Scratch Build Midlag Crisis

[Waynio]

Midlag Crisis

Story behind the name, my main current project is called Lean & Green or LAG for short, I was midway through & I had a hissy fit over something stupid which made my progress come to an emergency stop so had a little timeout to regain my sense, or at least some of it could call the project anything since I never have it in writing on my projects, great story...

But I’m using this one to get me right back in motion to continue LAG straight after this.

It’s a small practical HTPC I'm making for my dad as a present, he's in Australia until the 8th of February & I aim to have this project completed well before then.

It holds an SFX PSU, mini-ITX mobo with support for regular height expansion card, Internal IR receiver, Internal 3.5" e-sata HDD dock which can be switched on/off & 1 3.5" HDD & 1 SSD & 1 140mm custom fan, 1 of the parts of the custom frame is the front panel too, got all the hardware covered already & this is my first rig without an optical drive.

Some concept shots.






The internal custom e-sata HDD dock has a sliding piece which 3 rods guide it so it goes forward/back nice & straight that has enough room to free the drive & then the HDD clips in/out of place with it's own little side panel for quick access.








After making it all printer ready.


The only material I had to buy was the 2mm panel & an acrylic tube with 16mm ID for the marble power button, everything else is scraps.


Cut into manageable pieces.


Drilled.


Cut & undressed after a nicely productive 10 hours, so that's the front, back, top, bottom, both sides, mobo tray & most of the HDD dock pieces & back IO piece but all the acyrlic bits need the adhesive before I can complete them.
















Also cut some acrylic pieces but I can't find my tensol 12 adhesive so I'll have to order a new bottle & get it on Tuesday but this lets me complete everything else in the meantime.


This project should be a quickie.

Feels good to have done some modding after such a big timeout, I'll do more tomorrow.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Pranja

Another great project form Waynio.

Your dad is going to be really happy.

Thanks Pranja I've a feeling I'll want it for myself.
But it should look good where it's going.

Originally Posted by Mosquito

Holy cats! I'm glad I saw the link tot his in your other project log! Though I may have gotten to it eventually, going through the unread threads...

It's going to be sweet, as always.

Figured it best to do that, probably be a fly by project at this rate.

Originally Posted by quizz_kid

YAY!!! Can´t wait for this one to take its shape... Keep on modding mate!

Thanks quizz, I don't think I could stop modding if I wanted to now lol.
Just needed a nice break from it.

Originally Posted by Cheapskate

Australia? Better spider-proof it!

-Oh, he's coming back.
It needs a handle.

I might add a small handle to the HDD dock panel, that panel has zero space for mesh & considering the holes don't look good with the HDD right up to them I might make a plain panel for it.

Originally Posted by biojellywobbles

Looks like a neat design, I love projects of the diminutive kind!

Thanks biojellywobbles, it's my first SFF & I'm enjoying the fact it won't take an age to make.

Originally Posted by B NEGATIVE

That is all.


Back to work Wayne,Tea break is over.

Cheers B, I'm on a mission again.

Originally Posted by jamsand

Can't wait to see this beast of a fan good looking project

Thanks jamsand, yeah I like doing custom frames now, bit cooler than plastic frames.

3MM day doing the PSU support bars, HDD dock slide system & extra trim bits for the front fan & wow what an awesome mess, I intend to clean up very soon.


Drilled & cut, peeled the templates off with messy glue left on the aluminium, I only stick them on the protective stuff if it's laser film because that doesn't come loose & when pulling it off it comes off in 1 piece showing perfect surface, wish all sheet aluminium sellers used laser film.


Wiped them all with thinners on a sponge because tissue leaves loads of fluffy bits difficult to get off & gave them all a wash & assembled to see what it looks like, also put a 16mm marble in place but.

I thought why doesn't the rear 3mm panel have symmetrical curves, what the heck went wrong? looked at my design again & yep, I some how forgot to mirror the left side to the right side for that piece so they are odd, oh well lol had to have a hiccup somewhere, not doing another unless it bugs me & I find myself waiting for the adhesive delivery & I get bored.














This was a job for my big countersink bit, lot better than filing for these marble button holes.




Another bit of the 3mm stuff, part of the HDD dock piece that lets me slot the drive in place, works perfect, the plates fixed to the bottom panel are tapped but I need to shorten the 6mm screws & where I put the thin piece mounted to the HDD will let me dunk it into normal HDD docks.










Up to 16 hours in now, yes I'm measuring how long this one takes me for a change, started late on this progress though, 7PM until 1AM.

More soon.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by morgansk

Your Dad's a lucky chap. I wonder if I could coax my son into making me something (other than a mess to clear up).

Thanks morgansk, it's tolerance pay for doing the same lol.

Originally Posted by dream1

Stunning work m8 !!!

Thanks dream.

Originally Posted by AnG3L

You my friend, you are seriously addicted to modding!!! Nice to see you again buddy with another project!! Keep on going!!!

I am a bit thanks Alex, good to have you subscribing mate & will do.

