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Scratch Build – In Progress Omega Desk - [26 January] Project Complete!!

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Squigly, 20 May 2012.

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Pump orientation, facing forward or facing backwards?

  1. Pumps facing backward

    15 vote(s)
    44.1%
  2. Pumps facing forward

    19 vote(s)
    55.9%
  1. B NEGATIVE

    B NEGATIVE All Hail Kim Jong Magoo!

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    My pleasure. :thumb:
    I have used this technique myself and it does work.
     
  2. Squigly

    Squigly MODfiend.. ~twitch~

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    Plumbing 90% there...

    After a bit of a crap week, got diagnosed with gout.. not fun lemme tell you!! couldn't walk and spent a few days crawlin around on my a$$.. but was back up and running, well walking this morning so managed to get a pretty good session in at the workshop.

    Another package delivered this week with the mobo water block and a few other bits and pieces, I got 50 new O rings since a lot of the ones in the fittings are getting a fair bit of wear as i am trying to finish the piping, as well as a extra 90 degree adapter, decided to combine some of the images, i am useless at photo editing so excuse the noobish photo's
    [​IMG]

    Started working on mounting the mobo block and found that the lighting i had previously done for the ROG logo wasn't great, also the led's would not work with the final breathing curcuit i had done so needed to swap them out, the strip LED's will work off the 12v hat will be fed by the flasher so needed to use those, problem was it was a bit to long to fit into the logo container, also didn't want the LED's shining into any open area of the logo as that gives bright spots, so cut up the light strip, found the positioning i needed and used some legs of the spare resistors as track for a little circuit
    [​IMG]

    So got the mobo ready for mounting
    [​IMG]

    and ready for final plumbing :)
    [​IMG]

    Also wanted to get the io plate properly mounted before finishing the pipes, so clapped and drilled
    [​IMG]

    then got it nicely secure
    [​IMG]

    now that it was properly mounted i found the slots in the mobo tray needed a little extra clearance, so opened them up a bit more.
    [​IMG]

    Could then get started with a 180 pipe from CPU to mobo block, side note, i picked up more copper this week, but the new tube has a wall thickness of 1.6mm.. bending this with the little hand bender i had is a real challenge.. but with extended handles it gave me the leverage i needed, this pipe also bends so much better due to the extra wall thickness, no kinks whatsoever :)
    [​IMG]

    Then onto the pipe from mobo block up to GPU
    [​IMG]

    Due to the mobo port being slightly off center from the GPU I needed a slight wave in the tube, was really hoping they would align perfectly... alas..
    [​IMG]

    Then onto re-making those 2 pieces that had joins, i decided to change the one slightly as i didn't have enough area to bend the tube properly as the bends were to close, so the tool's former's caught and kinked the original, so now the new pipe has a curve at the bottom allowing for the bends.
    [​IMG]

    Here you can see the kink's in the original versus the new layout.
    [​IMG]

    then the last piece to be re-made, nice and simple. as you can see i am leaving lots of excess this time lolz
    [​IMG]

    then put all the pipes in to see what a spaghetti mess i would have... dont think its to bad, may remake the one pipe still but its about the best for the flow i would like.
    [​IMG]

    and from the top
    [​IMG]

    think once they are all nickel plated its gonna look nifty, will spend next weekend polishing the pipes and stripping the GPU blocks so i can send them off for the nickel coating, then its pretty much to finish off the HDD mountings and dvd drive, and it should be about ready for powder coating... the finish line yes.. me thinks i can see it... either that or a freight train.. ;)

    Thanks for checkin in
    Squigs out.
     
    Last edited: 13 Oct 2012
  3. Fuganater

    Fuganater What's a Dremel?

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    I'm enjoying the copper because I have a bunch coming for my build.
     
  4. Sarakon

    Sarakon The German

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    Copper makes everything look nicer :) can't wait for them to be plated....
     
  5. l3p

    l3p www.^.nl

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    Really love what you're doing there ... must have some muscle pain now :p
     
  6. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    Really nice pipe work, does look pretty difficult to get so totally spot on. :):clap:

    The fittings though, do they allow for easy ish maintenance once drained, would be hellish maintenance if it doesn't I imagine, I know I wouldn't look forward to upgrading the GPU, isn't a regular thing to change the GPU but it does get done every so often if your keen on gaming with max eye candy at high res. :D

    All these nice fittings just wasn't around when I tried water cooling so I don't really know how they work. :)
     
  7. jeckulz

    jeckulz What's a Dremel?

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  8. B NEGATIVE

    B NEGATIVE All Hail Kim Jong Magoo!

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    There are 2 schools of thought about fittings...

    1. The Bitspower Sli fitting,popular due to the low profile but the pipe is only held in by friction from 2 o-rings,not the safest of fittings however.

    [​IMG]

    2. Push fit or speed lock fittings,im all about these,cheaper than the BP stuff but the pipe is locked in,once the lock ring is up you will find it very hard to pull them off.

    [​IMG]
     
    Waynio and Squigly like this.
  9. Squigly

    Squigly MODfiend.. ~twitch~

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    Thanks, good luck with it, can be a little tricky getting the points exactly where needed, but not impossible :)

    Thanks bud, hopefully in the next few weeks :)

    Much appreciated l3p, and yea i was a little tender after that new piping ;-)

    Thanks Wayne!! I think Neg covered the fittings pretty well, it is something i am worried about, draining the system that is as even with a low point in a normal case i found i ultimately had to tilt and rotate the case to get all the water out... i wont be able to do that with the desk so have tried to make sure the fluid will empty at least to points where i can disconnect the pipes with no spills.... that's the theory anyways

    Thanks ;-)

    Nice explanation on the fittings, I am a fan of the push fitting, was just worried about clearence in this build
     
  10. Squigly

    Squigly MODfiend.. ~twitch~

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    Had a really productive day in the workshop today :rock:, today I was supposed to sand and polish all the pipes in prep for the nickel coating, but have been looking at the pipe layout all week and was really not happy with some of the pipes, specially with the pipes over the mobo crossing over and having extra kinks to get them to the right place... so started off with trying to change the pipes out of the pumps, the original way was not ideal.. in fact far from it as the water was coming out of the pumps directly to the res.. backwards yes I know.. but originally I had done that to avoid pipes crossing over each other at the pumps..

    So remade the pipe for water coming out of the pumps into the bulk head.. was really hoping it would fit behind the pipe on the right.. but i couldn't get it to work out..
    [​IMG]

    Moving the pipe going to the flow meter pushed up against the pipe going to the bulk head
    [​IMG]

    Ok.. so that meant remaking the pipe going to the flow meter.. spent some time planning it out.. and after a while finally had a pipe i was happy with, by far the trickiest pipe i had to bend to get the angles right etc... someone must have been smiling on me to get it right me thinks..
    [​IMG]

    I brought the pipe closer to the pumps but then had to find the correct angles to get it to align to the back wall..
    [​IMG]

    Ok was really happy with those pipes, much neater than before and the correct flow, from res to pumps to components... So remade the easiest pipe from the res to the flo meter, just a 90 bend really no photo of that one..

    Then got onto the mobo pipes, since the flow was now reversed I no longer needed the pipes to cross over each other, so from GPU goes to CPU, then to one side of mobo block, then out back to the res, the pipes came out purfectly, and so much neater, clean bends everything nice and parallel.. happy :D
    [​IMG]

    And from the top
    [​IMG]

    So basically I remade all except for 2 pipes today.. but am really happy with them now... Have them home so I can sand them during the week and get some polishing done.
    [​IMG]

    Guys at the workshop were suggesting I become a plumber after this.... :lol: don't worry not giving up my day job just yet..

    Ok so apart from the pipes i also managed to finish off the 2nd GPU back plate
    [​IMG]

    Cleaned off all the black and brushed it up, decided to go with a brushed finish as there are panels on both the GPU and Mobo block that have a brushed finish, so fits in nicely.
    [​IMG]

    Also got the slot load DVD drive fitted ready to be stealthed by the front cover of the desk
    [​IMG]

    And then a whole bunch of cleanup here and there.. final list really is getting nice and small... but thats about the progress from now, as always thanks for checking in.
    Squigs out.
     
    Sarakon likes this.
  11. Sarakon

    Sarakon The German

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    So shiny! that backplate looks so nice :thumb:
    Awesome piping. It does indeed look so much better than before.
    Clean and neat is the way forward :p
     
  12. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    :D Awesome progress, some fair distances to cover on this & it's looking very nicely done. :dremel::clap:
     
  13. Attila

    Attila still thinking....

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    ^^ What he says. :thumb: You look as though you've mastered the bending and personally the complexity of the piping looks terrific, not to mention the overall design of the desk. I watch. ;)
     
  14. bulldogjeff

    bulldogjeff The modding head is firmly back on.

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    As Attila has said there is some complex bending going on there, looks really good:thumb:
     
  15. Squigly

    Squigly MODfiend.. ~twitch~

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    Thanks guys truly appreciate the comments!! Yea finally got the knack of bending the tube... have virtually replaced all of the original tube I had purchased for this.. bit of an expensive learning curve, but obviously a necessary one :thumb: Now comes the fun part of sanding and polishing the tubes.. was thinking of getting a pipe sander but them puppies aint cheap, and since this is all I will really use it for its gonna have to be the good ol elbow grease method :wallbash:
     
  16. bluc

    bluc What's a Dremel?

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    How about a buffer and cutting compound?
     
  17. Squigly

    Squigly MODfiend.. ~twitch~

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    That is the intention, but the pipes have some scuffs and production marks, so need to get those off before i can buff them. Spent most of this past week sanding the pipes, first 220 grit, then 400, 600 and finally 1000 grit in prep for the polishing I had planned to do today... spent like 3 - 4 hours almost every evening (My dear wife even helped out bless her!!)... my hands feel like shyte (probably cos they deal with a keyboard all day long)

    But onto today's progress, spent a lot of time on little fiddly things that needed to get done.. but had put them off for far to long..
    I needed to get the DVD drive mount done, its housed in the frame but just needed a little bracket really to keep it in place, cut down a little piece, filed and bent it as needed.
    [​IMG]

    Then drilled holes for mounting to the frame and to the drive and countersunk those. Test fitting to the DVD drive.. happiness..
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Then removed so I could slide the drive in and re tested in the frame.. all good :)
    [​IMG]

    I also got myself a new toy this week, a proper dremel (the 4000) since i had the cheapie battery version that was useless to be honest.. this one works a charm, so used that to cut out the disk slot in the front cover, this was after the first cut to make sure all was good with the placement, luckily it was :) i then filed it down and made it neat but forgot to take another pic of it cleaned..
    [​IMG]
    I was going to cut a little hole for the button, but I found the face of the drive is just off the aluminium of the face plate, and since that has some give, by just pressing in the front face it engages the button, so gots me a super stealth button, was happy about that..

    So DVD drive mounted and faceplate done, also needed to mount the power port on the bottom of the back right leg, this will be connected to a project box that will distribute the power out 4 ways, for the 3 screens and PSU, but single plug into the desk ;-)
    [​IMG]

    So then decided to get stuck into the HDD mounts, i had made these up ages ago but they were on the back burner, the original intention was to have 4 mount points per stand..
    [​IMG]

    but its really difficult to get into that tiny space so was looking for a different solution..Had some offcuts from when i did the fan mount plates for the rad, so trimmed them down, positioned them on the base plate and drilled 2 holes in each
    [​IMG]


    these plates sit inside the HDD tray and will basically tension them down by the 2 screws
    [​IMG]

    Test fitted them and just used a little nut inside the frame area, worked perfectly, as i couldn't move them at all
    [​IMG]

    I still need to make a standoff plate that will be similar to the ones on the Mobo plate for the center hole..
    [​IMG]

    Time was running low so decided to leave the standoff plate as the lathe was freed up from another job so i could get cracking on polishing the pipes, I mounted a large buffing pad in the lathe and then hand polished the pipes against it.. even wearing a pair of welding gloves the pipes heated up a lot so my hands are feelin a little toasty.. but they came out brilliantly, really like a mirror.
    [​IMG]

    I managed to get all the pipes done but was rushing a bit at the end, it also got a little tricky to get into some of the corners without putting your hand into the chuck of the lathe.. so the one pipe caught against the buff and was pulled out of my hands :-( got a little scuff i will need to sand out and re polish this one.. but a single scuff on all the pipes is ok, think i got off pretty lucky all in all..
    [​IMG]

    Well that was about it for today.. I am still waiting for the hinges for the top glass from china, eventually got them re-sent but shipping time is 3 to 5 weeks.... so im gonna be cooling my heals for a bit till they get here and i can finish this thing off.... finally!!

    Thanks for checkin in
    Squigs out.
     
  18. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    Nice optical mount & sweet polishing on the pipes. :dremel:
     
  19. Kovoet

    Kovoet What's a Dremel?

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    Just love all the detailing. Also the time and patience you have spent on this.cannot wait to see the finished product.
     
  20. KoSoVaR^

    KoSoVaR^ Professional Sleever & Modder

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    its really great to se some more progress, cant whait for more :D!
     

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