Scratch Build – Complete Project - PowerCore - Completed

Grr, bloomin links. I've remade the links and re-added, and its showing in my browser incognito mode now so hopefully its not autosigning into to anything, and making it just appear to me like its working.

 

Working here now, brilliant stuff

 

Wow, beautiful! Fantastic piece of functional art!

 

HOLY HOT D*MN, I CAN SEE THEM NOW!
That's outstanding! I couldn't hit the like enough so I just liked everything you said. I miss the old system. With it I could have Sainted you.

 

I love mods where you have absolutely no idea whatsoever what the modder is doing, then all of a sudden it clicks in your head and you go "ahhhhh, very clever !".

 

Thanks for the kind word all

The rads have come back from the CNC



I then spent around 2hrs tapping all these holes starting with a tapered tap, and then a plugging tap to get the thread right down to the bottom of the 6mm holes.



This part also arrived from the CNC, and I polished it like the waterblock with 600 up to 3000 grit wet and dry, then Turtle Wax polish. This is the pump top and it slots inside the next part, and seals with an o-ring around the bottom:




This next part is the cap for the CNC'd part. This made on the lathe starting from a block of acrylic like with the waterblock, then alot of polishing:



Here's some pics of how the parts fit together. The very outer edge and fitting wont be visible, and I'm going to play around with various materials and lighting on the sides and bottom:




This then sits on top of the DDC pump. Eagle eyed among you may have noticed the mistake I made, the outlet is on the wrong side for a DDC pump , so I've ordered a DIYINHK DDC control board, which are fully controllable via PWM, and I can reverse the direction of the motor. This will then be used with a custom impeller which I was planning on making anyway.

This is the standard impeller with the top removed:



I've lathed off the blades so I can JB weld on a new set of blades that will be in the reverse direction, then I'll have to figure out how to balance it:

 

That looks fantastic.
Reversed the pump design? Hey, It happens to all of us.
Actually, I'm kinda glad I'm no longer alone in that club.

 

Sorry about the rather long wait for this update, I had a bit of set back when I discovered that aluminium castings don't anodise to an even finish, and you are restricted to only grey colours, sooo... I've had to get the shell made from 4mm aluminium sheet instead, that's been bent on a CNC press brake. This unfortunately means I need to redesign the internals so that I can fasten everything with aluminium threaded studs welded onto the sheet instead of threaded lugs cast into the shell.

While I was sorting all out that with a local company I finished off the pump. I used JB weld original to attach the 3d Printed new impeller blades:



I then de-soldered the original circuit board


And soldered on the new PWM controllable board. Shows you how much the tech has come along, its basically all on a single chip now








Then I gave it a quick test, and it works a treat. The pump will most likely have a chrome back and around the edge when its fully complete so you cant see all the way through, but I haven't decided yet, various other colours/patterns are also an option.





I then received the bent alu sheet that will base the walls of the case. I first milled down the ends so that they sit flush



These two halves will be welded together like this





I then trimmed down the top and bottom edges to make them perfectly straight:




Then milled a bevelled edge on the back edges which the back panel will slot inbetween



Then milled out the notch in the bottom edge that gives a gap for the blower fan to draw air under the case. I will also draw down from the top as well.



Only the straight bit at the top is finished, the sloping ends I will file down later



Next up was milling out the pattern in the side of both halves for the coolant pipe section



I got a bit carried away and forgot to leave space for the bevel at each end , so looks like I'll be going with a rounded edge design instead. I need to recast the water junction blocks anyway, as they were designed to fit onto a casted wall, not one with welded on threaded studs.



Again the diagonal bits will be filed down later





I then started work on the jig that will hold the parts in the correct position so I can mill the 3 corners








I was the running out of time, so I just gave it a quick test to see if it was going to work




It worked a treat, but its not quite level level after the welding, so it needs re-skimming again to make the whole jig flat again, then it will be good to go

 

OMG...you're significantly raising the bar

 

That is some next-level modding going on in here. I wish I could try something like this for myself. Unfortunately, I don't have the tools and space required for the job. Nice :O

 

@kim - I definitely felt some bar raising reading through that. Beautiful!

It's kind of sad you gave up on casting just because of the anodizing. It's still going to be spectacular, but I feel like we missed out.

 

Thanks both

haha, oh my (George Takei voice) , yeah it is a bit of shame with the casting, I just dont wont to limit myself to either not anodising or grey colours, I don't think I'll know what surface finish and/or colour will look the best until I've made all the parts and seen them assembled.

 

One off tool/jig making for one off case modding ! It really dosn't get any better

 

Hi all, Im back for another update, after the christmas break

I skimmed another layer of the top of the Jig to make it perfectly flat again:


I then clamped the first part down onto it, and began to mill out the large cut-out section:








The middle sections that will be welded together later also fit on the jig:


I then used a narrow handheld belt sander to sand down all the diagonal bits to give this result:







Since I've gone this route of making this outer shell using belt sheet aluminium, I then needed to completely re-model the interior of the computer, to mount everything via threaded spot welded studs instead of cast lugs. So I decided to learn Fusion 360 and remodel it on there. I've also slightly tweaked the outer design too. In order to get the model to match these parts, I used a scanner to get an image of the profile, then used that as a canvas to model from. I then 3D Printed the profile to check it matched, and made minor alterations. You can see the bends in the render here, but those will be sanded out in real life:

 

Yet again some amazing and inspiring work ! Now back to my Fisher Price tool set

 

What the hell so many different skills sets in this one build! Truly amazing and very intimidating XD I can't wait to see it all come together! I'd love to know what the material cost at the end is though that is not thin plate!

 

Balls of steel. I would have notched the heck out of that jig if I was doing it.

 

Thanks

haha yeah, I did accidentally mill a little bit off the jig, but at least its served its purpose now.

I've got the shell back from the welders, they did a great job of joining the two halves together. With the amount of time I spent making this part I didnt want to risk my amateur welding lol. They cut a thin slice off another scrap piece of this same alu for use as a filler rod, so that the anodising will be an even colour




Once Grinded/sanded it looks like its all once piece now:




The big block of alu arrived too for the back panel so next up was to manually mill out the shape of the panel. I gave the top and one edge a quick skim over with the face mill and end mill:


Then figured out how to mount the thing as the milling table is barely wide enough, while also giving room to mill out:



Also got this new toy 12.5 mill roughing end mill:



Cuts through like butter, so much quicker than normal end mills, cant believe I've not used one before:



I then cut out the sections for the PSU and Motherboard IO, and switched back to a normal 2 flute end mill for getting a smooth edge:





I then flipped over the block and tilted the miller head the other way to mill out the opposite side:






I then ran out of time over the weekend, as this took about 16 hours to get this far, as I was getting more and more nervous about messing up lol, so I was triple checking each cut. Here's the results before I cut the sides off and trim down the bottom so it actually fits:

 

That plate is obscene.
That's a fantastic weld too. I've lost track of how many times I've heard someone say the seam can't be filled in perfectly. WRONG! Git GUD!