Originally Posted by ShinyAli

A change is as good as a rest, as they say, good to see you back and using that damn scroll saw again (not much envious of that 30" beast )
Your fan designs and marble buttons are becoming a real trademark of your builds, it's great when a design works so well that you want to use it on future builds and you know that it will work and can usually make them quicker when you've made a few, lovely work as usual

Thanks Shiny.
Just hope it doesn't accidentally turn into a Get a Life type project where it was intended to be a quick project but took a lot longer to cram obscene awesomeness into it, I'm hoping for no more than a week to do this but waiting on deliveries if anything will be what delays it.

The saw is a beauty but still requires a fair bit of patience depending on what I'm doing, I can do up to 2mm 1 handed now which is nice being able to eat a sandwich while cutting pieces lol.
The solid IO pieces, marble buttons & custom fan frames are going to be a must have thing in all my scratch builds now & I like the way I have this fan mounted, gives more internal space while making a plain flat panel pop out to give it a more interesting look, won't be the last time I do that neither.

Originally Posted by Canardwc

Now, you are the god of SAWS!! Very nice cuts!
Following your new project

Thanks Canard.

Originally Posted by Mosquito

I think instead of paying to have anything laser cut, I'll just hire you to do it

Thanks Mosquito.
That homer grill, I want to try it just to see if I can do it without it warping all over the place, it's definitely an extreme challenge if I go for the 1mm thick lines, 2mm I believe I could do but 1mm I'd like to find out.



1mm Day & I skipped posting last night.


Drilling with a clamped aluminium flat bar with 3mm holes pre drilled into it for perfect targeting.


Cutting.


Peeled, just need the 4 rod pieces & to fix a fan inside to complete this fan.




IO pieces but they are twins, they shouldn't be, the main rear IO hole is meant to have a 2mm smaller diameter to the acrylic & external hole, so even with printing your designs, the same old rule applies of measure before marking lol, I'll re-make the wrongly done piece along with the wonky curve front 3mm piece & also make very sure I take off the wrong acrylic guide & put the right one on, that would have made a time consuming mistake.


Back to 2 of the 3mm strips I cut & drilled on last session, had to drill mill 1mm depth for the SSD tray so it sits flush to the strips, it's not perfect but not bad at all considering it's not a mill.


Didn't take shots of me bending the strips but I placed them in the vice & used a chunky piece of aluminium to bend them to shape so the bits I wanted to stay straight stayed straight, slight problem with the bends though, in the design they are more of a round curve rather than sharp bends so it's about 1 to 2mm stretched out too long, I'll work it out though & the bends line up with the guide I printed, I'll just have to extend the screw holes on 1 end into a line & grind some of the end down or relocate the front mount points to the right distance & grind the excess off.








Not sure how long sank into this session, didn't keep tabs on it so I'd have to take a wild guess, call it 5 hours lol which brings me up to 21 so far, probably another 20 if including the design part & so far I'll be re-making 2 pieces which I'll include on my next session along with the bar pieces & acrylic sticking because the adhesive came today, had to order some 5mm aluminium rod though so hopefully that will get here this week.

Ordered some bits for experimenting with surface finishing too, may or may not work out how I'd love it to but I'll post my findings either way when I try it out on scraps, if it works though it'll be a pretty sweet addition for finishing choices in modding for people on a budget &/or don't like to outsource.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by dream1

Your accuracy is like laser cutter machine. Impressive

Thanks dream, printing the design helps a lot too on saving on manual marking time, used to take me ages doing that, less chance of marking mistakes too if properly done.

Originally Posted by Cheapskate

More marbles? I'm gonna sue.
It's cool watching you do new stuff.

Yep that was a strong enough hint for me to know what you was on about.

Cheaps already did it.

I had no idea a Varbel switch was done in 2007. Wish you'd have told me.
As long as it was fun for you I don't mind.

Originally Posted by quizz_kid

Again Waynio, those fan grills... AMAZING!! And the precision is, well, yay!

Thanks quizz I think they have lost their charm for me already, think I did too many now lol.

[Waynio]

This ones better than haters gonna hate I think when it comes to the stars troll.



I don't use the ratings anymore BTW, trying to get that nonsense out of my mind but it does stand out like a where's wally in the snow with no people about to me so it tends to bug me, if I knew who gave a bad rating I could appreciate the rating more & it would be very unlikely to bug me.


In fact it motivates me to say hell yes to competition, if bit-tech would want that if I haven't disgraced myself too much which I might have, I don't really know, but I think an obnoxious sigh of relief on the news of competitions was heavily due, being here as an uncompetitive modder & getting strolled would make no sense at all but I sure won't ever break myself for deadlines again though, that was a silly move on my part, had so much to do in so little time at a time when I was getting easily distracted too much, if I ignore stupid distractions completely & just mod on I'd be a far more productive & brighter modder, I just need to remember that.


I do need to get all my humanity back to decent levels though otherwise I might have trouble distinguishing harmful trolling from people just having a laugh like I almost did with cheaps, that is a freak occurrence of thinking up the same idea, if people even slightly know me by now they'd know I'd have given a shout out for it if it wasn't my own thinking, the vandal switch housing was something I had in mind, the marble came when I was looking for an alternative for the fan controller knobs & I wouldn't have done that if Cleveland didn't express how it didn't look right with stock knobs sticking out so the marbles was a total fluke & I really thought it was something new in modding, marbles really stood out as something I couldn't believe I've not seen used in modding before with there being so many nice looking ones & they are all different unlike vandal switches.

