Scratch Build – In Progress TRON Lightcycle - MotY 3rd Place!

Thanks guys. I actually did get some primer on the fairings on Sunday, but I ran out.

So I picked some more up yesterday, but then didn't get home til after dark.

Hopefully I can get home today in time to do some painting while it's still light outside. In the mean time, here's a few more pics of the parts that will go into TRON:

Crucial SSD's and triple channel Smart Tracer memory kit, and EK waterblocks for the motherboard, CPU, and vid cards.


i7 965 processor.




Cheers!

 

3 of those ssd's, if they are the ones I think they are don't they do 355MB/s read in raid0? wouldn't that go past 1000MB/s on read speeds wooooo nice cpu & blocks too .

Oh this rig is gonna rock big time Bod .

 

These are some *I have to go and change my pants* hardware bro!
Hmmmm.... me and my questions! Do you know if I might be able to find some of this plastic coat in Europe or even Cyprus? Thanks again for all the helpful info Brian!

 

lol thank you Alex! It is always wise to have an extra pair of pants/underwear handy when reading these forums, for just such emergencies (they do get utilized more often than one would think!).

Smooth-On does have numerous distributors in Europe, but none in Cyprus. Looks like the closest one to you is in Turkey.

 

Nice goodies you got yourself there Bod, I am jealous.

 

This is the craziest thing I've seen in ages man! Keep it up!

 

Well, I had hoped to have more to show this weekend, but my modding plans were thwarted by other things. I do, however, have pics of the fairings primed. They look ok-ish, but still need some minor touch-ups before I can lay down the gloss black paint. Once the piece is one solid color, the imperfections really stand out. And black paint is the most unforgiving of colors so I have to work the fairings a bit more.






I also got started on prepping the tubes for paint. The ends will be lit via led strips mounted around their centers. So all surfaces will be covered with the exceptions of the ends. First task was scuffing them up inside and out. Got one tube done...


And both scuffed, with the ends taped off.


Painting the inside with white primer. A makeshift sling was created to suspend the tube.


For the outside, more thought was put in to the masking, since some of the ribs will eventually be permanently glued to the tubes. I first had to mark the areas to be masked, so I devised a way to mark the tube by rolling it around while keeping it square to a 90 degree surface (Charles Richter would be proud lol).


Once marked, I could take 1/4" strips of tape and mask those areas.


That's all I got so far. I don't have the led strips yet, so I can't finish the masking. I'm waiting for one more package from Moddersmart that will have the led's, fans, fittings, sleeving, and custom rad (wait til you see this thing!). Thanks for reading!

 

why bother taping at all when you can just paint and then cut your groove after? Same with the ends, you could just sand it off and ensure a crisp divide between the walls and the end.

Just a suggestion but either way looking great man, this is certainly an exciting build

 

Wow looks good Bod I can see the imperfections but have no doubt you'll manage to work them out, stunning looking piece though & nice method for accurate marking .

 

I won't be cutting any grooves in the tube. The ribs slide over the tube and will be glued in place, so the gluing area must be free of any paint. And it would be too difficult to sand afterwards. For the ends though, its true I could just paint and then sand it off, but I'll get a cleaner line with the tape imo.

Thanks Waynio, yeah it's amazing what is revealed after a coat of primer lol!

 

This is one serious build going on here, and getting nice results Boddaker

 

Very interesting so far, looking very smooth . Should look awesome finished

 

Wow, those primed parts look amazing already mod on Boddaker

 

looking sweet! you're right about after primer, i had no idea on mine all of the pits in my metal until after i had primed, then bam sticks out like sore thumb. you're making good progress, i can't wait to see you ride it around the grid.

 

Have you accounted for the additional thickness the layers of paint add when it comes to sliding the ribs over the tube? It would be a shame if the tight tolerances allowed by laser cutting causes the paint to become scuffed.

Great work so far; I love the idea of producing a three dimensional appearance with two dimensional sheets.

 

Thanks Craig.

Thank you Tech_Jakl!

Thanks riekmaharg2. They look ok in the pics, but you don't want to look too closely lol.

And the gloss black paint will make things even more pronounced so I have to do my best at this stage.

Thanks Bx. There is a tiny bit of space between the ribs and tube, so with the paint on, I still should be ok.

 

i don't know what paint you were planning on using, but you might look into rustoleum's appliance epoxy. the stuff has a wicked shine, almost looks like mnpc bills polishing method after drying. it also does a fair job of filling in very small imperfections.

 

Thanks Antony, they're coming along, but no where near auto finish quality yet!

Well, due to the weather, I haven't been able to continue painting the tubes (damn rain!) So in the mean time, I thought I'd show you what I have planned for the SSD's. They will be mounted on the opposite side of the motherboard tray, disguised as the lightcycle engine.

I'll be making a loose interpretation of the real engine, which looks like this:


A view of the engine through the window:


I don't have much space between the motherboard tray and the window, so the mounting will be relatively flat, but with a hint of depth. I marked out the window placement, and arranged the drives in that area.


Here are the pieces designed and cut.


And glued together with mounting holes drilled.


Here are the pieces for the tailshaft portion of the engine. I cut a piece of 4" tube for the curved part.


Clamped and glued.


Done.


Both pieces together.


Both pieces in place on the tray with drives mounted.


Now I can make some paper templates for the three pieces that will connect the two. That will be tonight's task.

 

nice