Modular.

[ALXAndy]

Ah. Those were dang noisy tbh dude. The 3mms, like. Won't be using those again the burrs are silent in comparison.

Yeah I think you are bob on when it comes to the noise. It was totally taking the pee really. Lessons learned...

I think the bed is level with the cutter. I think it was as pointed out - discrepancies in the cast itself. I have now learned where my machine likes to be in order to go all the way through. You max the bit out on the piece, then back it off two presses with Easel. So no issues there now.

Problem with a fence and it being in the same place is that on this bed size it is never in the same place. I have to position the acrylic before I line up the bit with the piece because I often have to have the piece poking out of the bottom (because of the bed size).

BTW those crimps are wrong I think. I thought it included ATX female pins but they are tiny. Hoping they are large enough to crimp ATX pins. I need them any way, but will be annoying if I have to buy tons more gear.

 

[LePhuronn]

That picture you posted is purely Dupont connectors, so won't work with Molex Mini-fit Jr (ATX) pins and connectors. I'd be surprised if the crimping tool works with Mini-fit Jr as well, looks like a SN-28B crimper which is great for Dupont (hence in the package) but isn't suitable, at least in my experience, for anything else.

Check out the fleabay seller Komodo Electronics for various connectors and pins. They're all copies of the official connectors, but I've not had any issue in using their versions of fan, LP4 and JST connectors with official stuff. If you want official Molex kit for your PSU then hit up Farnell UK.

 

[Cenedd]

I'd be surprised if the crimping tool works with Mini-fit Jr as well, looks like a SN-28B crimper which is great for Dupont (hence in the package) but isn't suitable, at least in my experience, for anything else.

I started with an SN-28B and they do sort of work but not very well. The ModPC crimps aren't too bad - definitely better than the SN-28B. I still prefer my Engineer's but also appreciate the reason he doesn't want to go with those

Check out the fleabay seller Komodo Electronics for various connectors and pins. They're all copies of the official connectors, but I've not had any issue in using their versions of fan, LP4 and JST connectors with official stuff.

I'm not aware that I've even used any genuine pins. Some of the clones are good, some less good. The usual variation is the length of the rear wings. Long can be really good for multiple wires in one pin but some crimpers mangle them. You can cut them shorter if that happens though.

If you want official Molex kit for your PSU then hit up Farnell UK.

And if you want official Molex crimpers you'll also need to hit your bank...like with a mask on! They do NOT give those away


You can check how level your bed is 3D printer style by getting a cutter close enough to it that you can slide a piece of paper under it and feel a bit of drag. Then moved the spindle round the bed and check that it's the same everywhere. If it's not, the frame is out or the bed is on the tilt.

 

[ALXAndy]

I've got the pins. Bought them elsewhere. I will see what happens, but don't want to spend any more money right now. Worst case I can solder them.

At least I can make the header cables up with those.

But yeah, not adverse to soldering the buggers on.

 

[LePhuronn]

And if you want official Molex crimpers you'll also need to hit your bank

I was referring to the Mini Fit Jr connectors rather than the tools tbf

 

[ALXAndy]

Those are what I need. I've bought a hundred, won't need that many.

 

[ALXAndy]

OK. Lots of stuff got, but the long and short is I am pretty sure the crimpers will crimp those pins. Which is nice.

Machine is running a engrave now. Much nicer pursuit than cutting tbh. Which is good, because that minotaur is going to take 3 hours lol. By the end of today I should have the side panels finished. Well, mostly finished out of the white, because I had another idea I will talk about later.

Oh and G - that 0.8 = veeeeeeer quiet. Which like I say, is nice.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 22 - Two little ducks.

So I had about an hour of sorting through lots of parcels when I got here. Still missing small pieces, but the acrylic for the top is here.
So I had two designs for the left side panel. First Thom Yorke's sig. For this I switched to a 4mm collet, and a 0.8mm carbide bit. I also slowed the machine down drastically.



That took about 50 minutes, but it was so quiet I could actually hear the Arduino beeping code at it. A much more pleasant pursuit, that is for sure, and I am glad 'cause the next lot will take about 4 hours. I then moved over to this.



Which was drawn by Thom and is part of the RH website. That took about 30 mins, and now we have a left panel.



