Sandcrawler project

[artoodeeto]

*EDIT* - As of February 2010, this build is sponsored by Danger Den and Out of the Box Mods (see pages 14 and later for incorporation of the water cooling parts supplied by these sponsors). I've also posted newer pics below so if you're seeing this for the first time you can see what it looks like now as opposed to when I started this thread. I'll add another updated pic or two after more significant progress, and after it's done.

Hi all, I'm new to the forum here, and had posted some questions on LEDs in one of the other sections. I decided to post this thread so y'all can see what I'm working on. Short version - a 3 foot long, 1.5 foot tall sandcrawler that doubles as my computer case. The only actual case part in it is a metal motherboard tray, which is mounted on 4 wood blocks that raise it up about an inch and half. My slim slot-loading DVD drive is partially under the raised motherboard, and I was able to route most of the wires under the board. I'm posting a link to a photobucket slideshow, since there's well over 100 photos in there. the model itself is nearing completion, but I need to re-wire the lights (see this thread http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?p=267093#post267093 for more details), and then I need to finish rebuilding the back section (first version of it wasn't very accurate), detailing the outside, build the inside areas, paint it, weather it...etc etc...

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Taken October 23, 2009:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--10-23DSC_0709.jpg

taken March 8, 2010:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0024.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0020.jpg

btw, it's wider than the film model. It had to be a certain width, about 17 inches, to fit the computer, and I didn't have space to make it proportionally long and tall. so the length and height are one scale, and the width is a different scale, but only the main panels are stretched. detail work of course will not be, cuz that'd just look weird.
This is also the 3rd version I've made. The first 2 were based on really bad reference material, and dimensionally were way off.

[skynet]

big project ! ! unusual material choice to house a pc heat could be a prob maybe ?. but that said it is exellent work and big credit for imagination and modeling skillz respect from skynet a+++. :banana::stupid: who drives this r2d2 or the cat lol.

[artoodeeto]

Thanks! yeah, heat's an issue. it actually was pretty manageable til I stuck the arctic cooler in there, without thinking that gee...all that extra heat it's pulling from the vid card has to go somewhere LOL....oh well. I've cut extra holes in the bottom of the fan chamber so a good portion of the hot air blowing off the video card can go straight out the top, instead of getting blown back toward the PSU. the reason for MDF is it's the only thing I could find that A) was easy to work with (since I live in an apt. and don't have any kind of machine/wood shop available, nor do I have those kind of tools), and B) was relatively lightweight and strong. And yeah.... the cat's definitely the driver... :P

[x88x]

Ah, I knew I was forgetting something; the fans. You mentioned in the picture comments that all 4 fans are blowing out. If you switch two of those to pull air in instead, you'll probably get better temps. The idea is to get as close as possible a neutral balance, so that you have a continuous stream of air coming in, and a continuous stream blowing out.

[artoodeeto]

I forgot to mention, I do have 1 fan that still blows air in, right at the video card. the problem I had before was the ones blowing air down onto the computer, were doing so in the direct path of hot air coming up off the video card, and I think the two were cancelling each other out. I've cut a new opening in the redesigned back so the PSU now vents straight out the back, which should help. it's an ongoing process, to say the least :) I'll start thinking about what I can do to have fans blowing in again.

[artoodeeto]

here's a couple updated photos; there's also a few more here:
http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/?albumview=slideshow

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--10-23DSC_0712.jpg

[Luke122]

Awesome! I'll definitely be following this project! Welcome to TBCS!

[nevermind1534]

Nice project

[blueonblack]

Ambitious project, and coming along fairly well. :up: +rep

[p0Pe]

NICE! when i saw the title i was like "plz say its THAT sandcrawler :D epic!.. cant wait for more:) (just watched the entire slideshow lol.. great work!)

[chaksq]

Wow, I just watched through the slideshow, this thing is seriously awesome. Good luck with it, I want to see where it's headed.

[artoodeeto]

Thanks everyone, the praise is encouraging! This has been a lot of work the last couple years - there have been MANY instances where my initial design didn't work, or I decided/had to re-do something I already finished. the back section and the lighting are the latest in that category...I just moved, but will happily post more pics as soon as I get back to work on it (hoping to do that this weekend, once my new apt. is put together). Stay tuned...

PS - miraculously, it survived the move just fine. It barely fit in the front seat of my truck. I must admit, it was interesting having a sandcrawler riding shotgun to the new apartment LOL. As a final step I think I'm going to bolt it down to a base piece of wood that'll be done up with little sand dunes and rocks. I discovered during the move that it's much easier to carry if it's on a flat piece of wood - I grip that instead of the crawler. And it'll look cool. :D now all I need are some jawas...

[artoodeeto]

just ordered 120 5mm 2V yellow LEDs and 30 1ohm resistors...now to run to Radio Sha....er... The Shack :rolleyes: to get some bare twisted wire, pull out the ol' soldering gun, and away we go! In the meantime, hope to finish re-doing the back section and some roof panels this weekend.

[Oneslowz28]

Congrats!!!!! Check out your feature here (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/frontpage/?q=node/418).

http://thebestcasescenario.com/oneslowz28/front_page/worklog_notification.jpg

[artoodeeto]

whoa.... going :banana: right now :D thanks so much guys, that really means a lot to me!! Your support is helping keep me excited about the build - believe me, it's easy to lose enthusiasm when you've been doing and re-doing the same darn thing for 7 years (off and on). More updates hopefully this weekend!

BTW - I noticed a lot of you post pics of the tools you use. I've done this entire build with a jigsaw, utility knife, metal ruler (used as a straightedge), plastic ruler (cuz the measurement markings on the metal one wore off), pencil, calculator, Adobe Illustrator, drill...and a soldering gun. Oh yeah, and lots of superglue :D maybe it's time I go get my first dremel...

[mDust]

I see R2-D2 has commandeered the crawler...is he selling the Jawas now?:D
I LOL'd at all the door panels...are you going to detail them all like the cockpit?
Everything looks awesome so far. +rep

[artoodeeto]

yep, that's the plan. I was inspired by the excellent cutaway diagram Star Wars vehicles book from a few years ago, and while my design will differ significantly from what's shown in there, it did give me the idea to do an interior. I even have an old necklace chain that belonged to my girlfriend:
me: "Hon, you don't want this locket anymore right?"
her: "No..."
me: "So I can throw it away, you don't care about it at all right?"
her: "What part of the sandcrawler is it going to be?"
:D
that chain will be dangling down inside the loading door for the loading crane I plan on putting in there...someday LOL. lots of detail....that's what I want. hopefully I can do my ideas justice.

ok guys...off to rewire them pesky lights and watch football...sounds like a perfect Sunday to me! pics later! :D

[mDust]

me: "So I can throw it away, you don't care about it at all right?"
her: "What part of the sandcrawler is it going to be?"Bwahahahahahaha! She's got your number down man...might I suggest an anti-abduction helmet hand crafted by Oneslowz28 (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21129#post268634)? I hear he adds an extra layer that prevents mind reading...

[artoodeeto]

ok...promised pics. this is rather momentous - it was for advice on this rewiring that I joined TBCS, so thanks to all who answered my initial posts, you made this possible!

before I started rewiring. doesn't look bad, but they're all parallel wired, no resistors, and the section on the right/foreground all blew out on me.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0001.jpg

little baggies of LED goodness :D amazing to think there's 120 in that bag. looks more like 30.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0002.jpg

new LEDs in place, note the sharpie marks I made so I wouldn't forget which side was which.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0003.jpg

all replacement LEDs in place.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0004.jpg

my "helper". she spends most of her time sticking her nose in the middle of things and being a pest. but cute at the same time. Lucky she didn't get burned on my soldering gun.... oy....cats....
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0006.jpg

soldering started. I didn't do the final wiring today, gotta finish the back roof to stabilize the back section, then stand it up on its back so I can access the wiring underneath and then run the new wiring.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0007.jpg

doesn't look all that pretty, but then I can't really access the cockpit lights and since I'm pretty sure I don't need to replace them, I didn't want to risk breaking anything in trying. I *did* desolder them and rewire them in series instead of parallel.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0008.jpg

last replaced section.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0009.jpg

note white wires coming from cockpit section - I added 4 LEDs above loading door area, so that each set of LEDs in the cockpit would be 6 instead of just 5, so I wouldn't have to go buy new resistors. More LEDS, didn't have to buy more stuff....good stuff :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0010.jpg

not pretty, but it won't be visible so who cares :)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0011.jpg

there were 2 LEDs left over in each of these sections - I decided once the roof panels are installed on the back (to the left of this photo), to add 4 LEDs on each side back there, and so get 6 LEDs on each of these strands.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0012.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0013.jpg

my other helper...luckily he's not as destructive.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0015.jpg

there were 4 LEDs leftover in the front section, but then in this removeable roofpiece I had 2 LEDS, so it worked out quite well to solder in a plug and add these 2 LEDS in the middle of the series strand and get 6 on there instead of just 4....once again avoiding having to buy new resistors. life is good :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-01DSC_0017.jpg

[mDust]

That, sir, is a ton of LEDs. I guess you can't show pictures of it working because it would blind us, right? :D

[artoodeeto]

oh you'll see lighty pics when I get the wiring all done LOL. there will be at least 119. I'm thinking about adding interior LEDs to the lower sections, but I'll likely "only" be able to add in 24 more due to limited accessibility. max number will be 143. they'll mostly be wired in strands of 6 lights + resistor in series, then all those strands in parallel.

Semi-overdue thanks to Randy Cooper on this build (even though he'll probably never see this thread) - he is an incredible model builder, and just made a sandcrawler kit replica. I discovered this, contacted him for advice on mine, and he was kind enough to send me his reference material, which has been an incredible help! If you've got some money to spare and want to get yourself an awesome, looks-identical-to-the-film model from a good guy who's REALLY good at what he does, take a look at his site:
http://randycoopermodels.com/purchase-kits/

[artoodeeto]

question on an idea - I'm working on rewiring the lights. Despite the fact that I'm doing strands of series lights, and wiring the strands together in parallel (thus I *should* be able to run many more lights off a single 12V source at approx. the same brightness as I had before), I will still need several plugs. Fans are one, 11 higher voltage LEDs are another, one or two plugs for the 120 lower voltage LEDs in the upper section, and another plug if I do another 24 LEDs in the lower section (easier to wire).

An idea that's crossed my mind is rather than using molex plugs to hook the wires from the top portion of the case to the PSU in the bottom part, run the wires to small metal squares, maybe sheathed in plastic or MDF, and mounted on springs. The plan would be that when I put the top of the case onto the bottom, the plates in the top make contact with the matching ones in the bottom, the springs ensure they stay that way, and the sheathing around them makes sure no sparks fly out. I wouldn't have to worry about plugs, and I wouldn't have to have access to a particular side of the case.
Alternatively, I could just bolt plugs in so that they meet up when the two halves of the case go together, but my hesitation there is molex especially tends to be a tight fit, and I don't want it to be difficult to pull the top off or put it on.

Sound like a good idea, bad idea, or one not worth attempting? Assuming it's a good idea, would copper be the best metal to use (can't afford gold :P) and would cheaper metals, like steel, work? Thanks!

[x88x]

A friend of mine did something similar with the fan and lights on the side panel of his tower. He used conductive foam, and it worked beautifully. I'm not sure where you would find such a thing, or even what it was, but it worked great. Large surface area + ductile contact = perfect contact, every time.

For the power levels going to the LEDs, I wouldn't really worry about sparks/etc, just make sure you make it so that it's not easy to short them out.

[artoodeeto]

interesting...I didn't know you could get that stuff. I took a quick look around - most of the "conductive" foam seems to be the anti-static variety they package IC's in. any idea if that's what your friend was using? It seems odd yet oh so cool to stick unininsulated wire ends into foam and watch my lights light up. :D Especially since it's easy to work with, and I probably have some kicking around somewhere.

[x88x]

After a little bit of looking around last night, I think it was conductive fabric covered foam, like these (http://www.directindustry.com/industrial-manufacturer/conductive-foam-78324.html). I honestly don't know what exactly he used; I think it was left-over stuff from a university project.

[artoodeeto]

k, it's been awhile since I last updated this. Still no lighty pics yet, but... THEY WORK! :D I've finished rewiring the upper section. Big relief when I tested the lights and they all lit up (except for a couple, but at those strands aren't finished yet, I wasn't expecting them to light up). I just haven't soldered in the final wiring, and I discovered that my jury-rigged setup for testing purposes wasn't stable enough to let go of it long enough to take a photo.
Now I just need to solder in the plug, add 24 more LEDs to the lower areas, get those wired into the same plug, do the back roof section and add 8 LEDs to that, and rewire the 6 LEDs that are in the base of the model...it's not as much work as it sounds like. Really. :)

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/DSC_0012.jpg

cockpit area wiring. Sure hope the roof still fits on there...there's not a lot of room between the back of the cockpit section and the underside of the roof, so those extra black wires being there might be a problem.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/DSC_0015.jpg

old light strand, scissors, extra resistors, extra power cord that'll run the higher voltage "outside" LEDs
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/DSC_0016.jpg

one of the old light strands, each light wired in parallel and no resistors.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/DSC_0017.jpg

[artoodeeto]

All but 8 LED's are in there; looks like I need to fix one circuit of 6, as they're not lighting up (probably soldered one in backwards). So right now there's 135 LEDs in the model; 125 of them are lit. The 8 yellow ones I'll add will be going in the back section, in the upper area above the red-lit compartment visible through the rearmost cutaway panel.
You can see the 3 plugs for the lights and fans sticking out the side. Since all the lights work off of 2 molex connectors that are ultimately coming from the same plug in the PSU, I'm going to cut off one of the light plugs and solder its wires into the other plug, so there'll be just one plug for all the LEDs instead of 2. And that, happily, was my goal: 1 plug for the LEDs, 1 plug for the fans. Simplify...simplify...simplify...I should post pics of all the excess stuff I pulled out during this phase. There was a lot...

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--11-12DSC_0025.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--11-12DSC_0023.jpg

[SXRguyinMA]

those lights look awesome!

[Waynio]

Nice project artoodeeto looking great so far :) +rep +subscribed.

The LEDs add an instant layer of awesomeness.
I'm really going to have to start practicing new tricks if I ever want to do something eye poppingly special which I do want :), switchable on/off leds being pretty high on the list of things for me to learn, it's a pretty big list already, but if I get cracking on it I should have some new skills ready for my next project :D.

[blueonblack]

LOVE the lighting! Very well done. +rep

[Loki]

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs034.snc3/12156_1060139560858_1747005172_118486_2744626_n.jp g

[artoodeeto]

LMAO!! I gotta save me that image, that's awesome! I think I may see if I can incorporate a printout of it in the crawler somewhere, although I'll probably change the word "that" to "this" so it makes grammatical sense in its new context...I can't put it in the cockpit because it's already sealed off, but I have a couple other ideas.

more updates hopefully tonight...I'm hoping to finish getting the roof re-done, and getting the last 8 LEDs in place, soldered, and lit....

[Loki]

LOL, glad you like it!!

Maybe you can hide it inside the mod as an easteregg :P

[artoodeeto]

thanks for the lighting compliments guys, that means a lot coming from such a skilled modding community!
small update - I re-did the top. first off, pic of what it used to look like (basically, hinged flaps covering the fan openings):

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--07-01DSC_0024.jpg

I did away with the flaps, and recessed the area that used to be the front flap; "machinery" and such will eventually go in there :D

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-25DSC_0023.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-25DSC_0033.jpg

Lastly, I won't be able to do this til Sunday probably, but this is the rear area sans roof panels (I need to remake them, they're not quite shaped right..grrr...). note the wires sticking out; these will be attached to the remaining 8 LEDs (4 per side) to complete the lighting:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--11-25DSC_0022.jpg

[artoodeeto]

I've finished the rear area roof and lights...pics tonight (hopefully). then it'll be off to the local art supply store to see if I can score me some sculpting clay and molding/casting materials. I'm thinking I'll sculpt some of the bigger bits of machinery on the rear roof and rear vertical wall(s), then cast it twice so as to have identical pieces for each half. I'll use old leftover model pieces for the smaller machinery bits. But mainly the sculpting approach is to practice for my next project...building my girlfriend a computer. I have all the parts (mostly it's leftover from when I upgraded mine back in May), but the case will be a challenge...Rivendell. Whole kit'n'kaboodle. hopefully working waterfalls...I'm nothing if not ambitious LOL :P separate worklog for that one at some point here. I do have some landscape-building experience, just check out my airplane diorama thread in the Misc. projects section.

[x88x]

Rivendell.

This I must see. Also, working waterfalls are a must :D Extra points if you work them into a WC loop. :twisted:

[artoodeeto]

you know, I *did* think about that. but I've vetoed the idea on 2 counts (correct me if I'm wrong on #1, as that would then eliminate #2): 1. a water cooling system must be fully contained to prevent evaporation and contamination. 2. that means I'd have to cover the waterfalls, which would look weird. 3. just thought of a 3rd reason....just had to spend $400 more fixing my truck than I was expecting, so I don't have the $$ for WC at the moment.
We'll see though, my sandcrawler has taught me much about the value of allowing flexibility in the design for changes as the build progresses. Speaking of that flexibility, some new pics of the rear roof area and the last 8 lights, which bring the total to 143. In one of the photos I left a top access panel open; this serves no aesthetic purpose, it's only there if something goes wonky with the lights, I didn't want them permanently sealed off.

View of the rearmost interior compartment. The other side houses the power supply, so only the upper section opens up, as opposed to this side, which will house a full blown engine room with upper and lower sections.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-07DSC_0047.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-07DSC_0048.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-07DSC_0049.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-07DSC_0050.jpg

This last shot is looking straight up into the front loading area. Gives you a better idea of just how many lights are in there.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-07DSC_0054.jpg

Stay tuned...more soon!

[billygoat333]

holy LEDs. lol and yeah, it most likely would be better to enclose the water loop, but I would ask someone more knowledgeable about that before drawing a conclusion. I bet someone will know for sure on here, we have some wc gurus onboard :)

[blueonblack]

Damn, that's a well-lit cargo bay! :)

+rep

[artoodeeto]

Just wait til I add the crane :P

[mDust]

correct me if I'm wrong on #1, as that would then eliminate #2): 1. a water cooling system must be fully contained to prevent evaporation and contamination. 2. that means I'd have to cover the waterfalls, which would look weird. 3. just thought of a 3rd reason....just had to spend $400 more fixing my truck than I was expecting, so I don't have the $$ for WC at the moment. WC loops *should* be closed systems. If the environment is fairly clean and you're willing to constantly refill the coolant, then having it open to a waterfall shouldn't be too much of a problem. However, since you have cats, I'm sure there's abundant cat hair just about everywhere, right?:) To make the waterfall work, you'd need a filter between the waterfall and the rest of the loop to catch anything that might fall into the water. Something like a coffee filter in a reservoir would keep any debris from damaging your pump or clogging blocks or rads.
Also, don't put any toxic additives in the loop. The water will make noise so the cats will find and explore it quickly...they will likely decide to take a drink from it every now and then.

