Scratch Build Lean and Green - 20-Dec-12 - preview of next project & status update

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Sarakon

Love the homer grill I quite like the small case. Planning a build of my own, just need to get some time to actually start
Hope you had an awesome Christmas

Thanks Sarakon, yeah Christmas was OK but to have been awesome I think I'd have had to have gone to Australia with my dad, I think it was the thought of the crazy long flights that put me off mostly, I'm bad enough on a 1 hour car trip, I just get so incredibly bored traveling sat down with nothing to do lol.

Originally Posted by Mosquito

HTPC looks cool, maybe do the Homer grill for a birthday present, or something down the road if you didn't want to do it right away, or ran out of time before he gets back?

My dad isn't even a simpsons fan he does find it funny yeah but he rarely watches it, was kinda thinking of switching it round now & then for lols to see if he'd mention it & just keep on randomly doing it lol, that is a nice thing about these custom fans though, fully modular, pretty sweet.

Originally Posted by KoSoVaR^

the picture with the new graphics cards:

- Do i see rust on the enermax metal plates around the TB silence fans ? It looks like there in rust on the inside of them.

Originally Posted by Mosquito

... no, it's copper...

My guess would be just dust

Yeah, dust, not had a dusting since putting it to use so that's well over a year.

But I think that's pretty good considering there are no filters.

Originally Posted by LooseNeutral

Right..only NewYears day left..then back to the goods.. eh mate!

Ugh, I keep giving myself a slap in the hope it makes me snap out of this semi depression I'm currently stuck in, I know once I get back onto it I'll be steaming on but I just got to throw myself into it & hope I like it when I do but those tiny should be easy steps are the hardest when your workflow falls off a cliff.

I will be onto it soon though, I know it.

Awesome new year everyone.

[ShinyAli]

Ugh, I keep giving myself a slap in the hope it makes me snap out of this semi depression I'm currently stuck in, I know once I get back onto it I'll be steaming on but I just got to throw myself into it & hope I like it when I do but those tiny should be easy steps are the hardest when your workflow falls off a cliff.

I know it well and I think it happens to most people regardless of what the build is, I've had it when building/restoring bikes as well as PC's, you get into the routine of just cruising along doing the repetitive stuff when you kind of just "trance it" and it can then be hard to break out of that mindset and go up a gear especially if you've had a break.

I'm sure you've been there before in previous builds and you know you will get over it, when I feel like that I often just mess around with some other parts rather than just try and resume working from exactly where I left off, I try and find something to get the enthusiasm going again even if it's just wiring up some fans or lights and seeing something working and making some noise, anything that brings some life to the build and reminds you what it's all about and why you started it.

I just spent about six hours making up some new wiring for the front panel connections, two mobo's, two lots of PW-SW, PW-LED, etc, and braided it all then thought, nope, don't like it, started again and did a better job in half the time, go figure
I also fired up both mobo's for the first time and that gave me a real boost to get it finished, now I have to make a stand for the grinder I converted to a polisher and get polishing all the ally.
If you need polishing mops, spindle adaptors to convert grinders to polishers, etc have a look here if you've not already found them, I bought a kit from them and converted an old grinder for polishing.



Rather than try and go straight back to working the long hours you were doing before just set a goal of working for an hour or doing something that won't take long, that way you don't put yourself under pressure, I find this often works and before you know it your back into the routine and enjoying it again, the day will come when you suddenly realize there's no more to do, it's finished...now I can go gaming for a few months and appreciate all the hard work, my new build is going to feel the wrath of a prolonged "Skyrim" fest it won't forget in a hurry

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by ShinyAli

I know it well and I think it happens to most people regardless of what the build is, I've had it when building/restoring bikes as well as PC's, you get into the routine of just cruising along doing the repetitive stuff when you kind of just "trance it" and it can then be hard to break out of that mindset and go up a gear especially if you've had a break.

I'm sure you've been there before in previous builds and you know you will get over it, when I feel like that I often just mess around with some other parts rather than just try and resume working from exactly where I left off, I try and find something to get the enthusiasm going again even if it's just wiring up some fans or lights and seeing something working and making some noise, anything that brings some life to the build and reminds you what it's all about and why you started it.

I just spent about six hours making up some new wiring for the front panel connections, two mobo's, two lots of PW-SW, PW-LED, etc, and braided it all then thought, nope, don't like it, started again and did a better job in half the time, go figure
I also fired up both mobo's for the first time and that gave me a real boost to get it finished, now I have to make a stand for the grinder I converted to a polisher and get polishing all the ally.
If you need polishing mops, spindle adaptors to convert grinders to polishers, etc have a look here if you've not already found them, I bought a kit from them and converted an old grinder for polishing.



