Re: Project: Nutman
Ok, still in the basement and the plan is to dismantle the case and do a little painting on the inside (black, of course).
First I needed to make a new bottom base plate, because I couldn't use the existing 120 mm. hole with the new radiator. It simply wouldn't fit because of the case feet.
As some of you might recall I had a spare top from a Lian Li case, so I taped it up and sketched it:
Secured the top to the workdesk and put an old shelf on top that would serve as a straight guide when doing the cuts using the router drill for the Dremel:
Made sure everything was ready for the cut. Did a check-up and then another one...:
...drilled a hole where the router drill had to start:
...put the router drill ito the hole:
...and started cutting:
Made some videos where you can see the process:
After some time the new base plate was cut:
...final finishing:
There!
Errrr, doesn't quite fit:
...but eventually it did.
I needed to remove the PC speaker brackets:
...and then we had a snug fit:
Marked where the radiator was going to sit:
Put plastic on the case to contain the spillage from the cutting process and made 2 nice 112 mm. holes using the Dremel router drill:
Tape off and let's see how it sits:
Put some rounded washers on the case feet bolts:
...and put the radiator in place:
Went on to install the dust filters for the new radiator, but as the middle mounting holes only sit 15 mm. apart the dust filters didn't really fit. I have to remove 2.5 mm. from the side of each dust filter. A job to be carried out later...
Well, as I said I wanted to paint the insides of the case. I dismantled the motherboard tray (drilled out all the rivets):
Before starting to paint, I wanted to do a test on some other Lian Li aluminum parts I had. Went with a PSU bracket:
Turned out to be a smart move, because the paint job started the break up after just 4-5 days. Well, I didn't use an aluminium primer on the PSU bracket, but just de-greased it and sprayed black paint on it.
I've since done another test, using aluminum primer this time - followed by 2 layers of black paint and 2 layers of transparent paint. However, I just can't seem to make it look right, so I've decided to have the parts anodized black instead.
More about that in the next update, I hope...
Got some goodies for the Aquaero'en and some watercooling stuff aswell (2 Aquacomputer temperature gauges 2 bits for the draining system):
Put the new black front plate on the Aquaero aswell as the new acrylic front that brings the display level with the front plate, so it doesn't appear "sunk in" anymore:
As you can see the buttons are now sitting too low when looking at the front plate - however, Aquacomputer deliver these spacers with the acrylic front:
Put them on the buttons:
...and on the spacers for the front plate:
There - buttons and front plate nicely aligned again:
Ok, decided to water cool the chipset/mosfets aswell, so got this set from MIPS in germany:
Off came the old chipset/mosfet heat pipe:
...and on went the new coolers:
Since I'm using push-on fittings there's the well-known issue with hose kinking when tightening the washer to the fitting itself. Often, when you tighten it, the hose will move and bend because it's such a tight fit, irsking kinking of the hoses while doing so. Well, I thought "Maybe a little oil will help?", so I added a little sewing machine oil to the hoses:
...and smeared it out using this thing:
It actually worked rather well and made it possible to do small and tight hosing like this:
Connected the CPU cooler and the mosfet cooler:
Yeah. my girlfriend's fingers wouldn't stay out of the frame!
The last thing I've done for now is to mount the pumps on the new BayRes Two reservoir. Not much room for the pump wires, but by removing some of the sleeving I was able to make them fit. I'll re-sleeve both pumps later, don't worry:
That's it!
Stay tuned until next update where I hope to be able to show you some black anodized inner parts - and maybe there's a small surprise for you all regarding fittings and hoses.
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Originally Posted by Omega