BTW, the crawler looks great!

[artoodeeto]

Thanks mdust, I'll keep all that in mind, very good points. And yeah, you're right, I could almost make a 3rd cat out of all the hair... +rep :) for the WC tips
In all likelihood, I won't be doing WC, really for 2 reasons: 1. can't afford it, and 2. the system won't really need it anyway (however, it also doesn't "need" to be put inside a model of Rivendell, so that reason doesn't exactly hold water).

[artoodeeto]

And here's the remaining to-do list on this puppy:
1. add raised area around front of rear roof
2. fix wires under front roof so it sits flush
3. cover remaining roof areas with posterboard to match rest of model
4. add texture/details to roof areas
5. sculpt larger pieces of machinery
6. mold the sculpted parts
7. cast the sculpted parts
8. attached casts to model
9. build up smaller machinery pieces on outside using old model parts
10. add wall coverings to interior
11. build floors in upper sections to cover tops of new lights/wiring that illuminate the lower areas
12. add floor coverings
13. design and build interior machinery
14. build and insert crane into front interior of model
15. cover up hinges
16. cover sharpie markings to prevent them showing through the paint (if anyone has advice on this, please please please let me know...I wasn't thinking when I used the dumb sharpie)
17. prime and paint interior
18. prime and paint exterior
19. build base – sand with some rocks
20. bolt (maybe) bottom half of case to base

[artoodeeto]

Just emailed the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. They're doing a case mod exhibit Feb. 11, 12, and 13 (I think), and I definitely want this to be a part of that if possible. Expect to see some crazy fast progress on this from here on out. Speaking of crazy fast, I've crossed #1 off my list in my previous post. :P

[Airbozo]

Just emailed the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. They're doing a case mod exhibit Feb. 11, 12, and 13 (I think), and I definitely want this to be a part of that if possible. Expect to see some crazy fast progress on this from here on out. Speaking of crazy fast, I've crossed #1 off my list in my previous post. :P

I just made an offer in the thread about the Exploratorium to help setup any mods. Yours included.

[artoodeeto]

k, another incremental update. I've added the raised, sort of a fence, thingy around the rear roof section (old photo first for comparison):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-07DSC_0049.jpg

note the hinge on the front slanted part. This slanted portion raises up so I can remove the entire middle roof section (after removing the front roof section). I left the roofs removable so I can still access the lights and wiring in case something decides to go wonky and/or burn out. It made working on the roof panels a bit more difficult, but I'd hate to have lights go out someday and not be able to fix them.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-19DSC_0053.jpg

thank god for ebay - I have an asus crosshair II m/b, and this little use-only-if-water-cooling fan it came with is perfect for the spot on the model pictured below. problem is, I need 2, not 1. Quick trip to ebay later, and I should have 2 more of these puppies probably after christmas (I'm keeping the original fan intact in case I sell the mobo someday).
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-19DSC_0050.jpg

Not sure if I'm going to alter the plastic housing it's in, it's a little too tall. I'll see what they look like when I get the new couple of fans:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-19DSC_0051.jpg

Overall shot of the top, what it used to look like first, then what it looks like now.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--07-01DSC_0026.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-19DSC_0054.jpg

Finally, the PVC pipe rendered completely useless (and thus garbage can fodder) by my re-design of the back part (first shot is what the back end used to look like):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--07-09DSC_0002.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-19DSC_0051.jpg
The pipe to be tossed...it's great for machinery-looking things, but these pieces are far too large to be useful. Oh well. At least I didn't spend a ton of cash on them.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-19DSC_0052.jpg

[x88x]

By 'tossed', I assume you mean tossed into the spare parts bin? :P
Looking good..making everything easily accessible is a really good idea. My onboard video recently started overheating, and I'm kicking myself for not leaving an easy way to get to it...or anything, for that matter...

[artoodeeto]

By 'tossed', I assume you mean tossed into the spare parts bin? :P

maybe. currently they're in the trash can, but I'm really probably going to hang on to them til I'm done, just in case. they're full of screw holes, the screw-on caps are actually glued on, and without some serious jigsaw slicing and dicing I can't use them, so I'm not really expecting them to leave the trash can.
aw dangit...I think I might be able to make use of them LOL! keep an eye out, you may see 'em in there again...

[Loki]

Can't wait to see the paintwork on that...

[artoodeeto]

I've begun the sculpting process! I have more done now than just this one piece, but I haven't photographed the other yet. I still need to add a rim around the top of the piece. It's not perfect, but I'd say not bad for 1) not having sculpted anything in years, and 2) doing it mostly by hand. If you think sculpting a face is tough...try doing a tapered-top symmetrical cylinder by hand. Ugh.
The chrome circle in the very top is a hubcap from a 1/12 Ferrari F40 model. I'll use the drinking straw where pictured, but it'll be cut shorter to fit. Once this sculpted piece is totally done, I'll mold it and cast it twice, one for each side.
The unpictured sculpted piece I'm working on is the "machinery" that'll go on the back wall of the crawler, and again I'll be molding it, then casting it twice. Once the casts are in place, I'll add old model parts all around to complete the look.
The other visible pieces in the photos are a couple of Asus motherboard heatsink fans. I'm not planning on making them operable at the moment, but I may just run the wires into the space where the light wiring is to give myself the option. The fans, if they worked, would serve no functional purpose (since the intake side is the more-interesting-to-look-at top portion) but it might look kinda cool if they spun while the computer was on.
After all that, it'll be on to the interior...and then painting after that. Oh yeah, the white flat piece of plastic under the sculpted part is just the base for the sculpture, it won't be present in the final cast (just the gray chunk will be).

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-02DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-02DSC_0002.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-02DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-02DSC_0005.jpg

One other thing - I have to get this done by early Feb. so I'm putting myself on a pretty rigorous schedule - an hour or two after work each weeknight and at least 4 or 5 hours a day on weekends for the rest of this month. Now that holiday craziness is over, I'm hoping that's pretty realistic.

[artoodeeto]

woo hoo! just got the call from the local graphaids, the plaster of paris I ordered is in. Now to get some mineral oil, and I will become a mad mold-making machine! ok. sort of. I'll post pics of the other piece I'm sculpting soon, hope to have it done before the weekend so I can mold/cast the first batch on Saturday :)

[artoodeeto]

here's the piece that's going to be the main mechanical unit on the rear wall (there'll be 2 copies of it, and while I pictured it horizontally, it'll be positioned vertically). The basic form is done, and it was surprisingly hard to make it symmetrical by hand. But I (mostly) got it, so tonight it'll be on to detail work, then molding/casting on the weekend, and once it's on the crawler, I'll add extra model pieces for more detail. I cut the posterboard card it's on right now to fit vertically in the space on the crawler, so I wouldn't have to worry about potential misfits/misalignments.

right-side up:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-07DSC_0001.jpg

and upside down:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-07DSC_0002.jpg

[Loki]

:eek: :eek:
Great handcraft man!

[artoodeeto]

Nearly done with this piece! It's taken far longer than I thought it would to sculpt. I just need to smooth it out, possibly add a couple more recessed or raised areas, and then texture in some detail. After that, I can mold it and cast it and get back to assembly of the case.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-11DSC_0006-1.jpg

Now for some innards. My CPU fan blows hot air right back at the PSU. So I thought, ok, I'll get a dryer hose (thx for the tip billygoat!) and clamp one end of the hose to the heatsink, then route the other end of the hose up to one of the exhaust fans. Didn't work - the hose diameter sadly was 0.5" too small (4"; the heatsink diameter is about 4.5"). So I thought ok, I'll try sticking a funnel-shaped piece of paper on there, force the air up and away from the PSU, toward the exhaust fan. It looks terrible, and only sort of works. My next idea is to turn the CPU heatsink around so the fan's blowing the other way, and I'll probably retain the paper funnel to force air to yet another, bigger, exhaust fan. Any other advice is greatly appreciated - there's no ideal solution without gutting and re-doing the inside, but there may be better solutions than what I've come up with so far.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-08DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-08DSC_0002.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-08DSC_0004-1.jpg

[Airbozo]

RE: ductwork.

Since the metal stuff may not work, check the plumbing area at your local HW shop and look for drainage pipe. They have some 90 degree bends that may work.

[artoodeeto]

Thanks, I did look at some of the plumbing stuff too - the real problem is that if the pipe is wide enough, 4.5" or 5", any kind of 90 degree bend simply doesn't fit in the space available. Even the foil-coated spring duct that I got doesn't really fit well. the situation won't change if/when I flip the fan around, because then instead of heatsinks and such blocking the duct, the memory chips will block it. This wasn't a problem in the past because my older dual core AMD didn't generate nearly as much heat as the quad core does...oh well. I'm hoping flipping it will force most of the hot air to the bigger exhaust fan, and thus force more out of the case where it won't superheat the PSU. We'll see...

[x88x]

One thing that might work is to use a 5" to 3" restricter right off the HS/F; it would increase the pressure, but you should be able to get the same airflow if you do it right, maybe throw an 80mm fan inline in the 3" portion to boost it. I think you should be able to get the desired affect as long as the 80mm fan has at least the cfm rating as the 120mm in the HS/F.

[msmrx57]

Thin aluminum to form an adapter for the ducting to hook to?

[artoodeeto]

good ideas both - time for another trip to home depot to see if they have anything that'll work. As for exhaust fan size, in its current orientation it'd go to an 80mm fan; if I were to flip the H/S around it'd go to a 120mm fan, but because of the RAM chips there's zero room for a hose (even paper). So if I do that, I have to hope that the high CFM of the 120mm is enough to vent the 92mm.
In its current orientation, with the paper funnel, the 80mm fan covered about half of the top opening, but the paper didn't go quite all the way up to the fan, so I think a lot of warm air escaped back to where the PSU is.
The Zalman 9500 fan size is 92mm, so it's probably got a slightly higher CFM than the 80mm fan. Maybe what I'll try and do is since I have two 80mm exhaust fans side by side, and my paper funnel only got over to one of them, I'll try and do the tube maybe with a flare-out at the end so both 80mm fans are exhausting the warm air. I'd rather have negative pressure between the CPU fan and the exhaust fans than positive pressure. I'd probably still use paper for at least the flare-out for a couple reasons: it doesn't conduct electricity, which is an important consideration because I'll likely have to mush it in place, it won't tear as easily as aluminum foil, and is much more pliable than even thin sheet aluminum (not to mention cheaper if I screw up :P ) It won't look great of course, but hey, with the top on it won't really be visible.
But as a first step I'll definitely look at Home Depot and see if they've got anything that might work. I just wish there was a little more space...

[x88x]

You could also try thin cardboard or posterboard instead of paper. It would be stronger but still very pliable and cheap.

[artoodeeto]

Finally...once I mold these parts and cast them, I can go back to actual model-building/kitbashing. I'm looking to have the molds done tomorrow, Disneyland on Saturday, and then cast on Sunday/Monday, plus start working on other areas of the outside of the case Sunday/Monday. The rear areas will have to wait til the casts are done and on the model. For size reference, the cylindrical part pictured first is about 3.5" tall I think (haven't actually measured it), and the other piece is about 5.5" tall.

First up, the part that, on the original model, was a Saturn V rocket stage topped by a car model hubcap:
(with flash):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-14DSC_0010.jpg

(without flash..my lights are really yellow):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-14DSC_0016.jpg

Next up, a machinery assemblage that on the original model was made of Harrier and other jet engine parts, from what I can tell. this is about the only angle it'll be viewed from once it's on the model:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-14DSC_0012.jpg

Other angles:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-14DSC_0014.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-14DSC_0017.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-14DSC_0013.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-14DSC_0011.jpg

And finally, what happens when I get REALLY tired of working the same #$#$@# piece over and over and I just wanna do something DIFFERENT...with scrap clay...
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-14DSC_0002.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-14DSC_0009.jpg

I can't begin to describe how glad I am to be done with these. I might go back and fix little things before I mold them, but while I know they're not perfectly symmetrical, I'm not going to worry about it. They look decent from the limited viewing angles when they're on the model, and that's what matters :) comments are welcome though...BTW, all those strips of silvery-ness on the one part: I used solder to create raised lines in the final cast. It was pliable and easy to put on, much easier and more visible than the thin copper wire I tried first.

[Loki]

And finally, what happens when I get REALLY tired of working the same #$#$@# piece over and over and I just wanna do something DIFFERENT...with scrap clay...

LMAO!!! hahahahahaah :banana:

Great sculpting dude! it's really hard to make things in real 3d without a pc :P

[artoodeeto]

thanks! yeah, it was pretty tough. I'm in the middle of mold-making now...using brushable latex. In the future, I'm going to switch to a 2-part silicone rubber that's pourable. I had no idea the latex would take as long to cure as it does, so what I thought would take an afternoon (to make the molds) is going to end up taking days. Oh yeah, and the beastly stuff has ammonia in it. So it stinks. Fortunately not TOO badly, but I still smell ammonia all day.

[p0Pe]

wicked dude:D i am going to +rep you not only for the great work, but for the sg atlantis sig:P

[artoodeeto]

alrightie, here's some more progress! pics below include my completed molds (which are now holding the casting resin, poured this morning and now curing and giving me a headache even though they're in the extra bathroom w/door shut and window open), and my initial attempts to sort through the seemingly bazillion old model parts. I actually just bought a box of old model car parts, looks like mostly engine parts, which I've discovered look the best. all sorts of pipes and things just looks perfect, and in my initial stash I didn't have enough. Hopefully once I get this box of goodies from the seller, I'll be able to finish off the detailing the way I want to. I also can't WAIT to get the cast parts on the model. I'll demold the first set tomorrow night, and assuming all goes well, pour casting set #2 tomorrow night. Again if all goes well, by Wednesday night both sets of cast parts will be on the model, and I can finish detailing the back section around those pieces. I've done nearly as much as I can back there for the moment. Note - the initial pics, I just had parts piled on top of the model, the ones that are now glued in place are shown in the last couple photos below.

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-23DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-23DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-23DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-23DSC_0006.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-23DSC_0007.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-23DSC_0008.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-23DSC_0009.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-23DSC_0010.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-24DSC_0011.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-24DSC_0013.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-24DSC_0014.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-24DSC_0015.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-24DSC_0016.jpg

oh yeah...those two Asus things in the last pic, those are duplicates of the little extra fan that came with my motherboard. The wires on these bad boys are still attached, in fact they're on hinged flaps that open to provide access to the lights below. i'm thinking about wiring them into those lights; it'll probably dim the lights a bit and the fans won't spin fast, but that's ok. I'm leaving their plugs intact in case adding them to the lights messes everything up, in which case I can just unplug them. but hopefully they'll be a spinning external element while the machine is on.
The light gray cylinders glued on each of their hubs are a couple "intakes" from the engines of an old X-wing model. In fact, if you look carefully at these pics, you can see parts from several Star Wars fighters (x-wing, a-wing, b-wing).

[blueonblack]

Nice, love the inclusion of the Asus fans. You should definitely hook them up! I'm a huge fan of moving parts. :D

[artoodeeto]

Thought I'd toss this question out there - anyone have any ideas for covering up the hinges? I'd been thinking posterboard squares to match the rest of the paneling, but the issue is the little screwheads stick up, so it'd require several layers on each hinge half, with the bottom-most layers hole-punched twice for each screwhead. Now I'm thinking a better idea might be to use some of the smaller model parts i've got and just cover up the screwheads themselves, at least on some of the hinges, and do the panelling idea on some of the others. I'd do it somewhat at random, the idea really is to disguise the fact that the hinges are there. Thoughts?

[x88x]

Wow, this is really looking awesome now. I second keeping the fans spinning; sort of like engine intakes or something. No thoughts on the hinges; sorry.

[billygoat333]

could you maybe use some abs plastic or styrene around the hinges? I like the idea of covering them in model bits. I like that.

I 3rd the spinning fans. just run them at a low speed so you can see them moving, I think that would look cool. could be like exhaust turbos or something. lol

[artoodeeto]

oh ya, the fans will spin. Speed won't matter in the slightest. My only real worry is how much voltage will they draw away from the lights; I may have to run them on their own circuit.

I think I'm going to go with model bits on the hinges, at least for some of them. I wish I had hinges that could go on the inside and still allow the panel to open outwards. I do have a sheet of extra styrene that's thick enough to cover the screws, but I don't want these big obvious square bits sticking out beyond the rest of the panelling. So model bits are likely the way to go.

New pic! I got 2 of the 4 cast pieces on the model. They're screwed in, 1 each, from the bottom. Held the screw in place with a ratchet, then literally spun the epoxy cast (after drilling a hole in it) around til it was tight. It's like they're superglued on, but they're fully removeable, at least for now. The other two cast pieces are ready to go on, but since I used resin for them instead of epoxy (shoulda used epoxy...the resin casts didn't come out as well. I pulled the mold off too early, and now the mold's pretty much ruined and I don't have time right now to make another one. It's not too much of a disaster, one piece came out fine and the other one can have detail added back to it). Anyway. Since I used resin, they still stink to high heaven. I'm going to give them airing out time til the weekend before adding them.

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-27DSC_0003.jpg

with the fan-flap open showing access to the lights (the other one opens too but not quite far enough to stay up on its own):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-27DSC_0002.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-27DSC_0001.jpg

[Loki]

U guys love to use kits!! I wonder where can I get some of those here in Arg... all those pieces are sold separately or you bought a truck kit an used it in this project? XD

[artoodeeto]

Actually, couple of sources. First is that I've been building models since I was 10 (so for about 23 years), and I had somewhere around 200 models at one point. Most of these were built, but a bunch were unbuilt kits I bought years ago from a local model shop that was going out of business. I have gone through the collection many times, they're all boxed up and take up a lot of room, and I've thrown away a lot. But more recently, the last time I decided to toss models, I took them apart and kept the useable bits for use on the sandcrawler.
A few days ago, rather than go out and buy more model kits to scavenge parts, I went on ebay and discovered sellers selling "junkyard" models: old, broken models and model parts. I bought and am waiting for a box of car engine model parts.
If you're looking for spare parts to use and don't have a large model collection to pull from (I've already dumped or destroyed all the ones from my collection that I was willing to sacrifice) I'd recommend looking on ebay for junkyard kits.

[nevermind1534]

I wonder where can I get some of those here in Arg...

