Phase 2 Casemodding

[brinkz0r]

Hello everyone :)

At this moment I've been working on my casemod Cubeleon (http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=139150) for about two years. So the original design dates back to 2005. Since then I've learned a lot about casemodding and my way of designing en making parts also changed a lot. I always try to be original and I make pieces that take a lot of time.

Sometimes I just don't want to work on Cubeleon, so I started this project. There will be a lot of subprojects during time, which gives me the chance to het faster result en to finish a part within a few weeks/months ;) I started making reservoirs, after being hooked by the incredible work of tribaloverkill ( http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2842).
I came up with the name Phase 2 Casemodding because I want to go into another phase of casemodding. I want parts to be made by people themselves, instead of them just buying parts. I don't think I will start another phase of modding, but at least I've tried then ;) The name also comes from the second phase of water, the liquid phase. I begin this project with two reservoirs, but I don't know if I will ever make parts that aren't used for watercooling. We'll see :)

With these reservoirs, I wanted to use plexiglass on a different way than it's used normally. If someone is using plexi in het casemod, most times it's just as a second layer between the case and, for example, a fan grill. I don't say it doesn't look nice, I'm using it too, but I'm getting a little bored by that by now. So I'm looking for new ways to use it, and I will start with creating two reservoirs :)

My first reservoir has been finished for a while, but I haven't posted it on english forums yet. I will now ;)

Swirl

This used to be a nameless reservoir, but for the conversation, it's easier to give it a name. The creation of this res all started with a SolidWorks design. After that I ordered the plexi and started sanding the edges. This was necessary because the shop I ordered it from gave it a rough finish by cutting it too fast.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-01.JPG

I printed out a drawing and stuck it too the plexi. After that I drilled through both of the sheets.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-02.JPG

And after cutting some tubes, a mockup can be made :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-03.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-04.JPG

After that, it was time for the big 'feature' of the reservoir, a piece of mirroring plexi. Cutting:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-05.JPG

The reflection is actually very good :p

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-06.JPG

This piece needs to be bended, so I tried to create some handles from wood, to bend it within this piece of steel tubing:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-07.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-08.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-09.JPG

The wood goes into the tube like this. I will mount the plexi in between and heat it up to give it a little twist.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-10.JPG

This idea didn't really work, because I was unable to get enough heat into the plexi. So I got rid of the tube. After bending, it looked like this:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-11.JPG

I intentionally took a piece of plexi that was a lot longer, so I coul pick out the piece that was bended the nicest. This piece was the chosen one :p:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-12.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-13.JPG

To be able to mount the res to the case, I drilled and tapped some holes:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-14.JPG

Now it was time to drill the holes for the connections. I will drill these to 12mm, and than tap it to G1/4". One on the top, two on the botton.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-15.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-16.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1Res1-17.JPG

After glueing and sealing, the end result looks like this :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1res1-18.jpg

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1res1-19.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1res1-20.JPG

After posting my res on a dutch forum, Stievius was interested in buying it, and it's now nicely mounted in his mod Xionized :) He has won a lot of prices at the Benelux Casemod League, so I hope that was a little because of this reservoir ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1res1-21.jpg

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1res1-22.jpg

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/1res1-23.jpg

B-res

And on with the second one :) It's called B-res because it's the second one a made, and B as the second letter from the alphabet. It also has the colors of a bee :p It started with a simple sketch, the basic idea:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_01.JPG

I designed it further using SolidWorks:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_02.jpg

Unfortunately I lost a lot of pictures from the beginning, because my XD-card died. At this picture, I've cut and glued all of the pieces for the twist. I've sanded and polished every edge, to achieve perfection :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_03.JPG

And this is how it looks finished:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_04.JPG

This is the first version of the endpieces. Started with a rough cut:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_05.JPG

And the pieces that should come on top of them:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_06.JPG

After glueing it looks like this :mad: It's all wrong, and the glue is ugly as hell:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_07.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_08.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_09.JPG

Because the first version of the end caps couldn't get nicely round, I made some new ones using the lathe at school. I used a big chunk of alu to mount the pieces in the lathe:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_10.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_11.JPG

[brinkz0r]

After that, I drilled the existing 4mm holes up to 12mm, and threaded them using a tap I borrowed from Koradhil:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_12.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_13.JPG