I had ordered some 3mm tint acrylic, then I had the idea of going with yellow instead. So now both pieces are on the way, yes.



I will do the top yellow panel tomorrow.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 22.5 - I hate copper more than I hate aluminium !

So this was going to be one of those easy old jobs. Just drill 7 holes and back counter them. How hard can it be?

Really, really hard. The bit just didn't want to go through, it made horrid crunching and cracking sounds and I had to put far more force on it than I was happy with.

Now this was supposed to be drilled to just over 4mm, and I was going to use M4 bolts. The thing is it was so erratic and unpredictable that I know I would have ruined it. So, I accepted my 3.2mm holes in the copper, then back countered them and I will be using M3.

Meaning I just had to order more bolts. Annoying.

M3 16mm. Probably too long, meaning I will have to file them down. Now you can see why I stopped at 7. Besides, the only place I didn't drill any was in the bottom (note it will live upside down as you see it).



It can now F off. I will clean it, but I am stopping there. Far too stressful.

Edit. OK so I had an idea. I could not gauge the depth of the countersink. It was either one depth, or they are all different. I was annoyed, as I thought I would need to cut the bolts to length custom.



Instead I can just put washers in the counter holes until the bolts poke through the correct amount.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 23 - Yellow Snow.

So I got up today and had received a game from Gareth. Nice one dude. In the message it said

"Happy Christmas dude. Stop milling your own snow .. it's gonna be a nightmare to clean up! ;P "

Ah mr G, I spend about an hour after every session hoovering. And besides, today was the time to make yellow snow !

This took over four hours. Just as the software said it would. I hate it for being right tbh.



So whilst it was working away I decided to cut the wire to length.



Aaaaand... I don't have enough LMAO. FFS. Oh well, need more. After four hours and ten minutes I had lots of yellow snow.



I then cleaned all of that up, re-positioned the piece, changed the bit and loaded in the last cut on a panel. I was going to put boring old vents up here (as it's above all the hot bits) but I found a cracking design again on RH's website. They must have known someone was going to machine this seriously.



After a final pant crapping 35 minutes...



Pant crapping because I knew karma desperately wanted to ruin it for me after nearly 5 hours. The top D flipped and nearly jammed the cutter. Oops.

I will take that, merry Christmas all !

addendum

I knew I would forget something, so here is the USB sockets finished. For this I drilled in about 3mm, tapped a start, then super glued and activator the posts after cutting the threads down.

 

[Cenedd]

Nice. Clearly worked nicely but just another option for you. You can probably heat-set them into a pilot hole with a soldering iron. Often done in 3D prints with threaded inserts so with different thread and different plastic it's definitely worth testing on a piece you don't care about!

 

[ALXAndy]

I used to do it that way. Problem is the heat dispenses the plastic and they either come up in a bump or push out the other side. I used to stick a solder iron in the brass hole and yeah.

Btw that is not clear. They are tapped and threaded but the threaded bit was about 8mm long and would have blown through the panel. So I cut them to about 3mm and then basically use instantly activated super glue as thread lock.

Been working on the back plate etc that will be done on Tues when the hardware arrives.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 24 - "Give it a little tappy, tap tap taperoo"

Today I finished the holes for the feet. First thing I grabbed was my tap set.



A while later...



I have also marked out all of the panels for cutting now. That should commence later in the week.



If any one was wondering where I got those cheap yet lovely case feet? they are not case feet. They are "Civic 25mm Universal Aluminium Bonnet Billet Spacers Risers + Extended M6 Bolts"

So they are meant for cars.

 

[ALXAndy]

Update 25 - "R&D".

There are still quite a few unknowns. Things that I could not measure or plan until certain things were together. Tonight I cut the top to size and the bottom. My rotary tool is crap, and it took me a lot of filing. I need to look into something else before I ruin a panel tbh, but they both ended up OK.

So, with the bottom cut to size I could start fitting things up to get the final picture of parts I need to make. The first one of which is a couple of GPU supports, because it is already hellaheavy and it doesn't have the second block on yet.



