Evolutionary

[DonT-FeaR]

hmm um expected... cool none the less

[The boy 4rm oz]

It wasn't a fan grill but a work of art in itself.

May I ask what you use to join plexi pieces together? At school we use acetone but I just wanted to know what a pro uses lol.

Thanks in advance.

[Franklin]

I use Acrifix 192 to glue acrylic.

Applied the first layer of primer and now it's easy to see where I need to add some more bondo. I'm still not satisfied with the result.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/kap30.jpg

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/zijpaneel1_5.jpg

Most of the flat parts are finished now and ready for paint, but the parts like the inakes still need some more bondo and sanding.

[p0Pe]

that case is, awsome!

[Eclecticos]

If there are any imperfections it is not apparent in the photos.
Though I respect your decision to make it perfect.
Looks awesome to me also. :up: :up:

[The boy 4rm oz]

HOLY CRAP!!! This is truly one of the best mods I have EVER seen. Keep up the fantastic work.

[Franklin]

Received the first hardware. Because it took me so long to build this case I needed to change the hardware. The old hardware hasn't been thrown away. It's all being used in another computer that I build for my dad.
The new hardware: a Asus Striker II extreme, a 900 watt Tagan powersupply and 2 GB Corsair ddr3 Dominator memory.


http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/hardware1_0.jpg

I need to decide whether I will use the watercooling block on the motherboard. Still not sure, because it looks very flow restrictive. The blue on the Corsair Dominator fans will need to be removed to match my color scheme.

[b4i7]

nice hardware! i cant wait to see this finished!

[The boy 4rm oz]

Hardware at its finest. Nice rig.

[p0Pe]

dosnt thoose ram thingies noise like a jet?

[Franklin]

Don't know, I didn't test the RAM cooler yet. I can always slow them a bit with a resistor.

Today I test fitted some of the hardware.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/hardware1_1.jpg

No problems so far. On the other side of the case I will mount the 3 harddisks, one Velociraptor 300 GB and two Samsung 1 TB Spinpoints. I need a rack for the harddisks. The rack needs to slide into the harddisk housing with the springs.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_0.jpg

[The boy 4rm oz]

Hell yeah mate. Beautiful work.

[timestwo]

Looks great! You sure have been working on this case for a while.

[DonT-FeaR]

wow nice hhd cage/rack thingo

[p0Pe]

gonna watercool the gfx? (plz say yes!)

[Helix666]

still looking very nice. :D
so neat... pretty... :3

/me wants. xD

+rep

[Franklin]

Thanks guys and yes the videocard will be watercooled. I'm even thinking about adding a second pump for a second loop to watercool the mosfets, NB and SB with EKwaterblocks.

I made a simple housing to mount the harddisks. Just two plates of aluminium and acrylic.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_0.jpg

Now it's time to place the harddisks into the harddisk box, the box with the RC shocks. To prevent the harddisk from sliding in the box I glued some acrylic onto the bottom and to, some sort of rail.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_1.jpg

The harddisks slide in between the acrylic rail and are being stopped at the end by another piece of acrylic.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_2.jpg

From the backside of the case I can slide the harddisk into the box.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_3.jpg

To prevent the harddisk from sliding out again I made something else. Just two acrylic blocks glued onto the acrylic that will cover the backside of the box.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_4.jpg

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_6.jpg

The acrylic will be mounted with 4 small bolts.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_5.jpg

Need to mount the logo, at the moment it's being kept in place with some sticky tape and need to add some leds on the backside of the logo, so from inside the harddiskbox.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_7.jpg

[jdbnsn]

That looks so cool, this is definitely an epic mod in the making.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Mate that drive rack looks fantastic. The orange grill on the front really sets the whole unit off.

[DonT-FeaR]

true dat nice work dude

[p0Pe]

every time i look in a update that i find exciting i look at the scroll bar when a post with a fantastic update ends, to see if its almost at the bottom. this time i thought "noooo.. plz let there be more pics!!!"

AMAZING is all i can say.

[The boy 4rm oz]

every time i look in a update that i find exciting i look at the scroll bar when a post with a fantastic update ends, to see if its almost at the bottom. this time i thought "noooo.. plz let there be more pics!!!"

