Case Mod - In Progress Project Perspiration - all done! (March 29th)

Ok, a couple of renders.





I'm pretty happy with this. The red bands subtly reflects the GTI styling, without being too obvious. They'll be cut from 3mm perspex.



cute!

Now I have this all modeled I need to convert it into plans to be sent for cutting. Finally!

 

QFT.

 

Ok, here's the panels converted into flat plans.



The black part is the window, slightly bigger than the hole in the side panel so I can glue it on.

Still need to dimension these, I'll get in touch with the plastic company and find out if they'll take them as they are, or what file formats they can handle. Could just be cut straight from these!

Also, been thinking more about the fill port, the circle on the top panel. I've gone on and off the idea through the build, it kinda cramps the top panel. It is however the natural place for it, right above the res. I'm a bit concerned that without it, it would be hard to bleed the system, as the rad will be higher than the res. The alternative is to have a long bit of pipe just flopping about the top, used during filling with a plug in the end.



Either way, I've bought a EK Multi-option 150ml res, and a black delrin fill port - thought I'd go nuts!



First watercooling hardware. Rather excited, even if it's not very functional.

 

Looking good .

 

Hmm. Time for an update.

Well it's been over a month since I sent of the info for the quote to the plastics company, nothing back yet. The obvious thing to do would be to phone, but I can't be assed.

Been very busy lately as I've moved into a new flat - but it turns out my new housemate has a dremel workstation. I'm curious about this, as it may be capable of cutting the panels I need with the right head on.



Will try to investigate this on some spare plastic at the weekend, if I can cut a nice straight line I'd be happy to do all the cutting myself, saving some money and some work man's price in the process.


In other news, I've ordered the last of the WC gear I need, a Dtek fusion 2.0 and a liang D5 Vario. Curious to see what arives!

 

Apologies for the lack of action, have moved house so haven't had much time.

Oh by the way, did I say I bought my rad?



Thermocill PA 120.3 with 15mm spacing. Had long considered the Black Ice GTX 360, though the fin density is higher on it, and I was concerned it wouldn't be optimal with my fans which are <1000rpm. Air resistance, and such. Also the Thermochill was £10 cheaper.



Yey!



Oops. Bit of an issue here that didn't come up during the planning. I'd always been concerned about the rad not sticking out the back.

I think I'll switch the intake fan to the back to give enough room, but fixing the rear I/O will take some metalwork.



Yeah, like that.

While I had my dremmel out I cut a hole in the motherboard so I can take off the waterblock and remove the mobo without draining the whole system.



Oh and I cut off the 5.25" bay bits too, they displeased me. The cross-beam at the bottom of them would have got in the way of the res.





I think i'm going to put a drain in the bottom - a T line comming from the entrance of the pump will run of to a second fillport. It'll be the lowest point in the loop so should drain easily.



Hmmm: and I had said in my previous post I'd ordered the block and pump. Well that fell through because the DTek Fuzion block magically become out of stock, so I cancelled the whole thing. In fact Fuzion V2s seem to be universally sold out, so I did some research and ordered a Heatkiller V3.0 LT, which seems to be the performance king at the moment, and isn't too much of a departure from the styling of the Fuzion - my main interest.

So, the bobs and bits:





Not really sure where to go next. I still have the issue of no perspex. Fitting it will involve drilling some holes in the case and I'm not fond of the idea of installing my entire watercooled system only to sprinkle aluminium swarf all over my motherboard and drill a hole through my rad.

But when I do decide to watercool I'm only some piping, a few fittings and some fluid away. I have a bit of test pipe so I might start planning the loop a little in advance.



I'd say 'stay tunned' as is customary to give the perception of impending goodies on one's project log, however realistically there might not be much happens for a while.

So..... yeah.

 

YAY! Updates!

 

Good components.
Nice jobs.

 

Nice rad mounting, you could keep that rear exhaust fan on the inside of the case and use 45degree fittings on the rad, would fit perfectly.

