Midlag Crisis

[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.

 

[Something Else]

love it when your updates come up.

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

 

[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.

 

[BuZ]

Great! Keep the pictures coming.

 

[Tattysnuc]

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?

 

[V F]

Fascinating project/thread!

 

[Scougar]

Great project

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

 

[Anox]

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

 

[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.

 

[Something Else]

so is that stuff like liquid anodizing? sounds very interesting

 

[coolamasta]

Liking that a lot, looking forward to the rest

 

[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.

 

[DampDog]

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

 

[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.

 

[DampDog]

Google sketchup 8.

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

 

[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.

 

[DampDog]

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.

 

[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.