Scratch Build – In Progress ESKIMOD 2.0 - [COMPLETED]

THEME

* Pretty simple, favorite sports team coming off of a championship year (http://www.Esks.com).

CONCEPT

* Always wanted to do a scratch build.
* Custom "wind tunnel" design allows air to enter through the back platform, push through the PC and past the radiator on top.
* Built to support up to two 360mm radiators. Water-cooled, dual GPU design.
* 3D-printed supports with aluminum bar and acrylic sides. Intended to be dead-simple and repeatable.

SPECS

* Details TBD

Twitter: @Krepadoodle || Project Hash Tag: #Eskimod2









Early test print of the framework turned out pretty well. Simple 10% infill for now. Will likely print somewhere from 75-100% infill on final print for stability.

 

Not square!

 

Cheaps seal of approval!

 

In case anyone is interested some day-to-day happenings on twitter: @krepadoodle.

Always happy to talk mod talk.

 

Overall the test print went fairly well. A couple of minor issues, but they should get cleaned up on final print.





You can see here (on the hard to spot black arrows) where the print had an adhesion issue. The corners lifted. This can happen as the plastic cools and contracts. I'm hopeful a higher infill and better skirt will alleviate this issue.



And this is just a fun fact of 3D printing. There can be bridging material where it's just a pain to get out. One thing I can do is print it upright so that this bridging isn't required. We'll see how that goes.

 

Bad corners: Filler putty. It's not like you aren't going to use it to get rid of print artifacts anyway.

But yeah, That bridge sucks... You don't really need all that material for the inside of the struts, though.

 

TK - Well... getting between tiny ridges is one thing. Building up 3 or 4 millimeters of corner might be a bit ambitious. Depends on where the screws are going I guess.

TK - Yeah, I'm debating if I want the insert or not. I kind of like it for additional stability, but I've already bailed on it for the crossbeams that connect the two sides.

 

Despite some printer challenges some test fitting has gone ahead this weekend.



As well as some model revisions and re-prints.



Test print completed successfully - yay! Now to pick up some more square tubing.

 

More supplies acquired! Now that the test prints seem solid I should be able to print the other side and build out the frame.



Still waiting on final PLA shipment in green to come in. Honestly I think because I didn't pay for expedited delivery Amazon just sat on the order for two weeks and will give me 2 day delivery anyways, just later.



So simple and yet so effective. They say triangles make things stronger, so I designed up brace.



Quick test print and is working great.

 

well, that's it, i'm tracking this one. consider me subbed!

 

Thanks! Welcome to the ride.

 

Yay! The green filament has finally arrived.



Straight over to the printer.



2 of 8 pieces done. I'm estimating about 40 or 50 more hours to go with a 50% infill.



And a bonus shot of the frame in front of the lit-up Downtown mod.

 

Progress continues. Drilled a screw hole through the square tubing.



I haven't modeled any screw holes in the actual print itself. The nice thing about PLA is it melts at a reasonably low temperature. So I heat up a rod...



And plunge it down into the plastic.



Then get a screw nice and toasty.



And into the tubing it goes.



Tighten it down.



And once everything cools we have a nice tight fit as the plastic melts to the screw.



So far only one screw and the frame is nice and solid.



Just waiting on the top to finish printing and we should have one side of the frame ready to go!

 

Printing completed, yay! One side done.







Next steps: on the road this week, but next weekend to finish printing the other side and complete the frame. Then on to the acrylic shell.

 

For those who may be interested some of the day-to-day tribulations are logged on Twitter under the #Eskimod2 hash tag.

 

This printer is killing me. Just hours left on the final frame piece and it clogged. That's twice on this batch of Hatchbox PLA. Not sure I'm ever going to buy their product again.

Despite that I was able to at least put the frame together. One top piece you may notice is a tad thinner than the rest. That one I'll need to print again.











Off on the road again for a couple of days. Later this week I should get a chance to re-print and firm up the frame.

This Friday I should be off to the local plastics distributor to talk acrylic frame.

Then it will really start feeling like a real case.

 

Small update today. Got extended out of town at work last week and wasn't able to get out and hunt down some acrylic. Did make some revisions to the model however. Back deck is now inset with 140mm fans.



And some bling has arrived for attaching the acrylic. It's going to need a little paint, but should look snazzy.

 

Picked up some corrugated plastic today to make some templates for the acrylic.













Shot of the triple 140 rear deck.



Close up of the channels for tubing to the radiator.



Starting to feel real.

 

Just working through some concept designs for fan grills using the 3D printer.

 

The second fan grill design looks much better than the first.