 

You need grommets

Love your work --- one thing I noticed on the holes you have drilled for wires is that you are not using any kind of grommets. I know the mesh that covers your wire bundles offer some protection but I'd suggest you need actual grommets to protect your wires (and for safety).

R.

 

Yeah, I'm coming round to that idea. Might switch to compression fittings as there are some nice angled ones available that would solve a few issues.

I've run it for a couple of months in the case already, all the edges are sanded smooth so there's nothing to cut your fingers or a wire on. Have considered it but it wouldn't look very good, and most the holes are square anyway.

 

Projects need two things:
- time
- money
And some other minor things, like skill and inspiration.

Recently these two key things have been somewhat lacking since I decided to:
1) get a girlfriend
2) buy a house with girlfriend
But, musn't grumble: the new house has a garage! No more bedroom floor modding for me.

I did get a few hours out from my busy schedule of choosing carpets and deciding colour schemes for our bathrooms at the weekend to do some modding. Lucky me.

I've had the perspex cubes I need to build the front structure sitting around since July. These hold the front panel away from the aluminium chassis to give enough room for the fans; fans mounted internally wouldn't have left enough room for a full triple radiator. And who wants a tiny dual rad?

Each are 40mm long, 20x20mm square. I had these cut when I ordered them back in the summer. I've long planned, and tested, to make these in the same way as the structure for the rather inspiring Phinix Cube; now I had to set up a little production line.


Well that's the plan.

I borrowed my new flatmate's vice - was rather nice for holding the size blocks I needed. There will be 8 screws holding the front panel, but the top support will be peice stretching the full length, as there is a lot of metal missing in the corners of the old PC7 and I can't mount to metal here as with the others.



To help the drill locate, I cut a guide hole with some bit of my dremmel - probably not what it's meant for, but meh.





These are about 5.5mm wide, take an M4 thread. I only had a 5mm and a 6mm drill bit. Testing with the 5mm gave a lot of 'ejecta' when I melted in the insert, but 6mm was too wide and it had nothing to hold it. The solution was to drill to full depth with 5mm,then do a a few mm in with the 6mm.


Melty metly with soldering iron.


Why yes: it does work!


Cute!


My poor description earlier is largely mitigated by this picture. I had to offset this upwards to account for the 4mm of grill and coloured perspex that will sit atop the roof.


Mounted!

I also managed to fit the reservoir with some fairly unglamorous aluminium bracket.


Oh, which itself was some spare left over from making a mounting I made for the radiator - didn't like it hanging off the roof. Awkward. Surprisingly, despite drilling 12 holes, they were all in roughly the right place. I was amazed.


Now that really is about all the work I can do without ordering the much fabled perspex. Price will be the key blocker. If I can get it pre-cut and driller for <£150, I'll be very happy. Raw materials will be about £60, but I need to see if the supplier will cut it for me or if I have to go further afield.


Have you had plastic cut to size before? Who can you recommend?

 

Testing a jig saw.

I was home during the xmas break, and wanted to test out my dad's jig saw for cutting the plastic. I'd rather cut it myself if I can do a reasonable enough job - plus any tools I buy I get to keep, instead of paying for laser cutting.

I ordered two sheets of perspex to test, in the colours and thickness I will use for the final version. I had looked into getting two full size pieces for the top panel (~600x220mm), but that was £18 inc p&P compared to only £6inc for the equivalent in A4 size (300x210mm).






Jigsaw. I used quite blade designed for metal - the high teeth per inch count helps with plastic.



I did the cut on the left freehand, which went reasonably well. Using a bit of spare wood as a guide, I could cut a rather good straight line, which was my main concern. With a bit of sanding it should be good enough for the case.



I marked out the dimensions for the hole in the top panel to try out how easy it was to cut. I did it all freehand, but will use wooden guides for the final piece.





So, it definitely works. With more time and care I think I can cut all the panels I need to a reasonable quality. I've bought my own jig saw and a workbench with xmas money, and will order the perspex soon. I'm moving into a new house in February (at which point I'll have my own garage, very excited) so progress will be slow untill then.

Will keep you updated.

