Case Mod - In Progress Project: Orange Monster, 26 July 2006; Wire routing blocks 16.3.2014

Drain port assembly...

A drain port was in the designs from the beginning and since I now have a huge hole in the bottom of the case it's pretty much a done deal. So that's what I tackled today.



Here's a photo of a drain/fill port I'm using on the OM. I don't really know why the port has been designed so that you could mount it through the Hoover dam. It's way too tall and when you slap a compression fitting on that it gets even taller. I'm trying to get this thing to be the lowest part of the loop so it has a possibility of working (I still don't know if this is ever going to work, but like I said, it's too late to turn around now).



To get it lower I'm using a 90-degree angle fitting. The one on the left is much better for this purpose, but it's still too high. That'll need some work...





I made this jig out of scrap MDF I had laying around. I have to admit though that it's not the prettiest jig I've ever made

All I cared about was the bottom edge to be straight and the thickness to be correct. I wanted a 6mm "overhang" so that I could run it through my router and use the MDF as a guide.



Now it's beginning to look like something. The port was luckily threaded all the way through from the inside so all I had to do was to recreate the chamfered edge for the o-ring to sit in with my drill press and a 15,5mm drill bit.





Lean and mean...





The assembly is going to be a bit of a "Frankenstein creation" since I wanted to add a valve before the port itself. So that's drain port -> L-fitting -> extension (revolvable double nipple) -> a ball valve -> extension (revolvable double nipple) --->



...and finally a T-manifold. So yeah, four revolvable nipples and one ball, I'd call that a weird combination

That combination also needs support under it, so that was the "real modding" part for today.





I sandwiched a piece of POM, acetal, actually don't know what it is exactly between two pieces of orange acrylic. Cut them down to size, drilled two 2,5mm holes through them and sanded and polished the edges. So that piece is about 16mm tall and 3cm wide.





That's how it fits under the manifold. The upper piece of acrylic is attached to the manifold with double-sided tape (at least for now, I might epoxy it into place when the loop is done). There are also two M3 threaded holes in that same piece of acrylic. The acetal piece and the lower acrylic piece have slightly bigger holes in them and the whole sandwich is held together by two hex-head screws through the bottom of the case.



I hate to drill even more holes in the case, but I had no choice here.





And lastly there are two photos of the whole assembly with a bit of tubing just for a mock-up.

That's it for today, hopefully there's more to come tomorrow.

Keep on commenting, feedback is always appreciated

Darkened

 

Whoa, nice support!

Oh, and thanks for reminding me that I was into modding 4 years ago AND had a pretty good taste already back then.

 

:O

I've been having such a bad day and now I find that you're alive and carrying on.

Made. My. Day.



Welcome back Darkened, welcome back!

 

Watching this thread was my daily ritual. It warms my hear to see this project return

 

I just went through all of your posts. Hell this is one heck of a mod. Keep up the good work

 

Nice to see you back in the ring to take another swing dude!

You've actually bought me back to the forums as well, I've been away for years. Good luck on the job hunt in the mean time as well

 

Great to have you back! You were one of the first modders that I truly admired so I can't describe the warm feeling that took over me when I noticed you are back in action.

And congrats on finishing your studies!

 

Shroud fabrication...

Oh man, this was the craziest modding day I've ever done!

I was at the shop at about 9.30 in the morning and from there on out I just zoned out and kept on fabricating stuff. The air conditioning shuts off at 16.00, so that's when I looked at the clock for the first time. I kept on going until 21.00, so that's 11,5h of modding at one go. And no, I didn't even eat until I got home

I think the reason I lost track of time was that everything was pretty much going my way today. It's a refreshing change to the usual "measure once, re-do the whole piece" - type of days I usually have

@Nutman

Thanks for the compliments and no problem for the reminder

@Jack_Pepsi

I'm just happy this thread has made your day better (hopefully more of the good days keep on rolling your way). And thanks for the warm welcomes!

@mnpctech

I don't think I did daily updates back in the day, but I'm really happy and a bit humbled that you are following this thread. A great honor to say the least.

