Modular.

ALXAndy · 2 Dec 2022 at 15:16

BTW. You want one of these. Trust.

They are about £20. There is G code out there to make one out of wood, but the peeing around just isn't worth it. Saves you having to stop the machine to clean up every now and then.

Oh and the big elephant in the room. DO NOT TRY AND CUT anything but cast acrylic. It just melts and snaps bits. Go with cast. That said I always have (hence the lime sherbet joke on Dianoga and how Gareth's boy would have ate it LOL

)

ALXAndy · 2 Dec 2022 at 15:27

Affirmative. It is the same machine as the blue one in the first vid, and that is £300. Because it's blue.

You can get them for as little as £130, but those have no sides in. Meaning it will just throw dust everywhere.

Edit in. Dude, seriously, take the time to watch the videos. Feed rate and speed are the literal gold of this machine. With those you will do well. Without? you will just break bits and everything will be messy.

ALXAndy · 4 Dec 2022 at 20:35

Update five. "Computers are always a good source of aggravation".

So I got over today. First thing on the agenda was take apart old desk, and replace with new one. Took a few hours, but man so much better.

OK so we were off to a flying start. Next up - assemble hardware, plug in my Kepler Quadro and make sure it works. Only, I was on an unknown entity with the PSU I have totally rewired so I figured I would use Gareth's old Asus P67 board and 2600k. Set it all up, plugged in the Displayport cable... Flashing grey screen. Hmm. Now I didn't want to spend hours and hours troubleshooting two unknown entities, and nothing went bang, so I figured the PSU was good.

I then spent four hours trying to get a signal out of the Quadro. First the DP, then DP to HDMI and then after searching the entire house and having to go through this.

Mother - "What are you looking for?"
Me - "You wouldn't understand"
Mother - "What is it?"
Me - "DVI to HDMI adapter".

*silence*

*Opens drawer in front of TV*

Mother "IT'S NOT IN THERE"

Me - "How the fudge do you know? you have no idea what it even is!!"

*Silence*.

Any way after hours of searching I found one. Still flashing grey screen.

Out of sheer desperation, and now in a quagmire of wire and boxes I put the 2080Ti with the water block on.

Which is really sodding annoying because I hoped to spend the evening installing the RAID and getting Windows on. But I can't, because I can't run the GPU for more than a minute or so GRR.

Even more annoyingly I had to then break it all down and pack it back away so I can move.

The CNC arrived. Amazon dumped it on the doorstep and ran. Good thing I came over, because whoever said it was light was talking rubbish.

ALXAndy · 5 Dec 2022 at 17:52

Update six - making things.

OK so after dragging myself out of bed this morning everything hurt. Including my groin where I had a hernia when I was 12. So I started off gently.

First thing I did was see how the Lian Li panel from another case could go in. I want this as exhaust. Both rads will be on intake.

Goes on one end, needs extending the other. Not an issue, I can make a plate. This was what came out. Not idea to fit two fans to.

I then found the rivets that need drilling but we had company downstairs so that would have been a bit too anti social even for me lol. So I did the next thing.

I did not take any photos before that because I knew I would make tons of mistakes. And I did, the instructions are a bit muddy but I got there in the end.

And then.

So it is complete.

ALXAndy · 5 Dec 2022 at 17:55

Oops. Missed test fitting the rads.

ALXAndy · 5 Dec 2022 at 18:43

Cenedd said:
Now one at the front and one at the back!
Mmmm, Spiralwrap.....and now you have no more patience left.
Found some 3mm HSS endmills that ought to fit your spindle. I'll try and get them in the post at some point.

Thanks dude. Come on, be honest, how many emails were you expecting with me saying "How do I do this?"

Muhahahaha

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Ed. Yeah, the spiral wrap sucked. However, according to the reviews the braid sucks FAR more. It also would have been just as much of a pain to put on and IMO isn't as good.

ALXAndy · 5 Dec 2022 at 21:13

Yeah I guess so huh. It's deffo sturdy as I stubbed my toe on it earlier ffs.

BTW I don't need to mill the cold plate on the second block and I can mount it without gluing it down.

Basically the core part and memory around it are central. So if you flip it upside down as I need to they are all in the correct places. I am not bothered about the back of the core making a good contact, just the memory. And those are the highest on the plate, along with the VRMs which look identical. I will, however, vernier.

