Scratch Build – In Progress The Mineral Oil PC - 3/24/2011 - More leaks :(

UPDATES! UPDATES! UPDATES!

 

Lol, school started up again. I'll get working on it once I'm back in the swing of things.

 

You lazy bum.

 

I just made a litte conversion, for european modders 135lbs are about 61 kilos...
Insane, I'm about 61 kilos

 

great work. i was planning a mineral oil PC myself, but i wasn't going to start for another 2 years (at least) because i just finished building my last one.

your mod pretty much has the same things i planned. one thing i was thinking of was adding struts (probably ones for a car hood) to help lift the motherboard when i want to work on it. not too sure how well they'd hold up being soaked in oil, though.

 

Congrats to be in the MOM , Legoman!
You've got my vote

 

I'm starving for updates

 

Agreed. Have you fired it up yet??

edit: How do you sort a turnip?

 

Very Carefully

 

The quarter is almost over! I've done a little bit of work on it over the past 2 months, but nothing serious. Once school is out, I'll be able to tear apart my current PC and use some of the bits for the new machine.

 

Cool project bud, am very interested to see it running

 

WE WANT UPDATES

 

Yes updates! Just tell us when.

 

I remember you talking about a Mineral Oil computer back in '06. Good to see you came around to it!

 

Long awaited update!

It's been a while! I'm beginning my final push for completion. With any luck, the case will be completed for a lan party in Louisville July 12th (or somewhere around there, I can't remember). Enough talk, to the pics!


I made a second 3 to 1 fan adapter to allow me to control all 3 fans from 1 header on the SCAB unit. It still has RPM control from the fan closest to the plug.


Did a bit of work on the buttons.


Bunch of wires that will have to run between the top compartment and bottom compartment.


The PSU was a challenge to mount. I couldn't attach it directly to the mobo tray because of the bolts that hold the tray to the drawer slides. So I attached 2 pieces of L angle.


On top of which will rest the PSU.


To hold the PSU to the actual tray, I made this bracket....


...which attaches thusly.


I removed all of the panels from the frame for sanding. I used 150 grit sandpaper on my small random orbit sander. The object here was not to make it smooth, merely to put a finish on the sides that will not easily show finger prints and small scratches. A mirror finish would look amazing but only for about the 5 minutes it's clean.


Crappy sand paper = crappy job. I had to change the sanding pad regularly; the aluminum wears down the sand quickly.


Sanding aluminum makes a mess, I did this outside. All nice and finished.


Holding the LCD in place was a challenge as well. There was no simple way to screw it to the front panel. So with the help of a little JB Weld and L angle, I made a mold to hold it in place.


I needed a little bit of masking tape on one side to make the screen perfectly level.


There are two pieces for the sides.


And to actually hold the screen in the mold, I made a little bracket that keeps tension on the back of the PCB. There's masking tape on the side in contact with the PCB to prevent shorts.


Looking pretty sharp!


I fired it up real quick to make sure I didn't kill anything. It's really quite secure in there.

And that's as far as the pictures go. I did a little more work but nothing significant. All that remains is finishing up the wiring to the bottom compartment and finding a way to mount the hard drives.

Thanks for sticking with me through the break!

 

The LCD looks great mounted, nice bracket you made also. Can't wait for more .

 

/\ ditto

 

Thanks guys. I can't wait to complete it and fire it up.

 

Looks really nice! Looking forward to it.

 

After reading your log, I really want to do a submerged build.

Can’t wait to see this fired up!