neilhart's G5 Short Stack - PowerMac G5 Mod

[neilhart]

No going back now!

I completed my other chores this morning an could not see any reason to wait so I took the outer shell out to the table saw and ripped it!
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The cuts are clean and the parts align very well. I am toying with the idea of using epoxy and joining the two parts so that I can cross cut the with two cuts rather then four. Humm... Any suggestions?

And the center section with the Apple logo is a keeper. I think that I will hang it in office at work.

And for those that have good table saws; with the correct blade you can cut metals with ease. Safety first: double check your set-up as these tools are not forgiving and do real damage very quickly.

Happy hacking,
neil

 

[kiwisincebirth]

I completed my other chores this morning an could not see any reason to wait so I took the outer shell out to the table saw and ripped it!

The cuts are clean and the parts align very well. I am toying with the idea of using epoxy and joining the two parts so that I can cross cut the with two cuts rather then four. Humm... Any suggestions?

When you say epoxy I assume that means a strip of metal glued to the inside holding the two pieces together. This means after your next cut you would need two smaller strips, meaning a total of four small strips holding the panel together.

IMHO It would glue a single large piece of metal covering most of the internal surface of the Apple panel. This would give the best strength, and clean internal look. It also means you can mount any required standoffs through this panel with countersunk screws before you glue it together.

One other thing. A different design technique is instead of trying to conceal the seams make a feature of them. In the case of the side panel, cut an additional 3mm gap in the seams and glue in that gap a 3mm square tinted acrylic rod. Just my idea, may not be to your taste.

 

[neilhart]

When you say epoxy I assume that means a strip of metal glued to the inside holding the two pieces together. This means after your next cut you would need two smaller strips, meaning a total of four small strips holding the panel together.

IMHO It would glue a single large piece of metal covering most of the internal surface of the Apple panel. This would give the best strength, and clean internal look. It also means you can mount any required standoffs through this panel with countersunk screws before you glue it together.

One other thing. A different design technique is instead of trying to conceal the seams make a feature of them. In the case of the side panel, cut an additional 3mm gap in the seams and glue in that gap a 3mm square tinted acrylic rod. Just my idea, may not be to your taste.

I am thinking along those lines. I have used some scrap ABS stock and have epoxied the butted up edges and the ABS plates. This is sitting on the glass surface of my work table (clear wrap as a separator) and held in place by two G4 Cubes (for the weight). After the two final cuts, I intend to remove the epoxy and ABS pieces and use an aluminum cut to size sheet with epoxy for the final assembly of the outer shell.

And at the moment, I am still clinging to my concept of a slide-in-tray system module, so the aluminum sheet may have features to accept or guide the system module.

I will post as I progress through this one instead of waiting until it is nearly complete.

neil

 

[minihack]

I am thinking along those lines. I have used some scrap ABS stock and have epoxied the butted up edges and the ABS plates. This is sitting on the glass surface of my work table (clear wrap as a separator) and held in place by two G4 Cubes (for the weight). After the two final cuts, I intend to remove the epoxy and ABS pieces and use an aluminum cut to size sheet with epoxy for the final assembly of the outer shell.

And at the moment, I am still clinging to my concept of a slide-in-tray system module, so the aluminum sheet may have features to accept or guide the system module.

I will post as I progress through this one instead of waiting until it is nearly complete.

neil

It is my turn for tool envy. I have no room for a table saw.....

Like the way you have G4 Cubes to use as weights too. Every workshop should have them.

 

[chaosdesigns]

... and held in place by two G4 Cubes

Too funny! A TRUE Mac user!


chaos

 

[neilhart]

A small status report:

The epoxy set up and the two sliced parts were one again. Another space check.
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Then this afternoon I made up a cutting platform to allow me to use the table saw to make the two cuts to get the final height, seen here
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The front to back has been reduced by 4+ inches from 18 3/4 inches to 14 inches. The standing height from 20 inches to 16 inches.

The immediate tasks are to break the epoxy and clean up the 4 parts. Cut the right side pieces, that are shown overlapping, to the correct length for a line to line fit. And decide if I am going to leave the perimeter threaded inserts in place and use them or not.

