Absolutely outstanding work, as I have come to expect. (That's the problem with perfection, isn't it? You do it a couple of times and people start to expect it.)
The copper mesh is an excellent touch.
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Absolutely outstanding work, as I have come to expect. (That's the problem with perfection, isn't it? You do it a couple of times and people start to expect it.)
The copper mesh is an excellent touch.
:) Thanks blue! It's all about moving the bar ;)
Beautiful work. What's that metal base from? The copper mesh really fits the theme a lot better than the plastic did. Nice fan hole as well, what are you using to cut that out?
Thanks! The metal base is from a heater from the 1940s. I love old consumer appliances (radios, heaters, toasters, etc). I trip through a flea market is deadly for me. :)
The fan grill is being cut with a laser (pew, pew). The company is Vintage Laser who were the ones who cut the fan grill for Cobra-matic. They're working their way through the brass parts now.
I didn't have it in me *not* to sigquote that.
Me goes to turn sigs on...BRB.
Edit: lolz, yeah, one of the guys on bit-tech used that in their worklog. Now I can't say laser without "hearing" that sound.
Mach, I love your approach to making your own bolts. And damnit, now you have me thinking...
Thanks DT! It was fairly easy once I got going. I'd be interested in seeing what you're up to.
I'm thinking a similar approach using spent .22 caliber shells but I have no idea whatsoever as to what to use them on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mach
Or...maybe go a bit larger, say .223 or .22-250. We'll just have to wait and see if I can even think of anything to use such an item on.
After a trip to the local range, I've toyed with the idea of stacking them length wise and making the sides of a case from them. That's the problem with modding. After awhile everything looks like a part for a mod. ;)
/\ yea i know what ya mean!
When examining berserking, the drug theory is compelling. Drugs could be taken before a battle, could cloud judgment, and might result in the unintentional flashbacks or lingering after effects. Considering the physical effects of berserking, it resembled a drug binge more so than anything else suggested.
Behaviorally, berserking presents as a combination of steroid induced hypo-mania ('roid rage) with an adrenaline rush or possibly PCP. None of which the Vikings were able to artificially produce. So if a drug, then what drug?Quote:
Berserking began with shivering, teeth chattering chills. Their faces swelled and changed color followed by a great rage, howling, and indiscriminate brawling. When the rage abated, the berserker was exhausted and feeble for several days.
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With the Cobra-matic mod, I dabbled with laser cutting. At the time, I was fortunate enough to find a laser cutting company in Texas called Vintage Laser. They almost made it too easy to get a special fan grill cut.
Tony Le, the owner at Vintage, walked me through the file formats needed and we went back and forth several times to get everything right. I think the results speak for themselves, no? (that's the fan grill on the front covering an Antec Big boy 200mm fan)
Well no good deed goes unpunished. With Barsarkar-gang, I wanted to experiment more so I sent Tony what I thought was some complex cutting with a brass requirement (of course :)). He didn't even flinch. For your viewing pleasure
In case you're wondering, that is 2.3 mm brass...goes through it like bud-ahh. ;)
The basic process initially was to draw everything in Sketchup in 3d.
Then export to Corel Draw X4 in 2D.
Because the size of the case is so small, I printed out the Corel draw file, pasted it to styrene, and checked tolerances. Lather, rinse, repeat.
After numerous iterations (including new batteries for my digital micrometer) and many weeks, I was sure as I could be on all the dimensions, I exported the 2D drawing to DXF files and shipped em off to Vintage Laser.
They hit a couple snags along the way. Lasering brass is not as easy as other metals. Tony joked that he was going to make his body armor out of brass if he was ever in a laser battle. :)
But he persevered and again, I think the results speak for themselves. Awesome, awesome work!
Fan grill option 1 - I'm leaning toward this one
Fan grill option 2 - What do you think?
Remember the polystyrene bezels?
Now they're brass :)
Pump bezel, not crazy about the blue in the pump.
Full side shot
Half the screws are for looks only
They don't actually hold anything.