As some say great minds think alike but in my case with some fluke chance also, the chances of making the same kind of switch with a marble, what the heck could they be?, it's crazy.

I'm slightly embarrassed for thinking it was something new but definitely not ashamed to have thought it up 5 years after it was new lol, it's an awesome idea & just got my 2nd version completed, far more compact, I'll be using these regular as well as the bigger ones, I'd love to know what went through Cheapskates mind when he seen me making it lol, I don't know how he held back from saying he already made one & instead hinted a good few times & me not asking what he meant which I should have.


Thought I needed to get any potential negative stuff out of the way before my next update.

The upcoming update is pretty bad logging BTW with feeling a little negative about the ratings so I wasn't taking shots while bits were in progress & instead showing parts I made or are semi made, I'll get back to regular logging though after this update.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

It became evident to me that I'd lost all mine when I ignored this thread by not recognizing the key word "Waynio" under the title

Looking great, btw!

Thanks silicon

Update time.

Idea I hope will work.
I'm hoping this is something new lol, got these concentrated dyes & metal lacquer, going to try for an anodising alternative & will be able to make any colour, makes sense it would work, I'll test on scraps ASAP, I used metal lacquer all over stealthlow & it's great stuff hard wearing & invisible so should be a great alternative to anodising enabling more creativity.


PCI/IO mobo tray
2 1mm alu panels & I re made 1 of them because I did them the same on first go & 1 was meant to be 2mm diameter smaller for the IO shield (mixed the templates up accidentally), 2 5mm & 1 3mm acrylic piece which is fully stuck together with tensol 12 & then cut & I drilled & added brass inserts for the bent PSU support & SSD mount strips & inserts for the connecting to the mobo tray & the expansion slot, I'll be using 10mm female to female spacers, this would have been easier logging for me & easier reading for you if I took step by step pictures with brief descriptions lol d'oh.






Marble vandal switch
Stuck the acrylic bits together for the marble button, it's 2 3mm pieces with 1 of them having a 4mm larger hole so the 16mm ID 20mm OD pipe fits into it, 1 3mm piece & a 1mm piece with an OEM Lian Li switch inside held firm, I added brass inserts to it to mount to the front panel also, it's a bit rough looking but I don't care, it functions spot on & is smaller than I intended it to be with the front being countersunk deeper than intended which is a nice bonus, I'll have to get a side by side shot of this switch & a vandal switch for size comparison, also re made the 3mm panel which had mismatching curves.






The HDD dock connector piece.
Mix of 4mm alu for the grip piece, 3mm alu for a strong cover & 1 5mm layer with pass through & somewhere to mount the cables & then a 3mm & 5mm piece below for solid support, this piece isn't complete yet & hope it goes to plan, requires real high accuracy to work right but it all seems on track.








Cut a 140mm akasa apache fan frame away ready for fixing to the custom frame, I'm keeping the 4 legs for extra stability, these custom fans I had to make 1mm deeper than a normal fan so they are all 26mm.


Apologies for the slack logging on this update, I just got on with making it & took pictures after which makes it more difficult to explain what I did lol, I'll try to get back to regular step by step logging from now but things like using tensol 12 acrylic adhesive I don't mess about because it dries fast & is very toxic so messing about with the camera while doing stuff like that isn't a good idea.

I think I'm going to be gutted this isn't for me lol, it's really turning out pretty sweet I think.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by bulldogjeff

Looking good Wayne. This one slipped by me. I see you're following a very similar style to your current build.Nothing wrong with that, it's a lovely style.

As for forgetting to take pic, welcome to my world mate. I get lost in the work and go crashing through it and he camera sits a few feet away collecting dust..lol

It doesn't matter mate, we can still see from what you are showing that it's a wicked build mate.

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Top modding Wayne..+ rep

Thanks Jeff, it's not so much forgetting to take progressive pictures along with detailed descriptions of what's going on, it's more like what's the point really if people are going to give bad ratings, all that does for me is motivate me to not do good logging & view bit-tech as just another place I post at, that's what happens when people force you to not care, you become detached from the place, if that's what people want I won't fight it.

Originally Posted by ShinyAli

Hell no, I don't think Bit-Tech care or probably even notice many of the posts that are critical of this site, there have been polls wanting the star ratings and the reputation system scrapped and many complaints about the adverts but nothing changes...



Don't worry about it, it's near impossible to come up with a totally new idea most things are a variation on a theme, I had someone pm me on "that other modding site" just to tell me in great detail that I was not the first person to use gas struts on a PC build they sent links to pictures of other builds to "prove their point" as they described it, I have never said that it was an original idea and I never bothered looking to see if anyone else had done it because I couldn't care less, I liked the idea and I did it, if some don't like it I don't give a f**k, my struts, my build, get over it

Lovely work on this build, got to love those SSD's so light and easy to mount just about anywhere and those dyes & metal lacquer look very interesting, after all the polishing I have done on my latest build it's not something I will be doing on many future builds so I'm interested in what can be achieved with dyes and lacquer.
Resident Evil, Oh yeh, I still remember those dogs, jumped feet when they came through the window

Whether they care or not, I certainly don't anymore.