Will talk more about how I can mount it without gluing it on when I come to it, but yeah I am 99% confident I can do that no problems.

I did treat myself to a couple of absolute essentials though.

The ones I saw before were something stupid like £40. For something you will destroy. Oddly enough it was only when I added this to my basket after measuring the motor that it popped up for £20. TBH? at that much it isn't even worth the aggro of designing one.

And these, 'cause I want to use really small ones for lettering and etc.

ALXAndy · 5 Dec 2022 at 22:24

That was what I used to carve a 3mm deep line in some 5mm before dude. One of the cheap carbide burrs that came with it when I bought it.

BTW some confusion here. I can tell the software what sized bit I am using. I get 1/8 or 1/16. However, that is not the actual tip. Should I be able to change that?

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 00:44

OK cool. I figured it out, BTW. I set it to a 2mm tip. I also finished measuring up for the back of the PC, which tbh is the most critical, fussy part. Reckons it will take 44 mins with a feed rate of 300mm per minute.

And that is with the engraving. I just wish I had my Dyson ball here. It is about half the volume of the Oreck. Plus I haven't use it at all since I got my cordless.

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 13:12

I ordered the water cooling parts I needed for the pass through. Two of these at each end.

And big fittings and hose to make sure it doesn't get too congested.

Also, since the last time I did anything like this about 5 years ago, someone somewhere has realised that a 20mm disc is annoying as you have to keep titling the Dremel in order to cut. Meaning you need to rip the material down, leave about 5mm there with a angled edge *and then* you can cut your nice straight line. Who would have thought you could just make them as 40mm discs and avoid all that?

And the almost completed design of the back IO of the PC.

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 13:31

Update Seven. "It's time to innovate".

So there was just one thing left for me to resolve. Holding down the material to cut it.

Obviously from the back panel design you can clearly see I will be using all of the space available to me. This is a problem, as it leaves me no way to hold it down.

In one of the videos I watched a guy was putting masking tape down over the spoil board, then putting masking tape on the back of the cut face, then pouring super glue all over the tape on the board and gluing it down, thus, creating his own "double sided masking tape".

Double sided tapes are generally very strong as they are designed for carpet, but man all that super glue. That looked hella expensive to me !

"Come on surely someone makes double sided masking tape" - nope. Not from my first few searches. Sheesh really, has no one invented double sided masking tape?

After A LOT of digging it seems they have. Kip, Kip has. Cheers Kip.

Was expensive though. £8. However, whichever way you shake it that sounds a whole buttload cheaper to me than masking two faces and then "gentleman's relishing" superglue all over it. Also, if you make a mistake in masking you either ruin the acrylic or you pull lumps out of your spoil board.

And yeah, that is a whole update because IMO? it is a critical piece of using this machine.

So now you know, Kip rocks.

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 14:05

Wicked thanks dude.

I do have carpet tape but man, way too strong tbh. Especially with fine areas. With masking tape I can just heat the acrylic with a hair dryer and hopefully get it off without breaking it !

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 14:50

Update eight "What about the god damned Jaffa Cakes?"

OK, so this is the block that shall be going onto the rear of the card.

I was going to glue it on with thermal expoxy. However, last night it struck me. What if I drill holes in the back plate, put bolts in from the back side, mask the bolt heads with non conductive material and then drill holes through the block? Reverse mounting, with sprung nuts. I then realised I could machine off all the waste acrylic at the sides (as per the pic) and put the holes as so, as they are not in the water channel.

Sweet. I can just use thermal compound, and can remove it if I ever need to.

So, this is the cold side.

OK and this is how it seems. All of the red areas "appear" to be the same size, and the blue CPU area is lower.

Now obviously I am going to test that. But if that is the case then I can just smear all of the red with thermal paste, and fit a pad in the middle where the CPU die part is.

I can also pre machine the drill holes with the CNC to get them accurate, then go through the copper with the drill.

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 16:28

No. Long bolts, springs and nuts.

Think your old EK block, but more of them.

And yeah, will make sure nothing hits. I can always grind the heads down to literally nothing. Edit in, and epoxy them in place with some JB.

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 16:39

It's probably 2-3mm. Not enough tbh. And yeah, all the way through. I will use the machine to put the pilot holes into the acrylic and then finish with the drill. At least they will be reasonably straight.

