That ink looks Awesome! can you post a more detailed process of how you got it to look like that? I want to color my next project made from aluminum, and dont want to play with sulfuric acid in my apartment...
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That ink looks Awesome! can you post a more detailed process of how you got it to look like that? I want to color my next project made from aluminum, and dont want to play with sulfuric acid in my apartment...
It is a lot better than I expected it to be :up: & it is sooo cheap, plenty of colours, I like the way I can still see the brushed aluminium underneath it, I bought the silly applicator that goes with these inks but the applicator is garbage as the so called felt patches are actually cotton wool & leave bits of the cotton wool on the piece, could have bought 3 extra colours for the price of it too :facepalm: so I tried out a normal house paint brush which left it all too streaky, then I got the results shown by gently using a sponge to brush it on, just takes a few drops of the stuff & it dries extremely fast like less than a minute, then did an abuse test to see how well it stays & if it's on a part that will be handled regularly it will rub off so it needs a sealer so I'm going to get some matt sealer for it & give it maybe 2 coats, just need to find the right applicator to get it applied nicely then I think good things could come from it & it opens up creativity massively for anyone who is ok with art.Quote:
Originally Posted by diluzio91
I'll do a mini interval post when I have another go at applying it with step by step picture guide :up:.
Been messing to try & design my own feet.
Also just used my new jigsaw blades & wow they cut miles faster, got the new side panel cut & filed to size in about half an hour, was easier than cutting cardboard with scissors lol :D.
Sorry about all the feet talk lol but just designed another but with an inclusion of LED's.
Ugh marked the feet very precisely to get the center & done the spot drills but when I was drilling with the 2.5mm bit it snapped & the bit that is in is unreachable & it's truly peeing in the wind to try drilling it out, so only got 3 feet now :redface:, soo I think I'll leave making my own case feet until I get a lathe which would be over a year away, I know the lines don't look right in my marking but they were just a rough guide of an inch, I used my digital calipers to mark the center, anyway the feet I'll forget about for now & get to work on the rest of it.
There is possibly some news on feet but I'll leave it for now :).
So I turned my attention to cutting out the windows for the side panels, would have got all the jigsaw work done today but on the last 2 windows the blade kept falling out as soon as it touched the aluminium, it fell out about 40 times before it even got to cut 1mm, was driving me mad especially with it just being 2 small windows so called it a day lol :D.
Bad luck on the feet. :( New side panels look great though.
I'm no longer down about the failed feet ;) thanks 88 :).Quote:
Originally Posted by x88x
Heres the news bit I left out, totally worth mentioning, the one & only Bill Owen of MNPCTech mod supply store & youtube tutorials living legend offered me sponsorship for some feet after me asking if it's ok if I make 1 of his designs so seems like diy feet weren't supposed to happen with this case at this point in time, this is hugely awesome news for me as I learnt a lot about modding from his tutorial videos & this would be my first sponsor, honestly can't think of a better sponsor for a first, I's a happy chappy :banana:.
http://modmenshow.com/
Awesome! Congrats!
Thanks 88, I had a sudden depression when the drill bit snapped off & was unreachable, then super Bill saved the day :banana::up:.
congrats!
Way to go on the sponsorship!:banana:
If you still want to salvage those feet to use for another project, try one of these. They work well and any place that sells tools should have them.
The case is looking good. Where did you get that ink from?
Quote:
Originally Posted by SXRguyinMA
Thanks guys :):up:.Quote:
Originally Posted by mDust
Will a screw extractor remove a snapped off drill bit :facepalm: nonetheless I should get some of those as I've had screws lose their socket before & it's hell to get them out :D.
The ink I wouldn't know where to get it in the US but try googling alcohol ink, afaik it's scrap book background colouring lol :D I was really clutching at straws to find a way to colour the aluminium but so it keeps the grain like how anodising would, it didn't survive a simple nail scratch though even with 1 coat of clear on so I think for it to work well it would need a clear primer coat, then the ink, then clear lacquer but I can only find clear primer in the US :facepalm:, in the UK I can find clear primer but only for plastic or wood, I'll try a few more things before I give up on the ink & if any degree of success I'll post how it went :up:.
