Scratch Build – Complete ⭐ The Crippled God. 2020 Extrusion + 3D Printed Open Frame.

Final Pics
https://forums.bit-tech.net/index.p...printed-open-frame.372308/page-2#post-4860225

Promised myself years ago I'd do one system where I put my all in to it. Since I'm familiar w/ 3d printers I'll be going that route for all manufacturing. Started modeling the system over a year ago. Was originally going to go w/ water cooling. However earlier this year I decided I don't want to water cool any more. I have been working on this for a few months already but since I'm super slow I let stuff build up before starting the log.

Pic of the model before I decided on air.


And then the renders I finished a short while ago. All the pieces are broken down in to sizes that my modded Prusa MK3S can print.









The sleeving I'll be using. MDPC-X Perfect Pink and Riviera Blue. Both are the XTC small. I'm not sure I like it as much. But I'll wait till I actually try it on sleeving. Both are UV reactive and I'll be using a lot of UV LED in this system.


New motherboard. Asus Prime X570-Pro. Cheapest board I could find w/ 3 PCIe x8/x16 slots.




And the heart of the new system. I'm already using the CPU + mobo.



Most of the parts are printed. A few parts are missing as I needed to reprint them. Blue is ABS. The translucent / natural is PLA. The feet are PETG, as its significantly stronger.



The motherboard tray. Printed in PLA. The combs I tossed as they need too much post processing. So I'll reprint them from ABS or PETG.





Yes! A perfect fit.



Sleeved the USB C internal cable as well as the power button. One side of power button unfinished as I don't know its exact length yet. USB cable isn't perfect, but stretching the heatshrink to get it over the connector was a real pain.



UV LEDs showed up. Better than I expected. Very little visible light thrown. Its mostly just the reflection off the parts. Threw in some UV orange printer parts to see their affect.

 

Looks promising! And reverse ATX are the way to go

 

I had worked on this for a while epoxying and sanding. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I eventually got sick of sanding the XTC-3D coating and threw most of the printed parts in the garbage. I eventually reprinted the parts again, this time out of higher quality eSUN PLA. I started painting and sanding again over the last few days.

The motherboard tray parts I did not reprint as I had so much work in to them already. Here is after a ton of epoxy and sanding.




I painted them and realized it wasn't even close to being done. So I'm now using a laquer and an eye dropper on areas where you could tell it was 3d printed.


The laquer is stuff left over from a previous project.


Macro


Thought the main motherboard tray was also finished.


But nope, lite sanding shows it definitely isn't. Getting closer though.


Backside is definitely getting there.


State of the rest of the parts.

 

Upgraded heater block to an E3D Volcano w/ a 0.6mm Micro Swiss nozzle. Upgraded to a BMG extruder. Upgraded hot end fan to a 24V Sunon. Upgraded cooling fan to a 24V Nidec. Bear X Axis. MattyVee's Y Axis mods.




Printed is in an smart enclosure, very much function over form. Enclosure heater is automated based on material I am printing. Same w/ the HEPA and carbon filtration when printing ABS. RGB changes depending on time of day, etc.





A super short clip of the printer in action.
https://i.imgur.com/ZVt0I3Z.mp4

 

That enclosure is great. A guy in Minnesota would have liked to have known these were sensitive to surrounding temperature. -Now he has a plastic baseball where the extruder was.

 

Really only depends on the materials you print. Printing PLA should be doable in pretty much any environment.



Modeled a super simple cover to hide the top of the NH-D14 heatsink.


Printed and painted.


Worked on the LED controller. An ESP8266 development board, using an ON Semiconductor FQP30N06L mosfet so I can dim the UV LEDs. This will control both the UV leds as well as some addressable RGBs LEDs. Also threw in a spare AM2320 humidity / temperature sensor.




Built the frame. Took a few tries to get it square and all the pieces the correct length. Fitment of the panels is pretty good.


Modeled a small enclosure for the LED controller as well as the holes for the power button, chassis fan speed switch, and 'front panel' USB-C.


Where I'm going to put the UV LEDs for the bottom. You can see one hiding on top of the LED controller enclosure. I'm trying to get the UV to only shine on the sleeving. Although the UV LEDs don't actually throw a ton of visible light.


And the two @ the top of the LED enclosure.


The LED controller enclosure printed and have started prep work on it.


This is the 'paint' I'm using. It works great for 3d printed parts due to its heavy texture.


Main part of motherboard tray is completed I believe.


I/O part of the tray needs another coat or two on certain parts.


Also done. Other 3 need more work.


