A lot of mining rigs have been built this year. Most are made out of an aluminium box or something cobbled together with 2x4s. While there is nothing wrong with this, it works perfectly fine, I wanted something that would stand out a little more. I want to create something that would not just look good, but also have some added functionality. Possibly a display on the front that will show temps, hash rates, and even uptime. Some cool power and reset buttons would be a great boost too.
I did not want to spend a ton of money on the rig case as I wanted to spend as much as possible on the actual mining components. This means that I am going to try and repurpose anything that I still had leftover from previous projects.
The first thing that I found was a 8ft x 1ft shelf that I use to have on my old desk. This shelf had an espresso finish to match the old desks color. I wanted something lighter this time though,I decided to sand it down to the wood grain again. To my surprise, I found that I really liked the look of the super dark brown grain that I got from only half removing the old finish. I plan on using a lighter finish on top of what is left from the darker finish. I think it is going to look great!
I also found a stack of 3/4in pvc pipe that never got used from last summer's pool toy builds. The really cool thing about pvc pipe is that you can run wires through the pipes for some cable management. I watched a video a few months back on how to paint pvc pipes to look like old metal pipes. I have always wanted to try it out, so this seems like a good time to try. Lighter than metal, and way less conductive to boot.
So now I have the frame roughly shaped, and the wood sanded down, I guess it is time to select the stain from the half empty containers I have and get my paint ready. That is for another day though.
Until then, have a great day everyone.