Ok it's been a while but i'm ready to post something . I've done quite a bit of work but for some reason i tend to
start work on something, finish about 20%, then move onto something else. So it wasn't until recently that i actually
got around to finishing (or at least finished enough of) a few parts to make it worth posting.


I've changed a few things and i'm sure some people will question the choices i made, but most of the parts i changed
aren't finished yet so please don't judge on first impressions


Anyway, I'll be quiet now and get into it ;



First of all i decided to take the advice of Kibbler and Xion X2 and fix the midplate to accommodate 8-pin GPU cables.
I didn't want the extra holes in the midplate cover, so i marked exactly where i need to drill on the under-side
instead. This will make life much easier if i decide to upgrade the GPUs. The acrylic, however, has been fully drilled
out -





Thanks for the advice, guys. I think you were right and i'm glad i changed it



I also secured the acrylic to the door and PSU bracket, and made backside covers too -























To help with tubing runs i've decided to make a small mod to the acrylic on the mobo tray. I'll show you exactly what
i'll be doing with it in a future update but for now, this is all you get -







Thanks for the forstner idea, Rick -







The acrylic was easy. The mild steel..... not so much . So i got through as much as i could until the bit died and
finished the rest with a drill and dremel -



















Lastly i had to cut the hole in the mobo tray. The bit sill had enough life to cut 1 last rough hole -









The hole in the following pic may appear off centre with the hole in the acrylic, but it's just bad light. I'll show more in
the next update -






Right, next up is a pump bracket. They need to be at slightly different levels otherwise they'd look a bit odd when the
tubing is installed. It still needs bending too which i plan to do when i make a pan brake some time soon -















A bit of fine tuning left and some small mods to the pumps but other than that it turned out ok.



I've been playing with some mesh lately too -






I didn't like the back of the case too much or the look/design of the side panels so i started on some more. The
diagonal theme i had going will still be there but it will be different to the original -







Using a scalpel to mark the aluminum works really well. It's harder to see than pen but when i'm cutting on the router
i don't have to stop and measure as often because the line is so fine and accurate. All i need to do is cut until the
line is juuust gone -

















To get accurate markings for the thumbscrew holes i screwed in the thumbscrews from the inside until they were just
poking out the other side. After i screwed a thumbscrew in each corner i lined up the new backplate and gave the
corners a tap with the hammer -

















I also needed to secure the mobo tray. I decided to get rid of the old bracket which was just a piece of 90 degree
aluminum angle riveted to the mobo tray. I replaced it with some solid aluminum square bar instead which i drilled and
tapped. This saved me drilling out rivets every time i needed to pull the mobo tray apart -









Old style -





New -






At this point i needed to secure it to the new back plate before i could finish it off -





I drilled through the back plate and marked the bracket at the same time so the holes would line up -
















Now that the bracket had been tapped and fitted i could take it off and finish it -










I also had a chance to make a sweet new bench. It has a steel frame and 1" MDF surface so it's super-duper solid
-





I convinced my old man to buy a mig welder. He always said he wanted one so it's win win -





Practice makes perfect(ish) -































I was going to have the nut welded on the inside of the leg but changed my mind last second so i could have that
little bit of extra height. in the end i should have had it on the inside because the bench ended up a fraction too high
:angry: -










I decided i wanted to make my own thumb screws after i had a lot of trouble finding nice after-market M3
thumbscrews for my lian li case. So, i get to add another tool to the collection. I can now do lots of other things too
and i'll show some further down -








And here my fancy new workshop (yaaaay ) -












I started the side panels next using 3mm aluminum sheet -









Halfway through the damn laminate trimmer bit me lol -











Next day -






The blood's a bit dramatic because the cut's not that bad lol I just liked the shot . I got very, very, very lucky! I
could dive into the whole gloves/no gloves debate here but i just can't work in them. In this particular case i think
they would have made things worse, as they might have caught up and done all kinds of damage, but who knows.


So back to the panel -






And that's it for them. I need to finish other stuff before i can continue.


I got some parts back from the laser cutters too. If all goes well the new parts should look all right when they're
finished, but this is all i've done so far.


First i needed to make some more cuts in the back plate and face plate -











Because of the way the faceplate was cut at the water jet cutters, each corner had a different radius after routing.
Although i liked the corners with a bit of a radius, they still needed to be sharpened -







Backplate -











This is the reason for the new holes -





After routing -















One last obstacle -











The next stage was some mesh -













I looks too rough from the inside like that so i did some more cutting -

























I like that much better . You won't be able to tell from the outside, but from the inside it's much neater. I still need
to do more work on the acrylic and remove the protective layer on the mesh so it still looks a bit crappy, but i'll save
that for another update.



I also started on the buttons but i'll need to re-do them as there are some small kinks i need to work out -



































That's all for that. I should have the new ones finished for next update, and don't worry about how they look ATM
because they're gonna change a lot. The screws will also be re-made from steel.



Next up is a bit of work i've been doing on the lathe.


I hate how the weight of the waterblocks on the GPUs causes them to sag over time, so this is my attempt at a fix -







That hole goes through both the steel cover and the acrylic so it could be tapped -





Get the height of the cards (like my pretty yellow gloves? ) -













Spun it around and drilled out the other end -











I did that twice and made an end piece too -









Meh, it works, but it looks a bit crappy so i decided to fix it -





Better, but not quite. They're still too fat, a bit more work should do it -







That's better. I think it looks pretty good like that .



I also bought some solid copper round bar with 19mm diameter to play around with. I don't want my tubing to veer off
at funny angles so, if all goes to plan, this piece i'm making will help with that. It's not finished yet but hopefully by
the next update it will be ready and you'll see what i plan to do with it -









I like the shape of the bitspower fittings so i did my best to replicate it -







Unfortunately there was too much heat to drill through the whole thing. I will be buying a coolant system to solve
that but for now that's all for the copper work i've done.



Lastly i made some new case feet. I still need to buy some longer M3 screws and boar out the bottom slightly to
stick in some rubber pads, but they're pretty much finished -























Well that's it and that's all . I'll try to stick to working on 1 part at a time and make my updates smaller and more
frequent.

Oh, and on a last note, this update is quite large lol (better late than never :p)


Thanks for checking in guys,

Callen