Midlag Crisis

[waynio]

Midlag Crisis

Story behind the name, my main current project is called Lean & Green or LAG for short, I was midway through & I had a hissy fit over something stupid which made my progress come to an emergency stop so had a little timeout to regain my sense, or at least some of it could call the project anything since I never have it in writing on my projects, great story...

But I’m using this one to get me right back in motion to continue LAG straight after this.

It’s a small practical HTPC I'm making for my dad as a present, he's in Australia until the 8th of February & I aim to have this project completed well before then.

It holds an SFX PSU, mini-ITX mobo with support for regular height expansion card, Internal IR receiver, Internal 3.5" e-sata HDD dock which can be switched on/off & 1 3.5" HDD & 1 SSD & 1 140mm custom fan, 1 of the parts of the custom frame is the front panel too, got all the hardware covered already & this is my first rig without an optical drive.

Some concept shots.

The internal custom e-sata HDD dock has a sliding piece which 3 rods guide it so it goes forward/back nice & straight that has enough room to free the drive & then the HDD clips in/out of place with it's own little side panel for quick access.

After making it all printer ready.

The only material I had to buy was the 2mm panel & an acrylic tube with 16mm ID for the marble power button, everything else is scraps.

Cut into manageable pieces.

Drilled.

Cut & undressed after a nicely productive 10 hours, so that's the front, back, top, bottom, both sides, mobo tray & most of the HDD dock pieces & back IO piece but all the acyrlic bits need the adhesive before I can complete them.

Also cut some acrylic pieces but I can't find my tensol 12 adhesive so I'll have to order a new bottle & get it on Tuesday but this lets me complete everything else in the meantime.

This project should be a quickie.

Feels good to have done some modding after such a big timeout, I'll do more tomorrow.

 

[waynio]

You sir, have some serious talent

Thanks shahpor

Blown away by that. What did you do all the cut-outs with? Looks like you have a drill and a bandsaw. That takes some skill and patience.

Thanks DampDog, yeah I use normal power drill but also have floor pillar drill too, for the cuts I bought a nice premium scroll saw late 2011 after trying a budget one, been a great tool.

That looks great, i can't wait to see this.

You could be my inspiration sir.

Thanks Doomedspeed & for once I think people will be pleased with how long it takes really should be a quick project this one.

Are you trying to monopolise my subs

Subbed - but only because your main build is on hold and I need my fill of your projects

Thanks Tattysnuc, shouldn't be long before I'm back onto it.

Looks good, looking forward to see how it turns out.

Thanks kitkat

First thing I thought without looking at the username who had posted: "This must be one of Waynio's!" you always have fantastic projects, looking forward to seeing this one come to fruition

LOL Thanks Rooster.


3MM day doing the PSU support bars, HDD dock slide system & extra trim bits for the front fan & wow what an awesome mess, I intend to clean up very soon.

Drilled & cut, peeled the templates off with messy glue left on the aluminium, I only stick them on the protective stuff if it's laser film because that doesn't come loose & when pulling it off it comes off in 1 piece showing perfect surface, wish all sheet aluminium sellers used laser film.

Wiped them all with thinners on a sponge because tissue leaves loads of fluffy bits difficult to get off & gave them all a wash & assembled to see what it looks like, also put a 16mm marble in place but.

I thought why doesn't the rear 3mm panel have symmetrical curves, what the heck went wrong? looked at my design again & yep, I some how forgot to mirror the left side to the right side for that piece so they are odd, oh well lol had to have a hiccup somewhere, not doing another unless it bugs me & I find myself waiting for the adhesive delivery & I get bored.

This was a job for my big countersink bit, lot better than filing for these marble button holes.

Another bit of the 3mm stuff, part of the HDD dock piece that lets me slot the drive in place, works perfect, the plates fixed to the bottom panel are tapped but I need to shorten the 6mm screws & where I put the thin piece mounted to the HDD will let me dunk it into normal HDD docks.