Remaking them made it necessary to make these again to:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_14.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_15.JPG

Nicely cut, polished and glued together:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_16.JPG

And glued to the reservoir:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_17.JPG

This does look good :p

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_18.JPG

At this time, I had no clue how to attach the res to a future case. After a few days of brainstorming, I got mad and designed as long as it was needed to design something that would fit my needs. It had to match the shape and colours of the existing res. This was the winning idea :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_18_.jpg

Time to print out the designs, stick it to the plexi and cut it out:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_19.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_20.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_21.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_22.JPG

After that, I glued them together. This made it a lot easier to get them really round:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_23.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_24.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_25.JPG

More parts :p

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_26.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_27.JPG

I will cut to rings out of black plexi that will fit around the res, and will be glued to the yellow pieces from above:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_28.JPG

I filed the holes until the reservoir would fit into them. These pictures were taken of the res without further support ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_29.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_30.JPG

I cut the holes first, because it's a lot harder to file them when they are loose. You'll have to remember which side needed a little more filing, and stuff like that :p When the holes were perfect, I cut them loose:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_31.JPG

I made the outside really round by sanding it with this:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_32.JPG

At this picture, you can sea the ring is nicely round, and I also just liked this picture ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_33.JPG

After sanding them with 1000 grit sanding paper, it was time to glue them to the tube. To prevent glue stains, I taped off the rest of the tube:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_34.JPG

And after that, I attached one of the yellow parts. This turned out not to be the smartest move, so I did it differently on the other side ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_35.JPG

The rest needed to be glued also then:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_36.JPG

And this is the other side I was talking about. I used a lot of tape to be able to sand and polish it:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_37.JPG

Even this side gets polished ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_38.JPG

After cutting, polishing and glueing everything, the reservoir was finished :D That was just in time for my visit to the Benelux Casemod League, so I mounted it to a piece of brushed aluminium and took it with me :) These are the pictures I took in my garden at a cold winter day :p

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_39.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_40.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_41.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_42.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_43.JPG

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Every part has a nice finish and I still really like the reservoir :) On a few of the previous pictures you can see the dots of glue. I have been practicing to get them nice and with the same size :p
It also looks a lot like the design, even though the twist is to the other side :p

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_18_.jpg

I've got a lot of ideas left, so if I've made something, I will tell you :) I will post another update them, one that's a little shorter than this one. This one had 66 pics ;)

[NightrainSrt4]

I really like the second one. That is awesome! +Rep dude!

[|NQ|Squelsh]

Wow! Great work on those reservoirs. +Rep for precision and style.

[brinkz0r]

Wow thanks a lot guys :)

[The boy 4rm oz]

Mate this res is fantastic. +rep

[.Maleficus.]

Awesome dude, +rep and Dugg.

[chaksq]

Very nice work man, looking forward to seeing your future work. I like both versions, really impressed with the second one. +rep

[brinkz0r]

Very nice work man, looking forward to seeing your future work. I like both versions, really impressed with the second one. +rep

That one still impresses me, and I see it every day, LOL :p I'm working on another one right now, so you don't have to wait a lot longer ;)

[jdbnsn]

That res turned out fantastic! This is looking wonderful so far. Why haven't you posted the Cubeleon yet? I know folks here would love to see it! Great work so far!

[brinkz0r]

That res turned out fantastic! This is looking wonderful so far. Why haven't you posted the Cubeleon yet? I know folks here would love to see it! Great work so far!

Tnx :) Well I haven't posted Cubeleon yet, because it's at a few forums already. But because you asked me, I will post it here also. Another dutch modder on the forums ;)

[jdbnsn]

This is feature material also.

[.Maleficus.]

Wow, brinkz0r should get a Speed Feature award. Not even 2 pages into a worklog and it's Featured. That folks, isn't something that happens every day.

[brinkz0r]

This is feature material also.

