Scratch Build – In Progress SSR-X: Update - Bottom Cover Fiberglass Part 2/De-Mold

Update

Hello. Got to work on the intake fan today.



Designed a basic pattern. Shaded in the area that need to be cut-out





Drilled and filed out the area's. The fan will be mounted from the bottom due to airflow direction and style.





I got my Red 3/8" hose today!!! Throw the Tygon 3603 out the window because I don't believe in that tubing anymore for its price. It still fades and collects material.





Also got in my different color heat sink tubing for the sleeving.



I got to cutting the hole for the exhaust fan for the power supply.



It came out pretty good. I used the trick that Bill Owen described in his modding tutorial for cutting holes with a fiber disc. I still have some cleaning up here to do.

Well Until this Weekend!

 

It's a while since I checked your log the last time, but it's getting better and better and I like what I see.

 

Drum sanders make excellent quick work of cleaning up holes, only recently added some to my tool bits & they really save time & effort, you can get tiny ones for dremel & you can get bigger ones to use in power drills & drill presses, really useful for cleaning up curve cuts or even straight cuts if used carefully, highly recommend them, makes edges look so much nicer & prevent them from being sharp enough to cut skin.

Used the same technique from Bill's video myself when I was new to dremels, great technique.

Good bit of progress since I last checked.

 

I definitely prefer the look of the fill port above the CF than underneath it , nice work on your cooling

 

I did think the same but without seeing the alternative in at least a drawing to give a rough idea of what he was thinking I just didn't really know.

I know I should have said that earlier on but I think I just opted out of saying while trying to vision what he meant exactly so felt like whatever I said about it I'd end up with my foot in my mouth some how.

 

Thanks!

Ya, it was a good move by me to get one with the round cuts that I had to clean up. It requires some skill to get good with, so practice will make perfect. I'm trying to make progress, the end always seems to drag out

I agree also, the problem with the fillport being mounted above is that there is no secure waterproof fit for the fill port into the reservoir. That means when I transport the case, water will slosh out and get all over inside the case.

I'm thinking of a redesign right now, though, I dont know if I will go through with it.

lolz, I'm lost here.......well look to comment above.

 

Update

Hello. Got some more work done.



Took a trip to Pat Catan's craft store to get some items to try and make a stencil for lettering. I don't have a digitial plotter and the nifty adobe program so I have to go with hand-made.

I bought a exacto knife and some vinyl letters along with some stencil making material.



Black kryon for $4. This will be used to for spray painting the letters on.







I took the stencil making material and placed letters on it than I proceeded to cut out the letters.

It turns out that the stencil that I made didn't work out as planned. The paint kept running under the letters, even, though I was really soft on the application of it.



So I placed the letter on the backing of red piece of acrylic. Than I cut and removed the letter. This should work











The sequence speaks for itself.





The result! Looks great









I went ahead and started drilling all the countersinks on the brackets while the paint was drying. These are just some of the various brackets.



Back to stenciling. This is the bottom piece of the video card bracket holder.



I went ahead and spray painted the back of it Black. Than I would just do the front lettering in Red.



The result!

That its for now.

 

Is this a solution for for the fill-port gap?.

Thought about it & it's a really short gap that needs filling, I thought maybe some tubing sealed on both ends, maybe that would do the trick to stop water splashing about.

Nice stencil work, it's pretty damn difficult freehand plotting, tried it a few times with iffy results but this looks good.

 

Update

Small Update:

I went into the shop today and did a bunch of small things on the build.



I took the covers for the intake and wanted to put some lettering on them to make them feel more authentic. I was going to put "CAUTION INTAKE" though, not enough room, bummer.







I will have to go over them again with clear and than sand the letters real lightly and than clear the letters again.



I also painted the intake nozzles.

I got a bunch of parts coming in again this week from Performance-PCs.

Peace

 

Looking good.

 

I like the design of having the fuel port as res fill port

 

OMG this is way beyond cool. You can't even see cool in the rear veiw mirror from here. Totally .....Speechless

 

Update

Hello! Progress has been steady but slow for the moment. I have been thinking alot lately about the internal styling of the components. I had an initial styling for the components at the beginning, though, with such a complex build I put this task off until the end, which, in turn has caused a slow-down.



I took the fan out and wanted to give it the proper jet turbine feel, so I painted the nose cone red because I thought it would look great and..........

NO NO NO NO ARRRGGGHHH NO





After the debacle, I went out and got some satin granite color spray paint because I wanted more of a hammered metal feel and a grey color best represents this.

It looks good though now I need to paint the underlying frame





Took the fan blade assembly off



Way better feel and look to the case





Compared to all black fans I believe this two tone color combo is the way to go.





Repeated for all three.



I was going to spray paint on the lettering and pull back from it.





Lets just spray paint the vinyl lettering and stick the letters on. That way if the fans ever get chipped or letters get damaged they can be replaced easily. When you taking your case to Lan Parties such things can happen.





Dont stick your finger in there or you will break the fan!!!







Gives the viewers an aircraft feel to the case when they look at the fans.



Had to cut the opening for the power supply cables to the motherboard. I learned from Aelro Dynamic that is I make the hole too small, it is not wise to due. I have alot more space here too.



After cutting.



I brought all my sleeving junk home and will begin the sleeving process over the next couple of days.

Until Tomorrow.

 

Thanks!!!

Thanks! Only makes sense

Thanks, lolz!!!

 

Update

Hello.



I needed to paint the reservoir. I didn't like the bare metal look so I came up with a two tone paint design and I started to paint.





