BloodMoon

[Dgephri]

Working some more this morning, got two more letters done:

And a look at the inside:

Then, I stopped off at the local pharmacy's manicure section for some of these:

Which I find are very useful in detail filing, and they are a whole lot smaller and cheaper than regular files.

got the whole first word done, and some of the filing started on the B and the L.

been doing some more filing, and to judge how well I was doing, I needed to take my printed letter mask off.

Ick, that adhesive only comes clean with citrus cleaner THEN paint thinner.

so here you can see it after clean up.

note the tool skips on the top of the B curve, and different part of the Os.

so I took a Sharpie PAINT marker, and just rubbed a little bit of black onto those little areas.

Up close you can still see the slight depression from the tool, but I'm not sure if I can really "fix" that.

These letters are about 80% of the way there IMO, some more smoothing to do, and small parts of the two Os aren't quite enough alike for my tastes.

Each cut is a bit better than the previous one, and my slow, tedious technique is paying off in needing only small files, taking a millimeter or so off at the most, and having the shapes well done instead of a lot of hard filing on the delicate section.

When totally complete, the silver filed edges will be covered in black paint too. Should make them appear VERY round when the only edge will be the light from below in red plastic.


I just couldn't resist cutting up the red acrylic to do a lighting test:

not quite the result I had hoped for...but if I frosted the window (tested using a folded paper towel to simulate):

[Dgephri]

The lighting has really been bothering me:
stripping tubes out of ccfls proved risky at best-a waste of 2 4" tubes.
so I went and fetched some 5mm 30mA red water clear LEDs and a handful of red diffuse 3mm just in case.

My idea is that making a mirror box (like my lightpump in Lubic Zen-Feng) should reflect the light, even it out, and keep it from washing the whole case in red light. I think I will add a layer of frosted white to even it out more.

It's only 3/8" thick in total (using the score and break method was time comsuming) and covers the entire area that the letters on top occupy.

It has to clear the PSU and drive cage, and it will be attached directly to the shell so when I hinge it the whole thing comes up as one object.

the results (before the white acrylic):

Much better IMO, and I think it will do the job nicely. Some black vinyl dye for the back to make it look stealthy from the inside, and Voila!

found a handly LED strober at frozecpu.com
http://www.frozencpu.com/lit-134.html?id=6HEKbRD7

currently talking with the source manuf. on how to adapt it to control 12V LED rails.

Problem with my fan selection on the Radiator:

the AC fans are 1.5" thick instead of the 1" standard on 120mm. I might have to revert to otherwise normal low rpm fan.

I am thinking about a way to shave a bit off, but need to make a test bracket to be sure.

assembled the NV-7800 onto a gpu from another card...

and the fit problem with the waterblock:

[GT40_GearHead]

BLOODY hell, how the heck did i not see this from the start...
well see it now.... and i like what i see

that least pic is great

carry on mate
<eats his piece of raw meat>

[Dgephri]

glad you like it. This up to about a month ago so far...more to come!

I don't wanna drown you in pics, but I have 3 more pages of worklog to paste in.

[GT40_GearHead]

drown me, drown me ugg ugg
i dont mind

[Dgephri]

alrighty, here is another batch:

worked on my idea for new handles on my Qmicra

I wanted more clearance to actually USE them as handles...

here is the first one before little files

after little files

it locks down tight enought to pick up the case (with mobo, GPU, DVD, and RAM) without rotating out of place!!! )) Me likey.

I will eventually get them anodized red along with the PSU tray, radiator brackets, etc.

today...I mount the radiator! Just HAVE to be sure it will fit.



Stopped and got some strips of 20Ga aluminum sheet, 1.5" wide at a local hardware store.

Some measuring, some bending, some folding, some dremel work, some drilling, and some E-6000 adhesive gives us this:

those ugly cuts will actually be UNDER the motherboard, but I will probably cover them with red acrylic anyway.

it's light, a little flexible, and holds it nicely. The only thing is the tubing has to cut through the 3/5" bay, but I'm not gonna use it anyway. Maybe some switches for my special LED controller....hmmm.

I thought I would snap some closeups to show just how tight the overall fit is should anyone else want to cram watercooling gear into a Qmicra:

I figure the TDX will sit with the barbs perpendicular to the radiator

the tubes will run like in my Loch Ness case shown here:

Here you can see how close the fans sit over the RAM. I know the whole fan won't sit over the radiator, but my guess is the cooling loss will be negligable.

This shows how closely those Radiator brackets sit to the rear 80mm fan...I might actually lay a thread of adhesive on the fan to further brace it from rubbing and hold the Rad in place better.

This is the Rad barb end and I will have to cut an opening through the Floppy/Matrix Orbital section of the drive cage. Works out fine because I want my DVD drive above the MO anyway. The drive stealth works out a particular way if I do that.

Lastly, this is the clearance on the threaded rod of the NV-7800 waterblock meeting the Asus Northbridge cooler...not sure what the clearance on my GX2 will be, but I will work something out.

[Dgephri]

and more:

my GX2 arrived today!! All perfectly sealed (all 8 clear tabs were closed). $500 from a guy at [H]...can't wait to get it installed.

pics---

Pretty much to date except for some pics not uploaded yet. I have spent another 5 or 6 hours filing all the top letters from start to finish...I'm up to the "d" so far, only the Moon letters left.

I will post up fresh pictures tomorrow! Enjoy.

[OvRiDe]

I have been watching this on the "other" forum.. I have to say its fantastic work. I have been interested in SFF cases, but until this and H2Mirc0 I didn't think there was enough room to really do anything with them. I can't wait to see it finished. Again incredible work!

[Dgephri]

got some more work done over the weekend.

Probably about 8 hours of small size filing, up to the "d" now:

This only leaves the "Moon" letters.

I also fiddled with getting the fan put on my Radiator, and I knew the RAM was too high, so I did this:

[elbarto241]

wow, now thats a graphics card!