Scratch Build – In Progress ESKIMOD 2.0 - [COMPLETED]

I'd like to introduce my new best friend. Under my workshop bench was this little fellow. It's a sharpener I used for my lawn mower. Turns out it's also the best for shaping acrylic.



And here's probably the most fabrication and challenging part of the build. Tons of time went into shaping the acrylic and sheet metal AND I'm still not done. Need to cut the holes out of the sheet metal still. Getting close though.





And here's the final printed raid caddy. Hot swappable drive PCB with LED activity indicator. Should be fun to get running.





Designed for airflow from the rear deck to carry away heat from the HDDs.





And peeking through the back. Still need to trim the mobo tray a bit.



And the team received their championship rings in the past couple weeks. Here's a pic. Now wouldn't that make an epic power button?



So off to the 3D modelling program I went.



Biggest trouble is the resolution of my 3D printer. This will be a lot of prep work to get it somewhere I'm happy with. Either that or I find a higher resolution printer and try it on there.



So this was an unexpected birthday gift. USB microscope. Turns out it may be exactly what I need for fixing up the print out.



So much for me talking crap about not having much prep to do on my printed parts. Yikes.



But what's an epic power button without lights? Early tests are looking promising. Bet the team's rings don't do that...

 

Beautiful progress man

 

Thank you sir!

 

2015 Grey Cup Logo.

 

Sooooooooooooo... the air goes in the back and out the front. So I don't want to be staring at the hind quarters of any fan, because fan backs suck. There I said. I feel better now.

Rip the fan apart and finally made little footballs for the project. They'll be subtle.



Figured out some of the LED lighting.



And a suspiciously familiar shape. Well, it is if you follow the league.



And all cut out.



Printed up some accessories.



Built up some structure to hold the floating fans.



And a quick test to see how it will look.



Some paint going on the little footballs now and hopefully gluing in the morning.

 

Um...



Nailed it.

 

Been pushing hard this week to get as much done as I can. Work has had me on the road a LOT which simply doesn't leave me time to work on the project much. Unfortunately looks like I'll need at least another week to get done. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Had to re-route some wires on my Corsair Link fan controller to better fit the build. Popped it open and created a new hole on the side instead of the back. Also drilled a couple screw holes in the corners to mount it in the side panels.



Now it fits nice and comfortably and hey, it's nice and close for the pump. Bonus points!



I've had people asking about those fittings. Those are some beta fittings that Bill Owen from MNPCTECH.com sent my way. I used them on my last build and they worked just great. Bringing them forward to this build as well. Kind of nice to have something pretty unique in there.

Got some paint on the printed fan mounts so that I can glue them down to the fans. Not thinking about painting the blades themselves at this point, but they pop off easily enough that I can revisit this later if I want. Floating fans all assembled now. Just some decoration work to add.



Window cut and mounted. Simple design with two thumb screws. Should work well enough. I may add some foam or rubber to the edges to prevent scratches and such.



And the power button. Oh my what an extravaganza this piece has been. Modeled the power button after the championship ring the team received a couple weeks ago. The resolution on my 3D printer wasn't quite up to the detail on the lettering, but I've done what I can to tidy it up. Gutted a tiny flashlight for the LEDs. Should run fine on a 5v line, so I'll have to add a molex to it. Cut some acrylic and gave it a gentle sanding to diffuse the light a bit. And a spot for a tiny momentary switch.



Fit seems good. Still need to drill out some screw holes.



I kind of underestimated the power of the flashlight and blinded my wife a pinch during testing. Here's what it's looking like.





Honestly at this point my next build should be a Green Lantern build...

Thanks once again to the sponsors of this build.

 

Last of the holes drilled. Time to tear down for filler/primer/paint.



One Eskimod 2.0 custom PC. (some assembly required)



And getting ready to do some painting.

 

Preliminary coat curing in the sun.



As are the decorative pieces.



Cruddy can of blotching paint actually made an interesting orange peel effect. Add to that a layer of sparkle and it's kind of hypnotizing. I may have to forego the sheet metal...

 

A pic I forgot to post earlier.



And a shot of the custom paint for the RAM.

 

If your Raidens from Avexir don't match, make them match.

 

Paint, paint, paint. If this goes well I could be assembling on the weekend.

 

Case assembled! Build to come over the next couple of weeks (since work has me on the road yet again.)

 

That case looks fantastic.

 

Hey thanks!

 

And of course right at the tail end of things I find that I'm two fittings short of completing the loop. Ah well. In the meantime a shout out to the sponsors of this project.

Big thanks again to ALPHACOOL for the great watercooling parts provided for this project.



And thanks to AVEXIR for the terrific RAIDEN ram supplied.



Big thanks to MNPCTECH for the case feet and fittings.



And much thanks to MODMYMODS for their generous support as well.

 

Looks great. I don't know how well the top fans will work, but it's an interesting look. Exposed fan blades are not something a hippie like me would think to try.

 

I have 3x140s forcing air in the back, so the pressure should be positive and naturally flow that way. Worst case if I have cooling issues with the loop I can always add some rear fans behind the radiator. Tons of room back there.

But yeah, it is an esthetic thing mostly.

 

As I understand it, the going wisdom is that on a radiator you typically want a fan with a high static pressure rating, which means a fan with minimal gaps between each of the blades and housing. Your open fan is as far from that as you can get. That said, the theory is usually so simplified that in practice it make little difference.

It would be interesting to see some temperature comparisons between the open fans vs enclosed fans. I'm betting just having moving air in the vicinity of the radiator will be sufficient unless you really care about 1 or 2 degrees.

 

Very interesting. Getting close to done, so if I'm a bit bored in a week or two maybe I'll do a fan swap and see what the difference is.