Probably, but you'll probably need a carbide-tipped drill bit to make the initial hole in the bit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Waynio
:think: Maybe my spot drill bit could do that :up:.Quote:
Originally Posted by x88x
Got the rest of the windows cut out & mounted the side panels to the bottom corner bars today (they both still need to be filed smooth & to the guide lines) but on 1 side the helicoils aren't working as they should so before things get anodised I'll need to fix this by either drilling the helicoils out all the way through the corner bars & then putting longer helicoils in or drilling holes for m4 helicoils & bolts, the side panels are essential to function spot on, sure I could relocate them but then there will be un-needed holes & I don't want that similar thing happened with my first scratch build & won't let that happen again :D, I'll try longer helicoils first but I won't be able to buy them until next week.
Was up early so got started on filing the left side panel & wow was I seriously wrong about it being a half hour to an hour task :D :facepalm: started at 6:30 am had the filing done by 10:30 am, only had a 5 minute break, the satinising mops came the other day & thought I'd clean up the freshly filed panel with the coarse grit one & wow I really like it, possibly even enough to not get it anodised but thats my initial reaction to how good it looks anyway :D, also used the satinising mop on the curve bars.
Fixed the 2 iffy helicoils on the right side, managed to remove them & tap it again & put new ones in & it's good now :D.
Did what I planned on doing by doing the brush flow the same as the shape ;).
Currently taking a little break to post this update, then I'll watch a show then get back to doing the right panel, need a good hour break after all that filing.
So here is the coarse satinising mop on my drill & a scrap piece for testing.
Heres the another test piece after the brush.
Heres the left panel after all the filing.
After the satinising.
Closer look.
Back on the case with both curve bars brushed too.
Hopefully if I can stand it I'll get the other panel done today :).
Wow, that's quite a difference. I'm picturing that with the blue colour and I think that would be a really stunning look. Great work and congrats on the sponsor!
Thanks MainMan :), I still need to find a good way to apply the ink if I go with that, the sample pieces I done with a coat of clear on was able to scratch it off with my nail quite easily so probably need a clear primer for extra grip, I give up with the black ink, just can't get it looking good even with the airbrush it has hints of purple :facepalm: but there is hope in the colours next time I'll try a few coats of clear :up:.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMainMan
OK don't know what driven me but I filed the other panel & brushed it so that must have been about 8 or 9 hours today filing so have sore finger tips lol, still needs a good bit of work like sanding the edges so they are perfectly smooth looking & need to get rid of some scratches which the alu already had when I received it but it's going well, also I thought I fixed the right side panels helicoils but no they are still iffy so best thing to do is remove the helicoils & use m4 helicoils & bolts, shame as the left sides helicoils are perfectly fine so I must have drilled the right side badly creating too much space.
Bunch of pics of the pieces for today, couldn't help myself & took quite a few :D.
Looks awesome! :up:
Can't wait to see it done!
Thanks 88 :):up:.Quote:
Originally Posted by x88x
Thanks AmEv :):up:.Quote:
Originally Posted by AmEv
Up early again but not sure what to start on today :D.
Holy sheet I've developed a muscle in my forearm I never knew existed & it aches a lot, filing total for yesterday & today rounds up to about 17 hours, gahhh I feel like a zombie.
The brass thread inserts are meant for acyrlic but I must have miss drilled the bottom right side holes for the helicoils so were not a good tight fit so I used a 4mm drill bit for the brass inserts, placed them in the hole.
Hammer time :D
Put masking tape over it to keep it in place & whacked it in with a hammer, then fine tuned the whacking with a small hammer so it was in flush, good stuff :D, seems I clipped the back panel & it made the right panel not go on correct so whacked the excess off with a chisel & it goes on fine now.
Fan mount bars.
Cut the main 6 bars to required size & was only gonna do these 6 & the other optional 2 or 4 tomorrow but done the lot today.
Many hours of this.
Test fit
Panels on with an extra bolt near the top back of the side panels & the front 2 fan mounts, top fan mount & bottom fan mount filing done.
Lookin' schweet!!!
+r
Thanks AmEv :):up:
Just taken the mobo tray out & going to use the rest of today to get it measured & marked up for the motherboard & fan mounts.