I hate it when people get petty like that about regular objects but just because it's used in a PC mod they claim originality rights, they are the biggest 1 trick pony phony wieners in modding & really lack ideas if they get so anal about things like a gas strut.

Cheaps had good reason to be surprised though, it's a crazy idea we both had 5 years apart, he's light years from being a 1 trick pony though so he wasn't a wiener about it.

I'll get the dyed metal lacquer tested out soon, after this case is made & after I clear up the workshop.

And that res evil mutant dog scene, looks so completely lame now but yeah I remember that making me jump out of my skin, was awesome, that was when Capcom knew how to make people jump out of their skin.

Cheers Shiny.

Originally Posted by Mosquito

looks sweet. Look forward to seeing how the dye in the lacquer works out

Thanks Mosquito, will be soon for finding out if it does or doesn't work nice, really hope it does.

Bars & rods cut to size & given perfectly flat ends.


Even templates on rods seemed a good idea & it was.


Done, and that guide tool I made for drilling the center of rods I did the same for square bars & it works awesome.


Fixed things together, need longer screws for the fan.




















Bye for now.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Pranja

You are evil Waynio-I jawdrop so much that I had to go to hospital to fit my jaw back.

Thanks Pranja.

Originally Posted by l3p

How could I have missed this lovely piece of art... Can I still follow Waynio? :P

Probably would have been missed a lot more if I did it in the time I expected to, still on 6 sessions though, thanks Peter.

Originally Posted by Cheapskate

I bet you get a lot of filings in the wash. Looking good.

I leave aluminium dust trails a few steps away from the cellar.
This project should make up for that, thanks cheaps.

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

Shaping up good waynio!

Thanks silicon.

Originally Posted by Sarakon

I have been a bit absent from the modding pages, but been keeping an eye on this project.
Your work never seizes to amaze me. Amazing stuff

Thanks Sarakon appreciated.

Originally Posted by Paslis

Waynio you are a modding machine mate awesome like always and your dad sure is a lucky guy.

Well met fellow mod machine, thanks Paslis.

Originally Posted by flix

Amazing work

Thanks flix

Originally Posted by Tech_Jakl

Hurray More delicious metalwork

Thanks Tech_Jakl.



The egg has hatched & the chick has stumbled out & I name that chick Salamick, Salami mixed with a lick.

Firstly this is just some basic experimental colour finishing looking for an alternative to regular methods that can be done quickly & easily without need for a special setup or special conditions, I took quite a bunch of shots to show how it looks from different angles too because it does look not too far from perfect on some & very imperfect on others depending on how the light catches it.

Could have just shown the best view points of it to blag everyone but I'd rather show how it really is.

About 30 drops of black added to a bottle of metal lacquer & shaken, gave 1 coat & also masked a few strips for a 1st attempt, gave it some adidas stripes on a shark fin lol.




Then emptied the whole bottle in & shaken, become far more potent.


Salami, or even black pudding that's what this dotty finish reminds me of lol.












Then applied a 2nd coat & the trouble with 2 coats is it needs to be applied perfectly or it can look messy.
















Tried green, emptied the full bottle in & gave a shake.






1st coat covered better than the black but still had dots, just not as many.










2nd coat produced some interesting effects but they can only be appreciated on a macro shot with direct light bouncing off it otherwise it doesn't look so good.










Not sure what to make of it, on one hand it's kinda like flip paint with how different it looks from angles, on the other it's not quite as awesome as I imagined but it is hard wearing & the theory does work just not as nice looking as I imagined, as it stands it's no comparison for a good anodising job but I should give a scrap piece a brush finish to see if that helps, this was all done on freshly peeled aluminium scraps without any prep work.

Ideally I would like to get this technique so it's doable with 1 coat so the surface texture of the aluminium is visible like anodising but with a solid consistent colour so I'll have to continue playing with this idea to see if I can improve on it, it's already proven to work, just needs perfecting.

Opinions are very welcome on what you think of it, awful or has potential so worth persisting to get the method perfected?.




My dad got back today 2 days earlier than I was told of the 8th & the 2 days before that I was cleaning up the house, the screws still haven't come so I'm going to get everything else done tonight so it's ready for assembly tomorrow "if" the screws come, ordered a load of countersunk & button head screws.

During the night if there is time I'll also try some other ideas for anodising alternative.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Azariel

I must say I love the look of those greenish/dark scrap pieces. However, I can also imagine doing a full case in this finish will make it look a bit messy....Maybe you can use this finish on some of the detailing

Thanks Azariel, looks good on close up under the right light, a bit m'eh under regular light think your right about maybe use it sparingly.

Originally Posted by Father-Time

Hi Waynio,
Looking great so far, amazing saw skills
Did you paint on the laquer? Is the consistency maybe usable through a airbrush, or maybe its possible to "dip", pre treat the alu with adhesion promoter for better stickability

Definetly worth experimenting more i think, i really like the two tone look

Thanks Father-Time, yes brushed on with an ox hair brush so super soft wide brush but still leaves brush strokes when mixing the dyes, it is sprayable though but I just tried something else & it's a really good alternative to anodising.

