09/10 Project

[Antioch]

I kinda screwed up by showing this update. Don't get me wrong, i'm really happy with the bays, i'm just not sure if the rest of the project will work out as well as they did? And now people have expectations! aww geez I just hope i can keep up.

Thanks again everyone,
Callen

Heh, if that's your logic then you screwed up by making the log before you were finished - because every update you've made has been spectacular.

Don't feel bad, we all support you no matter how it turns out (but it will turn out great so, don't worry )

[CptDreadFlint]

Hey Callen, Matey.
I wrote a love letter to your mad skills.

It goes like this:

Dear Callen's Mad Skills,

I love you.

Sincerely,
Dread Flint

P.S. Trade the mad skills for the pumps anyday...

[Xion X2]

Nice worklog! I want your workspace/tools.

[alphadog009]

Hey Callen, Matey.
I wrote a love letter to your mad skills.

It goes like this:

Dear Callen's Mad Skills,

I love you.

Sincerely,
Dread Flint

P.S. Trade the mad skills for the pumps anyday...

lol my turn:

Classified builds are red
yours is blue
i wish i had l337 skills
Just like you!

[callen_1]

Don't feel bad, we all support you no matter how it turns out (but it will turn out great so, don't worry )

I'm gonna hold you to that lol

Hey Callen, Matey.
I wrote a love letter to your mad skills.

It goes like this:

Dear Callen's Mad Skills,

I love you.

Sincerely,
Dread Flint

P.S. Trade the mad skills for the pumps anyday...

I'll tell you what, you give me some of your photography/"freakin_awesome_attention_to_detail" skills and i'll give you some of my mad skills. How's that for a slice of fried gold?

But in all honesty, i don't have mad skills, i just bought the right tools (but you can keep saying it if you want )

Nice poem too, i've always been a fan of simplicity

Nice worklog! I want your workspace/tools.

I want your camera, bending brake and sweet ideas lol

lol my turn:

Classified builds are red
yours is blue
i wish i had l337 skills
Just like you!

what is this, valentines? just kidding, i think a poem is a wonderful gesture. Thanks mate

[elle]

OMG - unbelievable!!!

really nice work skill and equipment!

i like your ssd cases! where you pack them? is the case already by the powder coater?

regards - elle

[callen_1]

OMG - unbelievable!!!

really nice work skill and equipment!

i like your ssd cases! where you pack them? is the case already by the powder coater?

regards - elle

Thanks, but no the case isn't at the powder coaters yet. I still have several parts to get water jet and
laser cut first, and before that i'll need to work out my tubing loop, and before that i'll need my water
blocks, and before that i'll need my GPUs . As you can see i have a few things to do before the case
turns black but it will get there eventually (hopefully).

The biggest problem is the GPUs. Apparently AMD or the fab company are having a little trouble keeping
up with the demand, so i can't even get an ETA for my 5870's at the moment

[Antioch]

By the time they are available down in Australia, nVidias cards will be out!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for on-par performance (if not better) with ATIs lineup. I need nVidia for the CUDA... and Linux drivers when I'm not gaming - although Windows 7 is quite polished, I have to admit.

[callen_1]

By the time they are available down in Australia, nVidias cards will be out!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for on-par performance (if not better) with ATIs lineup. I need nVidia for the CUDA... and Linux drivers when I'm not gaming - although Windows 7 is quite polished, I have to admit.

They've been available for a while, just in short supply, and from what i hear the nvidia cards are gonna be super
hot and power hungry. I wanted something a little easier on the power bill and i don't need a furnace by my feet
in the middle of summer. That doesn't even factor in the cost of the gt100 and limited supply either, plus they're
not out til march. Oh and they'd probably need more than the 8x lanes on my p55 board (with a duel card setup)
so i'm fairly content with my purchase

[Antioch]

Ah, you're doing CrossFire? Cool.

I'm not saying I'll 100% buy nVidia, not if ATi's is that much better - I too value power consumption and heat. However, I wouldn't count anything about the GT100 as "sure" yet. NVidia has said several times that they won't make the same mistake they made with their old GeForce 5000 Space Heater models, haha.

