Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Blue Horizon - "MOTY" Nominee

Will the rest of the water cooling system be aluminum?

 

Nothing beats making your own barbs!

Well, that's not true, but this is pretty cool.

 

Yeah to stop any nasty chemical reactions.

Thanks Nutman

 

<--That, only much bigger! This is turning into a spectacular project.

 

Hows this:


lol.


I managed to get all the barbs done today (one of which has been polished, however I'm waiting for some more polishing supplies to do the rest):










I also managed to weld the final supports:



I then used a dremel with a cutting disc to cut slots out the tubes:









Next up is attaching the final sides to seal the heatsinks. Sorry if these heatsink updates are a bit boring, its taking a long time to weld everything.

 

Don't worry about how long it takes. There's an old saying in the building trade that goes "Take your time, do it once and do it right" No need for apologies, the speed will come with experience.

 

Thanks bulldogjeff

 

LOL face.
Time is not matter when you need precision and wants a spectacular final effect.
I'm still learning and I feel I will have a problems with ending my case.
Doesn't matter. Your case is going to be massive

 

It looks as though you didn't face the sides of the block before holding it sideways in the vice. I don't think the accuracy matters in this case, but for future reference, you always want to true up the sides that will be touching the vice first, then deck (face) the surfaces.

For example, if you have a rectangular block of aluminum, all rough cut with a bandsaw or such, you would put it in the vice and face one side, then rotate it 90° towards you and face the next, etc, etc. Then, you would go around again for the finish passes to make sure everything is perfectly parallel and then face the sides with a large end mill. This ensures you don't move the piece between doing the top surface and the sides, leaving you with a perpendicular surface. I'm at work now, but I can draw something up later to illustrate my point.

Regardless, nice machining .

 

Kudos for making everything yourself, and doing it well!

 

Totally agreed.

 

Are you welding with oxygen acetylene?

 

Thanks HoryBP

That effect is just what the bandsaw leaves, the sides weren't machined on the milling machine. This block won't be seen once its finished as there is another block which will fit around this one. The only visible part will be the ends of the barbs.

Thanks guys

Nope, just propane gas, heres a pic from earlier in my thread:





Heres the next update:

I got my new polishing supplies today from the local hardware store:



I forgot to get two stitched mops *doh*, I've currently got a stitched and a non stitched mop:



First things first I rubbed the brown polishing compound on the stitched mop:



I then spun the lathe up and pushed the barbs onto the mop to polish them. Make sure you push your work into the edge of the mop which is being pulled away from you as it spins. Once brown compound had smoothed the entire surface of the barbs I then gave it a quick going over with the non stitched mop to remove the excess polish:



Heres the final result (the block hasn't been polished as it won't be visible):







I also trimmed down the supports on the heatsink to the correct level using the cutting disc on my dremel:



Lucky for me I didn't have to re-weld any of the O rings, as the cutting disc welded them together for me:



I then began working on the tops for the heatsinks, by first drilling a hole into the top sheet for the coolant exit pipe:







I then made the 3 supports for attaching the heatsink to the case side panel, using the same method as before:



I just need to make the intake tube now.

 

oo shiney those barbs came up great dude!

"the last 6 images are dead links to me though! :/

 

Thanks Editor22 , thats weird I'm looking at them now. Did you try refreshing the page?

 

I can see em fine, could earlier too...

 

Come on baby light my fire...(with burner)
Next awesome polishing. Looks well

 

OUTSTANDING SHINE! Keep it going. Yer get'n there! Looks great

 

(Ignore this, it was a double post)

 

Thanks LooseNeutral


I didn't have much time to mod today but heres the angle block welded:



I also tested it by filling it with water and putting some compressed air into it while holding my finger over the opposite barb. I had to make the welds widely spread over the block as water was getting through.

I also finally got my new peice for the PCI back panel:



I then milled out a channel:







I just need to cut out the section inside the channel now, and then the piece with the PCI slots in will fit in the channel.