Scratch Build – In Progress Battle Dragon Bag - Update#30 - 9/4/12

I did... but I'm still deciding on the fluid. Half of me wants to sink the money into a pretty mixed and unique color and the other half realizes I'm probably going to be emptying and refilling the case so much that I might go for something premixed or a stock color.

The one I'm looking at right now is: MAYHEMS "AURORA" - THARSIS RED COOLANT
http://www.mayhems.co.uk/shop/mayhe...-aurora-tharsis-red-coolant-609224350863.html

 

Update #15: Success!

I’ve made two successes! First, I finally figured out why I couldn’t get my damn fittings into any of the holes I was drilling and tapping. My tap had too few threads. I stopped by a local hardware store and while I was drooling over some new tools I noticed that unlike the major hardware stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot, they had a wide variety of taps with different thread counts. The first problem was solved.




The second difficulty was cutting out the TTeSports Dragon on the back panel. I’ve already replaced the panel once. I’m hoping I won’t have to do it again. After all the holes were drilled I used my Rotozip to grind/cut away some of the straight lines.



I also made a point of only cutting lines of the same direction so that any individual parts would have a little more stability.



To make cutting a little easier visually, I shaded the cut out.



And… SUCCESS! The inner pattern is a little on the thin side but it’s a whole piece!



The other thing about cutting gout the dragon by predrilling a bunch of hole is that it leaves some pretty rough lines and jagged cuts. To remedy that, I start the repetitive process of grinding.



Five minutes later…



It’s incredibly annoying to have to switch out those tiny little grinding cylinders every five minutes or so. I need to find an easier way of softening some edges without spending half my time prepping my rotary tool. That’s it for now! Stay tuned more to come this weekend!

 

silicone carbide grinding wheels then felt drums and brown cutting compound


OR http://www.engisca.com/docs/diamond/sec12.pdf

 

Oooo! Good call! I wonder if I could use some of my routing burrs as well.... hmmmm...

 

Update #15.5: Filing

Since the last update was so short and this one is equally as short, I’m considering this all update #15. My wife hates the filing portion of a case construction. She swears I’m torturing a goose in my basement. The dog doesn’t care for the noise either, he hides on the bed.

Here are all the tools I used for cleaning up the TTeSports dragon: A Rotozip armed with a tapered burr, a variety of clamps, and several files. In the picture below, I’ve set out the three files I ended up using the most. The back panel itself has been fairly easy to file. I just used two scrap pieces of aluminum to cross brace any cut-out that sticks out and then I could file without worry.



The cut-out portion of the TTeSports I used a similar technique but I used bigger pieces of aluminum to brace the subject piece, a mounted vice, and smaller clamps for added security.



…and then I added a couple more clamps… and some more… and more… YOU SHALL NOT BREAK ALUMINUM! YOU SHALL NOT BREAK!



It has been a slow process but it’s really starting to look good. I left a couple of slivers of aluminum attached to the eye so I wouldn’t have to attach a tiny little piece to the acrylic.



I dropped the cut-out piece to see how the progress is turning out… I still have more cleaning up to do but I think it’ll look great with the backlit red acrylic behind it.



Thank you for all of the filing advice I have received on all of the forums. It has been really handy and it has influenced my work and patience. Thank you again! That’s it for now, stay tuned for next week. I think I’ll get one or two more updates in before next weekend.

 

Looks sharp, pun intended.

 

Heh, no kidding. Fortunately the dragon hasn't gained a taste for human blood yet. I fear the day it does.

 

Oh man .. when I see this my arms hurt again
Real nice work m8!

 

Damm,this looks great.

You must be very,very patient to create this.

Excelent job.

 

Looks like adding the bar o metal to the sheet to give it some structure helped! If you need any help with the filing, just let me know

 

Thank you!

If patient means screwing up and redoing it a second time, then yes I have been patient. I've been going with the Trial & Error method rather than the patiently doing it right the first time method.

Thank you for the offer. And if you need to utilize my tool benches for something particular just give me a shout. I've got two set up so that I can work on one if you're over. Just let me know ahead of time so I can clean up my mess. I've been using one for an elaborate shelf while I work on the other.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.. I can't seem to be able to see your pictures.. strange.. are the picture links dead??

 

Weird, I'm not having any trouble. Even tried hitting it from a second computer, a different browser, and a shell account outside the US.