Up to 16 hours in now, yes I'm measuring how long this one takes me for a change, started late on this progress though, 7PM until 1AM.

More soon.

 

[waynio]

Coming along nicely....

Thanks Tattysnuc.

1mm Day & I skipped posting last night.

Drilling with a clamped aluminium flat bar with 3mm holes pre drilled into it for perfect targeting.

Cutting.

Peeled, just need the 4 rod pieces & to fix a fan inside to complete this fan.

IO pieces but they are twins, they shouldn't be, the main rear IO hole is meant to have a 2mm smaller diameter to the acrylic & external hole, so even with printing your designs, the same old rule applies of measure before marking lol, I'll re-make the wrongly done piece along with the wonky curve front 3mm piece & also make very sure I take off the wrong acrylic guide & put the right one on, that would have made a time consuming mistake.

Back to 2 of the 3mm strips I cut & drilled on last session, had to drill mill 1mm depth for the SSD tray so it sits flush to the strips, it's not perfect but not bad at all considering it's not a mill.

Didn't take shots of me bending the strips but I placed them in the vice & used a chunky piece of aluminium to bend them to shape so the bits I wanted to stay straight stayed straight, slight problem with the bends though, in the design they are more of a round curve rather than sharp bends so it's about 1 to 2mm stretched out too long, I'll work it out though & the bends line up with the guide I printed, I'll just have to extend the screw holes on 1 end into a line & grind some of the end down or relocate the front mount points to the right distance & grind the excess off.

Not sure how long sank into this session, didn't keep tabs on it so I'd have to take a wild guess, call it 5 hours lol which brings me up to 21 so far, probably another 20 if including the design part & so far I'll be re-making 2 pieces which I'll include on my next session along with the bar pieces & acrylic sticking because the adhesive came today, had to order some 5mm aluminium rod though so hopefully that will get here this week.

Ordered some bits for experimenting with surface finishing too, may or may not work out how I'd love it to but I'll post my findings either way when I try it out on scraps, if it works though it'll be a pretty sweet addition for finishing choices in modding for people on a budget &/or don't like to outsource.

 

[waynio]

New update.

Idea I hope will work.
I'm hoping this is something new lol, got these concentrated dyes & metal lacquer, going to try for an anodising alternative & will be able to make any colour, makes sense it would work, I'll test on scraps ASAP, I used metal lacquer all over stealthlow & it's great stuff hard wearing & invisible so should be a great alternative to anodising enabling more creativity.

PCI/IO mobo tray
2 1mm alu panels & I re made 1 of them because I did them the same on first go & 1 was meant to be 2mm diameter smaller for the IO shield (mixed the templates up accidentally), 2 5mm & 1 3mm acrylic piece which is fully stuck together with tensol 12 & then cut & I drilled & added brass inserts for the bent PSU support & SSD mount strips & inserts for the connecting to the mobo tray & the expansion slot, I'll be using 10mm female to female spacers, this would have been easier logging for me & easier reading for you if I took step by step pictures with brief descriptions lol d'oh.

Marble vandal switch
Stuck the acrylic bits together for the marble button, it's 2 3mm pieces with 1 of them having a 4mm larger hole so the 16mm ID 20mm OD pipe fits into it, 1 3mm piece & a 1mm piece with an OEM Lian Li switch inside held firm, I added brass inserts to it to mount to the front panel also, it's a bit rough looking but I don't care, it functions spot on & is smaller than I intended it to be with the front being countersunk deeper than intended which is a nice bonus, I'll have to get a side by side shot of this switch & a vandal switch for size comparison, also re made the 3mm panel which had mismatching curves.

The HDD dock connector piece.
Mix of 4mm alu for the grip piece, 3mm alu for a strong cover & 1 5mm layer with pass through & somewhere to mount the cables & then a 3mm & 5mm piece below for solid support, this piece isn't complete yet & hope it goes to plan, requires real high accuracy to work right but it all seems on track.

