TRIBALOVERKILL, "Blackout"

Thanks dude:) I'll soon be posting again. Working out the details with ACRyan. Very soon I will have the new Studio up and running. Will be working in there alot. Not as much at first but soon as I rid of my debt I will be able to cut down to part time where I work now and work more in the studio. When I get to that point I will be spending more then 16 hours each day in there making things happen. I cant wait,... I also moved so that is taken care of, atleast for the next year. My room mate will be moving in a year so I will have to decide whether I want to stay there and find a new room mate or find a single bed apartment. I just want things to smooth out so I can focus on producing.

WOW! Yea! First update in how long! I didnt get anything done today too! Let me explain,... so yea. It's been how long? So I went to the studio and pulled Blackout out from the shadows. I dusted her off a bit and though I was going to get right to work! WRONG! LOL. I had to like figure out where I left off and what I had to do now. So yea. I found out the I have to shave some off of the LED cover and the new floor of the 5.25" rack because the back side panel or the right one if your looking at the front of the case, wont close. Not a problem. I didnt fix that right then and there. So,...

Jan-30-2007 (Blackout)

Here's where I left off,... the HDD rack thingie.

I love how the HDD rack sits right up on the window like this. It's not right up on the window but it's close. When lights go out,... you wont even be able to see it! God I love that.

This side is finished. I have to work on the other side now. I ahev to make sure this rack is in the right position before taking measurements.

Here's the fan side.

Whats I want is the fan to suck and blow across the HDD's. I want to fan to suck in cold air from teh bottom of the case. Here's a mock-up I was playing around with today. I was just trying to get an idea of how this will work and how it will look.

When I go to work tonight,... hopefully it will be slow so that I can draw out what I want this cover thing to look like. I don't really want to waste time in the studio drawing. I want to get right to work. Sorry this is all I have for today but I plan on spending several days on this before I get back to the levo shields, tZOS.

Cool as always.

God,... I forgot that I made some changes on the image server. Blackout has a lot of dead links. Damn. This log is totally shot, lol. Well,... I'm going to set up an image gallery over on my site so people can atleeast look at all the images of the past. There aint no way i'm going back to change all those links. sheez.

this thing is still sexy as hell!

Love the way the hard drive rack looks. Gorgeous. Keep it up

Ok,... I didnt get anything done in the studio the other day because I didnt go. I never got out of bed. Yea. I was so damn tired. Hospital is running us ragged. I can't wait to cut down there so I can spend more time in the studio. I couldnt even do any designing while I was at work because they had me working on the one of the worst floors. Anyways,... I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted to do with this portion of the HDD rack. Do I want to create a compartment in which teh fan can draw air from teh outside or just make a shield to cover the fan and make it look nice?!?!?! I really wanted to just make a shield but I had my heart set on drawing air from the outside. So,... thats what I'm going to do. Need a compartment that will do the job, look nice and will hold together without welding. Hmmm,... watch and learn,...

Feb-01-2007 (Blackout)

Here's what I want. It's two pieces. a front and a back. The back get bolted down with the fan. The front piece get bolted to the front of the fan. Both pieces fit flush. I wanted to try and round this thing but I cant really do that because of how the front cover is mounted. If I round the front cover a bit,... it will cover or over hang the side of the HDD rack. I dont want to cover any of the side of the HDD rack. So an absolute box it is. But it's ok,... because the pump tower is boexed too. They will compliment each other.

Went to an arts and craft store and found some CHIPBOARD. I didnt know whats it was called. Now I do. I got 2 big ass sheets for like 2 bucks each. I'm going to look online for this stuff. I want to buy it in bulk.

Heres the front all drawn out.

Front cut out. I took the razor and cut on the lines where I'm goign to bend to make it real easy to bend. Have to be careful not to cut all the way through. Just cut the very surface.

Done.

Very nice,...

Very nice,... I like.

F@#$. How the hell?!?! 3/4" to short? LOL. Thank god it's only a mock up. LOL. Whatever,... I'll super glue on an extension. he he he. lordy.