@Brute4S

Hats off to you for crawling through the whole thread and a warm welcome to Bit-Tech also. I can't be anything but happy if someones first post is made in my thread And yes, I shall try to keep up the work.

@Mother-Goose

Yeah, I'm still here, swinging away Good to see you around after this long time and I'm very happy to have brought you back from your hiatus. Also thanks for the good wishes for finding a job. I have a feeling that luck is pretty much needed at the moment

Btw, are Modsquad or Piloux or other "old school" modders still around? They've done mods that I still today look up to like crazy and it's a shame if Bit-tech has lost them. Mental note: read Black Narcissus project log from start to finish again.

Ok, let's bring on today's worth of work...

Like I mentioned before, I'm trying to salvage as much of the original parts as I possibly can. Not only just to save my troubles, but kind of keeping the spirit of the Monster alive.





If you've read the thread now or back in the olden days, you might remember this part. I had to do a bit of digging to find it, but most of it is still usable.

The side facing the motherboard is not going to work, so I had to re-think the situation a bit.





It still fits quite nicely in the case.





The hole for the PCI-e power cord is in the right place, but there are too many holes in the damn thing.

I think I was going to install leds in the holes, but I drilled them too close to the mobo to start with.





Out with the old, in with the new. I just lopped off the botched part of the shroud.

Making it from two parts has a couple of benefits. Firstly by removing only the cover I can get into the innards and it makes a bit of a maintenance hatch for the Monster. Secondly if I'm upgrading the hardware at some point, I don't need to re-do the whole part, but just the small piece that's facing the motherboard.



This is what I spent most of my time on today, cutting off and sanding pieces of alu sheet. The one on the left will be part of this shroud and the bigger part will be the new cover plate for the divider.



Behind the sheets is a 20mm wide aluminum strip which has six holes tapped for M3 screws. It will be attached to the divider on the bottom and to the motherboard tray to the side, but for now it just stands on its own.



There's the new setup. It needs holes in the right places and I need to make the support system for the shroud itself, but it doesn't look too bad as it is.

There you can see the sanded surface of the parts (which attracts fingerprints like no other). This was quite coarse though, 120 grit if I recall right. I'll give them a good going over when I get to the painting stage.



These are the parts for the lower compartment cover shrouds. The carnage in the shop was just unbelievable once I had cut the parts out with a jigsaw and trimmed them down to size with the router. Small alu shavings just everywhere!



PSU shroud...



...and one for the front of the case. Note that I took the photo at an odd angle and the part is in fact straight



It slips right between the drain port and a switch on the left side of the case. The part needs work, but the raw work is done.





From a few different angles and finally...



...from the other side. A nice fit, but again, needs a few notches, mounting points etc.



The front shroud slips behind the fan and covers the backside of the case. There's still a bit of a gap between the PSU cover and this one, but there won't be one when I'm done with it. It seems that this front piece always needs a lot of tweaking to get it to sit right.



Last picture of the day, all cover plates from the divider down. There will also be a cover plate on the bottom of the case to cover up my attempts to make the case even lighter than it already was...

I also finished a mounting bracket for the pump, but it's a part of a bigger assembly, so I decided to push the photos to the next update.

Until then, stay tuned and comment, share criticism, anything goes really

Off to get some sleep now...

Darkened

 

Hey Evenge, it's truly great to be back and really nice to see the old cast gathering here

I took my sweet time with the schoolwork (although working through the school and 4 years full time after that). Nearly 10 years for AMK degree, not anyone can pull that off

I can only hope that my work is still up to par, but the warm welcome back has been absolutely wonderful.

Darkened

 

Looked through this thread from beginning to end and I must say. its all incredible. After all the other stuff you did with this case, I cannot wait to see this next iteration. Welcome back!

 

Great work on the shrouding!

* I would check here everyday for updates A lot of your ideas were ahead of their time ....and Your photos, they also raised the bar.

