Scratch Build – In Progress Loramentum - Fan Upgrade! - Update 27th January 2017

How have you not made a teaser thread of this on /r/watercooling yet?

This is going to look amazing.

When it's all done you're going to have to film people's reactions when you pop open the briefcase and they see this inside!

 

Haha I have been considering posting it, but I also like the surprise, plus I've been showing around the renders and whatnot in comments anyway. As for the reactions, that sounds like a cool idea rofl, just better make sure it's as good or better than the renders now...

 

Right so that teaser I promised? Here it is!

Turns out I managed to not only buy the correct taps for the screw holes and the g1/4 fittings, but I also got the right glue for the O-rings. Here are a few quick and crappy phone pics showing what I mean.


Quite a beefy tapping wrench for quite a beefy tap, good to finally have one of these, should really really useful.


Look ma! No hands! Confirmation that I did indeed get the right things, this means I can progress with the main construction pretty smoothly.



Probably the biggest surprise for me today, the glue actually worked. I used a version of the one I was recommended for o-ring cord, it's bloody strong too. This is a quick test piece I made (read really sloppy, the real ones will be much better) just to see if it would hold up. The bond cured really fast, after just 5 minutes or so I couldn't even pull the thing apart, it just stretched. This means I should be able to make all the o-rings without any issues!

 

That o-ring self making is very handy indeed.

 

Where did you get the tap handle? Only ones I can find at a reasonable price fit up to 1/4" shanks, and my G1/4" tap is (a bit confusingly) on a 1/2" shank . . .

 

It certainly will be if I can get the hang of it, just need to practice being very precise now. Not having to fit grooves and whatnot to pre-existing O-rings is definitely a massive bonus.

I got it from a shop around the corner from where I work, they specialise in screws and fittings, so this sort of thing was right up their alley. Sadly I'm London based, so it probably won't be a relevant source for people outside the UK. They're called Clerkenwell Screws Ltd, they're a great store with some very friendly and helpful staff, not to mention they seem to sell almost everything relating to screws, bolts and dies. As for the handle itself, it's a pretty beastly thing, all I know is that it's made by Alps, there's not other information on the box or the handle itself unfortunately. Best bit is that it was £9.50 or so, pretty happy with that.

In terms of the build, I managed to find some time to get the first few holes in an tapped! The two main sections now fit neatly together without support, just need to do the remaining 30 holes or so plus the g 1/4" ports. I'll be ordering in some flexi tubing just to do some leak testing (like hell I'm doing that with all the real parts installed, too much effort). Turns out I have enough spare fittings from previous builds now to get the loop going without using the new ones I was sent. I'll try to see if I can get an update in tomorrow, although I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

This is awesome! You know what would be sweet, flush build a monitor and speakers into the other side of the carrying case, so you open it up and have a badass system on the go =D

 

Thanks! I have certainly been toying with an idea similar to that, although I might save it for the mark II (can't build something like this without an eventual followup eh?).


UPDATE!

Received a whole bunch of stuff in the mail yesterday. Most of it is relating to the cables, but there are a few fittings and other accessories in there too. Had the chance to take some photos at work yesterday, we have an old projector screen packed up in the basement that I've been using as a makeshift lightbox, works really well in my opinion. If anybody wants to pick up something quick and easy for taking studio shots of their work, hit up the bay and look for those, they can often be had for cheap (as in 15-35 quid) so it's definitely worth it.

O-ring cord, very useful for custom sized gaskets.



16 AWG Black wire, have white as well but didn't bother photoing it. Should make cable management a blissful experience.



100m of MDPC-X sleeving, won't need anything like that, but 100m was pretty reasonably priced and black is a useful colour to have in the cupboard.







30m of Vanilla Sands MDPC-X, should suit the theme nicely. I like also how it's not a lurid colour, the black should help it to stand out well.







Always nice to receive the little samples with the packages from Nils



Ooh what's this then?