If you find somebody who ships to the US, but not Argentina, I can forward the item to you, assuming that you cover the shipping costs and fees.

[Loki]

A few days ago, rather than go out and buy more model kits to scavenge parts, I went on ebay and discovered sellers selling "junkyard" models: old, broken models and model parts. I bought and am waiting for a box of car engine model parts.



If you find somebody who ships to the US, but not Argentina, I can forward the item to you, assuming that you cover the shipping costs and fees.
thanks nevermind for the offer, It's a great idea to go and ask in the hobby stores for cheap broken models :D I'll go to some of those near my house and ask...

[artoodeeto]

well guys, my box of car parts arrived on Friday. It measures 9" x 6" x 3.5". And it was STUFFED. Not just full. We're talking packed-to-the-brim-and-spilling-as-soon-as-I-opened-the-outer-shipping-box full! I'm hoping there's enough in there to last me not just this model, but the large scale Y-wing I want to build someday...anyway, I sorted the contents of most of the box, based on similarities between parts. Took about an hour to do 2/3 of the box, and I'm not gonna do the rest unless I use all that I've sorted so far.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-29DSC_0004.jpg

Before the addition of the extra parts:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-29DSC_0005.jpg

After the addition of the extra parts:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-29DSC_0006.jpg

oh yeah, and I stopped by Michael's and got some popsicle sticks, figured they'd be good for some interior panelling and such:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-28DSC_0003.jpg

There was some weird stuff in the parts box:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-29DSC_0007.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-29DSC_0008.jpg

I have no idea what that sphere was. No clue. Most of the parts, including the Big Daddy Roth painted hood interior (though jarring to find and a little creepy-looking) I could at least figure out what they used to be. But not that sphere. My first thought was Sputnik....oh....hell...that'd be awesome. There may be a junked sputnik in the sandcrawler at some point....

I have the 2 outside Asus fans wired up now; this shot is with the central roof removed so you can see how I ran the wires (the whitish plugs for the fans are visible just under each fan):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0010.jpg

My girlfriend is in the middle of painting this. It's her first oil painting. Heck, she only started taking art classes a few months ago. If only we were all that talented, no?
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-29DSC_0009.jpg

Now as far as what else I accomplished so far, I've finished all the recessed bays, 6 total, 3 on each side of the model. Took awhile - I don't have a lot of room to work, and I kept having to go 'round the other side of the table, try and remember what i'd just done, and duplicate it roughly symmetrically. First, a photo of it before I did the front 2 bays on the left:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-28DSC_0001.jpg

And after, followed by some detail shots. Incidentally, the red ladder was from an X-wing model; the silver ladder is a handmade duplicate of the red ladder cuz i didn't have 2 red ladders. Also, the thick pink and yellow tubes in the central bays are.....bendy straws. :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0011.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0012.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0013.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0014.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0015.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0018.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0019.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0020.jpg

Finally, I got one of the last 2 resin cast pieces on the back of the model:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0016.jpg

But, the 2nd cast didn't come out very well. I was impatient and pulled the first cast out of the mold too early (I thought 30 hours was enough time, but it wasn't :( ) and while the first cast came out decently, it left enough residue in the mold that the second cast looked like a slightly melted ice sculpture:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-30DSC_0017.jpg

This simply wouldn't do, so I've started making another mold of the original clay part, and I'm gonna do the replacement cast in epoxy: cures faster, and harder, and is less prone to picking up fingerprints and indentations. It also doesn't make the apartment smell like a chemical manufacturing plant.

For tomorrow, sunday, I'm hoping to get that mold done and get the epoxy poured in (to be removed Tuesday night), I'm hoping to get the roof of the model and other small details done, and then if there's still time I'll work a bit on the base: the tank treads, boarding ramps, etc.
I doubt I'll have time to get to the interior before the Rods n Mods show in SF, I'll be lucky if I can get the thing painted properly before then. But eventually, I'm planning on having the interior all detailed, and to have some sculpted jawas and droids kickin' around in it. Ambitious? Me? naaaah.........

[DonT-FeaR]

looking really cool now. cant wait to see this one finished!

[billygoat333]

wow... you just dont realize how massive this thing is until you see it on the table like that. lol awesome work man... epic. :)

[Waynio]

Great painting for a first oil painting, I lost my creative drawing ability years ago, I can draw things that are in front of me no problem, but to create & pull something from my imagination like a character or a scene from scratch I've totally lost the ability and just end up doodling like a child lol.

The kit bashing is going well and imagine it will look awesome once painted, I didn't realise the molds were so small, it's only now that I can see it next to the pencil I see how small it is, at least you have the mold ready to do it with an alternative cast. The lighting is looking great from earlier posts too, keep it up mate it's going great. :up:

[artoodeeto]

The kit bashing is going well and imagine it will look awesome once painted, I didn't realise the molds were so small, it's only now that I can see it next to the pencil I see how small it is, at least you have the mold ready to do it with an alternative cast. The lighting is looking great from earlier posts too, keep it up mate it's going great. :up:

Thanks! yeah, the piece pictured next to the pencil is about 9 ounces; the cylindrical piece up top is about 6 ounces. It's funny, they seem rather large in person, I think despite the pencil it looks smaller in the photo. Especially the 9-ounce piece - they're easily the biggest single pieces on the whole model. As for the kit-bashing...man it takes a long time! Figuring out where to put stuff, trying so hard to resist the temptation to just glue stuff on willy-nilly....anyways. If you look at Paul Capello's Doom case worklog, there's a photo in there somewhere of some kitbashing he did for a window frame I think. He took shots before and after primer painting, and it's AMAZING how much better it looks after being painted. It doesn't look like much prior...so I'm thinking the same will apply to my model. Only times like 100 (since there's so much more on there). :P

[Trace]

I can't wait to see this in person!

[artoodeeto]

My cat Tiger decided to help out the other day by keeping my seat warm:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-31DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--01-31DSC_0002.jpg

I've made a little more progress - added some more stuffs to the rear roof area and the recessed roof area toward the front (note especially the strategic use of bendy and straight straws). I also started on the detailing of the front section roof, it's looking a whole lot more interesting. The couple of chrome pieces in the front corners had the word Ford on them, so I scratched that away. Although the sandcrawler probably does look a bit like some Fords from the '70's..... :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-02DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-02DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-02DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-02DSC_0006.jpg

[artoodeeto]

Finally got the last cast piece on the model this morning! Tonight I'll be working on detailing the back section and hopefully finishing off the roof. If I'm REALLY good I'll get the hinges covered too. I thought I'd put some comparison shots in this post, and a couple new ones at the end. I began planning this project in April 2007.

First, front views. I'll edit this later to include a new shot of the front, the most current one I have from a similar angle was taken back in November.

Taken June 30, 2007:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Front07--06-30PICT0006.jpg

Taken January 18, 2008 (major difference is openings on roof for fans):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Front08--01-18PICT0001.jpg

Taken November 12, 2009:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Front09--11-12DSC_0025.jpg


And rear views, this is where the differences get REALLY obvious.

Taken July 28, 2007 (that's the old 2nd crawler on the left):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Rear07--07-28PICT0003.jpg

Taken July 1, 2009 (yep....2 years later, major difference is I'd just rebuilt the tank treads and underside):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Rear09--07-01DSC_0028.jpg

Taken February 2, 2010:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Rear10--02-02DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Rear10--02-02DSC_0004.jpg

Taken today, February 3, 2010, shows the addition of the final cast piece on the back:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Rear10--02-03DSC_0002.jpg


And the other new shots:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-03DSC_0005.jpg

The rear fans opened up - note the pipes and such glued to them that help (when they're shut) to disguise the fact that they open for wiring access:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-03DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-03DSC_0003.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-03DSC_0001.jpg

[artoodeeto]

I forgot to add comparison shots of the computer itself. You'll see a general trend from really messy to really not messy:

Taken May 17, 2007, still in the old 2nd crawler (with the posterboard mockup of the 3rd one on top, I had nowhere else to keep it):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/Computer07--05-17PICT0005.jpg

Taken June 9, 2007, same computer system, but now in the 3rd crawler:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/Computer07--06-09PICT0005.jpg

Taken June 25, 2007, zoomed out version of above photo:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/Computer07--06-25PICT0003.jpg

Taken May 9, 2009, still the base and treads from 2nd crawler, but much neater computer now:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/Computer09--05-09DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/Computer09--05-09DSC_0004.jpg

Taken October 23, 2009, this is what it looks like from the outside now:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/Computer09--10-23DSC_0712.jpg

Taken January 8, 2010, I'm going to remove that paper funnel and turn the CPU fan around so it's not blowing hot air into the PSU...
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/Computer10--01-08DSC_0001.jpg

[x88x]

Very nice. The second rear mold piece looks like it came out nicely.

All you had to do was join us and suddenly you make lots of progress...hmmm :P

[artoodeeto]

Very nice. The second rear mold piece looks like it came out nicely.
All you had to do was join us and suddenly you make lots of progress...hmmm :P

Thanks! Yeah, it's hard to tell in the photo, but the first rear cast piece has almost as much detail as the second - because I did the first one in resin, it's totally clear and the detail is harder to see. Should look fine once painted though.

And yep, it's amazing what happens when you suddenly have an audience. Of course, my relatively breakneck pace the last month or so is due to the Rods n Mods show next week, I want at least the outside finished by then. Should be do-able, I'm fully expecting it to be ready to paint by Saturday. woo hoo!

[Waynio]

Coming along nicely and like the progress recap shots :), all worklogs should do this every so many pages :):up:.

[artoodeeto]

yeah, I like going back through every now and then and looking at the old photos. For the Rods n Mods show, I'm going to do a screensaver showing the build history, and I think I may group the photos first by angle of view, then by date, so you can see its development over the years from successive viewpoints.

Last night it took a surprisingly long time, but I got the remaining large areas covered with posterboard. In a lot of ways I wish I'd thought to use thin sheet styrene instead, but in one way at least I like the posterboard - I can fold it over corners. Can't do that with styrene, and it really helps smooth out rough edges. As the following photos show (newly covered areas are the rear lower panel, the middle-most removable roof piece, and the raised ridge forming a horseshoe shape 'round the rear-most roof). Tonight's tasks include finally getting the dang hinges covered, and adding detail work to the areas I covered last night. And with that, I do believe the exterior will be done from a construction standpoint. Well, ok, there's a few things I want to try and add to the outside of the front loading door. THEN it'll be done. :)

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-04DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-04DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-04DSC_0005.jpg

[Loki]

Love it love it love it!! I didn't knew you were working on this project for so many years!! and I must congratulate you for your perseverance and constancy!!!

[artoodeeto]

Thanks! It's been about 10 years, going back to the first crawler model I built. This one here is the 3rd. It's been a long trip, this build, and I'm very ready to be done with it. More updates tonight or tomorrow...

[Trace]

Can't wait to see this

[artoodeeto]

More updates - as of this morning it's FINALLY ready to paint. I'll probably have a few more pics this afternoon, I'm going home from work today at lunch to get the primer coat on. Then it'll be off to the model store to buy the paint(s) to use for the topcoat and detailwork.

Covering the hinges:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-05DSC_0001.jpg

Worked on front loading door - needed to create these little diamond shaped thingies at the top of the door:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-05DSC_0002.jpg

I cut them out of a 1cm square poplar dowel:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-06DSC_0011.jpg

But I still needed to shave the backs down, the pieces were cut from 1 cubic cm blocks, so they're REALLY small, and at the suggestion of my girlfriend (after several attempts using a knife didn't work), I used my power sander. But how to hang on to these little parts? Stick them in some extra clay with the portion to be sanded away sticking up:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-06DSC_0010.jpg

After sanding (that's a little propane tank next to them):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-06DSC_0012.jpg

Got them glued on:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-07DSC_0028.jpg

Then discovered that in the mess on my table, I'd missed putting one on. This is of course AFTER the glue dried. No wonder it didn't look right! So I stripped them off:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-07DSC_0031.jpg

And re-made the piece of posterboard and glued them to that, then glued that whole piece back onto the door. Much better!
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-07DSC_0032.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0050.jpg

Is it any wonder I lost stuff? So last night I was using tweezers to try and add a small piece to the back. It had glue on it, and of course I gripped the tweezers a little too hard, the piece shifted, then suddenly shot away, bounced off something, and disappeared. No joke, I spent 10 minutes looking for the stupid thing, and finally gave up. A couple minutes later, I brushed my hand on the back of my pant leg by chance, and voila! it was stuck to the back of my leg LOL.... :rolleyes:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-07DSC_0024.jpg

As of this morning, after all kit-bashing was done, much cleaner!
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0037.jpg

Prior to working on the very back:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-07DSC_0026.jpg

Finished back:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-07DSC_0034.jpg

It occurred to me this morning it'd be a whole lot easier to paint and move this thing if the computer was removed from the base:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0038.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0042.jpg

And finally, some shots of the FINISHED construction, at least finished on the outside...
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0043.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0044.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0046.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0047.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0048.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0049.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0051.jpg

[Loki]

.... Paint on that masterpiece is going to be sweet!!!

[x88x]

Very nice; I love how the back is turning out.

[artoodeeto]

And the first paint pics. Sadly this may be about as far as I get before the show - I only have tonight and tomorrow, and it's supposed to rain tomorrow... :( It's not nearly as "neon-ish" as it looks - the lighting was wonky and my camera decided to use the flash.

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0052.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0053.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0054.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0055.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0056.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-08DSC_0057.jpg

[Waynio]

Sweet, now all the odd colours from all the different bits are 1 it really looks perfectly detailed, it all looks so excellent +rep.
Bet you could make your own star wars scene with this :) awesome.
Will you be airbrushing all the colours or using art brushes.

[artoodeeto]

Thanks!! Yeah, I'm rather blown away at the effect the primer has. I plan on hitting it with one more coat of primer tonight to even it all out (it's very spotty in a few places - look at the photo of the front of it), then I'm headed to the model store while that dries so I can pick up the color(s) I'll need to do the top coat. After the main coat is on, I'll airbrush all the streaks and runs present on the film model - mostly blacks and grays, with tinges of yellow here and there. Then I want to do a thin black wash in the cracks between panels to emphasize them a bit more, then I'll use a paintbrush to do some of the small detail areas and other spots (like the cockpit window frames and in between the headlights) that are currently covered with tape, then drybrush highlights, then brush on ground up pastel chalk to give it hopefully a faded, dusty look, then hit it with a flat coat to seal the chalk dust and make sure I can't mess it up by handling it.

There's no way I'm gonna be able to get all that done by tomorrow to be in time for the museum show. Maybe if I took the day off I could do it...but I can't take the day off... oh well....

[Trace]

Work on it there?

[artoodeeto]

well, hey, I suppose if I can get the spraying parts out of the way and just do brush painting, I probably could. I'll ask 'em, they might like to have an "in-process" thing going :) Thanks for the idea!

[Trace]

Ask them if I can bring my Book of Knowledge while you're at it. It's under construction and I probably could finish it in the 3 days...

[artoodeeto]

Amazing...the progress I've made since December 17, 2009, when I first heard about the Exploratorium show that got me kicked into overdrive on this project:

Taken December 7, 2009:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/09--12-07DSC_0050.jpg

Taken this morning, February 9, 2010:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-09DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-09DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-09DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-09DSC_0005.jpg

It's still just the primer coat on, I'm hoping to do some airbrushing of the main coat tonight, despite the rain...

[x88x]

Very nice. Oh..do the fans still work?

[artoodeeto]

they should, yeah. wait, which fans? LOL...actually, doesn't matter, they'll all work, internal functional ones as well as the cosmetic ones on the top back.

I also finally got around to turning my CPU heatsink around so its fan blows hot air away from the PSU instead of right into it, so we'll see if that works...and MAN that sucker was on there tight. the clippy thingy that you're supposed to be able to use to pry off one end was jammed pretty good on one of the m/b heatsinks, so one flathead screwdriver and a loud CRACK later, I got it off. Freaked out though at the noise, thought I'd snapped off one of the plastic clips, but all was well.

[x88x]

Nice, just make sure that the PSU fan and the CPU fan aren't pulling in opposite directions. I was talking about the cosmetic fans, it looked like the paint may have sealed them shut. Good to know they still work. :D

[artoodeeto]

After yet another frenetic evening spent painting, I've gotten some of the airbrushing done. I airbrushed Model Master "Italian Dark Brown" over the red-brown primer, and didn't try to make it an even coat. I did this on purpose to allow the reddish undercoat to show through a bit.
I then airbrushed a thin flat black color for the dark streaks. What's left to do is airbrush the lighter colors - grays, maybe a little yellow, and then very light tan or sand. I may also use artist chalk powder for additional fading. Then it'll be on to some detail work with a brush, and then the outside is done. But for now, it's all packed up in the back of my truck so I can leave after work today and head out for the Rods 'n Mods show at the Exploratrium tomorrow...

My indoor setup. Had to do the painting at night, and the lighting was WAY better inside. Not to mention it was supposed to rain last night.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-09DSC_0006.jpg

After I got the initial brown coat on there.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-09DSC_0007.jpg

And after I finished with the black. I did do the base too (not pictured) although I'll need to pull the treads off later to paint them.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0006.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0007.jpg

And this is what it looks like after the tape was removed from the cockpit and I painted the window frames up there:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0008.jpg

My jam-packed truck interior (Dodge Dakota, so not overly huge):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0010.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0011.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0012.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0013.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-10DSC_0014.jpg

This is a rare time that I wish I had an SUV....oh well. It fits. Barely. :P

[Loki]

A-MA-ZING!! Great to see som paint on that!!!

[x88x]

Very nice. The tan really brings it together. Good luck at Rods 'n Mods.

[artoodeeto]

My setup at Rods 'n Mods at the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, 2/11/10 through 2/13/10:

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-11DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-11DSC_0021.jpg

Me and my parents, I think I was showing them all the removable roof panels:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-13DSC_0045.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-13DSC_0057.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-13DSC_0056.jpg

And finally, a bunch of our cases were shown on CNET, I didn't expect that sort of publicity!
http://news.cnet.com/2300-10797_3-10002440.html?tag=mncol
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-13SandcrawlercaseonCNET.jpg

[Loki]

:bowdown::bowdown: How does it feel to have your case in such a showdown?
Congratulations on your finished mod!!! Can I ask for some photos showing the internal ilumination?

+rep too!!

[artoodeeto]

:bowdown::bowdown: How does it feel to have your case in such a showdown?
Congratulations on your finished mod!!! Can I ask for some photos showing the internal ilumination?

+rep too!!

Thanks!! It's actually not done yet - it was finished enough to show, but I still need to finish painting the outside, then build and paint the inside, then build a desert landscape base with some jawas.

