Modular.

[ALXAndy]

Take three...



It's much happier now. Fluffy clouds etc.

I also lost my virginity last night and got poked by something new ! an acrylic splinter. Never had one before *proud*. Actually I think they are the worst of the lot, pending metal of course. At least acrylic doesn't rust when it gets stuck inside you.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 15 - "Baby got back, and front".

OK so that cut finished beautifully. Yesterday I was in a bad place before I even started. You know? growling and swearing at things before I had even begun. Today I am much better, and it shows.

So, once the back was done I decided to do the front CNC work too. I am glad I didn't quit while I was ahead.



Completed back.



And front.



Third time really is a charm.

 

[ALXAndy]

BTW just general notes.

I think the hardest part here for me, and I knew it would be, was getting my head out of 21 years of being in a 2D head space. I knew that I would have to ditch that train of thought and start thinking in 3D space, on plains etc. And that was what bit me in the bum, and I knew it would.

Secondly that tape is AMAZING. You can actually use it more than once, too. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 15.5 - "Waste not want not".

I decided to use a piece I wasted yesterday to make the motherboard tray. It has a line or two carved in the back, but that will go up against the PSU any way.



I originally intended to run that the full length of the case, and then carve cable holes through it. I don't want to spend a load more money for extra work though, so that is fine. Will drill and tap it later for the standoffs.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 16 - "This is HUGE".

OK so after a quick edge scrape with a stanley knife the board tray was ready to be worked.

First I drilled and tapped in the board posts. Note they are tall, because of the NVME cooler and rear shroud.



Frivolous? yes. Epeen satisfaction = 100%



Ah yes, but does it fit?



Like a glove.

 

[LePhuronn]

Jesus fudging Christ, he's making entire cases now...

 

[ALXAndy]

Jesus fudging Christ, he's making entire cases now...

lol !

I realised that one of my anti psychotic purchases was a little, erm, off.

I don't drink because of said anti psychotics. However, they do make you as high as a kite. As such I have only just clocked the fact that....



10mm LEDs lmfao. That's new on me ! I only machined out a 5mm hole, but that gives me the perfect chance to make a ringhole and have it shine through. Flashing though? yeah, don't get high mmkay Still thinking about it it does kinda match the theme.....

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 17 - "2AM PSU fun".

Hmm...



Oh OK I see..



Mmhmm.



Gercha.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 17.5 - "Alien Ant Farm".

So last night my ears were ringing from the CNC. It's not that loud, but it seems to hit the annoying resonant frequency like a vacuum cleaner. IE, you can hear it for a couple of hours after it stops.

The fix was as the title - blasting Alien Ant Farm. Drown it out !

OK so for today's fun I started work on the GPU retention system. A totally convoluted over the top way of bolting on a GPU.



Note one edge is urinationed. This happened because I somehow didn't set the machine to carve that edge all the way out (its to do with layers, still getting my head around all that) but it will be sanded flush later at finishing when I have a sheet of alu oxide glued to a piece of glass.





Lil bonus. This will be my PSU side side panel.



02 will be the big one. If you are a Radiohead fan that should make some sense.

BTW that panel. Yes, I have finally worked out how I can draw stuff in Photoshop, and then convert it into SVG. I draw what I like, open it in Illustrator and image trace it. I then save it out as SVG, load it into Easel and weed out what I don't want. The best part of this is I don't need their Pro license to use my own fonts.

Boshty.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 18 - "Brave And Stupid".

OK so I made another part earlier but the epoxy I used refused to set. So I will have to do it again, because its sticky and annoying.

Instead I decided to do the big job, shortening the block for the back plate. And this almost turned out to be a £150 failure. It was fine until it got down below about 10mm, then it started screeching like Satan's hawks ffs. I am actually amazed it managed to get through it.



But yeah, I shall say a prayer and be thankful tonight.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 18.5 "Convolution".

Did you know that the mathematical convolution actually seems like it reads "Fug It"?



So here is the GPU mounting system finished.





I filed the bottom latch straight, too.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 19 - "A bit cheeky to taking the p**s"

So I finished the right side panel design last night. Looking at a screen I figured my spokes were "a bit cheeky". Turns out they were taking the p**s. Testament to this cheap machine I guess.



The USBs are a bit too small. IDK why, might have carved on the wrong line. That's OK, that is what I bought the files for.

Last night I also decided I wanted a filter in there. Start looking at PC filters "£10!11" £20!2222" then realised my bits were all gold.



Brass fine mesh, £2.

Here is the block I wasted two hours making look like new.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 20 - "BRING THE NOISE !!"

Cenedd (G) sent me some bits. Carbide posh ones, 3mm. They fit my machine, yay !

However had I known how loud they are I would not have used them. The edges are really clean, but man that noise was the worst it has made yet tbh.



I am taking a week off now. I will tinker with the back plate and block if the back plate wasn't stolen, but I am having a week break before Christmas.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 21 - "Timing, a tick a tick a tick a tick, timing, A TOCK A TOCK etc".

So the constipated postal system finally took a small dump. Rabbit sized, but enough for me - the power socket up there ^



Latching power switch.



And the cooling box is done.

 

[ALXAndy]

OK so now I am finally away from the machines and tools I can finalise the plans and designs.

Funny thing is when I found the cheap acrylic I remember saying to Gareth in email "Yeah it's opal white or yucky yellow". Thing is since then I have been thinking about adding a splash of colour so it doesn't look so sterile. I have never done a build involving any yellow before. Besides, I wasted about half a sheet with two incorrect rear panels (don't worry I have salvaged about a third making stick downs and small pieces !) but yeah, when I went back and looked at the "yucky yellow" again I was sold.



