the light is probably a train... with your luck...
hope ur luck turns around man... good luck
That's great news. Glad they finally shipped your Carbon Fiber.
Yeah, I'm really glad too.
if they fall through again check out www.dragonplate.com
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Ladies and Gentleman, THE CARBON FIBER WAS DELIVERED. -Most of it.
Yes its true, today I finally received most of my carbon fiber order. I say most of it because I got almost all of the pieces and scraps that I requested except for 3 of the sides and some detail pieces for the interior. For some reason they are missing. And to be honest, I doubt I will be getting them. However they did send an extra piece of carbon fiber that I hopefully will be able to cut them out of. Most of the pieces I ordered were made from 3mm to 4mm sheets. However the extra sheet they sent me is 5mm thick! Its strong as hell but might be a little too thick and cause some alignment issues. -We'll see.
Here are some shots showing the pieces. They came nicely individually packaged in plastic to protect them. -keep in mind this is real 2x2 Twill carbon fiber that I had them make Double sided. Most carbon fiber sheets are shiny on one side and dull/textured on the other. This stuff is a mirror finish on both sides. These pieces were also cut out with a water jet.
Here are Most of the smaller pieces. I'm keeping them in the plastic untill needed to protect them.
Here are 2 of the sides and the extra 5mm sheet they sent.
and the mother board tray. I included a standard size tape measure so you can get a feel for the size.
Here is the top panel.
You can really see the refection in this shot.
Now for the bad things I noticed about the panels. Some of them had "air pockets" that formed in the middle of the panels. Some were small and not really that big of a deal. but other sheets had some huge ones.
Here is a shot showing the edge of one of the pieces that had a huge air pocket. I'm spreading the sheet apart with my finger. Hopefully I can inject some epoxy into the holes and clamp them down to seal them up.
I also noticed that the panels were not a consistant thickness. Here is a shot showing the typical 4mm thickness at one corner of the panel.
But at others it dropped down quite a bit.
There were some minor imperfections in the surface of some of the panels too. but due to their design, I can just flip them over and use the better of the two sides on the outside of the case. The inside won't be seen as much.
Overall I'm Impressed with the panels I got. The air pockets is discouraging and missing several pieces is really a bummer, but I may have a way to work around it since they sent the extra piece. The look of carbon fiber is just amazing and I doubt any camera can capture the effect it gives. So keep that in mind when you view the shots.
And now my first official progress update....
I started by pulling a motherboard tray out of an old case of mine.
I proceeded to drill the rivets out so I can use the back panel.
Here you can see the back panel on top of the CF panel.
I taped the panel off to protect it.
Then I measured and taped off an area and sanded it to give it some Tooth for the epoxy glue to bite into.
I cut a piece of 1/2" aluminum angle to form a support. This will become the mounting method for the motherboard tray.
Using some Red anodizing paint. (Which is kick ass stuff by they way) I painted it red.
I mixed up some epoxy in little measured cups. My first batch was about 20 times too much! Lesson learned.
Then I placed the angle on the CF panel and clamped her down to dry.
That all I was able to get done tonight.
I'm so happy to finally be working on this, I want to go down and do some more right now. But I need to sleep too. I hope you guys like how this mod is going. As always I'm open to any comments, or suggestions you may have.
-Sorry for the long post. But I had a lot to cover.
The carbon fiber looks great. Glad they got it together and sent it to you. It's discouraging that it isn't perfect but it'll still turn out great. I like the color red you are using. Can't wait to see more.
Cool.. cf.. tho the panels aren't the same thickness, as long as the come together its all good, dan.
Those carbon fiber panels look pretty sexy! This build is going to be sweet!
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WOW that stuff is hot. +rep
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