I'm also debating adding water cooling, and servo motors to open the front loading door and all the flaps. Anyone have any advice on servos? I've never used them before. I did find this:
http://robokitsworld.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=16&zenid=16f61snole61gm2lg7a7jcvst4
which looks promising as far as running them off a single USB port. But as far as motors themselves, what should I look for? And how would I hook them up to the doors so that a command sent to the USB controller would open all the doors? There's 12 total I think, 11 of them can swing 180 deg. from their closed position. The other one, the front loading door, is probably more like 90 degrees.

[blueonblack]

It's actually not done yet - it was finished enough to show, but I still need to finish painting the outside, then build and paint the inside, then build a desert landscape base with some jawas.

I'm also debating adding water cooling, and servo motors ...


Sounds like it will be finished enough to show for next year's Rods & Mods also. :)

I'm kidding, I know these things take a long time and the last thing most of us want to do is rush through them. No reason to hurry something that's coming along as nicely as this.

[artoodeeto]

Sounds like it will be finished enough to show for next year's Rods & Mods also. :)

I'm kidding, I know these things take a long time and the last thing most of us want to do is rush through them. No reason to hurry something that's coming along as nicely as this.

Indeed :D Now I'm thinking about sticking some DC motors in there to run conveyor belts and to spin those two big gray pipes around (visible through the upper side flaps). Kinda giving up on the idea of servos, at least for the opening flaps: cheapest servo I've found is $15, and I'd need 12. I may still do one on the front loading door, we'll see.

[billygoat333]

maybe find some used cd drives for cheap? those have servos in them :D

[Loki]

I think old CD drives have stepper motors, not servos..

[artoodeeto]

the outer paint job is very nearly done now. I'm learning a huge amount from this paint job, I've never really been able to weather anything particularly well, and I'm learning things like painting a dark color under a lighter one to subtly darken the light color, and I'm learning that painting in a lot of layers of various colors and shades can create a much more interesting paint job. It'll be a couple days before I have time to finish it, but here's what I accomplished this weekend:

Dismantled the base so I could paint the treads, and decided to add a couple thick wood dowel pieces (same dowel I used to make the triangular things on the loading door) to the middle of the underside for added support. The middle has been sagging a bit due to the weight of the computer, and luckily where these dowels are located, you can't really see them when the model is upright. In one of the photos, the top of one tank tread set is a bit glossier than the others because I ran out of my gunmetal/flat black mix and had to mix in a large amount of semi-gloss black. It's ok though, that part of the tread really isn't visible, and I later oversprayed a light coat of gray anyway.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-20DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-20DSC_0006.jpg

this is the upper side of the base, sans most of the computer. The wires you see are predominantly under the motherboard, but I decided to spray them all black anyway to match the rest of the inside. I also cut a strip out where the cords go in, so I no longer have to wrestle the plugs through that half-PVC pipe in the back. I can just lay the cords through the open strip, and since I angled the cut, they shouldn't really pop out on their own. This also means I can reattach a SCSI scanner I have, as before the plug was too big to fit through the pipe.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-21DSC_0011.jpg

For the upper section, I masked off several random panels (based loosely on the film model) and painted them black. However, they came out way darker than I meant them to, so I oversprayed a thin coat of the dark brown to fade the panels back a bit. Worked pretty well.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-21DSC_0009.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-21DSC_0013.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-21DSC_0010.jpg

I masked off the exterior bays so I could paint them gray (Model Master Dark Gull Gray with a little Flat White mixed in, then thinned for the airbrush), just like on the film model (although it's not very apparent when watching the movie). I haven't done any detail painting in the bays yet, but I will, then I'll dirty them up. :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-21DSC_0014.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-21DSC_0015.jpg

the paint job as it is now. I used the same gray from the bays to do the exterior streaks. they're a little too contrasting with the brown for my taste, so I may do a very light brown overcoat to fade them. then again, I'm planning on using chalk powder to simulate paint fading, and that might be enough. the rust marks are mostly done, I started with Model Master Go Mango (semi-gloss unfortunately, hence the slight sheen) and mixed in some Model Master Rust to darken it. I'm going to darken the remaining paint even more and add some darker areas to the rust spots, and I'll probably go back to the original Mango color to add a few highlights here and there. Then I need to do the silver paint chips, detail painting/weathering in the bays, then I can do the chalk for paint fading. Then the outside will be done. I hope. :)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-22DSC_0022.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-22DSC_0023.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-22DSC_0024.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-22DSC_0025.jpg

I'm also open to suggestions on this paint job if anyone has any input or ideas for improvements.

[artoodeeto]

Space prohibiting, the psu naked in the assembly bay could provide a nice backdrop to the droids scattered about. It would still look great even behind a thin plastic sheet.

that's a great idea re: psu location, I'll have to see if I can incorporate that somehow. The major limiting factor with ideas like that is the top of the model needs to be completely removeable, and in order to have a minimum number of plugs to unhook before removing the top (currently 2 plugs: fans and lights), all the computer equipement has to be on the base. If I just stuck the PSU (sans outer case) into the main loading bay, I wouldn't be able to physically reach in and hook up the plugs. hmm...I'll have to think on this one...you're givin' me some good ideas! +rep for that! :P
One thought that would require slight internal shuffling around, but also the least shuffling - if you look at the last photo in my post above, there's that large rearmost opening panel. I could detach the "floor" from the room inside that panel, move the hard drive over to the other side of the base (it's currently under that floor), and then mount the uncased PSU on a raised platform that would replace the rooms floor. That would give me the base of the rear engine room and it would be functional. Then I could add maybe a screen-mesh floor above it to look like grating, and build the rest of the room interior on that.

[billygoat333]

I think old CD drives have stepper motors, not servos..

:facepalm: you are right. haha

[artoodeeto]

Got the PSU mostly dismantled (I posted this in the PSU section of the forum too)...but...how do I get the plug and main switch detached from the metal case? Am I right in thinking that I need to desolder them from their wires and pull them out from the outside, or is there some trick I'm missing that would allow me to detach the plastic collars from the outsides of each and pull the remaining parts through to the inside of the PSU?
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-23DSC_0002.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-23DSC_0001.jpg

and double ARG! It seems that some of the wires really are hardwired, which means without snipping cables, I can't remove the extra 8-pin PCI-E cord (my GTX 285 uses two modular 6-pin cords). although I suppose I could try desoldering them...maybe I'll do that. I don't want to permanently damage it, I doubt I'll ever need that cord, but I always think what if....
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-23DSC_0004.jpg

It's only still in the case because of the plug and main switch; all the screws holding it in are removed...
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-23DSC_0003.jpg

[artoodeeto]

My PSU warranty is SO void now LOL...but actually it was probably expired anyway.
I got it dismantled. I ended up snipping a short length of wire (my solder gun wouldn't melt whatever solder they used) that attached the power switch to the main power plug so I could pull the switch and plug out of the case, but the other wires were just clipped onto the PCB. It took some work to get them off, but I prevailed.
Now I gotta solder longer wires to the switch and power plug so I can locate them wherever I need to, and I need to do some internal redesign in my case to accomodate the changes.... fun!

I *might* be getting a water cooling setup, so my plan of attack as far as figuring out where to put everything is this:
The PSU formerly resided at the rear left corner of the base. It will now move to the rear right corner to be under the floor of the engine room, and will be visible via a screenmesh covered hole in the floor. My hard drive (SSD, so it's only 2.5") is currently where the PSU will go, and I will move it maybe under the motherboard, or up toward the front of the base somewhere. That leaves the left rear corner totally empty, and since a 140mm PSU used to sit there, it should have enough room for a pump and reservoir (hopefully at least the pump, I know a reservoir isn't critical for a WC loop). I'll mount the radiator above the motherboard, so it's sticking up into the fan chamber and will replace the fans in there now. But, it'll be attached to the base so I can still lift off the top. Haven't figured out yet how to make an armature (sp?) to hold the rad up there, a lot will depend on its size, screw hole locations, etc.
It's silly...for a case this large, there's not much interior space, mostly cuz I decided to build an interior of the model. But I'm hoping this will be the final redesign. It better be LOL...
Also, I was thinking about getting a couple of mini (3" diam. or so) plasma balls that hook up via USB, and incorporating them into the upper engine room machinery, one on each side of the model. I think it'll look totally awesome, but it may also look too high-tech for this vehicle, which is supposed to be old and beat up. Anyone have any thoughts on this? It could be the Jawas found a wrecked spaceship and snagged its power generator...:whistler:

[SXRguyinMA]

you need to de-solder the wires from the switch, I did it when I modded the PSU in rockin case. also, I just snipped the un-needed wires about 4" up and heatshrinked the ends. That way they wont short out and you can strip and re-solder the wires together if you ever need to :up:

take a picture of the wires on the switch before you remove them so you'll know how they go back together

[artoodeeto]

I think what I'll do on the unneeded PCI-E cable is snip the various wires at slightly different lengths, that way they'll only (easily) fit back together one way. and yeah, I'll definitely at least tape off the ends with electrical tape, and zip-tie them so they don't go anywhere.
As for the switch...yep, got a picture, thanks :) luckily there's only two wires to worry about, and it wasn't too hard to remember. I have a dual-temp soldering gun from radio shack (not the best on the face of the earth, but it works), I think its high temp is about 1100 degrees, and not even that was enough to melt the solder on the switch. I left it on the soldered wire for at least 10-15 seconds, although I suppose I could try longer.
I'd prefer just to put in entirely new wire on the switch, but I'll probably have to solder in new wire onto the existing. Should work fine, I'm not anticipating any problems. And I figure if it doesn't I can run over to Fry's and get a new switch.

[SXRguyinMA]

well if its only 2 wires then its easy. mine had 4, two went to the board and 2 to a rather large capcitor

[artoodeeto]

ooh, I see. yeah, I just had one wire going from the switch to the board, and another going from the plug to the board. pretty simple. back in the old AT case days, probably 1997 or 1998, I moved my stuff to a new case, didn't see the sticker on the side of the PSU telling me how to hook it up to the power switch on the case (no m/b pass-through back then), and I hooked it up wrong. Killed the circuit breaker in the apartment...twice...before I figured it out LOL. Also nearly fused the connectors together. Amazingly enough, when I unhooked it and then did it right, everything was fine!

[artoodeeto]

Don't have any pics yet, but I haven't been totally idle this week. I just this morning figured out the best way to mount the PSU's PCB board, fan and daughterboard. If you look in some of the prior pics, there's a large opening door on the right rear, and a boxy 2-level room inside. I'm going to either cut a hole in its lower floor or remove the floor entirely, and the PSU PCB will go on the base under there. It'll stick up slightly above the original level of the floor, hence the need to cut a hole or remove it depending on how much area the PCB covers. But this way it'll be visible as a machinery-laden floor of the engine room. I'll then figure out other large pieces of "machinery" and such to add to the room itself. I'm going to mount the main power switch from the back of the original PSU down there too, so I can easily reach it without removing the top of the case. I mounted the original 140mm fan on the part of the original case of the PSU that it was attached to before; this consists of 2 sides of the original case. The fan is mounted vertically, with the adjacent side at the bottom bolted to the base of the computer. Doesn't really take up any more room than the fan by itself, and the fan should approximately line up with a hole I previously cut in the wall of that engine room. The power plug will go wherever it fits best. I'll need to clip the 28 cables on the modular cable connectors and then solder in extensions. I will mount it under the raised motherboard so the PCI-E power cables can be hidden under the board. They'll come out from under the front of the board and go to the video card. The old location of the PSU was too far away to do that; those cables and the aux power cable for the CPU had to run across the top of the board. By moving the modular connectors under the MB, I'm hoping to clean it up a little more.

[artoodeeto]

power supply is done pending plug-in to make sure it still works right. I was all set to do it last night, but ran out of energy :) I'll probably hook the computer up to it tonight, turn it on, and make sure the PSU doesn't get too hot. I seriously doubt it will, but my case, as someone pointed out, is a bit of a fire waiting to happen. So without further ado, the pics (and yes, the wires look a bit messy. Nearly all of them will be under the motherboard when I put it back on, but I will probably at least make an attempt to straighten them up).

First off, the rear engine room whose floor I will be cutting a hole into so you can see the PSU that is now under it. you can see the 140mm fan through the existing hole...and I need to paint that sticker black:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-26DSC_0006.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-26DSC_0005.jpg

And shots of the PSU (thermaltake toughpower 650W, had it for several years now):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-26DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-26DSC_0002.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0009.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0010.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0011.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0012.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0013.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0014.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0015.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0016.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0017.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0018.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0019.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--02-28DSC_0020.jpg

I mounted the main power switch in a spot that should be relatively hidden yet still accessible I hope, through the hole in the floor. The idea is that I can flip the switch without having to pull off the top of the case. I'm not too worried if it isn't reachable, I won't be any worse off than before. And I mounted the modular plug board in a spot where the PCI-E cables can now run under the MB and still reach the video card, instead of running over the top of the MB like before. I'll mount the SSD HD under the motherboard toward the front of the case; previously it was where the PSU now sits.

[artoodeeto]

bunch of rare, mostly on-set photos from Star Wars...I had to post this one, I laughed pretty hard at the caption:
http://www.totalfilm.com/features/30-awesome-rare-star-wars-photos/rare-star-wars-photo-23#content

EDIT -- it works! not that I had any serious doubts, but I've never taken apart a PSU before, so there's always that nagging "what if it explodes when I plug it back in" thought in the back of my mind...LOL Anyway, I'm typing from my own computer for the first time in what seems like a month and a half.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-02DSC_0001.jpg

the motherboard is kind of sitting right on top of the modular power cords. Dangit...they were too tall by a millimeter or too :rolleyes: oh well. I probably ought to make the motherboard riser a little taller. but not tonight.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-02DSC_0002.jpg

The front end. A hint of the wiring hell that lies beneath the motherboard...
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-02DSC_0003.jpg

It looks like I'll be getting a water cooling setup too, more on that later (ie, when it actually arrives). My next task is to figure out exactly how to add in a large radiator, a reservoir, and a pump...since I didn't design my case for any of that. Still, it'll be a fun challenge and should result in a quieter machine.

Oh yeah, and I ordered and received a bag of powdered walnut shells :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-02DSC_0004.jpg

It's a 10 pound sack, way more than I need. But only $13 :D Helloooo sand. This is the same stuff they used in the Special Edition sandcrawler re-shoot....built a whole little environment on top of the ILM building for it to drive around on. For my purposes, this will be the covering of the base I will build at some point.

[Waynio]

:D congrats on getting the switch to work.
I've had a psu blow up on me before, scared the life out of me, massive unexpected flash & loud bang and a boost of smoke, was kinda sleepy before & the most awake I have ever been after, the psu had a voltage switch on the back and I must have accidentally switched it, as soon as I switched it on BANG!!! for a second I thought I was going to die lol, scary, so have since not dared to mess with my psu's, hope the effect doesn't stay with me forever as I'd like to mod a psu or at least the external wires some time.
The powdered walnut will give a good effect to it, unplanned water cooling should be a bit of a challenge, but as you said it's all part of the fun of modding :):up:.

[artoodeeto]

:D congrats on getting the switch to work.
I've had a psu blow up on me before, scared the life out of me, massive unexpected flash & loud bang and a boost of smoke, was kinda sleepy before & the most awake I have ever been after, the psu had a voltage switch on the back and I must have accidentally switched it, as soon as I switched it on BANG!!! for a second I thought I was going to die lol, scary, so have since not dared to mess with my psu's, hope the effect doesn't stay with me forever as I'd like to mod a psu or at least the external wires some time.
The powdered walnut will give a good effect to it, unplanned water cooling should be a bit of a challenge, but as you said it's all part of the fun of modding :):up:.

dang man. :eek: I'm REAL glad I didn't know that before I modded my PSU, I might not have dared LOL.
Those walnut shells will also come in handy to create a sandy dust on the crawler's horizontal surfaces. I'm hoping that it'll be the final touch that perfects it...we'll see. Hopefully more pics tonight, I want to try and get the paint job finished.

[artoodeeto]

paint job's getting there. this paint effect is actually pretty subtle, the pics didn't come out all that well (night, flash washed everything out, no flash + yellow lights = weird colors), but they'll give you the idea. The initial rusting color was a mix of orange and rust, but mostly orange. It contrasted too much with the brown, so I added rust color around the edges of most of the orangey spots, then swiped with a paper towel to remove most of the rust paint to make the effect more subtle. The glossiness of the orange spots will be gone soon, I'm going to hit the whole thing with a final clear flat coat. Looks a lot better in person than in the photos:

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-04DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-04DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-04DSC_0006.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-04DSC_0007.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-04DSC_0008.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-04DSC_0011.jpg

no flash:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-04DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-04DSC_0009.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-04DSC_0010.jpg

more pics coming this weekend, I'll make sure to take some in daylight, and standing back so you can see the effect from a few feet away, which is where it looks best.

[artoodeeto]

I thought I'd post some pics from the beginning of the build up til my first post here, then a skip ahead to what it looks like right now (as in 5 minutes ago).