Radiator/fan mount
Motherboard tray
In case you were wondering how they go together. I've got to solder the mount on the back of the motherboard tray yet; more on that later.
I love modding because it gives me a chance to try new tools and techniques. The whole laser experience has given me a new appreciation for the CNC mod gods who make an entire case from scratch. Its not a gumball machine for modding. Its an iterative design and test method that would have been impossible without the help of Tony and the guys at Vintage laser. Tony if you're reading this, thank you very much.
Wherever you land on the hand tools vs power tools modding debate, I highly recommend working some sort of CNC (laser cutting, water cutting, milling, etc) into your next mod. It was a fantastic experience and opening the box of parts from Vintage had me grinning from ear to ear. That's all I got this time around.
Next time, I'll show you how to sand the skin off your thumbs the natural way. :)
Many thanks to my sponsors!
Bitspower
HardwareLabs
yeah, laser cutting isnt always as simple as it sounds:D you have to adjust power etc, otherwise the beam, either wont go trough, or will go though, melting the surrounding material lol! it looks wicked awesome m8! i love the design, and how you are going to fit it all together! :D
Awesome parts! I love brass for some reason.
As for the fan grills, I vote option 2. They're both beautiful but I like #2 better and it would be less restrictive (and theoretically quieter) also.
Thanks pOPe and Blue! The dimensions are very tight and still some unanswered questions on sizing as well as performance. Now that I have the parts it should go a little faster tho.
Good point on the restriction. I've tried several 140 mm fans to get the quietest one. Be a shame to screw it up with the fan grill. I'm going to experiment with some copper/brass mesh too. Thanks for the feedback!
i dont think you will notice any difference in noise with either of the grills. i vote option 1:D
Nearly missed this update :eek:, thought it was just more compliments then took a closer look at the email, glad I didn't miss it :).
Wow dude, this is getting more and more epic, I swear I'm consistently being blown away by the quality of mods, the level of quality is just going up & up & up, my head is spinning from it lol :D.
I like option 1 of the fan grills best, but they are both really good, must have been exciting opening the box of uber cool parts hehe :).
And I didn't know google sketchup could do exports to a format that could be used at a cad fed laser cutters, that is a big part of what put me off going to a laser cutters, needing cad friendly file formats, so now I'm going to see how much of an awesome complex set of panels I can make now, sky's the limit, fantastic :D.
Mod of the year for 2010 is going to be an absolute nightmare to pick a number 1 :D.
I can't choose!!! They both look Fantastic!!
Great work, I can't WAIT to see this thing come together!
Thanks guys! More updates on the way.
Hey Waynio, yes SU can do dxf or dwg export but it requires some cleanup. That's what I use Corel draw for. See here
http://download.sketchup.com/OnlineD...XF)_Export.htm
In 1956,Fabing describes the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms, specifically Amanita Muscariaor or flugswamp mushrooms as the single source of berserking. It was an interesting theory as flugswamp mushrooms were known by the Siberian and Scandinavian peoples but the effects, while mind altering, do not cause a berserking rage, quite the opposite in fact.
A possible alternative may be found in the location where the Vikings spent much of their time; on open water.
Consider this, in 2006, 2 men ate a fish in the south of France. Little did they know that they would be hospitalized the next day because of hallucinations and nightmares. The fish was the Sarpa Salpa. The very same fish was recently found in the English Channel. Could the Vikings have used a similar fish to induce a hallucinogenic rage? Have the experts overlooked the most obvious source of berserking drugs? Did the Vikings find something in the sea?
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I am a little ahead of myself on the updates. I forgot to show you guys the final on the fan grills from the last update. Just so you understand where the fan grill is located. It's on the back of the case pulling air into the case which hits the back of the motherboard tray.
To minimize vibration and fan noise, enter a Bitspower silicon fan pad 140mm size.
It's appears to be well made. I'm a little worried that it may be too thick for my needs but more on that later.
