Project Quintessence

[voigts]

Yet another awesomely unique update! If anything, the larger gap may reduce static pressure a touch but, seeing they don't have rads on them, I really doubt you'd notice it.


nom nom nom

They do have a rad on them under the bottom floor of the case. I'm not too concerned though as I don't think it will be enough of a difference to matter.

Malik informed me that all you have to do is directly contact Bits Power, they have everything in stock and ready to order! Not sure why it says sold out on the site though

I wish I had known about this BEFORE I ordered my fittings. Decisions, decisions.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

This is legit, keep it

[Madidas]

Malik informed me that all you have to do is directly contact Bits Power, they have everything in stock and ready to order! Not sure why it says sold out on the site though

Did Malik said anything about the price ? And sorry for offtopic.

voigts, your build is something out of this galaxy at least. I really like it, especially using wood parts.

[Waterlogged]

They do have a rad on them under the bottom floor of the case. I'm not too concerned though as I don't think it will be enough of a difference to matter.

I looked right at the fitting cutouts next to the fans too.

[voigts]

Side Panels Scrollwork Cutout

So what do you get when you spend 11 hours leaning over a scrollsaw? You get two side panels cut out. This is the one major item left that I need to complete for this build which I've kind of been dreading after making the front and top panels. I stuck my back to the grind this weekend and got these panels cut out. My sore back is reminding me about it too! I spent about 2 hrs. Friday, 6 hours Saturday, and 3 more today (Monday).



It will probably take me several hours more of filing to get things finished up with the scrollwork on these. Then I have to figure out how I am going to mount them.

Thanks for stopping by.

[arkadur]

the work, the details... amazing!
keep it up

[voigts]

the work, the details... amazing!
keep it up

Thank you.

I spent about 4 hours last night with small files going at the scrollwork, and was able to get it all filed. Oh yeah!

[dreamaxx]

I think you should get one of those bare rads, the brass ones, I dunno who it is that makes them but they look awesome and would suit this build to a T.

[voigts]

I think you should get one of those bare rads, the brass ones, I dunno who it is that makes them but they look awesome and would suit this build to a T.

That's not a bad idea. The only brass rads I know of are the Magicool Elegant ones which are a bit high at $75 a pop for a dual. I could always paint the top rad brass color if I want to. The only thing with that is I really don't want to paint the fans as I've read mixed results from painting Gentle Typhoons.

[theseeker]

Beautiful scroll work!

[voigts]

Beautiful scrool work!

Thank you. The scrollwork is far from perfect, but overall I'm very pleased with the way its turned out.

I've been working on getting the side panels mounted. I'm very pleased in that I've figured out a way to mount them without having to put any screws though the side.

[shazza]

Beautiful scroll work! Once again, your patience pays off.

[Alexandr0s]

I can only imagine how your arms must feel after 11 hours . Poor guy .

[voigts]

Beautiful scroll work! Once again, your patience pays off.

Thanks as always Sharon.

I can only imagine how your arms must feel after 11 hours . Poor guy .

My arms were fine. My back however was another story...
I was sore for 2 days afterward.

[voigts]

Side Panels Mounted

The one detail that I had not figured out during this entire build was how to mount the side panels. I wanted to mount them so that no screws, etc. would be visible from the side. After batting around several ideas, and a trip to the wonderful local ACE hardware store (what would I do without them), I figured out how to mount the side panels. I decided to mount them the same way that most cases mount them, namely by sliding into place and securing from the back. I found some handy 1/8” plastic mirror mounts, and with the help of some small rubber stick-on pads, they hold the front of the panels perfectly.



I had some scrap U channel, and cut it to make a mounting piece for the right side.



Here's the right side mounted.




On the left side, I had to work around the PSU, so I couldn't use a solid piece. The spacing away from the side of the case was a bit different than the left side, which necessitated me recessing two of the mounting pieces into the side panel. Since this was too thin to use screws to secure. I fell back on my old last resort- Gorilla glue. This stuff is incredible. Those little pieces aren't going anywhere.





Here it is mounted.



Since 16 gauge alu doesn't hold screw holes well, I used my old trick of using JB Weld to secure nuts onto the backside of the back panel for the side panel mounting screws. I will sand these even and clean them up when I take everything apart prior to painting.




To support the top of the side panels in case they get hit, I put a piece of cut and sanded alu U channel.



Bottom Wiring Piece

On looking at the bottom of the case and thinking about wiring, it dawned on me that if I made a support piece to fit between the bottom radiator airchannel and the side, I could use that empty space to stuff wiring. I'm all about having easy places to hide wiring. I drilled some holes in the bottom just to make sure the PSU gets plenty of air as this is the area where it will be drawing its intake from.





I plan on making one more piece to hide wiring, and then I think it will be finally time to start sanding/disassembling/priming/painting. Its hard to believe that the end may starting to come into focus.

Thanks for stopping by.

[voigts]

Houston, we have a problem...

I got to looking at the res fit today, and ran across a problem that I should have seen much earlier. :duh: I'm not going to be able to use my res. The res completely blocks one of the mounting screws for the top panel. There is no way to get to the screw that would not involve serious contortion. As a matter of fact, I see no way to have a res at the top of the case without blocking this.



This problem however answers for me whether or not to switch to an MCP35X (which I already bought) from my Aquastream XT though. After looking at it every way I can think of, I've decided that the best fix is to buy an MCP35X Rev 2 res for the pump, and just run a line with a fillport to the top of the case. I went ahead and ordered both today from SVC as they have the res on sale. Believe it or not, this will be only the 2nd commercially made res I've used in 6 yrs of watercooling. My pretty handmade res will get retired to a shelf before it is even used. Oh well.

