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Project: The Chrome Goat... total system mod (May 19th, 04 update)

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by vonkaar, 9 Jan 2004.

  1. QuickOrbit

    QuickOrbit What's a Dremel?

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    Can't wait for an update, this thing is going to look great. Awesome idea' about the Ipod look. I must say, one def. has some serious style and taste to use nixies! :cooldude: Hope you are feeling better.
     
  2. JeffPH

    JeffPH What's a Dremel?

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    awesome !!!! :rock:
     
  3. Providence

    Providence What's a Dremel?

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    It looks great man! Big freaking tower too :hehe:
     
  4. vonkaar

    vonkaar What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks for the kind words everyone. I also appreciate the emails and PMs(pun!) with suggestions on dealing with migraines. From garlic pills to pot-smoking, the ideas have been pretty interesting ^_^.

    This isn't a real update... just a minor explanation as to my absence of late.
    (quoted from my OC post)
    I've still been fairly sick lately and so the work has been pretty low-key... nothing with 'heat' =p. However... I acquired a nifty little thermal test setup that includes this sweet datalogger...

    [​IMG]

    It has 40 sensors... all of which can be independantly monitored, logged (by paper and 232 output) and compared against one another (if t2+t14>50° sound alarm). The logging feature can be setup to record at half-second intervals or up to a whole week... I have it set to take a temp for each sensor every hour. At the end of the day I take a look at the printout and learn all kinds of things ^_^. It's GREAT for tweaking every ounce out of a complicated cooling system like this.
     
  5. vonkaar

    vonkaar What's a Dremel?

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    Howdy.

    Alright... it's time. Back in the swing of things and such... from here on out, I have no excuses. Ninety-five percent of every single thing that I need to buy has been bought. The plastic people still have 3 or 4 other pieces to cut for me, but they are some of the 'last' pieces needed. Sooo... your 'hurry up, slacker' comments are now justified =p.

    First, I said I'd talk about the bender a while ago. It's an incredibly useful tool and can be made for 1/10th the cost of a professional plexi-bender. I bought something called a "wire strip heater" from Tap plastics, although I've since found some local vendors that sell it for much cheaper. Anyway... this is the heating element that I use to bend the plastic.

    Next, I bought a large piece of plywood from Home Depot. The idea is... you have a 3/4" to 1" wide channel to place the stripper into. You can do this with a router (which I don't own) or... the way I chose. The bender will be 24" long, so... I bought a piece of plywood that was 24"x24". I then had the sales guy cut the wood in half so I had two sections, 12x24" each. Then, I had the guy cut one of the pieces in half, leaving me with two 6x24" strips. Finally, I had him shave 1" off one of the 6" pieces, leaving me with my final assembly...
    1 5x24" strip
    1 6x24" strip
    1 12x24" strip.

    The 12" wide piece was the base for the bender. The two smaller pieces are then screwed onto the base, with a 1" space between them. If you go with heat resistant plywood, you don't need to insulate this... if not, it is reccomended that you place a layer of fibreglass in between the base and the two strips.

    Next, a whole bunch of aluminum foil is bent around until I had a long U shaped channel... this is used both for heat insulation as well as reflection... a good portion of the heating depends on the aluminum foil. On one end, a grounding cable needs to be attached by a screw to the aluminum. The other end of this grounding cable should go to common ground.

    [​IMG]

    Here we are.

    Finally... when you have the aluminum foil channel secured in the path (using small tacks), you can place the wire-strip heating element inside the aluminum. When that's done... cong. You know have God-like powers over plexiglass. Little scrap pieces of acrylic bow down to your every whim. In fact, you might say... they'd bend over backwards HAHAHAHA!!! Villagers in Lexan-burg will sacrifice goats and cattle to appease you. You are PLEXI-MASTER. (too early in the morning... too much caffeine...)


    [​IMG]

    Quick example of how easy it is to bend with this thing...