Originally Posted by The_Crapman

Some fascinating results there. Would be interesting to see how it does with the alu brushed first. I know someone who works with metals, will ask them see if they have any ideas.

Thanks mate, brushing was for round 2 but got a better idea & it worked.

Super fun happy ramble.

Well I've really gone & found an anodising alternative & the most difficult bit is mastering applying metal lacquer in 1 coat (something I'm working on perfecting), had a glob bit but that's due to the brush I used for applying dyed lacquer so still had some green in there lol & had 1 blank dot which I don't know how that happened but the result compared to brushing dyed lacquer is infinitely better, I think this is as close to anodising as I'll get without anodising.

Here is what I done.


Roughed up a piece of 5221 grade aluminium with 150 grit wet'n'dry paper.

Cleaned it with the t-shirt I'm wearing lol.

Applied 1 quick brush of metal lacquer on all sides & edges.

Cured fast with heat gun.

Picked out the shabbiest source pan hopefully no one would miss filled it with water & brought to the boil & got it to simmer.

Then dumped some black dylon clothes dye powder in the water which I bought quite a while ago for dying plastics, gave it a stir, threw the aluminium strip in & left it for a few seconds, pulled it out & it was taking the dye so put it back in & let it continue for 5 to 10 minutes checking on it now & then to make sure it was getting darker, it sure was, yipeeee.

It didn't look very black & more of a burnt colour but gave it a wipe with tissue, it didn't come off which was an awesome sign & still looked a burnt colour so then took it to the sink to rinse off any excess dye & the piece turned nice & black like magic I was rather joyed & still am, dried it & tried scratching it to see how resistant it is & it is very resistant to scratching, even more than just metal lacquer so this is just perfect.

I'm showing all the pictures I took of the coloured piece, because this is a breakthrough for die hard no outsource modders who want to anodise but won't due to it being hazardous & many other types I believe, dying aluminium without anodising it WTH.




















This is pretty big for modding I think, I'm pretty chuft I found an alternative environmentally nice solution for something I've been wanting to do for a couple of years but never put much effort into it not thinking on enough whenever trying & all because I'm a cheapskate who isn't keen on outsourcing lol wouldn't have been looking for the solution without that, it's not just nicely coloured but still maintains the texture of the aluminium & it's even scratch resistant, awesome.


To do the bigger panels on lean & green I'll have to use a big deep baking tray but this is that awesome I think I might be dreaming & I'll wake up any moment gutted it was just a dream lol, was expecting when I gave it a wipe for it to just fall off or crumble off or something but it's hard, definitely a true alternative to anodising.

Anodising makes a super thin film much like metal lacquer so it just kinda made sense it would work as long as the lacquer would stay on in the hot water, luckily it does & clothes dye gets into it, my unwillingness to outsource has really paid off nicely on this one, it also doesn't prevent heat transfer too, I know this due to Stealthlow, the HDD bays collect the heat from them & even warm the side panels & everything is brushed with metal lacquer on it so does nothing bad for heat transfer, I don't think I'd use this method for water blocks though.

You can't dye aluminium without anodising, reheheally.

Only further testing I'll need to do now is getting times needed for different shades & establishing the perfect temperature but man I'm really pumped about this, the monkey with cymbals in my head is going nuts doing back flips.

I'm calling this method Lacqodising.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Azariel

Wait...just let me get this clear:

1: Apply laquer and quick dry it
2: Stick laquered alu in pan of boiling dyed water
3: OMGBBQ Awesomeness?

That just sounds too simple to be true....but looks great XD

Pretty much but with surface prep like you would for painting or any other type of finishing, so instead of a subtle layer & a subtle portion of the surface getting dyed, just the layer gets dyed, to scratch it I had to jab keys into the surface so it's a nice & strong finish too especially for such a thin layer, it flexes well too like anodising.

Good surface prep & application of the metal lacquer is so important though else you end up with that fish eye effect like I did on first tests.

Awesome difference of anodising to lacqodising is it could be applied to any type of metal so that means you could get some mirror polished stainless steel & dye it any colour, this is why I think it's a pretty big find.

At this stage I just know it works which I'm really happy about, once I have it perfected I'll do a separate step by step guide on how to do it perfect although it's that simple I don't really think there is a need for a guide.

Thoughts on perfect application of the metal lacquer, spray it on or even dunk parts but spraying & dunking will require much more lacquer but for all smaller parts like everything on this HTPC dunking is a very real option, could use Tupperware boxes for the dunking & I'll buy a big enough but cheap stew pan for the dying.

Bigger panels are going to be tricky purely because they will likely need large custom boiling pans that can still be used on a stove.

Originally Posted by The_Crapman

bloody hell thats's and outstanding result

Thanks mate, I was a bit gobsmacked when I found it actually works.

Originally Posted by siliconfanatic

Niiiiiiiiiiiiice


Did the edges not really want take the dye or is it the pics?

