Project Stealthlow

[waynio]

Your new camera is doing a great job of highlighting all the scratches. Great for the posting, and to encourage you to address them, but perhaps annoying in the normal run of things.

Anyway the case is really looking great and with all the TLC you are lavishing on it, it can only improve.

Yeah the lens is super sharp so can't get away with any slack work unless I blurred things a smidge , spent quite a lot of time on working out all the fine scratches now, could get it to pristine condition but I'll settle for how it is now, it's far better than it was with the original scratches & better than it was yesterday so I'll settle for that, takes a ton of elbow polish to get it to perfection .
Thanks John .

Yeah I always check out the mods on bit-tech and there are some seriously impressive ones on there, not that there weren't last year either. Good to have Attila's help, his mods are amazing and always seem to be in the running for mod of the year, so if he likes this it's a good sign. I'll make sure I vote for this if it does get to the mod of the year top 10

Yeah it's good every year, so much talent but I can see this one coming up is going to be huge if people get them finished in time, quite a lot use CNC these days so makes it hard to contend with on ultimate precision & some things that would only be possible if you spent years on it but I enjoy what I do & like seeing what stuff people make when they get to use advanced machines, difficult to call it a hobby when people go that far though IMO I see it almost like letting retail case manufacturers be in mod of the month/year if it's ok for average joe to with highly above average machines to gets a bit too industrial & professional I think but really all those advanced methods only make me try harder than I would if they weren't doing that so it's not a bad thing really & good can come from it as long as you don't get envious about it I did when I first went on bit-tech but I've totally chilled out about it & just enjoy the show & anyway besides I'd be a hypocrite if I still had anything against CNC as the case feet from Bill Owen are made on a CNC lathe lol .

Attila has just become a master of saying who needs CNC without having to actually say it very cool although he admits if he had the space & money to buy that type of gear he probably would but seeing what he can do with normal tools & self belief & seeing further than what an average person would see as doable he just doesn't need it really, I'd be tempted to go for it but you have to be really well off to buy those type of machines, if I won the lottery I'd definitely go for it & set up an incredible workshop & you'd soon see some sweet retail cases from me but he has given the average joe something to believe in when it comes to very high quality DIY metal work so yeah I have a load of respect for him .

As usual, great work

Those copper cable tidies are a really nice addition

Thanks Judge .

I said I won't update until I get the fan extending & sleeving done as well as the window polishing so I'll make a start on the fans now so I can hopefully get an update rolled out today I also decided I'll make a cover for the PSU to hide the branding & I'll make my own metal strips to replace the ones in the enermax fans, they didn't sponsor me so I aint giving them a free ride of advertising there are like 6 areas where it says enermax inside there very clearly so I'll fix that ASAP by replacing them with copper strips .

Very well done, so much time and effort been put into this, wish i had workbench with all the tools and materials, masterpiece

Thanks mate I started off with very few tools but as I got more into doing this they started building up the more I went on, can get more addictive than gaming .

 

[waynio]

Heres the freshly fully wet sanded window & new RAM I put in my rig to replace the ocz 4GB 1600mhz 7,8,7,20 I was expecting a drop in performance with going for kingston hyper x 8GB 1600mhz 9,9,9,27 but did before & after memory benches & they are just as good took these 2 without a tripod also but they are part of the progress so got to leave them in.

OK I'm in the middle of doing the fan wires right now & having a little break from it so thought I'd up the photos of the window I took earlier in the day, all these photos are showing it in the worst possible lighting which would highlight any scratches so when daylight isn't on it like this it looks pristine & to be honest not far from it in this raw daylight but to get it in truly pristine form it would take I'd guess at least 14 solid hours of arm killing fun so I'll settle for this .

Also put the warped copper panel back in, it needs some work to get it 100% flat which I'll have a go at tomorrow, it's also 2mm too short for the spot it's in & I do have an extra 2mm copper sheet which I could make a new one if I need to & I don't have to do a hole mesh I could do a complimenting pattern for the front alu piece in the same style as the clamp strips.

 

[waynio]

Finally got the very boring bit done extending the fan wires & sleeving them.

Glad that's done with .

 

[waynio]

Fan mod time if I don't like these enough once I get them done right I have designed my own frames for if I feel like doing them .

These need bending better, I measured the enermax pieces & made a template, cut them all out on the scroll saw, took them to the disc sander, then brush finished them, then looked around for an ideal sized round hard object to bend it around.

I'll need to make a mould to get it perfect & have plenty of spare scrap wood to do this .

