Buidling a Steampunk Mini Computer for the Ladies Desk

Most computers are ugly, made of plastics and have ultrabright blue LED´s to "brushup" its design. ;-)

Tired of those "Desktop Devices" I builded a small, nice looking computer. Even for the desk of a lady.
The plan was to have a computer that is able to browse the web, read mails, write letters and do some calculations with a spreadsheet program. Wireless was a "must" for this computer.

Step 1: The Mainboard

I found a 12cm x 12cm nano ITX Mainboard on the internet. The board has a lot of features:

12V single Power
500 MHz Geode CPU
MINI PCI - Slot
Capable to drive up to 1 GByte of RAM
Sound pn Board
Ethernet 10 / 100 MHz on Board
VGA on Board
2 USB 2.0 on Board + 2 USB 2.0 on an external cable
CF Slot for the secondary IDE channel
44pin IDE Port that connects direct to a Ntebook HDD

So everything you need to build a whole computer.

Additional parts:

1 GByte Ram
1 WIFI Card
1 Pigtail WIFI connector
1 WIFI antenna
1 Power switch
1 Reset switch
12 V Power supply.

Step 2: The Case

I decided to build a case out of wood and slotted aluminium metal plate.

Parts:

2 pieces of wood 12,5x12,5 cm 6mm thick
2 pieses of wood 13,3x13,5 cm 6mm thick
4 pieces of aluminium metal plate (see pictures) 12,5cm x 6 cm
4 brass profiles (see photo)
1 piece of wood 20cmx10cm 21mm thick for the stand
some brass screws and washers

I drilled 4 holes in the smaller piece of wood for the srcews to mount the mainboard. The harddisk is located underneed the board.
I glued the second pair of wood pieces together to build the top of the case.
In both I drilled a big hole for the airflow and 4 holes for the baring, we will see later.
I used wax stain in mahogany colour for all wooden parts.

Step 3: Mounting

Harddisk and Mainboard.
The backplane with USB Ports and reset switch.

Step 4: The Bearings

The bearings are made of two thin slices of wood with brass applications.
I covered the bigger peace by a red cord with brass endings.
The brass nut covers the power switch.

On the opposite side of the case there is the WIFI antenna and the angle bracket for mounting the computer on the stand.
The stands have been bought in a clockworkers shop called SELVA.