Thanks mate, the corners of edges, I'll put that down to it just being a rough piece of scrap, the blue tint under very bright light that could either be from too thin of a layer or not leaving it in the dye long enough, I'll get it perfected now I know it works.

Originally Posted by Squigly

I had completely missed this build

I should have know you would be in a corner somewhere creating some awesomesauce! and brilliant find on the lacquer and dye as an alternative for anodizing, really gives a nice finish by the looks of it!

Thanks Squigly, needed a little change, never had a project span past a current year so really needed a quick change before getting back onto the other, this should have been no longer than a week to do but lol I let that slip a bit but this latest distraction is of the awesome kind.

My screws came today also so can get this project rolling again.

Been buying new hard drives as I can & now have all the needed ones for lean & green, the HTPC on that will now have 14TB of storage, 3 4TB drives & 1 2TB drive along with an SSD, the hard drives are all from Hitachi touro external USB 3 drives so they are nice & quiet cool spin drives running at 5400RPM, pretty much silent runners & doing it this way I save £80 on each one along with obtaining a load of spare components.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by kelmannen

that's a really nice way of coloring it!

Have you tried to do it in the oven? that way it would be really easy to try different temperatures and also make quite large sheets! (thought it may react in another way because of all the hot air around, or maybe be helpt by it because the temperature will be even and you can preheat the parts before bathing it )

ps. Your marble switches are FANTASTIC! i will steal that someday!

Thanks kelmannen, I'm really chuft with the discovery just keeping it on a stove & the water simmering, not bubbling does the trick but I'll possibly have to get a custom boiling pan welded so I can do big panels, I'll get by fine with normal cookware for this one though.

I'd love to see more nice switches, plain vandal switches I used to be happy with until I noticed some saying how they are tired of them, I like the nice function of them but I agree, the look is too normal now, huge variety in marbles so I think they are perfect for switches.
Cheapskate beat me to that discovery by 5 years by the way, I only just found out recently, thought it was something new.

Re made all the motherboard trays, 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.




Now this system will work right, everything else is perfect fit.

Got my screws so this thing will come together over the next days, I'll try another test or 2 for the lacqodising, going to try dunking panels into the lacquer but on scrap to see how good or bad that is compared to brushing it on.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by ShinyAli

Very interesting that "lacqodising" it actually looks like anodizing soo much better than the so called spray on anodizing you can buy which just looks like, well, thin paint

14TB...so can we expect "Waynflix" the new film on demand service

Just got a tip from onevoicewild on mod zoo about metal catch pans, they should be perfect for doing the dying.

14TB I think I went a little overboard & I'll be able to leave 1 of them unplugged for quite a while, I was originally intending to just use 2TB drives.

They are very nice & quiet though compared to regular drives so should be a nice silent system with the ability to shift some air when needed.

[Waynio]

As I said 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.

[Waynio]

Did these for 20 minutes & tipped the rest of the black clothes dye in the pan which I'd say will be round about 3 teaspoons of dye powder.

Background a real black anodised panel, upper piece is double dipped in metal lacquer, lower piece is single dipped, looks far from good & the strength is very weak, could scratch it off easily = BOTH EPIC FAIL.


Back to Ox hair brush, upper piece is half double coat & half single coat, lower piece is first test, double coat with stronger dye I don't like, single brush with stronger dye = WINNING.
And yes the adhesion is mighty fine like the first test.


Winning one with real black anodised background.




Group.








I think I'd use double the amount of dye for a project just for that little bit of overkill & unless I want naked corner edges for a stand out outline contrast on everything I'll have to round edges off, extra attention to surface prep work will be needed so that will be smoothing, brushing & then thoroughly cleaning before brushing lacquer on 1 side at a time doing the bottom side first & top side last so it stays best side.

This is pretty much conclusive as far as I'm concerned but even so I'll do more tests when I get a timer to dye a pile of small bits taking 1 out every 30 seconds to make a shade chart for how long is needed for what shade, for all I know they might be up to full shade in 5 minutes, just don't know yet.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by ShinyAli

Isn't it so often the case that the first test you do is often the best one, just as well you remember what you did the first time
The R & D will be worth it though to get a reliable shade chart, I wonder if the results for black will translate to other colours?

Yeah, I'll try the same test on 1 or 2 other colours but will always do complete tests for different brands of dye just to be safe, sure looking forward to properly applying this idea though & it should be real soon.

Originally Posted by Elenos

Hehe black on black photos cheesecake. Really like how it came out though :-)

Thanks Elenos.

Screw up ramble re-cap for this project lol.

Skip down to hibber jibber if screw up ramble is a bore.

I guess I like to include everything so if I ever need to recall bits of the project I can just look through my log & it doesn't portray someone who does everything perfect.

They are all related to slight errors while making the design printer ready, used to be a case of measure a few times before cutting or drilling once, now it's be ultra careful manually converting to 2d to make my designs printer ready, these lessons will or should prevent me from making future screw ups, at least I know by now to include every single important mount hole in the design before getting into doing one for a far quicker project with less confusion.

So, I got to the point where everything structural was almost done, someone prompted for testing hardware fitting to see what I got right or wrong & was about to stick the power & data plug in place to the internal HDD dock slide piece, glad I did a check up throughout.