Knowing people are following the log & commenting really does give me that bit more drive to keep moving forward, without the comments from people I'd still be doing slack efforts lol so thanks for that :up: & last but not least thanks to every other modder who do amazing projects who have inspired me to do better :):up:.
I marked up the mobo panel for the fan mounts & where the pci/io piece will go during the night but need to make the pci/io piece before I can mark the mobo mounting holes so I'll work on that tomorrow, had a crazy long sleep waking up at 2 pm yesterday after the filing so I count that as 2 days worth of sleep :D, I should have been up all day too which should mean a decent update by the end of today but I nodded off the sleep so wrecks the acceptable noise time levels so tomorrow it is :up:.
LOL I can't figure out why I didn't draw the pci/io lines on the materials when I drew the mobo tray layout last night as it's taken near 3 hours & it's ready for taking to the garage to be cut out which with it being near 8 pm I'll leave until tomorrow now but a little more rest won't hurt :D.
This was inspired by an aluminium billet pci/io piece I seen a while ago here on bit-tech but the guys price was I think nearly 200 euros (about the cost of the aluminium on this project), I was in love with it but the price ended that lol so I decided to make my own solid pci/io piece by making layers, the theory is spot on, just hope it turns out the same :) taken precise measurements from a lian-li piece, made the sketchup model & now it's time to make it.
I'll be using 2x 5mm acrylic sheets, 2x 2mm aluminium sheets & 1x 1mm sheet to make a 15mm thick piece, only the 2mm inside sheet will have slots, all the rest will be plain cut out area, always wanted to make my own & figure this will be the easiest way to do it compared to bending a sheet of alu.
This was going to be an update earlier but got cracking on with an alternative so it wasn't a wasted day :up:.
LOL didn't go to plan :facepalm: the metal work did but the 5mm acrylic pieces didn't it's just soo brittle so came back in to get my thoughts together & as usual came up with an alternative which is all aluminium & if that fails then I could always go with a pci/io piece from another case & admit defeat on making my own but I'll give it another try but yeah that means loads of marking up again which takes a while to do right.
So the new plan is 5 3mm pieces bolted together, got 1 done & checked the IO cover from my last mobo & it won't go in easily because of it being 3mm instead of 1mm thick so to fix that all I need to do is give it a bevel on the last piece so the notches of the IO cover can click on.
Anyway the marking up will be nice & fast actually as I have 1 of the pieces made & it's spot on so it'll make a good template even for the 1 with the slots so back to it I go :D included the failed acrylic pieces for a laugh, the 1st 1 when drilling ripped a corner off & the 2nd 1 was going ok & cut out the IO piece but the reciprocating saw melted the cuts so wouldn't fall out & with already being frustrated with the 1st piece I whacked it out & it ripped it in half lol.
Hopefully I'll have some more pieces done by the end of the day, especially the 1 with the slots.
Started off positive.
Metal work went well.
Hmmmm acrylic pieces :lol:.
Last try but this time all alu :D.
Alright, got the needed pieces marked up in about 15 minutes thanks to the piece I already made, time to cut these out & even with getting them done as fast as possible it took 4 hours to cut all these & they require a lot of filing, I'll just have to remember it'll be worth it lol.
Yeah they look rough as I don't know what but that will change after heaps of filing :D.
Started at 9:15 PM, finished 4:40 AM lol, managed to keep the noise quiet by clamping heavily & holding the pieces so they don't make any vibration or high pitch noise, then came in & cleaned the kitchen, made a coffee & started putting this together while parking my rear, ahhhhh :D.
They still require some more work but nothing major :).
Holy bung load of filing batman!!!! :eek: Looks like some good progress though.
BTW love the mug. :up:
Impressive. You're going to have Popeye sized arms by the time you're done this project!
The filing :dead: I'm hoping there won't be much more of it :D.Quote:
Originally Posted by msmrx57
My modding drink of choice is cappuccino with 3 sugars, really keeps me going, well that & my mp3 player :D.
LOL Thanks MainMan :D.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMainMan
The grade of the sheet aluminium is much softer than the bars but was still a fair bit of effort.
You.
Are
Amazing.
Wow.
