Battle Dragon Bag - Scratch Build

[Twigsoffury]

Very very very good job on the etching.

The only single problem i saw is that the distance between the lines on the background circle aren't even, and don't quite match up.


But man I had to look hard for that (where's waldo style) and the dragon itself looks flawless to me tip to tip. the claws were especially well copied.

[TheMainMan]

(with both of them)

You make it look so easy, that etch should fit the design really well!

[monkeyfun]

etching turned out really well! good job.

(with both of them)

You make it look so easy, that etch should fit the design really well!

Thank you both!

Very very very good job on the etching.

The only single problem i saw is that the distance between the lines on the background circle aren't even, and don't quite match up.


But man I had to look hard for that (where's waldo style) and the dragon itself looks flawless to me tip to tip. the claws were especially well copied.

Yeah, if you take a step back it's not too bad but I noted that as well. There's also one other mistake on one of the spines that I might be able to correct. But over all, I think I did a decent job for my first time etching. I really like etching though so you'll prbably see more in my future projects.

[monkeyfun]

Update #12: IT’S UPDATE TIME!!!

Excuses:
New Job
New Job with Holidays = Busy
Holidays
Holidays with Friends and Relatives = Busy
Planning and preparing and spinning my wheels while motivating our webdev for the Emerald City LAN = kind of busy? I’m sure Big Red’s will scoff at that one.

Apologies:
Sorry I’ve been “absent” with my updates. I’m noticing that I do quite a bit more modding work when I’m unemployed or under-employed. I’ve been doing micro work here and there but constantly working on my case.
I also have to apologize that I haven’t taken as many pictures of my work and a couple are blurry. I’ll probably be looking at getting a new camera at the end of this project.

How I will make it up to you:
This update will be filled with content (18 pictures) and will probably cause you to wear out your scroll wheel.
I will be turning my slowness into your benefit. I’ve done parts orders from three different modding online retail stores (and received free parts from a fourth) and will be posting an opinion/review article in the near future (the article will be vetted and hosted at DeviceUnknown.com). The article should be completed and sent to the editor by Friday.


Now, onto the update and let’s start with some of the goodies!

My package from Xoxide.com arrived! Contents: two strips of LEDs and a remote switching controller. I’ve never used any of the premade LED strips so this is a bit a lazy experiment. I could have gotten a bunch of LEDs off of Ebay, calculated my load and soldered in the wires for a fraction of the price but I wanted to see if the convenience was worth the price. The remote switch is for me. I like gadgets.

My package from FrozenCPU.com arrived! Contents: two Vandal Switches and two red 8” Cold Cathode Ray Tubes. The switches are just plain cool looking. They’re fairly easy to wire up and give a particular style and look to the case. The CCRTs will be used to light the etched panels and give an ambient red light to the inside of the case.

I got a sweet holiday present from my mother! Content: One awesome stand-up drill press. I technically didn’t get this present until the 6th of January (and excitedly assembled that same day). But it’s just too awesome of a gift not to mention. And yes, I tested it. It works effortlessly. However, I’ve already broken one drill bit playing around with it. I have to learn to gauge my pressure/strength better with the drill press. *giggles like an excite little school girl*

I also get a bunch of bits with some of my holiday money! Contents: stuff.

My main goal this holiday was to get the skeleton completed. I got pretty far but still have to do the mounting bracket for the video card and the HDDs/SSDs (one piece for both parts). I decided to raise the mother board and PSU mounts so I could better manage my wires. So I installed risers for the mounting plates:

After further inspection, I decided to redo my forward plate. One of the things I’m finally starting to figure out is how you cut your aluminum will often determine how long you have to spend cleaning up the part. Bad cut = many days filing and sanding. Good cut = many hours filling and sanding. I’m starting to assess my pieces by figuring out if it’s quicker and cheaper to just scrap a piece of aluminum and cut it properly or spend the many hours filing an under-cut piece to perfection or correcting an over-cut piece to acceptable point.

Next I designed cut my reservoir and pump mount:

Some of you might call me a modding noob for this, but working with aluminum is a discovery process for me. I just figured out you tap from the opposite side and still be able to insert screw on the intended side. It saved me a lot of awkward tapping and creative drilling.

Then I attached all of the pieces with temporary screws. Does anyone else do this? I find that I like to use beat up screws to hold it in place as I evaluate placing and while I determine if I’m going to recess a screw.

Next I worked on increasing the screw size and recessing all of the screws on the top, front and bottom panels…. And apparently too much schnapps or mulled mead leads to dead taps. Fortunately I didn’t screw up the panel and was able to remove the broke tap with no real damage.

Finally (for this update), I began working on the back panel:

So… what’s next? Well I already have a bunch of work ready for this next update. I’m excited to utilize my new drill press. I have an ordered package coming in from Performance-PCS.com. I purchased and received a 2GB Radeon HD 6950. So I’ll include my upgrading the 6950 bios to a 6970 bios in this worklog. That’s modding right? I also received some exciting news from a new sponsor. Plenty of content and much more to come!

(and I promise I won’t leave you hanging so long next time)

Thanks for reading!!

[TheMainMan]

Looking great! That drill press will sure make things easier.

[monkeyfun]

Update #13: The unlucky update?

This update I have a great announcement! The reviewing website DeviceUnknown.com has been gracious enough to provide me with a HD 6970 EK waterblock and back plate!

