Midlag Crisis

[Waynio]

Screw up ramble re-cap for this project lol.

Skip down to hibber jibber if screw up ramble is a bore.

I guess I like to include everything so if I ever need to recall bits of the project I can just look through my log & it doesn't portray someone who does everything perfect.

They are all related to slight errors while making the design printer ready, used to be a case of measure a few times before cutting or drilling once, now it's be ultra careful manually converting to 2d to make my designs printer ready, these lessons will or should prevent me from making future screw ups, at least I know by now to include every single important mount hole in the design before getting into doing one for a far quicker project with less confusion.

So, I got to the point where everything structural was almost done, someone prompted for testing hardware fitting to see what I got right or wrong & was about to stick the power & data plug in place to the internal HDD dock slide piece, glad I did a check up throughout.

First there was the curves in 1 of the 3mm panels that I didn't fully complete in the design so didn't look right, re made it.

Stuck the bar templates on the wrong sides (was working 4 sides) but luckily I was able to salvage them without them standing out with them being hidden.

Then realised I cut 2 of the same 1mm alu panels for the PCI/IO piece when 1 of then has a 1mm lip for the IO shield to pop in place better, had to make another.

Then discovered my mobo trays were all slightly wrong needing 1mm extra space for the IO shield that comes with mobos, re made this one & both ones for my other project.

Then minor things like some mount holes needing to be slightly bigger, then I found I had the SSD mounted the wrong way around in my design but in the right place so had to re make the SSD plate, also had the internal IR receiver mounted facing inwards some how so re made the front panel too.

LMAO


Hibber jibber


Here is a few pictures of what I've done lately & yeah my priority for modding has lowered a bit so I'm now more of a casual modder who happens to do a huge session when I really feel like it, I'll enjoy it more this way with not putting pressure on myself.

The reason I had to re make the front panel, the IR mounts were facing the wrong way, d'oh.

Plugged another brass insert into the PCI/IO piece for the last of the panel mounts, showing sinking the insert in with solder iron which leaves a risen spot which is then either filed or sanded flat.

Cut the fan legs off & stuck the fan in place with JB weld, I'd describe JB weld like it sets like hard durable plastic, seems like pretty good stuff, like Araldite rapid steel but more concentrated & stronger.

Made room for the e-sata cable to go underneath the mobo & direct to the rear e-sata port (I'll make a little plug to fill the void).

Few random shots before I perfected things.

Bad fit, sorted it out since then though.

Which brings me to now & I have just stuck the power & data cables to the HDD dock since I just finished the front panel re make & tweaked the whole structure so everything fits awesome, just seriously hopes the JB weld doesn't squelch into the HDD connector, I won't test that for a day so I just got to hope it is OK, I did lay some masking tape beneath in case it stuck to the bottom panel but if it squelches into the drive connection I am so screwed lol.

Mounted the IR receiver in the fresh new front panel with 2 4mm spacers I had to grind down from 10mm so neded tiny 2mm screws for that.

From the front & I made the marble more flush to the surface, looks nicer to me but I'll need to re solder 1 of the wires back on the switch (came loose).

SSD mount/PSU stand tweaked to how I wanted it.

Also tweaked everything so it all fits perfect but silly me I didn't take no shots before getting onto the HDD dock piece which required me stripping it down a bit but I really like how it's turned out.

Even drilled LED holes into the PCI/IO piece to see how well it lights up = really really poorly so now I know what to do whenever making layered up PCI/IO pieces that I'd like to light up, stick to plain clear acrylic & paint them or better still, apply vinyl & use LED strips.


Little order for surface & edge finishing products, gloves for dirty work, chemical type work & assembly type work, respirators for dust & chemical because I have an epic amount of sanding in my future, white spirit for cleaning & degreasing, 240 grit wet'n'dry paper, 3 flavours of satinising pads & a pack of micro fibre cloths.

Also have the uber pan coming which is 544mm diameter & 330mm high, I'll be able to get the biggest pieces of lean & green into this pan so the lacqodising is definitely on.

Lastly, colour scheme, shades of black or brown, I quite like the brown but black would fit in better on the entertainment unit, thought I'd show anyway.

Should have this Midlag Crisis over with very soon & then back to the nightmare of a mod load called Lean & Green.

