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Case Mod - In Progress Project: Orange Monster, 2006-07-26; Arts & crafts 2025-02-23

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Darkened, 26 Jul 2006.

  1. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    It's likely server drive failure or file migration ate a few pics after all these years. Bit lost a ton of my old pics when they upgraded the forums.
    The only thing you can do I think is find the offending file name with the BB code editor, and try to re-link.
     
  2. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    Otherwise that could be it, but all my photos are externally hosted with a Finnish photo hosting service. I'll have to dig deeper into that issue at some point :blah:
     
  3. kim

    kim hardware addict

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    Honestly, it is a pity to see many of the pics gone, but most of the steps are still visible and it was a pleasant trip in the past, even reading comments from famous and talented old members who pushed up this forum to it's very best in the 2000's...and now this build is near to achievement, and I enjoy following it, but I am kinda passionate :hehe:
     
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  4. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    @kim Thank you very much for shifting through the thread.

    The monster sure has been through the ringer with all the iterations along the years. Fun, but I'm paying the price for not actually designing things before going head first into the fabrication stage :wallbash:

    A bit of calibration still to be done to the 3D-printer and I should be golden again. I'll try to put out a small update today, so stay tuned for that :grin:
     
  5. Dot_Kappa

    Dot_Kappa 100% Puppet

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    :worried: This Way? What do you mean ?
    I think I'am missing something.

    Sorry for the OT
     
  6. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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  7. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    @Dot_Kappa No problem and it's not exactly unrelated here either.

    The Wiki article merely scratched the surface, so if you want to do a real deepdive, here are the links to the Gamers Nexus videos:

    The original "article":



    The addition to that video:



    And the follow up 5 months later:



    The Wiki is a sad read, but this is a trilogy of unfortunate drama that has been going on for a while now...
     
  8. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    That's what the foot notes on wiki link to mainly. ;)
     
  9. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    Ha, so it seems. Didn't quite get to the footnotes on the wiki page myself :hehe:
     
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  10. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    Extra curricular activities:

    [​IMG]

    My very modest care package from MDPC-X arrived, thanks Nils :clap:

    [​IMG]

    100m. of fan wire, 100pcs. of countersunk rivets and a "tester pack" of yellow to orange sleevings just to satisfy my curiosity...

    [​IMG]

    In order from lightest yellow to darkest orange in the pack.

    [​IMG]

    What a surprise this was the thing I was interested in :grin:

    The yellow shines like crazy and there are a few good options in the orange range, but not all of them react to UV in any way.

    [​IMG]

    Here are the orange options and the A.C Ryan sleeve on the right. A definite quality difference, but I have a bunch of the A.C Ryan sleeving, so it should cover my needs for this build (at least for stage 1).

    [​IMG]

    Got two different (matt/gloss) black automotive repair paints.

    [​IMG]

    I'd say the matt version is much closer to the side panel and the brushed finish in general.

    [​IMG]

    Some "chemical metal" for hopefully taking care of some of the f**kups...

    [​IMG]

    Some small additions to the tool wall, albeit not all relevant to this project :hehe:

    The markers are, because I'm running all black fan wiring, so I need to mark the ends somehow so that I don't have to continuity check them constantly.

    The brass brush and the feeler gauges are for the 3D-printer and the inspection mirror and picks are just something I picked up :grin:

    [​IMG]

    This has been a bit of a timesink this week. When you change pretty much everything from the extruder to the hot end, every calibration has to be done again...imagine that!

    Still need to do the same to the Prusament PETG, but I'm getting there slowly.

    [​IMG]

    Then there's this thing. I was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!

    Well not in a cave, but from reused aluminum extrusions, plywood I found leaning against a dumpster and some old acrylic sheets :dremel:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    And a bunch of self designed & 3D-printed parts.

    [​IMG]

    This is the latest and very much needed addition to the enclosure. The old filament guide/passthrough in the back worked when the printer didn't have a direct drive extruder.

    Now it needs this slot to be able to move from side to side without snagging the filament while doing so.

