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Thread: Project Stealthlow

  1. #441
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    Added extra precaution for opening the fan frame, someone broke one & I didn't cover how to do it thought it was self explanitory but maybe not.

    I've not been project logging properly lately with changing my camera which is too nice to be in a dusty environment & the tripod is huge & I have limited work space so it all just gets in the way of what I'm doing so to log better I'd be best getting an extra memory card & compact tripod & use my kodak for workshop stuff & save the nice one for out of the workshop, in the winter I hardly took my camera over to the garage as it was sub zero temps & I doubt that's good for the camera, my mp3 sometimes crashes it gets that cold .

    Ok excuses out of the way & I'll do this to fill at least 1 blank since everyone seems to like this fan mod & 1 so far is even willing to pay for them, I won't be selling any, I've better things to do, I probably would sell these but have no idea on nice fair pricing for the buyer & for me I'd feel wrong for charging something to make it worth my while & I'd be stupid to do them for virtually free so here is a guide I just made so anyone who either hasn't got the tools or experience you could go get them cnc'd like many modders these days , it's good to share knowledge, keeps modding evolving rather than keeping the how's to yourself .



    Custom rims tut for enermax modular type fans (revised).


    So you need a good strong pointy pin

    Carefully unclip all 4 main connectors.




    The carefully unclip the centre holding clips, the rest don't need it as they don't hold as much force.






    And do the same for the ones on the other half of the fan, you have to unclip on both sides of the half circle & then they just fall out .




    There, shouldn't have anyone breaking their fans while doing this now.


    These fans have loads of potential for sweet customisation especially if you can go with CNC as you could add your own cool cut patterns or logo.

    The strips come in 2 half circles & measure 182mm x 18.5mm x 1mm I flattened 1 out & kept 1 in good form as an example for this tut.




    The cello tape I used was 90mm diameter & think it works better than just a hard object as it allows you to squeeze it to a further form, this setup virtually makes a perfect form for the 120mm fans although with raw material it requires a little extra forming which you can do with strong fingers & a hard surface.








    With a raw material it's likely it will need a little extra curving & this works for me.


    It also seems to matter where you place the half circles, the enermax ones have a bunch of slots that help it stay in place so if your using a flat material it can be tricky to get both in correctly, they shouldn't be overlapping each other at all & they need to be in every single slot on the bottom & top or the fan blades won't spin because of the slots being bent towards the blades.




    Once everything is aligned well you can carefully press the connectors down into place & make sure it's fully closed & that's it, you have a cooler looking fan providing you cut & formed the rim to exact spec .




    Modding this fan has opened up loads of awesome ideas for me which I hope to do some time if I can get the right tools.

    I took the stickers off the psu .


    And got the fans back in there.



  2. #442
    Code Monkey NightrainSrt4's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    Beautiful.

  3. #443
    Its not cool till its watercooled. Fuganater's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    What he said. Beautiful mod and your camera does a damn good job of showing it.

  4. #444
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    Quote Originally Posted by NightrainSrt4 View Post
    Beautiful.
    Thanks mate & congrats with getting engaged .

    Quote Originally Posted by Fuganater View Post
    What he said. Beautiful mod and your camera does a damn good job of showing it.
    Thanks mate yeah I felt my skills have grown enough to justify getting a nicer camera well that & getting a bit of unexpected money which was blown on the camera, lens, tripod & an incredible scroll saw .

    Which is why I added modder 4 life in my custom title the price of the scroll saw for it to be justified I need to make a load of awesome things lol .

  5. #445
    Its not cool till its watercooled. Fuganater's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    Ya I hear ya. I'm going to get a macro lens soon. Just need to get the $500 first.

  6. #446
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    Quote Originally Posted by Fuganater View Post
    Ya I hear ya. I'm going to get a macro lens soon. Just need to get the $500 first.
    I searched & researched heaps before going for mine, it's a truly awesome lens but I overlooked 1 pretty big detail, zoom lol .

    The right angle ATX plugs & scroll saw blades came on Saturday .

    But, looks like the right angle ATX plugs are for soldering to the motherboard with both ends being male I aint soldering anything on the motherboard lol so those 5 bits are heading straight to the random bits box probably never to be used, probably .

    So I've ordered a male & female ATX plug & I'll make a custom extender that wraps around to the rear of the mobo panel so it doesn't obstruct air flow, this isn't a bad thing really as I'll be able to make the 24 pin cable go in the shape of the curve with the extra slack I'll gain from this.

    I started out on the front bottom copper panel & was my first go at cutting on an angle with the scroll saw, quite difficult really as it turns a 2mm sheet into 4 or 5mm & it catches easier so got through quite a few blades & I had to press a lot of force downwards to stop it jumping around (wasn't that bad all the time but I'd say 50/50 so just did piece by piece spreading it out over the day & finally got the rough cut done, now it needs a good sanding session on the bevelled edges to get rid of any jaggies, things have moved forward that bit more .