[callen_1]

Hey everyone, it's been a while but i finally have some progress worth posting.

I apologize in advance for the boring explanations, i know most of you can already tell what was going on in the pics. But i
digress -


Firstly, my brand new attachment for my router table. It looks simple but it allows me to do quite a bit of stuff i normally
have trouble with (e.g making perfect 90 degree corners from a rough cut of aluminum)-




Next up i received some parts back from the laser cutters -





Don't mind the pack of clamps in there, i won't be using them.

I decided to get all the metal parts cut via laser too as it was taking forever to get a quote back from the water jet guys.
The only problem was the laser guys charge a fortune to cut aluminum as it's the slowest metal for them to cut. So i went
with 2mm mild steel instead. A couple of things to note about mild steel for anyone uneducated on the topic, it's A LOT
heavier and much harder to cut (on the router). I knew this to some extent but it wasn't until i picked up the parts that i
realised, wow... this stuff really is heavy!!

I needed the parts though so i'm still happy i had the laser guys cut them, although ironically i got a quote back from the
water jet guys a day later .


Anyway, onto some actual work.

I'll start with the mid-plate, i'll also point out that all the acrylic i work on in this update still has the protective plastic
coating left on which is why it looks quite rough/crappy -




and with the cover -




Now to make it fit snug. As you can see in the pics below i had to rout out several points to leave room for rivets etc. -










A couple of cuts later -





You might be thinking "why didn't you just drill a few holes?" but the plate actually has to drop straight down in order to fit,
it's a very snug fit.


I also had to rout out a 2mm lip for the motherboard tray to sit on. the step-like cut in the acrylic is also supposed to be
there -










The following piece is for the mid-plate at the back of the mobo tray (also routed to fit around rivets) -






Now everything fits nicely in place -






Next step, i had to make sure everything still fit while the drive tray was installed. This involved removing some more acrylic
and aluminum -




















The following parts were cut to wrap around the mobo. As you'll see further down, the inside edge will be routed at 45
degrees. If all goes well it'll hopefully light up the edge of the motherboard when the LEDs are installed -






I had excess metal removed from the metal cover so i didn't have to rout it all back later -




Rough fit -








Now some more routing -






Half done -








This is the tricky part -




And that's the acrylic done -






The mild steel was much harder to cut than aluminum. It took a long time, trimming down just fractions of a millimetre each
time, but i got there eventually. To make sure it was completely flush with the acrylic i attached it with some M4 screws as
you'll see-





















The rest of the screws will be added later.


After many many runs through the router -










I didn't like the square edges of the mid-plate cover so i routed that down to 45 degrees too -












It's barely noticeable in the pics but it does looks quite a bit smoother/less jagged




Next is a bracket to hold part of the lighting solution and the SSDs (i wont be using the SSD cases i made earlier)

If i can work the lighting right the design cut in the middle will hopefully illuminate. I also miss judged something in my cad
drawings for some reason and had to trim off some material -












The last piece i had to fabricate is a piece of acrylic and a cover for the drive tray wall thingy (sorry, i don't really know
how to describe it). To make things worse you can't really see it so i've added an arrow -






After some routing to avoid some rivets and help it fit snug (am i using that word to much?) -












Hard to tell but its in there -




That's it for now but if i'm lucky my new camera and lens will arrive tomorrow and i'll get to experiment around with some
of those arty-farty shots the guru's here are so good at, yay

My GPU's and water blocks have also arrived so i can really start to knuckle down.


Thanks a lot for checking in everyone ,

Callen.

[aka_GK]

damn, you're so handy with this router, just can't stop wondering how the hell you're doing this so nice

[whuzabi]

wow lot of pics n1 steps looks amazing

cant say anything

good work

[Red-5]

The SSD cases you made were awesome and it's a pity they wont be used here. I must say the aluminium and acrylic work you have done so far is amazing
Really looking forward to seeing this completed. Going to look simply FANTASTIC.

[martensch]

awsome craftsmanship!! i guess the result will look great!

