Scratch Build – In Progress Temporary name: Bloo Balls --6-29-'11 Bloo 2.0 refit COMPLETED page 47

Thats hot dude! Great job!!!!!!!!!!

 

@mvagusta- Thanks! I see it too. I still say there's not enough cheezy gold paint and big nameplates. I should have THUNDERBIRD 24 stamped across the sides.

@Tribal- Thanks! I'm glad you like it. The TribalOverkill seal of approval is good to get. -Especially since you are so freaking busy. I had some wire out the other day and got the Idea of making a fan grill with it. I was tinkering around with the design when you posted your res clamps in a radial array, and I thought that would look good. Thanks for the accidental inspiration.

 

Wow, thats very very nice, i love all the tubing work.

 

That's an amazing mod! I just loved the WC and all the tubbing!
Nice work

 

Thanks Teknokid and Yemerich!

@Yemerich- Sorry, The typo on Tubing with WC make it sound like I built a bathroom.
I needed a good laugh. My family got the flu for Christmas. Not a present we expected...

 

oh, sorry to hear that, may they get well soon.
my monitor blew up today, years going well (yay 15" crt!!!)

 

Thanks Teknokid. I'm the last one to come back from it, but I still don't feel like doing any heavy stuff. I have a 21"CRT. If it blew up it might kill me! It probably already gave me brain cancer...

I've been doing little bits of modding when no one is around...

-I chopped out some wire looms for the power switch assembly.

-And I went postal on the accordion bottle. First I cut it in half and removed the silicone glue.

-Then I applied heat to the edges and bent them over with a letter opener. (This is something I picked up during my pyro-sculptor phase.)

-I added material to the middle by burning some of the extra tube I cut off. Polyethelene melts like wax when heated. Kids, don't try this at home!

-LDPE pops and fizzles a bit like bacon when burning. These bits of melted plastic are harmless in small doses. It's the FUMES you need to worry about. It's less noxious than other stuff I have burned, but still not very good for you. (-Like anyone here will be doing this kind of stuff.)

-I now have an ugly, but airtight endcap on my bottle. I decided to try epoxy for the other end.

-So I had this heavy copper wire out, thinking I could use it to make the case wiring stiffer, and I decided to try to make a custom grille for the powersupply fan. I already know it's going to be a little lumpy, but what the heck.

-A five second solder job closed the main ring.

-I ripped the powersupply out to do some work. I took this chance to trace out a guide.

-Doing this by hand came out less than good. I will need to make a jig with nails and wood. That means woodburning fun during the solder phase! yay!

-I've never tried this before, but I knew it was easy. I trimmed an IDE cable to fit. At first it didn't work, but I realized I hadn't got the connector on all the way. It worked fine after I smacked it with a hammer. (That'll learn him!)

-Surgery...or slaughter. I decided to hack off all the wires I didn't need.
...and I was just picking on someone about voiding the warranty. Why does a $15 PSU need a warranty, anyway?

-I'm not healthy enough to solder wires, but I have some neat molex plugs for the lazy. I'm going to convert the useless sata plugs to molex. (Someone please let me know if this is a bad idea. I did zero research.) I will only use it for LEDs, if anything.

-Here's how the doo-dad works: You jam the wires into the holes...(notice I re-wrapped the power cable.)

-and snap the cap over the back. -Easy! I shortened the orange wire and capped it with shrink wrap.
I slapped everything back together and was surprised at the lack of FIRE when I turned it on. Even more amazing is that everything still works.
...and no fire!

This long and meandering post was brought to you with help from Danger Den!

That pump is freaking quiet!

 

Nice work, Im not to sure on the psu though, but im not expert, maybe wait for someone that knows what they're talking about to tell you that you might kill yourself

 

If you dont mind me asking,... whats wrong with you health that you cant solder? Well,... you try soldering down wind aka blowing a fan on you toward your work. this way the smoke never gets to you. I'm sure you knew this but I just thought I was say it anyways,... feel better.

 

It's best to solder in a well ventilated area, but if you are gonna use a fan you need to make sure it isn't blowing on what you are soldering. You'd want the breeze at least .5 meter away from what you are sodlering or you will get cold joints = joints that cooled too quickly = not nice & shiny, cracks, weakness, poor or no conductivity, etc, depending on how bad it is.