Wow, that came unexpected :eek: Thanks a lot jdbnsn, for moving me to the featured worklogs after one update ;)

I'm working on another res, but it will be hard to make an even nicer one. I made it too hard for myself :think:

[brinkz0r]

And I'm off with the third res :)

I really like this project, because I can easily switch between styles. Well, this one is going to be WAY different than the last one ;) It all started with printing the designed pieces:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_01.JPG

Stuck these pieces to a sheet of 6mm plexi:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_02.JPG

Drilled the small holes, cut and filed the large holes:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_04.JPG

I already cut some small pieces, these are 3mm thick. They are transparent, but the protection foil makes em look blue. Blue won't really fit this res :lick:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_05.JPG

After that, I needed two pieces of tube, with a diameter of 30 and 80mm. These have to have exactly the same length.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_06.JPG

With this piece, my jigsaw wasn't working properly so I cut wrong:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_07.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_08.JPG

And I tried to fix it :lick:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_09.JPG

Before I start glueing the pieces together, I drilled and tappen the mounting holes. Not an original way to mount them, because I used this way before. But I've got a lot of ideas on new mounting brackets, so I will makes those some day :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_10.JPG

After that I glued together the first two pieces, and for now the last two ;) First I have to make some more parts.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_11.JPG

This is some nice plexi, 20mm thick ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_12.JPG

Drawing out the parts. These will become the hose connections:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_13.JPG

And after a little while, these were cut. My jigsaw is having some problems with the plexi and I overheated the blade several times :lick:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_14.JPG

Now those cubes are still square, they're quite easy to drill. I drilled this in 1 time using a 12mm drill at 950rpm. It's quite scary to see the forces that are used to drill at that diameter :neutral:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_15.JPG

The hardest part had yet to come, I had to make these cubes fitting. First I sanded them down useing the round part of my belt sander:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_16.JPG

These parts will be glued to the round side of the tube, so to give them the same shape as the 80mm tube I'm using a trick a friend of mine showed me once:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_17.JPG

After sanding, they look like this :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_18.JPG

Unfortunately one of the pieces was sanded too small, so I have to remake that one. After that, I will glue them to the outer tube. Then I will tap the 12mm holes to a G1/4" thread. I ordered the tap at school, so I hope it will be here soon. Stay tuned for the rest of the ideas on this res, I am really not done yet ;)

[The boy 4rm oz]

Looking cool.

[brinkz0r]

On the frontpage? What the heck is going on here :banana:

[Scotty]

I'll tell you whats going on, your work is mind boggling, therefore we wish to help boggle more peoples minds, if this sounds stupid, my mind has been boggled by the sheer greatness of these res'!

I reckon we have another TribalOverkill here ;)

[Koradhil]

Great work. I'd like to see that B-res in real life sometime.

[brinkz0r]

I'll tell you whats going on, your work is mind boggling, therefore we wish to help boggle more peoples minds, if this sounds stupid, my mind has been boggled by the sheer greatness of these res'!

I reckon we have another TribalOverkill here ;)
The mind boggling sound cool, let's hope some more people get boggled right now :D


Great work. I'd like to see that B-res in real life sometime.
You haven't yet? Then you missed it at the TBCL :think: I'll take it with me some time.

[b4i7]

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Ichbin/Frontpage.jpg

congrats on making front page!

sorry its a bit behind

[brinkz0r]

Where were we? The last pic in the previous update was of my connection blocks (still don't know how to call em in english, not even in dutch :lick: ). I sanded them down first:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_19.JPG

I remade one, and started glueing them to the tube. Tribaloverkill has his spongebob, I have my own angry looking plexi-face :lick:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_20.JPG

By using masking tape, I made sure that the connections would be stuck on even. Glued the last two:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_21.JPG

I gave a little thought on how to drill out the holes in the big tube. The best solution was to use the mill bit on my dremel, and it worked like a charm :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_22.JPG

Just in time, my G1/4" tap arrived :) Now I have my own, and I don't have to cycle across town to Koradhil to borrow his ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_23.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_24.JPG

I hurried myself to get home, just to find out I don't have the tools to use a tap that big :( So I still had to go to school to tap those holes. That wasn't very hard:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_25.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_26.JPG

This picture is kind of weird, it looks like the holes aren't parellel, but facing outwards:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_27.JPG

I then glued the big tube to the rest of the acrylic. After that, I applied some more glue to the spots that were leaking, and then mounted the second end piece :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_28.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_29.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_30.JPG

Just a pic to show off the inner tube ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_31.JPG

The next pieces I will be working on will be these 1,5mm steel sheets. They will be mounted to the flat pieces of acrylic:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_32.JPG

At this pic I've drawn out two of them, the other two will be like these. I will cut them at school, with the machines Koradhil already showed in his topic ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_33.JPG

After these parts are mounted, the res will look entirely different, so check out the updates that still have to come ;)

[The boy 4rm oz]

Very nice work, I am thinking of making a pair of custom reservoirs for a cube mod I am thinking of doing.