Back piece cut out,...

Look at that! Whos the man!

Flush. Of course,... doing this with the aluminum is going to be harder. Thats because it's thicker and I have to compensate for a bit of stretching.

Not worried about it sealing perfectly. This is not a precise high vacuum area. This is just fine.

Now I have to figure out what design to cut out of it. I want the one side to continue the look of the HDD rack and maybe have to other continue the look of the above LED cover.

Heres how the back will fit on.

And then the front,...

what you think so far? You know whats funny,... this case really has no plans whatsoever. For those of you who have been following this thing from the very begining,... you would know this. I have been kind of just making S@#$ up as I go. LOL. It's really funny actually. I myself,... dont even know what this thing is going to look like when it's done. I have an idea but who knows! LOL. Blackout is kind of like my "drawing board" that I use to exercise my design sense. you know? Anyways,... till next time. Going to try and get some work done on fri but I doubt it. I will probably end up just drawing and planning some more for this thing. I'll try and post something though. Going to get some work done on sat though. Sun I'll be in there and I will spend all of mon in there, day and night.

awe-inspiring as always tribal, how do u think of all this?

I dont know. It just comes to mind. I treally sucks because more comes to mind then what you see here. Because I dont have the right tools and machinery I can only do so much.

Wow looks great. I have been waiting ages for a new post. lookn good keep up the good work.

Thanks. Will be working on it regularly now until it's done.

but...if you finish, we wouldn't have anything to look forward too. ;)

regardless, i cannot wait to see how this turns out. keep up the good work, mate. :)

OMG! You have to see this! I didnt get to spend a LOT of time in the studio but I did get several hours in. But within those several hours I made the back portion of this compartment and it is FRIGGIN FLAWLESS!!! I can't believe to it came out so well. I mean there was like 2 mishaps but,... just read a see. 40 pics! LOL!

Feb-02-2007 (Blackout)

Taken a shortcut. Before I use to razor a line on the aluminum and then file to that line and then make all my measurements from that straight edge. Wll this time,... I used the ruler and the router:) Done in seconds:)

Router cuts through it like butter. nice and straight.

I cut out the general size from the larger sheet after cutting the one side of the larger sheet straight. Now im going to do the same thing for all the sides.

You cant see it in this pic but the edge is lined with tape on on that tape was a line. I split that line in half with the router. Seriously.

All sides straight as hell.

400 grit wetsand on both sides.

Polished?!?!? Having trouble trying to figure out the whole polishing thing. In this pic,... it looks kind of hazy right? Well,... thats because it is! LOL. I tried using the table grinder the way I use to do it. Wasn't coming out right. So I rigger the buffing wheel up to the drill press and ran the wheel at a slower speed and thats what you see in the pic. It's good because there are no buffing marks. But there are tiny little scratches giving the hazy look. After that I threw one buffing wheel on the table grinder because last time I had three of them together on it. It worked great. I think you just have to keep clean the wheel and only use one wheel to do your final buffing. I didnt get a pic of it all super shiny but the you'll see the final product in a bit.

Ok,... taped off the aluminum to protect the surface. I marked my lines and cut away the tape.

Notice the double lines. This is where the bend is going to be. I'm going to cut away some material within the double lines to get rid of the pinch point. It will bend nicely. I did this for the brackets for the xPO/ sPL order.

Cut everything out and now im filing it all down nicely. God I miss this.

Stupid camera,... all nice and even. Lovely.

All done and ready for the removal of materail for bending,... hmmm?

Yes,... I useda dremel for this task. Had nothing else to do it with. It worked nicely but very inaccurate. didnt like it.

Bending the tabs fost. Bending towards the grooves I cut. I uses my hands to bend this entire piece. It was still a bit hard but I'm strong:) I got it. It did bend a lot easier because of the grooves. No doubt about that.

All tabs bent.

