Case Mod Project Arc - Phase 2 - Radiator Brackets V2 (19-05)

[swaggahurtz]

great build. with the paint...your temps are a little on the low side but are workable , you might want to try warming your cans of paint up in a bucket of warm water or the sun for a few minutes before painting. never use a can thats almost empty. they start sputtering. also try thin even coats, try not to get the wet paint too thick. if you have ever touched a metal piece immediately after spraying it you may notice that its cooler, that drop in temp (from the release of the paint)can peal up freshly spayed coats. also as you near the final coats up to the clear coat, i would not stop with 600 grit, 800, 1000, 1500 maybe. hope this helps.

[Azariel]

Thanks for the advice HCP and Swag! Never really thought about putting it into the oven though (this piece wouldn't fit btw) but I can imagine it would speed up the drying process. Wouldn't it generate the 'cracking' effect btw if it dries too fast?

Anyway, in this specific case, the filler had time enough to set I believe. Between each layer there was at least 1 or 2 days to dry and before I started the final prep coat there was probably something like a week in between (time constraints).

At the moment for cleaning I used something called st Marc which is intended as a cleaner but also aimed at cleaning surfaces before painting.

[Marquee]

I would not recommend baking the plastic piece. I have a paint baking guide for modders some where if you really want it. But it can be dangerous and two the reason for baking paint is to make the paint more durable and thin out over the piece you are painting for high gloss effect.

[Meelobee]

Originally Posted by Azariel

If anybody knows a decent laser cutter in the Netherlands who could do these for a decent price,

Not sure if still needed, but you could try Graveco.nl.
I had the atx passthrough pannels in my build done by them (Lemonade on HF forum works there, send a mail to info_at_graveco_dot_nl for price inquiries.)

[nagyizom]

Nice work so far!

[Azariel]

Originally Posted by Marquee

I would not recommend baking the plastic piece. I have a paint baking guide for modders some where if you really want it. But it can be dangerous and two the reason for baking paint is to make the paint more durable and thin out over the piece you are painting for high gloss effect.

Will probably stay away from 'oven drying' as my oven isnt of the highest quality and I would probably ruin the piece instead of improving it...so I'll stick to the old natural drying method and hope to get it right next time (should be able to find some motip filler, primer, black and matte clear coat in a store nearby).

Originally Posted by Meelobee

Not sure if still needed, but you could try Graveco.nl.
I had the atx passthrough pannels in my build done by them (Lemonade on HF forum works there, send a mail to info_at_graveco_dot_nl for price inquiries.)

Thanks! Was still needed indeed. I'll send them a mail to get a quote from them soon!

And once again, thanks all for the tips & tricks and compliments!

[ziza]

This is a very clean project and the case is also excellent waiting for the updates

In such small case it will be interesting to follow the hardware management.

[Azariel]

Thanks Ziza! And yeah, hardware, wire and tubing management will be very interesting.

Work has been pauzed for a bit though to work on my Pi cube for the competition!

[Azariel]

PiQu is done! So its time to go back to work on the Arc!

As I'm rather proud of the PiQu project, I'll also harass you here with a small summary picture



Anyway, as said, time to start again with the Arc, so I present to you, Project Arc, Phase 2!



Last time I showed you guys anything it was about my frustration with the crappy paint job of the front panel. Over the past few weeks I have stripped most of it off, bought the right materials and redid most of the filler etc. As a result, this weekend I could finally do the final coat of matte black!

As the 'inlay panel' also is going to be the same color, I did it all in one go. Behold the end result!



Personally, I'm very happy with it! The coat looks great and none of the lines where I filled the panel are visible anymore!

Next step will be working on the inside of the case, but also testing out a few ideas I have for the logo to fill that gaping hole on the front panel

For the inside I will definately need a bit more hardware though, so I will also need to start ordering those.

I think the original hardware overview I made is still mostly accurate (see below). However, with the recent news of the introduction of the new Intel CPU lineup I have starting doubting again if I should wait for it....decisions, decisions...



Thanks for watching, and as always, comments are more than welcome!!

[Mosquito]

Man that looks really good! How well does it go with the paint job on the rest of the case? Or are you planning on painting that too?

lol "hardware", the constant game of waiting...

[Azariel]

Thanks Mosquito! And the paint actually matches the rest quite well! The Fractal paint has more structure to it, but the overall color and gloss match quite well!

Anyway, over the last week I spend some time putting together a new tool to help with the next parts on the list A bending brake!