Pete.

 

Looking really nice my friend.

 

Progress has been very slow lately. I bought a house with my girlfriend and we moved in in February, so I've been very busy with DIY. I did get a bit of time to play with my new aquisitions though - a jigsaw, workbench, and finally the acrylic panels!



I love my new garden workshop.






The panels bolt onto the aluminium case and the perspex cubes on the front.





I've had to invent some pretty elaborate ways of holding things in place while I drill.


Only a few bolts in so far.


I've ordered a special jigsaw blade for cutting acrylic, so I'm going to give that a bash at the weekend. Will probably start with the window as it's just a rectangle - the easiest thing to cut!

This is the real hard bit now. All the metal work is internal and out of sight, so quality isn't important. Now my workmanship will be really in view, so it'll need to be good!

 

Look at what came in the mail! Shiny!



Since I'm going to be cutting plenty of perspex I thought it was worth shelling out on some proper blades. I tested these out, they cut very cleanly leaving almost a polished edge. The plastic does tend to chip on the entry side, maybe it's because my acrylic is extruded not cast?

I'd been trying to cut straight by holding the jigsaw and running it along a spirit level clamped to the work peice, but the blade would tend to wander and made a real mess. For now, i decided to switch to manual - the blade is quite stiff and I can cut down a drawn line pretty close, with about 1mm total wobble. This will be fine for most of the cuts on the case as they are quite short, it will also make it quicker to set up each cut.

However, today I did the window and it's straight edges have to be spot-on.



First test.

Before cutting the window proper, I did a smaller rectangle which would be removed when the window was cut. This was useful practice! I started from a drilled hole then curved into the straight line. Once I'd got to one end, I turned back to cut the full length. This is much neater than making a hole on the line to get the blade in, but you will take some practice to learn how your blade turns.





Done! The first of the four outer cut's didn't go well, but the others were fine. A light sand is all that was needed to tidy up.



I'm yet to buy some clear perspex for the window, but now I know how big it will be. It will glue direct on the white perspex.

 

Looking good. Is the heavy gate to defend against sheep?

 

It is looking very very good, keep it up.

 

Thanks dudes.

This evening I was practising cutting the slot for the DVD drive. It'll be 5mm high, at the front, right at the bottom, and the cd will feed through into the slot loading drive.

It proved quite tricky, I was practising with some scrap but the plastic snapped a twice. Increasing the cutting speed from 800strokes per minute to 3000 worked well however, with less chipping and a smoother cut. Light pressure is always the key though.

I'll try to make some more progress at the weekend.

 

With a bank holiday and nothing else todo, I put practicing behind me and got stuck in!



Front panel ready to be cut!


Cutting the hole for the slot loading DVD.

Having cut two nice parallel lines (or as close as you can get without a guide - I did try but decided it was impractical) I created a weak line then just snapped the remaining bit.







It turned out quite good! Better than my practice attempts, which were well worth it.



The rest was pretty straight forward.



Next onto the top panel. I kept both sheets bolted together at all times so that they wouldn't slip.






It cut very well indeed. With the shorter cuts you can't see the slight wobble as I cut without a guide. Fortunately the acyclic blades are very good and leave a near polished finish!




Distaster! When I'd drawn the pattern to cut on the front panel I'd actually done it upside down. And the panel isn't symetrical due to the way the panels overlap a the front top corner. The whole peice is wasted, all the holes are 5mm out and can't be moved.

I'd feared if I did **** something up it would be through a cutting accident or the plastic cracking, but this is just stupid. I'm going to buy a new panel (only about £15 delivered) but it means starting again with the front panel from scratch. I'd hoped to get it out of the way today.

Over a year into the build and 20 months since the concept design things are coming together but this is an annoying set-back. I've spent so long and leaned so much that I can't give up, I just want it over and done with. I'll have to push on as the end is in sight - this is Project Perseverance.








The good news is the top panel has come out great. It's not laser-cut precision but the edges have come out nicely. This is just a teaser pic - I think I'll hold back untill it's fully assembled.

Pete