 

great shrouding subbed

 

Again, I'll tip my hat to anyone who reads through this whole mess of a thread. I'm hoping this "iteration" will be the last one for this project so that I can move on (perhaps to something bigger and better ).

@mnpctech

I have to say that the feeling is mutual then. I used to follow your projects really closely as well since your craftsmanship is absolutely amazing (and I wouldn't mind having a few of your CNC toys as well ). The photos I wanted to do well from the get-go and getting my first digital camera for this thread has evolved into a passionate hobby of mine. Once I get the final assembly going, I'll try to be a bit more "artistic" with the photos. So far these photos go into snapshot category, but not focusing on lighting so much at this stage helps me focusing on the mod itself.

@rchiileea

Thanks for the compliment

The next update won't be up until next week, I need to go help my parents wrap up our summer cottage for winter during the weekend, so that means a small break from OM. I should be back Monday or Tuesday, so until then, stay tuned...

Darkened

 

Welcome back Darkened. Lovely metal work there. Just out of interest, what tools do you have at your disposal?

Cyp.

 

Hey Cyprio, long time, no chat

For these pieces I used a jigsaw for the rough (very rough) cuts and cleaned/squared the pieces off with a table mounted router. Next the pieces were sanded down with an orbital sander and the holes (where needed) were drilled with a drill-press. I have an el-cheapo all manual sheet metal bender which were used for...well bending the pieces.

On top of those I have the usual equipment, Dremel, a cordless drill, a very small band saw and a Dremel scrollstation (which I'm still trying to learn how to use).

I do have other equipment at my disposal as a loaner from my dad when needed, meaning air compressor, table saw, a mig welder etc. etc.

How about you, is the G5 still kicking? Any plans for another project?

Darkened

 

Welcome back. Very nicely fitting panel work. I have to admit I haven't gone through the entire log, but I'll be watching from it's rebirth.

 

Thought as much... a lot of manual skill and dexterity!

G5 is in the cupboard as have downsized my PC and have no spare modding time at the mo. 'Real life' taking over right now, which is equally as exciting and fun!

Looking forward to more updates.

Cyp

 

@Attila

Thank you for the warm welcome. There isn't actually much that can be gained from reading the thread from beginning since there has been so many iterations and re-makes. I started from a stripped case now so there should be no surprises (except maybe for parts I've made before which I'm just installing in the case).

Don't forget stupidity and stubbornness, those are the two main things driving me

So yeah, pretty much all my equipment are "hand tools", but man oh man I'd like a CNC router and access to either a water jet cutter or a laser cutter. I could do some damage with those

It's a shame that the G5 isn't in use anymore since it was by far the best (and most completed) G5 mod I've witnessed. Hopefully you'll get back to modding one day, you certainly have a knack for it.

I'm really pleased that you are following this thread, I'll try not to disappoint this time

And a new update should follow in a few days...

Darkened

 

Pump mounting...

A bit of a gap between updates, but this should bring the project up to date...



I have the stripped parts here at home, so I started to look through the pile and remembered that I had tested some sort of a loop just with battery water. I also left the loop intact after draining it, so yeah, it's not pretty.

Nothing is actually ruined, just needs a bit of work. The acetal top was easy, just washed it in the sink and it came out like new. The copper bottom needed more work. I tried the old ketchup trick (got better, but not enough). Next up was boiling the damn thing in vinegar (I didn't add salt so it might have worked better than it did), not enough.



This was the instant result once I found some stuff my dad uses to wash the sides of our boat. It's basically 18% hydrochloric acid (and this was already a diluted solution ). I decided that the result was good enough, so after a thorough wash and clean with rubbing alcohol I put the block back together.



The O-rings got treated with a light layer of Locktite 8104 silicone grease. Helps with keeping the rings in place and keeps them in good condition.



So here's the block back together. Not too bad considering the starting point

Before proceeding with fitting the lower compartment shrouds, I decided to do a bit of a fix here...



A bit of "swiss cheesing" going on here also. This part is not going to be visible, but I want to do right by the Monster, so I decided to go ahead and fix it anyway.