That heatshrinked orange wire doesn't have anything for the heatshrink to lock on to. You should put a kink in the wire at least. Fold it, squeeze, re-heat & let cool while squeezing = kink = much harder for the heatshrink to come off. The other option is instead of using heatshrink, heat the last couple of cm of insulation a little (don't make it black), then stretch with your fingers = ~1cm of empty insulation protecting the core, and no heatshrink to fall off. I prefer to do this for cut low power wires, when the insulation is good enough for it. I like using heatshrink to cover connections, if i'm gonna use it on a cut wire like that i'll soder a blob or fold the end of the wire first.
I prefer to use a hairdryer for melting my heatshrink, but i'm often too lazy & use a lighter tho. It's hard to not make any black marks on light colored heatshrink with a lighter, hairdryers do a 100% perfect job, everytime.

The psu connector you made is fine, it's basically the same as if it had a molex there. The only potential issue is if you were to plug it into a high current device, you would need to keep in mind things like how good the crimp connections are & cross-loading of 12v rails ( if the psu even has 2 rails that is!)

this post on wires & solder & heatshrink proudly brought to you by your friends at weller

 

Thanks guys!

@Tribal- When I get sick like this, my hands shake a lot. It makes delicate work impossible. For ventilation I have this nice vac that filters air by pulling it through water. It works great on things like smoke and plaster dust. I've even used it to clean ash out of a fireplace.

@mvagusta- The heat shrink should be OK. I hit it with a little blowtorch lighter until I could fuse the end shut, so it's likely melted to the wiring a little. It's a temp rig anyway.
...and there's not much it could ground out on in a plastic case.

 

well get well soon

 

I can read 'tween the lines, bro! No wonder ya can't solder anything within tolerance right now!

In all seriousness, I hope you feel better man. It sucks being sick at all, let alone during the 'colder' months (cold...HA! In the south!?). And to paraphrase a great line from a good movie, "I love the smell of rosin core in the morning!"

Build looks great.

 

hahahahah... sorry, my bad. i was sooo sure that "tubbing" was the right way to write it
Anyway...

That fancy molex doesn't look very secure. I haven't see it in front of me, but look like if can loose a wire or something.
Strange thing u have with the soldering smoke. That smoke irritate my eyes, but i do as tribaloverkill said: i use a fan near.

have u tryed to use a mask like the ones u SHOULD be using when cutting metal with a demel?

 

Thanks all.

@EEL- The first question I always hear about this vac: DUUUUDE! can you make a bong out of it?
Stoners can come up with more ways to waste weed...

@Yemerich- The molex has little blades inside. You jam the wires in with a screwdriver, and it cuts through the insulation to make a connection. It's a standard trick for auto wiring. You have to pop the end cap off to get the wires out.
Mask? I still use lead solder.

 

lead solder owns. & what's this stuff about a mask you can wear while cutting? I enjoy cleaning cutting wheel/metal out of my sinuses too much to use such a thing as that! i've seen those connectors before but wasn't sure about them. after seeing this i may be picking some of the pass-thru kind up and getting some straightening done on HDD wiring! good stuff thanks for sharing cheapskate

 

The boiling point of lead is a bout 1800 C, so "Laded solder" isn't unhealthy to inhale (just) because of that. Sure it's wise to be cautious with that stuff, but for a hobby-solder.... well it's your own health on the line, but I'm not too afraid of mine.

 

@Lost modder- Hey! They DO look good on the hard drives! I may need to dig some more of those up. I forgot how much they simplify the wiring. I can sleeve the wires too. Thanks right back at'cha!

Have I said it before somewhere that goggles are great for directing debris into your nostrils?
Lead steam probably has other hazzards besides being poisonous.

 

I've been busy on other things, but I got enough modding time to screw something up.

-The epoxy on the expansion bottle seems to be sticking fairly well.

-I have it in place and working. I needed the extra hose for cable wrap.

-Not much luck with the Christmas tree bulb casting experiment. It still reeks of acetone after airing out for a week. It may never dry out with that little vent hole.

-Here's my problem. I did some wiring, and was really careless on keeping them sorted. When I test ran the system, the hardrives didn't detect. What I need to know is: If I swapped the ground wires accidentally, does It have an effect?
I need to know if I fried 240gigs of drivespace.
I'm hoping it's just bad soldering. I do a lot of that.

 

swapped the ground wires with what?