Very solid feeling crimping tool, like the black look too.







Again I won't really need this many, but it doesn't hurt to have spares for the future.



Bitspower D-Plug fitting, this will allow me to add the GPU to the loop nice and easily.



Spacers and stop plugs
​

That's all for now folks! Hopefully I'll be able to grab some time later today to make the actual o-rings themselves, plus get some of the larger holes drilled and tapped. I wanted to get this update added yesterday here, but it seems I (along with most others it seems) was pranked by the forum relocation, so couldn't log in until this morning.

 

Nice stuff!

You would be surprised how fast 100 meters will dissappear xD

 

No kidding, luckily I have 100m of white and black so 200m total, should last a few systems. The wires in this build are pretty short (the 24 pin is likely to be 10-14cm or something) so I'll have a tonne of excess, good thing I've got some cool stuff lined up for the summer to use it in.

 

Some more progress everybody!

Finally had the time to get the major holes drilled for the fittings. I was terrified of doing this as it can so easily go wrong, plus I only have one chance to get it right. Turns out my fears were justified too...

One sexy card


Came out well


Sh**, this is what I was afraid of. The bit randomly caught on a part of the third hole, ripped the top out. Luckily, of all the parts for this to happen, this was the best. It's situated under the GPU connector, so it won't be seen. As such I've managed to find a simple way of fixing it. I'll post the picture of the fix tomorrow, it looks okay, but as it won't be seen anyway, I'm not worried.

​

 

This is such a cool project! Looking great. Pity about that last pic, it happens.

 

Sorry to see this man
I hope you can still use it and be leakfree.

 

Use lubricant when drilling. On acrylic I would use a little silicone based bicycle oil or else glycerine. Keep drilling speed low.

 

It should be fine really. I basically drilled another hole in a piece of 3mm acrylic and cut it out and glued it on top. The glue looks like it's had a good seal, so I reckon it'll be fine. It's not particularly neat, but I polished up the edges and whatnot. The top is going to be covered with aluminium anyway, with only the reservoir and water channels visible, so it should still look good. If it had happened on any of the other holes, then I have no idea what I would have done as they're all visible locations.

That's basically exactly what I did. I used to work with acrylic a lot and found much of this stuff out the hard way, amazing how much you pick up by ruining bits. There are always risks though when working with large drill bits in thin plastic (the 25mm sections can be drilled really easily as it's so strong, these were 5mm thick so more at risk). It's a good technique though, all the other holes came out fine with lovely smooth walls.

 

Shame to see that cracked picture Alex, as you say it will be fine once hidden.
Look great though mate, keep it up!

 

Cheers James, turns out my quickfix worked too!



UPDATE!

So I finally had the time to sit down, thread all the larger holes, make the O-rings and get a preliminary leak test going. To be honest it was a pretty painless operation actually. The threads were simple enough, the O-rings were a little fiddly but seem to have come out well and the testing itself appears to be going smoothly. The only dye I had lying around was blue, so I used that to try and see if there were any major leaks. Thankfully I could only see one, which looks to be from a fitting (a spare 45° one I had, the o-ring doesn't have a strong seal).

There does appear to be a small issue with air currently though. For some reason, in my design I didn't take into account that air would be able to move from the reservoir back into the loop through the top. I'll take some more pictures later showing what I mean. It's not a huge issue by any means though and may just need some creative filling instead.

Here are some pics for now, since I'm still working on stuff I'll take more later. Must say though that I'm bloody impressed with the pump so far. Got it running at 4 currently and it's quieter than the overhead lighting!

Front


Back


Blue!
​

 

One word: Awesome

 

This James figure. He does make some amazing stuff doesn't he?

I love it man, this is one original and great looking project. I am glued to it.

 

He sure does. Thanks for the kind words, also I love how Opteron Prime has come out! There's just so much going on all over the place, really awesome stuff, good to see you sorted out the leaks too.