    Step one: Heat it up for a few minutes, depending on the thickness and type of plastic. 1/4" lexan takes a bit longer than 1/8" acrylic.
    [​IMG]
    Next... you can bend by hand, or use a wooden 'jig' to get your precise angles. I use a 90°/45°/45° carpenter's triangle and a long flat strip of wood. In this example, it's all by hand. You should take note that the only part of the plastic that heats up is at the bend... so... don't touch it with your hands. This is not only bad because of potential burns, but the fingerprints (and possibly flesh) will be permanently 'stuck' on the plastic. That sucks.
    [​IMG]
    Now you can see how malleable the plastic has become. I've never had a fear of bending too quickly or pulling it apart like silly-putty... but it really DOES have the bend consistancy of... say... salt-water taffy. If you hold one end and flap at the joint, it WILL fly around. This gives you an idea on how easy it is to bend it precisely.
    [​IMG]
    Once this piece is off the heat, it will start to dry and harden within 10-20 seconds. Plenty of time to get a precise angle. This time shortens if you are flapping it around the room shouting CAW! CAW! CAW! This took me several expensive pieces of plexi to figure out... it's either the airflow of the flappage, or there is some mystical connection between 'caw' and plexi-hardening time. Aaaanyway...
    [​IMG]
    There you go. A perfectly rounded bend, with great optical clarity. Shine an LED into one end and the light follows to the other. Imagine the possibilities! And, yes... if you were wondering, that IS Stalin and Roosevelt sitting on their commodes.

    So... I finished that plexi bender months ago... what is my excuse for so long in delaying the project? Well... a huge part were health problems. Headaches and then a few grand at the dentist (Damn you mountain dew!!!) prevented me from putting 'too high' a priority on this. But... that's all in the past! The project and I have renewed our vows of love and progress shall commence.

    And here we are.

    The 'real' update is actually still in the works. In the works means, as soon as I finish the sides. Here is a picture of them in their infancy...

    [​IMG]

    When I finish with those... be prepared... (ooooh... drama)

    What else?

    Well, Uberblue of Overclocker fame saw how much time and money and time and effort and money and money and limbs I was wasting on my less-than-crappy welding skills, so he helped me out in my quest. His plumber's soldering skills are legendary, even among professional plumbers. Check out the beautiful work he accomplished for a friend:

    [​IMG]
    closeup of his amazingly precise soldering job...
    [​IMG]

    Now... ya'll know how I get with Chrome and all things aesthetic... those rads *have* been cleaned up and are currently sitting in my chrome shop. Fun plans on those ^_^.

    Speaking of chrome... I thought my Corsair memory was the bomb until I realized how stupid I sound by saying, "The bomb." So, I then started calling my Corsair memory "Really spiffy." But all of that changed when I saw some rave reviews of these Geil 4200 sticks... "okay, cool..." I thought to myself after hours of meditation. Is it worth the extra cash for a bit of performance? Nah...

    But then...

    The actual picture of this ram appeared.

    Chrome.

    Cong me. This is the most beautiful RAM ever. It slept on my pillow that night while I stayed on the couch. Honor such beauty.
    [​IMG]
    Closeup...
    [​IMG]
    It's a lot harder to photograph these things, compared to my bigger pieces of chrome... to get the really shiny look, you need to be facing it the same way your flash is reflecting. This leaves you with a huge blurry bright light. That sucks... so... I had to seriously angle the pieces... somewhat diminishing the chrome look. Trust me, however... they are just as 'chromey' as my pieces.

    Speaking of a poorly written segue, my fan PWM controller rocks!
    [​IMG]

    There really is no other way to control a 150w 48v fan than a nice PWM controller. This thing is rated up to 10a/50v... and is hardly bigger than a pair of match boxes. Back in my orphan days, I used to sell matchbooks on the grimey streets of London, but that's another story...

    Anyway, it's small. The speed is controlled by a standard 10k pot. But... ya'll can figure out how 'non-standard' I am... who wants a stupid knob sticking out the side of your computer? Not me!

    Dunno how many of you have seen these thigs before... but I love em.
    [​IMG]

    It works by push-pull. Pull it out for more resistance. Push it in for less... it travels 4 inches in and out. So, imagine this chrome knob sticking out of the front of my system... when I want to go to warp-nine, I push the knob IN. Keep going... keep going... full power! Sorta like a throttle knob. Now, I just need to find the knob to chrome. A small... metal goat head would be perfect. Anyone know where I can find one? =p

    Anyway, yeah. That's it for now. My migraines have been better... my teeth are now in 'workable' condition and so I have less stress than before. The big update might even be tonight, depending on how quickly I can bend/paint/light the sides.

    Stay tuned!
     
  6. Hephaistus

    Hephaistus What's a Dremel?

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    seems like a nice project. keep on going :thumb:
     
  7. Tt Ownage

    Tt Ownage What's a Dremel?

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    over over kill?

    :D

    u're lucky u have a ogre case so u can do these mods on...

    grrr i need to get me a lian li
     
  8. Garbach

    Garbach What's a Dremel?

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    COWABUNGA!!!

