I like the fans.
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I like the fans.
Thank you Luthien :).
Ok, see what you all think of this :neutral:.
Had a rough nights sleep as I fell asleep at the pc & had an auto shut down, 1 minute I was watching a show, next I woke up 9am lol so wasn't in best form for today.
The day of modding started fine, marked a grill to cut & went to work on it.
I'm unsure if it worked out well, when I went to enlarge the middle mount hole it went all the way through which was bad. I gave up on doing the grill, my files were barely doing anything on the 6mm plastic so as a result I had to cut a bigger than normal hole to get past where I was trying to do a grill (the new hole cutter is awesome though :)), also some spray managed to get under a bit of the masking :(, but there was a good layer of clear on it so I should be able to fix that pretty easily.
Good points, it made the cover more rigid & have better temps than before the extra fan mod, theres virtually always a way to fix things up, window on the outside was either not a good idea or I just fluffed up over & over or I'm tired & not thinking straight.
I honestly don't know if this extra mod is good or bad or inbetween, but do know there are some things I could do to fix it up if I'm correct in thinking it's not looking right, but if it's good then I'll just need to fix the extra large vent hole (easy fix).
I really don't know what to make of this top piece which is why I'm including quite a few shots of it to see what you all think, designed it quick & made it quick within 3 days so it's such a drastic change from what it was, could do with as many opinions as possible please.
Again I could do with as many opinions as possible please.
That looks really good! I like it. A lot
Thanks Couch
Just so you all know, I'm having a small time out, I managed to remove the plastic piece I think it was a bit of a wreck when I failed doing a grill & then made the hole to cut out what went wrong, it was hellish to get the bolts out too, all of the allen head sockets lost the sockets so had to use mole grips for all of them, It's off now, there was a moment where I thought I messed it up completely.
I did some more testing with the extra fan & found an even better spot to place it, looks better & cools better, pretty much just above the bottom side fan so the left side panel will require an extra vent which will probably be the most difficult part to do with it already having a window there.
Set myself a realistic goal of having the top & side done by the time Mafia II releases which is 27-aug (game I'm most looking forward to this year :D) I'll probably have it done way before that date but gives me a chance to step back & really think this out & do this properly :).
I'll try & save the next update for when it's finished :up:.
It looks good.
Was going to make my last update my final but delivery delays so why not a quicky before the finished pics :).
Ok so here's the new top, made a frame from 20mmx3mm & 40mmx3mm flat bars to cover up the mounting holes from the previous plastic top piece, painted them same colour as the fan frames, stuck them down with 2 part araldite epoxy resin, put my left over ac-ryan mesh x to use, barely had enough to do this, painted it the same colour as the fan blades, for the time being the mesh is held in with scotch mounting tape & for the finishing touch 2 3mm thick windows that slip into the 2 vents in the top making for a flush fit, the top windows can easily be removed just by poking through from underneath & lifting out, the side panels needed a means of getting fresh air so I went with the mesh on both sides so the entire case is awesomely air cooled & very well ventilated.
Excuse the nasty surroundings, my room is like a bin at the moment lol :D.
Here is the new revised placement of the extra fan, I stuck a 1/2 inch angle bar to a 40mmx3mm flat bar for extra support & stuck the flat bar to a middle level flar bar, it's a very close fit for the fan mount but is just perfect, honestly amazed at the temperatures now.
Re-made the front spacers & added 5mm LED holes, 8 LED's for the tripple mount, 4 LED's for the single mount & going with blue & green, waiting for the extra LED's (tested it with 2 green LED's & it looks good glad I went for it :).
Still waiting for sewing machine oil so I can fix the fans, must have wiped whatever lubrication was on them off when I painted them all.
All in all this is mighty close to finished & I'm far happier with the new top, can't wait to get all the fans lubricated & install the new front lit up spacers & call it finished.
Still got the other half of the LED's to come tomorrow, once I place them where I want them, I'll work out the wires so it all uses 1 molex for each spacer instead of 6 & so it can be switched on/off, yet to figure out where to put the switch, here's some daytime & night time pre final shots :).