I cut out a plate of alu with my band-saw and trimmed it to size with the router. Next I installed it into place and traced the needed holes from the bottom. I actually needed to make two more holes for mounting this sheet, but hey, I've come this far...



I attached the sheet from the bottom with four low-profile rivets. The two holes remaining are mounting holes for the flow meter.



Next up was securing the PSU shroud into place with L-brackets. The longer one was in use with the old shroud, so all I had to do was to drill corresponding holes to the new shroud. The shorter and wider bracket is a new one since I wanted to secure the shroud in place better than I had done before. The bracket is wider because I wanted to use the Lian-Li manufactured holes instead of drilling more of my own.

And don't worry about the long screws, those will be cut down to size once I get the fitting process done.



I decided to use countersunk allen screws on the side because it will be quite close to the side panel support.



This is why I opted for the larger L-bracket here. No extra holes needed



Here's the PSU shroud mounted. It's pretty sturdy, but only time will tell if the shrouds will rattle once the machine is up and running, but that's something I'm going to worry about if it actually happens.



After a bit of thinking I decided to make my life a lot harder. To gain more space for the "backside" and for routing the cables, I decided to mount the pump "half in - half out" of the shroud. A bit of measuring and drilling a few holes I attacked the part with the scroll-saw. The hole came out quite nicely and it's a snug fit around the pump.





I also attached some L-brackets for mounting the shroud in place.



Here it is installed and mounted into place. The shroud actually blocks the far side thumb-screw of the fan mount, so to get it in place I have to first stick the shroud in the case but in an angle. After that I can mount the fan and then slip the shroud into place. Then it has to be secured from the bottom with three screws.



The fit is starting to look a lot better than it did before.



This is what I mean when I said that the shroud blocks the access to the fan mount thumb-screw.

The various notches I've made to the shroud are necessary for getting it into place and they will not be visible once the case is assembled.



A better view of the mount points. I also had to drill two more holes to mount the damn thing





So this is how the pump comes through the hole.



A view from above where you can see how much the pump is able to protrude through the shroud. When mounted it will actually be totally flush with the shroud, but I decided to give myself some clearance for fitting the pump cover.



Next I shortened an inlet (?), which is used to get the tube through the divider plate. There are stock parts next to the modified ones for reference.



The pump needs a mounting bracket of its own in this system, so I did a bit of tracing and designing and cut this part out with the scroll-saw.





I filed a 45 degree groove with a triangle shaped file and did the bend. Here you can still see M4 threaded holes, but afterwards I had to enlarge the holes to 5mm since I needed the threading to be behind the pump mounting points instead.

The part is still very rough, so that will improve before I can call it done. Then again, it's not going to be seen once everything is in place.



When the pump cover is in place, the outlet is pretty much straight in the middle of this hole (the photo lies a bit since I didn't get my camera into 90-degree angle when I took the shot).



I'm using an alternative Petra's Tech acetal top for my Laing pump. I actually had to check if the company is still standing and it is

The tube will go through the shroud to the other side, but it needs a hole for that, so the tubes are installed just for demonstration purposes.





Here you can see the way the tubing goes through the shortened inlet and the divider plate. Not too much clearance here, but that's the way it is when working with a relatively small case.



Here's the pump mounting bracket in place (see the burrs around the screws since I drilled and tapped the holes while it was clamped in place ).



This is where we are at now. There's actually a quite handsome amount of space back there for routing the PSU cables and other wires. I'm pleased with that. For reference, the distance between the side of the case and the shrouds backside is about 10cm.

I'll be routing the PSU cables along the divider plate sealing so next I need to cut a hole to the PSU shroud for the cables to come through and also start fabricating some cable routing hardware...

That's it for now, enjoy and keep them comments coming!

Darkened

 

Fantastic work so far dude, your attention to detail is amazing, I love the fact that even the parts that aren't on show are given a huge amount of time, it looks fantastic mate. Im subb'd to it now so I will keep up with the progress and look forward to updates!