Case Mod - In Progress Dragon Revival - [September - New workshop, new WC parts]

Your panel looks good, very eye-catching! I'd definitely give it a go again, I'm pleased with the results of mine - you could always get one of the multi-colour LED strips with the controller and then change the colours to how you want them.

LCD panels do create a very diffuse light but I think this would be difficult to replicate. Maybe someone else would have better luck than me if they tried to light the panel just from the sides! I can't find the link where I saw people experimenting but they used the diffuser film taken from a LCD monitor and it seemed to work well.

 

Bottom reservoir brackets

Remember this tube res:


The black plastic brackets don't gel with the build as a whole so I'm making some new ones.

Firstly I cut out 4x 80x80mm squares of 6mm plexi, then made a template out of card, drew on the cutting path and marked the centre ready for drilling out with the hole saw you can see there:


Cutting out the rough shape:


Four pieces ready for more work:


You can see a nice effect with the light here. This also shows up the work that needs doing - the edges are rough and uneven and need filing down:


Filing by hand takes a long time! The bottom two have been filed down, you can see it's a more even edge compared to the two on top:


More to come...

 

Finished the reservoir brackets:

Cutting holes






Then all I had to do was a LOT of sanding by hand (the brackets were now too fragile to use files and clamps.

End result looks pretty smooth Just need to work out how to fix them to the light panel / res to make the whole thing stable.

 

New SSD shelf

Here are the metal parts for the SSD shelf I've re-made.

The old one I modded from a PCI card wasn't going to give me the neat result I wanted so it'll probably be easier to make this new one from scratch from 1.5mm aluminium.



You can see on the left where it will fit into the PCI slot. Also, you can see the light reflecting off the edge - I've bevelled this to make it easier to push into the slot. Obviously this will be tidied up when finished, the metal looks a little worn at the moment.

 

SSD shelf

Made some progress on the SSD shelf today. The last picture above shows the metal plates that form the basic shape of the shelf. Today I cut out acrylic to go in between these sheets, drilled holes so I could fix everything in the same position and then sanded down the edges.

Have a look - it still needs more work (the drill bit broke while drilling one of the holes so I need to get that out and finish drilling that hole, then drill the holes for mounting the drives) but you can see how it's coming together.







Let me know what you think guys.

 

More progress on my week off, this time it's preparation for the front panel. I made a shelf at the bottom of the case which will support the weight of the front panel - I don't want to rely only on the M3 bolts I plan to use.

This is a view of the underside of the case, looking from the front. I've measured and drilled four 3mm holes and am about to widen the last two holes at the ends.



Another view of the front of the case from the bottom-upwards, with all bolts in place:



You can see here the bit that sticks out to support the front panel:



And this is how the panel will sit: 6mm plexi sandwiched in between two 2mm Alu sheets.



After taking the protective film off the plexi front panel I found it had some scratches in it, so I will need to source / cut some more.

Tomorrow I hope to finish the SSD shelf then either continue with the front panel or start constructing the cable management hardware.

 

Happy New Year!

I hope you didn't think this build was abandoned I'm definitely continuing with it when work / life allows. I've had some free time over the holidays so will update you on what I've done recently.

In the last post the three layers of the front panel had been cut to size and balanced on the front to give you an idea of their position in the build. Since then...

New plexi panel cut and clamped down together with the metal panels. The drill bits are cheap ones I bought to act as dowels to keep the layers in place.



This is the back Alu panel:



Here are the countersunk holes drilled over the case rivets to allow the panel to sit flush with the front of the case.



Here is the edge of the sandwich now bolted together: edges are still rough after being cut on the bandsaw.



Sanding down (first with a metal-plated sanding block then with 280-grit Alu-oxide paper) gives a really nice finish. I could get a glass-like finish by using high-grade wet-and-dry paper but I want the rougher finish here.



Another example before:



And after:



Here is the panel bolted to the front of the case - pretty good fit:

 

Moving on, here is the current state of play:





I'll go through the setup from left to right.

Pretty tight fit here, but allows a 90 degree fitting for a tube to go right up the back of the case. The res is wrapped in cling film for the time being to protect from scratches.



I'm using little rubber dots to suspend the tube within the brackets. These are sold as "drawer stoppers" that you can use to stop drawers / cupboard doors slamming when you close them.



The connections at the res / rad are kind of complicated. Here is the radiator side of things:



On the left side: 7.5mm extender, 45deg angle, 15mm quick-connector female --> male, 45deg connector (which connects to the reservoir)



Closed



For the rad outlet there's a C47 fitting and two 90deg bends



It all goes together like this:



And with the push-fitting closed:



The push-fitting is extremely stiff - using vaseline loosens it up a bit but if you leave it for any length of time it stiffens up again and makes it difficult to get apart without applying too much strain on the res / rad port threads. I'll try and find a better grease to use.

The radiator needed to be raised up by 11mm for it to be the correct height for the connection to the reservoir. The plexi I'm using is 6mm thick so...



Cut, drilled, sanded.



The 12mm height is perfect anyway:



So here is where I'm up to at the moment.



The rest of the loop will become apparent as the build progresses, as it stands I have to complete one step before moving on the next... Next thing will be to secure the radiator to the front panel, then cut through the "sandwich" to allow for airflow.

What do you think so far?

 

Blow-holes

OK, enough triple-measuring and fine sanding, time to break out the drill

This is the beast of a tool we'll be using (my bro won't let me show his pic online so he's "censored" :-(



Clamping down the panel



Me cutting into my pride and joy - I actually measured about 5 times before doing this, I've invested a lot of work in the panel so far!



