The G.E.C.K - Vault Tec component.
- Thread starter ALXAndy
- Start date
OK guys the yellow piece is now being done. Nearly done as it goes ! I decided to treat myself for Xmas.
Drool. G - your one you gave me? the battery dies after about 2 minutes. Sad face.
I also realised I did not upload these, so here goes. This will be the yellow inner piece. I have done it so the yellow contrasts with the blue.
And the blue outer piece.
I was going to have the nuke logo thing as a vent, but realised it doesn't need vents that side.
Drool. G - your one you gave me? the battery dies after about 2 minutes. Sad face.
I also realised I did not upload these, so here goes. This will be the yellow inner piece. I have done it so the yellow contrasts with the blue.
And the blue outer piece.
I was going to have the nuke logo thing as a vent, but realised it doesn't need vents that side.
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I'd forgotten I had to be honest. Stuff happens and time moves on. You'll get much better performance and battery life from a new brushless tool than one of the old Dremels that I think was still on NiCd!
Also, something like a Milwaukee gives you the option of shoving those batteries in one of their other 12V tools for cheap. I can recommend their mini bandsaw and their die grinder with a 3M Roloc adapter and sanding/grinding/surfacing discs on it
Oh dear. Well, I think it is game over.
So the back panels are done. And they look amazing. The problem? well, I did not think about the motor mount heft on the machine now. So sure enough, the machine will only move 30cm before hitting the limits. This is a far cry from the 385mm I needed to complete the project. I have tried to look into making the machine bigger, but I can't even find the correct extrusion for the sides and the prices are beginning to make my eyes water.
Hmm. Well the first place I looked the 40x20 extrusion was £33. Awesome. Until you add the £25 shipping FFS. In the end I managed to find this, and it seems they use common sense and put it in a tube.
As you can see I have gone for 520mm. This way the limit switches can eat their 15mm or so each and I will still be good. I then ordered a 550mm lead screw. The reason it needs to be longer is that it pokes out of the front of the frame for the Cenedd. Sorry did I say Cenedd? I meant to say knob. Very easy to confuse the two
So I am £40 in and I reckon I need to spend another £40. Annoyingly the ground bar I need only comes in 330mm or 1m. Meaning I have to buy 2m which is a bit of a willy pain.
That said for that kind of upgrade? £80 is my kind of cheap. It sucks that the project will not get done for a few weeks, but there is no other option. Thankfully I can take this Vault Tec logo here.
And reduce the size down to 28cm (already done) and still continue on with machining. I am actually going to cut that piece now. I will then replace the carve one in the main panel to the same, and if I get it right I can also machine that before I have to take the machine down.
We'll see, but in about an hour I should have that piece in the pic there.
So the back panels are done. And they look amazing. The problem? well, I did not think about the motor mount heft on the machine now. So sure enough, the machine will only move 30cm before hitting the limits. This is a far cry from the 385mm I needed to complete the project. I have tried to look into making the machine bigger, but I can't even find the correct extrusion for the sides and the prices are beginning to make my eyes water.
Hmm. Well the first place I looked the 40x20 extrusion was £33. Awesome. Until you add the £25 shipping FFS. In the end I managed to find this, and it seems they use common sense and put it in a tube.
As you can see I have gone for 520mm. This way the limit switches can eat their 15mm or so each and I will still be good. I then ordered a 550mm lead screw. The reason it needs to be longer is that it pokes out of the front of the frame for the Cenedd. Sorry did I say Cenedd? I meant to say knob. Very easy to confuse the two
So I am £40 in and I reckon I need to spend another £40. Annoyingly the ground bar I need only comes in 330mm or 1m. Meaning I have to buy 2m which is a bit of a willy pain.
That said for that kind of upgrade? £80 is my kind of cheap. It sucks that the project will not get done for a few weeks, but there is no other option. Thankfully I can take this Vault Tec logo here.
And reduce the size down to 28cm (already done) and still continue on with machining. I am actually going to cut that piece now. I will then replace the carve one in the main panel to the same, and if I get it right I can also machine that before I have to take the machine down.
We'll see, but in about an hour I should have that piece in the pic there.
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OK guys so this will be the last post on this for a few days. Well, aside from discussion of course 
The rear panel is now finished, and I feel a beautiful sadness about it. Mostly because it looks incredible, and I will now have to put the whole thing on hold for 2 weeks. Well, there is one more thing to do and that is to create the serial plate for the back. I decided to make it more convoluted (and I am glad I did now) and do it out of yellow and then mount with gold bolts. I did get a tiny bit of seepage from the plastic weld and if I put the serial plate over it I won't have to polish it out
And just to add to the choker.