Photographing it is interesting; everything sticks to the silicon - lint, sawdust, dust, gah. Here it is from the back.
The HWlabs Black Ice GT Stealth 140 unfinished radiator polished up.
Gasket goes on
Fan goes on. That's a Thermalright X-Silent series 140 mm fan. With a 140mm rad, I've been looking for the right fan that was low power as well as quiet. I picked this one in a very unscientific comparison. So those of you who care about accuracy should look away now.
The 4 fans that looked interesting were (clockwise from the orange fan):
Xigmatek XLF F1453, 1000 RPM, 63.5 CFM, 16 dBA, 0.3A
Yate Loon D14SM-12 , 1400 RPM, 62 CFM, 29 dBA, 0.7A
Yate Loon D14SL-12, 1000 RPM, 46.9 CFM, 25 dBA, 0.5A
Thermalright X-Silent Fan, 900 RPM, 60.42 CFM, 20.9 dBA, 0.14A
In the looks department, the Xigmatek was first choice with the orange / brass combo but the white LEDS are too bright. The Thermalright was my second choice because of 11 translucent blades. The Yate Loons are ok but not notable when compared to the other two.
On the subject of noise, I setup my video camera to capture the relative noise that each fan puts out. Check it out
I was surprised by sound of the Xigmatek fan. Maybe I've got a bad one but wow, that would drive me nuts. The Thermalright sounded best to me. At the time, I didn't have the D14SL-12 when first comparing but the D14SM -12 sounded very smooth at the higher RPM so I grabbed the 1000 rpm model just to check
Unfortunately, I screwed up the camera position so it sounded comparatively louder than it actually was. The sound on it was very good though; comparable to the Thermalright.
I wanted to also get some relative measurement on performance so out comes a retro piece of kit. Its an anemometer used in mining I am told. While the dial indicates some degree of precision, my interest are simpler.
Fan drag race :) The two Yate Loons are in the middle with the SL on top. The anemometer was sat 10 inches from the outlet of the fan to gauge relative output speed.
Again I was surprised by the relative performance of the Xigmatek. I was impressed by the Yate Loons. The SL was on par with the Thermalright and the SM just cranked. I'm curious to find out what the SH is like. So as I mentioned, I picked the Thermalright for the reasons above but also because of its lower power consumption.
Anyway back to the grill, remember these screws.
Here's why I modded them when I couldn't buy them anywhere. Had to be brass on brass.
And trust me, I looked. :)
Most folks seemed to like this fan grill the best so I'm going to run with it for now.
Maybe replace the fan sticker with an etched copper piece later?
I thought about putting some copper or brass screen in to act as a fan filter but I think I like the exposed fan. I may change my mind when I see the dust buildup.
With the brass in hand, I can test fit the components and see if the design is going to work.
Here's where things started to get interesting
See the foot on the motherboard tray. It's sticking out about 3/8" too far and I need that space for the waterblocks and tubing. Did I mention this is going to very tight?
From the front, it lines up ok.
The flow indicator and pump fit ok. Tight but nothing unexpected.
The video card looks like it'll be ok too. Still a little worried about the tubing routing but that's next to check out.
On the back of the case, the fan grill is hitting the frame. It looks like the silicon pad is adding about an 1/8" to the thickness also. A little file action should set the frame right but that'll have to wait.
Next update, I'll get to the natural sandpaper story that I promised.
Many thanks to my sponsors!
Bitspower
HardwareLabs
WOW!! Tight is an understatement. Looks stunning though. :up:
Looking so damn cool Mach :D:up:, good choice on the thermalright, I didn't even know they did fans, just wish akasa did a 140mm apache the 120mm version is fantastic.
Hi msmrx57, thanks I'm digging how its coming together too. Still tense about the fit but liking it so far.