[Waynio]

Very little to show but I got "something" e-sata hdd dock, works nicely, just need to wire an on/off switch to it & make it look a little nicer now the functionality is spot on & was I ever glad the JB weld didn't squelch into the connection making it a permanent fixture to the spare hdd lol.

Then I've just got external edge finishing & surface finishing to do now, already done the internal edges, thanks to the simple pattern cut outs they were nice & easy to do, LAG won't be that easy but not too far from it.

Lacqodising, got everything I'll need for that now, last things I needed was the big pan, timer, scales & primary dye colours but I also got secondary & more black, been stocking up on big milk jugs too so I can re use the dyed waters I make, I'll be able to make any colours, depth & shade from these.

Fits the biggest panel of LAG in there which is a relief.

Won't be using the giants pan for this project though, a smaller more human pan can be used.

Just need to dedicate more since I've given myself chance to properly relax & get a grip but I won't ever be over dedicating again, I tend to end up flipping out way too easily when I do that lol, I think the key to it all is be passionate about modding but separate the passion from the ego completely & things turn out pretty awesome more naturally then & if it doesn't wow people then so what, maybe next project will lol.

[Waynio]

Just thought I'd add this progress shot to show things are moving along, all these have been sanded on the internal, external edges & surfaces, pretty close to having it all ready to lacquer it all up.

[d_stilgar]

You make it look too easy.

[Stonerboy779]

You make it look too easy.

Exactly this...

I swear this looks even better than CNC machined pieces.

[Waynio]

You make it look too easy.

Probably do by now hehe thanks d.

Exactly this...

I swear this looks even better than CNC machined pieces.

Thanks Stoner, if I had CNC I'd only use it for engraving & making water cooling parts.

Been relaxing lately

Depth test.
I turned that black with blue tint to a green tint, I read adding 10% orange neutralises the blue tint, put too much in, think it would be best to just use 2 or 3 times more black than other colours, reason for the roughness of surfaces is I had 60 pieces in a small pan.

HDD dock power switch 2mm inner panel.

Drill milling the bar it fixes to.

Installed & I actually unintentionally used the top panel mount hole with forgetting that's what the hole was for lol so had to add 2 tapped holes either side of it.

Decided to use a latching vandal switch, just need to wire it.

To add the hole for the top panel I took the front panel with bars attached, held the top panel against it & drew the circle with a pencil, cut it out & finished off with my biggest countersinking bit so it could just about pop through & gave it all a rubbing with a satinising pad.

Might have to spray paint the aluminium fan panel or leave it raw, should have left sticking the fan on until I actually dyed the piece lol, JB weld is no joke adhesive.

Next update should see this project complete, just not been bothering with modding lately so only do a bit now & then, no competitions in mind & no business agenda so what's the rush eh lol.

[Waynio]

Didn't complete it over the weekend, ended up doing something unplanned.

Re made the fan spacers & the hoop piece, original spacers weren't long enough & the hoop wasn't wide enough or consistent width, needed 1mm more length, only really found this out when I actually stuck the fan to it, here is how I grind the sides of the spacers I already cut, drilled & tapped from 8mm round bar.

Assembled it without the hoop piece, not sure but I think I prefer it like this plus it's easier to assemble which is a nice bonus, I think it works for this one with the extra 9mm of layers but on LAG I think I'll keep the hoops in play, this fan frame design has 4 layers with the 4 spacers which hold the hoop in perfect position, this particular one has 7 & is trickier to install the hoop properly but works & looks fine without the hoop.

HDD dock vandal switch will be completed once the lacqodising is done, not got small spade crimps so had to make it permanent with solder.

Now then, here's something I've never had the guts to try before but there's no speedier way of learning than just throwing yourself at something, so snip away.

Dissected a sata cable & joined it back together again, under the first cover is 3 exposed wires resting separated by another shielding, under that shielding is 4 plastic coated wires of the same type, they are really fragile & break really easy, anyway I soldered the 4 double shielded ones together & coated in liquid electrical tape, the other 3 wires were too brittle & kept breaking needing me to expose more to re try so I soldered normal wire to them, applied a couple more coats of LET, let it dry & then coated in JB weld, cut about 150mm excess length off the cable, took a while with having to let the stuff dry, I'll leave the cable for a day before handling it, takes about a day for it to cure well & then it's like good hard plastic, it's done on a portion of the cable which won't have to bend too.

Then tested to make sure the mobo fits still because I didn't test it after the revised mobo tray, it's good still, about 2 or 3mm space between the mobo & fan lol, need to add a hole for passing power & data cable through.