Now because the aluminum springs back a bit I wasn't able to bend the tabs at 90 degrees becauase of the fact that the bending jig whatever was 90 degrees. It would have to less for me to achieve the 90 degree bend the first time soooooo,.... I'll bend them a bit more by hand. You put the tab FLAT on a surface and push down hard foucing all that pressure on the bend and not the tab. While doing that you bend a little until you reach your degree. If you just try and push the tab it will bend and wont bend at the,..... bend?!?!? LOL. Make sense? LOL.

There all tabs at 90 degrees.

After doing the same thing to bend all the sides,... this is what you end up with. How cool is that! Look how perfect it is.

Off with the tape!!! How friggin nice is that! OH,... forgot to mention that I marked and cut this thing on the wrong side. So the buffed surface is on the inside instead of the outside. Thats ok because I just went ahead and buffed the other side, tee hee. It looks great but does it fit! Ho s@#$?!?!?

It's good!!! IT'S GOOOOOOOOD!!! Oh my god it's good. This thing fit better then I though it would! It fits like a glove! All the first shot too! My measurements were on! Even my 1/16" bending factor worked. thats cool.

Fan in place.

!!!

Wait a tic,... oh s@#$. That lip isn't suppose to be there! DAMN! I mixed these two measurements up. Was suppose to measure 1" fromt eh back not the front. Oh well,... have to start all over.

This is the way it's suppose to be,...

!!!

Taped it up again. the piece you see exposed needs to be cut away.

Lucked out. The scroll saw fit nicely in there. It's in it's top most position so it will clear.

All better. Thats how it's suppose to fit.

Oh yea. flush.

So nice. You see the top right hole. It's messed up a bit right? Tjhats from not drilling a pilot hole first. Pilot holes people! Key.

Damn,... that was a crazy number of pics. Phew. It's looks like I'm going to be able to go back to the studio tonight. I'll start and finish the front piece. Well,... depending. The front is going to have deisgn work cut out of it. I have to figure out what I want for teh design. I am was thinking about making another of that LED cover window thing on the one side of the front cover for this thing. I need to atleast make another one of the LEd window things. I cant say I really like that window thing though. what do you think?

After you polish your metals, do you apply anything to them to keep them clean from smudges, fingerprints, etc?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdbnsn

After you polish your metals, do you apply anything to them to keep them clean from smudges, fingerprints, etc?

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No,... atleast right now I dont.

Ok,... here's what I'm going with,...

You like? OH! I forgot my camera at the studio when I came home the other day so I was not able to update:( So when I go today and come home tomorrow there will be two updates. The first one is somewhat small but still nice. Today I plan on getting a lot of work done! So this is going to be a huge update.

Ok,... a very late update. I forgot my camera at the studio when I left the next day. So her it is. It's very small but kind of cool,...

Feb-03-2007 (Blackout)

Here's what going to be the other piece or ront piece of the fan box. I got a much better shine this time around. There are still some light light scratches on it from sanding but they can be hardly noticed. This plate is literally a mirror. Later on down the road I want to figure out how to get thee most perfect shine! I need something softer to buff with.

Taped the whole thing off to protect the finish. i really need to get some paper mask. I dont really like using the tape like this. I need paper mask.

I finished drawing out the pattern in which to cut and fold.

I added the holes for mounting and the holes to hold the lower box thing together. Rivet holes.

A small stupid update. Check out the next update,... it's much better.

Ok,... this update is cool. check it out.

Feb-05-2007 (Blackout)

Here's the design I went with. Just like in the pics of the paper mock-up but I switched the number of grooves around on each side. I like it this way better. Before it seemed like there was tomuch on one side. I think you'll like it this way too. I drew the design out on the aluminum and cut away the tape. Looks cool with the shiny aluminum pooring though.

Drilled all my holes.

Everything here is cut out and filed nice and smooth. It was fairly quick with filing because I was cutting right up next to the line,... cutting hairs, literally. So thats less to file.