This water block provides me with both a challenge and a reassurance. The challenge is that I’ll be suspending the water block upside down. Now that might seem so challenging but when you think how a GPU water block works you might see it differently. The reassurance comes from knowing the GPU will be cool after I’ve upgraded my HD 6950 to a 6970. When I bought this video card I did so for two reasons. One, it has a plate that can be easily modded into a mounting bracket. Two, the Radeon HD 6950 with 2GB can be BIOS flashed to a 6970. The process was simple enough.

For step by step guide I followed this template: http://www.overclock.net/t/942034/ho...-to-6970-guide

Basically, I downloaded ATIWinFlash, downloaded a 6970 BIOS, flipped the BIOS switch on my video card, flashed the BIOS and then reinstalled the drivers. Here’s the before and after on my videocard. It works like a charm.

I’ve also received the first of two orders from Performance-PCS! My water-cooling glands are salivating? Does that even make sense?

Any rate I’ve started on the back panel as well. This is where a CNC plasma cutter would come in incredibly handy.

It’s not going as easy as I would have hoped for… there are some parts that I’ll have to either repair or decide to refabricate. I’m still thinking about this one. Attila! HOW DO YOU MAKE IT LOOK SO EASY!!! YOU GLORIOUS BASTARD!!!

Two Thank You Notes:
First, I won a N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition video card and a Z68A-GD80 G3 from a MSI contest. Thank you very much. If my gaming doesn’t improve after this… then it’s the lag… yeah, that’s the ticket.

Secondly, I’d like to thank Robert Dailey at DeviceUnknown.com for providing me the water block for this case and for giving me the opportunity to try my hand at writing. Feel free to take a look at my first foray into the online writing world see if my review on Online Modding Part eTailors sparks any interest or conversation.
http://deviceunknown.com/?p=794

Once again, thanks for reading and comment away!

[monkeyfun]

Update #14: The repeat update.

As part of my hobby I’ve been working on writing some article for DeviceUnknown.com. It has been a lot of fun. Yesterday, I had the privilege of chatting to Bill Owen, the famous modder of MNPCTech.com. While I won’t give away the whole course of the interview in my update (you’ll have to wait and read the article) I will say that he reminded me of two main things that keep me interested and excited about modding: learning and craftsmanship.

Learning:
I’ll admit I don’t know nearly as much as most modders out there. I still consider myself new to the scene and new to modding. I’m sure there’s several people out there that can tell me exactly what drill bit to use with a 1/2 inch tap that a 3/8 th inch water cooling fitting will fit snugly into… But I don’t, so I play. I call it play because this is how I have fun. I figure it out like it’s a puzzle that I want to solve. Basically, I do little things like this to remind me of certain parts of my puzzle:

I’ll be stopping by the hardware store to get a drill bit tonight. It might be the wrong one. But I don’t care. You learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes.

Craftmanship:
The title of this update is all about this section. While I was working my aluminum with the jigsaw, attacking the design with as much precision as a butcher cutting a prime steak only to grind it into hamburger patties, I ended up breaking off three pieces of the design. I suppose I could have fixed it. But I know that when it was done, I’d be able to lean in and see the flaws just under the paint, mocking me. So I decided to recreate the back panel and figure out a better way to do it. I want it an whole continuous part with smooth edges and hard lines.

First I copied the shape and overlapped the edges so that it fit with the frame.

Next, I created four screw holes over both the old and new pieces. Then I put the old piece over the new piece to make exact placements of the existing screw holes.

Here, I measured and placed the TTeSport Dragon design on the panel.

I etched the lines into the metal in case I wiped away my lines while I was cutting the metal. I also circled the areas that I had problems with last time so I knew to be sensitive with how much stress or pressure I put in these spots.

Now, it began prepping my metal with drilled holes so that I could fit my jigsaw blade into the metal. I put a hole at every turn or angel so that I could cut lines as straight as possible.

And then I went crazy… I just kept drilling holes. My wife begged me to stop. But I couldn’t. I just kept drilling. I can still hear the distant sound of drill press calling me….

In other news, two more packages arrived: my second shipment of Bitspower fittings and some nice red acrylic for the back panel!

That’s it for now! Stay tuned more to come this week!
Thanks for reading!

[Aldersan]

Looks amazing! Loving this build!

[monkeyfun]

My prize from winning http://deviceunknown.com 's first drawing arrived!

Yeaaaaaah baby. I got it and I'm going stick it somewhere inappropriate...

...like in my unfinished Battle Dragon Bag case to make sure it works where I want to place it. That's ok, right?

[monkeyfun]

Update #15: Success!

I’ve made two successes! First, I finally figured out why I couldn’t get my damn fittings into any of the holes I was drilling and tapping. My tap had too few threads. I stopped by a local hardware store and while I was drooling over some new tools I noticed that unlike the major hardware stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot, they had a wide variety of taps with different thread counts. The first problem was solved.

The second difficulty was cutting out the TTeSports Dragon on the back panel. I’ve already replaced the panel once. I’m hoping I won’t have to do it again. After all the holes were drilled I used my Rotozip to grind/cut away some of the straight lines.

I also made a point of only cutting lines of the same direction so that any individual parts would have a little more stability.

To make cutting a little easier visually, I shaded the cut out.

And… SUCCESS! The inner pattern is a little on the thin side but it’s a whole piece!

The other thing about cutting gout the dragon by predrilling a bunch of hole is that it leaves some pretty rough lines and jagged cuts. To remedy that, I start the repetitive process of grinding.

Five minutes later…

It’s incredibly annoying to have to switch out those tiny little grinding cylinders every five minutes or so. I need to find an easier way of softening some edges without spending half my time prepping my rotary tool. That’s it for now! Stay tuned more to come this weekend!
Thanks for reading!