ALUMIA by JR23
- Thread starter JR23
- Start date
Accu is awesome, especially with the variety of head styles, but everything is stainless, which sometimes is good but for this will just never go dull and always look like stainless. Their blacked stainless is expensive or high MOQ generally, worth it for the occasional item where they have an awesome head style but not for everything. Picked up most M4 stuff today locally, will gather some more from RS next week and attempt to strip the zinc plating from some. Fill in what's needed from accu if that doesn't work out.
Yes! Post called out Oli for being a console peasant so me and imersa took loads of master race gear over to Oli's for his first big PC gaming session. Played a while on our own and then 4 or 5 games with Post, mostly just snacks and chill all round which was decent.
JR
Super speedy update of some more detailing coming to life.
Holes added to the motherboard heatsinks. I didn't re-anodise it, this is another heatsink after my first attempt at this didn't quite cut it, but was proof enough that I liked it. Being such a bizarre shape it was tricky to set up. Also i'm swapping the Z170/270 style IO cover for the simpler earlier X99 cover, I think it works better, all text will be removed anyway as it's just not period.
Another simple bit of lathe work, the knurling removed from the 90° rotaries, so they are now ultra clean like the other fittings.
Lastly i've started the vast mission to get all fasteners looking correct. The GPU block will go back together with double M4 nuts and washers locked together onto little studs. This was by far the most time consuming tweak as the top hole on the GPU block had to be drilled out big enough to fit a modified 7mm socket in to tighten the nuts. But it works neat, many more screws to go until all philips/hex socket are banished.
JR
Ah man, I'm so jealous that would be awesome!
Interested to see what his build/collab with JayzTwoCents comes out like but he should have definitely contacted you and the parvum guys!
A huge chunk of the project is now complete, the graphics cards, a pair of 1080Ti FE equipped with heavily modified EK Fluid Gaming blocks.
Every surface has been stripped of it's black anodizing and worn to a suitable finish, the backplates stamped with serial numbers and fittings turned for ultimate simplicity. The main effort however has gone into changing every single screw from philips and allen key head to slotted and plain hexagon nuts. Rather than bolts I wanted the majority of the fasteners to appear like studs and nuts however they had to fit inside the extrusion so that was a challenge in itself. First the top holes were drilled out to 9mm just enough to fit a modified 7mm socket for the M4 nuts without breaking out of the edges. Then the head was trimmed off several screws to make little studs, two nuts locked together on the end and a washer added. Just the same surrounding the GPU core too with the addition of the original springs. The smaller M2.5 screws of the backplate were replaced with slotted pan head and again but much larger for the terminal blocks. Finding all of those fittings in the appropriate style was difficult enough but finding plain steel was impossible so nearly all of them were zinc plated which I stripped in citric acid. While they were lightly oiled i've no doubt that they will one day oxidise just like all of the exposed aluminum, I don't intend to fight that and am very much looking forward to a gradual change over time.
Very excited to get the motherboard assembly on this level! Catch you over the weekend.
JR
I'll get fired for looking at porn at work.
I will say though that given the attention to detail in nuts, screws and weathering of the aluminium, the SLI Bridge looks too clean and modern. The Terminal Blocks are fine as they're simply rectangular lumps of material, but the multiple angles and chamfering on the bridge breaks away from the hand-hewn feel of 1930s metalwork that you've beautifully achieved. Dare I say a similar thing for the acrylic tubing? Scuff up some stainless steel tube instead instead?
Nitpicking? Of course, but when your work always touches perfection it only leaves the minutiae to discuss
Edit: forgot these are alu fittings too, so copper is out of the question.
I will say though that given the attention to detail in nuts, screws and weathering of the aluminium, the SLI Bridge looks too clean and modern. The Terminal Blocks are fine as they're simply rectangular lumps of material, but the multiple angles and chamfering on the bridge breaks away from the hand-hewn feel of 1930s metalwork that you've beautifully achieved. Dare I say a similar thing for the acrylic tubing? Scuff up some stainless steel tube instead instead?
Nitpicking? Of course, but when your work always touches perfection it only leaves the minutiae to discuss
Edit: forgot these are alu fittings too, so copper is out of the question.
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After the little glimpses shown earlier in the log the other big lump of componentry is now complete and ready to go back together.
I was waiting on one little part from EK to put it back, an acetal top from the Supremacy-MX. Which are also normally plexi like the AX part however with the brightly finished bracket and face plate plexi looked really strange.
Adorned with the 7700k's serial number and fitted to the Classified.
As seen already there were several modifications to the motherboard heatsink: black anodising stripped and two rows of holes added. After that it was imersed in acid again, this time much longer to remove the brush marks and slightly roughen the surface. The shape was little too complex to try and scotchbrite it, especially not without damaging the dark nickel plating of the heatpipe. The branding was also removed (chipset band aside) and the M4 studs added to the center piece.
I gave lots of thought to the M.2 heatsinks, with the choice of the stripped Aquacomputer's or Nickel, Black and stripped EK's. After much deliberation I decided against using any at all. Things were looking a bit too silver on the whole, being sat right under the graphics cards I wanted them to just disappear into the board and the simple Predator stickers certainly do.
The boards original IO cover is also absent in favor of an X99 style EVGA part, branding and anodizing removed.
So time to bring the two big pieces together! Such excite.