First bend. How nice is that! It was a lot harder to bend because there's more to bend with this piece. I had to use a board to bend it. Also,... I wasn't able to cut the bending grooves as deep because my dremel crapped out on me. I fixed it though.

Look at that bend! So nice.

Next! Hot.

Look how dead on that is! I love it! You see the paper towel? You see how its rolled like that? Thats to focus the pressure on that specific area to bend that piece in a bit more.

The paper towel wraps around to keep from scratching the piece.

All done. All is bent and holy s@#$ is it dead on! I measured everything and it's exactly what I planned! Dead on.

Here you go! No tape. Riveted. Done.

How cool is that!

The grooves on the fan box match the grooves on the front of the HDD shield.

Uhh so yummy.

Matches LED panel nicely. I'm thinking about going back and sanding/ polishing all of the old stuff I have done. What you think? That includes,... the radiator enclosure.

This isn't cardboard. It's going to be the UV green insert that will light up all the detailed work of the fan box.

The tape is color coded so I know what color tape I'm using. Here I am done marking the UV green acrylic.

Just like the aluminum I scored a groove where it's going to be bent. I wanted to see how well it works seeing it works nicely with the almuminum.

I need a nice smooth surface to bend this acrylic over so I broke out a thin sheet of zinc and the brake bender.

Clamped and ready to bend.

The brake bender SUCKS! It did such a ****ty job! Look at that bend. Not the angle but the bend,... you see how off it is! The problem is that the part of the brake that does the bending it bowing out while bending something. Because of the bowing it is not bending my work nicely. It's crap. When I get the TIG i'm going to re-enforce the brake so it doesnt bow. We'll see what happens after doing that. Also,... I want to weld my own bending JIG/ surface too.

So yea. I would have more pics but,......... I broke the UV green insert. Yup. While filing it in the vise, it fell out and hit the floor. then the 2x4 that was in the vise holding the insert in the vise fell on top of it, cracking it. Can you believe that? Well,... as soon as im done post this and after I get something to eat, I'm going back to finish this thing. I don't need sleep.

PHEW! I'm so tired. I spent so much time in the studio the last 2 days. I slept several hours in the studio too. I need to get a couch or something up in there! Anyways,... CHECK IT OUT!

Feb-06-2007 (Blackout)

My little bending jig/ setup. A piece of 1/8" aluminum that I ran through the router to cut nice straight and sharp edge to bend over. I clamped that to the table. Then I cut off a piece of the chipboard and scored a straight line on it and then bent the chipboard on that scored line so it folded in half. I place that over the aluminum so it over hung the table like so. I taped it to the aluminum. I then taped the acrylic to the chipboard having the the very edge of the chip board right on the bend line of the acrylic. I did this so right after heating I can just place the wood ontp and begin bending/ holding as oppose to lining it up making sure it's straight yadda yadda. Seconds count. This stuff cools off kinda quick. The chipboard make a nice smooth surface of the hot acrylic to lay upon.

Bent. See how nice,...

Look at that bend. Thats cool.

Very straight, very clean. Very nice.

Slid right in after it cooled. Still need some sanding to get it all to fit just right.

Lit. The acrylic hasnt been sanded for the dust finish yet.

Together and lit. I believe it's dusted in these upcoming pics,...

Connected to the HDD rack.

Lights on.

I need a maid. Seriously. Look at this mess. Who's going to clean this up!?!?!?

Oh my,....

Oh wow,... yea. Dirty. I'm going to call my mommy,...

WALLPAPER - 1600x1200

always do amazing work mate, keep it up.

that is so my background now

Quote:

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Originally Posted by b4i7

that is so my background now

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he he he, sweet:) There will be more wallpapers to come.

Man your work is insane.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

Man your work is insane.

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Insane in the membrane?

great to see ya back on this Tribal

Thanks slatter.

I'm pissed and tired. Well,... I'm pissed because I am tired. I went to the studio today and messed up this piece that I was working on because I was working tired. Damn. I really need to fix my damn bending brake. I'm going to do that tomorrow. I have off.