Cut a 140mm akasa apache fan frame away ready for fixing to the custom frame, I'm keeping the 4 legs for extra stability, these custom fans I had to make 1mm deeper than a normal fan so they are all 26mm.

Apologies for the slack logging on this update, I just got on with making it & took pictures after which makes it more difficult to explain what I did lol, I'll try to get back to regular step by step logging from now but things like using tensol 12 acrylic adhesive I don't mess about because it dries fast & is very toxic so messing about with the camera while doing stuff like that isn't a good idea.

I think I'm going to be gutted this isn't for me lol, it's really turning out pretty sweet I think.

 

[waynio]

Oh my lol not used to much response to my modding on here thanks everyone.

I would have kept doing more of a step by step project log but I've been getting demotivated since late last year, still as keen as ever to mod but the logging part has been slipping but I will show all the parts individually & do any needed explaining on final assembly, I suppose it just comes together faster if I focus more on making things.

Bars & rods cut to size & given perfectly flat ends.

Even templates on rods seemed a good idea & it was.

Done, and that guide tool I made for drilling the center of rods I did the same for square bars & it works awesome. :lol:

Fixed things together, need longer screws for the fan.

Bye for now.

 

[waynio]

The egg has hatched & the chick has stumbled out & I name that chick Salamick, Salami mixed with a lick.

Firstly this is just some basic experimental colour finishing looking for an alternative to regular methods that can be done quickly & easily without need for a special setup or special conditions, I took quite a bunch of shots to show how it looks from different angles too because it does look not too far from perfect on some & very imperfect on others depending on how the light catches it.

Could have just shown the best view points of it to blag everyone but I'd rather show how it really is.

About 30 drops of black added to a bottle of metal lacquer & shaken, gave 1 coat & also masked a few strips for a 1st attempt, gave it some adidas stripes on a shark fin lol.

Then emptied the whole bottle in & shaken, become far more potent.

Salami, or even black pudding that's what this dotty finish reminds me of lol.

Then applied a 2nd coat & the trouble with 2 coats is it needs to be applied perfectly or it can look messy.

Tried green, emptied the full bottle in & gave a shake.

1st coat covered better than the black but still had dots, just not as many.

2nd coat produced some interesting effects but they can only be appreciated on a macro shot with direct light bouncing off it otherwise it doesn't look so good.

Not sure what to make of it, on one hand it's kinda like flip paint with how different it looks from angles, on the other it's not quite as awesome as I imagined but it is hard wearing & the theory does work just not as nice looking as I imagined, as it stands it's no comparison for a good anodising job but I should give a scrap piece a brush finish to see if that helps, this was all done on freshly peeled aluminium scraps without any prep work.

Ideally I would like to get this technique so it's doable with 1 coat so the surface texture of the aluminium is visible like anodising but with a solid consistent colour so I'll have to continue playing with this idea to see if I can improve on it, it's already proven to work, just needs perfecting.

Opinions are very welcome on what you think of it, awful or has potential so worth persisting to get the method perfected?.




My dad got back today 2 days earlier than I was told of the 8th & the 2 days before that I was cleaning up the house, the screws still haven't come so I'm going to get everything else done tonight so it's ready for assembly tomorrow "if" the screws come, ordered a load of countersunk & button head screws.

During the night if there is time I'll also try some other ideas for anodising alternative.

 

[waynio]

Super fun happy ramble.

Well I've really gone & found an anodising alternative & the most difficult bit is mastering applying metal lacquer in 1 coat (something I'm working on perfecting), had a glob bit but that's due to the brush I used for applying dyed lacquer so still had some green in there lol & had 1 blank dot which I don't know how that happened but the result compared to brushing dyed lacquer is infinitely better, I think this is as close to anodising as I'll get without anodising.

Here is what I done.


Roughed up a piece of 5221 grade aluminium with 150 grit wet'n'dry paper.

Cleaned it with the t-shirt I'm wearing lol.

Applied 1 quick brush of metal lacquer on all sides & edges.

Cured fast with heat gun.

