Scratch Build – In Progress Erector Set WaterPlant - Aug 17: All operational!

Tint teaser update - starting the new reservoir

Start with StarBoard. This is normally used for marine applications. It's VERY expensive ( 24"L x 27"W x 1/4" = $45 or if you're brave 96"x 54"x3/4" = $445.00 ), but I got a scrap piece from a buddy.



I don't have a really good picture of it, but it was used to make the top cap of the back of my boat, the 1/2" think surface that was somewhat poorly installed by the previous owner here:


You can cut, route, drill, tap, etc. just like wood. It doesn't melt nearly as easy as most plastics, so even the router doesn't melt it. A dull hole saw will, however.

I cut some small pieces and glued them up to see how it will work.



I'm going to use a RotoZip bit in the router and cut a curve the same as the tubing to make a mounting plate. One piece to the inside curve and one for the outside. I'll let it setup overnight, then true up the sides on the bandsaw and try it on the router table to see how this glue holds.

 

Regard the high price ,StarBoard dont seem to be the first choice materia for a whole case build he,he I havent been around for a few days so i havent seen that u started of with the watercooling plumbing,howsoever i dont know much about watercooling i think its nice that u are building it by yourself (not the pump of corse).

I also have a rather strange enquiry, i would like to see a picture of the whole boat that you got there,(if u got the time to do it some day) .damn it i would love to have a boat of my own.

Regards.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't build a whole case that way. I'm also finding that it don't glue. Looking on their website, there is a 3M epoxy that they say people have "had some success" with, but it's about $50 including shipping. So it looks like I'll use something else.

To see the boat, click on "Home Page" in my sig. Then "My Boats". Lots of pictures.

On the home page there is also a link for "1966 Pacemaker" - That's the boat I had previously - all mahogany. And if you have some time for reading, "The Trip" is a write-up of the 1000 mile trip I took when bringing the Pacemaker from New Jersey down to Charleston. I have yet to write about the 1000 mile trip in the new boat from the Keys up to Charleston.

I'll be on the boat this weekend, and then relatives in town for a few days, so no updates for a while. I have some ideas for making the wiring for the tower lights look like power lines from the tower to the control shack area. That's for after completing the cooling loop of course.

 

Ok thank you, i will absolutely check it out.

To avoid double post i write here instead,The Woodstock boat looks awesome (Love the name and the logo to) , u did sell the Pacemaker to buy the Woodstock right? if so i can understand why it seem to be pretty much work on the pacemaker boat to bring it back in hes/or hers full glory.

Regards.

 

Off Topic - Boat

The Pacemaker was named "Woodpile". The wood repairs alone was over $10,000 a year and I was loosing ground, so I sold it (or rather gave it away) to buy Woodstock. If it hadn't been 350 miles away and I could have worked on it more, I would have kept it. That $10k was mostly labor. But it was also gas engines. So I moved up to fiberglass and diesels. Went from 1.5 gpm to 1.5 mpg. Top speed went from 22k up to 25k. Range improved from 100 miles to 500 miles! Of course, I paid cash for Woodpile but I got a loan on Woodstock. Everything has it's price.

But it's my weekend retreat. A medical neccessity.

 

Fiberglass is the way to go if u want to avoid loads of work, i got a friend who own a wood boat and its alot of work with it every year.
Im Sry if i went to much oftopic with this whole boat thing . i just had to see it.

Regards.

 

Shims for reservoir - Less talk, more pictures

 

Reservoir shims Part III - The Final Conquest

OK, so the rubber shims were just too think and I didn't think I could shave them down properly. So, after all the jigs and fancy methods I've tried, I just took one of the tiny pieces of StarBoard and went to work with a Dremel by hand. No jigs, no braces, just trim, test-fit, repeat.





The sealant is now drying and I'm taking the tower apart to heatshrink the LED light strip connections and get ready to build it back around the reservoir.

Later this weekend I hope to do a test of the plumbing circuit again. Final time?

