Scratch Build – In Progress Fresh Meat: A Dota 2 Tribute [Updated 7/5/17]

Good reminder of the versatility of a dremel, nice work on the slate.

 

Thanks guys!

Holy crap I'm not dead nor is the project! After a much too long hiatus which included vacations, holidays and CES prep, it's time to breathe some life back into this build.

First off, I'm very proud to announce a new partner for the build, hiya Noctua! Noctua was generous enough to hook me up with some 140mm IndustrialPPC fans as well as the newly released Chromax color corner pads




These two baddies are going to be all the cooling for the build (at this point at least) and I know they'll get the job done.




There is an awenser for everyone that always wanted to get away from the Noctua brown, Chromax is here!




Not sure what color I'll end up going yet, maybe a couple rainbow fans are in the works.




Back to the log proper. It's never good when you have to dust your projects off.




I'm back on the router, slotting up all ur case lids.




Slotting for an acrylic bar!




There's a 4mm gap in between the two lid pieces.




Taking a break from that little project for an accent piece on the Dota logo. 1/8 acrylic here.




Cuttin' 'er down, drop 'er into place. I think I'll be hitting this with some LEDs to back light the logo.






And back to the lid, adding ANOTHER slot.




The profile.




You guessed it, another acrylic bar will go into the second slot.




This will all tie into lighting someway or another.




It's down right frosty in here!




Doing the miter cuts on the bars to be insterted.




Looks like a Darkside LED strip will fit perfectly.



That's all for this update but I've got more coming! Thanks again to my sponsors, both the new and old!

 

Boo! Hiss!

Love it. That's a LOT of LED for the lid. It's going to be bright.

 

As a card carrying dad, I not only feel entitled but obligated to make terrible jokes.

Have to do some testing with the Darksides. I have a toggle switch that can knock down the juice going to the strips or I might wire up some 3mm LED arrays instead. I could also limit the voltage coming out of the fan header that will power the thing to dim them as well. At least there are options besides blinding people lol.

 

Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back with more!


Math, damn it's hard sometimes.




Putting together the rad/pump brackets out of 1/16th aluminum.




This is the bracket that will sit in the lid, the rad and fans on their own bracket will mount to this guy.




Cut-out to allow me to remove the rad/fans.




As it will sit in the lid.




Layout for the rad/fan plate.




Yeah, something like that.




Some hacking and slashing later...




Drilling the mounting holes here.




Bingo bango, tomato tomato, potato potato.




Had to test the lights out too. This is with two Darkside strips. I'm not sure if I'll go this route yet or go with 3mm LED arrays.








Of course, thanks as always to my great sponsers:

 

Last pick looks like you are grilling a slice of sandwich meat.

 

Dota 2 Hash Brown, it's whats for dinner.

 

Nice wood work! Those LED strips are BRIGHT.

 

Nice work man!

 

Subbed. Really interested in seeing it all finished and glowing red.

 

looking forward to next update!

 

Thanks for the kind words everyone! Cripes, it's been way too long. I've been up to a lot, but not much modding unfortunately. This is about to change though! Spring is here in Minnesota, our snow is gone and everything seems to come out of hibernation, including mod munkys!

Away we go, I think it's time I put these EK blocks to use.


She's a short little 970, perfect for a small but capable build.


Zee power on the Impact


Good to go here too, now I just need a damn case to throw these in.


I guess I better work on the case. Hinge time, nothing fancy here, just some plain Jane steel hinges that were kicking around in the shop.


Routed a little slot for them on the case body and lid.


This was a nervous night. Gluing is the next hurdle for assembly and I have little experience gluing wood. The thought of something coming out horribly wrong and causing a big setback was my main concern. Everything went pretty smooth though for the first round.


Front section, gluing on the key plate housing here


After gluing, the next big hurdle was finishing. I decided I'd apply my finish without the steel mesh in place so that I wouldn't have to worry about making a mess on the mesh. Ready to go after sanding, gluing and more sanding are the two side panels, the front panel and the rear panel.


After talking with a friendly mod Mosquito and doing some testing, I settled on using wipe on poly for my finish.


A large mug of BAMF juice helped me on my way (settles the nerves you know, steady hand)


I think this is after two coats in the process, the grain is starting to pop.




After the fourth and final coat.


Everything turned out great, there were a few small glue spots but I think for my first go at things it was a success. I couldn't resist throwing a panel together after everything dried to see how it looked.


A big thanks to these guys, who give me the motivation to mod and the excitement to use their products.

 

Oh yeah, love me some woodwork. Looking good!

 

Give the guy some Rep

Everything about this project log makes me smile.

 

Thanks for the compliments guys!

I'm back with a small update this week. Been a bit under the weather so I haven't been able to get after it like I've wanted, but here we go.

A while back I cut an acrylic spacer for the chest lid Dota logo, time to light that bad boy up!




I'm a fan of lights, and I'm not very subtle about it. I figure if you're gonna light something up, you better see it from space.




Breadboards and cheap Chinese LEDs go together great, I love it when they light up on the breadboard and die in the array (not).




After fighting with some dead LEDs, I finally got the array to work.




Lights out knock out.




I also got the time to clean up my finished case sides and glue them up.




It's been a long time coming but everything standing together on its own power is a great sight for me!




Thanks as always to my generous sponsors!

 

It's getting better and better.

 

It's not easy to use LEDs for a heat source, but you are getting close.

 

Thanks for checking out the build perplekks45 and Cheaps, well, I have to have something to melt snow around here.

Working on some putzy stuff before I apply finish on the corner posts and assemble the case body. I made some hold down brackets for the motherboard frame, gotta drill pilot holes.




For the back corners I'm going to fix the frame in with a few screws.




You know, drilling corners is kind of a pain in the ass.




They came out pretty well.




My soundtrack for this leg of the mod. I ended up coming out of that book with a very different perspective on Jobs, one hell of a designer. Something I identify with in the modding world.




All the posts set up with pilot holes.




Sanded, bagged, and tagged.




I got to playing around with the idea of using earth magnets for the lid latch mechanism. I'm not doing a true lock due to how I ended up using the lock plate and I want something seamless. Let's see how magnets pan out...




This one is mostly for Bill. I was looking for some screws and he liked the screw collection pic before. This is the cabinet they're in, the doors are the old windows off our house.




These are begging for a future project.




Alright, I picked up some stronger magnets after a little testing. I've got a test leg to work with here.




Checks out.




Now for the real deal.




Everything going as planned so far.




I took a slice of my test leg to make some cover plugs out of. This way I'll match the grain in the case legs.




Preping them on the bandsaw then sand to final.




Test fit is perfect.




Slap a little two part epoxy and I'm off to the races.




Sanded down and looking sleek. I had a little epoxy seep out on one of the legs but pretty good all things considered.




Hey, I can do this now!




Thanks to the people that grease the modding wheels!

 

Nice finish on the corner posts

 

Post lag! My brain started telling me you were finished it's been so long.
The fit on the wood covers is spooky perfect.
Remember to get the magnets in the lid turned the right way. -unless you are planning a hover lid.