So a couple of things noted. Yeah, that is how I am going to run that pump. For a couple of reasons. I could probably get it better using straight rotaries, but sadly no one makes any that don't leak. No one. Secondly I actually want it hanging on the hoses like that, because it saves me having to try and find a way to fix it down somehow and then live with the whirring going all the way through the entire rig. Hanging on hose like that suspends it and will cushion the vibration. They don't make an awful lot of accessories for those pumps, so that is ideal.

What I wanted though was the height between the bottom of the block and the floor of the case. Which I now have, so the first job when I get back on Friday will be machining out three supports to hold the seriously heavy GPU.

I have now put too many hours into the back plate, how to mount it and so on. I came up with a great way, but now my thermal pad is too thick. So I have ordered another one, which I am hoping ends the serious ball ache that it has been.

And going back to the GPU? I now have my answers. Firstly when I took the BP block off a few nights ago something dawned on me. It didn't have enough thermal paste on, because I left that all at home and all I had was some Arctic Ceramique which is a pain at the best of times. It's very hard and even harder to spread, especially when you don't have enough. I was getting annoyed at it, so I must have YOLOd it a bit. Hence the high core temps. I have now put on plenty of new paste. But aye, looking back at the spread pattern it was terrible at best.

 

[Cenedd]

Definitely get you on wanting it suspended by hose so it decouples the vibrations. Would it help if you moved to the other fitting of the gpu or would it just do the same flop there?

Naff rotary tool? I'll drop you an email.

 

[ALXAndy]

Blimey I never even thought of that. The fitting bit like. Sometimes my brain just says "this is the first one so it has to be that one".

I did find some rotary extenders so will order some of those soon. Will reply to the email when I'm awake lol.

 

[Cenedd]

Easy to miss things when you're close-up and your brain is stuck on one track. Usually when some smug git comes along and points out the obvious ;P
If it helps, the Barrow rotary extenders are really tight to turn so they're probably watertight...but difficult to turn. I know I have some and I think there's some in the 'bridge' from my case to my Mo-Ra. They've not leaked.

 

[ALXAndy]

EK do some nice nickel ones and they're "only" about a fiver. Can grab a few nickel extensions whilst I am at it.

I was tired last night. Not a good thing. I just want things done by that stage. Going home for a couple days off shortly. Need to charge the batteries a bit.

It's the GPU that has caused most of the headache. I can't tell you how many hours I have buggered around with that sodding thing. I think that may have been the step a bit far tbh. That should have been a project unto itself, not something I try and cram in between designing and machining.

 

[ALXAndy]

Bonus footage.

Last night I learned that Yellow 229 is transparent.



I wasn't going to fit a single LED, but I now have to.

 

[ALXAndy]

OK so some more stuff has been ordered.

Depending on where you read this you may already know that another one of my hobbies is collecting, restoring and giving paint jobs to bicycles. Mainly BMX, I now have 20 full bikes. Some old and some newer. This is why I cut my teeth in painting, because coatings are expensive if you don't do it yourself. Any way, at the end of last summer I built an absolutely top drawer killer bike for me to ride next summer. This would have cost over two grand, but I found a few items that were in need of a lot of love. Including the fork.



Yes, I am fully aware you don't like the tyres. Not your bike is it? Any way, like I said the fork needed a custom jobby. The frame is Dave Krone's signature frame from S&M. Hand built in the USA. It is Sega themed.



So I decided to roll with it. Including a three day custom job on the fork.





I only painted like three lines with the yellow so I have nearly a full can left. And some silver flake. So that will do the PSU nicely. However one thing was bothering me. The ugly AF square in the middle of the PSU.



So last night I found another design that just really seemed to fit perfectly on the RH public library. I then had to redraw that because it was tiny and would not vector trace properly. After about two hours I had this.



Which will need a tool change and take about two hours.

Going back to the PSU. When I fitted the parts up last night I remembered the cables are 75cm. Which is too long. So, I am going to cut the ones I cut in yellow in half, and basically rewire the entire PSU. In 30 odd (half of 75). I had another roll of that arrive today, so I am not even going to braid it with paracord because it's more time, more expense and more work. It will also make the cables take up much more room, which by the end will be a problem.

I ordered some more fittings from OCUK too.



Some stainless rulers.



Which will be clamped down to stop me ruining any cuts (a fence). And took a massive kick in the testes for this.