But yeah, there is a lot of room behind the back plate. That is why the pads are so fat. Which I can't use, because apparently the AC ones literally melt into slush.

But aye, you can see by the standoffs how far from the card they sit.

Edit 2. I don't even have it yet. Ordered it from another place and tardy would be an underestimation ffs. Apparently it shipped today, to the flat. So that is long off the agenda given I am not going home for nearly 2 weeks. Thankfully it is signed for, so I can just go round and collect it when I get back.

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 17:03

Oh I see what you mean. Thread it, screw in, nice and sturdy. Yeah I can do that, I have taps.

TBH if I did that I could then take the belt file to them. Especially if I used red thread locker (which I have) and let it cure.

Edit. Wait, we are still going in opposing directions

Hmm. Something to think about that.

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 17:35

Cool. More to think about. That bridge will come, but not yet. I need to slow down and start tackling jobs one at a time.

ALXAndy · 6 Dec 2022 at 21:06

Update Nine - It started out fun....

So tonight's mission was to get the rads both in and the fans connected. First thing I did was cut off all of the RGB wires.

I then realised that the top of the case does not have through holes for the rad. They are threaded holes. I guess this makes it easy to screw an AIO into. However, no good for me. So I took it all apart and drilled them to 4.5mm.

I then messed up the fan orientation about four times, and finally got it in. Only to realise the stop plugs were on the wrong side. So it all had to come out yet again.

Got that in, turned the case over and started fitting things. After about 30 mins of head scratching I realised the holes for the two fans do not conform to a radiator. They are too far apart. Take whole case apart again, **** up the fan orientation three times and then finally.

OK so the rads were now in with the fans on. Which was nice. I did, however, have to change something. Cougar put a 92mm fan in the back there but with it in I do not have any clearance to make the plates fit that will hold this in (see next pic). So, I dug out a NOS Antec clear fan, removed all of the LEDs and put that in (it's 80mm, leaving me the clearance I need) and fitted that. Oddly they give you a 80mm mesh dust filter but not a 92? odd.

That is about where it will end up. I also connected up the CNC, installed all of the drivers and etc and gave it a "hello world" with the PC sending the data.

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All seems to be doing what it should and it didn't blow up, so there's that....

Well, aside from the hour of troubleshooting because it refused to connect and me then realising that, you know? you need to actually turn it on.....

Oh and that button on the floor.... That is an ancient external power button for a PC. However, I realised the Arduino has a safety stop header so I shall be wiring it to that.

ALXAndy · 7 Dec 2022 at 18:11

I didn't get done fiddling until around 3am. I ate my dinner and went to sleep.

Tonight I game with my friends, so I am mostly going to have a day off. However, I did do at least something.

I needed a way to distro the power to the fans and pump in the cooling box. All small jobs, but all need doing. The only thing I had was this.

Which I was not sure would work. It takes power through a SATA connector and the connector on the right side is only the tacho and pulse from the board. So I was concerned that even if I shoved it with power nothing would happen unless it was getting a pulse signal from the board. I also was not sure if it had a controller on it as I don't want to peel the thick foam off the back, and thus if I shoved power in it would it blow up?

Seems not.

I didn't have any spare SATA connectors or pins so I just soldered on using this.

Hence why the solder touches more than one pin. It's fine, and it offers a more secure anchor. I might even solder the PSU directly to it, if it ever arrives. "Totally in the UK honestly" and then your parcel spends two weeks "On its way to courier"

Yeah. From BLOODY CHINA.

My only last concern with it was "Will it be able to take reduced voltage". Yes, yes it will. Here it is with 5v going through it.

So that is done. Won't fit it in the case yet as like I say I will probably lop off the barrel connector and solder the PSU directly to it.

Oh and Gareth and another engineering pal pointed out the end mills I had bought were not end mills but burrs. Both showed concerns. However, Gareth, being the super star he is has mailed me some end mills (real ones) so that's sorted.

IIRC the spoil board and vacuum head come tomorrow. Though I am not in a rush to start destroying valuable acrylic, so slowly wins the race.

ALXAndy · 8 Dec 2022 at 13:51

I will look into that, cheers. Apparently the spoil board and dust thing are coming today so I can do some testing.