Cosmos Cruizer

[Boddaker]

Awesome.

What he said. Just speechless.......

Thank you guys!

Got more progress done on the fillport area of the back panel..

I made the hinge for the fillport cover, first designing it in Sketchup, then printing it out 1:1, taping it onto the aluminum piece, scoring the cut lines, and cutting it out.

Then I proceeded to bend the ends and the center 90º.

The result:

I then tack-welded it to the mesh cover.

The outer trim piece got some flush-mount alan screws.

Holes drilled and chamfered..

Subsequent holes drilled and tapped into the acrylic..

Screws in...

Then I decided to do the same circular bar treatment to the PSU fan grill. So after drawing it out and taking measurements between bars, I found/made up some circles with the specified diameters.

Bending the alu bar around the wood blocks..

All bars bent..

Next will be bending the bottoms of the bars to follow the curve of the back panel, so they travel down and under the case.

[TheMainMan]

Exquisite attention to detail, Bod! Do you have a shot of how the hinge will go together? I think I understand but I'm not exactly sure how it will fasten together...

[Boddaker]

Exquisite attention to detail, Bod! Do you have a shot of how the hinge will go together? I think I understand but I'm not exactly sure how it will fasten together...

Thanks TheMainMan, but all I have to show how the hinge goes together is the sketchup pics in my last update. I still have to rework the back of the top panel a bit so I can mount the hinges behind it.

[thorkon]

Boddaker, Top notch stuff as always I see

[Boddaker]

Boddaker, Top notch stuff as always I see

Thank you thorkon!

[Boddaker]

More stainless hard line goodness...

This time I decided to try filling the pipe with sand before bending, to see if that would help keep the tube more rounded in the curves. It wasn't bad before, but it was noticeable.

Taped the ends off and laid it onto the heater for a couple minutes to warm it up.

Bending..

45º bend came out nice, just like my test wire.

My test wire is actually just solder lol. But it's perfect for finding the correct bends and transferring them to the pipe, because it's very soft and malleable, and holds its shape.

Here's all the pipe runs bent..

And here are some shots with the pipes in place..

Looking forward to seeing all these pipes in their finished, chrome state!

Ok, back to the seemingly never-ending work on the back panel...

[Stonerboy779]

How is it working with stainless compared to copper?

[Boddaker]

How is it working with stainless compared to copper?

Stainless is a bit stiffer than copper, so you just have to work at it a little more to get it to do what you want. It definitely looks better, and polishes up quite nicely (although I will be getting all these pipes chromed).

[Boddaker]

Slow progress is slow...

After looking at my pipe-bending handiwork, something didn't quite look right to me. Took me a while to pin-point it, but I think I found the culprit. It was the longest piece of stainless in the back. So I decided to re-do it, to give the QDC's a bit more breathing room so-to-speak. I didn't really like the vertical pipe's close proximity to the fittings, so I added a few slight bends to give them a bit wider berth. This just looks better to me now.

Ok now that I can sleep nights once again, I have more back panel progress to show...

A new IO plate has been forged! It all started in Sketchup, laying out all the ports plus power plug and PSU on/off switch. Printed it out 1:1, and taped it to a piece of aluminum scrap.

Took the exacto knife to it and traced all the ports.

With the aluminum plate scored, I could start drilling holes and scrolling the ports. First DVI port cut out.

All ports scrolled and filed. Still have to round the edges & sand.

With all the ports cut out, I could transfer those areas to the back panel to be cut out as well.

IO plate in position, with ends bent to match the back panel.

Behind the scenes shot of fitting the extensions, adapters, & PSU parts.

I have to work up some sort of retaining piece to hold all the cables in place, so that they stay perfectly aligned with the IO plate cutouts. Then I'll permanently affix them to the back panel. Maybe a solid block of epoxy putty?

[Boddaker]

Jumping back onto the lower back panel to finish off the PSU fan grill area.

I last left off with bending the 1/8" aluminum bars to match the hinged fillport door up top. Here I cut out the portion of the panel that will be replaced with mesh.

Speaking of mesh, here it is, with curve to fit the rounded corner at the bottom of the panel.

Mesh fit into cutout area of panel.

And here are the alu bars with the ends bent to follow the lower curve. I also made end caps to join the ends and complete the design.

I clamped them all together with the correct spacing and marked the underside for screw holes.

In between bouts of drilling/tapping 2-56 holes in the 1/8" alu bars, I made the bottom acrylic piece that will pick up the two PSU mounting screws.

Finally, with all the mounting screw holes done, I could fasten the bars down.

And with the lower end caps in place. Still needs some adjustment here and there, and I will take care of that later.

Lastly, an overall shot of the back panel in its present state. Inching dangerously close to being done methinks!