The entire case will be white, sans the top. I am going to do that in yellow. The top and bottom are a bit greedy, and need a whole A3. This is because they are 297 wide (fine) but obviously have 10mm of acrylic inside them (the front and back thickness) so the final cut size is 307. Which no standard size includes.

Of course it won't be plain. I love the crying minotaur from Kid Am Nesia, so that will be going on there using Gareth's posh 0.8mm endmill. I need a new collet for it, but I will have those long before the acrylic arrives.



I will also be using yellow coolant, but in dye form. IE - get the rig filled, burped and leak tested and then add it in after that.

 

[ALXAndy]

Just a quickie before my "Before Christmas" break begins.

I was pleased to find the back plate was indeed pushed all of the way through the letter box and was waiting for me at the doorway to my flat.

It is thick. Like, at least 2mm thick. So I *think* with some precision work I can tap straight into it. Will probably mean I need to shave the bolts down though. I think M4 will be best.

Two concerns. The first is irritating. Apparently as pointed out on LTT the pads rot and melt. Well they didn't give me any at all. At least they tell you they are all 3mm, though /rolls eyes. Those will cost more than the back plate FFS.

Secondly the screw holes are weird. like AC have their own holes. So I will need to mod it a bit. Other than that? very pleased. And workable, I like workable.





One thing? the whole thing is going to be DARN heavy. So, I will need to make some supports to hold it all the way along the case.

Not a problem when you have lots of spare 5mm and a CNC

 

[ALXAndy]

I am now planning final things needed. The 60mm cutting discs are too big, and keep stopping as my tool does not have the torque needed. So I ordered vented 30mm ones.



I am not going to plastic weld it. I was, but I just dread losing a two hour panel. So I got super glue with activator spray.



To hold the pieces together I have these from when I made my sub cabinet.



They are amazing tbh.



I also need these for various other jobs. I had some before, but alas I melted them bending acrylic lol.



More of the cheap burrs. These cost less than £1 each and are amazing.



A collet set to take the 4mm bit Gareth sent (a proper carbide titanium coated bit)



I shall be using that to do the crying minotaur, as it is very fine. It will take over 3 hours :O I will be carving vents at the hot end, but that will be a 1.6mm bit so will be 30 mins tops.



I will be gluing that to a glass chopping board so I can get rid of my cut marks.

Lastly for now I bought 10 of these.



These are to mount the back cooling block. However you will note that I have chosen 10mm. And it is around 15mm thick, with the 12.4 plastic and metal under it (more than 15 tbh).

I am going to pocket the holes so they go down 6-7mm. I need to do accurate measuring, as these need to protrude no more than about 2.5mm out of the bottom. I could have gotten really long ones and cut them down, but I did not want them at the same height as the actual ones holding in the water. All it would take is one wrong bolt undone and you have coolant everywhere.

 

[ALXAndy]

Right, final order in. I should now have ordered everything I need to order !



And the final panel design, the left side (where the GPU and hardware is). I wasn't going to do much here, then I had an idea. Thom Yorke's signature (after hours of sorting in Photoshop) and some vents.

Now bear in mind I have only put these on one work piece to show. The sig will take over an hour, and so will the vents, and they use different bits. So they are currently on two different work sheets and the sig will be done first, bit change, then start the vents.

 

[ALXAndy]

I forgot one thing....

Really, you don't think I was going to leave the cables green after all that, did you?

Thing is I am tired of modding cables. Not making them, or putting paracord on them, but modding old cables. It's a lot of salvage work, and it never looks great at the end.

So, I finally caved and bought the tools I need.



As well as 50ft of yellow wire.



And 50ft of paracord.



Do note, I am not doing them all. Only the green ones. The black ones shall stay that way.

 

[Cenedd]

Well, that's a lot more update than I was expecting - I lost notifications a few pages back! Looking good though.

3mm bits are HSS not carbide. The 0.8mm is carbide with a nano blue coating. Good for hardened steels, cast iron...you know, the things you're going to be throwing lots of at your CNC Still, it shouldn't have trouble with plastic. You'll need to find a balance of fast enough rpm to cut but not so high that you melt the plastic instead of cutting it. Ditto with the feed speed. Definitely test on some scrap first.

The reason the cut screamed when it got deeper on that block is, I suspect, because you got below the fluted part of the cutter. At that point, the shank of the cutter would have been rubbing on the edges of the slot you were cutting. The only way out of that really is a longer cutter - if the shank is the same diameter as the cutter it might be ok but it depends how accurate it is and how rigid the machine is...so probably not. I've seen the odd endmill that has a smaller shank than the diameter of the cutter; those would also work.

Your bed being level is going to make a difference to cuts that don't go all the way through. It might be ok if the bottom of a pocket isn't true to the face but if you're trying to cut almost all the way through but not quite, the variation might start to become important as some of it will be thicker than others (to snap out) or will go all the way through and hit the bed. If you're layering up cardboard and tape, be careful you don't make it too smushy as you could get the workpiece moving under the cutter. In some cases that's not so much of a problem but it could bite you if you're trying to get dimensions tight.

Something that might be helpful is to make a fence or stop. If you made a right-angle piece to mount to the bed in one corner, you could take a workpiece out and put it back in a fairly repeatable place.