These start back in April of 2007...
this is what I started with. the line drawing of the front is out of the star wars guide to vehicles book (I think). the photo is out of the "sculpting a galaxy" book, and it was this photo that got me started on version 3 of the build. You'll notice one of the fronts is wider. The film model is the narrow one. The model had to be a certain width, about 17", to fit the computer parts, and I didn't have space to make it proportionally longer and taller. So basically, except for the cockpit and rear engine pieces, mine is one scale width-wise and a slightly smaller scale height- and lengthwise. It works though. Unless you had the film model right next to it, nobody will notice.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--04-22sideandfrontviews--CORRECT.jpg

I built a posterboard mockup first - I learned on the first 2 models that despite all rational attempts to suss out the proper measurements, there were certain ones that just didn't come out right. doing this in posterboard first allowed me to fix those problems before moving to MDF. Also meant I had ready-made template pieces. And, 2 years later, I used these posterboard pieces as the "skin" glued onto the outside of the MDF pieces.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--05-09mockupfrontright.jpg

starting to make the parts. I used 1/8" MDF for everything but the base; that's 1/4" MDF. I used a utility knife and thin aluminum ruler as a straightedge. Made for some VERY tired arms and fingers. someday I'll have the space and $$ for a proper table saw.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--05-12PICT0001.jpg

I made a cardboard mockup of the space the computer would occupy, so I could figure out how much interior space was leftover and could be used for the inside modelling of the crawler.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--05-16PICT0001.jpg

construction begun! this was the first part to go together.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--05-18PICT0001.jpg

the front section. hinges and superglue are how I acheived the odd angles. It's very slightly skewed, but luckily it's not really noticeable.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--05-20PICT0003.jpg

the empty shell. no window frames yet around the cockpit.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--05-20PICT0006.jpg

added the upper floor and the window frames (they're matchsticks...)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--06-03PICT0004.jpg

the upper sections of the 2nd and 3rd models, not long before I tossed the 2nd one. You can see why I wanted to rebuild it...
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--07-28PICT0001.jpg

The original design of the fan chamber. Air was supposed to come up through the white pipes, into the gray ones and into the chamber. I tried zip-tying 80mm fans blades to the gray pipes to make them spin…didn’t work. Anyway, the idea behind the design was to have a solid roof. Unfortunately, airflow wasn’t all that great, so I ended up going with the now-current screen mesh covered holes in the roof.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/07--06-10PICT0005.jpg

originally, I was just rebuilding the upper section, so in this photo the lower part is leftover from the 2nd crawler. It wasn’t til June 2009 that I scrapped that portion and rebuilt it, mainly because the old treads were just a tad too large, and they just didn’t look right.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/08--08-05PICT0003.jpg

My first attempt at cockpit lights. These were leftover LEDs. I had no idea what I was doing (read, no concept of resistors) and I fried these poor little lights. One even exploded…
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/08--08-05PICT0009.jpg

The results of my 2nd attempt at the lighting. Definitely better. Still not ideal, in October 2009 a different section blew out, and I rewired (see one of my initial posts) all of them with resistors, etc etc, and attempt #3 was much better.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/08--08-07PICT0001.jpg

the original wiring was crazy – I had each individual light in parallel, with a fan speed controller at the beginning of the whole circuit acting as a resistor. I now have strands of 6 lights + resistor in series.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/08--08-08PICT0001.jpg

looked cool at night though. The blue light was from a fan that’s since been painted over.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/08--08-08PICT0011night.jpg

A shot of the cockpit before I glued on the ceiling. R2D2 is leftover from an X-wing model kit, and along with the metal motherboard tray, is the only thing that’s been on all 3 models. The chairs are paper. The control panel is a printout of a Cessna control console. I skimped on detail here because you really can’t see much from outside. R2 is glued into a paper collar, which has tabs that are glued to the floor. This ensures that he will never fall over, since I’d have to tear off the ceiling to fix him.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--05-12DSC_0007.jpg

I tore my hair out for a long time trying to figure out a mechanism to keep the main loading door shut, but with the mechanism invisible at least from outside. It wasn’t til, in July 2009, I added interior walls and ceiling to the main bay, and covered the resulting gaps between inner and outer walls with posterboard, that I hit upon the idea of gluing magnets on the backside of the posterboard in the gap, and recessing flat pieces of metal in the door. Now the inside of the door is covered too, so the metal’s not visible either, and it works perfectly!
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--05-13DSC_0018.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--05-14DSC_0022.jpg

rebuilding the lower section took a couple months. I scrapped the original base and most of the treads. I kept the washers (masquerading as wheels) and the vinyl floor matting that I used originally for the tread. The vinyl is now an interior tread, and I hand-cut almost 600 individual treads out of styrene sheet. The worst of it was that I initially used a silicone-based superglue to glue the styrene to the vinyl…and discovered AFTER finishing all 570+ that the glue didn’t really bond the two. So I had to pop all of them off, scrape off the glue from the vinyl, and ended up using a 3M general trim automotive adhesive. Handy stuff, that. Also used it when I glued the posterboard pieces on the MDF.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--06-20DSC_0015.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--06-27DSC_0017.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--06-28DSC_0020.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--06-30DSC_0023.jpg

These are the two bays with retractable ramps between the tank treads. On the first 2 models, these were nothing more than squares with holes in them. On this one, I still didn’t get it quite right (lack of decent reference material until long after I made them), but they’re a lot better.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--07-07DSC_0164.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--07-07DSC_0163.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--07-08DSC_0169.jpg

The first posterboard panel to be glued on. I used a ruler and pencil to draw the panel lines, then my trusty metal ruler and an x-acto knife to slice up the panels. As I sliced, I put down a low-tack tape to hold the pieces together. I then sprayed adhesive on the back, slapped it onto the model, then pulled off the tape. Worked really well, although the panels with the opening cutaways were a major pain.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--09-19DSC_0049.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--09-20DSC_0053.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--09-20DSC_0054.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/09--09-21DSC_0055.jpg

That last photo above was taken September 21, 2009. Here’s what the top portion looks like right now, March 6, 2010:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-06DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-06DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-06DSC_0002.jpg

And the lower portion (it’s in my extra room next to my desk so I can use it; the top is in the living room since I’m working on it).
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-06DSC_0005.jpg

[x88x]

Great work on the paintjob and PSU! I love the look of the PSU spread out like that. :D

[billygoat333]

man this thing has come a long way. loving it.

[artoodeeto]

THE OUTSIDE IS DONE!!!!!! 3 years in the making and I finally finished the darn thing. I'll move on to the inside soon, but for now, I'm gonna enjoy the way it looks. I *might* do another, much heavier, dusting of pastel powder - the initial pics below are what it looked like before I sprayed with a flat coat to seal the powder, and the flat coat really took away a lot of the pigment. It still looks somewhat wind-scoured, but it's more subtle. Maybe that's better...let me know your opinions (keep in mind this thing is supposed to be enormous).
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0006.jpg

this shot is looking up under the rear of the top section. I had started cutting out the floor of the engine room (lying on the floor on my back...sawdust in the face, etc etc) so the power supply would be visible.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0008.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0009.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0012.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0010.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0013.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0015.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-07DSC_0016.jpg

And now the pics from today, after I sprayed the flat coat:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0017.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0018.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0019.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0020.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0021.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0023.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0024.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0026.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08DSC_0027.jpg

Any advice or thoughts on the additional super-heavy pigment coat (which becomes much more transparent after the flat coat) are appreciated!

[x88x]

Wow, that last coat really made a huge difference. You're right though, the sealer did kind of dull the look...though I think that might be a good thing in this case. The thing is supposed to be ancient, after all.

The stripped PSU looks sweet in there. I had a thought though; instead of just painting the label on that fan black, maybe replace it with the logo from some Star Wars corporation?

Also, as a side note, if that capacitor were to scale.....I WANT ONE! :twisted:

[artoodeeto]

The stripped PSU looks sweet in there. I had a thought though; instead of just painting the label on that fan black, maybe replace it with the logo from some Star Wars corporation?

Also, as a side note, if that capacitor were to scale.....I WANT ONE! :twisted:

LOL! yeah that would be one heck of a capacitor, wouldn't it! I like the fan label idea....I'll have to figure out if in any of the stuff out there, there's info on what company was supposed to have built the sandcrawler. And if I can't find anything, maybe I'll come up with a "Tatooine Mining Corporation" logo...TMC. or something.

And also, I couldn't believe how much of a difference the pastel made. it took the model from "got dirty on the way out of the factory yesterday" to "trundling around in the desert for the better part of a century."

[msmrx57]

AWESOME!!!! :banana: The flat coat really helped the aged look.

[artoodeeto]

thanks! yeah, it's really the powder pastel that gave it the aged look. the flat coat dialed the whiteness back a bit (ok, a lot) but I think I like it that way.

Courtesy of www.outoftheboxmods.com and Danger Den, I have a little package on the way, I think it was sent today.... :D :D :D :D :D

gutting part of the interior to make room for the massive 15" long blackice gtx360 rad and that sweet looking reservoir is the next step. I already know where it's all going...just wait. All I'll say is it'll be at least partially visible and part of the model's interior, and of course it's gonna look real cool.

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-08WatercoolingfromRichardSur.jpg

[Trace]

Is that the vomit care package???

[artoodeeto]

LOL, I ain't knockin it. the hoses are a little green....but they'll either end up painted, or not visible. No worries. The fans will be painted too. As will the pump. Dunno about the reservoir yet, depends on how it ends up fitting inside and how visible it is.

[Trace]

Hey whatever works!

[x88x]

Hmmm, what ever will you do with that res... :twisted:

[DarthBeavis]

you could ask Danger Den so send you a different color (white, black, silver, etc) tubing in 3/8" 5/8" then just give me the tubing back when you see me next. If you want to come to PDXLAN 16 I bet Danger Den will give you a seat or two at their table!

[artoodeeto]

oooh...that's tempting. I'll have to see if I can afford the gas....that's a looong drive from LA. wire flex tubing is a good idea too - is that yet another DD item, or is that a home depot item? although, I can run the tubes through pieces of PVC cut to fit just the visible area, then the tubing can do all its bending in the hidden areas. I'll have to think on this one, probably take a look at the different options to figure out what'll look best.

[x88x]

Or copper tubing in the visible areas. :D

[mofo]

Im not sure if this is what you mean, but if it is its genius!

you're gonna slide pvc joints over the tubing and install them with cut aways
allowing the fluid to be seen yet blending into the interior nicely.

I suggest leds backlighting the cut aways to illuminate the fluid.

[p0Pe]

dude this is looking amazing:D George lucas would have been proud!

[artoodeeto]

Or copper tubing in the visible areas. :D

I'd thought of that LOL - my only hesitation with it is that I don't have anything other than a hacksaw that can cut copper, so my feeling is that it'd be too labor intensive, especially when I'd just be painting it and it wouldn't look much different than PVC.


Im not sure if this is what you mean, but if it is its genius!

you're gonna slide pvc joints over the tubing and install them with cut aways
allowing the fluid to be seen yet blending into the interior nicely.

I suggest leds backlighting the cut aways to illuminate the fluid.

man...I'd love to say yes, that's exactly what I meant. What I meant was that the tubing would run inside PVC pipe cut to fit the area that's visible when the side flaps of the crawler are open. In those areas, the pipes would fully encase the tubing. The bare tubing would come out of the pipes in between walls into non-visible areas, where it could bend and go to wherever it needs to go.
I hadn't originally intended to leave the fluid visible or lit...technologically I think would look too advanced for an ancient, beat up sandcrawler. But maybe not...I agree it would look awesome, I'll have to think on that one...


dude this is looking amazing:D George lucas would have been proud!

heheheheee, thanks! Now if only I could, with dignity, walk over to the new Lucasfilm buildings across the street from the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and say hey guys, so I got this really cool thing I been buildin'...George might like it...
yeah...somehow I think I'd end up looking like a weirdo LOL.

[artoodeeto]

k, some of the water cooling setup is here, specifically the items from Outoftheboxmods.com

Opened the box, and amongst copius amounts of packing peanuts was this behemoth:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-15DSC_0002.jpg

And these two little mystery mummies:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-15DSC_0003.jpg

This one was a little more obvious - the pump:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-15DSC_0004.jpg

nice looking Danger Den waterblock, socket AM2:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-16DSC_0006.jpg

Danger Den DDC pump with clear acrylic top. I'd originally planned on painting the whole pump, but that clear top looks nice...so I may detach it, paint the pump itself, and stick the clear top back on:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-16DSC_0008.jpg

This is one SWEET reservoir, custom made by someone on Xtreme systems (not sure who). It even has a cold cathode, presumably UV from its black color, to illuminate the bluish spiral inside. :D Also has 2 plastic mounting clips.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-16DSC_0010.jpg

whoa that's...GREEN. probably will make the tubing not visible, much of it will run in areas that can't be seen from the outside, and the few bits that can be seen I'll probably cover with PVC pipe to make it look more like pipes inside the crawler. I also don't expect to use all of it - the components will all end up being located in fairly close proximity to each other.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-16DSC_0011.jpg

oh man....this rad's HUGE. normally I wouldn't mind, but I'm a little worried about fitting it into the model along with the above reservoir...
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-16DSC_0012.jpg

I was told it'd need some cleaning/vacuuming/irradiation with gamma rays....they weren't kidding...time to bust out the air compressor and clean this puppy.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-16DSC_0013.jpg

Unfortunately I can't set all this up just yet - Danger Den is going to be sending me some more goodies; the only totally necessary bit will be mounting screws for the cpu waterblock. But, they're sending a few other things that'll be incorporated into the loop, so there's not much point in leak testing yet. More pics soon...

[x88x]

Heheh, you might be surprised how quickly tubing adds up...I have ~10-12 feet in Zeus...that really came as a surprise once I started actually fitting it.

Nice score; lots of shiny. :D

I would not recommend using an air compressor on the rad; I would be concerned that the high air pressure would damage the fins. To clean off my rads, I use a small brush attachment for my vacuum. In absence of that, a small brush or cloth to loosen the dust and just a normal vacuum hose should work fine and not risk any damage to the unit.

[artoodeeto]

Heheh, you might be surprised how quickly tubing adds up...I have ~10-12 feet in Zeus...that really came as a surprise once I started actually fitting it.

Nice score; lots of shiny. :D

I would not recommend using an air compressor on the rad; I would be concerned that the high air pressure would damage the fins. To clean off my rads, I use a small brush attachment for my vacuum. In absence of that, a small brush or cloth to loosen the dust and just a normal vacuum hose should work fine and not risk any damage to the unit.

yeah...hehehee....you could be right on the tubing. it'll be interesting to see at any rate. as for not using the compressor, those are good thoughts. I've used it on heatsinks before with no damage to them - it's not a real high-pressure compressor. it's a little Badger compressor designed for airbrush use. But I can just as easily use the vacuum :)

[artoodeeto]

If you want to come to PDXLAN 16 I bet Danger Den will give you a seat or two at their table!

emailed danger den about it...but then had to scratch the idea as my girlfriend just found out she got accepted to a month-long summer opera program...in Italy! woo hoo! so now we're going to Italy this summer.... :D I won't be there whole time, but at best I'll be coming back a couple days before the LAN, and I ain't crazy enough to try and drive 1,000 miles a few days after coming back from Europe. :P

On that radiatior, the air compressor ended up working fine, got most of the dust off. I'll probably hit with the vacuum to try and get the rest. Next step is to mount it. it's going to have to go over the motherboard - not the ideal spot, but I built the internal parts of the crawler so close over the computer parts that I can't raise the motherboard up without it hitting stuff. The radiator's so big it won't fit anywhere else. i'm envisioning bent metal bars, sort of an upside down U shape, going up and over the motherboard, with the rad/fans sitting on top of that, and warm air venting out the holes in the roof. I plan on tackling it by making cardboard mockups first to ensure I get the angles right, then making the pieces out of aluminum.

actually...new thought....if I hinged the bars and left the tubing long enough, I could lift the rad out of the way without having to drain it and unhook it when, say, I want to stick an extra card in there or change the RAM...yeah. I'll do that.

[Waynio]

My favourite part of this is the incredibly detailed engine area, but the rest looks like it fits like a glove, the exterior is looking very awesome now :) :up:.

I'd like to go to italy some time in my life, should be a good trip have a gooden m8 :).
1,00 miles is a crazily long drive though, america is so huge, must be a tad strange having to get a plane or an extremely long drive to another state yet it's in the same country/language, well it'd be strange to me anyway lol, uk is so compact & easy to get to anywhere in a decent time :).

I regrettably passed up on the chance of an expenses paid trip for me & my air cube & other uk modders to campus party europe in spain madrid, was very surprised by the invite & not ready for it, not been out of the uk in 17 years & not even been out of manchester in quite a while, I'm just not a very outgoing person, part of the reason I started making my own cases so chickened out of going along :(, I already know I'll regret it when I hear of how good it was.
Going to be getting on a college course soon though so that'll get me used to socialising again, got a touch of agoraphobia at the moment :redface:.

[artoodeeto]

So I worked on it a little this weekend (spent the weekend mostly being lazy). First had to put it "up on blocks" as it were, since the outside is done and I can't flip it upside down anymore. First order of business for water cooling prep was to pull out the cooling fans from the top portion of the model. I pulled the roof panels off so I could get to all the screws holding the fans in place. I tell you guys, the most valuable lesson I've learned with this is NEVER think "Oh I'm never gonna pull THAT out again." I've had to eat my words on that one so many times on this build, it's kinda stopped being funny. The fans were a pain in the butt to pull out.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-19DSC_0001.jpg

this shot's looking up from the floor into the interior. If you look at the two cooling fans in the middle of the photo, and from the center of the bottom one, look right, you'll see the back end of a large red LED that illuminates the rear engine room. I'm 99% sure I'm gonna have to move that light (gosh @!#$@#@$@#$) to make room for the radiator mount.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-19DSC_0002.jpg

Looking down from the top, after fan removal. Incidentally, those gray pipes are coming out, and will be replaced with a couple of Danger Den reservoirs. the reservoirs will serve a similar visual function as the pipes, and are slightly narrower diameter, but otherwise about the same size. But, they'll also serve a vital computer function, and I like that I'm able to integrate these, the pump, probably parts of the radiator, and the power supply into the details of the model as well as being working computer parts. :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-20DSC_0003.jpg

there was a fan here too, blowing on the video card. won't need it once the WC loop is set up:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-20DSC_0004.jpg

The radiator mount (with the Blackice 360 rad from Outoftheboxmods.com ). nothing is screwed down yet, I have some calculating I need to do to figure out exactly where it'll fit before I screw it down. The good news is it looks like I bent the aluminum bars at nearly exactly the lengths I needed to - they're just a tiny bit too tall, but I think I can bend the bottom tabs slightly more to shorten them, really just a 16th of an inch or so.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-21DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-21DSC_0006.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-21DSC_0007.jpg

I'd been going to make the mount shape more of a trapezoid, but when it came time to bend the bars (by hand, using a vise to hold one end....I tried pliers but didn't have enough leverage), I realized why make the shape more complicated than it needs to be? :)

[x88x]

the most valuable lesson I've learned with this is NEVER think "Oh I'm never gonna pull THAT out again." I've had to eat my words on that one so many times on this build, it's kinda stopped being funny.

Heheh, I know the feeling. That was basically the story of my life any time I tried to do any work on mightyMite. If there's one thing I learned from that, it's to never expect something to always be a certain way....because odds are you're gonna want/need to change something eventually.

[artoodeeto]

Heheh, I know the feeling. That was basically the story of my life any time I tried to do any work on mightyMite. If there's one thing I learned from that, it's to never expect something to always be a certain way....because odds are you're gonna want/need to change something eventually.

Exactly. I still need to cut out some stuff from inside the top of the case to make enough space for the radiator to fit, in addition to moving that LED out of the way. That's why I didn't make a ton of progress this weekend - it's gonna be a PITB rearranging things AGAIN in there, and I just didn't feel like tackling it. Conversely, I REALLY want it done. 'twil be interesting to see how long it takes that feeling to win out over the procrastination feeling. I'm guessing maybe tonight for more progress...

[Waynio]

:) Excellent, like the radiator mount, simple fix but definately looking good :up:.

[artoodeeto]

:) Excellent, like the radiator mount, simple fix but definately looking good :up:.