 

[waynio]

Woo hoo I found the perfect bending aid for getting these replacement pieces done, my masking tape with a perfect fitting tin of paint placed inside just wrap around it & squeeze & then a tiny bit of hand bending & got it to 99% perfect, I thought I made them 1mm too long but no they are just very fiddly to put inside the clips so now I know I can make it work I'll take these out & get all the other copper pieces bent properly & then if needed give them another brushing & then brush some metal lacquer on them to stop them from tarnishing .

The strips go in in 2 pieces just like the enermax ones, it's a modular fan .

 

[G-Dubs]

Love the enermax mod, got me thinking for my mod. As you know a real copper based theme.

 

[waynio]

Love the enermax mod, got me thinking for my mod. As you know a real copper based theme.

Cheers Dubs I'm looking forward to see how your new mod turns out, the fan painting is already looking mighty sweet mate .

Just re-brushed the copper fan strips & did the fan mount stumps also, had to bend the copper strips straight though so I could give them a new brushing, I went with the coarse satinising mop for a nice detailed brushing, then cleaned any crap off them, handling them with surgical gloves & keeping them wrapped in cotton cloth , then bent them back to needed form, if you touch nice raw copper it speeds up the tarnish like over night I found so I wiped them clean after brushing & then put the metal lacquer on with a nice brush, stupidly I never thought on about doing them while they are on their sides, could have got both sides done at once but no I'm doing 1 side at a time, I'm just hoping the metal lacquer doesn't leave a gloss finish on them as it would wreck the look a bit.

 

[waynio]

Got the fan copper pieces & the fan mount stumps brushed with the coarse mop & then brushed metal lacquer on them so they can be handled now without easily adding finger prints & got them all installed.

 

[EniGmA1981]

Those fans look amazing!!

The only thing letting that down visually is the typically multi-coloured motherboard and the blue gpu cooler lol

 

[Diggsy]

Looking great Waynio. As above, motherboard isn't helping the overall look - how about a custom made dark acrylic cover for it, something like the ASUS Sabertooth? Once complete this would even allow you to add some copper detailing too if you wanted.

I'm sure with that new saw and that imagination of yours you could conjure up something

Oh and either paint all of the GPU cooler, or paint part of it and glue some mopped copper on part of it

Oh, and how about some copper pieces over the RAM heatspreaders? Might be interesting.

All that said though, one of the newer all dark Gigabyte boards would fit in there beautifully - why not drop them an email and try to blag some sponsorship?

 

[~REALiTY]

If only you could change the colour of the mobo and gpu cooler this would be the best mod ive ever seen tbh just because of the effort that has been put into it!

 

[waynio]

Those fans look amazing!!

The only thing letting that down visually is the typically multi-coloured motherboard and the blue gpu cooler lol

Thanks mate, don't worry the mobo, cooler, gpu are spare parts I have , sandy bridge msi p67-gd65, prolimatech megahalems shiny black & gtx 580 are the system parts going in this .

Looking great Waynio. As above, motherboard isn't helping the overall look - how about a custom made dark acrylic cover for it, something like the ASUS Sabertooth? Once complete this would even allow you to add some copper detailing too if you wanted.

I'm sure with that new saw and that imagination of yours you could conjure up something

Oh and either paint all of the GPU cooler, or paint part of it and glue some mopped copper on part of it

Oh, and how about some copper pieces over the RAM heatspreaders? Might be interesting.

All that said though, one of the newer all dark Gigabyte boards would fit in there beautifully - why not drop them an email and try to blag some sponsorship?

Cheers Diggsy I could make a cover for the mobo easily but I'd be concerned about areas overheating with the lack of air flow, any extras I put in from here are last second ideas .

I originally wanted to put a gigabyte p67-ud7 in this, just looks awesome but then found out the price & I was instantly turned off from it, was hoping for it to be £200 or less but man it was close to £300 I was fairly tempted to go ask around for sponsors but never bothered, shame as I could have put the money I spent on parts towards more quality tools for more possibilities.

If only you could change the colour of the mobo and gpu cooler this would be the best mod ive ever seen tbh just because of the effort that has been put into it!

No worries, currently using sandy bridge setup in air cube which will be cleaned & transferred to the new case cheers mate .

Also I just got an email saying about an invite to the International German Casemod Championship DCMM which sounds rather awesome indeed , but I'm not exactly a keen traveller, people shy I just clam up lol, I'd have to pack the case amazingly well to avoid any breakage & already know that if I passed on the opportunity I'd regret it like I did the campus party Europe thing in Madrid last year I've got until the 3rd of August to make my mind up & the event is 20-21 August, wish I weren't restricted by my own silly mind .

