Neptune's Trident

[Boddaker]

And now, the acrylic portion of the front trident:

I traced the shape onto a piece of blue transparent acrylic.

Used my scroll saw to cut it out. As you can see, I cut a rectangular hole for the IO module to fit through.
No need to cut individual holes.

Then it was time to do the bends. I found this piece of acrylic tube to be the right diameter. Had to be careful
though not to melt it while heating up the trident piece lol!

Bent. I did distort the tube a bit, but it wasn't enough to worry about.

I bent a little bit more than I needed to, just to make sure I had a nice curve. I marked the aluminum
trident where it meets the case.

Then transferred that mark to the acrylic and cut off the excess.

I sanded it down to a nice sharp edge...

...so it will fit snugly in between the case and the outer piece.

It still needs a bit of cleanup and polish around the outside, but it's pretty much there.

Next up: running the IO cabling through the mesh, and covering the backside of the power button.

[Boddaker]

Hey everyone, hope you all had a great Easter weekend. Mine was excellent, the kids had a blast searching for eggs in the yard.

But because of that, I don't have too much to show, progress-wise, but it's progress none-the-less!
So we left off last time fitting the acrylic piece behind the aluminum Trident up front. Well I got the IO
port module to fit, but had to make some "adjustments" to it first lol.

I marked the area to be removed. Too bad it goes right through where I de-badgified the case lol.
Oh well, it was going to be covered up by the front Trident anyways.

And cut.

I also removed the old IO port openings. This will get addressed a bit later.

Here's what I had to do to the module. There was a clearance issue with it and the front radiator fan, so I had to
get the cables to lay over to one side. To do this I removed the exterior molding and some of the surrounding glue/wax stuff.

Here's what it looks like from the bask side. The cables will be sleeved and organized better for final assembly.

In order to secure the top of the Trident to the case, I fabbed up a small mounting bracket that takes
advantage of how the power button is secured. This way I avoid having any unsightly fasteners on the front face.

The bracket is attached to the case with one screw from behind.

Here's a side view..

Done, with the exception of one thing... lighting! That will be next on the list.

[Boddaker]

wow nice update mate... been away for 2 weeks... wondering how this was going

Hey man, hope you had a nice vacation. I haven't gotten much done on this for the past few weeks,
so you didnt miss much! Other pressing matters been taking up my time. But I did manage to get in the
garage and finish up the IO hole...

I got an extra front bay cover so I could use it as a patch. So I placed it behind the hole
and traced out the area to be cut, and cut it out.

Sanded off the anodizing and filed the edges til I had a nice snug fit.

A shot of the "nice snug fit"

I taped it from behind and slapped some bondo on it.

Since the patch was a bit thinner material than the case was, I decided to bondo the back side as well.

After it set up, I sanded it down, first using a cheese grater file, then a orbital sander.
Then I used the bay cover as my drill guide, and drilled out the holes.

Done! Can barely tell it was even there. Once the primer is on, it will disappear completely.

[Boddaker]

Ok, I got some stuff to show you.

I have been working on a new floor design with Geno from Boxgods, in an attempt to alleviate some of the mess
of tubing down by the radiators. The floor is made up of three sheets of 1/4" clear acrylic and there
will be six channels through the middle, each 1/2" wide, with compression fittings on each end.
Of course the design had to be trident-approved. ;-)

As you can see, I color-coded the channels so you can tell the three loops apart.

Here are the three floor layers, the top being the farthest away. I also incorporated cut-aways
for the optical drive, power cables, and lighting, as well as notches for case fitment and alignment.
This is not the final version, as there are some areas that need minor adjustments (which
weren't apparent until I did the mockup tests).

Here's a shot of the middle layer with the channels placed on top of the bottom layer.

And all three layers together. I set them on a piece of cardboard so they might be easier to see.

Here is the floor assembly clamped in place in the case.

I will also be employing the new compression fittings from Primochill.

I screwed them into the floor to see how they fit. This is when I realized the bottom holes were too close
together. So that will be addressed in the final revision.

A closer up shot:

And with the compression rings on.

In addition to minimizing the amount of tubing, this new floor design will look pretty cool with the
coolant running through it. I plan to paint the underside of it so you won't be able to see through
to the radiator compartment.

Now the trick to pulling this off will lie within the gluing process. If I screw it up, I will have leaks and
cross-channel mixing of fluid (which will not be good since I will be using three different colors of coolant).
I've got some scrap pieces I can practice with, and I will make a jig so that the layers will be lined up
correctly. Should be interesting, so stay tuned!

[Boddaker]

Dude that is a sweet idea, and what a result you will get when it's done. The one thing I don't like are the compression fittings, I fear for their durability. The plastic looks like it may go brittle over time and you don't want any leaks, I would use chrome bitspower fittings personally.

Thanks, but after all is said and done, I will have 48 total fittings in this thing, 18 for the floor alone. And at $10 per fitting (yikes!) for Bitspower, well you can do the math... :-)

And I'm told these fittings are poly carbonate, UV stabilized, and plenty strong, so will last quite a long time.

[Boddaker]

...how much do those plastic compression fittings cost? I have never seen them before.

These are brand new on the market, and I believe will sell for around $1.50 each. They come in many colors (color matched to Primoflex tubing) and are paintable as well. Not a bad option for people on a budget.

Should be available at Moddersmart by next week.

[Boddaker]

Smallish update:

Only had a short amount of time this weekend, so I thought I'd tackle the hard drive covers.
I took 3 pieces of 1/4" transparent blue acrylic cut to hard drive size:

Looks cool held up to the light.

I set up my router table with a 3/4" round-over bit to give me a nice wide curve around the plexi.

First piece cut. A little rough, but I'll smooth them out in a bit.

A couple minutes on each edge with a mouse sander and 220grit sandpaper and I have this:

I purposely rounded only three sides on the top and bottom piece, and only the 2 sides on the middle piece.
This way, even though they are separate pieces, they work together to make up a larger canvas for the next step.

I'll need to sand these a bit more in preparation for paint. Then I will apply a mask with a trident-ish graphic.
But that's for another time.

[Boddaker]

Here's a little show of some progress I made before all the other goings-on this last weekend (daughter's 2nd birthday party).

T3 reservoir mockup with tubing!

I'll get some more detail shots of them up a bit later.

[Boddaker]

dude that looks EPIC! what are thoose resevoirs?

Thanks man. These are the new Typhoon III dual bay reservoirs from Primochill. Just came out, should be in stores in June. They're pretty sweet. Can accommodate two separate loops with two inputs and two outputs on the back. They also feature two fillports in front which make filling and emptying the system a breeze. Just tilt the case over on its back to fill, and tilt it forward to empty. Comes with or without a D5 pump, and it also will be available in a non-pump version.

[Boddaker]

Got more work done on the hard drive covers:

Received the paint mask in the mail and couldn't wait to try it out. The actual masking is sandwiched
between two protective backings:

Peeled the top coating off,

Flipped it over and applied it to the covers after lining them up as they would be on the hard drives.

Then peeled off the other backing:

Using the x-acto knife, I took care of the pieces spanning the gaps between the covers.

Then I primed and painted them white with a pearl topcoat. You can kinda make out the iridescence in the light.

I'll remove the masking tonight and place the covers on the hard drives to see how they look. Stay tuned!