Case Mod - In Progress Project: Bärsärkar-gång, 25th December, no update; Every Who down in Whoville says...

This is absolutely brilliant!

 

Bravo!

Totally not my style but totally delighted by your performance. A great read and great work.

 

really impressive work man !!!

 

I am amazed!

 

Thanks guys!

Hi alecamused! Yes its stingray leather. Its very interesting stuff but more on that later

Hi Fazanitar, Thanks! The story has been half the fun of the mod. I'm happy that you are enjoying it also.

Hey oldnewby, Admittedly it's a little excessive by design but I'm pleased that you're watching, I loved Cygnus X1.

 

Truly amazing Mod! This is definitely one to keep an eye on.

 

Really good craftmanship! Lovely!

 

Ahh, started following this at H, very nice to see you here
..still following this build, still equally impressed with your attention to details, still wondering how it'll look in the end
This is one of those logs that I check very frequently and mumble "come on, come on, come on" when opening the page, just hoping for something new.

 

Fantastic work!

 

Project: Bärsärkar-gång, 6th Feb, Fitting and testing fans

Thanks for comments! Hopefully this is the something new that you were looking for



In 1956,Fabing describes the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms, specifically Amanita Muscariaor or flugswamp mushrooms as the single source of berserking. It was an interesting theory as flugswamp mushrooms were known by the Siberian and Scandinavian peoples but the effects, while mind altering, do not cause a berserking rage, quite the opposite in fact.

A possible alternative may be found in the location where the Vikings spent much of their time; on open water.

Consider this, in 2006, 2 men ate a fish in the south of France. Little did they know that they would be hospitalized the next day because of hallucinations and nightmares. The fish was the Sarpa Salpa. The very same fish was recently found in the English Channel. Could the Vikings have used a similar fish to induce a hallucinogenic rage? Have the experts overlooked the most obvious source of berserking drugs? Did the Vikings find something in the sea?

-----

I am a little ahead of myself on the updates. I forgot to show you guys the final on the fan grills from the last update. Just so you understand where the fan grill is located. It's on the back of the case pulling air into the case which hits the back of the motherboard tray.

To minimize vibration and fan noise, enter a Bitspower silicon fan pad 140mm size.

It's appears to be well made. I'm a little worried that it may be too thick for my needs but more on that later.

Photographing it is interesting; everything sticks to the silicon - lint, sawdust, dust, gah. Here it is from the back.

The HWlabs Black Ice GT Stealth 140 unfinished radiator polished up.

Gasket goes on

Fan goes on. That's a Thermalright X-Silent series 140 mm fan. With a 140mm rad, I've been looking for the right fan that was low power as well as quiet. I picked this one in a very unscientific comparison. So those of you who care about accuracy should look away now.

The 4 fans that looked interesting were (clockwise from the orange fan):
Xigmatek XLF F1453, 1000 RPM, 63.5 CFM, 16 dBA, 0.3A
Yate Loon D14SM-12 , 1400 RPM, 62 CFM, 29 dBA, 0.7A
Yate Loon D14SL-12, 1000 RPM, 46.9 CFM, 25 dBA, 0.5A
Thermalright X-Silent Fan, 900 RPM, 60.42 CFM, 20.9 dBA, 0.14A

In the looks department, the Xigmatek was first choice with the orange / brass combo but the white LEDS are too bright. The Thermalright was my second choice because of 11 translucent blades. The Yate Loons are ok but not notable when compared to the other two.

On the subject of noise, I setup my video camera to capture the relative noise that each fan puts out. Check it out


I was surprised by sound of the Xigmatek fan. Maybe I've got a bad one but wow, that would drive me nuts. The Thermalright sounded best to me. At the time, I didn't have the D14SL-12 when first comparing but the D14SM -12 sounded very smooth at the higher RPM so I grabbed the 1000 rpm model just to check

Unfortunately, I screwed up the camera position so it sounded comparatively louder than it actually was. The sound on it was very good though; comparable to the Thermalright.