Try the direct URL for the last picture:
http://teafromanemptycup.com/casemods/battle_dragon/update15/filing04.jpg

 

oh.. Oops I should have refreshed before I opened my big mouth.. sorry monkeyfun.. I feel bad now

 

No worries! Better safe than sorry. Thank you for the heads up!

 

Update #16: February, Month of the Mini-Update

I am resigning myself to the multiple mini updates. Since I’ll be doing work daily on my case up to PDXLAN, I’ll be doing my best to document what and where I can. This means a bunch of micro updates. I apologize if my update numbering starts to resemble the notes of someone trying to figure out a Millennium Prize Problem.

Onto the update! I have GREAT news. I’ve been searching down the perfect liquid color for my case. When I finally decided on a color, I found out there was only one US distributor that had it and they wouldn’t have it in time for me to take this case to PDXLAN. The color I have decided on is: Tharsis Red.



Pretty, isn’t it? So I called in some favors and was placed in contact with Mayhem. They agreed to make a special case and ship me out some Tharsis Red at an incredible discount. Even if they had charged me double, I think I’d be gushing over their customer service and willingness to work with me. For awesome customer service (and the nice discount) I’m listing them as a sponsor.



Now onto the rest of the update… yeah… filing… lots of filing…



So much filing… I’m pretty sure this TTeSports Dragon cut-out could double as a deadly shuriken (throwing star).



The other portion of my evening was spent pondering my video card. The video card was an Alienware Radeon HD 6950 (that I bios upgraded to a 6970) and came with a nifty back plate that’s long enough for me to attach any bracketing… and possibly work as a dual mount for the SSD and HDD.



I started my sketch planning and thinking… it’s still in the works…




That’s it for now, thanks for reading!

 

Coming along nicely - eager to see how that Tharsis Red will behave. Still on the fence in regards to Mayhem's stuff, since I read that horrifying review of it over at RRRTech. 8-|

 

Actually that's half the reason I want to try it. I LOVE to experiment and am willing to give anyone a shot. That and the bad press from that RRR review was about customer service and the fact that it was not pre-mixed. It seemed more like an internet gripe, which everyone is inclined to do every now and then. I'm going to put this through the ropes, put it in this backwards case and see how it does.

For the most part, I'm really not worried about the mixture. In the absolute worse case scenario (with me keeping a watch on it) I'll have to clean out a couple of parts and maybe replace some tubing. I'm even excited about seeing the particle suspension in the works.

 

As a side note for Bit-tech, does anyone else feel like they're not working hard/fast enough when they're worklog doesn't stay on page 1?

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Update #17: Waterworks

In this next update I spent most of my time working on getting my water cooling ready. I finally figured out why none of my taps were fitting correctly with the Bitspower fittings. Apparently there is a whole different standard for threading and taps with pipe and plumbing fittings. They’re similar to screw threads except there a tapering of the threads. This causes the pipe fitting to not sit correctly in a screw thread. Huh. You learn something every day.

So I decided to start applying my new found knowledge to my case. The Thermaltake LGA1155 CPU block had really small intake and output fittings. But I wanted to use the Bitspower fittings so I had to disassemble and mod the block cover. I apologize as I didn’t take any pictures when I redrilled and tapped the block cover. But it really wasn’t all that complicated. Here’s the disassembled CPU cooler:



Next I began working on attaching the pump. After messing around with some clamps in awkward positions, I decided to call upon the tape of the gods for assistance.



Here’s the pump as I double check for placement after I taped it to the mount:



I spaced the pump’s air intakes away from the frame with a scrap piece of metal and quickly drilled and tap four screw holes.



After trying to place the pump back into place I realized I needed to recess the bottom screw. Once that was done, it fit right it and somehow made me take a blurry picture.



Now that the pump was fitted, I start work on the radiator. I always get a little nervous right before I do something that will probably be irreversible.



But it turned out okay. I only drilled part of the way to keep the reduction of flow and hopeful add some pressure when the water feeds into the radiator.



The pipe tap was a little difficult to use. The top part of the tap was too large for my tap handles so I had to use a socket wrench to tap the radiator. I was extra careful to keep any shavings out of the radiator and cleaned it with a pipe brush.



As you can see from this next picture, the pump and the radiator are placed fairly close together. This will make for an interesting reservoir shape.



Just for your reference, I’ve laid out all my fittings and water cooling parts to give you an idea of how the water will flow in this case.





That’s it for now! I’ll see what I can do about getting you another mini-update this weekend. Thank you for reading!

 

Nice to see your work bro, it looks that you are going to do something awesome there!! Keep it up mate!!