    Subscribed!!

    And please keep doing your work early in the mornig cause your comments make me fall of my chair laughing!!!

    Looking forward to see your case come together!!

    Garbach
     
  9. Xipher

    Xipher What's a Dremel?

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    Thats a great idea, using a push/pull control for the fan speed. Although I would have rather had it in is off, out is high, but thats just my thinking. :rock:
     
  10. Acid Burn

    Acid Burn ..look but don't touch..

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    This just HAVE to become EXTREEEEEEEMLY skilled, and pro, and amazing, and super cool!! I have realy wanted to do that my self... but i don't have access to anyone hwo can turn my parts into chrome... :waah:
    Good luck mate! I'm looking forward to spectate this project :clap:
     
  11. Go4t

    Go4t i

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    wow this got my attention
     
  12. TekMonkey

    TekMonkey I enjoy cheese.

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    I was wondering about that, is that some type of advertising for a toilet company? "Use the toilets of the greats!" :D

    That's one huge thermometer you've got there.

    Again, this case is very bling bling. Now I'll be on my way.
     
  13. backseatmiddlehump

    backseatmiddlehump What's a Dremel?

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    Love the bit about the plexi bending. Was going to use a heat gun but this looks much better.
     
  14. vonkaar

    vonkaar What's a Dremel?

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    The overclockers.com people are much more demanding of updates... so I had to tide them over as the months wore on. This was a little update where I talked about the bender...

    I thought it was sort of applicable because the above poster mentioned bending with a hot-blower. It definitely *is* doable... but a $40 hot-strip bender is sooooo much nicer.

     
  15. Hephaistus

    Hephaistus What's a Dremel?

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    woow that reallly looking nice, i wish i could do that, :naughty:
     
  16. vonkaar

    vonkaar What's a Dremel?

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    Howdy howdy.

    I guess I could make you wait for the remainder of the LEDs to arrive... but...

    Here you go - Another 'mini' update. One of these days, I'll actually get around to writing a 'real' update. So far, it has been a bunch of so called 'mini' updates and then the initial introduction. Or... maybe I should stop calling them mini, so when a 'real' update occurs, you'll be blown away? Shrug... rambling... oh yeah.

    Anyway, the sides. This bit should help to illustrate one point that hasn't been made very "clear" yet: This is going to be a WHITE case. With all the plexi and chrome that you've seen, there hasn't been much talk about the actual exterior of the design. The plan is to put the focus on the white exterior. A beautiful glossy white that's made even more glossy by a quarter-inch (that's 4 kilometers for you Euros. My math is perfect, don't question me) plexi 'coating'. The emphasis is on 'glossy white'. I want it to have a beautiful 'professional' case exterior in the day... and then totally surprise you at night.

    One of the most exploited features of transparent plastic is the ability to 'bend' light. You see this all the time... shine an LED in the edge of a plexi-glass panel and watch the rest of the edges carry that light. You hardly ever see anyone make use of the light that travels across the surface of the plastic. It's all in the edges! The only time people DO make use of this light is with etching. This tends to look absolutely fantastic, but it's hardly original anymore. This doesn't mean that I've not been impressed by some of the more modern etching jobs lately... it's just kinda hard to stand out with a glowing RADIOACTIVE BEWARE symbol etched into your chieftec window. Bleh... I can't make any ethcing comments without sounding like a prick. I *do* like a lot of the etched windows. There. Moving on...

    The *point* was... light travels across the surface of the plastic and nobody makes much use of it.

    SO... I have a white case. Why white? Versatility. If you follow along in my grand scheme... you'll see what I mean.

    White can 'be' any color you want. Simply change the lighting, and you see a totally different color. If I have a white case that's sitting in a room with bright red lights, the case looks red. Now back to the transparent-plastic 'light-wasting' bit I talked about 3 hours ago (if you are a really slow reader, I mean). If you go back to page one, you'll see that one of my primary goals was to provide ample lighting, without ever 'seeing' the source of the light. I want a nice, comfortable 'glow'. Sort of like an art gallery... indirect lighting, but plenty of it. You'll see a lot more of what I have planned in the coming months... but this single side panel will give you a fairly good idea.

    Wasted-light... white case... hidden light-sources... you get those three concepts.