Hey Waynio, I didn't know/remember that Akasa made fans. How quiet is the Apache? Looking at their website looks like they make a camo version too as well as a 139mm fan with a 140 adapter. So maybe they'll jump into the 140mm market with an Apache. Thanks for the tip. :up:
whered you get the copper and brass mesh? ive never seen that stuff anywhere
Hi raisntnox, tower hobbies has it online. I bought mine at a local art supply and hardware store. Some of it I showed is made by K&S Metals; the other is made by Amaco.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...mesh&search=Go
http://www.dickblick.com/products/amaco-wireform-mesh/
I know, the akasa I knew made budget fans and then they released the apache so I ordered 1 to sample it, I liked it and used them entirely in my latest case, is the best 120mm fan I ever used and have tried many many fans, gives great air flow and is really nice & quiet and can easily be dismantled if you want to change the colour. Yeah I think they should make a 140mm, would be silly not to.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mach
Before launching in to the next installment, I ask your indulgence for a brief aside. Most of the research for this mod's back story comes from the internet links that you see posted. Some of it though comes from good old fashioned movable press which pleases me to no end. I love books, everything about them, the smell, the feel, the creak they make when they're new, and the stained and tattered covers when they're old.
So to say I was excited to find this volume, well...I was. :) It's a copy of the Icelandic Manuscripts, the first part at least, that I've been quoting. "Sigilla Islandica I" was published in 1965 by the Manuscript Institute of Iceland in Reykjavik. Its awesome and no, I can't read a word of it except the copyright. :)
Some of the other books that I've been using, particularly for this update. And now back to the mod….
-----
In 1947,a category 5 hurricane struck the USA mainland causing US$1,000,000,000 in damages ($110,000,000 in 1947 dollars). It was a 100 year hurricane, massive in size, and strength.
It was first spotted off the coast of Dakar, Senegal where it quickly escalated to a category 3 hurricane. Before churning across the Atlantic towards the USA, it pummeled the west coast of Africa sinking ships and washing ashore debris. In the hurricane's wake, strange sea creatures washed ashore too including an unidentified sea slug. The slug caused those who touched it to go mad, attacking their neighbors with preternatural strength until they collapsed.
Seemingly overlooked for years, the sea slug is only now becoming a focus of marine research. With good reason;Toxic sea slugs have recently killed a series of dogs on the beaches of New Zealand.
In the uncharted space of the ocean depths, could the Vikings have found an animal that caused their berserking rage? If so, how did it make them invincible super soldiers?
Next time: Get your foil hats on, did the CIA know?
-----
Picking up where we left off in the last update. The laser cut motherboard tray already has the holes for the standoffs (why drill when you can laser?). While I tested it 3 or 4 times with the polystyrene prototypes, I'm anxious to see how it fits.
That's a 6/32 tap. From the prototypes, I knew that I was going to have a problem keeping the tap straight. I saw someone using a hand tapper in another worklog but $100+ was little more than I was willing to pay.
Instead I picked up a tapping block from the littlemachineshop.com. It holds the tap at 90 degrees to the work surface.
Works great too!
All four tapped and filled with brass (of course) standoffs.
The new motherboard, let us not discuss the last motherboard ;). Everything lines up for mounting, whew!
From the back, the pattern on the tray wasn't just for the deco looks. It gives easy access to the ATX and 4 pin contacts.
4 pin connector
ATX connector. Instead of de-soldering these, I'm going to try to solder to the contacts…after a lot more practice. Expect this worklog to become polluted with trial run photos. :) It would be nice if motherboard manufacturers would offer an enthusiast option for reverse connectors.
The slot on the side of the motherboard tray is for the PCI-E extension cable. Unless I can get one that reverses the connector, I can see some cable origami in my future.
Changing gears to another part of the mod, you'll recall the base that was carved out of birch plywood. The plan is to cover it in Stingray leather
Stingray leather or Shagreen was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries with a brief resurgence in the 1920s and 1930s. Jean Paul Cooper, a London artist, is credited with its introduction to the Art Deco movement. The Victoria & Albert museum in London has a phenomenal exhibit of objet d'art made from Shagreen. Most of the pieces in the exhibit are made of shagreen that is dyed green. I haven't been able to find out why this was popular at the time.
