Case Mod - In Progress Project: Hutch (Qmicra v2) The reservoir v.2! Aug 16

Braze on, my brotha!

 

good job

 

What do you think of those right angle Dremel attachments Craig? I was looking at them to other day for basically the same thing you were using it for, I just think it may make following the line easier. I like how you have the slots cut in your work bench, would make filing sooo much easier.

Nice work with the mesh mate, should look even better once it's glued down.

 

Gotta feel the burn!

Thanks mate!

Um, it's not what it looks like... Lol.

Thanks man! I use the attachment for everything. It give me so much more control. It seems to be a more ergonomic way of holding the dremel. I'd definitely recommend picking one up.

Yeah, the slots have been working very well so far. I really wish I had something like this before. It would have saved me a fair amount of time while modding.

 

Absolutely fantastic work (as always)!!! ...and the basement looks great! Nice to see it finished as I've been following the progress from the beginning in the Rogue log. =)

I don't rate work logs until they are further along, but I see (_at least_) five bright stars from me rising above the horizon for this one! Just a few updates more and they will be yours! (I guess I could give em to you already, cause I sure it will be more than well deserved... but I have my principles) <=)

Oh, and since reps wasn't around at time of the Rogue here's a +1 for that one. Needless to say, but I'm a _great_ fan of your work!!!!

LOL! xD @ Cheapskate

 

looking great

 

Thanks for the compliments! The basement has been getting quite a bit of use since it's been finished. It's still a little odd to walk down the steps and see it done. It had only been partially finished since I built the house 6 years ago, and now it's my favorite part of the house.

Thanks for the belated Rogue rep! Lol. With any luck I can get Hutch finished up soon, and move on to the next project. After the case cover is done, I've got to get the pump platform fabbed and mounted, add a fan controller to custom location, mod the PSU and side radiator mounting, and make a switch mount. That's the remainder of the big stuff anyway...

Thanks man!

 

It took me a while to figure that one out, but OMG cheap

 

Lol, leave it to Cheaps...


I'll have an update on the cover sometime this weekend. I'm currently waiting for some more brazing rod to arrive. The stuff I have has a melting temp higher than I'm comfortable with. It's too close to the melting temp of aluminum, and I'd prefer not to make a mess of things...

I do have a few other things I can do in the meantime however, and I'll update soon.

 

-

 

I subscribe to this project.
Great job.

 

Lookin good Craig! This will be crazy cool when it's finish

 

Very nice indeed.....

 

Thanks man! For all the new technology out there, sometimes nothing is better than older hardware.

I appreciate the compliment1

Haha, thanks Bill. It's much appreciated coming from you.

Thank you!

 

Brazing... A sound idea, with execution caveats. I've talked about the technique in past posts, and have been really looking forward to putting it to use in my modding. So, with a few sticks of HTS-2000 and my torch, I made a few practice runs with great success. However, with the reality of using the actual case cover, things turned out a little differently...

I was having problems with getting the aluminum hot enough without causing warping. Originally, I didn't think this would have been an issue, as the HTS-2000's melting temperature is 500 degrees below that of the aluminum. Well, there's a big difference between melting point and the metal simply becoming more flexible as heat was applied. Not one to give up, I thought it might be a mounting and support issue. I tried several different methods, before ultimately deciding that maybe brazing wasn't the best course of action at the moment.

So what went wrong? It was really quite simple in the end. The area I was trying to braze was a relatively narrow piece of aluminum. It was a little over 16 mm in width. The torch was applying a lot of heat in small area, and with insufficient supporting material, it was softening the metal before getting hot enough to melt the rod. It's something that I didn't come across in all my practice, as I was using larger pieces of aluminum. There was more metal to dissipate the heat, prevent warping, and still allow the aluminum to reach the HTS-2000's melting temperature.

While I may not have been able to use the brazing technique in this particular instance, the method still has it's place. I'll definitely use it again in the future, under more ideal conditions.

Now that brazing is off the table, I fall back to good ol' JB Weld. It will still do an outstanding job, and that brings us to the following pics...





Up next will be the the finished cover, and then I'm back to case details...

 

Thats why I preach experimentation. The side panel looks kick ass perforated!

 

Great work Craig, been a bit busy of late, so was nice to catch up today on the progress

 

Hey Craig,

I was waiting for your “insanity” to kick in now that your shop is done!

Excellent work as usual!

Eric

 

Haha, that's right Bill. You just never know unless you try. Sometimes failures are really the biggest successes as long as you learn something...

Thanks mate!

Thank you! Although this project is much simpler than what I've done in the past, it's still been a nice warmup for OSIDIAS. In reality, I don't have a lot more to do to this case, I just need to get the updates posted. The cover is done, I've also modded the case for a longer PSU, and started mounting fan controller hardware to a custom location in the rear of the case. Expect updates in the next day or two!