I painted the bolt holes red and the body of the res. black. This gives the reservoir a edgy dark feel to it, though, in real life, the interior airframe would be the holding tank on a real aircraft. Nice thought, just not an undertaking I wish to take.





The two pieces put together.



I went back and added some more lettering script to the frame pieces of the landing gear. The R and L stand for left and right and the numbers don't mean anything, they are just for show.



The gear that I ordered from Performance PC's.













I believe there are enough other modders taking professional quality pictures of products, I don't have the photography experience or equipment to do such. So if the pictures seem bland, eat rocks. I pride myself off the what I am building.



Time to mod the 120mm exhaust fan for the power supply. I need to make the holes bigger to accommodate 10-32 bolts.













I also drilled the holes for the red LED's that will illuminate the rear exhaust sections of the case. 6 LED's and maybe more....





With the holes finally drilled for the led's I can move onto epoxying these rear assemblies together.



Until Tomorrow.

 

And we like your efforts man I'd rather see awesome modding than awesome photography anyday but to be honest everything is in good focus & are clear photos & everything is described well also so you are covering the important things, love that comment about eating rocks, made me lol.

Has someone said your photos aren't good? I've seen waaaaaaay worse & all these are workshop photos also which I know is an extra chore when modding, these are perfectly fine mate & is showing the step by steps of it all which is perfect modding & logging.

 

Update

Hello! Oh where Oh where have I been???!!!! Modding!!! Shall we.....



I needed to make a bracket or bracket pieces for the cover plate of the exhaust fan. This plate is for transport purposes.



Some red acrylic that will be painted black will be handy and also save on weight.



After some taping and aligning, time to drill some holes.



These hex head bolts are just for holding the pieces in place. 4 more mounting holes have to be drilled for the cover plate.





The cover without the mounting hardware, but in position. Remember this is only for transport purposes.



I need to make mounting brackets for the front case feet cover. It took along moment to develop a bracket that I liked. I came up with this simple but aggressive bracket.



What the bracket looks like without the cover on. I say aggressive because when the cover is off, the V-shape of the bracket gives an aggressive look I think. I think it is what people imagine to see, though, I have a wild imagination!



With the cover plate on.



It is time to drill some holes in the bulkhead and frames pieces. This will be for not only running water cooling lines but also electrical lines. Plus it reduces the weight of the case







teaser.



I had to wander around Cleveland to find an 1/4" adapter extension for my reservoir. I did find one There are not enough threads on the compression fitting for a good fit.







I will paint these adapter pieces.

I am working on trying to finish this build this week or so. I did already start sleeving for this build but those pictures will be taken tomorrow.

 

Final stretch happy days.

I can't see a finish line at all yet.

 

Looking good and I can't wait to see it come together

 

Prologue

Supersonic Stealth Reconnaissance - X-plane ​

This build started in December of 2010 as an idea of "what if." After constructing a cardboard mock up, I took a step back and said to myself "that this couldn't be done by one person." The angles, bracketing, and internal frame is what derailed me. Through the spring of 2011 with the advent of missing the community and viewing CraigBru Osidias build, I was inspired to make something out of carbon fiber. My previous build Aelro Dynamic couldn't sufficiently cool my 480 Fermi in SLI with water, so I knew a new design had to be created. In that same spring, I taught myself various CAD programs and thus created a 3D render of SSR-X. The 3D render done in Sketch-up let me stream line some of the fabrication process with the creating of blueprints. I put a $1500 budget for fabricating the entire case and thus the build was on!!!!​

The realm of Carbon Fiber infused in Computer Case Modding has been very scare. The only other completed scratch build using carbon fiber that I know of is Dark Carbon. Osidias and Ametros are two other builds that I hope to see completed in the near future. Which leads to my build SSR-X. I knew this was a really special build when I was staring down at finally figuring out the best way to make the carbon fiber components. I could have went a variety of routes: lamination, vacuum bagging, or vacuum resin infusion. After studying the methods and what would produce the best finish along with the best strength to weight ratio, I trained my eyes on resin infusion. I knew this was going to be the most expensive route, in that, it required molds and an extensive equipment and materials list. This would be the first time at anyone in the modding community would have done this and demonstrated this technique. Which is important, because in order to be a great modder, one has to venture into new realms that haven't been explored.
​

I than tasked myself in calculating the amount of carbon fiber needed and realized that with +20 yards, this would be the worlds largest carbon fiber computer case! Not only in terms of size but material. This came at a cost. By the time I was done constructing my first mold in the build, I had already gone over my budget for the case. As an inventor, I am dedicated not only to my projects but to the community that I represent and belong too. I stopped counting from that point on. At least, until the first infusion that resulted in failure and $500 into the garbage bin. I was nervous and scared, because I didn't know if the next fusion's were going to work. I re-ran the infusions over and over and over in my head until finally I thought I had the right process and just went for it. Good Failure leads to Good Success. My next two infusions, although, while not exactly perfect turned out to be good. With enough carbon fiber material left over I was able to construct the interior frame and various other pieces out of carbon fiber. ​

This build is one-of-a-kind. It is also a build of many first's in the modding community. I don't know when a build like this or build using composite materials will be done next. I hope that this build not only inspires people and modders but raises awareness to the need of pursuing in working with new and different materials in the modding commmunity. Time for a teaser​

Teaser



Cut a slot for the main cable



I had to use the power connector from the power supply because of these little connections of the back.









LED placement for the exhaust diffuser.


See you all when it Completed.