[brinkz0r]

Very nice work, I am thinking of making a pair of custom reservoirs for a cube mod I am thinking of doing.

I believe everyone is making his own res's :lick: But you should do it, most times it really complements a modded case.

[brinkz0r]

Hey there, I am back :) It's been almost seven months since the last update, so it's about time. The lack of progress has been caused by a number of things, and mostly by my choice of using 2mm steel. Even the machines at school couldn't really cut that, so at home it was even harder. I already showed the design of the plates:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_33.JPG

I had to cut really small pieces at the time, so it took at least 15 minutes per plate. And then it still looked like this:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_34.JPG

That still needed a lot of filing to fit it around the res, and that's one of the reasons it all took so long. Man I'm glad that's over ;)

I had to make some more parts, some plexi pieces to cover the center tube. They may not be as round as you guys are used to see from mee, but it has its purpose ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_35.JPG

On top of that, two little pieces of steel:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_36.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_37.JPG

Another reason for not finishing, I couldn't get it not to leak :( This week I decided to mill away the thick layer of glue, and use a little of the thin stuff to fill up the holes. Not one leak :) At these pics you can see that I milled and sanded away the thick layer of glue.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_38.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_39.JPG

As you may have noticed, all of this is not as clean as I used to make. That's the same for the tube that will go inside the inner tube of the res:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_40.JPG

Let alone the rest of the steel sheets ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_41.JPG

I started this project so I could use different styles, and as you can see, this one has a totally different approach than the sleek design of B-res. At this pic, I mounted most of the sheets:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_42.JPG

And here the inner tube and the cover plates are placed also. And it's finished, I call him Rusty ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_43.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_44.JPG

Look at the size of that thing ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_45.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_46.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/3res_47.JPG

I really like the look of the nickel plated pieces with the rusty parts. The inside became a little steamy because of the sun, but that won't happen when it's filled up with water of course. I am gonna try to make a little video so you guys can see the nice vortex :)

If all of you check out this topic a few times, I am going to break my record of showed files from april. It still stands on 230,000 pics, but I know that record will be smashed this month :) In the seven months that my website/pic host exists, I already showed more than a million pics :D

[DonT-FeaR]

wow i love rusty...

that looks so nice mate

[The boy 4rm oz]

Wow that looks bloody fantastic mate. Rust much lol. I forget, did you rust that yourself or cut it from rusted metal? +rep

[brinkz0r]

I just let it rust for a week outside, after cutting that is :) Thanks guys ;)

[Eclecticos]

Wow! Your reservoir really turned out great! +Rep
Looks cool with the rust on the steel pieces.

[brinkz0r]

A few weeks ago, I found out that Casemodproject.be was having a competition. It was based on the BeP Modding Trophy, in which I'm part of the crew. In the first round, people had to mod a dvd drive, and the amazing results can be found here (http://forum.bouweenpc.nl/topic/4940). Ten people went to the second round and they are currently modding a power supply, sponsored by Fortron. Well, back to the Belgian Contest, we were supposed to create or mod a fangrill. I really like to do small projects, as you may have noticed in this topic ;) I can't compete in my own competition, so I joined this one.

I started sketching, first in my sketching book and then in SolidWorks. I designed a fangrill that uses plexi not just as a flat sheet, but more in 3D. I did that because I'm a little tired of the plexi fangrills under the stainless radgrillz and stuff like that. Plexi (and other materials also) has so much more potential, and I'm trying to inspire other people to create more creative design with the things I'm doing.

