planed and sanded to working sizes.
- No screws. A little glue, this was unavoidable. The trim work demanded it.
- No paint. Though, I think I'll paint the next one.
- No filler (I wouldn't believe this one, but I didn't use much)
- The 3.5" and 5.25" drive bays were constructed three separate times using different cuts of wood each time. What's in the build now is the third iteration. I didn't screw any of them up. In fact, the first drive bays may have been the best. Unfortunately I cut them up to make other things. I'm happy with the results of the third and final drive bays.
- The back panel fell three separate times and broke into several pieces each time. I've been pretty careful with these pieces, but the back panel just got abused. That's why there is a rear panel V2.0.
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You could buy a new Dell laptop with the money I spent on tools during this project. Did I need those tools for this project? No, but it was a good reason to get them anyway and they certainly helped although I can't say they made the project go faster.
During this build I picked up:
- A new table saw
- 10/20 drum sander
- Spindle sander
- Two new routers (of three)
- Air filtration system
- All kinds of other little things I won't mention
This is not simply a wooden shell for a PC. It is a PC case made from wood throughout.
I planned for a mid March completion. Duhumb! A little naive there!
Parts of this project that got worked on and abandoned for good reason:
- Fiber optic lighting system. I have a lot of plastic optical fiber and can get all the glass optical fiber I'd want. Just not enough room to do a clean and tidy FO Lighting system.
- The Barkley panels. A good idea, and these got a lot of work and attention. They just didn't make the grade. Mostly because I couldn't pull it off I suppose.
- Wooden fans. I wanted to get these in the case, but practicality set in. I wanted to finish this before 2009. Plus, balancing these buggers is a BIG pain!
- First copper column up the center for a wire-way. Made it and it was beautiful and snapped into place very well. Couldn't get video cards mounted with it in place. Bye bye copper column.
I would like to thank:
Anita - The Ark is complete Babe, but it won't float. She told everybody I was building an Ark in the basement. I didn't tell her otherwise. Now that she sees what it is, she wishes I had built an ark!
Allen - Father of the Barkley Hatches. Good idea, just not ready fro prime time. Other good ideas as well.
Dale - For handing me down a great drill press and band saw. What great additions!! As well as your great advice!
Ed - For sharing your woodworking expertise
Jerry - For sharing your woodworking expertise
John Lamb - For such great deals on lumber!! I've got enough to supply all my small project needs for the next 5 years!!