    We've seen the hundreds of examples of light bending around corners through the plexi. This is how I'm using that in my case:

    [​IMG]

    The white paint will 'hide' the LEDs that shine directly into the edges of the plexi. The light will carry over and shine a VERY subtle hue over the surface of the paint. If all four sides of a panel are bent like this, and ample LEDs are placed within the edge, you can transform a normally 'white' case into any color you want. This is especially true with 3-color LEDs or utilizing an RGB circuit. Imagine a case that looks white when it's in 'business' mode but flashes through all the colors of the rainbow when in 'party' mode.

    Case in point:

    The side during the 'day'...

    [​IMG]

    And at 'night'.

    [​IMG]

    Keep in mind that the white has only received a single coat and there is VERY little lighting here. When my LEDs arrive from Hong Kong, the long-sides will have 6 LEDs and the short sides will have 4. This should balance out quite nicely =p.

    But wait! There's more! The paint is applied on the far side of the plexi. This panel will be the 'back' panel of the case... the panel that backs up to the rear of the motherboard. The 'main' panel will be a bit different... ie, not a solid block of white. For you stencil'ers out there... how about a Unreal Tournament symbol right in the middle, unpainted to allow for a custom 'window' in a transparent case? Even better... etching. I don't have the skill to do this... but... you could make full etches appear out of nowhere. The reason etches are visible during the 'day' in a standard window is their 'white' coloring. Etch into plastic and the plastic turns white. Now, what if you etched your kick-ass design... and then painted over the whole thing. Ack! Ruined your etch? Ah hah! Now shine a light in the edge of the plexi... it glows just as it should. Except... this time... nobody saw the etch until you flipped the switch. How cool is that?

    Anyway... enough about what I'm not doing...

    I'll talk a bit about what I did to get this panel like this.

    First...

    Measure once, cut thrice... or... er... measure thr... cut fries... er...

    Call up a professional plastic manufacturer and give THEM the measurements. The cost of a 29" piece of plexi with the corners lobbed off was about $4 more than the plexi would have been by itself. Fun!

    You can see the 'before' and after pic here:
    [​IMG]

    The 'front' panel is going to be 'dun did' this week. This is assuming that the LED people in Hong Kong can get me my LEDs soon'ish. These are special, super bright 3mm LEDs btw... in case you were wondering why I didn't drive down to Mouser (conveniently located 12 miles away... that's 100 centimeters for you... hmm joke has died... moving on) to grab some LEDs locally. Besides the super super super bright 3mms that have a 100-hour lifespan, these are the best I can get.

    As you can see, the corners were chopped off at 45°. This allows you to bend the plastic in and have the sides meet. If you are smarter than me, (you probably created the universe) you'll give yourself more than a 1.5-inch flap. This was a bear to bend (bears aren't flexible, marsupials are) and I got one really nasty bend due to the small flaps:
    [​IMG]

    All of the other ones met up quite nicely. Oh... another tip for any future plagiarists... drill your LED holes first.

    To get the bend, I had to REALLY soften up the plastic. This means that it sat on the bender for a lot longer than normal. Acryllic fumes RULE. Even when the plastic was rubbery, it still sucked for this tight turn. This is what it looked like when I was bending... the arrows are there to express the high I was feeling from the acryllic fumes. Curiously, they also point out the bend structure.
    [​IMG]

    Hmmm... what else...

    Here is a nice shot that shows how glossy the plastic is and how precise the paint job was.
    [​IMG]

    OH YEAH... a big tip.. straight from my plastic people: Acryllic "fingerprints" like mad. So, don't murder with ... I mean, expect to constantly worry about wiping grubby fingerprints off your case... UNLESS you glaze it first. A bottle that will cover 10 of my cases was only $4.50. Glazing must be done immediately after pulling the protective sheets off plastic. It's easy.. sorta like furniture polish, except it doesn't smell like an old person. You spray it... and wipe off... repeat until it feels silky smooth. Sort of like Nair. Boom... fingerprint free. NOW, it fingerprints and 'marrs' slightly better than glass. Yay!

    And of course, I end with a hollow promise of... "More to come!"
     
  17. djengiz

    djengiz Pointless.

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    I'm liking this project! Keep it up!
     
  18. Xeno

    Xeno What's a Dremel?

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    I like the way you use the plexiglass. :thumb: Keep up the good work!!!

    ~Xeno~
     
  19. Rexxie

    Rexxie What's a Dremel?

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    LOL. First project log I've seen in a while that's entertaining to READ as well as look at the pictures ;)

    Awesome work. Keep it up!
     
  20. kiljoi

    kiljoi I *am* a computer king.

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    Man, awesome job on the modding, and possibly even better on the writing!!!! Keep up all of the good work, not just the modding part.! :rock:
     

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