It all starts with a 120mm blue ledfan:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp1.1.JPG

A piece of brake line for a bike. I bought this a long time ago because I knew I could use it one day for casemodding but I haven't yet, until now.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp1.2.JPG

I got this gimmick aka lan cable at the Dutch Casemodding Championchips 07, but I probably won't use it anyway. I like the cables though, so I'll be using those ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp1.3.JPG

It's about three meters long, but I won't need that much.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp1.4.JPG

I just need a short piece with three conductors:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp1.5.JPG

It will be used to replace the black and red cables for the 12V. The fan makes a lot of noise at 12V, so I will never use it in a case anyway. To hook it up to the power easily I will use the splitter of this fan:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp1.6.JPG

I turns out to be a low budget mod. Not because I don't have the money, but because I have all of the materials at home already. I think I just have to much stuff :rolleyes:

The design was made using SolidWorks, so I could easily print out the designs, once again:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.01.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.02.JPG

The colors I will be using are black and yellow. I wanted to use blue but I didn't have enough plexi of that color. This is 5mm solid black:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.03.JPG

And the first pieces were drilled and cut:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.04.JPG

With a nicely sanded edge of 45 degrees:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.06.JPG

To win the compo, it needs a little finishing. Sanding with 80 grit to get the shape right, than sanding with 280 grit:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.07.JPG

It's time for some color, this is 3mm yellow plexi:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.08.JPG

Drilled and cut with the coping saw:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.09.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.10.JPG

After the cutting and filing, it was time to cut them out of the big sheet of plexi with the jigsaw. After sanding some more, my workplace now looks like this. Not even one day after vacuuming :(

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.11.JPG

I hope you guys see the idea behind these designs? In the first part, everything will be cut away that will stay in the second one:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.12.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.13.JPG

The sanding at an angle was pretty hard, but it made the gluing a lot easier:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.14.JPG

For now, it looks like this :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.15.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp2.16.JPG

This is actually a big part of the actual fangrill, but I will show you more very soon ;)

[brinkz0r]

I translated the rest also, so here we go :) For starters, I tried the grill with one UV led and the result is pretty nice :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.01.JPG

That was the reason I removed the boring blue leds off the fan. Pulled them out on this pic:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.02.JPG

The original ones were 3mm leds, so I needed to drill the holes up to 5mm first. This picture is actually not that bad, but in reality the light has a lot less blue in it.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.03.JPG

I still needed to glue some more parts on, and after that it already looked pretty finished :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.04.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.05.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.06.JPG

But it wasn't good enough, yet. I thought it needed a little more of the black plexi. So I grabbed my coping saw again and started cutting:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.07.JPG

These two parts were the result ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.08.JPG

I drew and printed a sheet of paper with the design on it, so I was able to glue them exactly at the right place:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.09.JPG

Here one is glued already:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.10.JPG

And that's two. The plexi work is done now, but it isn't finished:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.11.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.12.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.13.JPG

Just a little pic from the under side of the grill:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp3.14.JPG

You guys get to see the end result right away, because the English forums are a few days behind ;) It really is done now, I just need to check out how it looks with the UV leds on. I called it Brake Line, after the bicycle brake lines I wanted to use. But I found out they were to hard to get in, I would put the whole grill at stake when I would try to use three brake lines. So I started looking around for a black cable with a diameter of 5mm, and found 20 meters of black coax cable I had lying around for way too long. These were a lot easier to get in, so these pictures are the result of the photo shoot in my garden :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp4.1.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp4.2.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp4.3.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp4.4.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp4.5.JPG

[jdbnsn]

Beautiful work!!!!

[The boy 4rm oz]

Mate you are really good at what you do. I hope one day to posses your skills. +rep again

If you don't mind me asking, which program do you use for those designs?

[brinkz0r]

Thanks guys :) Just takes time and money to get these skills, and I don't feel like I'm done learning already :D. Hell, I just turned 22, so I'm planning to learn some more the upcoming years ;)

The 3D program that I use is SolidWorks. I learned to use it at an internship and worked with it about a year professionally now. But most of the time I'm just using it at home with my free student license :)

[The boy 4rm oz]

SolidWorks you say? I may look into getting myself a free trial or something to fiddle around with.

[DonT-FeaR]

best grill ive seen i think

[brinkz0r]

Today is the day of the deadline, so I had to take some pics in the dark with the UV ledfan. The grill is not mounted to a sheet or a case, but I may use it in a future casemod. Who knows :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp5.1.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp5.2.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp5.3.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp5.4.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp5.5.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp5.6.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/cmp5.7.JPG

[DonT-FeaR]

cool nice work man

[The boy 4rm oz]

Now that does look sweet. +rep

*EDIT*
I need to spread some rep first :(.

[brinkz0r]

Now that does look sweet. +rep

*EDIT*
I need to spread some rep first :(.

