Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Seawolf, July 20. #40 Getting ready for Assembly Summer 2010!

#26 It's alive!

Originally I had planned for using a psu I loaned from my little brother to test the new hardware. It turned out it didn't have an 8-pin PCI-e - connector. So I had to rush the toaster psu into working condition. Apparently I don't have much modding time this week, so I tried to do it as quick as possible.



First, I painted the psu cover plastic black to match the interiors. I also repainted all the areas on the psu that had gotten smudged during bondo work.



I haven't gotten a word from the acrylic place, so I'm assuming they are on a summer holiday. Because I don't have my acrylics, I decided to use some 3mm cardboard instead. It will double as mockups for the acrylic. The brass plate I made earlier is glued to the cardboard with spray glue.



Then I squeezed everything back inside. This gets much harder with the mesh in place.



Everything is still intact.



Next I bent an angle into the psu bottom plate. By hand of course.



I made another brass sheet - cardboard for the end of the psu. Then I cut holes for the IEC socket and power switch. I pushed them through and soldered new wires. I only had solid core earth wire so I painted it black to avoid mixing it up with the true earth. Then I bolted the new plate into the bottom plate.



I used double sided tape to mount the rear of the bottom plate and just fixed the cardboard in place with masking tape. I don't have time to make proper mounting blocks for the acrylics. When I will get them, the mesh will be bent to match the acrylic. Also, currently the IEC socket is in the way so the end plate doesn't fit properly. I will have to move the socket somewhere else.



I put everything together and checked, double checked and rechecked that all the connections were ok. My multimeter says everything is fine.
I had to borrow a dvd-drive from my girlfriend's computer as the slim drive didn't come with a slimline sata - connector. One new connector is already on the way.
I powered up the system and everything worked smoothly. Then I installed Win7 RC and took the system out for a spin.

Now I have a terrible headache from playing too much TF2!

 

#27 On and on

I'm really bogged down on all these little details. It feels like I'm running in circles.



This time around I started making temporary acrylic plates for the hdd-shell. I want to have them made in white 4mm acrylic, but at the moment I only have clear 3mm. I borrowed a jigsaw and cut two little rectangles.



Slow speed and a progressive 16-23 tpi - blade (meant for metal) seems to give nice enough surface.



Then I drilled four mounting holes. Their layout was purely estimated.



Next, I painted the backsides with a coat of white spray. When I mounted the plates in place, the paint got squeezed off here and there. It needs a few more coats. I had a small crack at one hole on the rear plate.



I also cut 27 5mm spacers for the motherboard cage. I didn't really wan't to make new connecting rods, so I simply sawed them off 10mm round alu tube and filed to perfection. I think they need internal chamfers to sit properly with the current rods.



Moving on, I had to make four little brackets for the hdd-shell supports.



I drilled the brackets and the supports and assembled them using countersunk M3 nuts and bolts.



The hdd-shell needed better foam pads. I cut new ones out of finnfoam, ironed them, bondoed the front surfaces, primed and painted them. The paint doesn't want to cooperate. It gets smudged so easily. The foam dampeners look sloppy. Furthermore, they don't allow me to really tighten the mounting bolts well. I will scrap this idea and do something else instead.

 

Love the mobo stand offs.

 

I've been following this closely, and enjoying every bit.
I still have no clue what it will look like.

 

+1

 

That's what makes following this thread so fun You never know what's coming BTW Javerh... drag your ass onto IRC

 

Me three.

 

As always, I appreciate the support!

I want to have the case mostly assembled for Assembly 09. That means I've still got two more weeks. It's going to be tight.

 

Same what Cheapskate said, whole log so far, seems to be teaser after teaser.

I hope you get this finished before Assembly. I would like to see this in real life.

 

There's no chance of getting everything ready, but I will have most of it ready for the next big push. For example, the watercooling and the outer hull will come later. Also, painting everything pretty would take too much time. So, I'm guessing you can see a teaser at Assembly

 

Agreed! (cept for the assembly part of it!)

Edit- Yeah, and everything is looking good. Too bad about the lack of response from the acrylic shop. Hope you get your parts cut out as you'd like. I like how it's looking. How are you mounting the HDs? From the bottom holes or sides? You might be able to rotate things to get to use the side holes for the plexi/metal while the bottom is where you screw into the HDs... don't know if this is actually feasible... just thinking.
Keep up the positive creative thinking!

