Scratch Build – In Progress *** PHINIX NANO TOWER *** --- MOTY 2011 nomination !!!

Thanks Cheaps!

Here's the right side panel. This one has bigger window to show graphic card. ALso, chaotic hex shape edges to add some dramatic character to the panel





What do you guys think?

 

I love it! Defiantly like the new honeycomb pattern.

 

Thank you!


I couldn't help myself... had to try it out on the Tower.... Don't mind the colors, I only tried them out to make some contrast for outside cover panels...

 

Looks pretty freak'n sweet to me

 

Ok, that's it. No more planning and teasing us. Just BUILD it now, alright?

 

Thanks man!

I wish could my friend But I can only work on weekends, so we all have to wait till Saturday/Sunday to see new update. I'm having another trip to B&Q on Saturday, need more L shape alu profiles...

 

So that will be the design I'm gonna make. Well, I may add some small changes, like add holes for USB ports and audio out on the left side fo the left panel. Also power button needs a place so it may end up on the left panel. Still don't know where I'm going to install fan controller. Thing is with this small design there is no space outside for those items...

I worked a bit last weekend, I cut the bottom part of the mobo tray to make space for power chamber front panel right under the mobo. Also I cut out that square in top panel for fan exaust and access to cables in I/O mobo panel. Trimmed those L shape alu prifiles that were installed under mobo tray - there were sticking out a bit to the front of the case priventing front panel installation, so had to trim them both about 5mm. Another thing was cut small holes for H50 barbs - I cut out fan hole in middle panel but left it without holes for pre-installed H50 babrs and tubing Now its ready for that radiator installation. Yep, I think that was all. Also bought another 20x30mm L shape profile - I will use it to mount power chamber. I know all thos wrods won't exactly show what I did, but didn't have time to make photos of those parts. Will do it tomorrow.

Now, guys - I bought today a small tapping kit, but this time it is different, not like the one I had. Old one was pain to use cause threading bit was unstable and I failed all my attempts.
This time I bought different kind - the one that looks like Draper one.
Old one is like this:



New one is exactly like this kit:



Now, please give me all tips, instructions and kind of ideas how to tap aluminium. Please help me out here cause I need to tap main alu rods to mount outside panels. This is the only way I can mount them, cause when the whole hardware will be installed I won't have access to internal sides of those rods, so cannot use regular nuts etc...
Please share your wisdow.. how to thread holes. I will be using M4 screws, so what size of drill bit I need to use to drill holes for that tapper bit, how to do it right?
Last time I tried with old kit I basically ruined the thread somehow.. ripped it off and ended up with clean holes

 

A good tip to tapping aluminium: GO SLOW. Lots of going back and forward.

And use some sort of cooling/grease fluid - like methylated alcohol, for instance.

 

OK, slow, forward and back.. got it!
Would WD40 be ok for this?

 

Hmm.. I just found this - look slike pretty cool gadget - I could plug two SSDs and use only one SATA port on mobo, that would give me one more SATA!

 

Is it a splitter? Won't that ruin the transfer speeds for the SSDs? Or is it a hardware RAID card?

 

hardware RAID card - it won't lose performance and will take only one SATA port.
Alos advantage is two 2.5" drives will make a size of single 3.5" so it takes a little space as well.. I may have space for it under graphic card in my Tower
£22.. I need to consider it first though...

 

I don't know about WD40. Never tried it for tapping, but I guess it's better than nothing, hehe.

 

For tapping I usually go 1/2 turn clockwise then 1/4 turn anticlockwise the 1/4 turn acts to bring up the chips as you go through. As for WD40, its not the best but its never done me wrong
Most important thing is GO SLOW & STRAIGHT! cant emphasise how important that is.

On a side note be very careful with the tap as I was using the same set and snapped the tap inside the thread when only applying what felt like a small amount of force. After that I popped down to my local Cromwell store and picked up a HSS tap which has done really well over the past few months.

Hope that helps and loving the log

 

Thanks, I will let you know how its going to go

Now.. time for UPDATE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!

Maybe not much, but it took me a lot of work and time to do those small things...

First of all, power chamber. I made 3 of 4 panels for this thing. Also made two main L shape profiles which will be holding left panel (one below the left window).
On the photo below you can see this left panel. Its not attached yet, it will be mounted to those two L profiles on both sides with rivets. You can see those profiles inside as well. These are already mounted - I drilled small holes for M4 screws and bigger, 8mm holes in them to the middle of the alu rod to hide screw heads. Each L shape profile is attached with two screws. It is steady as rock
On some of the photos you may notice that I also "trimmed" those L shape profiles behind the mobo tray - they are only trimmed, not filed or sanded yet, so they look ugly, but I had to leave them for now cause wanted to make that power cahmber panels. They will be finished this weekened.



Here's one of the sides - you can see I used black head cap screws I got from Bill to mount them.



On photo below you can see front panel which is just put there, its not attached yet. I need to fabricate some L shape profiles for it on the bottom.
Also what I did and what can be seen here is I cut out that rectangle bit from the mobo tray in order to fit this power chamber panel below it. Idea of all thos panels is to hide all cables and mess and make it look all clean and tidy. Power chamber will contain the PSU and water pump.



And here you see top panel for the chamber. You can see it won't cover the whole bottom of the case, cause I need space for graphic card on one of the sides.... But, to route it to through the whole case I left small "tongue" on the left so it gets in that small space below mobo tray (its 8mm wide, but very important to keep the whole structure steady).



Better look on the top panel... from the top



Now, two other BIG things I made lately: top panel has now huge square hole in it!
Yep, that will be necessery for H50 fan exhaust and access to cables plugged to the mobo
Of course you also can see that small, 13mm deep gap on the front - that is for dvd that will go up to the main top acrylic panel...



Last, but not least - my favourite - I finished the hole for H50 cooler - you can see the fan hole is cut out. The beauty part are those small holes for tubing.. I love them I actually filed those sharp corners, so tubing won't be even scratched during the mounting...





So, that would be it for now. I'm leaving you with two last shots of my little beauty

 

Sweet!

 

That's looking great Phinix

 

awww it looks all tiny and cute

 

Thank you guys!

Here's the right panel design, updated. I didn't like that small piece sticking out at the bottom part, so cut that out. Now, this is the final version, which will be fabricated.

 

I'm loving this so much. I'd love to see how the H50 performs