AMAZING is all i can say.

It's funny. I do exactly the same thing lol.

[DonT-FeaR]

you arnt alone... lol thats the common modder/nerd for ya

[Franklin]

Before I start working on the watercooling I needed to test my hardware, but not before I mounted some leds in the harddisk box. I used 18 leds and these leds will shine on the back of the FJW logo. I used some acrylic to guide the wires a bit.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_8.jpg

I needed enough clearance for the harddisk holder, because it needs to slide into the box. On the right side you can see there enough room between the wires/leds and the harddisks.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder1_9.jpg

The top of the box is mounted with small hexheaded bolts and not glued, because I need to be able to reach the leds in case a led dies and needs to be replaced. The blue you see is from the Tagan powersupply, I need to replace those leds with white ones ofcourse.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/harddiskhouder2_0.jpg

To test the hardware I installed Windows on the Velociraptor harddisk. No problems at all, so I'm ready for the next step, the watercooling setup.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Anyone who doesn't agree that looks awesome deserves to be shot.

[DonT-FeaR]

i agree with that ill do the shooting... i love it..

[Franklin]

Because I changed my hardware plans, I needed to use a heavier powersupply. The problem was that the cables from the new Tagan PSU are somewhat different situated on the psu, so I needed to make some new brackets for the cables. This time I used some black anodized aluminium from AC Ryan and transparant orange acrylic, instead of the white sheets I used for the old brackets.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/psukabels1_0.jpg

The cables in the picture above are the standard sleeved Tagan cables, but that will change soon. I will use some tubing to cover them and this will also make it possible to pl;ace the cables in an almost perfect straight line.
On the left side of the picture you can see 4 cables going through an aluminium sheet. I needed to make holes in the sheet that were big enough to pull the cables through, but that was a problem because that would mean there was a gap between the cables and the holes. So I made an acrylic parts that fits tight around the cables and can be opened on the left and right side to pull the cables through.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/psukabels1_1.jpg

[M!ST!CX]

incredible work

[DonT-FeaR]

omg ive been thinking of doing that for ages.. last pic..

does it work well??

[M!ST!CX]

you mean noise reduce with this springs?

[DonT-FeaR]

no the cable thing like the bit with the 4 screws

the last pic

[The boy 4rm oz]

Great work Franklin. I like how you have chosen to incorporate the sleeved cables in the mod. I hate how people hide them all away. Mods can look neat with some cables too.

[Franklin]

Haven't had much time to work on this mod lately :(
But that doesn't mean there is no progress. Been working on the leds that will light up the windows. First I needed to make something to mount the leds. I took some acrylic sheets, one 5mm. and one 3mm. plate, glued these together and made small pieces of it. Drilled a 5mm. hole in every piece and glued all these pieces onto the frosted ring.This is the result.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/raam1_2.jpg

I needed quite a lot of these acrylic pieces because I have got four windows.
One of the rings completed and ready for the leds.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/raam1_3.jpg

A led in every acrylic piece and connecting the wires.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/raam1_5.jpg

Time to test the leds.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/raam1_4.jpg

The endresult will be very different of course. The glass fiber sidepanels will be painted black so you won't see the strange "dots" of light anymore.

I also received all my watercooling stuff. Again changed the original plans, will not watercool the harddisks, these are in a seperate compartment of the case anyway. I will watercool the CPU, GPU ( full cover block) the mosfets and the North and Southbridge. All EKwaterblocks except the CPU block, that's a D-tek Fuzion v2 block.

[SXRguyinMA]

this things incredible :bowdown:

[The boy 4rm oz]

this things incredible :bowdown:

I agree, very nice effect.

[DonT-FeaR]

agreed.... lol

lights looks cool....

[Franklin]

Thanks guys, it's always nice to here people like what you are doing. I would lie if I told you I didn't care about other peoples opinions.
No update today, but I wonna show you my new tool :banana:

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/cncportaalfrees1_0.jpg

I don't think I will use it much for this casebuild, because I will need to learn a lot before I can use it.

[_ferry_]

sexy tool :banana:

where did u get it from?