 

You lost me for a while there. I had to read that about a dozen times before understanding what you meant. Blame it on the early morning.

The HDD is just slipped inside the HDD shell as is held in place by two end-foams. The HDD shell is then held by the brackets at the slanted side. Inside the brackets there are the angle-pieces that are held by the brackets' side bolts. The angles are mounted to the baseplate with another set of screws. Did this answer you question?

I'm glad you mentioned it, because I had completely forgotten about one thing with the shell brackets. I was originally planning on attaching curved acrylics between the brackets and the slits in the motherboard plates. That means I can use the bolts in the sides of the brackets also for mounting the acrylics.

 

Sorry, man... that was my fault. I'll try to be clearer. I was just talking about how you were unhappy with the HDD shell component. I was talking about how the HDS have 10 screw holes for mounting options. 4 on the bottom and 6 on the sides. The "things" I was talking about rotating were the location of the endfoams and cooling plate. But I could be misunderstanding the problem, and even if i do I'm not sure this is a solution Again, just throwing ideas out there.

I like the brackets/anglepieces!

 

looks really great mate.. one of my faves going atm!

 

Thanks, DonT-FeaR!

ModMinded, the beauty of the HDD-shell is that it doesn't use the HD mounting holes. The end foams squeeze the HD in place. The foams I've been playing with should replace the original side foams. They were used to mount the shell in a regular drive bay. Normally, the foams would only support the shell in the rigid drive bay. In my application the foams need to support the shell and the motherboard cage. Also, I want to be able to tighten the sidebrackets to the shell so I can control flexing of the cage. If it turns out the be too hard from the sides, I will have to make the acrylic end plates load bearing elements.

 

Btw... Where did you plan to get the acrylics? If it was TLA I doubt they disregarded your order on purpose... I just picked up a ****-load of plastic from there

 

Hmm... I think I'll send them another message. Perhaps it was spammified last time.

 

I'm sure that's it... I actually asked about your order and the owner couldn't recall it at all...

Besides he said that they enjoy doing "different" things for a change

BTW you're not the only one in a hurry I have two projects which I want finished before Assembly and one that I'm going to take with me

 

#28 Metalwork

Today's mission:
1.) Get sheet metal from shop.
2.) Bend it to your will.
3.) Post it online.



Lately Cygnus and Windrider have inspired me a lot, so I wanted to get some metalwork on the way. I don't have fancy bending brakes or shears, so I'm attacking this 0.5mm alu sheet with hand tools.



A cut here and there and some twisting and nudging and I have a formed part. Not too shabby, except for the front right corner.



Lo and behold! The dvd-drive fits in place like it should.



Some more mangling and cutting and the piece sits in its place.



The top plate will push the sheet against the fan array. The wings on the side of the part will mount into 20x20mm alu rectangle tubes.



From the bottom the piece looks like this. Paint should make it look right. After this shot, I cut the rear a tad shorter and cut a diagonal hole to match the one in the drive. As can be seen from the mobo cage rods, I still haven't cutten the bolts to length.



I drilled tiny holes for mounting the drive to the sheet tabs. I had some trouble finding small M2 bolts. An autopsy of an old hardisk provided the needed parts.



I also decided to put a countersunk bolt in the middle of the top plate. Now it looks much nicer.



The radiators need some supports. First I started making the top ones. Two brackets cut from 20x2mm aluminium.



I sawed rough shoulder tenons into the brackets.



Now they fit inside the 20x20mm tubes.



Then I bent them by hand. I will probably put a countersunk bolt through the top plate and tighen the brackets with a nut from the top. I drilled that hole on the diagonal part to assist in tightening a short M5 bolt, but it seems I've run out. IMO the hole looks nice. I think I will add one to the other bracket too although I don't really need them.

Radiator sits too low in this picture. At the moment it is only supported by masking tape.



As I was in sheetmetal mood I tried forming more supports. This is to be a side support for the radiator. As you can see it's quite rough, but that should be hidden by the case's outer surface.



From the other side you can see the simple hook that I hammered in.



The hook cathes onto a water tube in the radiator outer surface. The tube is similar to the one on the right of the sheet. The side support and the fan array don't align well because the radiators are only loosely positioned. The gaps in the support let the fan cables out.

No dremels were harmed in the making.

 

Bored of the teasers? Here's a pic that should give you a better sense of scale:



More to come later this week.