Rather than try and go straight back to working the long hours you were doing before just set a goal of working for an hour or doing something that won't take long, that way you don't put yourself under pressure, I find this often works and before you know it your back into the routine and enjoying it again, the day will come when you suddenly realize there's no more to do, it's finished...now I can go gaming for a few months and appreciate all the hard work, my new build is going to feel the wrath of a prolonged "Skyrim" fest it won't forget in a hurry

Got some polishing kit, I like the satinising mops to do a styled brush finish but they grind down fast, can make some nice effects though.

I am gagging to have some hefty gaming sessions so I'll be pushing on pretty fierce now.

It does happen sometimes though where you just lose the will to continue, that happened after me getting annoyed, last night at midnight while viewing some projects I just got the urge to get making stuff again, had to wait for that strong urge, it came.

Side project here.
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthrea...86#post3267686

How long till it gets star trolled.

[Mosquito]

I was hoping for an update to this one, but I guess a new project log is ok too

It does happen sometimes though where you just lose the will to continue, that happened after me getting annoyed, last night at midnight while viewing some projects I just got the urge to get making stuff again, had to wait for that strong urge, it came

Totally agree, I haven't done anything in a while (haven't finished the one I started a while ago), but just recently I have gotten the itch to build a new case for a revamp of my file server... I have other expenses I have to take care of first, though

[ShinyAli]

Originally Posted by Waynio

Got some polishing kit, I like the satinising mops to do a styled brush finish but they grind down fast, can make some nice effects though.

A satin finish would be nice and with all the parts you have to put a finish on it will save a huge amount of time and work, I've polished a lot of stuff over the years, mainly bike parts, but I've started polishing the case panels for my build and some are proving a pain to do because they are big and you can't polish the whole side in one sweep in one direction you have to turn the panel to polish the whole area and you end up with polishing marks going in different directions which are tricky to smooth out, SATIN, WHY DIDN'T I GO SATIN

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Mosquito

I was hoping for an update to this one, but I guess a new project log is ok too



Totally agree, I haven't done anything in a while (haven't finished the one I started a while ago), but just recently I have gotten the itch to build a new case for a revamp of my file server... I have other expenses I have to take care of first, though

Long time since an update on this but it's patching up a fundamental design flaw lol.

Originally Posted by ShinyAli

A satin finish would be nice and with all the parts you have to put a finish on it will save a huge amount of time and work, I've polished a lot of stuff over the years, mainly bike parts, but I've started polishing the case panels for my build and some are proving a pain to do because they are big and you can't polish the whole side in one sweep in one direction you have to turn the panel to polish the whole area and you end up with polishing marks going in different directions which are tricky to smooth out, SATIN, WHY DIDN'T I GO SATIN

Polishing all those panels is a heck of a mission, I love satinising mops, they make nice quick work, polishing is nice but I'll reserve it for trim bits only, would drive me crazy otherwise.
I found the same problem your having with having to turn doing it in multiple directions, if I was to try it again on panels I'd make a custom upside down mount for the grinder so there is no restriction of movement & can do same direction along the whole panel.



Re made all the motherboard trays overnight, seems I didn't account for the extra 1mm allowance for the motherboard IO shield so had to squeeze motherboards into place, they are good now, done it for Midlag Crisis & both systems in Lean & Green, also added a light line for the PCI/IO piece on the ATX mobo tray.




















This goes back to paused now.

Been stocking up on new hard drives too, would have stung me so much if I bought them altogether so I bought 1 whenever I could afford 1, got the last 1 the other day, the HTPC in this will now have 14TB of storage, bought Hitachi Touro external USB3 drives, they have 5400RPM cool spin drives inside them, got 3 4 TB ones & a 2TB one, I'll have to hack them open voiding the warranty but I'll get a pile of spare parts & I saved £80 on each one vs the OEM drives.

[Nutman]

Saved 80 pounds on EACH??????

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Nutman

Saved 80 pounds on EACH??????

I know, pretty crazy saving, £140 for external usb 3 ones vs £220 for OEM ones & get a load of useful spare parts so could make a bunch of usb 3 HDD docks & sell them.

------

This bit is in reference to some alternative anodising method I discovered.
Someone pointed out drip pans, I gave it a little more thought, they seem a good idea but even in that small source pan I lost about 15mm of water to condensation so a 1 inch deep large pan would quickly lose depth & no way would I use that in the kitchen unless I wanted to be murdered when I cover the kitchen in dye lol.

Seen a huge aluminium casserole pan though, it's a bit expensive I suppose @ £70 with shipping but it would fit anything from lean & green in there plus it has a nice lid to prevent condensation needing me to top up regular.

I won't dedicate to buying that though until I can be sure I have the process perfected.