Scratch Build – In Progress Lockdown Dieselpunk

Iron man. First suit.

 

Thanks I found a wooden mallet that seemed to damage the soft aluminium the least - still plenty of dents but probably only an english wheel would get rid of them! They just add to the character

Good point! I must have been watching alot of MCU films at the time Does the suit count as dieselpunk? decopunk?

 

In the film, most likely the costume was shahidpunk... whatever it means...
I'm sorry if I hurt someone.

 

Looks great! Love the panel at the front!

 

looks good, reminds me of the iron giant Disney movie.

 

Lockdown relaxes and everything gets crazy busy!
I'm sure it takes longer to write up and sort photos than it did to do the work.

Not many progress pics of this next sub-project either I'm afraid, Damn Memory Card.

So I planned to have some sort of ducting arrangement on the back of the radiator shell - see the initial sketches. The original one on the heater looked interesting but not what I wanted.

The shell is 8 inches diameter, I looked at creating my own bend using thin steel and templates from the web, but it was never going to look as smooth as a machine formed one, so I gave in and found a duct bend locally..... then cut it up
It was painted in some horrible silver paint which took a while to remove, but it was a good starting point.



I made two cylinders of ~5 inches diameter from thin steel sheet, and held them against the duct bend, and marked and cut out some holes.
I cut the ends off the duct bend and slit it up the middle then cut some more slits across to allow the separate pieces to be bent/moved as needed.

<lost IMGs of hours of cutting & swearing>

The red lines in this very crude Paint representation show roughly where I cut



Pile of scrap cut out of the duct bend..



The two cylinders were tack welded in and the flaps of metal bent/moved to all connect together and close the gaps up as smoothly as possible. Then all welded up, whew!

<lost IMGs of result>

After welding in the cylinders I cut them off at a random angle, maybe I should have left them longer / different shape. They kinda looks like Batfink's ears!



I sprayed a light coat of black paint on to try and blend it to the radiator shell, then left it outside for a little longer than planned



I experimented with a blowtorch, sandpaper, rust remover &paint to see how I could change the finish....





I was hoping the burnt, rusty ends looked like hot exhaust pipes?
I think it blends into the finish of the radiator shell quite well, I still have to apply a clear coat as the rust is pretty crumbly and will blow out the back when the fan runs

It slips over the radiator shell perfectly, I'll add the three screws to fix it in position later when I cut out the holes for the radiator pipes!





I also cut a couple of thin strips of steel to make straps to hold the radiator shell in place. They bolt into the frame one end and have bolts welded on the other to allow them to be tightened down.



I might add some felt or rubber between the straps and the shell later on....
The clearance between the motherboard tray and the duct is pretty tight now!



I raided the rusty nut&bolt drawer to find a nice random selection of bolts to hold the frame covers on as the clamps were annoying!



Still some features to add, but externally it's close to what I wanted.









There's a big space behind the duct to fill now.....

 

You madman! It looks great, but it screams for some grill covers. You will probably need to lower the motherboard tray. The PSU could be moved to the space under the radiator.
-It's not like all that extra chopping will mess with your fit and finish.
Also: Your rig has a butt crack now.

 

Fantastic work. I love how your distressing isn't just a paint job.
Not sure why but I feel like that That radiator and ducting is screaming for an obnoxiously loud fan. Alternatively, one with a rhythmic drone and a slow stream of steam rising out of it.

 

Thanks Mmmm yeah the ends do look a bit unfinished, I'll see what I can find / dream up....
Originally I thought the PSU could be tucked up at the top in the hump, but I'd have to go SFX and I'd loose the basement to hide the electronics. I didn't think about a remote mount and a cable though.........
I'll put some felt/rubber between the shell and supports so that should raise it up a little. I tested with an ATX board and as long as there aren't any tall components in that corner it should fit okay. No EATX or bigger though!
It's just the light that makes it's butt look sooo big

Thanks I was bored and needed to start building and the only materials I had access to were rusty and old, so the finish is rusty and old.
The theme is more forgiving on my skills as well, if the fit&finish is rough it's just to fit the theme

Thanks I've admired the distressed paint finishes on many amazing cases, I don't have the skills to achieve it but I can turn shiny pieces of metal into rusty bits
Good idea - pulsejet or V1 rocket sounds!!
I've swapped out the fan motor so hopefully it will be quiet enough to sit beside.

