Case Mod - In Progress Project: Endorphin (Update 23/01)

nice...
What kind of drill bits do you use? Are they special for plexi or just normal metal bits? Is that a drill stand and a drill in it or you have a drill station?

 

OMW!!! Awesome work Dae!!!

 

Nice project ! I love Shuttle <3

 

Thanks for the comments guys

I just use regular plain old drill bits

And the drill is a drill press.

Updates Cheesecake!!

I've modded like a mad man for the last few days. I basically modded the whole day today, until about a half an hour ago. What an awesome day it was! I love being done with my studies

Okay, first off - the Koolance flow meter. I had a bit of a problem, because the flow meter is meant for 10mm tubing, and the entire loop in this machine will be 1/4" (6mm). This is one of the koolance fittings:





I needed a plan. So i spoke to my step-dad about it and he told me "I'll see what i can do for you tomorrow, just be patient." As it turned out, he machined two adapters for me! They step the 10mm down to 6mm! Awesomeness! I also needed brabs for my Swiftech Raddy (for some or other reason, the barbs i got from P-PCs for the raddy were the COMPLETE wrong size...). So, here are the two adapters and the two barbs:





So here the combo i made for my flow meter so that it's basically a 6mm now:





For some or other reason, i didn't take a photo of the adapters in place... oh well, there are pics later in the update

Moving along...

The front panel didn't actually fit in place 100%, because the screws that hold the support beams in place were in the way. Look:





The screw:





So i need to drill a hole in the first layer of plexi in the front panel so that the screw sinks into the plexi. I was puzzled a bit for a while... "How the hell am i gonna mark where to drill that hole?!" and then i had an Epiphany (lol?). Here was my answer:





Tomato Sauce!









Voila!





We need to be resourceful modders!

Next up, i shortened some 4mm alen cap screws for the reservoir mounting:





(i think i went through an entire reinforced dremel disc shortening these screws)

Reservoir mountings fitted:





Reservoirs fitted and tubing attached:





Then i moved on to the side panel. I wanted to leave this panel and have it laser cut (it's not like i can just go out and buy another side panel if i screw this one up) but i was in such a mood for modding that i just decided to do it by hand. I was quite scared because, believe it or not, i've NEVER worked with Alu, ever. So, here's the panel:





Masked up:





I spent quite a while marking off what i should cut:





Half way:





Cutting done:





Now came the tedious and time consuming task of sanding and filing the edges straight. Here i was about half way:





Done:





One or two corners need a bit more filing, but otherwise, it's not bad for a first time

Then i did a test fit of the frame:





As you can see, there are actually parts of the panel still in view there. That's not problem though, as there will be mesh in the top and bottom holes, the middle hole will be a window.

Next up was the mesh. I want the mesh piece to be one BIG piece with a hole in the middle for the window. this will leave a cool effect with the mesh under the red plexi. So i marked off the mesh i want to cut out:





Cutting:





Done:





Quick look of the mesh under the panel:





Bear in mind that the middle hole will be cut out

That's as far as i got with the window, as i got sick and tired of sanding and filing. I'll finish it tomorrow.

Hmmm... what's next...

Ahh, the top panel. All along i've been wondering what to do with my top panel. A plain black panel just isn't gonna cut it. That's where i got the flow meter idea. I'm sure some of you have been wondering what the point of the flow meter is if it's inside, right? Well, that's what will be one of the things to add some detail to the top panel. Marked off the panel:





Small pilot hole drilled:





40mm hole made:







The BASIC idea:





That idea will obviously still get "optimized" a hell of a lot, but that's just to give you an idea. When i'm finished, the flow meter will be MUCH closer to the top, and the very top of the meter might actually stick out of the panel. Alternatively, i can make a little window. I'll see how it goes.

I ran into a slight problem though. The bracket i made for the flow meter couldn't work anymore. I'm not sure how i measured wrong, but the flow meter was about 4mm too far INTO the case (like... horizontally), so my only option was to remake the bracket i had made a few days ago.

Here's the old bracket (you can also see how i've stepped the tubing down to 6mm here):





And the new one:





A nice comparisson:







Another nice comparisson:





As you can see, the difference is VERY slight, but it's there. It's only a couple of millimeters. If i hadn't made the new bracket, the meter wouldn't have been in the center of that hole, and that just won't do.

So, that's all i have for you now. I'll continue tomorrow. I'm planning on making a nice plexi panel for the top of the case, which will also have a hole in for the flow meter. Ooh it's gonna be sexy

Anyway, cheers guys, sleep well. I'm dead tired.

 

Time is what makes the difference! And putting in the time, to make a difference that will seem as nothing to the naked eye, is what makes a true modder IMHO... Nice work!
BTW, love the tomato sauce-way! Work with what you got!

 

In future, unless you like tomato sauce, you can try using a marker. Just paint the end of the screw with the marker and quickly press the panel in place. I've used this, never thought of tomato sauce lol

Good work, Shuttlemods are always interesting.

 

I missed some updates, damn, have to pay more attention It's looking really good, maybe you could use a piece of acrylic tubing (with 40mm ID) from the top to the flow meter? Anyway I will subscribe to this one, to make sure I won't miss any more updates

 

Lovely clean work mate. The devil is indeed in the detail.
Will that little bit of "s" from the Shuttle logo be hidden by the mesh?