Day
Night
Another thing kind of off topic but, my razer lycosa keyboard has been playing up by blacking out for a second now & again so I dug deep & ordered a steel series 7g, looks a great no nonesense quality keyboard, the lycosa had issues with the media control panel not long after buying it, I fixed that by snipping the connections to the boards internals & now randomly blacking out making me miss letters in words now & again not even a year old, so after looking at gaming boards they were all overpriced gimmicky nonesense types, the roccat valo v2 would have been a good choice if it weren't for the extra 100 macro keys lol, the logitech g19 needs ac power for the bling it carries, thought there were no good gaming keyboards anymore & then read up about the 7g & my mind was made up almost instantly so should have it soon woo hoo :D.
It's kinda northern lightsish but static :D.
Got the extra LED's today but need to wait for braiding supplies because all the LED's have piled up the wires so I'm going to modify them all to be nice & neat so with luck I'll have them tomorrow.
Woo hoo, all main work finished, but yeah you guessed it theres still more to come lol (most unprofessional worklog ever).
Had a problem with compacting the pre-made LED cables combining green & blue LED's to use 1 molex passthrough, the green ones were wired funny compared to the blue ones so had to do them seperate so the front lights use 4 molex passthroughs, originally had it all nicely heatshrinked & sleeved for the first 2 times, then lost the will to sleeve them properly & instead used thin strips of gaffer tape wrapped around them & used my glue gun to stick the cables to the plastic spacer so at least it's tidy wires, just not pretty looking like sleeving is :D, next time I'm playing with LED's I'll be making them myself, still got to make it so the lights can be switched on/off.
I removed the meshx, like I said earlier the panels I cut barely fit so if looked at a cirtain angle I can see small gaps so it's not a perfect fit, also tested if temps were affected with solid covers for the sides & they were not so I have some 0.7mm sheet aluminium spare & since the air compressor is back up & running good I'm thinking of doing some designs for grills to fit inside where the mesh was & then stick a window behind them, need to think up a nice design first though, want it so you can still clearly see the insides which the meshx failed on imo so I'm chomping at the bit to do some dremel work after struggling with human jigsaw method lol :D.
On with the latest pictures without the mesh & side windows & LED's done & plain windows in the top for now until I make the new grills :), night & day pics.
Can't wait to get busy with the air dremel again :banana:.
that looks awesome! +rep
I love the lights awesome job. :D plus rep :up:
Quote:
Originally Posted by SXRguyinMA
:banana: Thanks for the compliment & rep mates :):up:.Quote:
Originally Posted by Axis Machine
Woo hoo the new keyboard came but is that a home key I see missing.
then an 8 key
then a hash key with the missing keys in the box.
They plugged back on easy :), decent sturdy board, nice keys, no silly touch sensitive panels just a straight up good board.
I've always ditched palm rests from keyboards but with the height of this board it actually makes it better so it went back on & here is the design I'm going to do for the side grills & mini ones for the top, the nice thing about these grills is I'm taking zero risk in damaging the already made panels so no pressure :) I'll hopefully have at least the side windows done & smoothed out today will be a joy to do on 0.7mm sheet, maybe an update later :).
Lol, didn't even get around to do any dremel work, but did cut pieces to size, masked up & drawn the pattern on, the thin lines are what will be staying the rest is what I'll cut out.
Sides
Top pieces
This new keyboard is ultra sensitive, only bad thing about it is the small backspace which I should soon get used to, other than that it's perfect :).
A little step closer to finished :banana:.
Refined part of 1 of the panels design (was a little off, fixed).
Cut the most difficult incisions to keep it all accurate to the drawing so the rest will be easier to do.
First piece out :D.
Some more.
All out, now time for a little filing & then a good sanding session, the sanding will be the most time consuming.
Messy
Clean
Ready for filing then sanding :D.