The following are all still a WIP.




UV LED mounts.

 

Simple but efficient Couldn't this cover made so it would also hide the top of the fan ? Or would it interfere with their mounting brackets?

 

The front fan has to sit a bit higher unfortunately due to the ram height, so it will actually probably be flush w/ the top of the cover.


Printed a basic fan hub cover so I don't have to sleeve all the way to the hub. Had to print 2 different versions as my front fans are too close to the motherboard tray.









Have the majority of the case put on the frame. Does need a coat or two though as some parts as I had to sand to proper fitment.













Didn't take in to account for the paint thickness and the PCIe cards wouldn't slot in properly. So had to do a whole lot of sanding.





My USB-C 'front panel' cable was about an inch to short. So I had to redo the PSU mounts. The LED controller enclosure also needs a reprint.

















A super basic GPU anti-sag using motherboard tray screw hole.





New render. I've decided to print a floor, which is currently printing ATM. As well as I've decided on where the addressable RGB will go. You can see the channels around the edge of the case. Goes completely around. I've had them printed so I know they fit, unfortunately once again I didn't take in to account paint, and they'd hit the side panel. So they are being reprinted.

 

The fan covers and anti-sag bracket are really clever.
I generally leave .015" gaps in my models for tolerance issues. I still hear about things like having to remove a panel to install the video card, though.

 

This is looking really cool, i'm loving all the details. Keep it up!

 

I started working on the case again. I needed to paint the entire case while on the frame. I am not completely sure the frame is 100% square though. I was planning on waiting for the side panels to get done to do the painting to verify they fit right. But then covid happened. So I'm just going to risk it and paint it before the side panels get done.

Sleeved the fans. I absolutely didn't think mounting through when designing it.


I can't actually see the screws, they sit on a lip underneath. Then there is just a 3mm hole to fit a screwdriver through. Honestly took me 30 minutes to figure out how to install the first one.


Each fan has 2 sets of wires. One for the standard, and then another for fan control.


Have made some basic covers to hide the connectors.


Made a few small changes to the 'led controller enclosure'. Have also painted the frame to match the rest of the plastic parts.




Started on wiring. After it's all done the combs will be cut off.








Still have the hard parts to do.

 

Nice project

 

My sleepy, sunlight sensitive eyes were not ready for those cables.

 

Very nice work, one can see the thoughts you put into the project Do you plan to use some kind of mesh in front of the fans? I fear you´ll have a pretty dusty PC otherwise...

 

Love the case, those are the colors that I am going for in my build only adding black to mines as well. Can't wait to see the final result...

 

No mesh. I generally take my computer outside every month or two and blow it out thoroughly w/ a DataVac.



The 'front panel' USB-C, power button cable, and 3 x 180mm fan control wires run underneath the motherboard.


And in to the little box behind the PSU.




Installed the board in the case so I can finish sleeving. My dead board I was using doesn't have the connections in the right place so it can't be used to finish sleeving. I decided to ditch my ol' Noctua NH-D14 w/ a B Quiet Black Rock Pro 4 as it looks cool.


And a rather big set back. Expansion cards don't fit lol. I'm going to have to pull everything out and sand where you screw in the cards at least a full mm.

 

Can you use 1mm of insulating washers under the motherboard?

 

Very clean and beautiful build, cable managment is great, and the blue/pink color sheme is a brillant idea

 

I probably could have but the IO shield may not fit properly and I think it is something that would have bothered me in the end.

Going to use a different device for LED control. Sub $10 RGB controller from Aliexpress.



Open it up. Using an ESP8285 controller.


Take out the trusty TS100, flashed w/ custom firmware. This thing was a game changer for soldering IMO.



Did a quick and dirty solder job to attach RX/TX, 3.3V, ground, and GPIO0 so I can flash the firmware on PC. Flashed it to ESPHome, which allows me to use the GPIO to my own specs and will sync to my home automation software, Home Assistant.



Resleeved the power button w/ small diamater wire. And also was able to sleeve the USB-C cable.



I took the whole case apart and spend a rather long while sanding and painting. Also went over the whole case again w/ a jet black lacquer as I didn't like how uneven the bed liner looked. It still isn't perfect but it looks a lot better. And as you can see the PCIe cards do fit properly now. Also painted the white plastic parts of the motherboard to a silver-ish colour. It is peel-able in case I ever need to warranty the board.







Finished wiring up the chassis fans. They all get power from the water-pump header on the board, and then the fan control runs under motherboard to the back near the PSU. Small covers that cover up the cables/connectors.