 

Bit of a break, time for an update....

So the right hand side of the case looked a bit boring , I had the leftover rear grille from the USB fan and thought it might look interesting mounted up with some lights.
I dug through the junk box and found a couple of these belt buckle plasma discs bought for some other project and at ~70mm diameter they're a perfect fit in the fan shell!



The electrode on the back of them is very fragile


Broken from the box! fortunately I had a second.

The PCB was removed from the case and modified to bypass the switch and sound activated mode, then stuck on the back of the grille. Thin foam was added to insulate it - Danger! High Voltage!
I glued some bits of plastic inside the grille to support the disc and silicon'd it in position.



Then welded some simple brackets on the case frame and bolted it up.



I built a steel cover to hide the PCB on the back and hopefully cut down on EM interference



But staring at it for a few days I decided it wasn't right and there was nowhere to hide the wires.



So..... I cut the brackets off
I had a piece of steel hydraulic line, I cut and bent three legs and welded them onto the back cover,.



The two lower ones go into holes in the frame & motherboard support post and the top one has a plate with a screw to secure it.



The wires can sneak up the top leg now into the frame - much better.
It was still a little boring........ more LED's needed

I pulled the disc off and soldered a length of LED strip into a loop to fit around the outside of the plastic mounts.
I swapped the LED's for orange/yellow ones since it turns out the plasma disc is orange and I didn't have the right colour strip!
I attached some wires and silicone'd the plasma disc back in so it holds the LED strip in place.



It was better, but the back still looked a little plain so I added a sheet metal ring welded on the legs and used a couple of random washers welded on to create a nozzle? thingy



With a hole drilled in the back, an old jeweled car dash lamp found in the garage tidied it up nicely.



I found one of those flickering nightlights which I grabbed the LED from and mounted it with a HE pink LED in series (it's what I had!) on the back of the PCB to shine out of the lens.



It works surprisingly well and looks pretty cool



I'm not sure how well this video link works...
https://sendvid.com/aa5i69wf

The flickering, pulsing effect is better in person, my poor camera just can't capture it very well

I'd experimented with a few different colours of LED's in the support brackets, but nothing really looked right or produced enough light output.
I had some red LED tape and tried swapping every other LED for a yellow/orange one (the forward voltage and current is close enough) and I quite like the striped effect.
If I find something better, I'll change it later on....



The two parts are wired separately, the plasma disc needs ~1.5v to start and increases in intensity upto ~3v. Running it lower (1.8v) seems to reduce the HV noise and gives a better effect.
I'll add an adjustable voltage regulator elsewhere with plenty of filtering!
Ideally the lighting effects will be a bit subtle so I'll undervolt the LED's (~7v) - again an adjustable reg elsewhere, with fading effects possibly?

As before the grille and steel was treated to rust it so it blends in better, it needs a bit more work but it's getting there.
The inside of the nozzle is painted matt black, and as an experiment I used a candle to add soot to the end, not sure how long it will stay there - once it's finished and clear coated it'll be fine




It looks more interesting from the outside now


The light is a bit uneven from this side, might add a diffuser around the LED ring to try and get a more even effect.....

Video link if it works....
https://sendvid.com/ey0br2lp

Again the effect is better in person, excuse the camera

 

There may be a Frankenstein in your ancestry.

 

Igor! fetch me the brain

 

I love this time of modding with junkparts!

 

I christen thee, tetanus

Amazing build man.

 

Tetanus... Save it for build 2. It's definitely a great name for it.

 

Thanks

Thanks
That is an excellent name! sounds like some sort of super villain

Not sure how dieselpunk the case is, with all the sharp edges tetanus maybe better! I do have an idea for an even Dirtier, Rustier, Nastier case mod, it might be more fitting for that one......