So these are the blow-holes for the radiator:



Close-up shows the roughness. In retrospect it would have been better to clamp all the layers together and cut as one, because the hole-saw wanders a bit each time you start the cut. But I didn't want to risk putting the drill under too much strain so we drilled the pilot hole through all layers then used the hole saw on about 2 layers at a time. This means they don't match up exactly but I'll be filing these down and they'll look smooth in the end.



Here you can see another layer of plexi bolted on to the panel - there's another one on the other side and these are to make sure I get a nice sharp corner when I'm sanding down the cut edges, instead of smoothing the corners over.



The file in the picture is old and pretty blunted so I've ordered two nice new ones to make the smoothing easier - more pics once they arrive and I put them to good use!

 

The files arrived!



Rough and smooth





Allow me to go from this:



To this:



Nice sharp point where the circles meet



Large port for maximum airflow



The radiator will be left exposed like this. Nothing to stop the air getting through and the waste heat will be exhausted straight out of the front.





Sneak peak of next update

 

Installing Multiswitch

Did anyone guess what was going to be installed from the last pic?

That's me drilling the holes for the buttons and LEDs of the Aquacomputer Multiswitch that will be controlling some of the lights in the case.

Next step was to make a cut-out in the back two layers of the front-panel sandwich so that the Multiswitch can be screwed into the front layer and have the buttons and LEDs poking through. Luckily the case front panel is the same thickness as the one that came with the switch so it works quite well. Step by step...

Drilled out 10mm holes ready for the jigsaw blade



Making cuts freehand with the jigsaw



All out



Rough and ready for filing



Now nice and smooth - you can see how this creates a recess in the back with holes going through the front panel



Switch installed



Back two layers attached



From the front all you can see is the buttons and LEDs, no Aquacomputer faceplate or branding



Here is it from the rear




Does anyone have any experience with this Multiswitch? I'll be running the light panel straight from the PSU as it exceeds the 1amp max load per channel of the Multiswitch, but the switch will control all the other lights I have planned

 

Creating window and mounting for top reservoir

Had some free time this week and managed to make some progress.
The two pictures above show how things looked previously. I've been working on making a window at the top of the front panel and which can hold a second reservoir.

First I cut out the window shape from the two metal sheets that sandwich the plexi layer. Here's the rear sheet in place, after being cut.



Then I had to cut a port-hole in the plexi for the central opening of the Aquatube res (the protective film is still on so doesn't look too clean at the moment - this will stay on until I'm completely finished.

The hard part was drilling the holes for the mounting screws to attach the reservoir itself. I had no jig to help me position the holes so used a little trick - I photocopied the top of the reservoir, checked that it was 1:1 size ratio and drilled some test holes in a piece of MDF.



The holes were in the right place but this was still no good as I wasn't able to see where the holes were going to be placed. So I drilled through to a piece of spare plexi which I could when lay over the port hole to place the holes exactly.



Finished window with reservoir in place.





Rear side of the panel showing how the reservoir will float in the middle of the plexi.




Other things I've done include drilling the mounts for the radiator, which is now properly attached to the back of the front panel.



It makes a pretty tight fit at the bottom as it's just above the light panel, but I never had loads of room in this case anyway...



I also got the radiator surround ground away so that you can't see it through the front opening:




And lastly, I drilled out the holes for the LEDs that will be mounted from the back of the panel and hopefully illuminate the edge of the plexi layer. 3mm hole through the plexi and 4.5mm hole through the metal to allow the flange to sit flush with the plexi.



I've positioned it to be exactly equal distance from both circular openings so will hopefully illuminate the inner part of the opening evenly.



That's all for now...

 

Just about to order some WC supplies, need some advice:

1. I'm planning on adding a mini ball-valve (this) to the top reservoir so that I can connect a length of tube on a barb to fill the reservoir. I'll also add another valve on a T-connector somewhere down the bottom of the case to allow for draining the loop - does this sound like a reasonable solution? I can't really use fill ports as all the ports will be facing out sideways.

2. Do I need to have a pressure-regulator valve? I was going to add one to the top port of the top reservoir to prevent any pressure buildup and help reduce air in the system

3. I'm planning on using Primochill LRT 7/16 ID tube with 7/16 Bitspower barbs (not the stubby ones), no clamps - does anyone have any experience with this? I'm hoping I won't need the clamps. The tube is supposed to be tight on fittings so I was also hoping I wouldn't need to go for 1/2" barbs as I might not even get the tube on...

Advice / suggestions would be appreciated!

 

Just realised the place I'm getting the tubes from (FrozenCPU) only sell the 1/2" barbs so I'll go for those - will I be able to get the tube over the barbs?! I take it I definitely won't need clamps if I use the larger barbs...

 

That's definitely a new way to make fan holes!

If you soak the end of the tube in hot water and then stretch it out from the inside with needle nose pliers it should work.

 

A lot has happened to me in the past 5 months, although not much on the project!

Moving house and starting a new job means hobbies can get put aside but the upshot is...

I now have my own Man Cave :-D


I've got racking on the left for lots of storage and a workbench on the right. I'm just getting set up at the moment but have got most of what I need to carry on working. So now I can just nip into the garage and start tinkering without having to make time to go to my parents' house
There's more space in there than it seems from the photos, maybe this is my excuse for a new wide-angle lens ;-)


No more firm modding progress at the moment then but here's a few shots of some new watercooling gear I've got from the States:

I've decided to go with flexible tubing as the routing for the rigid tubing would be too fragile for this build.



















Lots of clips, don't want to spring a leak...


Nice and shiny....