Hello everyone! Before I get going, this project already started quite a long time ago. Until now I posted everything in a german hardware forum. Now I decided to also create an english version of my worklog, so everything in the first post is a rundown of what already happend in the last few months. Intro My name's Benjamin, I live in Austria and I'm pretty enthusiastic about modding PCs. In the last few years I finally had enough time to get some of my projects done, this is my third case that I'm actively documenting whilst working on it. Until now I worked on a Silverstone FT02, Silverstone TJ11, Silverstone TJ07 and Jonsplus i100 Pro. The TJ07 mod was the most time consuming thing I worked on so far and took me almost half a year to complete. At least I called it done, there's always something you can keep working on... TJ07 Tempest by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:02 Shortly after I began using it as my daily driver I had to move into a new flat which involved shrinking my PC desk. So I had to find a smaller case for my setup and bought a Jonsplus i100 Pro. I100 Pro Cadet by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:02 This is what my PC looks like at the moment. Even though I like the i100 Pro, it still is a bit too big for my desk, that's why I want to build something more compact.
What's this all about? I need/want a small PC case, I like the stuff Silverstone makes and love to build stuff myself. Combining these three things results in a TJ07-Mini scratch build. I have been sitting in front of my CAD software for a long time now and this is what I came up with so far: Vorne by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 20:30 Seite by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 20:30 Oben by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 20:30 Vorderansicht by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 20:30 Hinten by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 20:30 Größenvergleich by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 20:30 Dimensions (LxWxH): 330x146x285 [mm] Volume: ~13.5l Weight: ~2.7 kg In order to stay close to the original TJ07's aesthetic I chose to keep the dual-chamber design with the PSU at the bottom. This wastes a bit of volume, but the overall footprint is more important to me than overall height. Also I don't want to route an powercable-extension to the PSU through the case. Since I'm using a Mora 3 420 as an external radiator I don't plan to put heat exchangers in the case. Also I want to put everything I can onto the MoRa, so it will be equipped with a D5-Dualtop, a reservoir and the AC Aquaero 6LT. Inside of the case there only will be the hardware with its coolers and the PSU. At least there will be a CPU and GPU waterblock, maybe a RAM-block too. As I don't want to make much of a compromise when it comes to HW compatibility I designed the case for dual-slot 330mm GPUs. This should be sufficient to accommodate most modern watercooled graphics cards. This leaves me with a rather slim, watercooling-focused SFX case which aims towards the usage of an external radiator.
How will it be built? I tend to use my projects as an excuse to try out new stuff I haven't done before. This time I'll go for casting aluminium and some CNC action. The U-frame of the case should be made from a single piece of aluminium. So I want to cast it in a sand mould. This is more or less the hardest part of the whole project and still needs some tinkering. Here's how I plan to go for it: 1 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 This is the U-Frame standing on its front side. It features undercuts, so casting it requires a rather complex form. Formkästen by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 17:23 The idea is to split the form into four parts. Schablonen by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 Each part is then filled with greensand, suitable for casting. In the beginning I thought, that I could scrape out the negative space but came up with a better idea later on. Fertige Form by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 Once the four parts are ready... Zusammengebaut by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 They can be put together. I will use C-Clamps to secure them and make sure that they don't come apart whilst the liquid aluminium is poured into them. Image_2022-08-22_12-13-10 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 Here's the new method I came up with to create the negative space. I want to make rollers which imprint the cross-section of the frame in the sand. Image_2022-08-22_12-14-53 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 Especially with these deep, narrow pockets that should work much better.
Why cast Aluminium and not CNC-mill it? I fulfilled myself a big dream and bought a CNC-mill. Mechanik Komplett by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:03 It's a Sorotec Compact Line 0605 with an Eding CNC720 Controller and a 1.1kW Spindle. Schaltschrank Aufbau by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:03 It was a Kit, so I had to assemble everything by myself, including the whole electrical wiring. Fertig Aufgestellt by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:03 Luckily a friend of mine lend me his helping hands. Together it took us a whole weekend to finish this thing. With this machine I aim towards making GPU-blocks, pump-tops, distro-plates and case-parts for myself. For this, 50x60x17cm of working area is pretty decent, but for the whole U-frame too little. 1 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 That's how it would look like if I were to put the U-frame on the mill. 2 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 Making the frame in several parts may looks like an alternative at first... 3 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 ...but the round bits of the frame would make trouble. 4 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 This way is not very suitable for milling on a 3-axies mill. I would need a long toolpath with very little stepover of the tool to get an usable surface-finish. 5 (1) by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 18:42 And this way around the tooling would need to be very long which is bad for stability. Also I'm not good at welding aluminium.