Picked out the shabbiest source pan hopefully no one would miss filled it with water & brought to the boil & got it to simmer.

Then dumped some black dylon clothes dye powder in the water which I bought quite a while ago for dying plastics, gave it a stir, threw the aluminium strip in & left it for a few seconds, pulled it out & it was taking the dye so put it back in & let it continue for 5 to 10 minutes checking on it now & then to make sure it was getting darker, it sure was, yipeeee.

It didn't look very black & more of a burnt colour but gave it a wipe with tissue, it didn't come off which was an awesome sign & still looked a burnt colour so then took it to the sink to rinse off any excess dye & the piece turned nice & black like magic I was rather joyed & still am, dried it & tried scratching it to see how resistant it is & it is very resistant to scratching, even more than just metal lacquer so this is just perfect.

I'm showing all the pictures I took of the coloured piece, because this is a breakthrough for die hard no outsource modders who want to anodise but won't due to it being hazardous & many other types I believe, dying aluminium without anodising it WTH.

This is pretty big for modding I think, I'm pretty chuft I found an alternative environmentally nice solution for something I've been wanting to do for a couple of years but never put much effort into it not thinking on enough whenever trying & all because I'm a cheapskate who isn't keen on outsourcing lol wouldn't have been looking for the solution without that, it's not just nicely coloured but still maintains the texture of the aluminium & it's even scratch resistant, awesome.


To do the bigger panels on lean & green I'll have to use a big deep baking tray but this is that awesome I think I might be dreaming & I'll wake up any moment gutted it was just a dream lol, was expecting when I gave it a wipe for it to just fall off or crumble off or something but it's hard, definitely a true alternative to anodising.

Anodising makes a super thin film much like metal lacquer so it just kinda made sense it would work as long as the lacquer would stay on in the hot water, luckily it does & clothes dye gets into it, my unwillingness to outsource has really paid off nicely on this one, it also doesn't prevent heat transfer too, I know this due to Stealthlow, the HDD bays collect the heat from them & even warm the side panels & everything is brushed with metal lacquer on it so does nothing bad for heat transfer, I don't think I'd use this method for water blocks though.

You can't dye aluminium without anodising, reheheally.

Only further testing I'll need to do now is getting times needed for different shades & establishing the perfect temperature but man I'm really pumped about this, the monkey with cymbals in my head is going nuts doing back flips.

I'm calling this method Lacqodising.

 

[waynio]

Re made all the motherboard trays, seems I didn't account for the extra 1mm allowance for the motherboard IO shield so had to squeeze motherboards into place, they are good now, done it for Midlag Crisis & both systems in Lean & Green.

Now this system will work right, everything else is perfect fit.

Got my screws so this thing will come together over the next days, I'll try another test or 2 for the lacqodising, going to try dunking panels into the lacquer but on scrap to see how good or bad that is compared to brushing it on.

 

[waynio]

love it when your updates come up.

wish i had your skill and resources to do something like this!

Thanks mate think I got the lacqodising how I want it now.

Did these for 20 minutes & tipped the rest of the black clothes dye in the pan which I'd say will be round about 3 teaspoons of dye powder.

Background a real black anodised panel, upper piece is double dipped in metal lacquer, lower piece is single dipped, looks far from good & the strength is very weak, could scratch it off easily = BOTH EPIC FAIL.

Back to Ox hair brush, upper piece is half double coat & half single coat, lower piece is first test, double coat with stronger dye I don't like, single brush with stronger dye = WINNING.
And yes the adhesion is mighty fine like the first test.

Winning one with real black anodised background.

Group.

I think I'd use double the amount of dye for a project just for that little bit of overkill & unless I want naked corner edges for a stand out outline contrast on everything I'll have to round edges off, extra attention to surface prep work will be needed so that will be smoothing, brushing & then thoroughly cleaning before brushing lacquer on 1 side at a time doing the bottom side first & top side last so it stays best side.

