Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Seawolf, July 20. #40 Getting ready for Assembly Summer 2010!

wow... i really want a lathe... lol

looks great mate

 

#16 The Path of Now and Forever

I decided to start working on the fan mounts so that I could see where the front of the case is going
.


I spent hours sawing this silly block of aluminum to bits. Did I mention it took a long time?
It did. I seriously need a bandsaw!



Then I again switched to the lathe. Using the shank of a drillbit I got a piece aligned level with the ground chuck surface.
4-jaw chuck is a necessity. I roughly faced the surface going by 0.5mm depth of cut per sweep.



There was some chatter as can been from the surface finish. The chatter is caused mostly by the piece not being centered in the chuck and also because the cut is discontinuous. This little lathe is very sensitive to vibration because of its small weight. Good thing these pieces will be mostly hidden so I don't need to sand them.



Next, I flipped the piece and faced the other surfaces to get the other sides to the required dimensions.
If I remember correctly, the final piece was 15.87 x 25.33 x 25.35mm.



One corner of the piece was sawed off to make room for that rib in the plastic.
The inside surfaces don't really need to be finished.



I then drilled a hole through the piece with a 2.5mm bit, followed by a 3.3mm bit. The hole was tapped to M4.
Using a 4mm bit I drilled a short clearance in the hole for the non-threaded portion of the bolt.



Test fitting reveals that the cornerpiece fits nicely. The bolt grabs the plastic quite easily and the piece doesn't wobble at all.



Lather, rinse and repeat. After some more magical moments I have three more pieces.
It's quite amazing how fast and easy these things look after you've done them. In reality, it took me forever to make them.



The corner brackets will be used to mount this array of fans to the case.



To assemble the array, I need to finish four of these brackets.



Also, there will be a square block over here.

This will be slow.

 

Nice pieces, that square one might take you a while lol.

 

wow looks great...
what kinda lathe have you got?

 

Nice idea!
I'm really impressed by your skill using the lathe!
Now I must find some free space in my lab to have a lathe!

 

Thank you guys!

The lathe is a small 180mm x 350mm (7x14) manual lathe with a 550W motor. Here's a picture:



It certainly makes some things easier. I highly suggest getting one if you can.
Someday, when I get more space I'm going to switch to a bigger machine.

 

cool lathe i want one so badly

 

#17 Eternal Doctrine

Another update which took surprisingly long considering the small amount of work done.



I sawed and turned the brackets for the outer edge of the fan array.
As it turns out, I could have turned them 2mm thinner. That way I don't have to saw anything off.



Here is the ractangular block for the center of the array.



I was drilling the block when my dremel ran out of juice!
I had to continue the drilling with the battery drill, which ensures the holes aren't quite straight.
After that my battery drill also ran out of power!
Nevertheless, I got the block tapped.



The array is surprisingly sturdy with just the center block. The holes on the front of the center block match nicely with the holes in the fans. The holes in the back don't. That won't be a problem, though. The bolts would not grab onto the rear of the fan anyway. Now I just have to make them a bit shorter.



I then moved to making the attachment holes for the MB cage in the HDD shell. The holes will have to go halfway into the finned portion of the aluminum shell. That could pose a problem and look awful. The solid portion of the shell is 3mm thick and the whole thickness with the fins is 8mm. A tight fit for a M5 bolt.



The solution is to bondo the surface. The threads should be completely concealed inside the aluminum and the bondo.
I sanded the top of the bondo and ground the edges with dremel.



I drilled and tapped the first hole. To my surprise it penetrated to the underside of the aluminum.



I had leveled the edge of the motherboard plate to the edge of the hdd shell. The hdd shell is not symmetrical. On the other side the edges are coincident, but on this side there should be a 3mm gap as shown on the picture! Good thing I didn't drill any more holes before checking this one out. I drilled and tapped the rest of the holes, bolted the cage to the shell and redrilled and tapped the misaligned hole. The hole does penetrate into the hdd cavity in the shell, but the installed bolt will fill the hole. No real harm done



The tapping and the bolts lifted the elastic filler at some points.



I sanded the fillers level and applied some more where it was needed.



Next, I wanted to see how well the paint I'm going to use will fill all the irregularities. I lathered the piece with acetone to clean the surfaces. Then I sprayed three layers of shiny white paint.

As can be seen from the picture, the paint didn't work that well. It covers the top of the bondo quite nicely, but it also reveals there are some gaps between the bondo and the hdd shell. I was afraid of orange peel, but there is none. However, if you look closely, the paint didn't stick well to some of the grooves in the middle. This just won't do! I will have to bathe the piece in acetone, fill the gaps and try again with a primer.

 

Too bad for the paint, but the attenction to the details is incredible!
Good work, and the fans array look fantastic!

 

Nice work, if you want to paint something, the surface have to be absolutely smooth. You the everything in the painting.

 

Indeed! I'll probably try to sand the bottom of the grooves with a folded sandpaper. Thanks for the support!

 

looks great one of my fave mods atm mate

 

#18 More fan-bolting

I managed to squeeze some action into an update.



Remember those blocks I made earlier? I turned them down by 2mm and then proceeded with drilling holes for the M4 bolts.
Those holes are really close to the edge, so the isn't much room for error. In the picture the drill bit was a 2.5mm.



Mounted, the brackets look nice enough.



I drilled a hole in the middle of the lasercut top plate I showed months ago.



To match the top plate I drilled and tapped a M5 hole in middle top bracket.
The bolt had an unthreaded portion that needed a clearance. I used the first drill bit that fit.
It was 8.5mm one, so the hole looks huge .



The top plate aligns nicely on top of the fan array. I had to chop some off the bolt to make it fit.



Then I aligned the corners of the top plate properly with the fan array and marked the position on the plate and the brackets.
I drilled and tapped the M5 holes like the one in the middle.



While mounting the bolts in the newlymade holes, I forgot that the sideholes need shorter bolts than the center one.
Something had to give. Now, it turns out I'm extremely lucky! I cracked the rear side of one of the fans. I could have easily cracked the front side too!



I glued the piece back using some acrylocyanate glue. The fan frame is PET, but hopefully the glue still holds.
That part of the fan won't be a load bearing surface and it will be hidden by the radiator.

Thats it for now. I'm quite busy with school for these couple of weeks, but I'll see what I can whip up for the next time.

 

looking good mate.. pitty bout the fan.. but looking good.. can we please see an overview of that part?

 

I just got home from school, so here's a quick, flashy shot of the array and the top plate:



Only the topmost brackets are attached at the moment. Also, the two outer bolts need to be shortened a bit more.

Thanks for the consolation, but I'm not really bothered about the broken fan. Actually, I'm surprised I haven't broken anything else!

 

In case you need to re-glue the fan, I've had success with JB Weld epoxy when gluing plastic items. I glued the tabs on a DVD drive face plate that holds the face onto on the metal housing of the DVD drive. They held when I snapped the bezel back in. I bought 5 minute epoxy in the U.S at Home Depot, but it should be available in Finland.

 

Thanks for the tip! If it comes loose again, I'll be sure to use some epoxy.

 

Good idea to use fans as a part of the frame.

 

looking good thanks for the pic

 

That fan bracket looks insane mate.