Feb-10-2007 (Blackout)

So I went to a local store to get some kind of sanding block or blocks. I wanted something to better create a dust finish on my acrylic. I got several different types.

These are neat. One is 220grit and the other is 400grit. It's like a mat and you sand with it. I used the 400 on the acrylic insert for the fan box and it came out great. Only thing I dont like about these sanding mat thingies is that they easily get chewed up if say you were to sand by an edge or something. The edge like tears away the mat sponge thingy.

Cool ehh? Expensive too. like $6.00 for 3 of these little pads.

This is what I'm making. Yes,... it's already made and sitting right there in the pic. It's sloppy as hell though. It's even more sloppy then I though when I started taking measurements off it. Lordy what was I thinking!

Cutting off a piece that I will use.

See the two lines? You'll see what it for is a second.

REal quick,... fan insert,... so cool.

All cut and ready for sanding and polishing. You see the lip on the one side? Thats the those two lines were for. I routered all of the first line and then routered the second line up to the perpendicular line.

Now,... here's the messed up product. What happened was that the four holes on teh largest surface were off by like a 1/16"?!?! They were off because the bend was a bit wide. Which offest the holes by a bit. NOW,... stupid me didnt realize that I could have effortlessly moved the 5.25 bay walls over to match the holes! For all I know I was dead on and the bay walls were off!!! But all I knew was that they were off. I had it stuck in my mind that everything would match up just by placing it in postion. Everything did except those holes. So what I do? I tried squaring off the the bend a bit more. Which turned into a hammer fest,... started beating teh S@#$ out of it. It started losing it straightness and that was it. I gave up. Totally lost the point. the perfectness wasnt there. so yea.

So tomorrow I have off. Going to get some sleep and then go to the studio. I want to re-enforce my bending brake and use that to make this bend. All my measurments were on it just that the bend was slightly off. I want to cut the bend groove a bit deeper to make it a bit easier to bend and I bet I'll nail it. I want to have this thing mounted inside case tomorrow. I want to the LED cover sized down a bit and I think I want to start the new pump tower too. We'll see what happens.

DAMN IT! Your not going to believe this,... I remade the piece I messed up or though I messed up and it came out fine. But now! Now,... the fan box is totally f@#$ed up! I have to remake the whole damn thing! Can you believe that! All because I missed one little measurement! An 1/8"!!! DAMN! OMG,... I have show much to do now,...

Feb-12-2007 (Blackout)

Here's the piece I remade. It came out perfect.

You see the rivets perfectly placed in their holes? Fits nicely.

Flush on the VFD side.

Heres there LED side.

Here's the problem. The fan box front cover doesnt fit on the back portion with the fan in place. It fit without the UV insert but with the UV insert in there,... it doesn't.

You see how the fan sits flush witht he back portion of the fan box. There needs to be an 1/8" lip there so the UV insert can slide in. The only way to fix this problem without remaking,... is cutting off that side of the UV insert which is out of the question,... and cutting away an 1/8" from the fan which is also out of the question. So I'm screwed! Damn. I have to train myself to sniff out s@#$ like this early. To think think think think think first before I do do do. Damn,... I can't believe this! ARGH!

I'm going to shower and go get rid of some of this anger at the gym. I'm goignto sleep right after and see about going right back to the studio to start over:( Might give away this fan box:) I mean it's shot but I'm sure you modders will think of something to do with it:)

Fair play for keeping on with it...after all the setbacks it's good to see the project continuing!

+rep for being thick skinned!

Hey tribal,
Did you know that alot of your old pics are not loading in this thread?

his pics dont load cuz he changed his hosting and didnt feel like goin back through and loading them all back

Yet you've outdone yourself again tribal, Amazing work as expected. Could you be a pal and tell me what threading Danger Den's 1/2" Barb fittings use? I'm about to use some on custom reservoirs, but cant seem to find the threading for the taps. Thanks in advance:)

Hey. Been sick. I caught a bug from the hospital. Was out many days. Lost some weight,... it's just been nasty over here. I went the the studio the other day and did some work. I pretty much finished the new fan box. So I am where I lefted off.