 

Large Update - IT RUNS - NO LEAKS

The final version is together now (less wire management).

Here's how it went.

First, all those different attempts at making a little washer left this behind:


You may remember that I want the reservoir to extend to the top of the tank for filling, but I can't get it in there that way. So I cut off the top portion and have to glue it in place after installing it in the tower. This time I put a flange on both sections of the tube, so the gluing surface is much larger. Here's how I weighted them while the glue was drying:

The top portion I just used a saw blade. Hey, it was the first thing I saw.


For the bottom, I went all out and procured a very specialized tool:


I reworked the LED light strips, taping the exposed connections much better this time (turned out, of all the heatshrink I got, I didn't have the right size). Also, I noticed that the tape was curling back from the resistors from the heat, so I exposed them.


I dismantled the tower part way to install the reservoir:


Lights installed and reservoir enclosed again. When installing the lights, since the insides were exposed I used 3 zip-ties per side with the added advantage that is closes up the gap between the sides. Partway through re-assembly I realized I wouldn't be able to get to the screws for the side. But, cool, the zip-ties will hold it in place just fine, so I left them out.


Tank back in place (notice the L-brackets reversed this time so I can install/remove the tank without destroying the reservoir). The tank was leaning, however. Remember those screws I left out? They were holding the tank up above the deck. So, that's why you can see a nut under the edge. The tension of the tank holds it firmly in place.


OK, crappy picture, but there's really something to see if you know what to look for. The shinny thing dead center is the brass nut on the back of the barb. Above it (towards you) you can make out the flange. The only time anything will pass through this is when adding fluid.


I hooked it all up, added water, and fired it up. NO LEAKS! The bubble noise went away in about 30 seconds. I let it run for about 15 minutes, then couldn't resist, so I added the blue UV dye. Looks cool.

I finally got some shots that give a better idea of what it looks like. Before I was either taking with only UV light or with flash. Here I shot with UV light, but with the room lights on as well, and of course, what made it work this time is the blue UV dye. You can see how the blue hoses jump out. They look even better in the dark, but I can't seem to capture that.



Here you can see all the hoses lit up, but the LED strip at the bottom creates a glare. I think the light twisted before I took the shot.


So now it's on to wire management.

 

I followed this one from the beginning and it turned out great succes with wiring, maby I missed it but are (and how) are you going to sleev them?

 

This is how it should be! You're modding because you like it, and having fun with it. My hat goes to you. It's a nice and funny project, great idea. Keep up the good work.

 

Wire Management Plan

Now's a good time to re-cap since I haven't mentioned everything and I also have a few new ideas.

The overall theme for the WaterPlant cooler and the PowerPlant PC will be:

• UV blue for water
• UV red (orange) for power
• UV green for data

For the WaterPlant, the only green will be the temp sensors and the control wires for the LED sticks. All the wires will either be in flying runs like the water is, or strung up like telephone wires.

I plan to mount the control modules for the tower LED strips on top of the tower, so 4 orange wires will go to the top of the tower, then from each of the two controllers, one orange and one green will go across to the operations shack.

Even though the pump power goes neatly out of sight right now, I think the design calls for it to be exposed as well, so I'll move that out, too. Probably an exaggerated oversized bundle since it's the water pump for the WaterPlant. Big orange for the power and a small green for the RPM sensor.

The back of the HardCano LCD will remain exposed, so you'll see green and red snaking up through there. And the temp sensor will go across in the air to the opposite end of the radiator.

Most of the additional lighting will be either strategically hidden single UV LEDs or LEDs in outdoor lamp fixtures. I've been looking for HO scale railroad fixtures but haven't found what I want. Current plan is for the power supply to be covered with HO scale brick. Oh, and a dull yellow LED in the op shack and maybe a bunch of blue LEDs under the base.

The lighting will have a control box with green and orange running to it as well. I still haven't decided where to put that control box. It would fit nicely where all that wire mass is next to the PS. But I'm kinda think to leave it exposed on top next to the op shack.