+rep for following my every move ;) And thanks to DonT-FeaR to :)

[The boy 4rm oz]

No problem mate, thanks for the rep. I really need to get myself a scroll saw so I can make some nice custom pieces for myself. The jigsaw is too cumbersome.

[DonT-FeaR]

if we lived closer you could borrow mine

no prob i like this mod

[brinkz0r]

It has been quiet in this topic for a while, because I dedicated most of my attention to Cubeleon. That case was done for 99% in November, but it wasn't in time for the big competition. I has been lying around on the attic since then. I will finish it in time, but right now I'm still not feeling like it.

The reason for kicking this topic is that I made three trophies for our casemodding contest over at www.bouweenpc.nl. Our contestants had to mod a computer part in every round, and only six would make it to the final. Last weekend we had a big stand at Energy Lan, a local lan party for ~200 persons, and that's where people could vote for their favorites. Unfortunately only four of the contestants made it to the lan, and three of them got a hand made trophy :)

It all started with a base plate, made out of 10mm plexi:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_01.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_02.JPG

Taped them together for easy drilling:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_03.JPG

It's a little hard to see, but I put some pieces of plexi round bar into the holes, and used them as feet:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_04.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_05.JPG

The vertical piece is made out of 5mm plexi:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_06.JPG

Every trophy needs a number, so I made some out of red plexi. The number 1 was easy to draw in SolidWorks, so I could print it and cut it out:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_07.JPG

The two and three were a little more difficult, so I printed out some rectangles and drew some nice number:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_08.JPG

The three was very nice, it took a little more time to get the 2 right:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_09.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_10.JPG

Glued them on, and they look fantastic :) The only drawback was that the white was caused byt the protective plastic, and it disappeared when I took it off. It made me want to do something with white plexi, so stay tuned :D

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_11.JPG

For gluing, I used some angle bars and clamps:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_12.JPG

To make the design stand out some more, I cut some pieces of tubing:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_13.JPG

The trophy needs a plaque of course, but engraving that myself didn't really work out great :P

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_14.JPG

So I got a company to do it:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_16.JPG

To go with the black engraved plaques, I made some rectangles out of red plexi:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_15.JPG

All of the parts are mounted on this picture. As you can see, the two plates cover up the feet, which makes it a little nicer again:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_17.JPG

And I guess this would be the end result :hehe: I had to use the flash, which explanes the big shadows in the back. If you look closely, you can see the reflection of the engraving in the back red piece, that became on of the nicest effects on the trophies :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_18.JPG

The end results of the contest

The first price went to Frenkie, with his Command & Conquer GDI Base Station:

http://www.bouweenpc.nl/uploads/818_1229462642.jpg

Flythe became second with his third water cooled creation in a row:

http://www.bouweenpc.nl/uploads/818_1229462604.jpg

Chatlie got hold of the third place, with his green casemod. In the front, you can see his mods for the first two rounds, a modded dvd player and a power supply:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_20.jpg

Jeroenotje came in fourth, his last creation wasn't as good as his two previous ones. Again the dvd player mod and PSU mod on the pic:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_21.jpg

We had a lot of prices to give away, including cases from Cooler Master and Ikonik, coolers from Xigmatek and Noctua, several power supplies and AC Ryan Boomboxes :) Frenkie walked away with about 400 euros worth of prices, and the other contestants also had a box full.

Right now I would like to thank all of the contestants and the sponsors, for making a great competition possible :banana: We will do another compo this year probably, so take a look at http://www.bouweenpc.nl every now and then :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/BMT08_19.jpg

[The boy 4rm oz]

Those trophies look really slick as do the mods.

[brinkz0r]

Today was just another day like any other day. Until I went on my daily trip to Bit-tech, where I saw one of my own pictures on the front page! I was surprised to find out that I had been nominated for this month's Mod Of The Month (http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2009/02/27/mod-of-the-month-february-2009/1). It was a dream coming true, just being nominated is a big honor for me. :)

Lambda
While I was working on the three trophies, I had another project to finish before last weekend. Frenkie contacted me a few months ago, if I could make him a reservoir. Well of course I can :) At first he wanted a very straightforward res, but I wanted to make it stand out more so I designed a nice divider. Now it matches the theme nicely ;)

Once again, I began drawing out the design using CAD. Lucky for me, the lambda is fairly easy to draw, so I could print it and stick it to the plexi. The main goal was to make the connections to the letter as small as possible, so I made them just 2mm wide:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_01.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_02.JPG