    The "extra curricular activities" are now done, so this weekend I should be able to get back to actually fabricating some parts for the Monster :p:
     
  11. kim

    kim hardware addict

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    Always great to open your letter box and find your dedicated pack from Nils :grin: makes me remember that MDPC was my first encounter with PC modding, at least some things don't change :rock:
     
  12. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    @kim True that, although this was actually my first time ordering from Nils. I guess MDPC-X became a thing only after my active modding period, but I'm definitely happy they are around now :hehe:

    I actually placed an order right after I posted the update yesterday since I kind of forgot to also order heatshrink, so It'll be a few days until I get to actual wiring. Plenty of things to do besides wiring though, so not a big deal...
     
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  13. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    I guess you were absent for the paracord phase. Someone figured out you could pull the core out of cotton paracord and use the sleeve layer for wiring. I KNOW you can get neon orange, probably even glow-in the-dark orange.
     
  14. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    @Cheapskate I'm aware of the paracord method of sleeving as well, but haven't tried that myself. Could look cool though :hip:

    I haven't actually been too far removed from the modding scene during these years and I've done some things that could be considered modding in the meanwhile as well. But I'm sure there are things I've missed as well :grin:
     
  15. Dot_Kappa

    Dot_Kappa 100% Puppet

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    Paracord is a good (cheaper?) alternative to classic sleeve but it looks different.
    The cable seems to be "fat".

    There are no alternatives to high end sleeve like Nils', especially if you want glowing cable in the dark :naughty:
     
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  16. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    Front shroud support

    It definitely took a while, but after over a week of hating and loving PETG as a material, I think I'm finally "production ready" with it.

    If you want to look on the bright side, I learned and remembered a lot of things about filament tuning and my tool wall got a bunch of new holders as they were my test prints (I'll post a photo of the current state later) :hehe:

    [​IMG]

    A bit of a boring shot to get things going, but this was my solution for spacing and mounting the front shroud - a short piece of an aluminum L-extrusion with two M3 tapped holes. There are four holes from Lian Li in that bent section and if I remember correctly they are there for the CD/DVD hiding mechanism.

    For once I don't have to drill more holes and that shall be my first go-to from now on. If I can use existing holes and design parts around them, that'll be better than drill even more holes.

    The L-brackets work and are sort of a neat solution, but the spacing is about 1,5mm off depthwise, so I took a bunch of measurements and hopped into Fusion 360...

    [​IMG]

    This carved piece of carrot is the end result of that and I managed to place it onto the print bed so that none of the features can really be seen from this angle :eyebrow:

    [​IMG]

    One of the many, many things I've had to learn with PETG is that a brim is a friend for preventing warping along with a lot hotter bed temperature than I've used with PLA. The parts need a bit of post processing, but that's what I have the deburring tool for.

    [​IMG]

    After cleaning up the supports it's time to sink in some M3 heat set inserts from CNC Kitchen. And while I don't have a dedicated heat set insert press, I've come to the conclusion that the tapered soldering tip on the Dremel Versatip is the best tool for the job. Heats up quickly, is wireless and doesn't get stuck in the insert. Highly recommended :dremel:

    [​IMG]

    The inserts have been inserted...


    [​IMG]

    And here it is installed into its place. The mounting points on the case I had to measure carefully, but the mounting points for the front shroud are arbitrary at this point since I haven't drilled any holes into the shroud yet. Ended up centering them on the block and 130mm apart from center to center.

    [​IMG]

    When the shroud is in its place, the mounting block is hidden from the side view...

    [​IMG]

    But as the PC-V1000 has a perforated front panel, the mounting block can be seen through the holes and with a bit of imagination & help from my friends, the cold cathodes...

    [​IMG]

    This is the end result. And yes, while the left/backside doesn't have a shroud, I have a mirrored "mounting block" printing as I'm writing this. I removed the unnecessary holes for mounting the shroud, but from the front It'll look exactly like this :naughty:

    Also on another note, I realized that the photos I've been posting are quite massive (did check on the thread at work and noticed the humongous photos) :duh:

    These should be a bit more palatable and I'll go ahead and re-export and change the photos for the earlier updates as well.