 

[JohnTedd]

Also I just got an email saying about an invite to the International German Casemod Championship DCMM which sounds rather awesome indeed.

Well done on getting the invite, though I can't say that I am surprised. Will they be paying for your expenses, especially related to shipping your case over?

Whatever you decide regarding attending, it is great to be invited and you deserve it.

I look forward to seeing the proper components in place.

 

[waynio]

Well done on getting the invite, though I can't say that I am surprised. Will they be paying for your expenses, especially related to shipping your case over?

Whatever you decide regarding attending, it is great to be invited and you deserve it.

I look forward to seeing the proper components in place.

Thanks John it says they pay I think 1 euro for every 10km travelled & no mention of case shipping, think I'd have to book a hotel also as I wouldn't fancy staying overnight, my bro said he'd be up for driving there lol that'll be a fair road trip but I'd prefer that to airports & flying, but man on the off chance I ended up on a podium in front of shed loads of people I think I'd have a panick attack lol .

I'm looking forward to getting this up & running too mate .

This is what turned out to be perfect for getting the curves done on the copper rims, a fresh roll of cello tape with a tin of paint stuffed in the middle & just wrap the copper around it & then manually bend the ends a tiny bit, then flip over & spread it out a tiny bit & then they fit nicely .

Took it all apart ready for brushing, there are quite a few parts that need a fresh brushing & some parts that still have markings on & parts that haven't been brushed yet so it's time to get every little bit brushed & lacquered although the curve bars & motherboard tray will have to wait a little longer as I still need to make & add copper cable clips & a power button I had to opt for a 16mm one, just wasn't quite enough space for a 19mm one where I wanted it because of the strip clamps, I have thought about grinding part of the switch bevel away so it fits but undecided on that & the motherboard tray needs the psu wire pass through hole making a little bigger so more wires can cram through .

The nice thing about the metal lacquer is it doesn't leve a gloss finish if only using 1 coat but adds a nice protective layer, on a sample piece I did 1 coat & less than 3 hours later I handled it & left no finger prints or smudge marks, well none that were visible anyway & it really takes some hard rubbing to get it off so it's really good stuff .

But whatever the case I'll still need to wait for the right angle ATX plugs before I can finish this, the dylon general purpose black dye came today so I'm all set to get this complete once the ATX plugs come.

Oh can't forget about the front bottom copper panel, waiting for the range of scroll saw blades so I can cut the 2mm copper more easy on a bevel, the jewelers blades struggle cutting anything above 1.5mm so cutting 2mm copper on an angle just isn't a good idea it would take forever & would waste quite a few blades, the bandsaw blade came today though so should be able to see how well it copes with a range of thicker materials, I'm expecting it to be as good as a hacksaw but with more ease of precision so I'm a bit excited to find out how well it does .

Oh BTW I found I can buy a decent milling cross table at a good price & a rotating table, so I'm gonna be saving up so I can buy both & a good pillar drill, then I'd be able to make quite a few awesome things .

 

[King Damager]

This is Damn epic! Glad to see it's still going along! Been a while since I checked in here! Surprised it's not finished yet

kd

 

[waynio]

This is Damn epic! Glad to see it's still going along! Been a while since I checked in here! Surprised it's not finished yet

kd

Cheers mate, heres what I've got to do before it's complete.

PSU cover with mirror polished copper .
Front bottom copper grill.
Optical tray cover & eject button made from copper.
Copper cable management P clips.
HDD cage clamp bars.
Wait for right angle ATX adaptors & when I get them dye them black.
Brush & lacquer those final bits & install all the hardware .

Everything else is complete I think & just added a power button hole for a 16mm vandal switch silver with white LED ring on the right curve bar & made the psu cable hole slightly bigger & rounded all the cable pass through holes on the motherboard tray & also rounded the HDD cable pass through holes, then brush finished every single piece & put a coat of metal lacquer on it all so it stays in nice condition.

I'll up photos later .

 

[waynio]

Ah, it's good to see the 20 or 30 image limit has been lifted .

Brushing the small copper pieces with metal lacquer left me with an impression it was easy to do without hiccups, some spots it looks nasty especially under certain light but I'll rub all the bad spots out & do a fresh brush of lacquer to get it so it looks nice all over.

Glad I had a few extra things to do to the motherboard tray really as I rounded the square holes on all the main pass throughs & the hdd pass throughs & looks much nicer now, didn't need to change the optical ssd pass through as it's out of sight & works perfect, oh & added a 16mm vandal power switch which only just fit silver with white ring & finally I drilled 5 or 6 holes & put helicoils in so I could use the MDPC cable clips if I can't be bothered with making copper ones .

