Scratch Build – In Progress Temporary name: Bloo Balls --6-29-'11 Bloo 2.0 refit COMPLETED page 47

I had some time tuesday to get some milling out of the way.

-had to cut a notch to accommodate the frame rail on the motherboard backplate.

-and another set of notches on the tank mounts. This will make it easier to line up for glue.

-I had some scrap I thought I'd add to the on switch tube. I added some holes.(Did I mention I LIKE the new mill bit? Is it obvious yet?)

-Making the hole for the on switch. This is a post that will sit behind the big marble. I started with 4 tiny holes in each corner...

-Then cut out the center with the 1/4" mill bit. (It really is handy...) After this I filed the corners out a bit. When I dug the switch out I realized it was larger than I thought it was.
90% of my mistakes come from trusting my memory. My memory is so bad I forget that my memory is bad.-what?

-Today I bored the hole out with a little dremel bit. High drill speed, slow feed, and lots of water. Next I drilled the rest of the way through the block with a slightly smaller bit. (for the wires.)

-After some filing the switch fits.

-In the afternoon something amazing happened. I got my freaking Futurlec order that I purchased on May 16th!!!!!
Odd that the 1st thing I ordered was the LAST thing to arrive.

-Some stuff from Xeoxide showed up too. An 80mm Swiftec radiator, 120mm fan, and a 80mm fan. I bet you were wondering if I would ever get some hardware. -And YES I know the Chinese knock-off fans are loud. I like $2 typhoons...

-With the magic of photoshop I can show the layout that would let me add a 2nd radiator, should I need it.

-Back to the on switch... Here I abuse the countersink bit again.

-An OLD friend. The buffing rig. I need to change the belt on it, -it's older than I am, and pretty frayed.

-Mostly finished and partly polished switch mount. I need to figure out how much of the back to cut off now.

 

pics arnt working for me

but i trust its awsome

 

Oh no! I cant see the pics....

 

That looks great. Wish I had a mill. I may have to get one before I start the second generation of my projects.

 

This is looking v cool .. can't wait till its finished ...

 

Sorry guys. My photohost went down last night.

@Dacust- I wish I had a mill too! I'm using a drill press and a Harbor Freight cross slide machinist vice. $150 total.

 

Ah, cool. I think there's a Harbor Freight on my way to work. I'll have to get a vise like that for my drill press. THANKS!

 

And more cutting...


-I put together a wall wart/LED nightlight the other day. It freaked me out by lighting up while unplugged! I'm not showing my soldering work...My hands shake pretty badly, and it shows.

-Glued the backplate to the case back I made a pretty big mess of it in the process. The solvent was drying faster than I could apply it.

-I screwed up somewhere, now I'm missing 1/4" from one side. The plate is one I kept from an old rig for modding.

-I had to set the saw up to fix the backplate, so I made a jig to cut some discs.

-It worked really well.

-I started the milling of the backplate holes by drilling small holes in each corner. These will help me find my position when I flip the board over to cut the countersink. They will also help me square the corners later.
Note the ugly splice at the bottom of the pic.

-Milling was/is (I'm not done) a pain. Everything is covered in blue-pink fuzz. It's like I'm grinding up the easter bunny! This rig ws used to cut Hypno-Toad, only without the cross-slide vise or a proper bit. I actually hand fed that booger and cut it with a dremel bit.

-I have all kinds of clearance issues, and the vibration required me to tie everything up with rubber bands. 8 vises make one hell of a racket otherwise. It's a good thing I was using saftey goggles, because the rubberbands were breaking constantly.(and hitting me.)

-Don't you hate it when that happens. It's 1/2" away from being completely done here.

-Some repositioning and I'm done...Flip over and continue on side b...

-Starting the countersink cuts...tomorrow.

 

-I finally cut through the backplate. The bit jumped a lot, so I needed to do some heavy sanding.

-After polishing...

-Started putting some stuff together. This is my half finished tank and hardrive bay sides.

-I found that a good way to break plexi was to drill out a pre-existing hole. I was very carefull and managed to not make this part explode. It also helped that I drilled as slowly as possible.

-I oncw thought it was impossible to tap plexi properly. Recently I read TribalOverkill recommend vasoline for tapping. -it worked great. Messy, but great.

-Finished, tapped, & capped.

-Just finished up gluing the hd bays down. Notice anything wrong here? I should have.

-I put the hd bays on facing the wrong direction. I really shouldn't do this stuff while half asleep. Now I need to drill new cd mounting holes, and hopefully the base mount holes will match up reversed...

 

verry nice

 

some advice with millingnot that i have any experience)
this may only be with metal, but try putting 3-in-1 oil on the line you are going to mill. Also, about the stuff everywhere, you can get a 2hp shop vac for 30 bucks or a 3 hp shop vac(i have this) for 40 bucks, and just keep it at the side of the drill press. Lots less mess!

and btw... how much was teh sliding vice?

 

Actually the bit chatter is because the bearings in my (cheap)drill press have about 1/32" of play, and I was feeding the bit too fast. Every time I hit air between the plates it would jump. Remember that plate I glued first and screwed up...that's my air bubbles.
I'm not using oil. I'm working indoors where there's no rain,(and plenty of AC!)I'm lucky to have a back room with old carpet. It's 90 degrees in the garage!
I have a vac. It still took me 20 minutes to clean up afterwards.
The HarborFreight cross slide vise I bought online for about $50 incuding shipping. They had larger ones, but they wouldn't fit in my tiny drill press. It was cheaper to ship than drive to the nearest store. (100+mile round trip. Houston is smeared over a large area...)

-Oh and thanks Devilhacker!

 

so is yours the 5" or the 4"?

 

4" -still has clearance problems. I have to reposition it on the platform a lot. For that last session I had to remove the top crank.

We should move to The Netherlands. I'm beginning to think everyone there has a CNC machine in their garage...

 

seriously! or a lathe... damn there poor there! not many cnc lathes they have to get the regular "sh!tty" lathes... jkjk

 

Wow looks really good but my brother told me that Harbor Freight tools are crap


Are they???

 

they are cheap, dirt cheap!

As long as yoru carefull... there lower in quality, but i woulnd't call them crap. You just gota be more carefull with them. But its great, for instance i would never buy, say, a heat gun for 75 bucks, but they have one for 10 bucks... So i wouldnt buy a mill there, but lots of stuff like airbrushes i buy there

 

It depends on what you get. The cross slide vise is the only practical rig I've found, and it's solid. The other option was a $200 rig made for an actual milling machine. It wouldn't have fit in a drill press.
-On the other hand, the set of hole saws I bought for something like $3 were iffy. I had to change out the collet because the one the set came with had a wobbly drill bit. There was no way in hell I would spend $30-$50 on a 'good' kit, though...
[INSERT RANT]-Diamond bits shouldn't cost as much as the do in hardware stores either. I think they charge more because of the consumer mindset that diamonds are an exotic item. Harbor Freight's $10 blades cut tile just as well as a $50 DeWalt blade.[END RANT]

 

Very clean work! Love the look.

Off-topic, my first post! lol.

 

congrats eel!

yeah, harbor freight is great for things you usually wouldn't dish out the money for...