The color that I'm using here isn't green but brown. Most of the hides come from SE Asia which is where I got this one a few years ago.
I hung out on boot and shoe making forums for awhile asking questions on how to work stingray. Their advice helped as did Tim Skyrme's youtube videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3w1gaxZkgA
These are shoemaker pliers or lasting pliers.
Barge cement recommended by thistothat.com for leather to wood. It’s also the glue that was used in Mythbuster's Escape from Alcatraz episode for fashioning their life raft. In other words, it sticks very, very well and sticks more the more that you beat on it.
The first part of gluing the bottom down was easy. The corners? Not so much.
By taking the shoe making videos advice, I worked the corners into smaller and smaller folds.
The first corner I did without cutting the Stingray and then my fingers told me to get stuffed. The other historical use for stingray skins, as well as shark skins, was sandpaper. While this was tanned leather, it still did a number on my fingers. Ouch. So the other 3 corners, I wimped out and cut them.
Here it is from the bottom. My friend questioned the design because I put the "eye" on the bottom. Technical details aside, I told them it wasn't the first thing that was going to be hidden in this mod. :)
Test fit, not too bad for a first attempt.
You can see where I made the cuts on the corners but I have a plan for that.
From the back.
These are brass clamps used for welding hoses.
With a little modding they're corner covers...
...but that's for another update. Thanks for looking!
Many thanks to my sponsors!
Bitspower
HardwareLabs
Wowie wow wow wow! That's fantastic work!
As you may have noticed, I've started weaving in videos. Mod videos are useful to reveal what pictures simply cannot.
When I think about CrimsonSky's Doom 3 mod, I see the video of the smoke curling out of the smoke stack, the roll up security door disappearing in a blur, and the pneumatic air lock snapping open. (If you haven't seen them, go now. I'll wait. :))
Those videos in many ways helped to etch Doom 3 in my noob modding mind and underscore the fact that video can be a powerful part of a mod.
With the video experience of TBCS behind us, JDBNSN and I put together a little film that we think proves that point. But enough talk, would you kindly view this film and let us know what you think? And oh yes, remember you saw it here first! ;)
:D, Ohhh yeah looking through most of this worklog lately, bioshock was on my mind hehe, well once you started with the laser cutouts that looked bioshocky style, good timing dude but what does Bärsärkar-gång have to do with bioshock??? maybe it's in some relation to the story of the game, that would be cool, I'm looking forward to playing bioshock 2 as soon as its out on steam :), preordered it the other day, couldn't resist :D.
The project is looking awesome Mach and nice leather work :) :up:.
Looking awesome Mach!!!! http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ge/?q=node/465
That video is something else Mach, this is looking incredible.
Man.. you and Jon make a GREAT team! Captivating video!
Just sitting here in awe.. I'll have to get back to you later....
Very impressive job, mate.
Stingray leather?? You continue to bring a level of authenticity and detail to your builds that is second to none.
I'm at work so I can't watch the video but I'll check it out when I get home. I can't wait. :)
The video is superb. I really liked it.
Also I found it great to hear that you mentioned The Victoria & Albert museum in London. I went there for inspiration last summer.
Thanks guys, its been a bit of a sprint to get here! Glad you're along for it! Jon and I thought it was appropriate to mark the launch of the game with something special. I'm pleased that you like video and the mod progress thus far.
On the story and the mod, it'll all come together in the end, trust me. :) With the video, we let slip that there is a rabbit in the hat but that doesn't mean we said how it gets pulled out of that hat. I've still got 3 or 4 hat tricks left, ;)
Many thanks to the TBCS team! Thanks to Daniel for the awesome front page feature and of course, Jon for pushing me up the video hill! If you want to amp up your worklogs, talk to the staff here; they've got the ideas as well as the talent.
Outstanding work as usual Mach! Cannot wait to see what is in store for us next!
Great work! Congrats on the FP!
You have completely surpassed me for authenticity now. I bow to your amazing skillz.
