Scratch Build – In Progress Spark [Completed]

Some more progress to show off. First off, my drive selection:


Samsung 250GB SSD plus a WD 1TB storage drive.

And their new home:



I put them on a raised platform so that for future upgrades, I'd just have to replace the platform and not worry about random screw holes in the PSU shroud.The only negative of this setup right now is that the spin drive blocks all the COM and USB ports, but that isn't a problem since I'm not using them, and if I want to, I can swap to another SSD and have easy access.

Doing a little trial fit:


While I was taking the shot of the drives, I just couldn't resist getting this one:


Who keeps a mb box for 7 years? Me. Had to make it a special edition though.

Last update I promised to tackle the weight problem with the acrylic.




It's not much, but this is a pretty bare-bones setup and most of the weight loads on the back panel anyways. I'm just looking to relieve some of the stress on this panel so it doesn't flex. The grommets are for the wires to the fans and buttons(probably LED's too) at the front of the case. I needed a spot to hide them and this works perfectly.

Back of the mb tray. Should have plenty of room for cables now.




Almost ready for paint. This is probably a good rough estimate of the look. I've decided to go with hot-rod black satin and pearl white accents for the colors. I'm hoping it plays nice with the blue LED's and LED fans I've got for this.

Up next, side panels. Smoked for the show side, black for the other. Those, and a little filler on the edges to take care of some pitting and maybe I'll be painting this weekend.

 

Looking good.

 

Thank ya sir!

 

Nice. Am looking forward seeing it painted though !

 

Nice progress!

 

Thanks! Picked up the pearl white today and should be getting the hot rod black and primer in tomorrow. All they had were gallons of the black, and even though I like it, that seemed like a little too much. Everything I'd do from now on would have to be satin black.

 

More updates on Spark! I went with a couple of video updates this round, trying something different to see how it works. Let me know if it sucks or if you like it better than a few photos and descriptions. I think a mix is going to be best. Photos for detail work, videos for conceptual or "in progress" work. So let me know!

Also, sorry for the poop quality on the first video, too much processing. Anyone have suggestions for good video editing programs? I'm fighting the one I have and it's ok, but I'd really like to get the quality up.

 

Another update. I feel like I'm starting to drag this out, but between work, home, and trying out new projects, I'm just not getting much done. I was hoping to paint a week ago and I'm finally about ready.

It seems that modders aren't interested in videos, so I'll jump back and pick up some of the progress from them.

First off, we got some side panels made, smoked on the pretty side and the back is black acrylic, like the rest of the case. Cutting these out, or rather marking out the cuts proved to be rather interesting. I had to use paint to mark the lower gap cause I couldn't get my hand and a pencil in there to mark it.



Unfortunately I didn't take a lot of pics here, but the primer gray is where I shot some paint through the case to give me my lines.

I did manage to get the doors cut out...



But I wasn't done there. Why have that nice little gap under the main chamber if we're not going to show it off?


So both sides got a little bit of a chop-chop treatment. Idiot me forgot to get pictures of these on the case after the cuts, but they look good. Haha! Trust me!

My original plan was to use magnets in the side panels to snap the door to the mod blocks. Well...mod blocks aren't magnetic. So instead, I also mounted magnets inside the case for the one's in the doors to grab on to. These suckers are strong! I started out with just two magnets a side and was going to use the mod blocks/screws for the other two corners, but the door flexed like crazy(imagine that, acrylic flexing). This wasn't a big deal, but I wanted to even my edges up with the panels, and having them flex made that about impossible. So I added 3 more magnets a side to give my panels something to sit against to stop the flex, and with the extra magnets, I figure I can probably skip the screw/mod block mounts.




As far as evening my edges up, I had minor high spots and low spots. Mostly from cutting and filing and minor differences where the panel stops wound up. Nothing a palm sander couldn't take care of.


You're probably wondering about the smoked panel side about now. Welp, I sanded it too! But I had a plan before I went about taking a sander to it.