This is pretty much conclusive as far as I'm concerned but even so I'll do more tests when I get a timer to dye a pile of small bits taking 1 out every 30 seconds to make a shade chart for how long is needed for what shade, for all I know they might be up to full shade in 5 minutes, just don't know yet.

 

[waynio]

Great! Keep the pictures coming.

Will do BuZ & thanks.

Do you do the Lacqodising in layers?

ie lacquer, dip, lacquer, dip, lacquer?

Also, does it work on any forms of resin? I'm wondering if there's anything that's a bit harder wearing than the lacquer that you've used...

Exciting stuff this. I can;t understand why there's been so few comments about your "discovery"

Have people missed the significance of this or something?

Hi Tattysnuc dipping turned out very very weak & ugly looking brushing though with 1 good coat seems to make it take a really good grip, I can't seem to prevent it from looking messy with more than 1 coat but that probably is due to doing the coats being applied too close in time together, maybe leaving it to cure properly is what I need to do for a 2nd coat, it's actually more durable than the anodised aluminium I have, that scratches easier than the lacqodising.

It's designed for direct to raw clean metals so you don't have as much trouble cleaning it & it prevents tarnishing.

As for people not seeing the significance, some do but I think most don't but might once I apply it to a full project, the shop I bought it from did because the prices shot up from £2.50 a bottle to £5 lol so I have a feeling they caught wind of it.

Fascinating project/thread!

Thanks V F.

Great project

Surprised you haven't sent the parts for powder coating.

Thanks Scougar, powder coating is good & very hard wearing, can even get cheap ish DIY set ups now & quite a heck of a range of powders including candy colours but I just like to keep the texture of the aluminium without making it glossy which is what candy powder coats do.

Awesome job I like the way the metal work is done all by the OP

Thanks Anox.

 

[waynio]

Screw up ramble re-cap for this project lol.

Skip down to hibber jibber if screw up ramble is a bore.

I guess I like to include everything so if I ever need to recall bits of the project I can just look through my log & it doesn't portray someone who does everything perfect.

They are all related to slight errors while making the design printer ready, used to be a case of measure a few times before cutting or drilling once, now it's be ultra careful manually converting to 2d to make my designs printer ready, these lessons will or should prevent me from making future screw ups, at least I know by now to include every single important mount hole in the design before getting into doing one for a far quicker project with less confusion.

So, I got to the point where everything structural was almost done, someone prompted for testing hardware fitting to see what I got right or wrong & was about to stick the power & data plug in place to the internal HDD dock slide piece, glad I did a check up throughout.

First there was the curves in 1 of the 3mm panels that I didn't fully complete in the design so didn't look right, re made it.

Stuck the bar templates on the wrong sides (was working 4 sides) but luckily I was able to salvage them without them standing out with them being hidden.

Then realised I cut 2 of the same 1mm alu panels for the PCI/IO piece when 1 of then has a 1mm lip for the IO shield to pop in place better, had to make another.

Then discovered my mobo trays were all slightly wrong needing 1mm extra space for the IO shield that comes with mobos, re made this one & both ones for my other project.

Then minor things like some mount holes needing to be slightly bigger, then I found I had the SSD mounted the wrong way around in my design but in the right place so had to re make the SSD plate, also had the internal IR receiver mounted facing inwards some how so re made the front panel too.

LMAO


Hibber jibber


Here is a few pictures of what I've done lately & yeah my priority for modding has lowered a bit so I'm now more of a casual modder who happens to do a huge session when I really feel like it, I'll enjoy it more this way with not putting pressure on myself.

The reason I had to re make the front panel, the IR mounts were facing the wrong way, d'oh.

Plugged another brass insert into the PCI/IO piece for the last of the panel mounts, showing sinking the insert in with solder iron which leaves a risen spot which is then either filed or sanded flat.

Cut the fan legs off & stuck the fan in place with JB weld, I'd describe JB weld like it sets like hard durable plastic, seems like pretty good stuff, like Araldite rapid steel but more concentrated & stronger.

Made room for the e-sata cable to go underneath the mobo & direct to the rear e-sata port (I'll make a little plug to fill the void).

