Thought about that, but decided that being able to design out the window shape first and using it as a visual to bend to would be easier than having the tube dictate what the window will look like. Thanks flix! Thanks man. Yeah, I should update that sig lol. Trident was way back in 2009. I like having options.
Well, I didn't get much painting done over the holiday weekend, due to our well pump crapping out on Saturday, leaving us with no water for three days, and nobody available to come up to replace the faulty part! So instead of painting, I decided to work on something that didn't require water. I found the perfect 3D print model to use for the rose reservoir, and did a test print in black abs. Came out pretty nice! I think all I need to do is scale it up just a bit so that this Primochill tube res will fit into the center of the rose. Then I can utilized the G1/4 inlets on the top for the return line. Also testing the effects of this brush-on coating from Smooth-On. Thanks Darth Beavis for making me aware of this stuff! For the final print, I'll be using T-Glase clear PETT filament. I know it won't be completely transparent, but with the help of the clearcoat, the fluid color will come through well enough. I'll also prep the rose a bit more by sanding down the layer marks and deburring the edges, so it ends up nice and smooth.
Paint is done! Not the best finish, but it will have to suffice for now. My daughter absolutely loves the color, and that's all that really matters. Firstly, I painted the inside of the main panel a light pink, making sure to tape off all the holes so I dont get overspray onto the other side. Then once the pink was dry, I assembled the case and taped off all the holes again so I didn't get any purple overspray onto the pink. There were just a few extra parts to paint along with the case, so they were hung up on the ladder. When you don't have a nicely lit and air controlled paint booth, you improvise... Base purple going on.. After two coats of purple, I sprayed another two coats of clear. While everything was drying, I started work on the full size rose reservoir. That will be in the next update, coming up in a bit...
So my earlier attempt at printing a transparent res with the T-Glase filament didn't go very well... It wasn't playing nicely with my initial settings (which were recommended by the company's website), so I'll have to play with it. But I don't have time for experimentation right now, so I'm falling back to plan B... printing with pink PLA.. Success! After 16 hours of printing, we have a full size rose reservoir.. It's now large enough to place the Primochill tube res inside of it. And what's a rose without a stem? And what kind of rose stem would it be if it didn't have needle sharp thorns to protect it? ...ok so these thorns aren't needle sharp, you get the idea. The stem will come up through the rose print and go directly into the bottom of the tube res. I made an acrylic disc that will fit snugly into the bottom of the res, and glued the stem to it. Then glued the disc into the res. To help support the whole reservoir, I made this little shelf that will mount to the back of the display case. The rose res will sit in it like this.. And here's the display case I made, using some red anodized aluminum sheet. The rose by itself sitting in the case for size comparison. I'll make a hole in the bottom of the case so the stem can go through and down to the pump. Once the paint is fully cured and I can re-install the pump, I'll know where to drill the hole. The next 4 days will be a frenzy of installing, mounting, cabling, and lighting. So I apologize in advance if I don't post anything until after the LAN. I may throw up a quick shot on FB, but other than that, you'll have to wait til the weekend to see the finished case.
Mother of God! I am in love with the theme! I really respect and love that you go for a more adventurous and courageous theme and color choice! Not every day you get to see flowers in a build, I like a lot! Can barely keep myself from waiting for next update Do you have a Facebook where I can follow more instantaneous?
Untill this picture I didn't have true sense of how big this rose is. Great work. That is on lucky daughter.
Well I made it! (barely) I had to do a few emergency hacks to get it up and running literally just before packing it into the car Friday morning. Here are a few pics of the Rose case set up at the lan. A wider shot of the kids both playing Lego Star Wars. I was dealing with a bad PCIe riser cable on the Rose all weekend, as it would randomly drop the signal to the monitor. So Helena would bounce between her rig and mine. Special thanks go out to Shannon Robb for helping me (numerous times) to get it working again. The Rose case came in 3rd in the CPU mod competition (woot!). Here's a shot of the top five mods. From left to right: Gigantea (2nd), Kit's etched moonlight Mods case (5th), Jon's Yoda case (4th), the Rose (3rd), and Kurt's Diablo case, Sanctuary, which ended up winning 1st place (congrats again Kurt!) Once I get the bugs worked out and tidy up a bit more, I'll post some final pics.
Came out pretty. I look forward to seeing the clear version of the rose. Pink coolant looks cool. On an unrelated note: How many victims did Gigantea claim at the LAN?
It looks so great in person. Rod and I had to drag Barnacules over there and point out all the beautiful work. BTW, did you get a link to that video? The Rose and the Minecraft R2D2 are in it. @Cheaps-It didn't eat anyone, but it did stare Jason from CaseLabs into submission, lol.
Hey guys, after finishing up a very cool mod project for Nvidia Geforce Garage, I can finally get back on the Rose case and tie up all the loose ends. I have a long list of items I need to fix/add/cleanup before I can finally call it done. One of the main issues we were having at the LAN was the intermittent video signal going to the monitor. Shannon and I were fiddling with the PCIe riser cable all weekend, and managed to get it working about half the time. So that was on the top of my list: 1. Swap out PCIe riser cable 2. Add acrylic window to back panel 3. Add led lighting to back SSD and tubing area 4. Fix led lighting under mobo tray 5. Fix leaky res 6. Paint rose stem solid green (transparent green tubing with pink fluid not very appealing lol) 7. Add glass insert in front bezel 8. Connect all three SSDs 9. Cable management So with all these accomplished, I snapped a few shots with my phone.. Everything is looking much better and cleaner than before (love the glass front). Unfortunately, I'm still having that pesky intermittent video issue, even with the new PCIe riser cable installed. Which leads me to believe it may be motherboard related. I'm going to try installing the video card directly into the PCI slot and see if the problem persists. ...and because of that, I'll leave you with a pic of my lovely daughter giving me the 'loser' sign under the soft pink glow of her computer.
I tell myself it stands for 'lefty.' Now's your chance to make a ball reservoir, since that one leaks.
Love the bubbler and the theme. Excellent work. You've got one lucky daughter and she's got one lucky dad!