Originally, when I was planning this out and was going to use smoked acrylic throughout, I knew I would wind up with scratches and stuff to deal with. So I bought an orbital polisher from the start...because sometimes I DO think ahead.

So here are the progress shot of that from dusty but no scratches, to 150 grit, to 320, to 3k I think, and finally polished up. I did have 600 and 1k grit in there, but no pics.






It still has some minor marks on it, but for now it'll work. And if it's too bad when we get lights behind it, I figure I'll just keep polishing it til it's good.

Also, while I was screwing with the doors, I managed to mount my grills that I made up for the rear panel and the PSU intake. Just epoxy'd them right on there.



That pretty much wrapped up fabrication, so just have to ready them up for paint. The pile of parts to get dabs of filler here and there:


After getting everything filled and sanded, they got tacked and a bath to get the dust and oil off, and then a nice coat of flexible primer.


You can see F3 in the background looking all dejected. She's about to donate her PSU the the effort. And now I'm going to stop referring to my cases as though they have feelings cause I'm feeling bad about yanking the supply out.

After a light sanding, the next step is to figure out when I have time and decent weather to lay down my pearl accents. It's a base, pearl and clear, so I need a little chunk of time to do it, plus it's stupid hot and humid here. An insanely wet year and now it's pushing 100 degrees, so it's basically a free sauna 24/7. So until then...

 

Paint! Finally!

So last time I left off, we were in primer, next step was to lay down the white pearl. This is for the accent stripes I'm doing. You're probably asking yourself, "Stripes first???" Yep. Two reasons, the hot rod black will cover the white way easier than the other way around, and with the black being a satin, buffing the stripes out would have been impossible.

So, setup:


And the in-progress shot:


And lastly, the "Oh crap." shot:


Tiny bubbles in the pearl. I waited too long to lay the pearl on the white. Or at least I think that was the problem. The bubbles really only showed up where the white coat was thinner. And I do know that I waited to long to put the pearl down. So after a night of drying, and some sanding the next morning, and another paint session, we got to this:



I'm freaking ecstatic about how it came out! I was hoping it would come out this nice, but I didn't expect it to turn out this good. Especially with as little experience as I have with a gun, and having to lay a base, pearl and clear. The plan now is to buff this baby out and get it slicked up. Lay out my stripes and lay down the black.

 

I got lucky and kept right on trucking with the paint, so this morning, I got my buff on and laid out some stripes.



And then figuring out(rigging up) someway to paint it all at once:


Everything came out pretty good. I have two panels to redo, one from a run and the other from bubbles in the paint, and the interior side of the back panel since there was no way of hanging it. Also have to repair small part of a stripe where the clear and pearl peeled with the tape. Other than that, I'm happy with the outcome.






Until the next update...

 

Started assembly of the case. First things first though, I had to fix a small problem.

I think there was a problem with the adhesion between a couple of coats of the white. Pulling off tape perpendicular to the panel results in some separation. My fix isn't great, but it will do. It isn't noticable unless you're close to it, but then it really stands out.



But now the fun part, putting it together








Unfortunately, the whole magnet idea didn't pan out so well, and I have to figure out a new way to hang the doors. I'm a bit disappointed about that. But how sharp this thing is turning out is getting me over the disappointment.

 

Neat. What grit did you use on those bubbles?

 

My bad, the way I wrote it, it sounded like I sanded them out. I actually took some 320 grit to get below them, and then started over with white again. I fixed it to make more sense in the post. There was just no way to get them out without messing up the pearl.

 

Ruh-roh! I'm painting a fender. That's why I asked.

 

Don't go by me, chat with someone who knows what their doing. I literally get an idea, read a bit on the web, and jump in and hope for the best. If these cases had to go down the road at 70mph, I'd be screwed.

 

Update time! Since the magnet idea didn't work out, I had to pull them off and repaint a couple of panels, or at least sides of panels. But now that's done and it's time to start putting her together. Yay!

First off, I threw in the drives.