Thanks - yeah, definitely a simple solution. It has to be, since I have the limitation of trying to work something into the space available rather than designing the case around the stuff that needs to be inside. To that end, I ordered 3 of these, the 1600rpm version:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=408&products_id=27032&zenid=a768c49918808095c35f3db1f2f1dc6f
I realized that the standard 2.5cm thick fans that outoftheboxmods.com sent me weren't going to work, they made the radiator too thick for one of the roof pieces to fit properly (it has a portion that's indented), I wouldn't be able to easily grab the internal carrying handle, and the reservoirs may not have fit very well. So these new fans are only 1.2cm thick, which should make things a lot easier. Once the WC loop is together, obviously the CPU fan won't be in there anymore, and I plan on retaining the speed controller I already have installed. It'll run the 3 rad fans, and while a 1600rpm fan isn't that loud, I'll be able to make the things silent when I want. of course, the system as a whole won't be totally silent, there's the 2 Asus fans on the outside of the case and the PSU fan, all of which make a little noise. But it should be quieter than it is now.
Now I'm off to start figuring out what I need to cut out of the top's interior to make room for this beast...more pics later today I hope.

[artoodeeto]

so over on pdxlan, Boddaker just informed me that my crawler computer case is no longer the only one in the world. I rather liked it's uniqueness, but apparently a guy over in Hungary just built one of his own:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=182872
looks pretty good - there's definitely some aspects that if I did mine again, I'd imitate what he did.
so now I'll just have to console myself with the fact that mines the only WATERCOOLED sandcrawler in the world LOL...

Just pulled these parts out yesterday. The gray pipes will be replaced with dual Danger Den reservoirs (should be receiving those soon).
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-28DSC_0001.jpg

After I pulled out the fans. Note the wires crossing over the middle. I didn’t absolutely have to rearrange them so they don’t cross, but I decided to just to make sure they don’t interfere functionally or visually with the radiator or fans.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-28DSC_0003.jpg

Test positioning the radiator. For those of you who got to see this in person at the Exploratorium, this sort shows you how big this rad is (or if you know how big the rad is, then how large the crawler is). I decided to position its front flush with the front of the open chamber, and the rear part thus juts a little further into the back.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-28DSC_0005.jpg

After I cut out the last bits that had held the fans in place.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-28DSC_0006.jpg

Test fitting the top onto the base, with the metal bars in place. The weight of the top now rests on the metal bars, they’re just a hair too tall, so I bent their legs out slightly to shorten them vertically. It probably won’t make much difference, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Note the notch in the vertical piece behind the rear metal bar. That was a big pain to cut out with a hand-held x-acto knife with a saw-type blade.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-28DSC_0007.jpg

Because the rear rad screw holes don’t and can’t line up with the rear metal bracket, I may bolt a couple of extenders to the bracket that will then run to the screw holes on the rad. No weight will rest on these extenders, but they’ll secure the rad to the bracket. For the front end, it looks like I may be able to scoot the front metal bracket a little further forward, and if necessary scoot the radiator back slightly, to get the screw holes to line up directly with the bracket.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-29DSC_0008.jpg

The LED that I had to move. It may look like it’s positioned strangely from this angle, but in fact it’s in the ceiling corner of the lower part of the rear engine room.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-29DSC_0010.jpg

Wire re-soldering detail. These were among the wires that I moved so they wouldn’t run over the middle of the case.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-29DSC_0011.jpg

Overall shot of the re-done interior. If you look at the back right section, opposite from that re-located LED, I need to still cut out some of the floor to make room for the pump and hoses that I’m going to mount to the base. I’ll mount it on some kind of stand so it looks like it’s part of the upper section machinery, and hopefully I’ll be able to have a dummy pump on the other side for symmetry purposes. This will be roughly level with the radiator, and the reservoirs will mount to the rad I’m hoping in a way so they’re located similarly to where those gray pipes used to be.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-29DSC_0012.jpg

[artoodeeto]

ok guys, just got an email confirmation that my parts are on the way from Danger Den...so here's what I'm going to be installing from them this weekend:

2 Rad Reservoirs with (simple) custom mounts I designed and they made for me (their normal mounts were likely too big), plus the custom one pictured earlier in this thread
GTX285 waterblock
6 feet of clear tygon tubing (given how close some of these components will be, I think that's more than enough)
danger den logo 120mm fan grille to go on one of the fans on the radiator, to be visible when you look through the vent opening in the top
extra pump - only for looks, but I figure it'll be good to have a backup if the main one dies
some thermal grease and a whole bunch of fittings, both for the new items and to replace some of the green plastic ones I have so they all match

I'm also going to receive the 3 120mm low profile fans in the next day or two from PerformancePCs, so I should be all set to go on water cooling setup this weekend. Needless to say, I'm excited :). Pics as soon as I get this stuff!

[blueonblack]

Woo hoo! Clear the calendar. We'll be looking for pics.

[x88x]

6 feet of clear tygon tubing (given how close some of these components will be, I think that's more than enough)

You'd think so, wouldn't you. ;) I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you at least come close to running out...WC loops use a deceptively large amount of tubing.

[artoodeeto]

You'd think so, wouldn't you. ;) I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you at least come close to running out...WC loops use a deceptively large amount of tubing.

uh oh...now I'm a little worried...I'm expecting to use somewhere around 5 feet of it, although I'm kinda wishing I'd requested 10 feet. oh well, live and learn. I always have the green stuff if I run out of the clear.

[artoodeeto]

WOO HOO!! stuff from Danger Den just arrived:

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-02DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-02DSC_0003.jpg

I love voiding warranties 5 minutes after I get the item...
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-02DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-02DSC_0006.jpg

And the slim fans I ordered from PerformancePCs:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-31DSC_0001.jpg

They're REALLY thin, 1.2cm instead of 2.5cm:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--03-31DSC_0002.jpg

That's it for now...I'm realizing it's going to take all weekend to get this set up...

[artoodeeto]

I posted this over in the PC cases/cooling part of the forum, but then thought it might have a better chance of being seen and answered here:
Does it completely defeat the purpose of 24-hour leak testing to drain the setup after the test so I can detach the waterblocks to make them easier to install on the motherboard/video card? Or is leak testing primarily to make sure the fittings and tubing all..well...fit, and don't leak?
I'm just thinking that it'll be awkward to try and put everything together if it's all connected by various hoses which restrict relative motion.
I consider myself a newbie at this; I once had another watercooling setup, but that was around 6 or 7 years ago, and I don't recall much from it.

[Trace]

I answered it in the other location

[artoodeeto]

Made some progress yesterday, although it doesn't really feel like it. I decided to use the fans pictured above to clamp the aluminum radiator mount to the bottom of the radiator. Works pretty well, and suddenly I don't have to worry about screwholes lining up. I also cut another chunk out of the inside of the top so it'd fit around the radiator. The following photos were taken when I put the top over the radiator and started experimenting with reservoir placement...and so began my troubles.
The mounts that they came with would work for just one, but not mounting both side by side like I wanted. I first tried using 1" or 1.5" pine stakes and a 2" hole saw (the res diameter is 2"). problem was that the hole saw is bigger than the stakes, so the teeth kept catching on the side of the stake and stopping the saw. when it didn't stop the saw, then the wood just split. And luckily it was on the very first cut, before the teeth got dirty, that the saw jumped off the stake and nicked a finger. which then hurt like hell the rest of the day. Earlier in the day I somehow managed to slice another finger as I attempted to spin one of the fan blades to make sure it spun without hitting anything...still not sure exactly what happened there, but the fan thankfully was fine (spoken like a true modder, eh?)

2 bandaids later, I got the bright idea to modify the acrylic mounts the reservoirs came with. I took the top portions of each, stuck them around the outside of each reservoir, and ran 5" screws to connect and tighten them together. I was then going to use 2 hinges, whose holes were miraculously spaced exactly correctly, to mount it to the radiator. Only problem...the mounts were about 1.5 centimeters too tall. And I can't lower the rad any more or it'll hit the video card waterblock. So by this point I was getting rather irritated, and my girlfriend suggested I drill holes through the acrylic lower down, and cut off the parts that stuck up too high. Would have worked if I'd had a drill press. As it was, I shattered 2 of the pieces and got a drill bit stuck in a 3rd - the acrylic melted around it and I didn't pull it out in time.

I finally decided then to work with what I knew best - fiberboard, wood dowel, and a couple hinges. I know it's not the prettiest thing, but it works :) You'll see the bottom part of the new mount in the last picture. It's hard to see, but I used a hinge and existing screws on each end of the reservoirs to screw them to each other, so they won't move relative to each other, and the mount will then keep them on top of the rad. Now all I need to do is mount the pump (visible on the right side of 4th photo; the one on the left side is also a real pump that I'll see if I can make a copy of and use it for looks...and save the real pump for a future project), add the tubes, put the waterblocks on, fill it and leak test it.

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-04DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-04DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-04DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-04DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-04DSC_0006.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-04DSC_0008.jpg

[x88x]

Looks good, I like it. The custom res mounts fit in better with the rest of the case anyways, imo. ;)

[artoodeeto]

Looks good, I like it. The custom res mounts fit in better with the rest of the case anyways, imo. ;)

yeah, I think I agree with you. I keep reminding myself it'll look better once I paint it and take care of all the rough edges and such, but that's still a ways off. Tonight I hope to get the loop running - not much more to do to make that happen!

[artoodeeto]

HUGE thank you to Danger Den and Outoftheboxmods.com for making this (and the last several) post possible!
So I got nearly done with the loop last night. Turns out there was a bit more construction left to do than I thought. Here's what I accomplished:
drilled screwholes in the aluminum radiator support bars for mounting the bars and mounting the pump
painted support bars black
finished reservoir mount and painted it black
mounted reservoirs and pump to radiator
discovered that using a large drill bit on a hole drilled in metal is a great way to deburr the hole
mounted the pump on the wrong side :facepalm: and had to fix it this morning, which is why in the last couple pics the pump is on the other side compared to the first several. Anyone want to take a stab at why it's better for it to be on the other side? :) you might be able to figure it out from previous photos, but I'm not sure the answer is real obvious unless you see it in person.... hint - it doesn't have anything *directly* to do with the PSU that it was right over...but indirectly. (cue maniacal laughter here ;) )

And finally, the results of my labors! Tonight I'll connect the hoses, put the waterblocks on the GPU and CPU (the pics below still show the standard heatsinks I have on 'em), fill and then start leak testing this thing. I'm rather happy with how the radiator/reservoirs look though, it's unique and kinda cool :P

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-06DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-06DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-06DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0006.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0007.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0008.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0009.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0010.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0012.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0013.jpg

side note - the Danger Den logo fan grille won't really be visible until the central removeable roof piece is pulled off. But then it's quite obvious, kind of a nice semi-hidden bit of branding. I'd wanted it to be visible through the main air vent in the roof, but as you can see above the reservoirs completely cover both those mounting spots.

[x88x]

I'm gonna guess the new pump placement made it easier to come down to hit the various blocks?

Looking at it set up now, I had a thought. For a fill point, you could just turn it on end with the end that that pump is on at the bottom, and use the plugged holes at the 'top' of the reservoirs.

Looks great! ..though, I would replace the hinge holding the two res' together with somethings else if I were you... :whistler:

[Waynio]

It looks awesome m8, looks like a new type of snow walker :) sometimes with themed cases the insides look a bit of a nightmare to work with but this is looking great artoo +rep for brilliant insides & outside :).

[artoodeeto]

I'm gonna guess the new pump placement made it easier to come down to hit the various blocks?

Looking at it set up now, I had a thought. For a fill point, you could just turn it on end with the end that that pump is on at the bottom, and use the plugged holes at the 'top' of the reservoirs.

Looks great! ..though, I would replace the hinge holding the two res' together with somethings else if I were you... :whistler:

Nice guess! That was a thought that occurred to me around 1am this morning, before I realized I had to move the pump for a different reason. Still, hose locating will be easier with this pump placement, definitely. what's funny is I knew the reason it had to be on that side a long time ago, then forgot and thought, gee it'd be nice to have it on the side that faces out so you can open the panel and see it...and that thought carried me through til early this morning when I remembered why it had to be on the other side. :) Here's a further hint - take a look at the 5th and 6th photos on page 14...and remember the top part of the case has to go straight up and down when I put it on the base.

As for the hinge...yeah. It was one I pulled out of somewhere else in the case when making room for the rad and res's. I need to get over to the hardware store and find something else. The hinge was all I had in a pinch. And for filling, the res mount is loosely held on with a couple screws, so I can pretty easily pull it loose, stand it up and use those 2 top fill holes on them. :)


It looks awesome m8, looks like a new type of snow walker :) sometimes with themed cases the insides look a bit of a nightmare to work with but this is looking great artoo +rep for brilliant insides & outside :).

Thanks man! I agree, the rad, res's, and mount do rather resemble some kind of freaky insect thing. their placement will make swapping out cards something of a pain, but on the other hand it only blocks the major stuff, which if I were to change it would entail draining the WC loop and going to lots of trouble anyway. So really, it's not that bad. I'll keep telling myself that, maybe I'll start to believe it LOL.

[x88x]

And for filling, the res mount is loosely held on with a couple screws, so I can pretty easily pull it loose, stand it up and use those 2 top fill holes on them. :)

Ah, ok, that makes it a lot more convenient, especially with a case that big. Oooh, you should put the whole res mount on hinges so you can just undo two screws, then tilt both up on a hinged arm. :twisted: On the plus side, it would mean you won't have to hold them in place while you fill the loop (a process that at least for me always takes a lot longer than I expect it to).

[artoodeeto]

Ah, ok, that makes it a lot more convenient, especially with a case that big. Oooh, you should put the whole res mount on hinges so you can just undo two screws, then tilt both up on a hinged arm. :twisted: On the plus side, it would mean you won't have to hold them in place while you fill the loop (a process that at least for me always takes a lot longer than I expect it to).

Now THAT's a good idea :) Something like that had crossed my mind before, but something in the way you phrased it made a visual sorta click in my head. I'll be headed over to the hardware store after work, I know exactly how I'm going to do that. I just hope that once the tubes are on there, they won't get in the way of the hinging mechanism.

[artoodeeto]

Thanks to X88X's suggestion, this is what I did last night:

the basic idea...
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0014.jpg

A further mock-up:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0015.jpg

My new piece of flatbar doesn’t stand a chance! Interesting side note – I discovered that the titanium coated drill bits really DO make a difference when drilling metal. Who knew? Man…wish I had a workbench. The towel is to minimize noise transfer to the apartment below.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0016.jpg

You’ve heard of donut holes? Well, this is the same idea, just aluminum.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0017.jpg

Using a large drill bit to debur the hole works quite well! The metal bar is too thin to countersink, so I only drilled enough to debur.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0018.jpg http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0019.jpg

These little guys will replace the hinges holding the 2 res’s together. Unfortunately I couldn’t get small enough flat braces, so I had to get the corner brace version. I started hacksawing one apart last night, but it was too noisy so I’ll tackle it when I get home tonight.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0020.jpg

Priming the new bars.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-07DSC_0022.jpg

And after a coat of black paint:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0001.jpg

The finished hinging system:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0004.jpg

What’s that you say? Doesn’t look much different than before? Well, how about THIS little trick:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0002.jpg

Now, once I get the tubes on there it won’t lift up quite that far, so I’m going to, at least for the moment, use one of the 20 some-odd 5” long screws I bought and prop this assembly up like a car hood for filling.

Just one final step. I bought some thin foam rubber to put between the pump and metal bars to minimize vibrational noise. I needed about 8 square inches, if that. I bought a square foot of the stuff. So I used a little of the extra. Had to scrape some of my pretty paint job off the bottom of the bars…
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0005.jpg

And then superglued the foam rubber onto the bottoms of each bar, to keep them from scratching up the radiator:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0007.jpg

That’s it for now…tonight’s task list is cut down the corner braces so I can replace the ugly hinges on the res’s, install the waterblocks, install the tubing, fill it all, and leak test…

BTW – the reason I had to move the pump - I have that internal "engine room" whose floor I cut a hole in to show the PSU when the side cutaway flap is open. But with the pump over the PSU, I would have had to cut away the entire lower floor, most of a wall, and the upper floor so I could lower the top of the model down onto the base. On the other side I only have to cut out part of an upper floor to make room for the pump, since there is no lower section. I didn't do a lower room there because the boxed PSU *used* to be on that side, and now that the outside of the model is done the last thing I'm going to do is cut another hole in it, even though I do have space for a matching engine room now.

[TheMainMan]

This is what I originally saw when I looked at the watercooling rack...


http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/TheMainMan79/10--04-07DSC_0005.jpg

...though I do see how it could look like a modified AT-AT too. Love the creativity and it's great to see Star Wars lovingly rendered in a mod!
Keep up the great work!