So here is a short log of how it was made, and finally looks!

For the record, this build is based on the following "instructable"! http://www.instructables.com/id/Home...i-Press-Brake/

To start me and my trusty hacksaw started cutting into the iron bars (don't have an angle grinder, and didnt think the dremel would like it...)



End result: Three bars of equal length (well...almost)



Next was claming it all together to determine where the hinges should come. The best would of course be to have hinges on the side, parallel to the bending axis, but that would require a lot more components and risk of errors. Also the fact that I have no clue how to weld (and as such do not have a welder thingy) made me decide to go the 'easy route'



After this I forgot to take pictures, but I'll shortly explain
- Drill all holes to mount the hinges with some bolts & nuts
- Prepare the wooden base plate by making space for the protruding bolts (as it has to sit flush with the wood)
- Drill holes and attach large M10 bolts to mount the entire thing to the wooden plate
- Attach arm to make the bending easier.

And there we have it, one small, portable and very cheap bending brake!





So, with this tool, bending the aluminium etc should become a whole lot easier

On to the next parts of project Arc!

[Asouter]

Great idea, Looking forward to seeing how it performs, certainly beats the hammer method and if it works I'll be thieving that idea for sure

[Azariel]

You guys remember this?



Well, they were OK, but hardly allowed for any adjustment to get the radiator dead in the middle of the front hole. Meaning that I would have a hard time lining up the radiator with the front panel not even the mention that I might not even have succeeded....

So, into the bin they went, and something new had to be found!

While looking at the front of the case I noticed some non-used screw holes. Still not sure what they are intended for, but they were in an (almost) perfect location. As these are already threaded, I would not have to use nuts to fasten the screws, meaning another layer 'clutter' out

A small bit of designwork:



Followed by some cutting, sanding and bending (using my new bending brake) resulted in this:



Which will be mounted like this (different screws when the actual fans will be on of course):





Painting the parts (and some spacers for the 4 middle mounting holes on the radiator to keep the fan flush)



Resulting in this:



As I want it to look as clean as possible I decided that I did not want any screws on the outside of the fan (also saves me some precious millimeters) so I decided that I needed screws which I could put into opening between the outer and inner 'plate' of the fan. These however cannot be too big, not too small, not too short (which was mostly the case) and not too long (to prevent puncturing the rad).

However, going through my assortment of screws etc I couldn't find anything. Then I remembered that the Arc itself also came with a set of screws in which I found these puppies!



They are actually HDD mounting screws, but were absolutely perfect! Not too long, not too short, and fit in there like a glove! So, if anybody from Fractal is reading this: Thanks! (and please send some more if you can spare them :P)



So with this setup, I've got a nice push-pull configuration, with very limited space lost on the inside of the case!



And just to round up, a picture of the front fully assembled (logo still missing)



And finally a picture with Both rads mounted!



I'm now wondering if I should make a shroud to cover the rads with openings for the airflow similar to the one in the front panel as those grey 'grummets' are a bit disturbing the overall look and feel I think...

Anyway, too many picitures for a very small update, but I'm rather pleased with the end result!

What do you guys think?

[Overminde]

Looking very good. great job mate

[KrunchR]

Very clean build. I loved your piQu case.

[Ocelot]

Great job on those radiator holders.

To be honest I thought the hinges on your DIY brake looked too flimsy but the result looks great so i guess I was wrong.
I really like the look of the front. Very clean and almost minimalistic.

Good luck with the rest of your build!

[Azariel]

Originally Posted by Overminde

Looking very good. great job mate

Thanks!

Originally Posted by KrunchR

Very clean build. I loved your piQu case.

PiQu was quite a different scale than this one, but both have its own merrits! And indeed going for clean! But the difficulty is to keep it all coherent and not close of the entire inside (as that will only make it feel cramped and small!)

Originally Posted by Ocelot

Great job on those radiator holders.

To be honest I thought the hinges on your DIY brake looked too flimsy but the result looks great so i guess I was wrong.
I really like the look of the front. Very clean and almost minimalistic.

Good luck with the rest of your build!

Well, to be honest, the hinges are on the 'flimsy' side, but as long as I stick to aluminium and not try to bend stainless steel I think I will be fine as the brake indeed works just fine! I had to make the trade off between heavy strong hinges (but a lot larger) or these smaller ones which would allow for a better fit between the parts and a bit tighter bends (I hope).

But so far so good!

[Boorach]

Nice work so far. Finish is excellent so far.