Oh well. Good things take time I guess ! I now need to sort the fan mount bolts and weld the front pieces together. Will prolly get back into it on Boxing day
The rear panel is now finished, and I feel a beautiful sadness about it. Mostly because it looks incredible, and I will now have to put the whole thing on hold for 2 weeks. Well, there is one more thing to do and that is to create the serial plate for the back. I decided to make it more convoluted (and I am glad I did now) and do it out of yellow and then mount with gold bolts. I did get a tiny bit of seepage from the plastic weld and if I put the serial plate over it I won't have to polish it out
And just to add to the choker.
Oh well. Good things take time I guess ! I now need to sort the fan mount bolts and weld the front pieces together. Will prolly get back into it on Boxing day
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I'd forgotten I had to be honest. Stuff happens and time moves on. You'll get much better performance and battery life from a new brushless tool than one of the old Dremels that I think was still on NiCd!
Also, something like a Milwaukee gives you the option of shoving those batteries in one of their other 12V tools for cheap. I can recommend their mini bandsaw and their die grinder with a 3M Roloc adapter and sanding/grinding/surfacing discs on it
Ooo more tools ! The mini bandsaw sounds wicked.
OK well I forgot to do this. So at the most boring part of the day I finished it.
First up drill four holes and bolt in fan.
Then counter sink the back side of the face plate.
I then put epoxy into those countersinks to hold the bolts in, before running a bead of plastic weld around the entire plate.
And.
First up drill four holes and bolt in fan.
Then counter sink the back side of the face plate.
I then put epoxy into those countersinks to hold the bolts in, before running a bead of plastic weld around the entire plate.
And.
OK so here is the serial badge thinger to cover the plastic weld spill. Saves me buffing it out. It will be mounted with gold bolts.
It is machining now. I then have to start machining 5mm blue pieces to thicken the areas where the bolts will hold the rig together.
It is machining now. I then have to start machining 5mm blue pieces to thicken the areas where the bolts will hold the rig together.
Right so due to the upcoming down time (about 2 weeks I would estimate) I have started doing all of the boring jobs. This one was particularly mind numbing.
They are 8x10mm pieces. They will be plastic welded where the screws come into the sides of the front and back to reinforce it, giving me 13mm of solid plastic for a 4mm tapped hole.
I then finally got around to measuring this bit up. Like Modular these will be the supports the blade stands on. Only with Modular they were guitar shaped and were supporting the GPU.
Those are cutting now. There will be 3 of them, so I am going to double them up to make them 10mm thick, same as I did on Modular. This time though I will not be stupid and use super glue. They are going to be plastic welded in. And, possibly, even have a couple of screws going into them too.
They are 8x10mm pieces. They will be plastic welded where the screws come into the sides of the front and back to reinforce it, giving me 13mm of solid plastic for a 4mm tapped hole.
I then finally got around to measuring this bit up. Like Modular these will be the supports the blade stands on. Only with Modular they were guitar shaped and were supporting the GPU.
Those are cutting now. There will be 3 of them, so I am going to double them up to make them 10mm thick, same as I did on Modular. This time though I will not be stupid and use super glue. They are going to be plastic welded in. And, possibly, even have a couple of screws going into them too.
I use EMA Plastic Weld.
It’s solvent based. It basically melts the two faces it touches then flashes off leaving them basically the same piece.
The downside is it’s very thin and it melts anything it touches including nice glossy acrylic lol.
However you can remove those marks by wet sanding 3000 and then using Mguiars Plastx polish.
In this case I intentionally did not carve the text into the rear piece as I wanted a separate badge which covered the mark from the leak out.
It’s solvent based. It basically melts the two faces it touches then flashes off leaving them basically the same piece.
The downside is it’s very thin and it melts anything it touches including nice glossy acrylic lol.
However you can remove those marks by wet sanding 3000 and then using Mguiars Plastx polish.
In this case I intentionally did not carve the text into the rear piece as I wanted a separate badge which covered the mark from the leak out.
And this works consistently for face bonding, not just edge bonding? I have a couple of different solvents on my research list that I need to try, but they're all very thin and rely on capillary action to flow so are really only intended for edge bonding.
I got a res distro pump block in the works that can only be glued/welded because it's too small for o-rings and screws, but it'll be hard to get thin solvents into some of the internal places.
I got a res distro pump block in the works that can only be glued/welded because it's too small for o-rings and screws, but it'll be hard to get thin solvents into some of the internal places.
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