Scratch Build – In Progress GET A LIFE - COMPLETED

Thanks Attila, thats a very nice comment so im realy glad you didn't wait until the end.

Thanks for the massive comment friend. It feels good that you have the same thoughts about the brushing and coloring as I do. It's always nice to get the ideas supported by others and especially a greate modder like you.

Here.. let me crack them for you
Joking aside, it would be a true honor to be up against you Achron, in any competition.

Thanks mate, Im glad you like it

Hehe any comment is good enough for me, im glad you like it

Thanks Yassarikhan, im really glad the brushing turned out the way it did. I was a bit unshure if it would work but I think it did. A MOTY nomination would be a true honor for shure, thanks for your support

Thanks RedManc, then I guess I'll need to figure out something more to bring it up another level

Hehe I bet it all could work as a paper weight once its assembled aswell A pretty heavy one

Sure why not
Or maybe not.. as there is still a lot of pics left to show

Thanks, me too

Hahaha poor keyboard
Thanks

Thanks mate.
Maybe I can convert you to Alu as you have almost converted me to wood.

Thanks peteski, nice words

Thanks Cheap, I bet you would
But sorry, not replying is against my personal rules . If you take your time commenting, a comment back is the least I can do to show my appreciation. Even if it's only a

But don't worry, youll see everything finished very soon

Thanks mate.
The anodizing cost 1000 SEK, thats around 140 USD. It's for around 70 pieces in 3 colors including tax. They will charge extra if you choose a color they don't have premixed or if they need to customize the fixture to hold your pieces. Luckely they didn't need to do that in my case so I think I got a pretty good price.

Hehe thanks, that just means you have given me enough

Thanks

Yeah I think it was. And Im finaly starting to get the feeling back in my fingertips from all the brushing. They were numb for several days and I was a bitt worried that I had destroyed something internaly as I didn't wear gloves and all the edges were pretty sharp. But now they start to feel like normal again, though the fingertips on the right hand have a bit thicker skin

Thanks

Thank you for the nice comment




Progress:
Today its big assembly day, and finishing up the last cables, hopefully I got some stuff to show you tonight/tomorrow.

 

Corrected your mistakes, have fun with the assembly.

 

Hahaha nice one

 

Nice finish on those parts, looks great in silver and black

 

Stop rolling thumbs again Swede!

 

Thanks riekmaharg2, Glad you like the colors, looking forward to seeing your anodizing results aswell

You again....you, you master of waterblocks.

Hold your horses, Im in the middle of taking photos of the assembly process so far, working as fast as I can.
(change fast to painstakingly)

 

I'm not gonna bother you then, just make looooooooads of pics!

 

Thats a pretty good price bro! In my place there is only one company and they charge a looooooot like its gold or something. And the other problem is that you have to get them a certain quantity as they only do massive production..... It sucks! Powder coating though has good prices and also laser and cnc so I shouldnt be whining that much looolz

 

Taking pics is no problem, but sorting them out is the hardest part.

Yeah the price was pretty good, I'll be using them a lot in the future Its sad when companys only take on large quantitys, the small firms are always the easiest ones, luckely mine was small enough to take on my project.

At first I was thinking of giving DIY anodizing a try but got to scared when I saw what acids that are needed. One mistake and your life can be ruined. One thing I really respect is acids.

Yeah, your lucky on the cnc service instead, I've never used one so I don't know what It would cost me. But I might know in the future.





And now, on with the show.






Silver screws wouldn't look good on the cpu block so I decided to paint them black. They were sprayed with a black heat resistant car engine paint often found at auto shops. The color can withstand temps of 600°C and fully cures at 250°C. So I put them in the oven for baking. The surface gets really thin and it captures every detail, sticks in the m3 threads without any problems when screwing. It's also very durable as it can withstand the torque from a screw driver. Good solution if you want black screws but can only find silver ones.


The black screws turned out nice but hey... it's time to bring out the designer in me and scream at those copper pipes that doesn't go well with the green and black theme. The right pipe is not messed up.. well it is, but it's for a reason as you will se in the next update.






Oh yeah.. now that is much nicer. Don't worry, I didn't cover up any important contact area so this shouldn't effect its cooling ability.



I got hold of some nice m3x6mm screws aswell. Since I will be using a lot of these, It was really nice to not have to paint my own






We are getting there...



..Almost....done



..Just ned a few black ones..



..Done , You'll just have to wait till the finish to see the front all together since now I need to remove some of them to mount the walls. It might look as if this was a simple process to just screw the pieces inplace, but it's a pain in the ass to align all the cubes together and get the lines inbetween as straight as possible. You move one piece a tiny bit and then you have to move all the others aswell.






And some new parts I havn't shown before, the function of these I'll give you a chance to figure out yourself. But I can give you a tip, those four puny puny things attached to that M3 screw are über strong Neodym magnets. I don't know their exact lifting ability but they were able to hold a medium size plier



Glued in place









This is how the sidewalls are attatched to awoid any vissible screws. These screws will be hidden by the black pixel frame that is screwed on later from the other side.















Now it's time for some sleep and tomorrow or (techincally today) Ill try to finish up the assembly.

 

My GOD that's hot!

Were you drunk when you posted this, or did you actually stay up until 4:37 in the morning, on will-power alone?

+rep for baking black screws!

 

Nice and clean work but there's a potential problem.

Anodizing is an electrochemical process to grow natural oxide layer on aluminium (and other metals) much thicker because it's stronger and protects the alumium itself. Aluminium oxide (or alumina) in itself is used as an abrasive and as a thermal insulator. Might not be a big problem on large surface areas, but on contact areas...

I find nothing wrong in your instinct of self preservation but sulfuric acid is very useful acid and (relatively) safe to work with. It's not that bad

It's not toxic like hydrofluoric acid and nowhere near as corrosive as super acids. In the other end of sulfuric acid there's sodium hydroxide, a strong base which is at least as dangerous. Sold as drain opener (strongest in its solid form).

For anodizing you need to dilute sulfuric acid down to 15-20% and do that by adding acid to water. With hydrochloric acid there wouldn't be splashing effect if you do it the other way around, but still it's a good rule of thumb because the weaker solution is not always water.

 

So....much....aluminum....

Hawt.

 

Sensational! ... have you started building mine yet ?

as my last statement is rather unlikely you must at least post some High Res shots when you are done so we can have new Get a Life wallpapers!

Great job Gnu keep it coming

 

This keeps getting better and better, I am very interested in seeing the temps this cooling will achieve.

 

+1 to this mate.
Just uber sick!

 

It's looking so damn hot already.

I can't wait till it's finished and of course you get back on ProtoHype.

 

That green is awesome, perfect choice & learnt the right way to colour screws/bolts you can get all sorts of engine colour paints even candy type paints so this is handy black heat pipes as well can see why it's not a perfectly simple thing to screw the blocks in place too with the alignment .

Effing jeffing awesome rig & I'd love to own 1 of these 8-bit theme & sweet aluminium work is soooooo awesome think it's my favourite HTPC I've ever seen & it isn't even fully assembled yet .

Can't hold back the rep .

 

That's damn sexy! Sexual rep incoming...
Yeah... It's me again.

 

That looks absolutely stunning. The anodizing is top notch and that green....Hawt!!!!

 

Glorious

@AngelOD - I'm betting he didn't look at a clock until he got to that point. These things will make you lose track of time you know.
However, he may sleep all day today...