--- r e f l e X i o n ---

[callen_1]

have you considered nickel plating the blocks? I don't think it would be too costly and it would make the blocks look great, not
that they don't already of course.

Also, give that acrylic at least 24 hours to bond properly. Your using very thin acrylic with a rapid curing bonding agent (#3) and
it's very easy to break the join. But if your like me you'll really like experimenting with it, it's the best way to find out how to work
with the stuff and there's so much stuff you can do with it.

Have fun

[dingdong555]

+1 for Nickel! It's looks sweet!

BTW, 2x 5970's! Holy cow.

[Xion X2]

have you considered nickel plating the blocks? I don't think it would be too costly and it would make the blocks look great, not
that they don't already of course.

Also, give that acrylic at least 24 hours to bond properly. Your using very thin acrylic with a rapid curing bonding agent (#3) and
it's very easy to break the join. But if your like me you'll really like experimenting with it, it's the best way to find out how to work
with the stuff and there's so much stuff you can do with it.

Have fun

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into the nickel plating.

+1 for Nickel! It's looks sweet!

BTW, 2x 5970's! Holy cow.

Hey, ding.. good to see you around. Where's the Hulk at? Haven't heard from it in a while. You'd better be keeping that awesome build going.

[kgtiger]

Nice to see you are starting to play with the perspex Xion.

I have found the best thing to hold the perspex square, or in fact any angle you want for that matter, is masking tape.
You can adjust the angle easily by just moving the tape a tad, but be careful not to apply much pressure or you can easily bow the perspex.
One of the of the best advantage of using masking tape is, it adds downward pressure from the top piece of perspex.
This will hold the perspex together nice and firm, you can use as much or as little tape as you need and where you need it.
Also once the solvent has tacked off and bonding has started, although you really need 24hr's to get maximum strength.
You can, Carefully move the two piese's around, eg, just from work bench to another spot that's out the way, leaving the tape on as support.
Tape is also a good reminder to you and other's that its not to be touched, (writting DO NOT TOUCH in big black letters on the tape is another good idea)

Have a play around with it mate, I am quite sure you will love it.
Looking forward to see what you do with it.

[DarthBeavis]

Congrats on the sponsorship!!!! Project is looking great!

[Xion X2]

Congrats on the sponsorship!!!! Project is looking great!

Thanks, bud. Sent you a PM on nvnews.

[dingdong555]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into the nickel plating.



Hey, ding.. good to see you around. Where's the Hulk at? Haven't heard from it in a while. You'd better be keeping that awesome build going.

Still here, Still drooling, if I made a comment every time I can to this thread I would have passed 2000 posts :P

The hulk is still on Should be finished this month!

[Xion X2]

Still here, Still drooling, if I made a comment every time I can to this thread I would have passed 2000 posts :P

The hulk is still on Should be finished this month!

Awesome.


Project Update: Building the Zero Gravity Drives



So, I've been pondering the idea that I originally had for the Zero Gravity Drives (weightless SSDs) and I just wasn't happy with all those metal brackets that were attached to them as seen in the above render. The original idea was fine because it was based on a closed system, meaning the observer could only see the exterior of the chamber or what showed through the four windows. This would hide them. But then.. yep, you guessed it. My brain got going again, and I thought to myself, "what would be awesome is if I showcased the inside and somehow made it look like all the components inside it were floating."

To me, that would continue to enhance the theme of the build.

So, how would I accomplish this? Well, immediately two things came to mind. 1) Magnets and 2) Glass.

"1" seemed slightly dangerous considering we're dealing with electronic components that store data on them. As a buddy of mine said to me when I had this crazy idea, magnetism can sometimes be a mystery, and I wanted none of that. So, the obvious was option #2. Plexiglass.

I then went to sketch out my new idea in 3dsMax and redo some of the earlier renders. And this is what I came up with:






As you can see, I've redesigned the mount for the SSDs. Instead of bulky metal brackets sticking out on both top and bottom, I have them mounting directly to a large pane of plexi which will run directly down the center of the chamber. The plexi pane will be notched to fit snugly into the shelves and then will be secured with Weld-on.

Here are some more shots:








I think that it looks MUCH better and hope you'll agree. Should look much cleaner and fit the theme much better.

For the drives, the mounting mechanism will be the same. They will simply screw through the plexi pane. The pane will be supported by the two shelves which are held in place by small L brackets that are mounted to the inside chamber walls.

So, then I went to work on creating notches to fit this new piece. For the job, I broke out my RotoZip again, but this time, after the last experience with the infamous knotty plywood, I decided to use aluminum angles to give me a straighter edge (Thanks, Charles!)



By clamping the aluminum angles in place at the width of the jig guide, I can hold the RotoZip firmly in place while routing so that it won't drift.




That was just a test piece to see how well the cutting bit I was using would perform. It turned out to be a little too large for what I need, so I'll be heading to the Depot tomorrow for a smaller bit.

Thanks for checking in.

-X

[nigelke]

sweet build man

love it 100% ^^

[kgtiger]

Now were talk'in.
Solvent cement opens up a whole new way of thinking.
The only thing is, why are you notching a slot in the perspex.