Feb-23-2007 (Blackout)

Here's both the front and rear of the box all drawn out and ready for cutting.

I thought I would cut out the new shields for levo too. Shortly after trying to cut them I gave up beause I forgot how much longer it takes to cutt through anything aluminum over 1/16" thick. I'll finish them another time.

Here they are cut and bent. Perfect this time.

HEre's the old insert. You see how it's an 1/8" to long on one side and 1/8" short on the other? This means I can salvage this. Would save me time. All I have to do is re-heat it and bent it in it's new shape.

This is how it's suppose to fit.

Front cover on.

See how it fit flush now? Thats what was wrong with the last one. While playing with this thing it gave me some ideas I want to try later on down the road,...

So yea. I didnt go to the studio today because I am weak. I am trying to gain back my strength and weight. I haven't really eaten for days. Been puking my brains out. I'm going tomorrow though:) I think I can mount this thing tomorrow? We'll see. I started watermarking my photo's as you can see. Not to big and in your face but a little something something. I can't remember whether or not I told you guyz this but acryan approved all my metal fab tools and machines. So I am waiting to get some loot for that stuff. Thats when I start working on cevo too. I'm really going to have to bust my ass now because I have blackout, levo, and cevo to work on. I will work on this stuff as much as possible. You'll have to check yourself to see which one I worked on. Whatelese? My home page is like still under construction. Little spam bots are getting in. I'm tired of deleting them. We're going to beef up the page. Sorry about that. Ok,... I'm going to eat now. Bye.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NocturnaL

Yet you've outdone yourself again tribal, Amazing work as expected. Could you be a pal and tell me what threading Danger Den's 1/2" Barb fittings use? I'm about to use some on custom reservoirs, but cant seem to find the threading for the taps. Thanks in advance:)

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Probably late but,... I'm using 1/2" brass fitting that use 1/4 - 18 NPT threads. DD fittings use different threads sizes all being straight or regular threading. Go to their site and match up which fitting you want with the thread type.

sorry to hear about ur being sick dude, hope u feel better now

This is what I did like a day ago? I'm just posting now because I was to busy to do it earlier. I didnt get much done because of the fat that I spent most of the time thinking. Before I cut a hole in the case for the fan box spout I want to mount it first to make sure that it's where I want it to be. Mounting it isnt all that easy either. I have to make sure that it clears on both sides and I need to make brackets to mount the bottom of the HDD rack to the bttom pf the case. So here's what I got done.

Feb-25-2007 (Blackout)

First,... mounting the top of the rack. When I made this rack is was a while ago. I think at that time I had planned on mounting it with bolts. Why? I dont know. What I do know is that the mounting holes I drilled in the rack are to big for the rivets I want to use soooooo this is what i'm going to do. You see the little rectangular pieces with the holes drilled in them. I am going to use those to mount the rack with the rivets. The rivets can hold 3/16" total. Thats perfect seeing that with these little things I made, the rack and the 5.25" bay floor,... thats 3/16"! Perfect. They wont be seen at all. I'm cool with that.

Drilled the mounting holes in the 5.25" bay.

So perfect. A perfect fit.

Just two rivets in place.

Snug. Nice.

I was going to go to the studio tonight but I just found out that it is snowing like crazy outside. I would usually jump all over driving in the snow but the tires on my truck are crap and I would probably wreck trying to get there. Soooo,... im not going. I'm going to wake up bright an early and go get tires. After that I am going to shoot to the studio and get to work. In the meantime,... seeing that I'll be home I am will work on my photo gallery that I started building on my site. I started with blackout seeing it has the most photo's and the most dead links. Every pic I take will be posted in the gallery. Just pics though. No comments. I am going to try and sit down and think up some rules for that tribal contest I have been talking about throwing too. So yea. Stay tuned for that. Peace and be safe.