I wanted to also get some relative measurement on performance so out comes a retro piece of kit. Its an anemometer used in mining I am told. While the dial indicates some degree of precision, my interest are simpler.

Fan drag race The two Yate Loons are in the middle with the SL on top. The anemometer was sat 10 inches from the outlet of the fan to gauge relative output speed.


Again I was surprised by the relative performance of the Xigmatek. I was impressed by the Yate Loons. The SL was on par with the Thermalright and the SM just cranked. I'm curious to find out what the SH is like. So as I mentioned, I picked the Thermalright for the reasons above but also because of its lower power consumption.

Anyway back to the grill, remember these screws.



Here's why I modded them when I couldn't buy them anywhere. Had to be brass on brass.

And trust me, I looked.

Most folks seemed to like this fan grill the best so I'm going to run with it for now.

Maybe replace the fan sticker with an etched copper piece later?

I thought about putting some copper or brass screen in to act as a fan filter but I think I like the exposed fan. I may change my mind when I see the dust buildup.

With the brass in hand, I can test fit the components and see if the design is going to work.

Here's where things started to get interesting

See the foot on the motherboard tray. It's sticking out about 3/8" too far and I need that space for the waterblocks and tubing. Did I mention this is going to very tight?

From the front, it lines up ok.

The flow indicator and pump fit ok. Tight but nothing unexpected.

The video card looks like it'll be ok too. Still a little worried about the tubing routing but that's next to check out.

On the back of the case, the fan grill is hitting the frame. It looks like the silicon pad is adding about an 1/8" to the thickness also. A little file action should set the frame right but that'll have to wait.

Next update, I'll get to the natural sandpaper story that I promised.

Many thanks to my sponsors!
Bitspower

HardwareLabs

 

Great stuff - I was eagerly awaiting your next update and was not disappointed. Whilst I agree the exposed fans behind that grill do look killer, as you say dust could be a problem. I don't know much about cooling performance etc. as of yet as I myself am just starting my build and gathering components, but what if you made the fan exhaust air; i.e: pull air through the radiator and exhaust it out? That way maybe you could add a filter to the opposite side of the rad where it won't be visible?

Just a thought, and probably not great buy hey as I say - really great work and look forward to the next update!

 

Really I cant find any words to describe this.... a masterpiece? Noooo, poor expression!
Man I do love these little stories, its something really unique to see in a worklog, like the rest of the mod! Oh, poor expression again! Mon on man, dont stop to amaze me! Peace!

 

Oh, You're in here too? Has som starz!

 

Thanks Cheaps!

Thanks for the suggestion and watching! I thought about it but the front is going to be open so dust would simply buildup on the motherboard instead.

Hey AnG3L thanks man! I'm on a modding bender right now so I should have something soon.

 

Just love the way you make your logs.
And its still looking to be brilliant.

 

Amazing craftsmanship! I love to see Arduinos in mods.

 

You did a very good work. I like your parts.

 

Thanks guys! This weekend was a good one to mod.

Before launching in to the next installment, I ask your indulgence for a brief aside. Most of the research for this mod's back story comes from the internet links that you see posted. Some of it though comes from good old fashioned movable press which pleases me to no end. I love books, everything about them, the smell, the feel, the creak they make when they're new, and the stained and tattered covers when they're old.

So to say I was excited to find this volume, well...I was. It's a copy of the Icelandic Manuscripts, the first part at least, that I've been quoting. "Sigilla Islandica I" was published in 1965 by the Manuscript Institute of Iceland in Reykjavik. Its awesome and no, I can't read a word of it except the copyright.

Some of the other books that I've been using, particularly for this update. And now back to the mod….


-----
In 1947,a category 5 hurricane struck the USA mainland causing US$1,000,000,000 in damages ($110,000,000 in 1947 dollars). It was a 100 year hurricane, massive in size, and strength.