You could just bond the the SSD mounting plate to the bottom pump floor/shelf, cut the top pump floor/shelf in half to fit neatly behind the full lenght SSD mounting plate
and then bond the two together.
As the pump is behind the SSD mounting plate, you don't need any perspex in front.
This would stiffen the whole thing up by join it all together and incorporate both the SSD mount and the two pump floors/shelfs as one.

Of cause this all depends how this whole Zero Gravity Chamber all fits together.
I understand that your renders are simplified some what, but if both the SSD mounting plate and pump floors where joing together you could simlpy just slide it all in as one
and the floors would bolt onto the L bracket you already have.
4 bolts for the bottom floor and 2 for the top floor, all done.

[Xion X2]

sweet build man

love it 100% ^^

Thanks, nigelke.

Now were talk'in.
Solvent cement opens up a whole new way of thinking.
The only thing is, why are you notching a slot in the perspex.

You could just bond the the SSD mounting plate to the bottom pump floor/shelf, cut the top pump floor/shelf in half to fit neatly behind the full lenght SSD mounting plate
and then bond the two together.
As the pump is behind the SSD mounting plate, you don't need any perspex in front.
This would stiffen the whole thing up by join it all together and incorporate both the SSD mount and the two pump floors/shelfs as one.

Of cause this all depends how this whole Zero Gravity Chamber all fits together.
I understand that your renders are simplified some what, but if both the SSD mounting plate and pump floors where joing together you could simlpy just slide it all in as one
and the floors would bolt onto the L bracket you already have.
4 bolts for the bottom floor and 2 for the top floor, all done.

Interesting thoughts, kg. Honestly, I thought that keeping the shelves as they are and not cutting them would brace the entire piece better. Since there will be two pumps going, you have to consider possible vibration (even though both will be sitting on foam padding.) Screwing the shelves down into the L brackets braces the entire chamber on both sides. Cutting the shelves in half will leave less support on that SSD mounting side.

Another thing is that, although the Weld-on seems to work quite well, this perspex that I'm working with is thin enough that the contact area is still a little fragile, so I thought that notching the vertical pane in with the shelves would brace it better as long as the notch was cut thin enough to fit snug on the shelves. That way, you're supporting the vertical pane by two methods and not just relying on the cement to hold. So if the cement ever did give way, at least the pieces would still be notched in place and you could simply reapply the cement if the weld broke.

Am I making sense?

Aesthetically, I like having the other side of the shelf in as-is because it also fits the theme of reflecting or alternate properties. You have shelves running horizontally, and then you have this piece running vertically. I think that it offers a nice, balanced look to the chamber piece to have the vertical pane splitting the shelves. That, and the holes have already been drilled on the SSD side for the shelf mounts.

[Xion X2]

kg, did I confuse you bud? (his head's spinning )

I'm going to try to pick up some 1/8" perspex today for the middle vertical plexi piece (that's a mouthful.. I need to come up with a smaller moniker for that..) The reason is because the smallest cutting bit I have or can find is 1/8", but the plexi that I'm using is .093" and so it won't be a snug fit in the notched areas because the gap in the plexi will be too wide.

There's a local glass shop that I usually source for this stuff since the hardware stores usually don't have what I'm looking for. If I can pick it up today, I see no reason that the chamber can't be finished some time this week.

[Vinas]

Greetings, XS. An update to the project that has changed its course a little.




Dangerden will now be sponsoring me with their waterblocks for the CPU, chipset and GPUs.

Why not use EK cpu block and DD for everything else? Only asking because the DD cpu blocks are not really all that strong performers these days But that's the problem with small time sponsorship. They're giving you a few hundred bucks in parts so you're locked in. Not worth changing the build in this direction IMHO.

Or better yet consider picking up a swiftech apogee XT. Perhaps Gabe is willing to sponsor you? Really though, considering the price of the system, blocks aren't really that expensive. The Apogee XT only costs $80, but I presume that you would lose your deal with DD?

[Xion X2]

Why not use EK cpu block and DD for everything else? Only asking because the DD cpu blocks are not really all that strong performers these days But that's the problem with small time sponsorship. They're giving you a few hundred bucks in parts so you're locked in. Not worth changing the build in this direction IMHO.

Or better yet consider picking up a swiftech apogee XT. Perhaps Gabe is willing to sponsor you? Really though, considering the price of the system, blocks aren't really that expensive. The Apogee XT only costs $80, but I presume that you would lose your deal with DD?

I respect your opinion, Vinas, but here is my philosophy.

I said from the beginning of this build that I'm prioritizing aesthetics over performance. That doesn't mean that I don't care about performance (obviously, from the parts that I am throwing in this build.) But if I have to choose between one or the other then looks get priority.

I'm not out to win an overclocking competition here. That's not where my primary interest lies. My primary interest lies in merging art with computer design. To show the artistic possibilities of PC design, as I stated in my opening introduction.

