Case Mod - In Progress Project: Orange Monster, 26 July 2006; Wire routing blocks 16.3.2014

Yeah, but your posts are quality, and often half a page long. Congrats on 600,000 hits.
On page 40 of my log? See you in a month.
I'll remember the drain cleaner trick. I used oven cleaner on another build because it really ages cast aluminum.
-Got derailed because I read the bottle as "puke-en-vag".

 

Thanks a bunch Cheaps, 600k views is absolutely mind blowing to me.

And at this point I'd also like to thank all the people who have visited this thread and hopefully you'll continue to do so in the future as well

For the drain cleaner trick, I was quite amazed that it didn't have too much effect on the parts even though it "boiled" quite nicely (you'll know what I mean if you've done this at some point). I'm not sure, but I'd suspect that the part wasn't cast aluminum though. Also the anodizing was probably the hardest kind and it took quite a while to get it off (and there's still some left on the parts). So depending on the type/quality of the aluminum and also the anodizing, your mileage may vary.

It doesn't say "puke-en-vag", but that's pretty much how it smells though...

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ooo man that is awesome! no need to be massively active when your posts are full of so much quality!

 

@Editor22

Thanks man, although my activity track record really is quite horrendous. So far it has been pretty much people questioning if I'm still alive

Next up: an update coming your way...

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Progress...

I couldn't find a combining theme this time around, so it's just "Progress" then



Holy crap, that's...holy...

Some holes made by Lian Li and a lot more by yours truly.



That should tidy it up nicely, but unfortunately it still has to have holes.

I attached it temporarily with the clamps so that I could mark the needed holes from below.



Here it is drilled, filed and attached.

I don't know if it shows, but the countersunk mounting screws are not 100% ok at this stage.

I figured out that I still need to countersink the original divider plate below to allow the screws to sit flush, but that's not a big deal.

Moving on!





I wasn't too thrilled with the pump mounting bracket I made last year, so here's a remake.

This acrylic is somewhat tricky to photograph, on white it goes pink and on black it usually goes to a greenish hue.







Looks better with the pump attached



While I was making the new pump mounting bracket, I marked and drilled a hole in the front shroud for the tubing to go through.



The pump pass through rubber grommet sits all nice and flush in the bigger hole that was drilled to the divider plate

I only wish it was the other way around, so that it would sit flush on the topside where it's visible...can't have everything





That should clear the front fan nicely.

This clearance thing was one of the fears I had, but the bending radius seemed to work out quite well.



A view from the backside.

Here you can also see that I decided against using the chromed cable glands and went with simple rubber grommets instead.

This was partly because of the clearance issues and also these should look a bit more low key once the parts are painted black.





Finally a few closeups of the pump mounting bracket.

And that's it for now, stay tuned for more...

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jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeej update !

 

You OKAY, dude? You're updating abnormally frequently, is the modding monster holding a gun to your head or something?

It's working out very nicely!

 

Thanks for the comments guys!

@siliconfanatic

I don't know if I've ever been OK, there's probably a plethora of things that are wrong with me

But yes, more than one update a year is a bit strange for me, isn't it? Somehow I've just had a good time at the shop combined with a bunch of modding inspiration from here, so this is the result.

The Monster is also something I've been meaning to finish for a long, long time, so that's one of the reasons. I'm still not going to cut corners though, so this might still take a while...

Tomorrow should be a modding day, so stay tuned.

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Awesome.

 

Still working on this one.
+ 600000 views

 

I understand that feeling. One day you look at the case and say, "I can finish that soon." That whole, "almost done," thing sticks in your head and gives you momentum.

 

Rear fan wire routing...

I managed to make a bit of progress today, so a small update will follow.

Q&A:

@Ediejo

Yep, still working on this one

The thing is that I've had years in between updates because of various real life and health related issues, but it seems I'm getting my modding mojo back gradually.

The amount of views still blows my mind and it's great fun to see the numbers stack up. Although I'd like to see more of the views turning into comments, because getting feedback is almost always a beneficial thing.

In any case, welcome back Ediejo, hopefully you'll be watching this space as well

@Cheapskate

True words by a fellow modder who also has projects spanning over several years.