    More to come, so stay tuned!
     
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  17. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    Much better, I re-uploaded all the 2025 photos in a smaller size (one good thing about hosting the photos myself and not messing with the order I export the photos from LR).

    It might need the good ol' shift + F5, shift + ctrl + r or on a Mac shift + cmd + r to get the photos to shrink to a reasonable size, but going forward I think this is the correct size.

    Do comment if you think this was a wrong move.
     
  18. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    I demand that you switch to translucent uv filament. :D The pics are fine either way.. as long as you don't pull a ComputerKing and post hundreds of full res pics in a single post that crashes any computer that dares to wander into the thread.
    This way will save your bandwidth. :thumb:
     
  19. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    @Cheapskate Good to have an opinion on the photos :thumb:

    I forgot to mention it, but this in fact is the transparent version of the Prusament Orange filament. It's most obvious in the photos where the brim is still intact and where the part is installed into the case.

    In the latter photo the surface looks a bit wavy or uneven, but it's in fact the gyroid infill, which can be seen through the surface :naughty:

    It isn't like acrylic by any means, but in real life it does resemble the acrylic pieces, fans etc. quite a bit more than say the holders on my tool wall, which are printed with the normal Prusa Orange PETG.
     
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  20. Darkened

    Darkened Minimodder

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    More 3D-printed parts

    [​IMG]

    Let's continue where we left off. Both sides are done and installed into the case...

    [​IMG]

    These definitely follow my thought process of: if something is needed, I might as well make it a feature :grin:

    [​IMG]

    Moving on a bit lower, I designed and printed this part. And I found a use for the "short" version of the CNCKitchen threaded inserts since this part is only 4mm thick.

    [​IMG]

    It attaches behind the space formerly occupied by the front ports. I mean, what am I going to do with a firewire & usb 2.0 front ports :hehe:

    [​IMG]

    In fact I cut the front port section off a while back and made a painstakingly well fitting aluminum strip to fill that hole. The front is lacking some polished aluminum, so I'll have the strip engraved with a "serial number" of sorts and polish it to mirror finish after that.

    [​IMG]

    Once again, if something is needed, it might as well become a feature.

    Also, I'm playing with the cold cathodes when taking these photos, but in the final form the effect won't be this bright...unless I add a few UV-leds behind there...

    Wiring block prototype

    This is the part where I tell you that I hate my brain sometimes :wallbash:

    Don't get me wrong, it's a good brain, but when it goes into the "I wonder if this would be possible"- or "I bet this would look cool"- or "What can be done here that I haven't seen before"- or "Can I make this thing reality"-state, I know I'm in for a treat of sorts...

    So after looking at the monster eye to eye last night, I had an idea:

    [​IMG]

    The idea had to be formed into a prototype and I printed it this morning and I have to say, I managed to nail the tolerances on this one.

    So the wire is 1,3mm thick and so are the grooves. The thickness of the part where the grooves are is 0,6mm and the thickness of the part itself is 4mm (and again a suitable use for the short version of the M3 threaded insert).

    [​IMG]

    This is what it would look like installed in the case "face down", but the wires still somewhat visible and the screw would come through for example the existing holes at the back of the case.

    [​IMG]

    And this is what it looks like under UV-light. The final parts would most likely be printed at 100% infill, but so far I'm kinda digging this look. Also the criss-crossing print lines look almost like sleeving anyway :cooldude:

    There are a few "hurdles" though. A lot of wires congregating at the front of the case is one of them. The second would be that if I want to make this a continuous run from the fans, temp sensors, flow sensor etc., they are installed to the case at least semi-permanently at that point. I do have some JST-type male/female plugs so I might be able to make some break-off points along the runs, but that's something I need to think about.

    Chime in if you have good suggestions or just comments about the wiring or the project in general :thumb:
     
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