The melting Furnace So it turned out that casting aluminium is more or less my only option to get an U-frame in a single piece. For that I need a furnace capable of melting aluminium of course. PXL_20220816_161214131 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 After a bit of research I decided to use an old 216l oil barrel for the furnace and began with the lid. PXL_20220817_145333683 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 The lid sits on the rest of the barrel like this and swings open to the side. PXL_20221013_072614950 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 There's an inner shell to protect the concrete from crumbling to much. PXL_20221013_072600196 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 The inner part was carefully put at just the right height, so that it reaches the height of the outer shell. PXL_20221013_072628533 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 After mixing up ~200kg of concrete... PXL_20221013_095106319 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 ...the lid and shell were filled up and set to cure. PXL_20221013_095148854 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 That took roughly two weeks. 00 - Brennofen Kohle by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 At first we tried to fire the furnace with coal, but that didn't work well. 01 - Brennofen Kalt by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 So we settled on a waste-oil burner design which currently is fed with fuel-oil. 02 - Brennofen In Betrieb by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 Once the furnace is brought up on its working temperature the oil burns very well. 03 - Gussform Aufheizen by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 Before attempting a pour it is very important to heat up the mould. I can't stress this enough, pouring into cold/wet moulds is very dangerous. There's a big risk of a steam explosion which will spread the molten metal everywhere. 04 - Alu In Tiegel by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 Here's our current crucible. It holds roughly 15l of molten aluminium. With the current burner it takes nearly one hour to melt enough aluminium for a pour. Here's a short clip of us pouring into the form. 05 - Alu In Form by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 A full crucible nets almost three full rods. 06 - Ausbeute An Alu by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 That's how much we cast so far. A single aluminium-rod wheighs ca. 4kg. 07 - Querschnitt Alu Guss by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 I was curious how the quality of such a rod turns out, so I cut one in half. Maybe I was lucky but it looks very promising for a rough cast. So far that's the status quo when it comes to melting and casting aluminium. Next time I'll try to cast an alu-plate with a sand form - I want to make rough stock for the cnc mill myself. Also I want to try to cast copper - For that I will need a more potent burner, currently were looking at ~1000°C which is way to low for copper melting.
The U-frame form After I assembled the CNC mill one of my first steps was to make the four parts for the U-frame form. PXL_20220817_185011474 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 I used wood I had leftover from another project. This was not suitable material. After cutting out the shapes the wood moved due to released internal stress. PXL_20220818_062556938 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 But overall it was a good exercise. Since I'm very new to the CNC topic I didn't want to get ahead of myself. PXL_20220818_062645495 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:04 For the next try I will use MDF.
Filler projects/parts The parts for the case, apart from the U-frame, will be made with the cnc mill. Since I don't have much experience in working with my machine I figured that it would be a good idea to make some other stuff with increasing complexity first. 3 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:03 So, after cutting the first version of the U-frame form from wood I tried to make a new top for my EK Monarch X2 RAM cooler. 4 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:03 It has its G1/4" ports on the side instead of the top because the original top doesn't allow me to use my sidepanel once there are fittings installed. 1 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:03 The 90°-adapter fittings stick out of the case. 2 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:03 So I remade the top. It was made out of POM-C, but due to very bad cutting parameters it is far from good looking. 6 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:03 I did waste quite a lot of time to find suitable parameters, but no luck so far. ----------------- I managed to talk a good friend of mine into buying a TJ07 as well. (^^) So he currently is busy modding his case and since I am a proud owner of a CNC mill I promised him that we would try to make a distro-plate for his mod. 09 - 3D Modell Distro by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:05 This was the original draft, but we changed some bits along the way. 10 - Distro Fertig by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:06 After the POM-catastrophe, which left me a bit discouraged I was very happy to find out that cast acrylic glass is a completely other story. Overall it was very easy to machine, I had good cutting parameters from the start and even managed to improve them step by step. 11 - Distro Detail by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:06 The outer contour of the top-plate shows the best finish we achieved. That was the last operation. Sadly we found out that my spoilboard wasn't level to the machine-bed over its full length. So we ended up with useless O-Ring grooves. They should have been 2.2x1.75mm in size and we got depths ranging from 1.7 - 2.3mm... 13 - Distro TJ07 by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:06 So my friend now uses it as a template for his next design. 15 - Distro TJ07 AGB by Da_Obst posted 19 Jan 2023 at 16:06 Apart from that I dare to say that it turned out pretty neat. Oh, and I definitely need to buy a thread-whirler-endmill. Cutting ~70xM4 threads by hand is a bit exhausting. ----------------- So far that's it. My next steps are: - Buy MDF for the new U-Frame form. - Get someone to make the rollers which imprint the negative in the form-sand. - Improve the current burner or buy a better burner so I can also melt&cast copper. - Get comfortable with cnc machining aluminium. Once I have enough interesting stuff to post here I'll update this thread.
Da_Obst I couldn't resist googling to see what the project looks like It looks impressive, considering it's my favourite case
For some reason I can't edit my second post. Maybe the forum-software lets me do that later... But I think you should be able to see the pictures now. Thank you. I almost forgot to link to that worklog: https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/threads/tj07-tempest.1288500/ It's in german, but there are a lot of pictures.
Welcome to BitTech! You are having issues posting/editing because they had to set limits on new members. We had problems a long time back with spam bots, but I think hailing @MLyons should get you clearance when he wakes up from nap time. The project looks fantastic so far.
