Neptune's Trident

[Boddaker]

WEEKEND UPDATE!

Did a bunch of work on the mesh boxes, and got them almost done. woot! I went ahead and made the
notches in the tops, so the fittings and wc lines would clear. I cut one side,

...then the other.

For the top, I made a cut down the middle, then bent each part to line up with the side cuts.

All bent. I will cover the gap in the middle with an extra piece of mesh and screw it down.

Since this mesh would cut down on airflow if left as is, I need to remove some material on both sides.
For the radiator side, rather than just cutting a boring square hole, I thought it would be cool to mimic the
side window design. So after measuring the radiator, I cut out a cardboard template.

Then used it to transfer the design onto the mesh boxes.

Using the drill press, I made numerous starter holes,

... and proceeded to cut it out with the skil saw.

What I couldn't get with the skil saw, I finished up with the rotary tool, then filed the edges down.

Here's a shot of the mesh boxes in place against the rads.

Once that was done, I turned the boxes over and cut the round hole for the fans.

Then it was time to mount the fan grills. I came up with a design that incorporates the trident
shape, and had Moddersmart cut them out of mirrored acrylic.

Here's a close up shot:

I used some 3/8" nylon spacers to set them off the mesh a bit, and secured them with 6/32 screws that
screw right into the mesh. Any excess protruding through the back was cut off. This way the mesh
boxes are totally self-contained and can be removed easily.

A shot of two mesh boxes in place on the rad/fan mounts.

..and with the side panel on:

And finally a shot of the rad side with the panel on:

The boxes still need some finish work before they are ready for paint, but they're pretty much done
for the most part.
Got word that my T3 reservoirs will be shipping this week so I can't wait to check them out when they arrive!

[Boddaker]

Mounted the front logo medallion last night to see how it looks.

After placing the piece on the front, I marked the holes,

..and drilled them out.

Using the same 3/8" nylon spacers and 6/32 screws, I mounted it directly to the mesh.

Not sure I'm happy with it yet. Even though it looks nice now against the aluminum case, remember
that I will be painting the case blue. So I'll need to do something else to make it pop off the case more.
Perhaps a backlit effect is in order?

[Boddaker]

Ok, here's what I did: I wanted to see what the individual tridents (cut-out from the medallion) looked like on the front. So it's a reverse of what I had earlier.

I realize I'm posed with the same blue-on-blue situation as before, and I'll toy with different ideas in a bit, but I wanted to get your opinion on this first.

Which do you think is better: Medallion with trident cut-outs, or individual tridents?

[Boddaker]

Ok, how bout this:

I kinda took both versions and made this one. After seeing it lit up with the led fan, it was still too hard to see the separate trident shapes. So I introduced a solid background between them. But instead of just the circle, I made it into a tear drop shape to be consistent with the water theme, and then worked in the power/reset buttons.

So the tear drop shape will be polished aluminum with trident shapes cut out of it, and the transparent blue tridents will be inset. The light from the led fan should provide the backlighting for the tear drop, and maybe even help the tridents glow a bit as well. If not, I can always add a few led's behind the tear drop to help out.

What do you guys think?

[Boddaker]

First off, I want to thank you guys for all your cool suggestions and opinions. It's great to be able to bounce ideas off you and get feedback.

But I think I'm going to do something else for the front. Forget all the acrylic tridents and medallions, tear drops, and get back to the basics, as it were. Once again I'm getting too complicated and I must reel myself in. The main focus of this mod is the T3 reservoirs, and there shouldn't be anything else on the case to detract from them. Got something in mind that will be subtle, elegant, yet consistent with the trident theme. Will mock it up tonight.

[Boddaker]

Ok, here's what I ended up with after simplifying things: I'm repeating the trident window shape and
spacing it off the mesh a bit so I can add some backlighting, then relocating the power/reset
buttons and IO ports. That's it. Simple, consistent, clean.

Here's a wide shot to give you a basic over view of the entire case.

I gave it a lighter color in Sketchup so it was more visible over the blue mesh, but I may actually
paint it along with the rest of the case, and just let the backlighting define its shape.

I think it's finally there, but I still want to hear your thoughts.

[Boddaker]

Got some actual work done on the front! Was so anxious to start working on it, I neglected to take
pics of the cutting. But that's just basic stuff anyways... measure, mark, measure, cut.

After cutting and filing the edges, I proceeded to bend the bottom tips of the trident. Looking around the garage
for a suitable object to bend around, I spotted the post of my drill press, and saw how easy it was to dismantle lol.
Moments later, I had it in the vise and beating the trident into submission.

The result. The surface is a bit weathered, but it's nothing a good sanding won't cure. I'm just focusing on the
smooth curve for now.

Positioning it onto the case it looks to be about right. This will give me about a 1/2" space between
the trident and the mesh.

So I marked some holes and drilled them out.

Screwed it right into the mesh.

I removed it again and cut the top off level with the bottom of the drive bays, then drilled a 3/4" hole
for the power button. After a good sanding and clean-up, it looks like this:

I will be adding a piece of blue transparent acrylic behind the trident as well as a short tube to cover the
back side of the switch. Also have to drill some small holes to accommodate the pwr and hd leds.

More to come!

[Boddaker]

Thanks Jeff... and that didn't sound gay, until you said it sounded gay lol!

Front trident really does look good. I was wondering how you measure out for those bends, I can't quite get my head around it lol (pardon the pun). I am thinking of making a rounded edged case for my next build and want to make it Silverstone style from a single piece of alu and want to get it right the first time.

For those bends, I didn't actually measure anything. I just started bending the ends around the pipe and kept checking its position on the front until I got the center of the trident about where I needed it, then went back and straightened the ends to give me a flat mounting surface. I figured I could just cut off any excess if I needed to, but it turned out to be about right. Then once that was done, I just lopped off the top to fit.

For your case, just make sure you leave enough material on the ends so that after the bends you can just cut them down as needed. That way you dont have to compensate for the metal stretching from all the bending.

[Boddaker]

Thanks for the info, I never thought of bending it first and cutting off the excess later lol. 1 More question, how this was that alu you used, is it pretty strong? I was thinking of using 3-4mm for my case, you think that's strong enough?

I'm re-using alu from the original windowed lian li side panel, and it's thickness is .08, which I believe equates to 1.5mm. It's plenty strong, so it must be a harder aluminum than what you used on Lexa.

[Boddaker]

Work continues on the front piece...

Marked out the location of the front IO ports.

I started by drilling out the center of the holes,

Then went in with the rotary tool to trim out towards the lines.

Finished up with a bit of filing and sanding. Once that was done, I made the mounting holes and screwed in
the port module for a test fit.

Next up is the acrylic counterpart. Stay tuned!