    The metal lacquer I had some trouble with, the first time I lacquered it all it left some drips & some blobs, I stripped those areas down, re-brushed & re-lacquered & all is mostly fine except the right side panel where the brush finish got messed up & the top right area doesn't go in form with the rest so I'm thinking of stripping all the lacquer off, re-brushing & re-lacquering, PITA but needs doing really if I want it as my best effort, I'll just have to be more careful when I lacquer it next.Also since the perfection thing has got a grip of me I'm going to try to mill drill some of the side panel windows a little more because some aren't quite flush to the alu & it's irritating me whenever I look at it & see a glare from the windows that are sunk in by 1mm or less .

    Got some nice shots though with the morning light, enjoy .








































    More soon .

  7. #447
    A.B. normal msmrx57's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    Looking GREAT!!! I love the copper on the lower panel now. However it looks to me like there are a few spots where the final filing/sanding might be a bit of PITA. But you perfectionism is paying off in how nice this is turning out.
    Quote Originally Posted by SXRguyinMA View Post
    Now, off to the basement to do some fiddling with the rods and such.
    so far left of center i'm in right field

  8. #448
    Overclocked BS Mods's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    Just keeps getting better and better.
    Life is tough, it's even tougher when you're stupid. - John Wayne

  9. #449
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    Quote Originally Posted by msmrx57 View Post
    Looking GREAT!!! I love the copper on the lower panel now. However it looks to me like there are a few spots where the final filing/sanding might be a bit of PITA. But you perfectionism is paying off in how nice this is turning out.
    Thanks mate oh it took a while to get it to a better form, to be honest if I had the extra bit of patience I could probably get all the cut marks out of the copper but arrrrrrgh pulling a thin strip of 240 grit paper back & forth thousands of times really tests a persons patience lol .

    Quote Originally Posted by BS Mods View Post
    Just keeps getting better and better.
    Thanks mate .

    Slithered bits off the front bottom copper panel with the scroll saw & then smoothed off the copper panel by pulling strips of 240 grit paper back & forth to get most of the cut marks out & then brushed & lacquered, took quite a bunch of hours but worth it.

    And also fixed something that has been irritating me every time I see it, not every side panel window fit flush so I took the offending pieces out & took them to the drill press with milling bit, it's a pain to set up for the depth & it's a bit of a nightmare controlling the piece I run through but managed it just fine & now I have 100% flush windows .






















  10. #450
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project Stealthlow

    Just got a couple of ATX plugs & some other bits so I can make an extender & a really short 1 just so it doesn't interfere with the air flow from the front fans & I'll be able to have the wires go in the shape of the curve with the extra slack .

    I just finished designing, printing, sticking, cutting & forming the copper P clips, the big clips are P clips, the smaller ones it wasn't possible to do them nicely because of the thickness of the copper so they are a slightly different version of the P clips, was the only way to make them in a nice way & the copper sheet I ordered I got lucky with the off cut as it was mirror polished on both sides so was pleasantly surprised , only cost me £7 with delivery, I said I'd make enough for 3 of the fan pieces for someone on another forum & he wants them brush finished so I might use the ones I made from this mirror copper & send him the ones I already made depends if I like the look of them when installed .


    Also I've got around to thinking about lighting & decided I could make the bottom section fan holders better since my marking method has drastically improved compared to when I started this project I print the designs now & stick them on the material so it's far quicker & more accurate to my design than marking manually & I have the scroll saw now & just ordered a drum sander that is usable on the drill press & can use any sand paper on it so could take it to 2000 grit without a ton of effort , there was a couple of things I didn't like with the fan holders, after I stuck them together I continued wet sanding them to get a perfectly seamless finish on them but it went wrong & some gunk worked it's way into the seams so when viewed from an angle it didn't look so good especially with light in there & didn't like the fact I had to drill mill some of the holders down a bit & even then the fans were too tight (so tight I cut myself when pushing a fan back out of the holder).

    So I'll re-make them but for the depth of the fans I'll use 9 x 3mm sticks of acrylic instead of 5 x 5mm with a luminous orange stick in the middle, the apollish fans don't add any light to the stick areas so it opens a way to light them differently & I'll be making them function as the hdd activity LED so should be a sweet little feature & got all the bits I ordered except for the drum sander .

    Making them again should take no longer than 2 good sessions or even 1.

    And the other lighting thing I've thought about is RGB LED strips, 1 600mm strip for each curve bar & possibly 1 300mm for underneath the case, it will have a remote control for selecting whatever colour I want & could turn it off when I want so can't wait to get that to put in but can't afford it just yet , anyway only a few steps away from complete .

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