Scratch Build – In Progress H2O-C7 June 26 Still more Rain! SUX

I see a plan coming together! Great template, btw.
That mesh you pictured looks great... you think it's too restrictive?
Can't wait to see these beauty panels you keep hinting about...
I've got some of those clamps (but not in those colors!)
Sorry to hear about your neighbor.

 

Thanks for the comments.
My old self had to go and pick the only radiator that doesn't have a template somewhere on the web. From a single 80mm rad to a 4 X 120mm rad, all have a nice printable template avail.

The beauty panels will be something special just for this mod. I'm looking forward to receiving them.

john

 

Oh, Yeah. I use that foam like crazy too. I also use the vinyl cord they sell for cable wrap.
They also have that foam in 1/4" thick sheets.

I need to stock up, but It's hard to walk into one of those stores...

 

Honestly, if it makes you feel any better, the available 'templates' are seldom accurate to the rad it's supposed to line up to. Kind of a pet-peeve of mine.

YGPM.

 

You could cheat and trace the mounted fans.

 

The fans are inside pushing out. I want the radiator visible. Langer has one and I have one - probably serial number 1 and 2. Hose barbs not as advertised, fan screws poorly tapped or not tapped at all, pretty but a real pain. If I had the room your blocks would get a real single 80mm radiator they deserve instead of this one. Not a wise purchase - but we are modders! I will fix.

john

 

At least it'll be interesting with the tinny rad if it came down to it you could make a 80 fit some where, on it at least. since its now a scratch build, theirs no rules against making it a little bigger. just my thoughts, you know obviously know what your doing cause it looks awesome.

 

Hahaha, yours was missing some hole tappings as well?
I'm not overly impressed with the quality of the rad, but I'm positive it'll do the job - and the size/price was right (I suppose you really do get what you pay for eh?)

Did yours also have a slight tilt to the barbs, mine aren't perfectly straight?

 

Did I forget the tapping when I did the 'Keep Bailing, Lads" update? My bad.
The barbs are good to go, but the chrome shroud 'wings' are not at 90 degrees to the back part with the rivets. They splay open and the fans are a treat to mount.
Such is modding in miniature.

john

 

Stealth Shoebox

As you may have noticed from some earlier pictures I've been to the stash closet. Well, I had a brain freeze when I found some of the stuff in there. There's stuff older than some registered members.

What if I don't cut the beauty panels at all. I have a bukkit load of these little tiny Velcro strips that come with rack mount server cases. They are meant to be cut into little pieces for tie wraps.
How about if I use these to mount the beauty panels to the alum. frame? Imagine a black stealth box on the desktop. Instead of cutting for I/O and radiator, just pull off panel and plug in whatever. Want to see res/pump? Take off front. Waterblocks? remove top.
Remember the floor of the case is plexi. The blue lights from the LED spotlights will go out the bottom plus I have an LED kit for the feets Cheapskate made. Think I forgot about them? Never.

Pics.
The Velcro:



and up against the I/O panel:


That old hand came by again to hep me. The two pieces of Velcro are enough to offset the serial port and VGA that sticks out. Doesn't show well at this angle but it does.

The next question is what to use for an adhesive on the beauty panels that will stick? I'll have to ask the manufacturer about that.

I like this idea.
Comments?
john

 

Haha, funny name. I like it.

I haven't tried mounting fans yet... but luckily I has a boat load of taps in the shop... worst case I dremel the shroud and epoxy the dang thing in place.

 

I like the stealth idea, with the underglow, but won't you need constant access to the i/o ports for keyboard, video? I wouldn't want to always have to take the back off. Won't you have to cut those ports out as well?

Wanna give us a hint what the beauty panels are made of? I'm thinking some of that super double-sided "tape of the Gods" that bill owen's talks about in his video on case windows. I think it's a 3M clear tape.... you could put parallel strips of the tiny velcro on the tape, and use a hobby knife and straight edge to get nice sticky strips of velcro, that you can later take off without harming the finish of plex or metal...

 

I have a good guess....

The 3M 'tape of the gods' is red, actually. Good stuff too! I use it occasionally for side panel windows when it calls for it. Actually may be a good idea in this case (get it? Oh, man...puns...). It sticks well enough to never fall off, but also can be removed if need be. Good idea, ModMinded!

 

Babysitting

Tough to get any modding done when you have to babysit. Habitat cleaning day.



4 foot king snake - they all like to visit me - warmest room in house, 77F. all year long.

Cutting the rad in the back panel above the I/O. Nibble 3, mark 2, nibble more, repeat.

john

 

"Hmm, the dremel feels odd...WHaaaa! COBRAS!"
I'm a heavy user of Liquid Nails. I use it in my aquarium too. I'd say use contact cement, but it's really noxious.

 

Trip to the stash closet - Pt. 2

Greetings all,
When last we adjourned, I had been to the walk-in stash closet here in the Fortress of Celibacy and found the tiny Velcro strips planning to use them to attach the beauty panels.
Communication with the sponsor has made it clear that due to the material structure of the panels, this cloth based Velcro was not a good idea. The necessary glue to affix it would probably render the Velcro unusable. So ...
Deeper in the closet I remembered some 3M Dual Lock pieces:





Several years ago our family had a couple raised roof conversion vans for camping and seeing the country. This is what is commonly used to hold the interior panels to the metal wall structure. It is all plastic and very difficult to remove when used in long strips.

This should hold the panels but it's thicker that the cloth so it will require some finesse to make it lightproof.

I've also been working on the stainless steel backing plate for the radiator and I/O and the ATX and Molex female connectors.



Nibble, mark, nibble, eyeball, nibble. Tedious and I wore a nice blister in my finger doing this.

The blister has popped.

The evil nibbler - I have two - glutton for punishment I guess.


While I was in the closet - I've come out safely, thank you, I found this piece of equipment.





It's a 3.5 in HDD cooler made by Antec. It came out of a stash box with the 250GB drive in it. It must have been there a while since that drive is ATA and I have used only SATA for a long time. I have no intention of using the case, it's Blue temperature VFD, but I was think I might want to substitute the 40mm fans from this to the radiator instead of these Silenx 40mm from Performance PCs.



We'll see.
Working more on the Stainless piece this evening and playing around with sleeving options for the ATX connector.

More tomorrow.

john

 

Looking good, blisters are never any fun

 

Cool Harddrive enclosure! (pun intended, boo!)
I'm curious why you would swap the fans for the ones you already have. Seems like they might be louder/bulkier than the SilenX ones you bought, no?
That dual loop stuff looks plenty strong... looking forward to the next updates!

watch out for the nibblers! (they're mean when they gang up like that!)

 

I'm thinking I might use the thicker fans as a structural element. Support the radiator from these fans. The are also enormously quiet with good air flow. Like I really need a bunch of air flow through a radiator cooling a chip set that is capable of being run fanless and silent. Wretched excess. You did what?

john

 

Yeah I like the HDD enclosure.