It was first spotted off the coast of Dakar, Senegal where it quickly escalated to a category 3 hurricane. Before churning across the Atlantic towards the USA, it pummeled the west coast of Africa sinking ships and washing ashore debris. In the hurricane's wake, strange sea creatures washed ashore too including an unidentified sea slug. The slug caused those who touched it to go mad, attacking their neighbors with preternatural strength until they collapsed.



Seemingly overlooked for years, the sea slug is only now becoming a focus of marine research. With good reason;Toxic sea slugs have recently killed a series of dogs on the beaches of New Zealand.

In the uncharted space of the ocean depths, could the Vikings have found an animal that caused their berserking rage? If so, how did it make them invincible super soldiers?

Next time: Get your foil hats on, did the CIA know?
-----

Picking up where we left off in the last update. The laser cut motherboard tray already has the holes for the standoffs (why drill when you can laser?). While I tested it 3 or 4 times with the polystyrene prototypes, I'm anxious to see how it fits.

That's a 6/32 tap. From the prototypes, I knew that I was going to have a problem keeping the tap straight. I saw someone using a hand tapper in another worklog but $100+ was little more than I was willing to pay.

Instead I picked up a tapping block from the littlemachineshop.com. It holds the tap at 90 degrees to the work surface.

Works great too!

All four tapped and filled with brass (of course) standoffs.

The new motherboard, let us not discuss the last motherboard . Everything lines up for mounting, whew!

From the back, the pattern on the tray wasn't just for the deco looks. It gives easy access to the ATX and 4 pin contacts.

4 pin connector

ATX connector. Instead of de-soldering these, I'm going to try to solder to the contacts…after a lot more practice. Expect this worklog to become polluted with trial run photos. It would be nice if motherboard manufacturers would offer an enthusiast option for reverse connectors.

The slot on the side of the motherboard tray is for the PCI-E extension cable. Unless I can get one that reverses the connector, I can see some cable origami in my future.

Changing gears to another part of the mod, you'll recall the base that was carved out of birch plywood. The plan is to cover it in Stingray leather

Stingray leather or Shagreen was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries with a brief resurgence in the 1920s and 1930s. Jean Paul Cooper, a London artist, is credited with its introduction to the Art Deco movement. The Victoria & Albert museum in London has a phenomenal exhibit of objet d'art made from Shagreen. Most of the pieces in the exhibit are made of shagreen that is dyed green. I haven't been able to find out why this was popular at the time.

The color that I'm using here isn't green but brown. Most of the hides come from SE Asia which is where I got this one a few years ago.

I hung out on boot and shoe making forums for awhile asking questions on how to work stingray. Their advice helped as did Tim Skyrme's youtube videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3w1gaxZkgA


These are shoemaker pliers or lasting pliers.

Barge cement recommended by thistothat.com for leather to wood. It’s also the glue that was used in Mythbuster's Escape from Alcatraz episode for fashioning their life raft. In other words, it sticks very, very well and sticks more the more that you beat on it.

The first part of gluing the bottom down was easy. The corners? Not so much.

By taking the shoe making videos advice, I worked the corners into smaller and smaller folds.

The first corner I did without cutting the Stingray and then my fingers told me to get stuffed. The other historical use for stingray skins, as well as shark skins, was sandpaper. While this was tanned leather, it still did a number on my fingers. Ouch. So the other 3 corners, I wimped out and cut them.

Here it is from the bottom. My friend questioned the design because I put the "eye" on the bottom. Technical details aside, I told them it wasn't the first thing that was going to be hidden in this mod.

Test fit, not too bad for a first attempt.

You can see where I made the cuts on the corners but I have a plan for that.

From the back.

These are brass clamps used for welding hoses.

With a little modding they're corner covers...


...but that's for another update. Thanks for looking!

Many thanks to my sponsors!
Bitspower

HardwareLabs

 

bravo


realy nice mod!

 

I created pistol grips from stingray-leather a while ago. From my (limited) experience it's the hardest materials to work with. Your results turned our really great. Just like the rest you showed us so far.