09/10 Project

[charles_h]

Sunday morning and another stellar update by Callen - life is good!

Awesome work my friend - looking forward to more.

[callen_1]

Definitely hold on to them. For the seam problem, I'd say file them down a mm or two, put a thin piece of your accent color in between, and just use screws. That will take the glue out of the equation, and break up the monotony.

That doesn't mean I don't LOVE the new solution! I thought it was great and then remembered the old one. I think the new one is more fitting

That could work too. I may be able to use them in another system down the track so i'll hang on to them

i like the bitspower crystalink... but yours got more class!!!
are you gonna get them chromed or nickeled ??

Cheers, Josk1. I'll have all the copper chromed or nickel plated but i'll decide which one further down the track. At the moment i think they'll be chromed the same colour as the fittings.

Sunday morning and another stellar update by Callen - life is good!

Awesome work my friend - looking forward to more.

Life is good . Thanks for the kind words, Sir

[Johnny87au]

holy jeebus, u made ur own GPU fittings with copper, looks unreal sheeeez!!

[dingdong555]

You...are...a...God.

[mav2000]

Wow...I wonder why you bought a case to start with...this is just sooo awesome. Great work and something that we can only dream of.

[callen_1]

holy jeebus, u made ur own GPU fittings with copper, looks unreal sheeeez!!

Thanks, man . It's always nice to get a good response.

You...are...a...God.

lol if that were the case i'd have finished 100 times by now .

Wow...I wonder why you bought a case to start with...this is just sooo awesome. Great work and something that we can only dream of.

i ask myself the same thing sometimes, mate . It was a good place to start though so i don't regret it

Cheers, bud

[The[R]eaper]

The new dual gpu connector is just amazing. Everytime i check your thread, and see an update, it makes me wanna go buy a router+table and a bunch more tools.

Truly inspiring work!

[-Whiteroom-]

Another great update, keep it up!

[OC Maximus]

Glad to see you back Callen! You were surely missed.... Please keep it up.......

[mountaindew]

[QUOTE=callen_1;4511094Oh and the SSD holders are collecting dust in the cupboard . The seems where they were glued can be seen under certain light so i decided not to use them (but that was a while ago now).[/QUOTE]


Didn't read this before!
I have experience in acrylic bonding and I can help you come up with a process that works and provides crystal clear laminations. It can be a little involved and still may not be perfect every time "called scrap". But with a little testing of the material being used and some practice you can master this skill.
We would need to discuss this in a different thread and not pollute your build thread, like I just did.

MD

[Ced-G60]

I just spent a good 2 hrs reading those 18 pages of your log...

Your work is truly inspiring, so many great idea and such a talented craftsmanship. I love it !

If you ever come down to Paris, I'll buy you a drink

[HanTard]

Bloody hell Callen! It's been yonks since I logged on and come back to see all this!
Can't wait to see how it all comes together!

[Johnny87au]

still no update whats going on man!! haha.. how much would u charge to get some of those brass SLI fittings you made? their friggin gorgeous!!

[omaryunus]

dude i just went through every single page of this build and just amazong... absolutely amazing work man... cant wait to see more

[JayCop]

I'm having withdrawals from the amazing epicness that is 09/10 Project. I need an update or may have to check into rehab.

[Dahaka]

Come on callen, give us an update please!!

[LogAn'sRun]

is this another amazing build that's been put on hold?

[flak-spammer]

You know the fact that you are doing most of this by hand and other people who would do the same thing use CNC machines to do this makes this work just phenomenal. This work is just excellent, keep it up.

[callen_1]

The new dual gpu connector is just amazing. Everytime i check your thread, and see an update, it makes me wanna go buy a router+table and a bunch more tools.

Truly inspiring work!

I always want more tools but the damn things are so expensive! A CNC router would be the ultimate but i think i need to save a few more pennies before that ever happens .

Glad you like the connectors, dude .

Another great update, keep it up!

Cheers, Whiterrom

Glad to see you back Callen! You were surely missed.... Please keep it up.......

I appreciate it, mate. Hopefully i'll have more frequent updates from here on, but i won't be holding my breath .

Didn't read this before!
I have experience in acrylic bonding and I can help you come up with a process that works and provides crystal clear laminations. It can be a little involved and still may not be perfect every time "called scrap". But with a little testing of the material being used and some practice you can master this skill.
We would need to discuss this in a different thread and not pollute your build thread, like I just did.