[x88x]

Hahahaha, nice. :D

Great work on the hinge; glad I could provide inspiration. :D

[artoodeeto]

Last night was once again busy. Let’s get started, shall we?
First up – replacing those pesky hinges holding the res’s together. Remember that corner brace? Here it is, cut down to size, painted black, and screwed onto the reservoir. Almost can’t tell it’s there:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0007-1.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0007-2.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0007-3.jpg

Next up – there’s 3 fans. But I only have one plug on my Zalman fan speed controller. I don’t want to snip the fans’ actual wires, so I’m going to solder 3 connectors together and then to a single plug:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0009.jpg

The patient:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0010.jpg

Let’s get those heatsinks off!
Most of the thermal paste stuck to the heatsink, but I still had to scrape some off.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0012.jpg

Mistakenly thought I had to pull everything apart (didn’t realize the backplate under the CPU had screw threads embedded in it):
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0013.jpg

Added the mounting rods. That little vertical fan came with the motherboard and is specifically intended for use when a waterblock is on the CPU. I used duplicates of that fan on the outside of the case…and now I’m real glad I didn’t alter the original!
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0014.jpg

Never has a library card been more useful! Well, an LA County one at least (the fiction selection at the local library is abysmal)…let’s start scraping off the old thermal paste and smoothing out the new!
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0017.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0019.jpg

And adding the CPU waterblock:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0020.jpg

My GTX285 after cleaning off dust, thermal grease, etc:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0021.jpg

Copper + shiny = :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0022.jpg

Scrape scrape scrape…
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0023.jpg

Nice and smooth! Mostly…
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0024.jpg

The installed waterblocks:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0025.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0026.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0028.jpg

Now it’s time to move on to the tubing! 3/8”ID clear tygon tubing. I started with 6 feet. I think I had maybe 20 inches left over by the time I was done, about what I expected.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0030.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0031.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0032.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0034.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0035.jpg

Oh man…I KNEW this fit was gonna be close, but wowee that’s pushing it! Amazingly the fan above the GPU block DOES spin freely. A millimeter lower and it wouldn’t…
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-08DSC_0039.jpg

What I came up with to prop up the res’s as high as they can go (I will have to pull them off the hinge arm to finish filling them up though, so the hinge idea mostly worked). It’s a 1.25” screw, nut, corner brace, and another 1.25” screw.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-09DSC_0001.jpg

Now for the FUN part:
When I contacted Danger Den about the sponsorship, I told them I’d like a second pump but as it was just for looks, it didn’t need to be functional. When I got the pump, it looked brand new, and was a newer version of the other one I’d gotten from Outoftheboxmods, so I decided to use it. I put the acrylic top on last week, tightened it, and then today started filling the system with coolant. Apparently either I tightened the top too much or Danger Den really did send me a nonfunctioning pump. When I turned on the power….nothing. :eek: I grabbed the other pump, tried to plug it in, and discovered that it had the wrong gender plug attached…I was getting irritated now, not to mention late for work. So I popped that plug off (luckily it wasn’t soldered), and stuck the black and yellow wires into the available molex connector. Voila! A working pump! But…as I’d partially filled the loop, I had to drain it to switch pumps. So, switched the plugs on the ends of the res’s with extra compression fittings, grabbed the extra bit of clear tubing, snipped off a short piece of the green tubing that I didn’t use, ran the clear tubing to the coolant bottle and shoved the nozzle of my air compressor hose into the green tube. After a minute or two I’d drained it enough to switch pumps:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-09DSC_0002.jpg

Now for the second embarrassing part…so these acrylic tops for the pumps have a top opening as well. The one from Outoftheboxmods had been used as a T-line before, so it had 3 compression fittings on it. The one from Danger Den had 2 fittings a plug. I was distracted enough that I didn’t unscrew the plug from the nonfunctional DD pump and so the functioning pump had a hole in the top. When I tilted the res’s back up to resume filling….burble burble SPLASH. Good thing I moved the pump so it wasn’t over the PSU!! The mess was easily mopped up, thankfully didn’t get on the carpet. I screwed the plug into the top, tilted the res’s, and refilled.

It’s mostly full now, full enough to leave it running for leak testing purposes. I’ll finish filling it tonight, hopefully most of the miniscule air bubbles will be in the two res’s by then and not trapped in the tubing.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-09DSC_0003.jpg

The stains on the paper towel are from the top plugs on one of the res’s not being quite tight enough. The system itself isn’t leaking at all now.

Sometime tomorrow I’ll plug the power back into the mainboard, and I’ll have a functioning water cooled sandcrawler. :P

[x88x]

Don't feel too bad, we all do stupid stuff our first time. ;) It's a good thing that coolant missed your carpet though; that stuff leaves nasty stains.

[artoodeeto]

After about 30 hours of leak testing (mainly because I just left it running and didn’t have time before this evening to get back to it) the water cooled sandcrawler is fully functional!
I’m using speedfan to view temps. http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0017.jpgThe GTX285 GPU seems stable at around 50C, which is a good deal cooler than the 70-ish C it used to run at. The CPU…grrr. Seems to be right around 40C, haven’t tried any games yet but the highest it spiked so far is 47C when launching photoshop (subsequent launches of it spiked to 43C). I’m thinking it’s warmer because I have it on the same loop as the GPU, which gets pretty hot. I’m not completely sure what’s what though – I’m assuming Core is the CPU; GPU is the only one definitively labeled.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0008.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0009.jpg

What made it harder than just pulling the paperclip off the PSU m/b plug and hooking all the power plugs back up was that the pump, as you might recall, had the wrong gender plug on it. So I had pulled that plug off and jammed the exposed wires into the only molex connector in the computer, the one I’d been using to power the lights. I didn’t have a pass-through molex connector, and I was going to use an extension plug set and wire the pump into the middle of those wires, but I didn’t really want it drawing current from the same connection used for the lights…they’re dim enough as it is.
Just to complicate things, as you can see in the next couple photos, it’s a hellish wiring mess back there:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0004-edited.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0005.jpg

I ended up using what I think was a PCI-E video card power plug-to-molex adapter, which wasn’t wired quite right but I figured out what was what and soldered the pump’s wires to an extra molex plug accordingly. I then had to lift the radiator assembly up and scoot it over so I could lift the back end of the motherboard up and stick the new power plug for the pump into the modular set of power plugs for the PSU…I’d meant to mount it slightly behind the mobo but it ended up underneath instead. Not really a problem til now, but it wasn’t too hard.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0003.jpg

Amazingly, I used less than 1 bottle of coolant. I figured with two 2” diam x 7” long reservoirs, a triple 120mm fan radiator, two waterblocks and nearly 5 feet of tubing, that would take slightly more than a liter. But nope. Slightly less.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0007.jpg

My dual Danger Den RAD-Reservoirs. I highly recommend these – they’re really nice looking res’s, big, and extremely sturdily built. There’s a few air bubbles kicking around in there, but I can live with them. It’s either that or top them off to the point that coolant is spilling out. I had to use an eyedropper to top off the 2 res’s while holding them vertically with the other hand.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0010.jpg

The view under the rad, looking at the back of the video card.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0011.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0014.jpg

These hoses’ location has me a little nervous about putting the top of the model back on. I think I’ll try and zip-tie the furthest one out to something to rein it in a bit – it looks to me like where it is now, it’ll block the top from going all the way down onto the base.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0015.jpg

Not a lot of clearance under there, but just enough. Those low profile fans go a max of 1600 rpm, and I have them on a speed control knob. Not sure what the low speed is.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-10DSC_0016.jpg

I’m also thinking about sticking a UV cathode in there somewhere – the coolant is the black/blue Feser, which should look neat if I can figure out a spot to mount the cathode…

[x88x]

Looks great. You might want to also secure those PCIe power leads to something, just to make sure they don't flex into the path of the fan.

I'm not sure if it's normal, but I had the same thing happen with my CPU temps; GPU temps dropped 30-40C, but CPU temps went up ~5-10C. I was worried at first, but as you're seeing, the temp delta is nothing compared to air cooling. Yeah, it might idle at 50C, but if the max it ever hits is 57C, I can live with it. :D

[artoodeeto]

Looks great. You might want to also secure those PCIe power leads to something, just to make sure they don't flex into the path of the fan.

I'm not sure if it's normal, but I had the same thing happen with my CPU temps; GPU temps dropped 30-40C, but CPU temps went up ~5-10C. I was worried at first, but as you're seeing, the temp delta is nothing compared to air cooling. Yeah, it might idle at 50C, but if the max it ever hits is 57C, I can live with it. :D

Good idea on the PCI-E cables - I'll figure something out. I just tried running Far Cry 2 with all the detail settings up all the way (although FSAA was only at 2X rather than 8X), and my Core temp didn't really change, while the GPU temp topped out at ~58C. Not bad at all, considering for both that's still a bit cooler than their air-cooled idle temps. :D

[artoodeeto]

Got the top back on last night! It took some doing, but now all that’s left is to build the model part of the interior. I’ve got a few cool things planned, so stay tuned :)

I had to solder in 2 new smaller red LEDs in place of a large broken one. I somehow managed to kill it in my attempts to solder it in, spacing in there was really tight and awkward. The new lights work great, and I kept the old one hanging down into the lower room as I figured it would look interesting. I also screwed in the original top of one of the pumps to the upper floor in the same spot as the new lights, it’s the beginnings of “machinery” up there and at least sort of matches the pump on the other side.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0001.jpg

I had to cut out the upper floor in the back right of this photo, to make room for the pump.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0002.jpg

View from the floor into the interior. I had it on TV trays so I could lay on the floor and work on the underside.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0003.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0005.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0006.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0007.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0009.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0011.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0012.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0014.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0015.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0016.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0017.jpg

This is blurry, but it’s the upper front roof. I took this to show the couple of lights there.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-11DSC_0019.jpg

[artoodeeto]

This week I received 3 more slim fans in the mail. I got them installed, and at least with the top off the case they seem to have lowered the idle temp about 10C for the CPU and about 15-20C for the GPU. I have another location to add a fan to pull air into the case; with the top on the CPU seems to idle around 40C even with the new fans (before it was 45-48C), but with the top off its idle is more like 30-35C. The GPU is down to 45C from 60C, so that's a big improvement. Sadly that nifty hinge mechanism I came up with to lift the reservoirs had to go for there to be enough vertical space for the new fans.
Back to the temps – with the top on the CPU got up to 50C on idle after 2 or 3 hours, but I strongly began suspecting that much of the hot air from the radiator wasn’t making it out the top of the case. Instead, I think it was being deflected back down, where it was getting sucked back into the fans via cutouts I’d done to either side of the radiator long before I even thought about getting a radiator. To try and solve this issue, and a highly irritating loud rattle from the res’s sitting on one of the new fans and pushing its grille into the blades, I did the following:

I have a whole pad of Bristol board and some extra 1/8” foam rubber sheet, so I sliced them up and glued them to the underside of the radiator mounting arms:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0001.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0002.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0003.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0007.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0009.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0011.jpg

As you can see in the last couple photos, the foam rubber effectively stops up the holes on each side of the rad, mostly preventing (I hope) hot air from getting back down under the fans, but because I attached it to the rad mounting arms, there’s no weight at all from the top resting on the foam parts. I’m in the process of leaving it running for awhile to see what the temps do.
*EDIT* - idle seems stable at 40C for the CPU and 48C for the GPU. Not ideal, so I may stick one more fan in there to pull air in which should help somewhat. Water cooling system with 10 fans :facepalm: seems excessive but unfortunately necessary...

Now I had to solve the problem of the res’s weight resting on one of the fan grilles. After several abortive attempts this is what I came up with:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0012.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0013.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0015.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0016.jpg

And with the top back on:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0017.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0018.jpg

Finally, proof that I really did run out of vertical space:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0019.jpg

The res’s are pushing up that bit of roof…not sure how I’m going to solve that little issue yet but I’ll think of something. It’ll probably involve sanding down the wood support block pictured earlier, so its angled slightly or just shorter. I could also possibly pull off a small piece of fiberboard glued on the underside of that part of the roof…we’ll see.

[billygoat333]

man, this thing is a behemoth. lol I wish my monitor at work wasn't so dark so I could make out all the details in these new images. stupid old CRT monitors. lol

[artoodeeto]

so I realized I forgot to hang one additional fan (I just KNEW i'd find a use for at least one of the ones from outoftheboxmods if I tried hard enough LOL) - this one is hanging from a couple extra brackets I had under the front of the radiator, and is intended to force air from outside the case directly under the radiator. We'll see if it actually makes a difference, it could just be that because of where everything is in the case, and what I have room for, 40C idle is the best CPU temp I'll get....but hey. At least the GPU is running 15C cooler than before (46C now instead of between 50 and 60).

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0020.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0022.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-18DSC_0023.jpg

oooh....blue glow.... :) well...I don't *really* want it glowing blue in there, but I'll probably make some sort of opening for the fan to make it look like some piece of machinery that droids would fear (melt down chamber perhaps)

[artoodeeto]

I played Far Cry 2 for a couple hours yesterday as sort of a stress test - CPU got to 50C and the GPU ran at 60C. They pretty much didn't budge from those temps the entire time I was playing, and it was a pretty warm day. So I guess my temps are a tad high, but I've done everything I can do and they *are* lower than they were at first by about 10C on average.

In the next few days, I'll be adding one more goodie to the computer area for added coolness (this kind 8) not temperature), adding a couple 100 ohm resistors to my external fans to slow them way down (decided that's easier and gets them slower than trying to run a line up from a 3.3V connection), and then it's on to the design of the interior! I'll need advice from y'all on parts, more on that when I get some things measured and can post concept drawings...

[artoodeeto]

ok guys...final step (I think/hope) as far as adding or changing stuff to the computer portion of this build - I added resistors on the two external cosmetic fans to slow them down (took the voltage from 12V down to about 4V...they still make a little noise but WAY quieter than before; they don't look any different so no pics of them), and I added....UV LEDs! 4 of them. I had high hopes, but unfortunately they're a little more directional than I'd hoped. I suppose I can always get a UV cold cathode if I really want to. But not at the moment...

soldering is SUCH fun, especially when you have all that wonderful smoke blowing back in your face. Eh well...it'll just make me more interesting to be around in the future :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-21DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-21DSC_0005.jpg

2 of the LED's went into the pumps acrylic top, so those were easy. It took me awhile to figure out a way to mount the other 2 where I wanted them, and angled how I wanted them. I used a couple of metal brackets that had previously held a fan in place. they work quite well holding the LEDs. I did glue the LEDs a bit, but it’s not holding very well. I think now that the wires are soldered in those will actually hold the LEDs in place.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-21DSC_0010.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-21DSC_0011.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-21DSC_0013.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-21DSC_0014.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-21DSC_0015.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-21DSC_0018.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--04-21DSC_0019.jpg

There’s a fair bit more purplish glow than what shows up in the photos, so all in all I’m happy with it for now. The pump especially looks cool, I just wish I could have put it on the side that faces my desk instead of the far side, where I can’t really see it. Oh well. Someday I’ll have the space to have it pulled out from the wall so people can walk all the way around it.

[x88x]

Looks good. I see what you mean about the LEDs being too directional though...


soldering is SUCH fun, especially when you have all that wonderful smoke blowing back in your face. Eh well...it'll just make me more interesting to be around in the future :D

I've found that a case fan with a scotchbrite pad zip-tied onto the exhaust side works wonders for that. I have an 80mm fan secured to a block of wood that I use; just hook it up to a 12V (or whatever) power source, and it pulls the smoke right away, and catches it in the scotchbrite pad.

[msmrx57]

To reduce the directionality of leds lightly sand them to diffuse the light. It works kind of like etching plexi. I've done it to some fan leds before to get the light more spred out on the blades. Other than that looking awesome. :up:

[artoodeeto]

I've found that a case fan with a scotchbrite pad zip-tied onto the exhaust side works wonders for that. I have an 80mm fan secured to a block of wood that I use; just hook it up to a 12V (or whatever) power source, and it pulls the smoke right away, and catches it in the scotchbrite pad.

That, sir, is an outstanding idea! I even have a bunch of extra fans lying around.


To reduce the directionality of leds lightly sand them to diffuse the light. It works kind of like etching plexi. I've done it to some fan leds before to get the light more spred out on the blades. Other than that looking awesome. :up:

Another good idea! I remember seeing something to that effect once, but I'd entirely forgotten about it. Although what I remember reading recommended cutting the end of the LED so its end is flat instead of rounded; what you're suggesting sounds like I'm just lightly sanding the whole thing with fine grit?

Man...hard for me to believe that the outside of the model and the computer itself are basically done now. It's been in a constant state of change for 3 years (almost to the day, I started April 30, 2007). And of the first two I built, I had the original for 2 years before starting the 2nd, and I kept the 2nd for about 8 months before starting this one. :) This one's gonna last though...and soon, it'll be on to the inside of the model.

I want to run a few conveyor belts in there, and am thinking of three 10rpm DC motors (one per belt) so they move nice and slow. But...I need the wheels their shafts will attach to and actually run the belts to be small, like under 1cm diameter. Anyone know of a good source for that kind of stuff? and a good wheel/belt combination? I have yet to get over to the local hobby store, so they might have something. I also want to do a hanging conveyor with trays dangling down...I *think* I know how I'm going to do that but any suggestions are welcome and appreciated!

Maybe tonight or this weekend, I'll take some pics of this thing from the same angles as I did my previous cases, and post some comparison shots for y'all :)

[x88x]

For the wheels for the conveyor belts, I would look at flanged pulleys or gears like so:
http://www.brewertensioner.com/fbfpcastiron.html
Obviously these are all too big, but that's the general idea. I know I've seen tiny plastic flanged gears, but I can't seem to find any online. Worst case (or best, depending), maybe find someone with a lathe that might be willing to make you some?

[jiggiwiddit]

I want to run a few conveyor belts in there, and am thinking of three 10rpm DC motors (one per belt) so they move nice and slow. But...I need the wheels their shafts will attach to and actually run the belts to be small, like under 1cm diameter. Anyone know of a good source for that kind of stuff? and a good wheel/belt combination? I have yet to get over to the local hobby store, so they might have something. I also want to do a hanging conveyor with trays dangling down...I *think* I know how I'm going to do that but any suggestions are welcome and appreciated!

Model tank track wheels?
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj67/jiggiwiddit/15-16-scale-parts-225b.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj67/jiggiwiddit/15-16-scale-parts-226b.jpg

[SXRguyinMA]

small lego gears and chains?

16t gear is the smallest that will take the chain, 2 gears on RH side
http://www.malgil.com/esl/lego/geartrains/images/0-1pp.jpg

and these links for a conveyor? (on left)
http://www.engineeringwithabs.ch/pictures/tracks2b.jpg

[artoodeeto]

thanks guys! I'll look at this in more detail on Sunday (going to be out of town the next couple days). If anyone else has any ideas in the meantime, feel free to toss out suggestions! My modus operandi on this has been spend all kinds of time and $$ figuring out all the ways that my ideas WON'T work LOL :D I'd like to break that streak...

[artoodeeto]

Here's the promised comparison shots. I didn't have similar photos of all 3 in every instance; but for each set I put the original one first, then the 2nd, then the 3rd.
All shots of the 3rd crawler were taken today, April 26 2010. All photos of the second crawler were taken August 3, 2006. All photos of the original crawler were taken February 3, 2002.
I looked through my photos of the two older ones, and tried to duplicate the angles when I took the photos of the 3rd one. The photos of the 1st are a bit grainy (didn't have a good camera back then), the 2nd is the one totally lacking detail, and by this point in the log you'll know which one is the 3rd :). Enjoy!