[voigts]

A Bit of Steam Bending

I needed to bend the front panel trim piece to match the curve of the front panel. After doing a bit of Googling, I found that steam bending is the way to go. Since the piece is small, I decided the easiest way to do this was to use a clothing steamer with a small box attached to it. I only needed to steam the piece for about 20 minutes, so it doesn't matter if the box gets a bit soggy. I cut a hole in the box, put in the clothing steamer, closed up the box, and let it go.





After is steamed for 20 minutes or so, I took the piece out and clamped it to the front panel and let it dry, I put a bit of foil just to protect the front panel. It now is curved perfectly with the front panel. I'm not gluing it down yet though as it will be a different stain color from the front panel, so I need to stain the front panel and it before gluing it to the front panel.



Fillport

I got in my MCP35X-Res, and to go with it, I wanted a fillport in the top of the case A problem though is that I cut out part of the area in the top metal piece for the res I had made, so there was nothing to mount the fillport to. I thought about remaking the top metal piece, but I just didn't want to spend the time on it. So I pulled out my trusty JBWeld and put a piece in to fill the gap. It is plenty sturdy enough for what I need. Since I am painting this case anyway, the JBWeld won't really matter. If I wasn't so close to end of this project, I may have remade the top piece, but at this point, this solution will do the job well enough.





Change in Fan Controller

I was going to use a Scythe KazeQ fan 3.5” fan controller, but since Sunbeamtech came out with their new PWM 3.5” controller, I wanted to switch to it. This of course means I needed a new mount. Since the front of the controller is perforated, I figured it would match to use some perforated alu sheet to make a cover/mount for it.










Wiring Cover

To help tidy things up a bit in the area in front of the PSU, and to keep the wiring from interfering with the pump/res, I made a piece with a removable side and top. This helps hide the wiring, and also keeps it from hitting the pump/res where it will sit next to it.







I've got a few more odds and ends to do, and then its time to take everything apart and start sanding/prepping/painting the alu pieces. I bought a gallon of aluminum cleaner/etching solution for this as I figure this is a much better approach than just trying to use etching primer and will etch and clean everything thoroughly.

Thanks for stopping by.

[theseeker]

This is probably the most ingenious build I have ever watched, seen or studied. I always scratch my head with every update. Your work is in a class by itself!
Thank you for sharing.

[voigts]

This is probably the most ingenious build I have ever watched, seen or studied. I always scratch my head with every update. Your work is in a class by itself!
Thank you for sharing.

Thanks a lot. To say that my build is ingenious to me is really one of the highest compliments to get, as I value not only the quality of a build, but the creativity in design and function. This is why I tend to have a soft spot for scratch builds. They take a lot more thought to make function, work well, and look good.

Awesome post. Thanks!

Thanks Rich.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

you're doing great things with this build man, cant wait to see it finished.

p.s. there's got to be a way to get around the screw blocking issue! It's a shame to see a hand made res go to waste...

[voigts]

you're doing great things with this build man, cant wait to see it finished.

p.s. there's got to be a way to get around the screw blocking issue! It's a shame to see a hand made res go to waste...

Thanks SNiiPE DoGG. Good to see you about again. I've looked and looked at it, and I simply don't see a way to make my res work. I think the MCP35X res will with a fillport will work just fine. Believe me, I hate to see my custom res get shelved. But oh well, the modding must go on...

[voigts]

The Painting Begins

The time has come to start painting. Oh yeah! I disassembled everything, and sanded all of the alu parts down to 120 grit sandpaper to get all of the scratches out. I really want a good primer coat. After some research online, I've that I want to use a chemical metal prep/etcher to ensure good adhesion with the primer to include all of the holes, etc that you can't reach just by sanding. I found a gallon of this Krud Kutter metal etching fluid at a local paint store (Sherwin Williams) for about $23, which was a lot cheaper than ordering something online. Metalprep 79 for instance would have run me about $30 for just a quart. I also got Rustoleum alu primer to use.



The cleaner/etching solution is easy to use. Per the instructions, you dilute 1 part solution to 3 parts water. I bought a plastic container for this. You simply wet all of the parts down, let them sit for about 10 minutes, and then rinse them of well with a waterhose and then let them airdry. This cleaner really does a good job. The alu came out really, really clean.



I have hanging rods to keep dust out of part of my work/storage shed, so these were a natural choice to hang everything up to dry on. I cut a bunch of short pieces of wire to hang the parts on. This is all of the parts with one good coat of primer on them drying.



I'm going to paint them all flat black first after priming to act as a good base color, and then paint them all with Brown Hammered paint. I've got a few more pieces to clean and prime, then I can get start on the black.

I also have decided that I'm going to go with copper pipe for this build instead of tubing. I found through another build log that Bitspower makes these SLI fittings that also will work with 3/8”ID 1/2”OD copper tubing. Bitspower also has a mini version of this fitting. I bought 12 of them, and also picked up some soft copper tubing and a few 90s and 45s this morning. This will be awesome if they work as planned. I really like the idea of hard-lining, and I have a tubing bender. I've hard-lined before, but I always had to use vinyl tubing to connect to barbs, which isn't an elegant solution to say the least. I don't like the Koolance copper tubing to G1/4” fittings as they are simply too long, and are $10 ea., whereas the Bitspower fittings are only $6.95 a pair. I'll probably paint the tubing to match the case.

Thanks for stopping by.

[shazza]

Nice!

[theseeker]

I always check your updates!

[CptDreadFlint]

Keep up the great work, Gary! Just an idea, brown hammered paint may look visually striking against the copper color of the pipes/tubes...(may not have to paint the pipes to match).
Pictures worth a k...