Started late today so only got this far, took just over an hour to get the dremel work done on 1 of them don't want to be making much noise past 6pm, I'll try to start at 10am tomorrow & get the other 3 done, the side panels are done with 0.7mm sheet so were nice & easy but run out of 0.7mm so the top panels will be done with 1mm.
Colour wise, I'm thinking ice blue for these panels :):up:.
This would have been posted earlier but the forum was down for me so here it is, glad it's back up :banana:.
Well, got up bright & early with full intent to get the new panels done, just smoothing the edges of 1 of them took near 3 hours :D, then I went to work on the next panel, made a couple of incisions then the cutting disc got stuck & when I freed it the mandrel screw top snapped off & have no spares arrrrrgh delayed by a mandrel typical lol :D, bit gutted but these things happen.
But I did a test fit of the one I made, still needs a little work on it as noted in the picture & the surface needs a good sanding but I'll save surface finishing till last :).
:D My dad bought a couple of new air tools just before the gasket blew & he reminded me about them & suggested to try it out on some scrap so I did & wow I'm very impressed, bye bye dremel days lol :D no more metal dust in my face & no need for steaming up hard to see through glasses :D.
I don't know the name of the tool but it's cross between a jigsaw & small hacksaw & prooved relatively easy to cut out complex shapes, the 0.7mm sheet didn't go to well though so I might re-do the side panel.
I had to learn how to use it, it's like a dremel but you need to lean way over the piece your working with so you can clearly see where your cutting but cuts far far easier, after the side panel I had it sussed, I mostly needed to clamp the work piece down better to minimise vibrations, this new tool will be absolutely awesome for thick materials as the 1mm sheet came out very nice & will need minimal cleaning up, also the blade is still good & sharp after doing these 3 panels, on with the pics :D.
This was the 0.7mm one which came out quite badly before I had the technique & clamping sussed.
The wavey strip above the workpiece was my practice to see if I could follow the lines & could fairly easily :).
On with the 1mm sheet which went quite perfectly :D.
I think I'll have to throw the 0.7mm sheet, it needs a lot of cleaning up & is bent all over the place, tried whacking it into shape with a mallet but it's still not so good, I'll try a couple more things to fix it but not worried about having to do a new one now I know how to do this :up:.
I love the steel series keyboards. Also, the blue and green lighting on the fans looks nice.
Thanks Luthien, I am very impressed with the keyboard, best I ever had :) well worth the money.Quote:
Originally Posted by Luthien
When I said no more dremel I was a bit hasty, sitting here looking at the front grills I highly doubt I could do that with the saw but the saw will replace quite a bit of what I do with a dremel especially for simplish cuts like what I just done.
I have a couple of new pictures showing the new grills overlapped, my bro says I should do it, but I'm not so sure about it especially the double the work bit lol takes a fair bit of effort to make all edges really smooth.
Standard intended piece which still needs smoothing out
Double overlapped piece
The thought of the effort is making me cringe already :D, possibly 3 hours to smooth each piece about 25min to cut each piece, so possibly a couple of days solid cutting & sanding :eek:, suppose I could spread it out over a week, dunno what do you all think?.
Finished doing the rough cuts of the side panels yesterday, today I started at about 3pm but smoothed off all 4 of the panels edges, finished at 11pm, had about 4 little smoke breaks, thought it would have taken days to do them but got really stuck in on them :D.
Pictures showing original simple plan of how I might have them & doubled up, I must admit the doubled up ones do look good but I only have a little 1mm & 1.5mm sheet spare now so it'll be a mix of the 2 thicknesses, anyway if I was to double them all up I now know I could do it within 2 days if I don't slack :):up:.
I'll get some temp installed pics up tomorrow ;).
The doubled up 3d effect really does make it pop...
Does a bit eh :), thanks slaveofconventention.
Some night & day shots with the new panels temporarily installed 1 layer type. I think I will give the double layered style a shot so plan for today is cut the sheets to size, trace the already made panels instead of draw them, cut them out, tomorrow tons of filing & sanding lol.
Pic time just to show what it'd look like as single layer, I will do the double layer :D.
I likle this nightshot best :).
