Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Seawolf, July 20. #40 Getting ready for Assembly Summer 2010!

Haha at first I thought you were one of those poor people among us who have to pretty much work on the kitchen table with nothing but dremel and hack saw, but then BOOOOM there's a dang lathe! What the...

Nice original idea, should turn out nice Would sub if I ever sub'd anything.

 

Cheapskate, I think the only parts that could have fit in the lathe were the brackets. And setting them up on a four-jaw chuck would have taken ages with no real benefit.

Jipa, I live in a flat. My modding space is a 80x150cm desk I made for myself. My desk is in the living room. This is the next best thing after the kitchen table, but not by much! The main reason I made myself a new desk was to accomodate the lathe somewhere where it doesn't bother my gf too much.

 

Update #2b

As promised, here's the rest of the #2 update:



Today I went to town and bought some goodies. Here's some drills suited for drilling holes for M3, M5 and M10 threads. On the right is a countersunk drill suited for M5.



I also picked up my order from Coolputer. This here Corsair TX 750W is one of the sexiest PSUs I've ever seen!



While there I also got a Laing DDC1+. Unfortunately, they didn't have white double CCFL's for me. Hopefully I'll get them before the weekend.



I followed DaveVader's example and ordered some white cable braid and heatshrink sleeving from TM3Connections.



Having got the drills I needed, I quickly drilled the connecting rod end to 4.2mm and threaded it to M5. Then I flipped the rod 180 degrees and did the other end to match.



Look at that shine! There are some marks from the chuck jaws on the anodize but, again, these will be painted. The threads don't show on the pic because I went too deep with the center drill. Nevertheless, the threads should be long enough with ten full revolutions. The recommendation is at least seven. The rod weights 53g, which make it satisfyingly heavy for aluminum. It makes me want to play with this thing all day long.



I made an order for bolts on the 22nd of January, but my they aren't here yet. I had to rip one M5 off the beams of my desk. The connecting rod fits perfectly with the rest of the parts. I won't know if the bolts and the rods will hold the bends properly until I get more bolts.



There's a small gap between the brackets, profiles and bends but it will help to tension the profiles.



This was a tricky photo, but it shows how the connection really works.



Finally, I drilled the outer bends and chamfered the edges to accomodate a countersunk hex bolt. The only M5 bolt I had available wasn't long enough to demonstrate what the complete structure will look like.

For next time I'm planning to attach the CCFL's, bolt the connecting rod on both ends and pop the PSU in a toaster.

 

Cool, can't wait for the toaster!

 

Wow, a lathe! I would like to have one...
But i would like the ability to use one
Anyway, good mod idea, I'm looking at this mod for some ideas and to see how do you plan to go on ;-)

 

Thanks for the comments!
I'm also still trying to learn to use the lathe to its full potential. The only way is forward!

 

I suppose that when I have a lathe I'll take some lesson from G69T

 

Update #3



This was one scary update! Remember that sexy Corsair PSU? It had a warranty of 60 months. Not anymore.
Hopefully I haven't ruined a perfectly fine and perfectly expensive PSU!



I popped the lid off and unscrewed the screws holding the psu circuit board and the 120mm fan. Nothing spectacular there. The insides look just like it did in the Bit-Tech review.

Then I unhooked the switch and power connector leads from the psu board. After a while pondering how to get them out, I cut the brown wire connecting the switch and the connector and used pliers and my now aching fingers to pry them off. The little tabs holding them in place were obviously only meant to go in.



The new home for the PSU will be this vacant shell of a OBH Nordica toaster made of brushed 1mm stainless steel. It will be painted. This should fit perfectly above the bends, brackets and profiles I made earlier. The distance between the profiles is 170mm. By coincidence, the width of the toaster is 171mm!



I made some mockups and measured a dozen times to determine where to cut.
Then I measured again and used the actual board to check it all fits. It didn't.
Those lines seen on the inside are 20mm off.



To cut into the hard stainless I bought some fine cut-off discs.



Other essential items to do the cuts.



The new discs work really well. They bite into the metal nicely and don't wear as much as the regular brown ones.



After a while of deafening noise I had two clean cuts. I deburred the edges and filed them smoother.
There's really no sense in going overboard as I will cover the edges somehow.



While at it, I also marked up some hole positions for some switches I will install later.
Measuring distances and angles is awfully hard on a curved surface.



To mount the PSU I first considered using pop-rivets and small aluminum tags to hang zip ties onto. The aluminum tags broke off when I tried testing them so I opted to use a simpler solution. Luckily I had these zip tie mounting blocks loitering around.



I glued the blocks over the mounting holes I had already drilled for the pop-rivets. The problem with glueing is that the surface is curved. That top right block ripped off a while later.



To cushion the board I used pieces of foam I took from a HDD cooler.



I hang the board from its mounting holes with the zip ties.



The mounting holes are a bit too small for the zip ties I have so I had to slim them down.
Using a utility knife pressed against the table the zip ties came out well with some practice.