Few random shots before I perfected things.

Bad fit, sorted it out since then though.

Which brings me to now & I have just stuck the power & data cables to the HDD dock since I just finished the front panel re make & tweaked the whole structure so everything fits awesome, just seriously hopes the JB weld doesn't squelch into the HDD connector, I won't test that for a day so I just got to hope it is OK, I did lay some masking tape beneath in case it stuck to the bottom panel but if it squelches into the drive connection I am so screwed lol.

Mounted the IR receiver in the fresh new front panel with 2 4mm spacers I had to grind down from 10mm so neded tiny 2mm screws for that.

From the front & I made the marble more flush to the surface, looks nicer to me but I'll need to re solder 1 of the wires back on the switch (came loose).

SSD mount/PSU stand tweaked to how I wanted it.

Also tweaked everything so it all fits perfect but silly me I didn't take no shots before getting onto the HDD dock piece which required me stripping it down a bit but I really like how it's turned out.

Even drilled LED holes into the PCI/IO piece to see how well it lights up = really really poorly so now I know what to do whenever making layered up PCI/IO pieces that I'd like to light up, stick to plain clear acrylic & paint them or better still, apply vinyl & use LED strips.


Little order for surface & edge finishing products, gloves for dirty work, chemical type work & assembly type work, respirators for dust & chemical because I have an epic amount of sanding in my future, white spirit for cleaning & degreasing, 240 grit wet'n'dry paper, 3 flavours of satinising pads & a pack of micro fibre cloths.

Also have the uber pan coming which is 544mm diameter & 330mm high, I'll be able to get the biggest pieces of lean & green into this pan so the lacqodising is definitely on.

Lastly, colour scheme, shades of black or brown, I quite like the brown but black would fit in better on the entertainment unit, thought I'd show anyway.

Should have this Midlag Crisis over with very soon & then back to the nightmare of a mod load called Lean & Green.

 

[waynio]

Very little to show but I got "something" e-sata hdd dock, works nicely, just need to wire an on/off switch to it & make it look a little nicer now the functionality is spot on & was I ever glad the JB weld didn't squelch into the connection making it a permanent fixture to the spare hdd lol.

Then I've just got external edge finishing & surface finishing to do now, already done the internal edges, thanks to the simple pattern cut outs they were nice & easy to do, LAG won't be that easy but not too far from it.

Lacqodising, got everything I'll need for that now, last things I needed was the big pan, timer, scales & primary dye colours but I also got secondary & more black, been stocking up on big milk jugs too so I can re use the dyed waters I make, I'll be able to make any colours, depth & shade from these.

Fits the biggest panel of LAG in there which is a relief.

Won't be using the giants pan for this project though, a smaller more human pan can be used.

Just need to dedicate more since I've given myself chance to properly relax & get a grip but I won't ever be over dedicating again, I tend to end up flipping out way too easily when I do that lol, I think the key to it all is be passionate about modding but separate the passion from the ego completely & things turn out pretty awesome more naturally then & if it doesn't wow people then so what, maybe next project will lol.

 

[waynio]

so is that stuff like liquid anodizing? sounds very interesting

It's metal lacquer brushed on well prepped aluminium & then dyed like how it would be if anodised but it skips the need for anodising, the thin transparent film the lacquer adds is the only bit that gets dyed but the film is so hard it would need a heavy sanding to remove it.

Liking that a lot, looking forward to the rest

Thanks coolamasta.

Just thought I'd add this progress shot to show things are moving along to go with the reply, all these have been sanded on the internal, external edges & surfaces, pretty close to having it all ready to lacquer it all up.

 

[waynio]

Apologies if I've missed it somewhere in the thread. But CAD/Drawing package do you use to design and render you case projects?

Google sketchup 8.

 

[waynio]

Cheers. Think I need to download that and have a play..

Google have some nice basics to more advanced tutorials which are well worth checking out to get to grips with it & if you persist with it & get stuck there are heaps of youtube tutorials & some sketchup design communities, sketchucation is a good one.

