Scratch Build – Complete GwassGween -FINISHED-Nov13 2013-pics start on page 67

I'm doing WHAT?
-Oh, that's one of those little half-car things.
I have an update planned, but I can't be arssed to put up with putobucket at the moment...

Edit: If this maxes my allotted bandwidth, I'm blaming you...


-Somewhere during the 150 grit sanding pass, I got around to cutting the extra material off my rod. Ow...

-Here we are under the tile saw getting ready to lop off the head, or is it the tail? -either way, I bet it's painful.

-Nice clean cut. There's no chipping and the tail of the screw is paper thin.

-That paper-thin bit has to be fixed. I ground the edges down round and less lethal.

-Sanding the grooves took a couple of weeks. I used stuff like this bit from a really useless fish-shaped mousepad I got for free.

-It's made of that rubbery stuff they make wet-suits out of. It was no surprise when the skin on my fingers started to disappear. Anyone who's ever gone inner tube rafting will know the chafing comes on fast and brutal. -Same with rod polishing...

-After sanding down to 400 grit I brought out the Comet cleanser saturated felt. Two popsicle sticks helped me saw away at the channel.

-For the inside, I have Electric Q-Tip #4. It's made of a nylon rod, some sandpaper, a bit of foam sheet. The electric part is provided by a drill.

-Everything assembles like so.

-Roll it up, attach the other end to your drill, and ream the life out your chosen victim.

-What is this picture for?

-Behold my $15 O-ring. Someday you can expect me to come up with uses for it's 99 brothers.

-Hey, I know this one! This is stuff getting ready to meet Buffy the Dull Surface Polisher. No pics; it's dark and treacherous in the garage.
Unfortunately, there's only so much you can buff out. The rest will have to be hand polished.
-expect delays. I should make a silicone mold of this part before it goes in the reservoir. I could make a fortune selling copies to sex shops and calling it "The Donkey Drill."

Thanks again to my sponsors:

 

God this build gets my rocks off.
Wait... That came out wrong.

 

Showing off the sticky white mess you made with your rod? (I'm on a goddamn ROLL, baby!)

Also, why would you want Buffy to polish you off?

Alright, I'm outta here... sorry.

 

Update had me grinning as well as learning a better version of electric q-tip, yours adds cushioning.

 

Thanks, guys. I really shouldn't post when I'm caff'd up.
@perplekks - That may be a warning pic about dust. I gave myself a nasty cough breathing bleached sand all last week.

 

I can imagine... why don't you wear a mask?

 

How many hours a day could you wear a painter's respirator?
-Although it might be good for when I work while on the toilet...

 

I almost forgot that you're a veteran toilet modder cheaps

 

Wow just spent the better part of 3 days reading this log! Beautiful job on the case so far and I like that you don't hide your mistakes so that others can learn from them. I hope you can get this finished before the world comes to an end.

You may get some offers for your new product from some sex shops if you advertise in the right spot

Subbed now!

 

Thanks.
I hope I didn't strain your eyes too much. Mistakes happen. It'd be a much shorter log if I didn't post them too.

 

Cheaps never makes mistakes. He's just educating us. Show us how it's not supposed to be done, then shows us the proper way.

 

Nah. I make MISTAKES. The older I get, the scarier the mistakes get, too.

 

That Rod looks well polished. I guess that comes from many years of experience, eh cheaps?

But it's looking excellent. I'm looking forward to when all of these parts are assembled.

 

Thanks, I think... That first bit sounded like a cheap shot. (Worst pun ever...)

-With the outside buffed out, I set out to tackle the grooves with this handy bit of scrap. This is part of one of those BIG paint sticks you get if you buy a five gallon bucket of paint. Needless to say I get a lot of these sticks and I never use them for paint stirring. This chunk just happens to have a curve in it that fits the groove. Here I have a Novus polish-soaked felt pad wrapped around it.

-Then I spent some quality time twisting my rod. -Never gets old, does it.

-Now the outside is all polished. I need to bore out the peehole still.