We went for brown clear plexi for the divider to match the design of the case:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_03.JPG

Cutting a piece of tubing was very little work compared to the divider. It's a tiny res by the way, the tube is just 50mm in diameter and 100mm high.:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_04.JPG

I'm using spray glue for all of my mods, so I went through a whole can already. I went for the upgrade this time :D

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_05.JPG

I really needed the glue for the two end pieces. Because of the extruding process, the tube is not totally round. Fortunately for me, SolidWorks knows how to draw an ellipsoid that matched the shape of the tube perfectly. Then it was just gluing and cutting (it's getting boring, I know ;)).

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_06.JPG

Not a lot of parts this time, so here are the final pics already ;) All of the parts are glued together now, the lambda is glued to the bottom with a little drop of glue.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_07.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_08.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_09.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_10.JPG

It looks very different once the water is in, but it still looks hot :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_11.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_12.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_13.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_14.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_15.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/lambda_16.JPG

In this project, I really like the fact that someone asked me to make something for em, so I'm planning to do that a few more times. So if you want me to make you a res (or something different, a fan grill for example ;)), just let me know. You'll still have to wait for a few months for the mod where this res will be used in, but I'm sure Frenkie will make something special :) See you soon!

[The boy 4rm oz]

Congratz on the MOTM nomination mate, you deserve it, as do the rest of the contestants. Very cool res you have there. I never thought of making something like that.

[DonT-FeaR]

yeah thats really neat man...

[brinkz0r]

Thanks guys :)

[Nate Dogg]

Brilliant!

Love your work :D

[AntraxLife]

nice looking man :D maybe its tru :P maybe dutch people have modding blood in them there veins :D

[brinkz0r]

Right, here I am again. For the past two years, all of my time has gone to my master mechanical engineering. This doesn't really leave space for things like vacations, it just keeps on going. That's why I haven't really done anything else for the past years, and I don't like that. I have to keep drawing, designing and fabricating, or my mood will suffer.

A few months back, in April, me and _ferry_ went to Madrid to visit Campus Party Europe (http://www.campus-party.eu/home-en.html). The organization invited us to represent the Dutch casemodders, of course we said yes. The event was really cool and we met a lot of casemodders that walk around here, like Phinix and p0Pe. There were also a lot of quiet moments though, in one of which I proved the quadratic equation :think: Also, I designed about a handful of reservoirs, this one is called Reflow:

The design of the first piece of acrylic, on Spanish paper:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_0_01.JPG

In the past years I have collected a huge amount of acrylic, so I could just grab a piece of 20mm thick out of a big sheet:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_0_02.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_0_03.JPG

The design was transfered to the block of arylic, after which I just started drilling the toughest set of holes. They are 12mm in diameter, and about 50mm deep. Lubrication and a lot of clamping was necessary to get this far:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_0_04.JPG

The two holes at the top are for filling and removing the air from the loop, although their placement is not ideal :whistler:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_0_05.JPG

This is the back of that same piece. As you can see, the holes from the bottom only go to one of the sides. I'll show you later what those holes are for ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_0_06.JPG

Hmm ok, you may notice it a little early. I need two pieces tubes, 60mm in diameter, nicely cut and sanded to be as straight as possible:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_0_07.JPG

From orange acrylic I will be fabricating two end plates. The color has nothing to do with football, it's just a nice color that I still have a lot of ;)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_0_08.JPG

With a little help from the belt sander I was able to sand them perfectly round. I will soon glue them to the tubes, once they're sanded and polished. You just have to wait a little, I will post that soon :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_0_09.JPG

[p0Pe]

yay! more work!

Should be interesting mate! :)

[The boy 4rm oz]

Awesome, I really do just love sitting back and watching you work brinkz0r.

[Locum51]

Any updates? I'm learning so much from these scratch res builds!!!