First there was the curves in 1 of the 3mm panels that I didn't fully complete in the design so didn't look right, re made it.

Stuck the bar templates on the wrong sides (was working 4 sides) but luckily I was able to salvage them without them standing out with them being hidden.

Then realised I cut 2 of the same 1mm alu panels for the PCI/IO piece when 1 of then has a 1mm lip for the IO shield to pop in place better, had to make another.

Then discovered my mobo trays were all slightly wrong needing 1mm extra space for the IO shield that comes with mobos, re made this one & both ones for my other project.

Then minor things like some mount holes needing to be slightly bigger, then I found I had the SSD mounted the wrong way around in my design but in the right place so had to re make the SSD plate, also had the internal IR receiver mounted facing inwards some how so re made the front panel too.

LMAO


Hibber jibber


Here is a few pictures of what I've done lately & yeah my priority for modding has lowered a bit so I'm now more of a casual modder who happens to do a huge session when I really feel like it, I'll enjoy it more this way with not putting pressure on myself.

The reason I had to re make the front panel, the IR mounts were facing the wrong way, d'oh.


Plugged another brass insert into the PCI/IO piece for the last of the panel mounts, showing sinking the insert in with solder iron which leaves a risen spot which is then either filed or sanded flat.


Cut the fan legs off & stuck the fan in place with JB weld, I'd describe JB weld like it sets like hard durable plastic, seems like pretty good stuff, like Araldite rapid steel but more concentrated & stronger.








Made room for the e-sata cable to go underneath the mobo & direct to the rear e-sata port (I'll make a little plug to fill the void).




Few random shots before I perfected things.








Bad fit, sorted it out since then though.



Which brings me to now & I have just stuck the power & data cables to the HDD dock since I just finished the front panel re make & tweaked the whole structure so everything fits awesome, just seriously hopes the JB weld doesn't squelch into the HDD connector, I won't test that for a day so I just got to hope it is OK, I did lay some masking tape beneath in case it stuck to the bottom panel but if it squelches into the drive connection I am so screwed lol.


Mounted the IR receiver in the fresh new front panel with 2 4mm spacers I had to grind down from 10mm so neded tiny 2mm screws for that.


From the front & I made the marble more flush to the surface, looks nicer to me but I'll need to re solder 1 of the wires back on the switch (came loose).


SSD mount/PSU stand tweaked to how I wanted it.




Also tweaked everything so it all fits perfect but silly me I didn't take no shots before getting onto the HDD dock piece which required me stripping it down a bit but I really like how it's turned out.

Even drilled LED holes into the PCI/IO piece to see how well it lights up = really really poorly so now I know what to do whenever making layered up PCI/IO pieces that I'd like to light up, stick to plain clear acrylic & paint them or better still, apply vinyl & use LED strips.


Little order for surface & edge finishing products, gloves for dirty work, chemical type work & assembly type work, respirators for dust & chemical because I have an epic amount of sanding in my future, white spirit for cleaning & degreasing, 240 grit wet'n'dry paper, 3 flavours of satinising pads & a pack of micro fibre cloths.


Also have the uber pan coming which is 544mm diameter & 330mm high, I'll be able to get the biggest pieces of lean & green into this pan so the lacqodising is definitely on.


Lastly, colour scheme, shades of black or brown, I quite like the brown but black would fit in better on the entertainment unit, thought I'd show anyway.


Should have this Midlag Crisis over with very soon & then back to the nightmare of a mod load called Lean & Green.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by ShinyAli

I see the Wesena pcb are you using the full Wesena IR receiver and Remote Control setup, I've been looking at them myself as a friend want's me to build them a HTPC

Mmm, gloves for dirty work, respirators, chemicals, white spirit, 240 grit wet'n'dry paper, 3 flavours of satinising pads, sounds like a hell of a party, shame I'm busy still buffing ali

Nice work, always good to see them fans spinning

That's the one, nice solution & the remote is perfect.
Yeah I learnt from past projects that I really should invest in handling gloves to prevent greasy or dirty prints on finished pieces.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by Pranja

This looks great.

About the color-I would go with brown scheme.

Brown will look pretty nice I think so you know it's happening thanks Pranja.

Originally Posted by KoSoVaR^

BROWN !

Just wish I had the finished article now but it is just around the corner now.

Very little to show but I got "something" e-sata hdd dock, works nicely, just need to wire an on/off switch to it & make it look a little nicer now the functionality is spot on & was I ever glad the JB weld didn't squelch into the connection making it a permanent fixture to the spare hdd lol.




Then I've just got external edge finishing & surface finishing to do now, already done the internal edges, thanks to the simple pattern cut outs they were nice & easy to do, LAG won't be that easy but not too far from it.

Lacqodising, got everything I'll need for that now, last things I needed was the big pan, timer, scales & primary dye colours but I also got secondary & more black, been stocking up on big milk jugs too so I can re use the dyed waters I make, I'll be able to make any colours, depth & shade from these.




Fits the biggest panel of LAG in there which is a relief.


Won't be using the giants pan for this project though, a smaller more human pan can be used.