I only hope I can keep this momentum going, because if you think about it, I still haven't finished a single mod

Anyhow, speaking of momentum:



Today was "turn plastic into mulch - day".

I started off by squaring a piece of 10mm thick black plastic at the router table (PET, POM, can't remember what it is, but fairly soft black sheet of plastic is the name of the game).



Next I draw a plan on the part and made the cuts at the scroll saw (right tool, wrong work piece).

I actually wanted to take photos of the progress, but my first attempt of making a template for the router out of acrylic (in the photo) went sour, so no actual work photos after all



Continuing with the "work in progress" photos

The right equipment, the right drill bit, but the wrong work piece again (this is the one that wasn't up to par.

Well after four 8,5mm holes and a few 3,5mm ones later we have...





...these.

They are still a bit rough around the edges (literally), so they will receive a good sanding before I can say that they are done.







The fans have two wires, one for power and one for the leds, so both of those wires will have their own tube to go through.

If you remember, the tubes were dipped in the drain cleaner, so there's no anodizing left and the next stage is to polish them up to match the rest of the parts.

I'm also contemplating on adding a few touches of orange acrylic to keep the theme going, but that's still up in the air.



And finally (and totally unrelated to the topic of the update) I drilled a few holes to the back of the res, tapped them M3 and attached a few wire fasteners.

These will have the res led wire and a temperature sensor wire going through them.

That's it for today, more to follow hopefully soon.

Keep them comments coming

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Rear fan wire routing - Part 2...

Got some work done today, so let's continue where we left off...



Last time I had to deal with glue, I was really frustrated about the 4 hour drying time.

With that in mind I purchased a decent bottle of superglue.

I immediately did a test with some scrap pieces I had laying around and it seemed to work OK.



Next I glued the plastic pieces from the last update to a scrap piece of acrylic.

Before gluing I sanded the bottoms of the blocks and gave the acrylic a key with steel wool.



I didn't stop to take photos, but I cut the rounded parts at the router table and finally cut the straight back edge at the band saw.

These are actually pretty much the finished pieces, sanded with 120 & 240 grit, wet sanded with 400, 1000, 1500 grits and finally polished at the drill press with a large cloth wheel.



The aluminum tubes were also polished at the drill press, first with a sisal wheel, followed by a buffing wheel and finally with the cloth wheel.

The drain cleaner bath made the polishing really easy since there wasn't any anodizing left and the surface was smooth already.



This is still a mock-up, but it should clarify the idea.

The wires here are still stock, so I'll re-do them (hopefully) better when I get to that stage.





Finally just some different angles.

I'd say that this part is pretty much done excluding the wiring.

I'll also say that I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out, it fits the theme of the mod nicely

More to come, stay tuned...

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Cool.

 

Nice original mod - good to see it coming together

 

Very cool!

 

Jolly good!

 

Thanks for the comments guys

I should be able to push out an update tomorrow, so stay tuned...

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Aquaero wire routing - Part 3...

Just a small one for now. I'm really hoping to get to the point where all these small things start to come together though...

It was actually fathers day here in Finland today, so I didn't have time to go to the shop.

However I was there yesterday making a bit of progress on the Aquaero wire routing block...



More chopped up acrylic, which look a bit like a pile of Legos



I took the assembly apart and sanded the parts paying special attention to the grooves.

Why, because I can't get to them anymore...



Even? No. Steven? Not even that



No use trying to make them accurate when a few seconds on the belt sander does the job.



Next I drilled and tapped mounting holes for some L-shaped alu, which will be the mounting bracket attached to the case itself.

The bracket and actually the case also will need a few more holes, but I'll have to figure out the measurements first.



I also fabricated the top acrylic part yesterday.

This part still needs a few holes for the mounting and allen screws on the top (need to shorten them first since I didn't have ones that would fit).

Other than that it should be pretty much done.

More to come and like I mentioned, I can't wait to get to the assembly stage

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Looks great.
Yes, belt sanders make life easier, if you remember you have one. You just made one of my jobs simpler reminding me.