[CptDreadFlint]

Main man Callen smacking it down and taking numbers...

Awesome update!
Love what you're doing!
One of my favorite builds currently in progress!

Question though:

Route much?

[Kibbler]

Wow...speechless really...

Lesson learned from this update: Router is the new dremel.

[shazza]

Whoa, Callen. Thanks for the update - I really appreciate the detailed explanations. Your mad skills are truly something to watch.

Thanks for taking the great photos as you went along

[eKirts]

wish i had all those tools, very nice!

great work... will look forward to seeing more

[weston]

(that was my jaw hitting the floor from your pics!)

amazing stuff!

[josk1]

dude, I got work home for you
you can come anytime to help !

[Philwong]

Another epic project!!

Nice workshop, too.

Phil

[Liderc]

Amazing craftsmanship, love the update.

[callen_1]

damn, you're so handy with this router, just can't stop wondering how the hell you're doing this so nice

Thanks mate. Routing is time consuming but it's not difficult to get nice clean results. Although saying that, it's also not difficult to completely destroy things
either (which i've come close to a few times!)

wow lot of pics n1 steps looks amazing

cant say anything

good work

yeah I probably should have said there'd be a few pics but it wasn't until i posted and had a look that i realised i probably could have cut out a few, oh well
Thanks for the comment too mate.

The SSD cases you made were awesome and it's a pity they wont be used here. I must say the aluminium and acrylic work you have done so far is amazing
Really looking forward to seeing this completed. Going to look simply FANTASTIC.

Thanks mate, I'm hoping it'll turn out ok. The SSD cases took a long time to whip up so it's a shame i'm not using them. I can show you what i was planning but it
just wouldn't fit right while inside the case (don't mind the tape). Also, i just want to point out that while the grey putty around the edge (in the pic below) looks
messy, it's actually very smooth and even. This will be evident after powder coating though so you don't have to take my word for it -

awsome craftsmanship!! i guess the result will look great!

Cheers, bud. I hope the results turn out ok. I'm not going to deny it looks pretty average at the moment, it's all pretty dull really but if it turns out how i picture it
in my head then it'll be alright....

Main man Callen smacking it down and taking numbers...

Awesome update!
Love what you're doing!
One of my favorite builds currently in progress!

Question though:

Route much?

hey captain, i appreciate it matey (i can say that because i too am a captain, yarr)

And to answer your question, yes. A lot

Wow...speechless really...

Lesson learned from this update: Router is the new dremel.

Thanks sir. I actually have a dremel but it's sitting in the corner collecting dust. I'll use it for more intricate jobs but generally the router will do most things faster
and with better results. Those Rotozips and trimmers do a good job too, you just have to make a jig for the best results.

Whoa, Callen. Thanks for the update - I really appreciate the detailed explanations. Your mad skills are truly something to watch.

Thanks for taking the great photos as you went along

Cheers shaz.

I'm kinda getting the hang of the whole "take pics as you work" thing now. At first i'd take a pic at the start, do a couple of hours work, then take another pic.
When i went inside to start the log i'd be like "how the f#$% did i get from that point to that point??! Obviously i've fixed that problem now, maybe even a little
too well, but i still forget to snap shots sometimes when i'm on a roll.

wish i had all those tools, very nice!

great work... will look forward to seeing more

Thanks, eKirts. There are still a few more tools i plan to add to the arsenal, like bending brakes and nickel plating kits but that'll be later. Captain Flint invited me on
one of his bi-annual rape, pillage and plunder days so i should have some spare cash soon.

(that was my jaw hitting the floor from your pics!)

amazing stuff!

Thanks dude, i appreciate it

dude, I got work home for you
you can come anytime to help !

I could run it through the router if you like, but you'll have to come to me.

Another epic project!!

Nice workshop, too.

Phil

Thank you mate. My dad's claimed my new bench though so i'm using the router as a bench until i take all his stuff to the dump when he ain't looking.

Amazing craftsmanship, love the update.

Thanks, Liderc. I'll be trying to get in as many updates as possible from this point on. It's been too slow lately.

[Pashtet]

All I can say is WOW!