To be honest though I was quite impressed with how these looked when I installed them so should look even better when doubled up :D.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention I painted the fan bolt heads ice blue :D, I got a strip of blue tack, pushed them through in a line, masked the threads, scuffed the heads, cleaned, primed, coloured, cleared.
Rather than make the extra panels, I just took the ones I made & stuck them together with mounting tape & stuck them in, here are the daylight shots, I'll do night ones later ;).
Also replaced my old & tatty alarm clock.
With this beaut, tells time, temperature & date, I'm going to make an angled platform for it, until then I'll use stacks of 2p's lol.
hot damn, those new cuts look amazing!!!
:D Thanks billygoat, each panel takes about an hour to do the actual cutting, then a tiny bit of filing here & there. Drawing the patterns on took longer lol, then 2 to 4 hours sanding the edges with 2 different grits 60 & 240 60 takes the longest, I cut thin longish strips of sandpaper, clamp the piece between 2 pieces of wood in a vice & clamp the top end to keep it steady & work from 1 end to the other bit by bit pulling back & forth with a little pressure with the strips of sandpaper until smooth so took 2 days altogether to do all 4 pieces.
Day 1 cut sheets to size, then mask it up, match up where the hole on the panel is & draw around it, then draw the designs on, then drill in key spots so the saw can get in, carefully clamp pieces of wood over the gap of the workbench then cut the shapes out adjusting the clamp as I go along.
Day 2 a full day of sanding, just what mp3 players were made for, well that & exercising :D.
I'll be having the rest of the day off, take the night shots, then decide if I do the doubled up version.
Ok, just taken the night shots but I'm unsure if I like them or not whereas the single I thought it looked fine straight away, wow I just don't know :?.
When I saw the top window with the beveled edges I thought WOW, that looks awesome. Then I saw the mesh effect and thought you had outdone yourself. Now with the doubled up alu patterns you have really outdone yourself, it looks fantastic. You really have done a lot of work while I was on holidays :D.
:D Thanks Jase, that 3 weeks flew by lol hope you had a good holiday mate :), the case is almost done, once I have these panels made, painted & attached I'll be contacting the guy who wants to feature it in a mag to let him know it's finished :), I just couldn't let it be featured knowing it could have been improved a bit here & there :D.
I admit the double layer looked good, but it disguised the pattern too much so since I'm yet to do the extra layer panels I thought I'd do a pattern that flows with the original ones, they could go above or below the originals, whichever looks best & sticking with the colours of the fans frame & blades, also decided to remake 1 of the top panels as it were not as good as the other.
So I have 5 panels to cut & sand, if I push myself I'll have the panels cut today & the sanding done tomorrow, but having said that the new patterns are less complex so should be a little easier.
Here is the side & top panel laid over what I'm going to do, I sure have my work cut out for the next days :eek:.
Holidays were awesome mate, would recommend New Zealand to anyone, especially the south island. However, sadly it's back to reality for me which means another semester of uni but also some time to finish planning my next project ;).
From what I can see the new patterns look more organic, more free flowing. I can't wait :D.
My mate says he loves new zealand & wants to go back there to live, sounds good there, study well & you'll breeze uni :).
Oh & you don't have to wait I got really stuck in again & got them all cut, just need to sand them smooth :D. Started about 3pm finished at 7pm, not bad for 5 panels :).
That's more work then I can get done in 4 hours, congrats. I can't wait to see the panels sanded up.
Here we go :D.
Overslept until 3pm lol must have been knackered from all the cutting, had a few cappuccinos & started sanding at 4pm, had 2 smokie breaks & finished at 11pm, wolfed down a bowl of broccoli & beef pasta then had to use the flash to take the sanded pics.
Need to put an order in for the paint all the local auto shops only seem to stock 1 of each colour & often don't have what I want.
Once I have these painted I have a mammoth task of cleaning the garage & my dads bikes lol :D.
The reason for the black panels is I searched around the house & found some 1mm thick black anodised sheet I had left over from the prototype air cube.
looks great
I agree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Luthien
Thanks Luthien & Jase :):up:.