On with the photos .

And for shots like this is why I wanted a different lens, just couldn't get these shots with the fixed focal macro lens.

Wow that was a load of shots but hopefully good viewing with the building up part lol.

 

[waynio]

I've not been project logging properly lately with changing my camera which is too nice to be in a dusty environment & the tripod is huge & I have limited work space so it all just gets in the way of what I'm doing so to log better I'd be best getting an extra memory card & compact tripod & use my kodak for workshop stuff & save the nice one for out of the workshop, in the winter I hardly took my camera over to the garage as it was sub zero temps & I doubt that's good for the camera, my mp3 sometimes crashes it gets that cold .

Ok excuses out of the way & I'll do this to fill at least 1 blank since everyone seems to like this fan mod & 1 so far is even willing to pay for them, I won't be selling any, I've better things to do, I probably would sell these but have no idea on nice fair pricing for the buyer & for me I'd feel wrong for charging something to make it worth my while & I'd be stupid to do them for virtually free so here is a guide I just made so anyone who either hasn't got the tools or experience you could go get them cnc'd like many modders these days , it's good to share knowledge, keeps modding evolving rather than keeping the how's to yourself .



Custom rims tut for enermax modular type fans (revised).


So you need a good strong pointy pin

Carefully unclip all 4 main connectors.

Then carefully unclip the centre holding clips, the rest don't need it as they don't hold as much force.

And do the same for the ones on the other half of the fan, you have to unclip on both sides of the half circle & then they just fall out .

There, shouldn't have anyone breaking their fans while doing this now.

These fans have loads of potential for sweet customisation especially if you can go with CNC as you could add your own cool cut patterns or logo.

The strips come in 2 half circles & measure 182mm x 18.5mm x 1mm I flattened 1 out & kept 1 in good form as an example for this tut.

The cello tape I used was 90mm diameter & think it works better than just a hard object as it allows you to squeeze it to a further form, this setup virtually makes a perfect form for the 120mm fans although with raw material it requires a little extra forming which you can do with strong fingers & a hard surface.

With a raw material it's likely it will need a little extra curving & this works for me.

It also seems to matter where you place the half circles, the enermax ones have a bunch of slots that help it stay in place so if your using a flat material it can be tricky to get both in correctly, they shouldn't be overlapping each other at all & they need to be in every single slot on the bottom & top or the fan blades won't spin because of the slots being bent towards the blades.

Once everything is aligned well you can carefully press the connectors down into place & make sure it's fully closed & that's it, you have a cooler looking fan providing you cut & formed the rim to exact spec .

Modding this fan has opened up loads of awesome ideas for me which I hope to do some time if I can get the right tools.

I took the stickers off the psu .

And got the fans back in there.

 

[waynio]

The right angle ATX plugs & scroll saw blades came on Saturday .

But, looks like the right angle ATX plugs are for soldering to the motherboard with both ends being male I aint soldering anything on the motherboard lol so those 5 bits are heading straight to the random bits box probably never to be used, probably .

So I've ordered a male & female ATX plug & I'll make a custom extender that wraps around to the rear of the mobo panel so it doesn't obstruct air flow, this isn't a bad thing really as I'll be able to make the 24 pin cable go in the shape of the curve with the extra slack I'll gain from this.

I started out on the front bottom copper panel & was my first go at cutting on an angle with the scroll saw, quite difficult really as it turns a 2mm sheet into 4 or 5mm & it catches easier so got through quite a few blades & I had to press a lot of force downwards to stop it jumping around (wasn't that bad all the time but I'd say 50/50 so just did piece by piece spreading it out over the day & finally got the rough cut done, now it needs a good sanding session on the bevelled edges to get rid of any jaggies, things have moved forward that bit more .

The metal lacquer I had some trouble with, the first time I lacquered it all it left some drips & some blobs, I stripped those areas down, re-brushed & re-lacquered & all is mostly fine except the right side panel where the brush finish got messed up & the top right area doesn't go in form with the rest so I'm thinking of stripping all the lacquer off, re-brushing & re-lacquering, PITA but needs doing really if I want it as my best effort, I'll just have to be more careful when I lacquer it next.

Also since the perfection thing has got a grip of me I'm going to try to mill drill some of the side panel windows a little more because some aren't quite flush to the alu & it's irritating me whenever I look at it & see a glare from the windows that are sunk in by 1mm or less .

Got some nice shots though with the morning light, enjoy .

More soon .

 

[gary996]

Looking amazing now waynio