Given this, I seriously considered what I thought were the most attractive waterblocks on the market and, also, what blocks that I felt best meshed with the theme that I have going. To me, Dangerden ranks very high in both of these areas (as did EK). Their blocks have a an aggressive, futuristic look to them that I believe will mesh very well with my theme.

Not everyone will take the same approach on these issues as I do, obviously, but this was and still is the approach that I'm taking with this project.

Thanks.

[Vinas]

Well in that case I think you made a fine decision. I've always been a fan of DD products and still use them today. I have to apologize if I sounded harsh above. The DD rads and GPU blocks are some of the best quality, high performing water cooling parts on the planet IMHO. Thanks for the update and keep up the hard work!~

[Xion X2]

Well in that case I think you made a fine decision. I've always been a fan of DD products and still use them today. I have to apologize if I sounded harsh above. The DD rads and GPU blocks are some of the best quality, high performing water cooling parts on the planet IMHO. Thanks for the update and keep up the hard work!~

Thanks, bud. No problem at all.

[Wezly]

Looking good here.

I was a little concerned when I saw some renders again; thought we might be back to a few more weeks of synthetic building :P

But gratz on the sponsor and I really like how it's all coming together

[millertime359]

Seems I missed alot over that last week LOL.

Gratz on the sponsorship. It's a shame to see EK getting dropped, but the reasoning is completely understandable. I'm glad you are happy with it.

The updates look great. Keep up the good work.

[Xion X2]

Looking good here.

I was a little concerned when I saw some renders again; thought we might be back to a few more weeks of synthetic building :P

But gratz on the sponsor and I really like how it's all coming together

Nope, that time has passed.

You'll see me putting up renders from time to time if there's a design change, but we're strictly in build mode at this point and will be for a while longer.

Seems I missed alot over that last week LOL.

Gratz on the sponsorship. It's a shame to see EK getting dropped, but the reasoning is completely understandable. I'm glad you are happy with it.

The updates look great. Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Miller.

I want to clarify again that EK did nothing wrong. EK was supportive of this project, and I thank them for that. Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions, especially when you're a startup and have budget constraints, and DangerDen was simply able to support me more on this build which was the deciding factor.

In related build news ( ) --

I was able to pick up the 1/8" perspex tonight to cut the vertical plexi mount for the solid state drives. I should have some progress to show in the next day or two.

[kgtiger]

Hay Xion, No you didn't lose me, just been busy with the family.
As for the solvent cement not giving a strong join.
It really does an excellent job, as the solvent will melt both piece's togerther.
Try it out with your test piece, clamp the bottom piece down, start pushing the top(vertical bit) around and see if you can break it at the join.
Careful you don't cut your self.
I think you will be imprest with it's strength.
I'll take a guess if it does breaks. It want be at the join but above it.

Either way you go will look excellent mate and I am happy if your happy.
Bottom line is, it's your build and you need to be happy with it, thats all that really counts.

[Xion X2]

An update to come later tonight...

[Wezly]

oooooooh floaty

[RoadconeTuning]

that is very much ftw

[Xion X2]

Thanks, guys! I'm working on a MASSIVE update, so it's going to take me a while to document it all and upload all the pictures. Should have everything up within the next hour.

[Xion X2]

Ask me why I'm happy.

I'm happy because I'm beginning to see the finish line. It's been a trying past two months designing, fabricating and then re-designing and re-fabricating (are either of those words?) this part, but now I'm entering the final stages, and I can see it being completed within the next few days.

I'm extremely excited about how it's all starting to look and am looking forward to share it with you all. I really feel that it meshes with the theme extremely well.

Just to review, this was where I had last left off with it. The redesign of the center glass panel which would serve in place of the prior metal L-brackets:



So, let's get started.

At my workbench a few days ago. Here, I was lining up possible drillpoints for the drives. I wanted them spaced far enough apart so they would be distinct objects and appear as if they were floating independently of each other.

First test mount.



Hmm, that was too close. Let's move it down a little.



Much better. This will be a nice fit in the side window. The space between the drives is 3/4".



They'll be centered in the windows an inch off the top and bottom.

Ok, so now that I knew the spacing, I laid out all measurements on my center glass panel to mark the drillpoints.



The large blue piece to the left is the center panel w/ protective blue covering. The two pieces to the right are the two shelves. Due to the redesign of the chamber, I had to cut two more shelves. I'll explain why a little later.

On the press and drilling the holes. There were eight holes in total to drill, two for each SSD. The holes are 1/8".



And.. all the holes are now drilled.



Time to peel off the protective layer to see how clean they came out.





A beautiful, clear piece of perspex (needs some cleaning, though.)



That looks better. To attach the SSDs to the perspex, I'll use a small allen wrench and 4/32 MDPC screws. The screws that I picked up from Nils were perfect for this. They were just the right size, and plus they're black, so they blend in perfectly with the drives.



I'll break out my surgical gloves to avoid fingerprints. Regardless, I think I must've Windexed this piece about 37 times over the past few days.



Attaching the first SSD.





Looking good so far. Time for the next one.



And the next.




(Continued in next post.)