MD

Thank's for the info you sent through, man! Although i haven't had time to play with acrylic lately i'm sure the stuff you sent through will be a big help.

Cheers, MD .

I just spent a good 2 hrs reading those 18 pages of your log...

Your work is truly inspiring, so many great idea and such a talented craftsmanship. I love it !

If you ever come down to Paris, I'll buy you a drink

Thanks so much, Ced-G60! I'm gonna hold you to that promise

Bloody hell Callen! It's been yonks since I logged on and come back to see all this!
Can't wait to see how it all comes together!

Thanks, Hannah! It's been a while since i had a good trawl through the forum too, so it's good to hear i'm not the only one .

I'm also looking forward to seeing how everything comes together (assuming it all still fits )

still no update whats going on man!! haha.. how much would u charge to get some of those brass SLI fittings you made? their friggin gorgeous!!

It took a while but i finally have something to show you guys . I'm stoked you like the fittings but i haven't thought too much about selling parts. Maybe 1 day when i finish the build i'll consider it but who knows .

dude i just went through every single page of this build and just amazong... absolutely amazing work man... cant wait to see more

Much appreciated, omaryunus . It's a great feeling to find out people have taken the time to go through the log so thanks a lot, mate .

I'm having withdrawals from the amazing epicness that is 09/10 Project. I need an update or may have to check into rehab.

lol, well your in luck because i finally have something to show

Come on callen, give us an update please!!

coming right up, bud

is this another amazing build that's been put on hold?

nah it's not on hold, but it is moving pretty slowly these days . It's a shame to see so many builds on hold lately, but hey, at least Rick the stinky pirate is back in the game .

You know the fact that you are doing most of this by hand and other people who would do the same thing use CNC machines to do this makes this work just phenomenal. This work is just excellent, keep it up.

Cheers, dude . A CNC would be pretty freakin' sweet though, but i guess i'll live with what i've got..... for now



I'll have the update up soon .

[callen_1]

Hey everyone,

I finally got around to finishing some work so i can post an update since god-knows-when.



After seeing the sweet Kibbler and Xien16 had been doing with PCBs i had to give it a try (i'd be crazy not to, right!?). While Xien16 had access to a PCB router, and Kibbs has his beautiful boards made professionally, i decided to go for the DIY option.

This took a lot more effort, patience, and trial and error than i had anticipated, but now i'm finally comfortable making my own PCBs . The first couple of PCBs you'll see we're made during this "trial and error" stage, so i won't be showing you the process i went through to finish those. However, the last board was done properly, was much easier to make, took a fraction of the time to finish, has much cleaner tracks etc etc.. so i'll show the steps for that one (plus it's double sided ).


So, the first PCB was for the power and reset buttons at the front of the case. Originally i was just going to run wires straight from the switches and LEDs, but once i saw Kibbler's board i was like "f@*& yeah, i'm doing that!!"


First of all i routed a channel to allow the PCB to recess into the acrylic and keep things neat -







I also had to rout larger holes in the acrylic for the larger switches i ended up using (as you'll see a bit lower).

Besides a couple of wires left to solder, here is the finished PCB -





With solder and installed -











The end of the PCB had also been routed at an angle to sit flush with the shape of the acrylic -






Now comes the tricky part.

I recently decided i no longer wanted a fan controller at the front of the case. So, instead, i bought myself 2 aquaero LTs with power boosters so i could run all my fans, sensors and pumps from the same place (i needed 2 aquaero's because each aquaero can only handle 1 pump).

I figured i'd just mount them in the spare drive bay where the fan controller used to be, but i also wanted them to be easily accessible. That's when sled system ideas and such started popping up making things a lot more complicated (something i should be used to by now ).



The first step was to draw up some sort of futuristic, high-tech schematic using space age technologies such as.... pencils.... and paper (tell me if i'm going too fast here ). Please ignore the PCB pictures in the corners, they are too complicated for your feeble primitive minds (alright i'll give it a rest now) -





So, for the rails which the sled would run on, i was hoping i could salvage some material from an unused drive cage -







Of course the bends were were wrong so i was back to the drawing board to make my own -







I clamped both pieces together to keep them symmetrical and filed away (routing was too risky on such small parts) -







I then used a small round file and sand paper to finish off the inside of the hook -





This is how it works -






For the first attempt at a sled i tried using 1.6mm aluminum -















Fail.