 

[waynio]

Thanks for that. Will have a little look.

I'm well impressed with what you have managed to do with it. Keep it coming, I'm hooked now.

Cheers mate & sorry about the hefty delay on continuing this.

Depth test.
I turned that black with blue tint to a green tint, I read adding 10% orange neutralises the blue tint, put too much in, think it would be best to just use 2 or 3 times more black than other colours, reason for the roughness of surfaces is I had 60 pieces in a small pan.

HDD dock power switch 2mm inner panel.

Drill milling the bar it fixes to.

Installed & I actually unintentionally used the top panel mount hole with forgetting that's what the hole was for lol so had to add 2 tapped holes either side of it.

Decided to use a latching vandal switch, just need to wire it.

To add the hole for the top panel I took the front panel with bars attached, held the top panel against it & drew the circle with a pencil, cut it out & finished off with my biggest countersinking bit so it could just about pop through & gave it all a rubbing with a satinising pad.

Might have to spray paint the aluminium fan panel or leave it raw, should have left sticking the fan on until I actually dyed the piece lol, JB weld is no joke adhesive.

Next update should see this project complete, just not been bothering with modding lately so only do a bit now & then, no competitions in mind & no business agenda so what's the rush eh lol.

 

[waynio]

Didn't complete it over the weekend, ended up doing something unplanned.

Re made the fan spacers & the hoop piece, original spacers weren't long enough & the hoop wasn't wide enough or consistent width, needed 1mm more length, only really found this out when I actually stuck the fan to it, here is how I grind the sides of the spacers I already cut, drilled & tapped from 8mm round bar.

Assembled it without the hoop piece, not sure but I think I prefer it like this plus it's easier to assemble which is a nice bonus, I think it works for this one with the extra 9mm of layers but on LAG I think I'll keep the hoops in play, this fan frame design has 4 layers with the 4 spacers which hold the hoop in perfect position, this particular one has 7 & is trickier to install the hoop properly but works & looks fine without the hoop.

HDD dock vandal switch will be completed once the lacqodising is done, not got small spade crimps so had to make it permanent with solder.

Now then, here's something I've never had the guts to try before but there's no speedier way of learning than just throwing yourself at something, so snip away.

Dissected a sata cable & joined it back together again, under the first cover is 3 exposed wires resting separated by another shielding, under that shielding is 4 plastic coated wires of the same type, they are really fragile & break really easy, anyway I soldered the 4 double shielded ones together & coated in liquid electrical tape, the other 3 wires were too brittle & kept breaking needing me to expose more to re try so I soldered normal wire to them, applied a couple more coats of LET, let it dry & then coated in JB weld, cut about 150mm excess length off the cable, took a while with having to let the stuff dry, I'll leave the cable for a day before handling it, takes about a day for it to cure well & then it's like good hard plastic, it's done on a portion of the cable which won't have to bend too.

Then tested to make sure the mobo fits still because I didn't test it after the revised mobo tray, it's good still, about 2 or 3mm space between the mobo & fan lol, need to add a hole for passing power & data cable through.

Still another update before final shots, random sata cable mod took some time, gave virtually everything a good rubbing with the satinising pads though so just needs cleaning before applying the lacquer, has to be ultra clean for nicest results.

 

[waynio]

Omg finish a project already its killing me lol

lol So far I've had 10 sessions on this one so yeah I won't deny it I've been really dragging my feet but that was kind of the idea to use this one as a bit of a break to slow myself down a bit, the lacqodising definitely slowed things down too, still kinda worried about getting my colour mixing wrong & making a toilet type brown, that would be a bit of mini disaster I'll definitely have to do colour tests before doing it to the project lol.

What in the name of jesus is that heatsink?

Don't know but it's a nice one that comes as stock with the asus e35m1-i deluxe mobo.

