Midlag Crisis

[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.

 

[nick.lidgett]

Omg finish a project already its killing me lol

 

[illuz]

What in the name of jesus is that heatsink?

 

[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.

 

[FenixMS1.1]

Awesome skills!!! How do you manage to cut such straight lines with the fretsaw? Incredible.

 

[waynio]

Awesome skills!!! How do you manage to cut such straight lines with the fretsaw? Incredible.

Thanks Fenix if I don't manage a perfectly straight cut on the scroll saw I perfect it on my disc sander but usually I get it right on the saw by just taking my time & keeping focused.

 

[fishingcat]

The project logs forum is making me sad. Everything is so damn impressive!

Fantastic build anyway, I look forward to seeing it completed.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

Amazing work as usual dude, love your commitment to the builds you do!

 

[waynio]

The project logs forum is making me sad. Everything is so damn impressive!

Fantastic build anyway, I look forward to seeing it completed.

Thanks fishingcat if it's any consolation though the stuff I made when I started was far worse lol.

Amazing work as usual dude, love your commitment to the builds you do!

Thanks dirtychinchilla.

Will update later, today is a good day to dye.

 

[waynio]

Sorry about not updating yesterday, happy face turned to sad face with the result on the actual project due to lacquer application so I climbed in bed to sleep it off to let me wake up with fresher mind to let me tackle it right, the timing test left me feeling quite excited & happy lol, enough to post a picture of the result with it being pretty nice so figured I'd be able to post some good results later in the day.


But ouch, I was wrong & made a horror show instead, should probably censor these gruesome pictures lol, I've seen them up close in person & on full zoom in the pictures, nasty compared to the test pieces.
If lacquer application was good it would have looked as nice as this.

Not this time.

Not to worry though, the stainless steel countersunk & button head screws turned out mostly awesome, typical.

Was meant to be like this but I done the colour saturation level 100% instead of 30% & it's got a smidge too much red so was quite badly miscalculated, shorter dips are horribly orange instead of a nice light brown/beige.

This is how I got the colour wrong, it's the right colour but the wrong saturation level.

Colour wheel helps show the other colour to mix to the main colour, guess the diference, I'd say a tiny pinch of red to orange making hot orange.

For 9 litres water 30 grams seems good but only 1/3 of that should have been hot orange & the 2/3 black.

So I have to strip all the lacquer off every single piece of the project so I can reapply it better, I'll try brush again but without the tiptoeing around detail cuts & instead carefully clean up any excess mess with the makeup brush after a good single straight 1 direction soaked brush stroke covering the full piece fairly quickly.

If that fails there will be a way to do it perfect & I'll find it, has to be perfect or very close to it if I'm to use this method on any future projects.


I also had to use the big pan with not having a perfect sized pan for this, it needs 9 litres to fill it to 50ml deep, I had 3 restarts on the timing tests adding 9 grams of mixed dye with each test ending up with 27 grams so managed to figure out how to make correct colour saturations & brightness in any mass of water, I got solid figures I can work with now to tweak for smaller or larger amounts.

I designed some water mass filler weights held together with screws, bit of square bar, 1mm aluminium, filled with gravel & sealed with high temp silicone, will reduce needed mass which would reduce needed dye also.

Want to make a multi level dunking jig for placing parts well & removing them easy with a handle which could also be used to lift up/down to keep the mix lively.

I'll cover everything properly once I complete this process successfully, until then I'd just be rambling & thinking out loud so more as soon as I make good progress, firstly I need to strip all the lacquer off everything so I can restart & need to find the best solution for stripping it off easy so it could be a while again or less if I get lucky, didn't bother dying the other pieces because I expected same kinda fail rate.

Awesomeness doesn't come easy but when it does & I totally know what I'm talking about I'll post an understandable guide (hopefully) lol, really have no idea if this will be a popular finishing choice but anyone who was wanting to do anodising but didn't fancy the hazardous chemicals I think this will really appeal to them, I'd have loved to have found a guide on what I'm doing lol.

More soon but hopefully the results I was going for.

 

[waynio]

A good google & there are strippers available at shops that are meant to be easier solutions but this home solution I came across doesn't sound a tiny bit difficult.

1 Tablespoon of Baking Soda to each Quart of Water, boil, throw parts in, 15 minutes later it should peel off, any stubborn leftovers clean off with the type of stuff I do for stickers, white spirit.

Sounds great I'll try it now & if it seems like a bit more of a challenge I'll save it for in the morning so I can get back to ready for dying again within a couple days.

Be funny & awesome if I got it all off before I go bed.

--------
edit
It's removing it pretty good, think I'll have a late one tonight, worth it to put me back to just before lacquering stage.

Could do with more baking soda though for the amount I have to do.

 

[waynio]

The boiling water with baking soda did a pretty nice job of turning the lacquer to easily removable mush that could be wiped off but it would have been better to have double the potency of baking soda but would still need a few dunking runs, I only did the 1.

You can see on the screws how it stripped a fair bit of colour out & reduced some lacquer, the screws cleaned up easy with satinising pad.

Still had a lot to remove, I tried satinising pad at first but wasn't getting far enough for the amount of elbow polish I was putting in so resorted to using the metal scrubber shown in this picture.

How they looked after the baking soda & some scrubbing.

So ended up switching to 220 grit submerged wet sanding which helped it go a lot faster, after that I used satinising pad to pretty much get back to pre lacquered state.

Still a bunch of panels to do but I am onto it all, all this will be excellent supplementary info for the guide I make too.

 

[Samaus]

really amazing log dude some stunning skills. Really interesting colouring methods I'm looking forward to see the end colour.

very useful little bolt holder you have for colouring hope you don't mind if I use that idea in my own project?