Done a test fit for while I wait for the paint, should look sweet once painted ice blue & dark steel blue, both metallics.
Good thing I did a test fit, a little more needs filing down on the inside edges of the side grills.
Looks great! It will be really sharp with the different shades of blue.
The different shades of blue sounds awesome, can't wait to see how it turns out.
Phew, glad you guys think so :D, seems it's having a like it or don't effect on some people, but yeah I think it will look pretty sweet when painted, I guess modders are better at visualising what things would look like once done, someone also suggested polishing the primary layer & painting the secondry layer the same colour as the case, I do admit that would look pretty sweet but would be very dificult to do & a pain to maintain, chrome plating came to mind to make it an easier & supremely better looking option but don't have the budget to do that & don't have a lot of faith in the postage system especially for things I've worked hard on, paint just requires a bit of dusting now & again :D, chrome plating is something I'll be finding more about though for my future builds instead of polishing, I'm not too keen on polished alu to be honest, but chrome plating could be fantastic, alu needs treating with something before it can be chrome plated so I'd expect it to not be cheap.
Back to the project I filed & sanded the inside borders of the primary side panel layers so they'll look that smidge better when it's done, so just waiting for the paint now.
Polishing alu does take a while but the key is to make it easier for yourself. For larger bits use an orbit sander with fine grit disks to sand it smooth, for smaller pieces it's best to use your hands or you can get away with using the Dremel every now and again.
Thanks for the tips Jase :):up:.
Just a status update this one.
Got the paint yesterday, the layer panels were already prepped so primed, sanded, coloured, cleared them all, went to install them today & had a couple of face palm moments :facepalm::D.
I put the side panels in the wrong way round, but carried on taking pictures then thought midway through taking the pics all the effort I've put into this & I'm doing that lol so took them off & put them on the right way & heres the other face palm moment, I painted the wrong sides of the secondry layer on the sides so the patterns didn't line up as planned, very glad I ordered 2 of each colour, whipped them off & painted the other sides, should be good to go tomorrow lol :D.
The difference in the 2 shades of blue isn't much to be honest but still looks good, I think the only way I'm going to get pictures done to do it justice is if I make a cheapo photo boothe, the light in my room makes my photography & the case look shoddy & with it being finished I want to get as good of quality pictures as possible with my camera to finish this log off :).
Bit the bullet & just ordered the ingredients for a cheapo makeshift photo boothe.
3 light fittings which can clip onto things
3 daylight bulbs
a clothes line
a plain white shower curtain
a big piece of black fabric & white fabric to see which is best looking.
£46 all ordered so should hopefully have some sweet finished pictures incoming by next week :).
I could post some pictures tomorrow but I'd rather post good quality pics once I have the boothe made ;), it's about time I upped the photo quality :D.
LOL, not a lot goes to plan & waiting for the bits for a photo boothe is no exception :D.
I remembered I had a couple of sheets of white foamboard that I originally bought to make a big photo boothe but didn't end up making it. Did want to take the case outside but were no sign of at least dry weather so I experimented & got a bright idea of using the light coming into my room as good as possible combined with my kodak easyshare z950 & a tripod.
So the bits I ordered for making a photo boothe won't go to waste, not at all, it'll all be perfect for any future project logs ;).
Placed a sheet up against the north faced wall so it could catch the light coming from the south, taped it to furniture, placed the other sheet on the floor, placed a lazy susan on it so I can easily swivel it around to catch all angles & took 151 pictures lol :D, a lot to cherry pick in that lot, got down to 49 cropped pics, should probably do some more picking to slim the post down but no I'll just post them, sorry if it's too many but wanted the pics to capture what it really looks like.
On with the daylight lazy susan foamboard enhanced 100% finished pics of the Air Cube woooo.
And finally the photo boothe lol :D & the mess I need to tidy & clean :D.
Massive thank you to all who tuned in to view & comment, happy modding all, I have no idea what I'll make next but I'm sure an idea will pop into my head in time :):up:.
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