 

[waynio]

Sorry about the delay, that lacqodising is a bit more difficult than I initially made out, pretty much the application of the lacquer is tough for just 1 side, then add internal edges & the other side & anodising would be far easier but not as safe to do at home with it needing harsh chemicals lol.

Head is screwed back on also.

I'm going to need a good makeup brush lol.

Kept saying every time I thought I had all I need for doing this I needed something else, down to the fine details now though which will make or break the look.

For applying the lacquer to intricate cut panels like the fan grills the art brushes I've got are too hard so do don't apply it so well for doing the inside edges & any fine surfaces, my big brushes are just too big to do it well, good makeup brushes use ox hair too so ordered 1.

Plus I found to prevent making a big mess from any dripping through to the other side creating a mess on the other side I need to mask up the other side so the little puddle of lacquer forms on the tape & the masking tape should then be carefully removed in no more than 1 clean pull before I speed up the drying with warm air & the only stuff which doesn't contaminate the lacquer is high temperature masking tape, the type used for powder coating or anodising although maybe surface protective film could be as good & a lot cheaper, the type used for storing sheet products in mint condition so like a heavy duty cling film.

So just made the order for 10mm, 25mm, 50mm & 100mm high temp masking tape along with a fine ox hair makeup brush & a roll of surface protective film £67 ouch but this will let me do this, LAG & more beyond, was the high temperature masking tape that cost the most but that will let me do multi tones on panels & the only way I'll do multi tones on inside edges is if I keep things simple so it's easier to do, I'll reserve doing that for anything thicker than 3mm so this project won't be getting multi tone internal edges.

Glad I had this side project to discover any pit falls with laqcodising, already had to sand 2 panels back down to the metal & it's hard work doing that, probably tougher than the aluminium itself it's pretty crazy lol.

Still 1 or maybe even 2 faulty applications on panels to fix but I'm doing nothing more other than fixing those 2 on this project until I get those products so I can safely do the insides also without damaging the look of the outsides, I might make a start back on lean & green because I've got the products coming around the 10th or 11th of April & if I do that I'll be able to seamlessly move back over to doing my main project.

So looking at the 12th or 13th before I can update but I think I've got the application of lacquer mastered which was the difficult bit in mastering this lacqodising which really side tracked my side project from my main project lol.

 

[waynio]

Been lacquering the panels, bars & even the screw heads.

155 capacity screw lacqodising jig for the prepping & lacqodising, 3mm lower deck & 1mm upper deck made from scraps, 6 spacers, countersinks underneath & buttons on top, made it a lot quicker than drilling a thick plate a load of times, could do with using bigger spacers though, some of the screws are too big for prepping in the jig.

This is why I needed a finer application brush, pools & bubbles when using a brush too blompy on intricate pieces, didn't look good, had to sand it back down, took ages.

This is why I needed to mask the other sides when I want to do both sides, unwanted pools leaking through while applying so this project is set for rather imperfect internal lacqodising but the externals should be quite nice but still a bit imperfect, I'll be more bothered about getting things done better on LAG, I'm treating this one more as practice for a new method, had to sand it back down & wow it's a lot of heavy sanding to get it all off completely, it's a heck of a protective coating though.

My 2 smallest brushes being used for the bars which I made a simple jig for doing them so I don't have to touch the bars with my hands while doing it but so they are all loose enough to turn them with the brush.

Using the high temp tape which is used for powder coating & anodising, super low tack but high cling not damaging for the lacquer when pulled off & with it being high temperature resistant lets me use the heat gun to make it so I can pick it up without it running about or me leaving new marks on it but while it isn't fully dried & I can pull the tape off in 1 clean pull, the surface protection film turned out to be useless for this task & I waited so long for it to come in the post when I could have just used the high temp tape & had this done already, all future lacqodising should be really well done now I'm wiser to potential hiccups & exactly what I need to do it, any intricate lines I used the makeup brush & all around them I used the 25mm brush to get it done faster.

Even lacquered up the IO shield, that's the awesome thing about lacqodising, ANY metals can be done, the screws are stainless steel too.

So it can all be dyed now.