LOL Thanks AmEv :redface::up:.Quote:
Originally Posted by AmEv
About the delay.
Forgot to login to say it's on hold until I get the 15mm bolts for holding the pci pieces together, ordered them yeasterday & been told I could expect them to arrive on friday :up:.
Rolling on again :).
Today I thought why not just make the pci/io jig for while I drill 2.5mm holes for fixing the plates together & used some 2.5mm nuts & bolts while I file them so they blend together better, inside work is done on the 4 plates while the slotted plate needs finishing & the exterior needs the same inside treatment to look good, but yeah I'm liking how they are turning out & the 2.5mm holes are ready to be tapped for m3 bolts :up:.
Think it took about 2 to 3 hours this.
Also while I was getting busy doing this & came back over to see if the bolts had come they have :) so I have the 15mm m3 countersunk bolts & the m6 countersunk bolts for the case feet (wanted to replace the standard bolts for countersunk ones) but thinking about it I might go with the easy option of using the stock bolts, undecided :think:.
Snazzy.
I'm just curious what you would need 4 network ports for.
Just curious. ;)
Looking good. :up:
Oh I only ever used the 1 out of the 4 on my last mobo lol :), thanks AmEv :up:.Quote:
Originally Posted by AmEv
Thanks msmrx57 :):up:.Quote:
Originally Posted by msmrx57
Diggsy on overclockers.co.uk mentioned to me that it looked like the slotted piece & IO was on wrong & indeed it was lol :facepalm:, just a little hiccup when I put it back together as I had the 4 none slotted pieces bolted together while I filed the inside edges, thankfully all is ok, phew was worried for a moment there :D.
I tried, I failed at making my own wish it were billet pci/io piece lol bleep happens, 1 of the bolts snapped in half & is stuck in the piece & the hole is countersunk so can't hide that & can't accept such a big imperfection so I drilled a spare pci/io piece off an old case & I'll go with that now, 2 things I'm gutted about: 1 the amount of time ultimately wasted on making this part. 2: it was starting to turn out awesome.
Also the 15mm bolts I ordered were 13mm this is why I had to countersink deeper so they'd stretch the full length.
I know I could fix it by filling all the holes & using adhesive to stick them together but that's not a standard I'd be truly happy with so I'm gonna try to forget about it & use the standard piece.
I was premature about calling it a failure :banana:.
So here's what I done.
I did the rest of the bolts to hold the plates together & the failed 1 I ignored & did a new bolt very close to it, had to grind the bolt down so it was correct length, then started on the mounting holes for attaching the piece to the mobo tray & back panel, used wd-40 on all the drilling, tapping & then put helicoils in all the mounting holes, I left the expansion card holes alone as I'm thinking of making a clamp piece that holds all cards in place.
So I'm going to use body filler to cover all the countersunk bolt heads & to hide the failed hole & for getting the mounting holes aligned to the mobo panel & back panel I'll use my tried & tested cotton bud stick with a blob of paint on method lol it works perfectly so why not :D.
0.0
\_/
Whoa.
:D:up:Quote:
Originally Posted by AmEv
Ugh it's 1 of those days where I'm trying to do something but getting nowhere & just over thinking & was even considering going with a regular pci piece again so came back into the warmth to get my scatterbrain together lol :).
My good old method of using cotton bud tips wasn't possible (cotton bud sticks were too thick for the holes), that method was only good for rivets or fan holes so instead I put bolts in the mounting holes, filled the sockets up with paint & then pressed it against the mobo tray so it was perfectly to the edge & it worked perfect, but I found I'll need to do that for the back panel first as there is a tiny gap so yeah that means I have 3 unwanted holes but luckily they are hidden behind an angle bar :D:p.
So time to rest, then go at it again tomorrow :).
All but 3 of the holes lined up, the off 3 were only off by a smidge so I used my 3mm mill bit to expand the hole to where it was needed & it's nicely done :D.
My countersink bit is past it's best though & started making a bad job of countersinking so it's time to throw it away :( but I just ordered a new one so hopefully it will be here soon :).
Also with it being so well fixed to the back panel I believe I can get away with not attaching it to the mobo panel, it's all solid so no real need :).