Hanging the PSU in the enclosure turned out to be an excerise in tugging, twisting and breaking my fingertips. As the mounting blocks didn't seem to hold very well I used all of them to tighten some extra zip ties here and there to support the load. I also slipped the cushioning foam pads in the corners of the board. The compression keeps them in place. The whole operation was one of the hardest things I've ever done!



From the bottom side there should be enough space to mount the fan over the board. I'll use those tabs on the toaster to mount an acrylic plate there.



Finally, I cut the protective plastic to fit in with the foam pads and zip ties. It might help keep foreign objects out of the contacts and the board dust free.

I've still got to get the acrylic plate in place so I can mount connector and the switch and solder them in place. After that I can hopefully see a working PSU.

My orders from Performance-PCs and Sidewinder Computers have also been shipped. I should be getting them sometime next week. There's still no word from the bolts and paraphernalia I ordered, but I'm confident I will get them soon.

 

Wow, there really was a toaster! That is a sexy toaster actually, with it's stainless curves!

Are you going to mount a fan on the side holes?

TBH, I'm not sure that I like the ziptie method of mounting this. It's just that with the adhesive ziptie mounting being so iffy, I worry about it falling apart and your toaster getting electrified and toasting you! I'm not sure of your plans for the acrylic plate, or even how this piece fits into the whole design... but wouldn't it be possible to add some solid acrylic pieces that you can screw the PSU board into? Is it necessary to keep the PSU board in its current orientation, or would it be ok to flip it?

 

I'm probably going to cover the side holes somehow. The big 120mm fan should give the PSU enough ventilation as it is.

The idea about the acrylic supporting pieces is a good one. I wonder why I didn't even think about that. Although, as the board is angled and the sides are curved, the supports would be quite difficult to make. I'll think about it for a while.
The angle is important so that the board takes the least possible amount of space. This is pretty much the only way to make the board fit properly. I'll leave the board hanging on the zip tie mounts for a couple days to see if any of them come loose. As of now they are sturdy enough that the board doesn't move at all when I shake the toaster. They aren't pretty but they seem to work.

 

By 'cover', I hope you mean 'Accentuate'. Again, I have don't know where this piece fits into the whole, so I could be way off base, but I think it would look good with a plexi window secured with 4 bolts to the outside (in the existing holes). Lighted unique window (porthole?) into the Seawolf's PSU.

Don't laugh, but I made you a sketchup model! Ok, it's really basic. I'm just learning the program, so nothings to scale...


All the above is made of clear acrylic. Depending on how you want orient the PSU, you would raise or shorten the upright pieces and locate them to match corresponding screw holes it the bottom.
I figured the large flat plexi sheet would go across the bottom of the toaster, where you have the brackets, for easier fastening.You'd need more brackets most likely to support the plexi.

 

I'll leave the window idea open until I see how it will look assembled.

That picture seems like a reasonable idea. I don't know about using acrylic for the "pillars", though. They might be too fragile. I would prefer to use aluminum like I did with the connecting rod. If this zip tie idea fails, I'll switch to your idea. Thanks for the help

 

Hey NP.... sometimes I just gotta let the brain wander, and it wandered down your log!

 

I was wandering if the double sided tipe of the zip ties mounting block is strong enought.
In case they fall (I hope they stay in place forever) you can use the 3M Dual Lock, I use it for every items thet I don'know how to fix
A sample image :

 

That looks like an interesting product! Like the legendary 3M double-sided tape, but with the benefits of velcro.

 

Yes!
And, better than all, you can adjust the parts if you need to reallign...

 

I can tell you that 3M Lock stuff is HEAVY duty! Some years back I worked for a week in Arktikum (museum thing) and for the best part only cut and messed with that stuff. It was used to mount photos to the walls (photos were printed on MDF boards) and I suppose those will keep the photos up for the next 10 years.

Also someone in the museum told me that the stuff was used in some performance-art-freakshow where a guy had a suit made from that lock-pattern and he was able to climb on the wall.

 

Five years ago I was in a hotel and I need a board with a lots of nails to put the order received from the waiters. We've found the right items, 200 cm x 100 cm, 1 cm tick, MFD. About 12 kilos with all the nails. We've attached it to the tiles with this tape, last year we tried to pull it from the wall to clean all the tiles. Me and other two cook have to work hard to pull it off!

 

Those are good enough references for me. I'll have to go and see if I can found some.

 

#4 Bits and bits

This is not really an update, but oh well.



Got my Performance-PCs shipment from the customs. It's a big box full of goodies. Mostly Bitspower fittings.



These things look gorgeous! The colour is black sparkle.



Also when I got home from the customs, my order of bolts had finally arrived. A Big Bag full of different lengths of M3, M4 and M5 hex socket bolts, countersunk hex bolts and countersunk pop rivets.



In addition to that, I also got the CCFL-set I was waiting for.



Little did I know, a tube was broken right out of the box! It has a one-year-warranty so I'll have to go get a new one.



At last I also got the rear assembled. It took quite a bit of pure elbow grease. Not only because I ran out of hands trying to bend the thing into place, hold the profiles in position and screw the bolts in place. The other profile somehow shifted a bit so now it doesn't sit so flush against the bend. I'll probably lend it a helping hand and a dremel.