Just need to dedicate more since I've given myself chance to properly relax & get a grip but I won't ever be over dedicating again, I tend to end up flipping out way too easily when I do that lol, I think the key to it all is be passionate about modding but separate the passion from the ego completely & things turn out pretty awesome more naturally then & if it doesn't wow people then so what, maybe next project will lol.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Asouter

I was wondering why the updates slowed down, and you're right Wayne, do your own thing. Me personally I like it a lot, it's what makes your builds different, much better than a lot of the generic stuff in the build logs

Thanks Asouter needed a little break to get back to my regular mellow self.

Just thought I'd add this progress shot to show things are moving along to go with the reply, all these have been sanded on the internal, external edges & surfaces, pretty close to having it all ready to lacquer it all up.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by quizz_kid

Mmm... Pieces are looking very nice. So, sanding is the fun part of a project, right?

Was a sweaty part lol, but it's leading to the fun part, I'll try to push myself to get it completed this week.

Really want to get LAG in use ASAP.

[Waynio]

Thanks bio & silicon.
Should see the results of the lacodising next update.

Had bad modders block lately but done some.


Depth test.
I turned that black with blue tint to a green tint, I read adding 10% orange neutralises the blue tint, put too much in, think it would be best to just use 2 or 3 times more black than other colours, reason for the roughness of surfaces is I had 60 pieces in a small pan.


HDD dock power switch 2mm inner panel.


Drill milling the bar it fixes to.


Installed & I actually unintentionally used the top panel mount hole with forgetting that's what the hole was for lol so had to add 2 tapped holes either side of it.


Decided to use a latching vandal switch, just need to wire it.


To add the hole for the top panel I took the front panel with bars attached, held the top panel against it & drew the circle with a pencil, cut it out & finished off with my biggest countersinking bit so it could just about pop through & gave it all a rubbing with a satinising pad.


Might have to spray paint the aluminium fan panel or leave it raw, should have left sticking the fan on until I actually dyed the piece lol, JB weld is no joke adhesive.

Next update should see this project complete, just not been bothering with modding lately so only do a bit now & then, no competitions in mind & no business agenda so what's the rush eh lol.

--------
I keep getting HUAS off & on lately.

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by KoSoVaR^

fantastic work mate !

Originally Posted by quizz_kid

Yessssss... Very nice!

Thanks KoSoVaR & quizz

Originally Posted by Asouter

Nearly complete ? Looking forward to seeing it. I'm glad you have kept going with this even when LAG was put on hold. I know how doing projects that have masses of work can put you off modding for a while. That's why I took a break. Oh and it seems very quiet on bit-tech lately.

Was hoping to get it complete yesterday but tried something I never really planned on attempting.
Deep thought lot of work, I hate polishing acrylic in fact I don't think I enjoy polishing anything, satinising makes awesome sense, nice & quick, suppose trim bits are my limit for polishing.

I'm breaking out of the damaged mind set I was getting into now, this project helped a lot on that & so did seeing plenty of good modding going on, had to see a project altogether, been too long & I was giving a sheet about things I don't need to give a sheet about, what I do need to give a sheet about is keeping my sheet together with a good clear focused head so I can mod on with no more bullsheet.

Thanks Asouter

New update & not the last.

Re made the fan spacers & the hoop piece, original spacers weren't long enough & the hoop wasn't wide enough or consistent width, needed 1mm more length, only really found this out when I actually stuck the fan to it, here is how I grind the sides of the spacers I already cut, drilled & tapped from 8mm round bar.




Assembled it without the hoop piece, not sure but I think I prefer it like this plus it's easier to assemble which is a nice bonus, I think it works for this one with the extra 9mm of layers but on LAG I think I'll keep the hoops in play, this fan frame design has 4 layers with the 4 spacers which hold the hoop in perfect position, this particular one has 7 & is trickier to install the hoop properly but works & looks fine without the hoop.










HDD dock vandal switch will be completed once the lacqodising is done, not got small spade crimps so had to make it permanent with solder.


Now then, here's something I've never had the guts to try before but there's no speedier way of learning than just throwing yourself at something, so snip away.


Dissected a sata cable & joined it back together again, under the first cover is 3 exposed wires resting separated by another shielding, under that shielding is 4 plastic coated wires of the same type, they are really fragile & break really easy, anyway I soldered the 4 double shielded ones together & coated in liquid electrical tape, the other 3 wires were too brittle & kept breaking needing me to expose more to re try so I soldered normal wire to them, applied a couple more coats of LET, let it dry & then coated in JB weld, cut about 150mm excess length off the cable, took a while with having to let the stuff dry, I'll leave the cable for a day before handling it, takes about a day for it to cure well & then it's like good hard plastic, it's done on a portion of the cable which won't have to bend too.


Then tested to make sure the mobo fits still because I didn't test it after the revised mobo tray, it's good still, about 2 or 3mm space between the mobo & fan lol, need to add a hole for passing power & data cable through.


Still another update before final shots, random sata cable mod took some time, gave virtually everything a good rubbing with the satinising pads though so just needs cleaning before applying the lacquer, has to be ultra clean for nicest results.


------------
Drives me nuts here sometimes.