Making of the Portable Athlon (6/10)
Posted by Wesley onOne of Dad's friend runs a synthetics company that makes all sorts of things from sign boards to commemoration plaques. He told me that this should be a suitable place to make the case I designed, and made an appointment to do so on the 17th. I showed my dad's friend the design, and he noted that some 5mm-thick acrylic boards should be used so that it wouldn't become brittle. He chose a white board for the bottom and some transparent boards for the rest of the sides so that it would become see-through. I thought it was a wise decision to do, as a see-through design is cool to look at(yes, I was impressed with an iMac).
Instead of using my measurements though, he marked the places to cut out or drill as he put the parts upon the board. Maybe I shouldn't have spent the whole night measuring and recording... After about 4 hours of work, the case was near completion. The speaker wire fell off as it was getting attached, but the problem was quickly solved with some passes of soldering iron.
After the top transparent part was completed, the necessary parts such as the power supply and the hard disk was attached on it, and everything was connected as it should. There was a bit of trouble closing the case as so many components are cramped into such a small area, but after a bit of shifting wires around, it was successful; the design worked and everything did go in. The four bolts that binds the upper and lower parts were fastened and all was done. The portable Athlon became a reality. Here's the commemorative photo shoot below, with the maker and the designer. Yes, that's me on the right.
Some photos of the case coming up...