I forgot to mention also, exactly the same pedantic attitude towards nuts and screws occured, the motherboard holes were drill... erm 'cleaned' out to 4.2mm for M4 standoffs and studs all round. Now all the parts are thoroughly dealt with it's time to start attacking the case!
JR
Jesus wept.I will say though I can't decide if the brighter silver finish of the motherboard heatsinks works for me or not. Thematically, any heat exchanger exposed to air would be a lot cleaner and finished than bodywork so it works nicely in that regard. Purely to look at I fancy it's a bit too silvery and finished, even with the roughened surface.
In any event, this has to be some of your best work to date. Your Parvum works are demonstrations of meticulous planning and design, but this the first time I've seen you actually create art, and I have no issue in describing this as such.
Edit: I personally would have stuck with the Z270 I/O cover since it shares the surface angle folds as the GPU blocks.
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I will say though I can't decide if the brighter silver finish of the motherboard heatsinks works for me or not. Thematically, any heat exchanger exposed to air would be a lot cleaner and finished than bodywork so it works nicely in that regard. Purely to look at I fancy it's a bit too silvery and finished, even with the roughened surface.
In any event, this has to be some of your best work to date. Your Parvum works are demonstrations of meticulous planning and design, but this the first time I've seen you actually create art, and I have no issue in describing this as such.
Edit: I personally would have stuck with the Z270 I/O cover since it shares the surface angle folds as the GPU blocks.
I think it's just going to have to take time, hopefully one day it will oxidise and dull like any other aluminium casting. I don't wish to apply paint or anything which would prevent that, so at this moment that is how it has to look really. Anything more extreme would damage the nickel which is perfect. If I buff it like the other parts there's no way I could do all the interior angles so they would end up being brushed again or remain bright. When the build fills in around it then it should reflect less too. In a weird way it also helps that things don't match to an extent, it makes it look less intentional, less considered. My Aquaero 5 heatsinks have gone super dark, they will be great in the mix.
The SLI bridge I did also look at, i'm fine with the black part, it's textured sympathetically so I thought i'd remove the silver part and do something to it or replace it. Applying a teeeny bit of heat, the ends pried up so i assumed it was glued, pretty much insta melted the whole thing a bit. So erm, it's magically pristine again. But I will mess about with the now melty one and copy the little silver part and repeat on the good one should it be successful.
The flatness of this IO cover made it nicer to get an even patina and the way the angles lined up with the heatsink made the new one look just a little too dynamic. It was a little complicated and unpurposeful.
JR
Now y'see I'd like to see some of your experiments and mistakes once in a while. Insta melting a £40 SLI bridge would be something worth posting
I fully get the oxidising-over-time with the aluminium parts, so it will be interesting to see progression over the coming months on how everything weathers and settles in.
This update was a little unplanned, but i'm glad that it came up. So I was planning things out for the bottom of the build, I knew roughly the radiator would be on the right and the pump with or without a reservoir would sit infront of the PSU. Now in my mind perhaps the case was bigger or the D5 was smaller but whichever way I placed it made the tubing difficult or blocked wires going up to the top of the case.
After a while of moving things around, swapping D5 parts I realized the pump needed to sit tight to the rad, closely coupled barbs were quite hideous and still not that close. What I needed was a M-M extender, ideally 23mm and Aluminum, in the style of an EK fitting with the knurl removed. So.....
Yep, straight the Aluminum stock, turned down a ~35mm piece to 18mm. Then the end down further to 13mm.
Then a 1.5mm wide undercut to 11.5mm, otherwise it would be extremely difficult to achieve parallel threads later on.
And another small undercut to the back face so the o-ring is partially contained.
After marking the center of the face with another lathe tool I drilled half way through with a 9.5mm drill. On my first attempt I drilled all the way through but it moved off center very slightly which was concerning as there is only 1mm of material at the undercut so this time I drilled from both ends.
Stationary drill bits look amazing!
So all that was left on that end was to die the threads, 1/4" BSP using the chuck to keep it true and apply some gentle pressure.
Before cutting the part free from the bar I marked where the other face would be so I could see it inside the chuck.
Now it's time to work on the other end, the part is being held on the OD which was turned first. So to make another set of threads all the same steps as before, first reducing the diameter up to the mark.
With both undercuts complete the ID was drilled out and it starts to resemble a useful fitting.
1/4" threads added to the other end, cutting right up to the back face. The undercut lets the slightly tapered edge of the die pass beyond the end of the threads.
Lastly I screwed one end into a female fitting and while steadying the opposite end took a fine cut to remove the marks from where the OD was held.
The left hand side was my first attempt, the OD got badly messed up as it slipped a little bit in the chuck and because the hole went off center I couldn't steady it to clean it up neatly. Plus I took absolutely no photos making that so I kinda had to do it again anyway. Still, it makes the good one all the more awesome.
Perfect fitment, now I know that idea works I can get back to laying things out
JR
Well I've got lots of 90°'s so I was sure one would suit, I don't think they are all identical. Assuming variation in other parts has always been my policy when it comes to fixed thread lengths. I could have faced a little off the sealing face had it not worked out just right but the first one I picked up tightened in just the right spot.
JR
With all the meticulous planning and craftsmanship, it's always nice when you get a sprinkling of luck thrown into the mix. Cracking job.
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This is ridiculously cool and the style is right up my street. A nice change from acrylic routing plates.