But since I'm running the cables for the spin drive under the mounting plate, I had to, of course, hook them up. I decided to try Cable Mod sleeved cables. Cause I'm lazy. And this didn't need super custom cables, just something sleeved. Turns out they're nice and not a bad deal if you figure in your time saved. Extra cables for more options with the GPU and SATA hookups, but I did still have to whack off the daisy chained ends. They just didn't work in this situation.




Then it was time for the mobo, video card, some fans, a rad, and a res.





And the front view now.



Since I want to try a few things with the lighting and I was curious about how the blue would go with the white(and because I can't help myself), I hooked up a PSU for a sneak peek. Sorry for the low quality pics with the lighting. I have better, but Win10 isn't reading my camera just yet and my phone hates low light.



And with the tinted side panel on.

 

Spent last night running the cables on Spark. I changed the lighting a bit also, but that will show up in the final pics.

The supplier of power



One of the few new pieces of hardware. Since I decided not to pull the PSU I was going to use out of my other build but I had already ordered the cables for the V850. And rather than go back to throwing a 7 year old unit in that needed tons of sleeve work, I just bit the bullet an bought a new one.

And the PSU in it's home. I actually like having it up on the mod blocks, even though it was a fix for an oversight. To kill any rattle that might start between the blocks and the PSU, I put a little thermal tape I had laying around on the blocks. Not really in the product description of the tape, but I think it will work.



The cables for the front fans and switches run down through a grommet, between a couple of pieces of aluminum, and up through another grommet under the PSU shroud. I also threw the LED's in this space so I wind up with a glow instead of points of light.



And all the cables ran




All that's left is the loop and the doors and then we're flipping the switch!

 

Wow, great work Insolent Gnome

Is the case strong enough to holds all the hardware and liquid cooling system?
Plexi panles are just fixed with the stainless cube, but the case if compared to a Parvum, for example, is bigger.



Nice Lab too

 

Thanks! So far it's holding well without sagging anywhere, although the top might start after filling the loop. I'm hoping the doors help with that. And yes, it's all held together with the cubes. As far as being strong enough to say, retail it, not even close. Individual panels aren't close to bearing the weight, so everything is sort of hanging on the verticals and 'arched' together, for lack of a better description. Pull just about any piece out, and it's flat-packed, Ikea style. The bottom bows like crazy if you attempt to pick it up in the middle, so I have to handle it by the corners and on vertical edges.

It's definitely bigger than a Parvum! I based the dimensions on the Corsair 750D, so it's a full tower. And that's the catch on the strength. The exterior sides are over 20" and 6mm acrylic just cant do it without bowing. I'm not sure you wouldn't need 3/4"(or the metric equivalent) just to have a solid piece that length. Shrink this thing down to mITX size with the 6mm acrylic and it would be tough as nails, but in full tower form, it's a little flexible.

Thinking about it, a mITX variant would be pretty cool.

 

So cooling loop. I had planned on using an old Thermaltake Water 3.0 pump/block to run my loop, but I managed to come into possession of a Cooler Master Nepton 240m AIO, and it was more than happy to donate it's heart to Spark. Beats collecting dust, right?


I know, I lopped off a 240 radiator for a 120, it doesn't make much sense. But I'm betting that the XSPC will cool just as well as the stock CM rad. Plus now I get to use whatever lines I want, put it wherever I want, have a reservoir, control the coolant used and the XSPC mounts in my 360 setup better. So that's my motivation for this setup.

And leak testing.


The pump puts out a pretty impressive amount of pressure. Sure, it's only going through a 120 radiator, but any stronger and it would be spraying water around the reservoir. I'm surprised I don't see more pump/block combos available. They may not be the greatest but would be a real space saver in an ITX build.

With the loop done, all that's left is mounting doors, which consists of drilling four holes each panel. I think I got this.




And that's it. Once the loop is finished leak testing, I'll grab some finished pics, yell, "It's ALIVE!" really loud, and put her to work as a shop computer.