Thanks again to my sponsors:

 

+1

With RPMs there is much sudden,inexplicable,painful fail to be had....

 

Shiny!

 

Nah. It wasn't supposed to be a cheap shot XD I just meant you genuinely have many years of experience compared to a lot of modders on BT.

Also, Rod Pron.

 

Truly awesome persistence on getting that polished up cheaps.

 

Thanks.
@B-Neg - Luckily, I had a strong fear of powertools and guns, (High places, the dark, clowns...) branded in me at an early age. The scary I'm dealing with is more like: "Oh, God! I'm going soft in the head!"
@Waynio - Apparently more gumption than my cordless drill, too. -Otherwise, I'd have the core done too.

 

I really hope this doesn't kill my 'bucket so soon after NUC-a-nanny:

-Here's the drill. (snort) The spiral bit friction fits in the res tube, and I bored the inside out so I could fit the inner tube without force.
The tube for the cathode seals to the base cap with silicone.

-I dug the milling jig I made for stainless steel res tubes out so I could attack this with a tile saw.

-The saw is knocked way out of true, though. I set it up so the res could be turned against the edge of the blade. giving me a clean AND level cut.

-Snapped a candid shot of horrible WIP mess while Bloo was down for a OS reinstall.

-I used a flat panel to eyeball if the tubes were the right height. I put the small tube in the mill several times and shaved off .002 of an inch.

-Before I could glue up, I had to smooth off a plug in the top cap.

-A little tape to protect from glue overflow.

-Now That I had a complete reservoir, I could mount it to the case. I tape card stock to the back of the parts, punch out the screw holes with a pencil, position the part, and somehow tape the card down and un-tape it from the part.

-I finished up by mounting the res. I used folded card stock to get the spacing between the res and fins even.

-The bottom was a little trickier. I had to make holes for the ports too.

-Drill, file, grind, kick up dust, and pray you have your measurements right.

-"There's always something laying around that fits in the hole." -random porn star. Sanding out the hole here. -Perhaps I should have said "reaming."

-With that mental image still fresh in my head, I click the next pic that needs commented on and see...

-ANYWAY, Changing the subject; The CCFL inverter will be stashed away in the ducting somewhere. I've heard these are prone to bursting into flames, so maybe a little venting would help.

-I gave the cover a coat of invisibility.

-Once the res was mounted, I drilled the hole for the cathode wires. I originally had a aquarium tube sleeve job on the wires, but it seemed to screw up the plasma effect. Once I took the sleeve off, it worked fine.

-Here's a nearly finished and mounted res shot. I'm still missing the cathode tube.

-I still had the tile saw out, so I used like a big, (expensive, -I mean, Stainless steel is hard on a diamond blade,) dremel cutter. I had to trim the panel bolts down 1/4".

-After a little free hand wet grinding on the edges, I had to re-tap the threads on the ends.

-I re-wired the inverter, and got rid of that ugly red switch. I changed it out with an ugly black one. There was a lot of ugly happening to the cathode, too.

-Ew! Is that a booger? I tried to get an even looking end cap on the cathode using shrink wrap and hot glue. I wouldn't say I was very successful at it.

-Good enough! At this point I was amazed it still worked.

-The pre-cathode test run. There's water dripping out of the bottom because I didn't have it sealed at this point. You can see that the idea for a spiral waterfall didn't work very well here. There's just too much flow. I ended up with the air pocket being under the spiral.

-A pic of the vortex on top. No filling while running for you.

-Pic of the little waterfall I have. I removed the bubble baffle. It was actually helping air get back into the loop.

-A test run of the completed res. I turned the spiral a bit. The way I had it for the first test caused the water in the top to back up in the fill tube.

-I couldn't get a pic of the pump and the cathode running together. The power supply I use for testing didn't have the grapes. I switched the cathode on, and the pump and PSU fans stopped turning. I can't get a good shot of the plasma either. -cameras!

-So it sat here for a while, because I had another sidetrack/project going. When I was done with the Intel NUC, I tore into final assembly, and cleanup.

Thanks again: