Project Microwaved December 12, 2005

What exactly were you worried about regarding heat? I realize the size is quite large so I understand that. Do you think the inner chamber will get too hot? I plan on creating adequate venting. At least my plans include that. One idea I had was, other then your standard fan, was to create some duct work inside the chamber that would route air flow in-out of the chamber.

 

It was the size of the computer rather than the size of the microwave that was the issue, I couldn't fit a powerful computer in it, but then I could've got a bigger microwave.

A microwave is designed to keep in most of the heat, You would need adequate cooling, unless you are going to keep the door open all the time, you will need to cut some holes for airflow. If you have an okish computer to put in, it's not gonna be such an issue.

If you could somehow create a duct then I think that would work, a microwave is a sealed chamber, so this would be to your advantage.

 

Whats good about this particular microwave is when the plastic shield is removed the door contains it own vent grill. The middle portion of the door is one giant grill. As seen below:



So what I had planned on doing was including fan/fans in the door. The duct work was intended to be used if I decided to not include fans in the door. Where I would hide the fans in the side chamber and duct the air flow. Still not decided. I may not have room in the side chamber if a mod I want to include is feasable. Another benefit to this particular microwave is the inner chamber has several vents which were origonally intended for air flow inward and smoke exhaust outward. So I will make use of 1 of those vents for air flow.

I think the problem your alluding to is, "Will I have enough air flow to evacuate the heat from the chamber?" and my answer is. "I have no idea". heh. I'll somehow have to ghetto measure the air flow to determine the proper fan size.

 

I don't know how thick the door is, but if it's hollow, you could remove the plastic which is the inner frame for the window, have several fans blowing into the door, the air will then exhaust from the gap in between the front and back panels of the door, where the window is.

Not sure if it makes sense but I hope you get the idea

 

Something like this? Excuse my editing skills.

 

Actually, looking at the reverse side, I don't think is enough space to make it viable.

I was looking more at the fans being by the outer edge, the air going inside the door and coming out on the window's inner frame.

 

Small update. Just some pics of the parts I needed for the connectors for the coolent system. The caps I'll be placing back on the interior of the microwave. The panel I will be hacking up to place the power and pump switch. And the plexi that will contain the barbed connectors.

 

Forgot to add the pictures of the wires switch to my current pump setup. Which is a complete wireing nightmare. And some pics of the door with the color I chose. Royal blue.

 

Wow. That color looks hideous in the picture. It's really not so bad in real life. Oh well.

 

Need some advice on an issue. This is regarding flat edges on pieces of plexi. I'm having trouble getting a flat edge in order to match up the surface of one edge of plexi to another piece at a 90 deg angle. I can get it close by sanding and grinding but what I would prefer is expert help on getting that perfect flush fit.

One idea I had was to run it through my router. Never used plexi and a router before so I don't know what to expect. Or cut the piece as usual with a jig-saw or dremel and tape a piece of sand paper down and run the edge back and forth until it's nice and flat. Thanks for your help.

Discussion

 

Want to see what you are your "beer swilling" fried have "cooked" up keep up the work dude

 

Unfortunately my beer swilling friends idea didn't pan out so I'll let the cat out of the bag. It turns out I totally under estimated the space constraints in the microwave.

The microwave had a turntable motor which I was able to get working off my PSU. I planned on using the space in the side panel, a couple of usb "soda" coolers and a plexi tray to create a beer cooler that would slide out the side panel at the touch of a button. As it happens the pump for my coolant system is in the way.

As with the rest of the project I under estimated a lot. But this is my first project and I learned a lot from the mistakes I made. Namely, plan, plan, plan, plan. I have lots of pictures and a major update to the log I'll post tomarrow.

Cheers

 

Here's the color scheme. I need to decide on the color for the housing. I'm not sure if I should leave it white or paint it.



Mocked up.

Cover on the microwave housing.

I didnt take into account the size of the MB tray when measured for space. So it ends up taking almost all of the space inside the heating chamber. I'll have to readjust for the HD, DVD and the rest of the parts.


Discuss

 

Still have some more pictures. Heres how I'll mount the power supply. Right now I have the psu partially sleeved. I need to finish that bit up. Theres a lot of little details that I didn't consider. Switches, wire management etc. Sigh.

And here it is mocked up with the rad in place. I'll duct the chamber on the otherside of the rad to help air flow.





Here's a problem I ran into with ducting. The hoses and pump are right in the way. Not sure how to take care of that. As I have no other place to put the pump.

 

Flip the pump upside down. SHould reroute the hoses just right

 

Project: Microwaved December 12, 2005 (Update)

Well, here it is close to finished:

I need to do all the detail stuff. Like making, finding a nice grill to cover the fan hole:

Still need to create the front panel for the door as well as add a nice looking handle. On the inside I need to create a mounting plate for the MB and do all the wire management stuff:

I'm thinking I need to find a different spot for the hard drives so that I can mount the dvd. My temp monitor is going to have to be scrapped as I have absolutely no room for it. Finally, I need to add the duct work.
I have it running and it's running hot:

So I need to get the venting finished before I start using it. Also, I rubbed some of the thermal paste off and my tube of Arctic Silver is empty. So I need to pick some of that up. Oh yeah. Need to create a rail for the motherboard. It's bolted in the back:

But the front side needs support:

If someone comes up with a good idea for placement of components I'm all ears. I'd like to get the DVD installed so I thought I would move the hard drives into the psu/pump chamber. There is a little spot I could put them but I worry about heat issues. I broke my backlit power button so I grabbed a toggle switch and wired it up for on/off button. In order to turn the PC on you have to flip the switch twice. Up/Down for On. Up/Down for off.