[Franklin]

I was looking for information about CNC mills for quite some time and I discovered a Dutch cnc forum http://cnczone.nl
They helped me a bit and showed me where to look for more information. I wanted to buy a smaller one, but then I saw this one in the for sale forum on cnczone. It is a High-Z S-720/T
http://www.cnc-step.com/html/high-z_t__die_cnc_frasmaschine.html
Almost everything was included, only need to look for some CAD software like autocad. I can also use some free CAD programs for the time being.

[THRASHER2]

Sweeet CNC Machine :up:

[The boy 4rm oz]

Damn lucky you, I want a CNC lol.

[DonT-FeaR]

wow...
so cool
mind if i ask what it set you back in aussie dollar?

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well they are usually around 1000Euro (the ones I have seen anyway). You do the math lol.

[DonT-FeaR]

why do you think i asked for it in aus dollar lol i hate maths


EDIT:
1800 bucks... :( i cant afford that

[The boy 4rm oz]

You can get cheaper ones but they would still be 1000+.

[DonT-FeaR]

time to get a job i reckon... lol

[_ferry_]

But you won't start projects like that cube on bit-tech i hope ;) That one was completely cnc, and was great in the beginning, but awful in the end. Complete overkill.
I rather see your handmade work (with a CNC precision ;) )

[Franklin]

It was pretty expensive, but it is a pretty big machine, about 1.1 meter x 0.75 meter. The only thing I will need now is something like Autocad. Can use Corel Draw for text and simple parts.
I hope to use this machine for parts I can't make by hand. It will give me so much new possibilities. I had ideas about all kinds of parts that I could not make by hand, simply because they needed to be so precise.

[THRASHER2]

It was pretty expensive, but it is a pretty big machine, about 1.1 meter x 0.75 meter. The only thing I will need now is something like Autocad. Can use Corel Draw for text and simple parts.
I hope to use this machine for parts I can't make by hand. It will give me so much new possibilities. I had ideas about all kinds of parts that I could not make by hand, simply because they needed to be so precise.
Find a friend that can do the AutoCad and knock it out for you. Then use him when you need the work done fast :)

[rendermandan]

I can do the cad for you, As long as we come to an agreement when I need some parts cut out :banana:

[DonT-FeaR]

lol yeah...

i got a sweet new piece i wanna make for a mod but if i stuff it ip by like 1 mm its stuffed...

gunna try get it cut by laser or something....

still i love the machine


and i prefer to do things by hand and not with a machine

[jbaldwinroberts]

I can do Cad too, if you have any questions fire away. I design and draw schematics and wiring diagrams for my job.

Joe

[calumc]

if its actually getting hold of a copy of autocad thats the problem there are freeware options which would probably suffice for your needs.

[Franklin]

I'm still reading all the manuals that came with the machine but I couldn't wait to try and mill a text into acrylic. Made a couple of different test pieces, before I milled the name Evolutionary into one of the windows.

PHXHOLzrwLg

And this is the result.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/cnctekst1_0.jpg

[SXRguyinMA]

thats awesome! :up: +rep

[rendermandan]

I'm so jealous!!! It just goes to show your devotion to this art. +rep

[Vital]

Awesome machine, and that text is awesome.

[DonT-FeaR]

:o

[The boy 4rm oz]

Very nice font mate, very effective. It goes very well with the mod. Turned out very well for a test piece. I would hate to see what you can produce once you have mastered it lol.

[Thorn]

No comments ! Coool jobs +1

[Franklin]

Thanks for all your comments.

It's been a while since I've posted an update. Been playing with my new toy, the cnc mill.
The black Tygon hose isn't as flexible as the normal transparant one. Needed something for tight bends and that's where the mill comes in.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/slanghouder1_0.jpg

These two parts can easily be removed. Just unscrew the three hex bolts.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/slanghouder1_1.jpg

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/slanghouder1_2.jpg

And with the part in place.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/slanghouder1_3.jpg

A also made a part that will guide two hoses, that pass through a aluminium panel. Nice to practice milling a pocket. Made a pocket in an orange sheet of acrylic, two millimeters deep. The black acrylic fits into this pocket.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/slangdoorvoer1_0.jpg

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/slangdoorvoer1_1.jpg

[SXRguyinMA]

looks awesome! +rep

[The boy 4rm oz]

Dude that tubing guide looks fantastic. I wish I had access to a CNC lol.

