Scratch Build – In Progress Mr3D - Project Tatami (mATX computercase from scratch)

Oh yeah!

 

Awesome!

OK, so you milled the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin in bold type, then.

 

This is just..wow..yeah..I love this!

 

GUYS! You know what?

CHANGING UNDERWEAR TIME!



Why now start with the latest buys.




Bought some SSDs for the build! A Intel 750 400gb PCIe SSD and a Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD.

The case was designed for 2 2.5" SSDs, but after Intel released the 750, I wanted one... I can buy 2 1TB Samsungs for storage, but my wallet won't let me, maybe at a later time.




And a flow-meter...






...the frontplate wasn't quite up to par, tho. So I made a new one!

Need to countersink the screws, too. But that's for another time.






I've gone all-out so far, why not go the extra mile and also make a X99 backplate?




Have to make a new stop-fitting for the reservoir. I made a new panel/lid for the reservoir a few weeks back, and the added height needed a fitting with a longer thread, combine that with bad design of the reservoir.




CPU/VRM is coated with clear-coat, I wouldn't want the copper to go brown...

Same goes for the stop-fitting, it's clear-coated.












Almost time for anodizing!

All the parts need a finishing touch tho, with some 800-grit paper. After that, sand blasting.










I can't remember how much I've actually talked about the startbutton, but the thing is that it shouldn't be seen on the front. With that in mind, the button need to have the same looking brush-marks as the plates.

The first thing I had to do was to make a fixture, I made it from a piece of scrap aluminum. Milled a hole, big enough for the button to fit, when clamped on a vise it should stick. When clamping, it's really important for the fixture and button to be planar to each-other. This is only made so I won't damage the edges of the button, which in the end need to be sharp.

Started sanding with 120-grit paper to get the brush-marks I wanted, but to smooth the surface and have a nicer feel to it, sanded with some 800-grit paper.




Bye bye parts, off to the anodizer with you!

I drove to the company and handed over the parts myself, while I was there I got a quick tour how anodizing works. The picture you see is some of the bats the aluminum is going through, another thing also added is electricity that goes through the parts. I think it was around 30 of these baths standing in a line.




Awwwww yeeeeeeah, I'm happy with the result!

BUT the anodizer made a mistake... The robot dropped(It was the anodizers fault for not clamping them safely to the fixture) 2 of the plates in one of the baths, so they can't be used any longer.






So I had to make 2 new plates... Talked with my water-cutting guy, so he made me 2 new ones, but only the contours. I've realized that I'm fully capable of milling the inside contours myself.

Well then, off to the anodizer again...




While waiting for the plates, why not start the assembly?

Here is the radiator with shrouds mounted, after the picture was taken, I've also mounted the fans and also 4 thermal-sensors on there, 2 on the inlet air, and 2 on the outlet. That's to get a better measuring values.




The start button, as I showed earlier, but now it's anodized. It won't be mounted as you see here, that was only to show how it looked like with the matching of the brushed surfaces. It's not 100% perfect, but it's good enough.








Why not end the update with some overall pictures?

 

Hubba hubba.

 

Wonderful work, great to see a start button that isn't an ugly vandal switch!

 

Oh that thing is sooo dang solid. The contrast of the parts makes the frame even more pornographic.

Now, Don't pull a "cheapskate" and just stuff the wires in will-nilly.

 

Sweet!!!

 

aluminum. agggggwwwww So nice

 

I'm not promising anything.

 

Cheapskate, you're the one to decide if I pulled a "cheapskate" or not...








The cable management is progressing.

 

Very nice, was going to do same a bit ago but in black & white, I believe it to be better than sleeving.

 

Thanks man! I like the braiding, but can't decide if I like the cable-management on the backside of the mobo tray... Might hide them behind the mobo...

 

It's too soon to tell. The fact that cables can be seen at all will upset some people here.

-That's my thing! That's what I do! Although I leave a huge gap under the motherboard so I can.

I like the braid, but I'm not sure you should/can try it on the 24 pin main. It would probably make it impossible to bend for one thing.

 

Your so good on those mills, you might consider making hiding channels for some of the wiring. I'm not sure why all my suggestions involve creating extra work for other people, but never me.

 

You must be in management.

 

Wow, outstanding work!

 

Just spent at least 30 mins going back through this. There are multiple case parts I want to perform coitus on.

Carry on.

 

That's about the worst thing you could ever say to another person!

Otherwise, nice progress on the build

 

I already worked that out in my mind and some quick tests on cables laying around. We'll see if I fail or not...

How about another 2mins on this update...




Here's an update for the last 2 weekends worth of work. Time to hit the sack now, already night in Sweden...






Bought some Bitspower fittings. Yeah, they should fit perfectly with the copper-pipe.
















To get the window flush with the side-panels, milled islands in 4mm thick polycarbonate sheets(sure, could've used acrylic, but I wanted polycarbonate, used in industries for safety windows and such) to fit the pattern of the panels. Mounted the plastic in the mill with double sided tape on a sacrificial plate that was milled flat.




To get stuff to fit with the flow-sensor I had to mill a slight hole in it. Otherwise it wouldn't fit with the side-panel.






New and fine-looking buttons for the aquaero! Was actually quite a lot of work with the buttons to get them to fit. Making them perfect height for them to be flush with the front panel, diametrial fits to get the perfect feel to it, and so on.

That should be all for now. Bed is calling, good night!