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/D02--02-02NotopRightSide.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/D06--08-03PICT0077.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/D10--04-18DSC_0020.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/AA02--02-03FrontRightView.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/AA10--04-26DSC_0007.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/B02--02-03FrontDoorOpen.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/B06--08-03PICT0083--day.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/B10--04-26DSC_0005.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/C02--02-03RightTracks.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/C06--08-03rightrear.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/C10--04-26DSC_0018.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/C10--04-26DSC_0016.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/C10--04-26DSC_0015.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/A02--02-03BackDoorShut.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/A02--02-03BackDoorOpen.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/A06--08-01PICT0065.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/A10--04-26DSC_0019.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/A10--04-26DSC_0021.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/E02--02-04FrontTopright.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/E06--08-03rightfront.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/E10--04-26DSC_0006.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/E10--04-26DSC_0014.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/F02--02-03FrontRightTrack.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/F10--04-26DSC_0008.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/G02--02-03CockpitCloseup.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/G10--04-26DSC_0010.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/H02--02-03FrontTopLEDsoff.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/H10--04-26DSC_0011.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/I02--02-03FrontTracksUndercarriage.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/I10--04-26DSC_0012.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/J06--08-03rightsidedroidsucker.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Sandcrawler%20Comparison/J10--04-26DSC_0009.jpg

[x88x]

Nice. It's cool seeing a direct comparison like that; I think the most striking improvement is in in the rear engine section. :D

[artoodeeto]

yeah, that's definitely the most-changed area in appearance. Other, more subtle, things to look at are the angles of the sides (they're very slanted on the earlier ones, and straighter on the new one), number of EXTERIOR visible lights (9 in the first one, 12 in the second, and 35 in the 3rd, 20 of which are in the cockpit; the 3rd has 150 lights overall), total lack of interior cockpit detail on the first two, total lack of logical panel placement on the sides/top of the first two, super messy computer in the first two, etc etc. Incidentally, in that last pic, the droid suction tube was re-used from the 2nd model... :)

[Waynio]

^ What x88x said :), Great stuff artoo :up:.

[artoodeeto]

small lego gears and chains?

that actually might be the way to go....cheap and it's lego! I like the way the track looks too, I'll have to check out what sizes are available.



^ What x88x said :), Great stuff artoo :up:.

thanks guys! and just wait til I do the model building on the inside...it's gonna get to a whole new level of awesome :D

[Waynio]

:banana: I look forward to that :D :up:.

[silverdemon]

Yeah, great job on this thing. coming together real nicely.

[artoodeeto]

Yeah, great job on this thing. coming together real nicely.

Thanks! It's amazing to me just how bad the old ones look compared to the new one.


Model tank track wheels?
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj67/jiggiwiddit/15-16-scale-parts-225b.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj67/jiggiwiddit/15-16-scale-parts-226b.jpg

those could probably work, the only potential issue is finding something to use for a conveyor that would fit them. Any idea what scale those are or what kits they came from? hmm...maybe I should just search for model tanks that have working treads, or at least treads that *could* work, and cannibalize those...


small lego gears and chains?

16t gear is the smallest that will take the chain, 2 gears on RH side
http://www.malgil.com/esl/lego/geartrains/images/0-1pp.jpg

and these links for a conveyor? (on left)
http://www.engineeringwithabs.ch/pictures/tracks2b.jpg

Anyone have any idea where I can find the links to use for the conveyor portion? I found a site called "toy brick brigade" that sells thousands of lego parts; they have the toothed gear wheels, but I can't seem to find anywhere that sells the links. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[SXRguyinMA]

Anyone have any idea where I can find the links to use for the conveyor portion? I found a site called "toy brick brigade" that sells thousands of lego parts; they have the toothed gear wheels, but I can't seem to find anywhere that sells the links. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

I've got a sh*t-ton of those laying around, gears too. LMK how many you think you'll need and we'll work somethin out :up:

[SXRguyinMA]

as per out PM conversation, can't send pics through pm though :D

as promised:

diameter of the gear - 17.08mm
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/sportrider12584/SANY0089.jpg

diameter of lego axle (widest point) - 4.73mm
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/sportrider12584/SANY0090.jpg

width of tread link - 20.58mm
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/sportrider12584/SANY0091.jpg

length of tread link - 4.65mm
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/sportrider12584/SANY0092.jpg

diameter around gear with links installed - 21.37mm
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/sportrider12584/SANY0093.jpg

and a pic showing the spacing of the links when they're connected - there's approx 1.7mm of spacing in between links
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/sportrider12584/SANY0094.jpg

[artoodeeto]

dude. I want your caliper. where'd you get it and how much was it? :D
thanks for posting those pics, sending pm now....

[Trace]

I got one at harbour freight that is similar for like 10$

[SXRguyinMA]

yea I was going to suggest harbor freight too

here ya go: 4" - $15.99 (http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-digital-caliper-47256.html) 6" - $19.99 (http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-digital-caliper-47257.html) 8" - $29.99 (http://www.harborfreight.com/8-inch-digital-caliper-47260.html) 12" - $49.99 (http://www.harborfreight.com/12-inch-digital-caliper-47261.html)

[jiggiwiddit]

I just grabbed the pics from This (http://www.mark-1-tank.co.uk/accessories.html) website


http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj67/jiggiwiddit/tanktracks.jpg

This is a UK site. Try googleing 'model tank tracks' and youll find all the bits that go with the wheels.

[artoodeeto]

Thanks! I think though I'm probably going to go with the Lego variety, mainly because I need a little over 2 meters worth of track, and that would cost a fortune from a hobby store; Legos should be a lot cheaper. More updates when I get them....the conveyor system and motor(s) that run it will have to go in first, then I'll build up the model details around them.

[StormRider]

lol, lego sandcrawlers. should be interesting

[artoodeeto]

just placed an order for 331 treads of the same type that SXRGuy pictured above (total length of 331 of these things is a little over 2 meters according to SXRguy's measurements), 50 toothed gear wheels, and several axles. Total came out to $44, not too bad! So hopefully this weekend that stuff will arrive...just gotta get a motor or two now. If anyone has a small DC 10rpm, 12V max (or up to 20/30rpm at the fastest) they're willing to sell, let me know...

[SXRguyinMA]

here is the lego motor (http://cgi.ebay.com/LEGO-MINDSTORMS-9VOLT-MOTOR-MOUNT-/140403666538?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20b0b5ee6a)that works off of 9VDC. I get spare one of those, and even a lego lead that's snipped for a custom connection

[artoodeeto]

Thanks! Any idea how fast it turns? I don't want anything faster than 20 or 30rpm, and even that's a little fast. I was thinking of just getting 2 or three of those cheapie little DC motors, I found a site somewhere (bookmarked on the sandcrawler but not my computer here at work) that sells a 10rpm version.

[SXRguyinMA]

I'll see if I can hook one up tonight and figure it out for you. I know you can run them at almost any voltage. I'll hook one to a 5v PSU supply and see how fast it turns

[SXRguyinMA]

ok did some research.

according to this chart (http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm), you want the lego micro motor, shown in red. @9VDC with no load it turns @ 35rpm with 6ma current. so I'm sure @5VDC it'll be slower. I've got one of these in my space shuttle set (http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/8480-1), I'll hook it to 5V and see how it goes. :up:

that site has a lot of good info on the lego motors. that particular one for instance (about 1/2 way down the page):

@9V, 1.28N.cm torque, 16rpm, .04A
@12V, 1.28N.cm torque, 28rpm, .04A

not sure how much load you're going to have on these tracks. if they'll be free-spinning it won't be a lot

[artoodeeto]

yeah they'll pretty much be free spinning. If I set them up so that the bottom part of the belt isn't visible, I'm thinking about gluing piles of "junk" to them so it looks like they're actually conveying stuff. but those will not weight much, they'll just be small model pieces and such. Thanks for your help on the research! +rep :)

[SXRguyinMA]

ok I did some playin around. I hooked the motor to 5v, then 12v for speed comparisons. then I played with 12v and 5v with different resistors. the slowest I could get it was 5v with a 220ohm resistor. I stepped up to the 270ohm but it wouldnt even turn. I didnt have anything between 220 and 270. I'm uploading the vids as I type, will post once they're all set :up: the motor also is not polarity sensitive. if you hook it up backwards it will just spin the other way

[SXRguyinMA]

5v-12v-5v
58GKPr-ztWw

5v w/220ohm resistor
UIs8s67VTg0

[jiggiwiddit]

Those tracks running slow in the 2nd vid look excellent...

Good work :up:

[SXRguyinMA]

thanks! if it needs to be slower artoo you can always gear it down. a 3:1 ratio should work. I'll give that a shot tonight and see how it slows it :up:

[artoodeeto]

thanks for the vids! I think these are going to look even cooler than I was expecting. Speed actually looks like it might be fine...and I was also thinking about running a 3.3V wire to it, rather than buying a resistor. Any idea where I can find that motor? I did a little bit of poking around yesterday and didn't turn up anything, but I'll keep looking.

[SXRguyinMA]

I tried a quick search (I'm at work) and can't seem to find one for sale anywhere. I'll look more later on tonight for you. I'll also check the terminals with my multimeter and see what voltage is actually going to the motor with that resistor :up:

[SXRguyinMA]

ok I checked the voltage @ the pins and it fluctuates between 3.8 and 4.0v with a steady 5.0v input, so I don't know if 3.3v would be enough to spin the motor. :up:

[artoodeeto]

good to know, I'll plan on using the 5V input then. If I can find the motor anywhere. Seems weird, but it looks like nobody sells that little thing, so I may be back to tracking down that 10rpm motor I found awhile ago (advantage there is that it runs on 12V so I can just wire it into existing wiring instead of running new wires) and somehow attaching one of the Lego axles onto or in place of the shaft the motor comes with.

just got an email that my lego parts are on the way. I was able to find the motors for sale at www.bricklink.com (categorized under "parts for sale" then electric motor) although they're kinda pricey at about $20 per. I was hoping to get 3 of them, but I'm not spending $60 on motors...maybe what I'll do is get the cheapie DC motors, attach a disc to the shaft, glue one of the many extra gear wheels I ordered to the disc, and attach a lego shaft into the middle of the gear wheel...that could work, and then i'd hopefully only spend $10 or so on the motors. hopefully will have more pics this weekend...

[artoodeeto]

I got to thinking - anyone have any ideas/suggestions as to where I could go to get some cheap computer parts, I'm thinking small chips, capacitors, etc? Preferably non-functional. My line of thought is that since my crawler is a computer case, it would be appropriate if some of the junk piles inside were bits of computer circuitry and not just small model pieces. Obviously these bits don't need to be functional, and really what I'd want ideally would be to pay a low price for a boxful of junk. I know Weird Stuff Warehouse in Sunnvale, CA sells that kind of stuff but I live 400 miles away, and I don't know that this is the kind of thing easily ordered online...
Anyway, as for specific parts, I'm thinking pieces of old power supplies, BIOS chips, random capacitors, etc. nothing as large as PCBs though, just the odds and ends typically soldered onto PCBs. Some of these things could make for interesting internal structural details as well.
What would be perfect would be to raid a pile of to-be-recycled stuff and just take what I want.

[x88x]

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G2200
You get lots of stuff the size you're looking for in the small box...at least I did in mine. They are 'surprise' boxes, after all. :P

Alternately, if you have a computer recycling places nearby, you could ask them if you could have some time with their piles. It'll be a pain to get any decent amount of stuff off the PCBs though.

[artoodeeto]

awesome! that looks like exactly what I was after. Do you recall offhand the dimensions of the box? I just want to get an idea how much stuff would be in there. I doubt I'd use it all, but on the other hand when I detailed the outside of the case I used a lot more model pieces than I initially expected.

[nevermind1534]

What about paper/wax capacitors? If you want any, I'll shoot some your way for free.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2120/2428607084_ccb1434dbb_b.jpg

They look somewhat like the ones in the center of that pic, but some of them have wax that started to melt and drip off. When I pull them out of a radio, I usually just toss them all.

[x88x]

awesome! that looks like exactly what I was after. Do you recall offhand the dimensions of the box? I just want to get an idea how much stuff would be in there. I doubt I'd use it all, but on the other hand when I detailed the outside of the case I used a lot more model pieces than I initially expected.

IDK what the exact dimensions were, but I still have the box. When I get home tonight I'll measure it. For an idea of how much stuff to expect, the portion of this pile below the thinning is the small box. The part above the thinning is the 'super' box ($8, iirc).
http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq3/x13931x/normalANDsuper.jpg

[StormRider]

humina humina humina humina humina-so many capacitors- humina humina

[x88x]

Hahahaha, you'll like this shot then. ;)

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq3/x13931x/sortedCaps_labeled.jpg

[StormRider]

:eek:
I want some:mad:

[x88x]

Heheh. The best part is, that first pile only cost me ~$14 before shipping. Here for more info:
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?p=288673#post288673

Back on topic, artoo, I just checked the dimensions on the box, and the normal surprise box is about a 100mm cube ID, and it was packed pretty much solid.

[blueonblack]

@ artoodeeto: You have too much time on your hands. :D

[artoodeeto]

@ artoodeeto: You have too much time on your hands. :D

LOL! I shoulda seen that coming :D


Heheh. The best part is, that first pile only cost me ~$14 before shipping. Here for more info:
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?p=288673#post288673

Back on topic, artoo, I just checked the dimensions on the box, and the normal surprise box is about a 100mm cube ID, and it was packed pretty much solid.

awesome, thanks for checking that. I think if I order it it'll be the bigger box then. there's a LOT of interior space to fill...in a way I'm glad the computer's in there, I don't know what I'd do if I had tried to build the entire interior...I think it's something like 5 and a half cubic feet internal volume.

[SXRguyinMA]

thats nuts! I still can't find that damn micro motor anywhere lol. good idea on the other motors though!

[artoodeeto]

thats nuts! I still can't find that damn micro motor anywhere lol. good idea on the other motors though!

yeah, I don't know if you saw in I think one of my earlier posts, I found it on www.bricklink.com but the sellers there are charging about $20 a pop, which is a bit much, especially when I can slightly mod a regular DC motor and spend under $10 for 2 or 3 of them.

[SXRguyinMA]

ya that sounds like the way to go lol

[artoodeeto]

Here's the motor I just ordered, thanks X88X for the link to the site! Got their mid-size "surprise" box too, should be all kinds of goodies in there. The motor has 2 shafts, is nice and big so should be a good visual element, and at 1.5V spins at 19rpm, which is right in the range I was looking for. Plus, I only needed to get 1 since it has 2 shafts. :up:
https://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G17355

[artoodeeto]

So my girlfriend says I'm too wordy in my posts. Here's my attempt to not be:

My stuff arrived. Yay. I'm excited. Can you tell? :D
Thanks to X88X for telling me about Electronic Goldmine!

First the legos. 331 tread pieces. 50 gear wheels. Several axles. Hope it's enough.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--05-12DSC_0021.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--05-12DSC_0022.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--05-12DSC_0023.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--05-12DSC_0024.jpg

And the Electronic Goldmine stuff. The motor - 19rpm @ 1.5VDC, dual shafts plus what I think is a 3rd one perpendicular to the other two. Took the photo while holding it to show scale:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--05-12DSC_0020.jpg

Majorly big box o' goodies. :D LOTS of capacitors, chips, all sorts of random wonderfulness!
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--05-12DSC_0018.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--05-12DSC_0019.jpg

[artoodeeto]

ARG! ok. I need to be wordy. I can't help it. It's an affliction (like an elf affliction warlock, which as far as I can tell is a witchy sort of guy who's literally sick of elves). anyway. Well, actually I suppose I don't have much to say for once. Except that all this stuff is gonna go on the inside of the crawler, and the lego parts are for a conveyor belt system to be run by the motor. Gonna be FUN to build!

[x88x]

Hey, did you get any high voltage capacitors in your box? Specifically any 220 Ohm 450V ones? I know I got one of those in each box... If you got some or similar, I'd be interested in buying them off you for a reasonable price.

[artoodeeto]

I'll look and get back to you - I'm probably going to dump the box out tonight and try and sort everything...

[artoodeeto]

Hey, did you get any high voltage capacitors in your box? Specifically any 220 Ohm 450V ones? I know I got one of those in each box... If you got some or similar, I'd be interested in buying them off you for a reasonable price.

Finally got around to this. I didn't peruse the box super carefully, but after a cursory examination it doesn't look like I have any high volt caps in there. Lots and lots and LOTS of low volt ones though. :D

I'm hoping to have this done around the end of June, I've been taking a much needed break from it after working on it seems like nonstop from December through April. I have, I believe, all the parts I need now to finish it, just gotta put them together....

[nevermind1534]

I'll have those old paper caps ready to send to you soon; I'm finishing up on my last radio today.

[Waynio]

Nominated on bit-tech, I voted for ya artoo :), for me this latest round up it came between this & the mech robot, mech robot gets 2nd for me, was a tough choice tbh :).

[artoodeeto]

I'm nominated on bit-tech? what for? sorta haven't looked at it in a week or so LOL (thanks for the vote :D )

*Edit - sweet :D mod of the month...I'd appreciate any votes y'all are willing to give me! And Waynio, I can appreciate the difficulty deciding between me and that Mech, that thing's AWESOME.
http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/mod-of-the-month/2010/06/07/mod-of-the-month-may-2010/7

[Loki]

Congrats on the nomination!! You can count with my vote!! You've got the hell of a work there!

[artoodeeto]

ooook....so. It's been awhile since I last updated this. Didn't really mean to leave it hanging, but life got busy the last couple months. First we took a trip to Italy, and while there I availed myself of the opportunity to propose here, just below the Piazzale Michelangelo south of Florence, with a view of the city:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Italy%20Vacation%20July%202010/DSC_0155.jpg

Another view from the Piazzale. Did I mention I popped the question at sunset? :D
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Italy%20Vacation%20July%202010/DSC_0224.jpg

And just to prove we were really there :)
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/Italy%20Vacation%20July%202010/DSC_0170.jpg

Needless to say, it was a fantastic trip and very exciting! However...3 days after we got back I got laid off from the environmental consulting firm I worked for, and since they are going out of business, I didn't get paid for any of my vacation time. On top of that, we've also started wedding planning, which of course is quite the time hog.

I'm slowly adjusting to being unemployed and job hunting, but it hit me today that I really need to get myself on some kind of schedule, and working on the inside of my crawler for a few hours a week (at least) is going to be part of that schedule. Which brings me to these next pics. I know it's not the best update ever, but I decided (while my fiancee was on the phone with her parents discussing wedding stuff) to at least get the lego technics tank tracks put together. These will become conveyor belts inside the upper section of the crawler. I also took pics of the bags of goodies that will constitute the interior...er..."decoration" of the model. More to come soon....

All the various track sections laid out on my desk, along with a few wheels. These'll all be combined into 2 or 3 tracks total I think. Depends on how well it all fits in there.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--08-21DSC_0001.jpg

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--08-21DSC_0002.jpg

The bookcase where I'm storing all the stuff. The A-wing is one of the newer toys, and is only there because I stuck a small fan in the space on my desk where it used to be. I'm in southern CA, and it's been 100 degrees here the last couple weeks. I *am* planning on using the TIE fighter model somehow. It's one of those old Ertl kits.
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--08-21DSC_0003.jpg

Closeups of the various bits:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--08-21DSC_0004.jpg
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/artoodeeto/crawler%20update/10--08-21DSC_0005.jpg

[Waynio]

Congrats on the proposal in a romantic place mate :).
Sucks about being laid off thou, hope you get sorted soon bud.
So, the build is back on :).