[brinkz0r]

Not yet, I'll try to work some more on this res this week, hopefully even today :)

[brinkz0r]

Reflow, update 1

The last post ended with me cutting the end caps out of orange acrylic, and once they were cut they needed to be sanded and polished. This is what I need to do that, a drill press, a cotton wheel and a chunk of polishing paste:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_01.JPG

This goes way better than doing all that by hand. It just took me a few minutes to get all of the scratches made by the sandpaper out.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_02.JPG

For once I immediately took off the protective paper and glued them to the tubes to take a good look at them :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_03.JPG

After making this picture, I applied new protective tape by the way, I don't feel like sanding the whole thing again to remove a scratch ;)

For the reflow part of this thing, I need this piece of acrylic tube that should go through the thick piece of acrylic:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_04.JPG

Since I finally had my vile back (my brother took it somewhere else and didn't bring it back down), I was able to widen the hole in the acrylic:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_05.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_06.JPG

The bottom of the reservoir now has four holes, two are tapped at M4 for mounting the thing to a case, and two are tapped at G1/4". I clamped the piece between two pieces of 'wood' (MDF ;) ) because of the stress exerted by the tap. The thing is so big that it doesn't even fit my tap wrench, so I need to use a normal 10mm wrench.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_07.JPG

The ones that took a good look at all of the lines drawn on the thick piece could have known what is about to happen. I will cut two big chunks off the thing, the problem was that I didn't know how. The jigsaw makes the 20mm acrylic melt, so that would be my last option.

So I decided to give it a try with my new tool that I bought with my birthday money and then some more :p It is a Fein Multimaster, an oscillating tool that will eat its way through about anything :D I had to choose between this tool and an angle grinder and chose this one because it's probably more versatile and better controllable.

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_09.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_10.JPG

When you flip the handle, you can pull out the bolt at the bottom, put in a new tool and click it back in. Very fast en easy:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_11.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_12.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_13.JPG

A little test showed that this piece of machinery also wasn't able to nicely cut through acrylic this thick, it works very well on thinner material. For a minute I forgot that this machine also moved very fast and also creates a lot of friction, so it also melts the acrylic. So I thought: "what would Cade Courtly do?" He told me he would just cut it by hand. So I did, my saw also had a 15 degree setting that was ideal for the plans that I had:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_08.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_14.JPG

After about 15 minutes, the block looks like this:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_16.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_1_15.JPG
And with that cliffhanger I will end this update, but not after I've said this:


I will be making a few of these! :banana:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/2res_43.JPG

Not by hand fortunately, the parts will be cut by laser and assembled by me. If you are interested in one (doesn't need to be yellow, I can use other colors), please contact me :)

[brinkz0r]

Reflow, final update

The design needed a few more orange accents, and since the hole on the top was a little off, I didn't want to accentuate that ;) So I decided to place two orange pieces on the sides. Here they are, polished an all:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_01.JPG

Applying the glue, placing on the big block and applying pressure for a little while:

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_02.JPG

Once they were attached to the block, I shortened them by hand with a file. Because I wanted all of the sides to shine, I sanded it down with 60, 280 and 400 grit and polished it on the drill press :)

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_03.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_04.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_05.JPG

Once you are attaching the finished parts to the assembly, you want to see the end result so I just kept working. These are the final pictures of Reflow, my fifth reservoir :D

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_06.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_07.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_08.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_09.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_10.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_11.JPG

http://www.modcenter.nl/images/phase2/reflow_2_12.JPG

I'd like to hear what you think of it :) How perfect it may seem on these pictures, to me it's not. There are some cracks here and there in the big chunk of acrylic, after I sanded the surfaces and then used acetone of alcohol to clean it. So I made a mental note of that, acetone doesn't help to clean a surface up, it just ruins it.

The bright side is that this was the most intricate piece of thick acrylic that I made, so perfection wasn't lurking around the corner. I've learned a lot of building it, I hope you've learned something by watching me build it :) See you next time!

[msmrx57]

Very cool design. Not what I was imagining when I first looked at what you had drawn on the center block. :up:

[The boy 4rm oz]

Two very nice designs. I really like the first design, would also look great with a dark blue instead of the yellow I think :D.

[brinkz0r]

Thanks dude :) I will probably offer four stock options, yellow, blue, red and white. I someone wants another color, that should also be possible for another price.

[Flaviahen]

Unfortunately ... you can not avoid it in the phase

Because you can take everyone and do everything
And many times
And with full realistic perception

Did you try it?

[TLHarrell]

Necro posting a nearly 4 year old thread with gibberish... I'm watching you now.



Unfortunately ... you can not avoid it in the phase

Because you can take everyone and do everything
And many times
And with full realistic perception

Did you try it?