Modding My latest mod... UPDATED 08/02/09 Watercooling

That duct work looks awesome, it would have been great to see the project log of this! It's a shame women aren't happy to sit alongside us as we work, taking photos and preparing finger food & drinks while we work.

Back to the etching. Thanks for posting your paper reccomendation If you wanted the writing & border to be protected alloy and everything else to be etched, which i've seen on a couple of plauqes before and looks good aswell, then you wouldn't have to print a negative. This would expose the printer to alot more of the injket paper with no toner in between, which makes melting alot more likely tho....

I'm thinking that maybe the laser printer you used Moriquendi doesn't run that hot, as all the printers in the office are big, run fast, and have to be hot to melt the toner fast enough, so maybe they are just far too hot for inkjet paper, as every glossy inkjet paper, & inkjet transparency i've seen get put through, never makes it all the way out, it gets completely melted, and damages the printer! They might have been glossy on one side however, i can't remember? So what printer are you using?

Sorry for all the questions, just really interested

 

Its a HP 1018.

Moriquendi

 

You mean yours doesn't?

 

i agree with alot of the previous mods; i wish there was a project log of this. That duct idea looks absolutely awesome. Would work perfectly on a car-themed case. The idea of putting the 2 buttons on the side of the duct was a great idea too. Good work, keep it up

 

I only have my cats to keep me company while I mod and they just cant get the exposure right on the camera, "bloody diurnal primate" was her exact quote I believe.

Buttons are at the jeweller being engraved at the moment, I was going to try and etch them but I was worried that I would melt the plastic ring, also the switches are stainless steel and I'm not sure I can etch that with ferric chloride.

Ill try and do a proper log of my next build which should be an eight disk NAS/media box.

Moriquendi

 

Excellent work. Promise us you won't paint the ducts green!

 

Seriously, promise us

We really do need to know how you have achieved this. Did you take any pics while doing it?

 

I hereby do solemnly swear that I shall neither paint the ducts green myself nor cause anyone else to paint them green, they're going to be matt black like the rest of the case, its all about function but that doesn't mean it has to be ugly. I really don't have any pics of the building process, I think I have a couple of the case in nearly stock condition but nothing other than that, I suppose I could do a test piece just to show you but it's really very simple;

cut a block of blue styrofoam to roughly the right shape,

sand it till its the right shape,

paint it in resin,

apply strips of chopped strand glass mat,

repeat 4-8 times depending on the size of the part,

sand the worst lumps out,

add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand, add filler, sand ( thats not me being silly, this bit takes forever to get perfect),

I then paint on a layer of plain resin to fill any pinholes in the filler,

sand again,

prime,

paint.

To start with I used fastglas from halfords but when I realised how useful it was and how much I was likely to end up using I bought a load of supplies from these guys ( I found them on ebay but there's more selection in the shop), they were very helpful.

Moriquendi

 

I can picture it! Your words are very descriptive and i have a vivid imagination

 

I suggest you try it, got nothing to lose after all, it does take some experimenting to find the best paper though.

Moriquendi

 

Hopefully i'll be trying out this stuff soon enough. I need more time for all my projects waiting to start

And what? You mean i'm missing out
Ok, so how do i fix this? Hypnosis? Play music from the `50's? Feed her more cheescake?
All of the above would probably be too much... right?

 

do what I do.... promise her things she really really wants that u know u can afford and tell her she will get them once your project is done.... then act like you forgot until after the 2nd project is complete.. repeat these steps a couple times then get her the stuff you promised... by then it could be a year later lol


or......



just give her a new credit card with like 3000 spending limit (which I refuse to do) and it could work out for you lol.

 

Small update.

The ducts are now all painted and finished apart from the bottom graphics card duct which may get replaced, I haven't decided yet. Anyway, as soon as the switches get back from being engraved I can get the whole thing put together and post some pics of the (almost) completed mod.

Moriquendi

PS, can anyone give me alternative names for this? I've been trying to find them on ebay or somewhere where I can buy just a couple but I don't know exactly what they're called

 

aren't they for hinges on cupboards and stuff?

 

No, the place ive seen them most is keeping the lids of flight cases on/closed.

Moriquendi

 

I'd call those fasteners either a locking latch or just a latch
Ignore the second result for latch, of the little guy who's latched on real good

 

Thanks Mvagusta, unfortunately it seems that there are lots and lots of different names for them, the most useful one I've found so far is over center latch which seems to be specific to this type of latch and doesn't bring up hundreds of door latches or breastfeeding babies.

Moriquendi

 

Is Maplin part L32AA close?

 

Very close, so far I've seen them called surface latches, over-center latches and drawbolt latches. It seems that the people I linked to originally do, in fact, do small orders just that its quite well hidden and the minimum order is £20. Now if I can just get them to accept my card...

Moriquendi

 

OOO I love your set of HR-01Xs, very niice!