Still another update before final shots, random sata cable mod took some time, gave virtually everything a good rubbing with the satinising pads though so just needs cleaning before applying the lacquer, has to be ultra clean for nicest results.

[Yeticorn]

Looks pretty boss, can't wait to see it all put together

[Waynio]

Looks pretty boss, can't wait to see it all put together

Thanks Yeticorn, the lacqodising was quite a bit to figure out properly, it's mostly that which delayed this as well as me losing my head.

Head is screwed back on.

I'm going to need a good makeup brush lol.

Kept saying every time I thought I had all I need for doing this I needed something else, down to the fine details now though which will make or break the look.

For applying the lacquer to intricate cut panels like the fan grills the art brushes I've got are too hard so do don't apply it so well for doing the inside edges & any fine surfaces, my big brushes are just too big to do it well, good makeup brushes use ox hair too so ordered 1.

Plus I found to prevent making a big mess from any dripping through to the other side creating a mess on the other side I need to mask up the other side so the little puddle of lacquer forms on the tape & the masking tape should then be carefully removed in no more than 1 clean pull before I speed up the drying with warm air & the only stuff which doesn't contaminate the lacquer is high temperature masking tape, the type used for powder coating or anodising although maybe surface protective film could be as good & a lot cheaper, the type used for storing sheet products in mint condition so like a heavy duty cling film.

So just made the order for 10mm, 25mm, 50mm & 100mm high temp masking tape along with a fine ox hair makeup brush & a roll of surface protective film £67 ouch but this will let me do this, LAG & more beyond, was the high temperature masking tape that cost the most but that will let me do multi tones on panels & the only way I'll do multi tones on inside edges is if I keep things simple so it's easier to do, I'll reserve doing that for anything thicker than 3mm so this project won't be getting multi tone internal edges.

Glad I had this side project to discover any pit falls with laqcodising, already had to sand 2 panels back down to the metal & it's hard work doing that, probably tougher than the aluminium itself it's pretty crazy lol.

Still 1 or maybe even 2 faulty applications on panels to fix but I'm doing nothing more other than fixing those 2 on this project until I get those products so I can safely do the insides also without damaging the look of the outsides, I might make a start back on lean & green because I've got the products coming around the 10th or 11th of April & if I do that I'll be able to seamlessly move back over to doing my main project.

So looking at the 12th or 13th before I can update but I think I've got the application of lacquer mastered which was the difficult bit in mastering this lacqodising which really side tracked my side project from my main project lol.

[Waynio]

Been lacquering the panels, bars & even the screw heads.

155 capacity screw lacqodising jig for the prepping & lacqodising, 3mm lower deck & 1mm upper deck made from scraps, 6 spacers, countersinks underneath & buttons on top, made it a lot quicker than drilling a thick plate a load of times, could do with using bigger spacers though, some of the screws are too big for prepping in the jig.

This is why I needed a finer application brush, pools & bubbles when using a brush too blompy on intricate pieces, didn't look good, had to sand it back down, took ages.

This is why I needed to mask the other sides when I want to do both sides, unwanted pools leaking through while applying so this project is set for rather imperfect internal lacqodising but the externals should be quite nice but still a bit imperfect, I'll be more bothered about getting things done better on LAG, I'm treating this one more as practice for a new method, had to sand it back down & wow it's a lot of heavy sanding to get it all off completely, it's a heck of a protective coating though.

My 2 smallest brushes being used for the bars which I made a simple jig for doing them so I don't have to touch the bars with my hands while doing it but so they are all loose enough to turn them with the brush.

Using the high temp tape which is used for powder coating & anodising, super low tack but high cling not damaging for the lacquer when pulled off & with it being high temperature resistant lets me use the heat gun to make it so I can pick it up without it running about or me leaving new marks on it but while it isn't fully dried & I can pull the tape off in 1 clean pull, the surface protection film turned out to be useless for this task & I waited so long for it to come in the post when I could have just used the high temp tape & had this done already, all future lacqodising should be really well done now I'm wiser to potential hiccups & exactly what I need to do it, any intricate lines I used the makeup brush & all around them I used the 25mm brush to get it done faster.

Even lacquered up the IO shield, that's the awesome thing about lacqodising, ANY metals can be done, the screws are stainless steel too.

So it can all be dyed now.