There was a gap at the back of the sled, the welding looks $h!t (especially from the inside), and although the bend at the back of the sled follows the shape of the top SSD shelf like it should, it left the inside of the sled visible from inside the case (hard to explain but basically it was bad).

Plus, as i found out later, the aquaero's wouldn't have even fit inside the drive bay when attached to the side of the sled with this solution. Turns out aquaero's are the exact height of a standard drive (i thought they'd be smaller for some reason) so if the sled had a top or a bottom, even just a piece of 1.6mm aluminum (like above) then they wouldn't fit in the drive bay. Lame.



On to the next try (at least i could still use the same rails... well, one of them anyway; the right one had to be made wider dang-it).


So I've heard you can control the aquaero's completely by software but i figured it'd be cool if i could still access the buttons from the side of the sled anyway. I drew up a button layout in cad, cut and routed a strip of 3mm aluminum, and got to work -





















Huzzah! Success! . Now for the bending.

If you've ever tried bending 3mm aluminum then 1. you'll know it's really hard (like actually physically difficult), 2. you can screw up your expensive bending break, and 3. the bend radius will also be ~3mm which is pretty big and i prefer sharper bends.

I wanted the strength of a 3mm bend but sharper corners, so this is what i came up with -

Routed v channels with a chamfering bit -







Cleaned her up and ran a bead of welding alloy -







Heat, bend and wipe (lol) -











Voilà, a 3mm bend with strong, clean, sharp(er) corners. I could have routed out more with the chamfering bit and the corners would have been even sharper but there's too much chance the bend will crack when welding.



Next i mounted the aquaero's. I countersunk the button holes slightly and turned down the original stand-off's the aquaero's came with so the buttons would sit flush with the surface of the aluminum when secured in place -













Holes were then tapped in the side of the sled to allow for the grommets and grommet screws -








At this point i started on the second PCB. This one will be connected to each pump, fan and sensor port that i intend to use on each aquaero. It has a line of fan headers on on it's backside which correspond to each of those connected ports. That line of fan headers will be accessible through a hole on the "cable side" of the case when the sled is in place, allowing me to change fans/pums/sensors waaaaaay easier than if i had to access the aquaero's themselves (which incidentally are also much easier now that they are on a sled ) -











I'm still waiting for the power connector and pins for those bare cables to arrive. The bare cable will lead to the 3rd PCB.



For all those cables to fit i needed to remove some material from the sled -








So next was the 3rd and (probably) final PCB.

This board sits at the back of the sled and provides power to both the aquaero's as well as the BD drive that sits just above the sled -























The etching process eats away any exposed copper, so the other side of the blank PCB board needs to be covered (this is only for double sided PCB's) -











After ~5-10 minutes -





After about 15 minutes -













At this point the duct tape can be removed from the back -







I then did the exact same for the other side (it's slightly off line but the tracks are 3.8mm so it's fine) -























After ~10 minutes -





This is after ~1 hour. It was also about to get a light scrub with steel wool to remove any residue on the tracks -









I didn't take pics with the connectors soldered on at this point for some reason but you'll see it at the end of the update in all it's glory .



Now to mount it.

I wanted the connector for the BD drive to be flush with the outside of the sled (like the buttons), so i marked where it had to go and started drilling and filing -
















When the sled is installed it has a gap on each side. I used 2 shaped pieces of aluminum bar to fill in this gap -





















After some test fitting i found the smaller piece was fine but the larger piece had some over hang because of the shape of the top SSD shelf, so i made another with some scrap -













And the 2 finished pieces -





This is before -





And after -





And that's it! Besides a couple of cables that need to be soldered and crimped, and some corners that need filing/sanding it's basically finished until paint .




Here is a breakdown of all the parts and a couple of shots of everything installed -


























And the whole point to all this is a single little hole on the side of the case -







I'm still really stoked with how it all turned out though .



Thanks to everyone that took the time to trawl through it and i'll see you all again in another 5 years when i'm ready for another update .

Callen .

[BlueAqua]

Wow Callen, that update just blew my freaking mind. I feel like such an amateur now.

Great update!

[josk1]

always fan!
borat made me lough a while too

[charles_h]

11/10


Simply amazing and well worth the wait.

[Traxtorm]

WOW! This handmade build is madness!
Great skills you got there Callen
Amazing...

[zalbard]

11/10

+1
Now that's a lot of good work.