[Franklin]

Thanks guys and yes I just love that machine. When I came up with the name for this case I also remembered an image from school. Darwin and his evulotion theory, combined with the picture from a monkey that starts to walk upright and finishes with a man. Now it is possible to pick an image from the internet and engrave it into some plexi with the mill. It has to be something that fits into to theme and looks of the case, so I used the same color scheme as with the fanholders. Orange, black and white.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/evolutionarylogo.jpg

[jdbnsn]

That is so cool! Classic image for the mod Franklin!

[♦Cooneytay♦]

Just read this hole thing and all I can say is OMG. This thing is awesome.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Man Major +rep. The engraving looks like an LCD screen.

[Frenkie]

Love that tube guide. That machine opens a whole new dimension to you.

[b4i7]

what kind of bit did you use to engrave that window?

[Franklin]

I used an engraver's milling cutter.
http://www.vhf.de/cgi-bin/connect?server=shop&cid=12243401023&objName=article&objId=132&targetName=articles&targetId=64
The first one in the list.

[b4i7]

might i suggest using a ball nose endmill

leaves a bit smoother of a finish
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v697/b4i7/waterlog/IMG_0093.jpg

some etchings ive done using a ball nose e-mill

[The boy 4rm oz]

Nice engravings Sean.

[Franklin]

Those are some great engravings B4i7. I guess I wil have to add some of those ball nose endmills to my wishlist. I think you have also engraved the outlines of the images, like the S, didn't you? I order my mills abroad in Germany, to save money on the shippingcosts I only order stuff when I have a list with more parts. Besides that I will have to save some money first ;) But I will definately buy a couple of those ball nose mills, thanks for the tip.

I finished almost all the hoseclamps now.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/slangenhouders1_0.jpg

I don't know whether you remember the thing I made for the pump, the acrylic housing. I needed to dress it up a bit.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/pompbehuizing1_0.jpg

It's not finished yet, still need to cut away some of the ribs for the pumpoutlet. Will have to wait for the glue to harden first.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/pompbehuizing1_1.jpg

At first I wanted only to glue on those black ribs. Made the transparant acrylic parts just to keep everything in place while glueing it onto the housing, but I like those transparant parts so much that I will leave them on.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/TBCS_Group/Franklin/pompbehuizing1_2.jpg

[The boy 4rm oz]

Hose clamps have turned out beautifully (I didn't expect anything less lol). That pump shroud is looking good, can't wait to see it attached.

[mrVazil]

I've spend the last three and a half hours reading this post, because the one on hardware.info wasn't updated for quite a while, and wasn't as detailed as this one.

It is just amazing how far you've got and how nice your work is. Keep it up!

Hope you show it again in eindhoven some day, I live just across the border in Belgium and would certainly like to see this one in real life once it's finished.

[Vitz¥^]

Just done the same thing Vazil, lol. Dont know how ive managed to miss this one before, but omg, it is amazin.

Another one that I have read through and am truly disappointed that it isnt finshed when I get to the last page!! LOL.

[mrVazil]

You sure know how to make us curious franklin! We're dying for an update!

[b4i7]

sorry for the delayed response franklin, yes around the edges of the etch it is cut as well, this will give it nice smooth lines for the edges

[EspoNation]

Franklin I have to say that it is beautiful! Nice Work :)

[mrVazil]

Any progress?

[Franklin]

The casemod is almost ready. Need to do some more work on the reservoirs and the last thing I want to do is paint the glassfibre parts.
At the moment I can't do any work on the case because I'm in Australia right now, travelling from Darwin to Perth, where I'm right now and tomorrow I will start to travel along the westcoast to Albany and back to Perth again. Will be back in the Netherlands at may 12, so no worries, I haven't stopped working on this casemod.

[DonT-FeaR]

ah.. though there was an update..

oh well theres on to come.!

[The boy 4rm oz]

It's good that your almost done. How are you liking Australia?

[Franklin]

Haven't posted in a very long time, but I will start updating this worklog soon.

[mrVazil]

I had already given up hope :D awesome news mate, awesome news