 

Looking good.
The flow meter needs a bubble window. Got a shop vac you can use?
Tomato sauce is OK... I've always been more of a 'hit it and drill out the scuff mark' kind of guy.

 

I wish I could bottle up DJV's patience and sell it Awesome detail work as usual

 

Thanks for the comments guys!

I'm not sure what you're suggesting here

No, the S will still be there, but only about half of it. And once the panel is painted black, it'll be hardly noticeable. I'm a hell of a perfectionist though, and if it DOES bother me, i'll have to remake the plexi frame, mesh, and window...

Nope

I wish so too dude.... I wish i could bottle it up on the days that i have so much of it and drink it on days like today. I gave up after 20 minutes of sanding and filing today. just didn't have the patience

Update time.

I wasn't planning on posting an update, but i'm bored and at home, so instead of playing Forza 2 for another few hours or watching this David Gilmour DVD again, i thought i'd post an update.

Alright, here are my two 7600GTs that i'll be SLI-ing in this shuttle:





Yes yes, i know that their made by a different Vendor. Long story behind that that nobody cares about, but the point is that they'll work together, but i have to do some modding first! See, when i first got this shuttle, i had my two 7800GTs in here:





I had to mod their coolers though, but luckily i wont need to mod any coolers, because the coolers are coming off. So here's what i did. I measured up two identical pieces of plexi that will act as mounting hardware:





Drilled the holes FIRST (only learned this little tip a few weeks ago):





After cutting them out, i tapped the 4mm holes in the middle with a 5mm thread:





And here is the setup of the two cards. Reminds me SO much of the 7950GX2:











Obviously it will look a million times better when i'm finished. I still need to make appropriately long 3mm rods, polish the plexi, and also get a nice 5mm dome nut for the Legend card's mounting.

I also did some more tubing work:







Ignore the slight kink between the chipset and first video card, that will be sorted out

Then i started some more work on the mesh. Ahh man i hate working on this mesh... Cut out:





After that, i sanded it to the perfect size, and rounded the corners. I still need to finish the corners though.

Then i needed to make the holes in the plexi frame that will hold the frame, mesh, side panel, and window together. I was scared of doing this, because the mounting screws will be 3mm, and the plexi frame is only 10mm wide. This leaves a HUGE possibility of cracking the plexi. So i needed to mask up the frame, PERFECTLY, so that i could make the markings in the center, PERFECTLY in the center. Masking up this thing was a tedious and time consuming process.... Masking...





Masking...





Masking...





Please... no more...




(please excuse that mess. That's actually a room for all sorts of other crap, and since my modding room is overflowing with other stuff, i have to mod here )


I eventually got it done and marked the holes:





And drilled them:





No cracks

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm busy making these same holes in the mesh. It's such a crap job... you have NO idea. Each hole takes at least 5 minutes of drilling/filing.

 

That window frame has to be the single hottest piece of acryl I've seen so far! Good job all the way, keep it up.

 

That will be a nice looking loop I don't know why you're so afraid of cracking the plexi though, with your drill press it would be done easily. You will need some sharp drills, maybe that's the problem?

I can imagine the drilling of the mesh is a pain in the a$# It would be easier if you would do it with a mill bit, and/or clamp it to the plexi to the drill has to go through in THAT particular spot.

And to come back to my idea of the plexi tube, some posts earlier: I thought it would be nice if you would fill the (for example) 10mm gap of the top to the flow meter, with a 10mm piece of acrylic tubing, with an inner diameter of 40mm. But a bubble top would be nice also, you could even do that with a wooden mold and a vacuum cleaner

 

DAE: how did you tap that acrylic? I tried but I might pressed it too much and broke the tap.... it is so hard to keep it still and tap in 90degrees... did you do it in hands?

 

You used tomato sauce..? That's amazing and worth five stars by itself.

 

Agreed, great idea! Love the mod too, very original and very good craftsanship!

 

Thanks for your comments guys!

Yeah, i do it by hand. Just drill the hole 1mm or 0.5mm small than the thread you want. For example, i drilled the holes 4mm, and then tapped them with a 5mm tap

Update time!

I'm SO excited to get this update up.

One thing, before i update.... i HATE mesh.... i hate it. It looks so, so good, but working with it is terrible...

ANYWAY. As i said in the last update, i needed to make all the mounting holes in the mesh. My initial method ended up costing me about 10 minutes per hole (there are 14 holes, so that's over 2 hours, just to make a few holes). I eventually thought about using plexi as a guide, and that worked perfectly:







After some more sanding and filing, it looks like the mesh is almost done:









Now i just have to cut a big hole into it. lol.





Half way:







OMW... how sexy is this:















All it needed now was a window:





All done:







Not too bad for my first side panel mod ever hey? I'm very happy with the result, i think it looks absolutely fantastic. All the panel still needs is a couple of layers of paint

By the way, looks like i'm destroying photobucket this month. lol. I've used almost 30GBs of bandwidth since the 12th of November :|

 

really nice done, working with plexi is real paint, once i have to fit 3mm leds into 5mm thick plexi

 

You're right, that is looking nice as hell

 

That's positively delightful to look at.