You're indeed correct we don't let users with low post counts edit posts as it can b used to bypass filters. Due to the quality of the build let me see if i can add an exception. EDIT: Can you see if you can edit posts now. I think I've added a rule exception to your account.
Ah, I understand. Thanks, cool that you like it. Thank you very much. I think I had issues with my second post because I tried to directly link to Imgur. Even now it doesn't let me save the changes when I try to add a direct link to my posting. But that's not a big issue and otherwise everything works.
Well I'm supremely jealous. I've been wanting to scratch build my own TJ07 Mini for ITX builds for many, many years, but don't have the tools or the money. SUffice it to say I shall be watching this very closely! I like your idea of casting the unibody, my approach was going to be similar to Silverstone in having a full length of metal (milled to shape rather than extruded) and then bend it.
Thank you very much. I always hoped that Silverstone would either revitalize the Temjin lineup and/or remake the TJ07 as a SFF chassis. But for some reason they don't seem to be interested. Never understood that since the TJ07 kind of has a cult following... Nonetheless, I really hope that casting the frame works out. Your idea with bending the frame also is a valid option, but requires a sturdy bender with rollers which is complicated to build, so I want to avoid that. Update: Casting and facing a alu-plate Recently I ordered the rollers for the sand form. The guy who made them already shipped them, so it shouldn't take long until they arrive. 00 - Formkasten by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 In the meantime I tried to cast a aluminium plate with 500x500x15mm. So I built a molding box and made a model for the alu plate. 01 - Talkumpulver by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 The talcum powder is necessary to prevent the oil sand from sticking to the surfaces. 02 - Sand Verfestigt by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 At first the plan was to make the form in two halfes. But then I realized that I only had 25kg of oil sand, instead of 50kg. It's been a while since I bought the oil sand... So I was forced to cast in an open form. 03 - Modell Entfern by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 Luckily it was pretty easy to remove the wooden model. 04 - Alu Gegossen by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 After making sure that the sand form was sitting horizontal in both directions we directly poured ~8kg of aluminium into the open form. 05 - Alu Erstarrt by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 After cooling over night it looked like this, I expected it to be worse. 06 - Schwindung by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 It was also interesting to see that shrinkage isn't only a theoretical concept. 07 - Unterseite Sand by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 Here's the underside of the alu plate... 08 - Unterseite Plan by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 ...which turned out pretty flat. 09 - Oberseite Plan by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:02 The upper side of the plate was a bit less even. But still better than expected. Since it cooled off faster than the rest of the plate I thought that the whole plate would warp badly. 10 - Platte Aufgespannt by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:03 So I took the plate and secured it on the cnc machine. 11 - Planfräsen by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:03 Up to that point I only dared to mill through wood and acrylic glass. So facing off the alu plate was a premiere. At the beginning I went ahead with rather conservative values for feed&speed. But it turned out that the machine didn't have much trouble removing the material. 12 - Planen Fertig by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:03 I used a face-mill with 10mm diameter and three cutters. In the end I let it run with 0.5mm depth of cut, a stepover of 9mm, 1800mm/min and 20.000rpm. With a bit of cutting oil sprayed on the surface it left a smooth finish. 13 - Detail 1 by Da_Obst posted 7 Feb 2023 at 18:03 After casting the plate had a rough thickness of 16mm. From the top I had to remove 3.5mm and from the bottom I took off 0.5mm. If I remove another 0.5mm from both sides I should be left with a clean surface. So, after accounting the mounting holes I'll be left with a 480x480x11mm plate which I can use to make other parts. Overall that's not bad, considered what it costs to buy such a plate from a metal dealer/shop. Here's a short clip of the mill in action. It's a bit shaky because I got showered with hot alu-chips. https://imgur.com/S89ktd2 https://imgur.com/1r1gijD Since I can't keep away from CAD I already started working on the next project. For this case I can cut out all necessary parts from a single cast alu plate. But for now I'll continue working on the SFF Temjin before starting another build. That's it for now.
I don't know about a CNC milling machine, but a handheld router should cut at a much lower speed - about 10-16 thousand rpm max. Of course, if we're talking about aluminum.
At 20k rpm, I bet you could even be heard by planes flying over. The casting opens up so many options, like brass-bronze from scrap. Since it's cast, it shouldn't have the weird warping issues that rolled stock has. Loving how powerful that mill is. My gantry rig is really rickety compared to that.
I still need to find the optimal settings for feed/speed. Yeah, it's pretty loud. (^^) So far I can say that it really paid off to make the alu-plates myself. The only issue I need to resolve are the surface defects which force me to take off a quite substancial amount of material. But I'm going to build a closed steel form for casting which should allow me to get better rough stock material. So far the CNC managed to handle everything I threw at it - Pretty neat. But that's about to change, recently I ordered a 40mm face-milling cutter. I don't think that the 1.1kW spindle's too happy about this addition to my tool collection. (^^)