One last trick. In one of the photos above you can see some coat hangers laying at the side. To keep the cable runs straight with right-angle turns, I'll zip them to coat hanger wire before sleeving them.

 

Small Update - Wiring Started

I started the wiring.

Here's the UV LED light strip wires sleeved. Does't look too good:



Loads and loads of wires to deal with. But I have a plan for all of them:



My inexperience with sleeving shows here. I'll explain how I'm going to re-do this at the bottom:



Similar problems at the top, along with the controllers not staying in place:



Tried wire wrap on the temp sensors. Think I'll go back to sleeving.



I drapped some wrap roughly where the temp sensors will run and some sleeving roughly where the wires will go from the tower to the control panel to show how the color will look. I forgot that some green will also run from the tower to the controller.:



First, I'm going to remove the outer clear tube from the light strip leads to make the bundle smaller. Then I'll use heatshrink so there aren't any wire ties inside the sleeving. And then heatshrink the outside ends as well. The finished job should look MUCH better than what you see above.

A better solution for the controllers will have to be found, as well. Something that will camouflage them a little. Or remove them from the case and put them in clear acetate boxes. Not sure.

I'm starting to think DarkLord was right. The blue water just doesn't quite do it. I'll wait until it's finished and try a little more dye to see what that does, but I think I may have to go with red dye instead.

I finally got around to ordering the DD fill port. Should be here next week. The reservoir is so small, coupled with the fact that I haven't been running the A/C or heat, so I can't tell any change in the water level from evaporation, which is surprising.

I've designed the control panel for the switches and indicator lights and have all the parts except for a few more resistors needed. That'll be the next job, and then finish the wiring. Home stretch!

 

Looks neat though I find the wire colors to be distracting, like, they don't blend in well, and it's distracting to my eye, the blue water looks really weak, though it's probably because it's in the light, though I still think green would be better
I had some really bright UV green + UV green dye for my w/c set and it looked pretty bright.

I was thinking something more mechanical then wire sleeving though, like, shower tubing or something of that type, and you could like
paint encryption on it or put UV stickers on it, would look pretty cool and would fit the theme of the mod a lot more then bright UV sleeving.

Just ideas, anyways, still looks good

Edit:
Oh, those little light boxes or w/e )where you connect the LED tubes to) are such a pain to get to stick to something. I got tired and ripped the box apart and just put it in a smaller box and screwed it down onto my case

 

as for the sleeving: if you take sleeve with a smaller diameter (and as you said - use heatshrink on the ends), it'll look much better

 

I've already cut a box apart. I think I'll make some little boxes from acrylic and mount them in the same place with bolts. Just leave the circuit boards visible.

As to the cabling scheme, I'm torn. I agree with you that it might look good with more of an industrial look for the wires, but I had this vision of the cables standing out with the color. I think I'll do the color and if I really don't like it, I'll do something like you suggest. If I go your route, I can definitely go with another water dye to make it snap.

It's already pretty small. It's the same size as used in the very first one I did (back on the first page) and it looks good. I think it's the lumps and the clear plastic sleeving inside that's making it stand out so far. We';; see what it looks like with the plastic and wire ties removed.

 

Nice to hear that the water colling dont have any leaks' ,judging by the pictures u have put in some real effort's building it ,its always fun when hard work pays off.

Regards.

 

How bout an update?

 

Small update - DD fill port installed.

Sorry, real life and all that. But thanks for the interest!

I got the DD fill port installed Didn't think it rated an update, but here's a pic:


I also have a template for the control panel, but I'm thinking of changing things around a bit. Have you noticed that I always take photos from the back? I did. I think I need to make that the front. Turn the Hardcano around. But then the wires won't go directly into the back like I wanted. And the controls will be harder to get to. And then where to mount the control panel?

So I'm cogitatin' at the moment. This weekend's full for me so it'll probably be next week before I really get back to it.

 

Ooh, nice!

What's the control panel going to look like? And what's going on it? Are you going to use old style flips and gauges? Would look sweet