My plan is for Micro-ATX form factor, however there is actually space for an ATX mother board if the a thin power supply were used positioned as in my Black Prodigy project. As I have been researching 1U server power supplies I have found that there are a good number to choose from. Again the unknown is the noise level on those supplies. The 250W one the I am using in the photos is very low noise and powers this MB with three hard drives and a 8400 GS GPU. Now if I can locate a 400 to 500 watt supply is as low noise I will be most happy.

More to later.
neil

 

[kiwisincebirth]

My plan is for Micro-ATX form factor, however there is actually space for an ATX mother board if the a thin power supply were used positioned as in my Black Prodigy project. As I have been researching 1U server power supplies I have found that there are a good number to choose from. Again the unknown is the noise level on those supplies. The 250W one the I am using in the photos is very low noise and powers this MB with three hard drives and a 8400 GS GPU. Now if I can locate a 400 to 500 watt supply is as low noise I will be most happy.

More to later.
neil

Hi Neil, looking good so far, have a look at the SFX PSU form factor. IMHO it would be a better option as used more in consumer SFF cases so noise less of an issue. e.g. if you google "SFX PSU" the first link is to Silverstone, to a 450w PSU that only produces 18dBA of sound. Kiwi

 

[minihack]

Hi Neil, looking good so far, have a look at the SFX PSU form factor. IMHO it would be a better option as used more in consumer SFF cases so noise less of an issue. e.g. if you google "SFX PSU" the first link is to Silverstone, to a 450w PSU that only produces 18dBA of sound. Kiwi

I have that Silverstone PSU (in modular form) and use it for my high power ITX build. Am very happy with it and it is quiet. Certainly not silent, but it is unobtrusive.

 

[theandy94]

I've done a G5 Mod with the main aspect set on originality.
Since then I check the G5 forum every few weeks.
Today I found this thread.
And I am stunned by this awesome but a little bit crazy mod.
I'm curios how the finished mod will look like.
Good luck with your work =D

 

[neilhart]

An in-process up date follows:

I started the slice and dice of the inner core. Started with the front-top piece. First removed the Optical Drive fitment.
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The spot welds break fairly easily and the main panel is free of damage from this action.
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Then I set up the table saw and sliced the upper portion of the panel.
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I then removed the EMI flange and mistakenly cut too far.
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Will have to work around that missing chunk. And here is a photo of the set up to slice the EMI flange from the front portion of the panel.
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And I made up a forming block seen here. My plan at this point was to form the top radius using the material from /on the front portion of the panel. I measured and then measured again and again. Then sliced down each side as shown.
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And then used the dremel tool to cut the upper side pieces off.
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Here is my set up for forming the new 90 degree radius bend.
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The force required to form this bend was much more then I had anticipated. I did consider my options at this point and decided to forge ahead with forming the bend. I worked at this for an extensive period of time to achieve this.
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Then I cut away the bend area from the top portion of the panel leaving the side compound corner bends as shown here.
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I was close with my measurements but still had to file to fit.
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I made any number of checks as shown checking the trueness of the mating parts.
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I finally concluded that I had the parts cut and filed as good as I was going to get using this method. I masked off portions of the front upper outer shell piece and used it to help hold the panel pieces in place for the epoxy operation. Using the JB Weld epoxy for this, cut a backing strip that can be seen here and used tooth picks to align the mesh holes.
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This is the current state of the project. However I had decided to use the Gigabyte Z77MX-D3u TH and the Thermaltake Water2.0 CPU cooler - both sourced on Amazon. The motherboard was from Germany and quoted for May/June delivery. The motherboard arrived yesterday; what a surprise.

Just a note about the motherboard choice; this Gigabyte MB was the only Micro-ATX form factor one that I could locate that had Thunderbolt ports. Then I found that it is not sold in the US! What is up with that? Anyway I am anticipating good performance similar to that on the Z77X-UP5 TH that I used on 'The Black One'.

Components still needed are the CPU (an i7-3770K is on order), memory, and drives. I have most of the other bits left over from other projects.
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That is it for now. Good hacking for all.
neil