 

[Shawy]

I really like the layered fan mount, great design. I can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[waynio]

really amazing log dude some stunning skills. Really interesting colouring methods I'm looking forward to see the end colour.

very useful little bolt holder you have for colouring hope you don't mind if I use that idea in my own project?

Thanks Samaus & yes you can use it, love that project your working on.

I really like the layered fan mount, great design. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Thanks Shawy, still removing the failed lacqodising & I need to get more dye, looks like another week at least.

 

[Sal0hcine]

That it looking really impressive. Just the detail and work that went into the front fan is amazing.

 

[nick.lidgett]

I love the relentless trial and error you are putting into this.
If it were me I would have weighed it in for scrap a long time ago.

I cant wait to see it finished, please don't give up!!!!

 

[waynio]

That it looking really impressive. Just the detail and work that went into the front fan is amazing.

Thanks Sal0hcine.

I love the relentless trial and error you are putting into this.
If it were me I would have weighed it in for scrap a long time ago.

I cant wait to see it finished, please don't give up!!!!

Thanks nick & sorry about the timeout, really needed one though I let something bother me that I shouldn't have.

My get up & go got up & gone somewhere without me so had to get well enough for it to find it's way back to me.

So much sanding needed doing, everything needed stripping & the bicarbonate soda doesn't do that much & is more like a facial scrub & manually wet sanding was just a bit too much effort giving me popeye arms & making me brain dead really so ordered a belt sander for quicker work of surface sanding & can do nice straight brushing with it, still needs a light careful rubbing with satinising pads else it feels grippy so if you wiped it with a cloth it would leave a load of bits all over it.

Bits & few panels in I lost grip of this small piece & it went straight to a gear out of sight, had to take it all apart to get it out, 10 minutes use & had to fix it lol.

Used grub screws & spacers to mount these in the drill press because they are too small to handle another way, held 240 grit paper to it to clean them up a bit, they were quite scuffed.

Ran out of needed dyes for custom brown so tried some plain colours green, blue, red & I placed a strip of black vinyl across them all & put them on the window cill to test out if this fades in sunlight, 3 weeks & they remained un-faded.

New bits including prepping bits, new hacksaw & 500g tubs of black & coffee brown dye, decided to go for the big tubs for far better long term value.

Clamps for the belt sander.

All sanded & brushed, just needs wiping down with white spirit & then clearing any dust particles off with a tack cloth before I lacquer it all up, painter's pyramids I'll add a dot of blue tack on the tips for some grip on the aluminium, no more messing up work surfaces & no more panels sticking to work surfaces.

Made a model of the room I mod in & designed complex worktop units but ended up changing it to quick to make basic worktops, will be so much better less cramped, this is how it currently is & this is without the camera on tripod which has a big foot print, with that I had so little space so was really awkward to mod in.

This is what I want to change it to by using breakfast bar legs with a 3 meter kitchen worktop.

Got 10 breakfast bar legs & installed 4 to the offcut I've been using as a makeshift worktop, just that alone gave some nice extra space, got the 3 meter top today so I'll be happily modding on again in a cleaner more spacious organised room probably tomorrow, still need another bin or 2, a shop vac wouldn't go a miss neither.

All sanded raw, brushed, cleaned up & lacquered.

Sadly it all went wrong again, close but not close enough to pass QC plus colour is completely wrong, this is more brass or gold than brown, I know this method is doable, just have to apply the lacquer in a better way, not sure what's up with the colour though, possibly nowhere near enough dye in the water or it's just a really weak dye mix compared to a custom mix from primaries.

Screw heads turned out great again though, at least those are consistent.

And this 1 panel piece which turned out near perfect so it seams going against the brush finish made it work right rather than going with the brush finish diection, really this 1 piece turned out fully covered to my surprise so I'll have to try doing a more detailed piece like this.

So need to try again, keep getting close to the finish line on this & it pulls far away but here's another shot of the front layer piece which I didn't dye because of the poor results.

This time I'll focus on 1 detailed piece that seems to have the worst finish which I would say is the side panel in this shot, just until I have it solved before I dedicate to lacquering the rest.

First I'll try applying it going against the brush finish since it worked pretty good for the mini side panel, if that fails then I'll try air brushing, if that fails I'll try spray gun, if all that fails then I'll revert back to raw metals or spray paint & write off lacqodising as a semi pipe dream because it works excellent for colouring screw heads, at least that is of big benefit to modders.

Dunking jig is essential for doing the dyeing process, too iffy blindly placing parts in so if I can make the lacquering part work well, it will be made up of 3mm sheet alu, 5mm spacers doted all over the disc which allow for secure mounting of pieces, 200mm threaded bar with nuts on both ends & 13mm tube around them & a handle on top, the big holes will be good for keeping the dye mixed by lifting up & down, I'll make 2 or 3 of these so I can so a run with minimal hassle, I thought of multiple levels but then thought of the mess that could make in the kitchen while trying to get parts out lol.

This update lacks some awesome for the amount of time I've been out so have some shots of the nice shiny new control setup I bought, corsair k70 keyboard & razer taipan mouse, love how easy this board is to clean & the media functions are perfect, brilliant good looking functioning product, pricey but worth it for something my fingers dance about on regular.

Razer taipan & corsair mm600 mat, I actually prefer my old razer lachesis, was perfect for my claw grip style but this is a good one, I'd just prefer the body of a lachesis with the tech of the taipan, scratch build mouse case possibly.

Still aim to complete this project ASAP so I can get back onto lean & green, both projects should have been completed ages ago & it's purely due to making this lacqodising work why it's taken so ridiculously long, not just doing bits but saving & waiting for deliveries every time I think I have everything I need, prep work I have figured but lacquer application is the bit I need to perfect if I'm to use this method on projects.

More soon from the upgraded room which will be more like a workshop.