Battle Dragon Bag - Scratch Build

[Aldersan]

I wondered where your updates were, this was one of my favorite mods! Get back to work you slacker! Looking great!

[monkeyfun]

I wondered where your updates were, this was one of my favorite mods! Get back to work you slacker! Looking great!

It's still alive and kicking! Life just told me to take a little break.

[PowerChucker]

I have a couple things to mention,,1st, i have never seen anyone win so many free products! damn dude, you should play the lottery!! (or donate your extra swag to the performance challenged rigs..*wink, wink*)
anyway, I love your work logs, the way you write and have the pictures is awesome, and this project is amazing, you have some killer talent!!
I hope to learn some things from this.
keep up the good work!

[monkeyfun]

Update #23

So… I’m going to slip this update in and pretend absolutely no time has passed since my last update. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Seriously, though, while I have been remiss in posting on the various modding forums I have been quietly lurking and reading. I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked in the last 4 months but that’s the way life goes. And modding delays are ok if you’re making positive progress in other areas of your life.

First off, let me introduce you to my new work space! I’ve cleaned up a third of the basement that we were using as storage and repurposed it into my new workshop. I still need to do the electrical work and drop a 220 in the spot I want to do my welding and put my oven for future powder coating. But it is well on its way.

Okay then, on to the modding. I am still working on the Battle Dragon Bag case. I really like it. I’ve already taken it to two different LANs and will be taking it to the PAX PRIME 2012 BYOC. But I hadn’t had time to attack the failed water cooling… until now… My water cooling loop failed in pretty much every spot. It leaked from the plastic top of the CPU block. The reservoir leaked from every seam. And had I been able to put any real pressure on the loop I would have learned that I punctured my reservoir in 3 spots. My water loop worked perfectly as a lawn sprinkler. While I was freaking out trying to stop all of the leaks and the water shooting everywhere, I killed my pump by running it without water… because it was all over my floor and shirt and dog. The dog thought it was funny.

The CPU block:
I tried four versions of the CPU water block. I’ve kept the Thermaltake copper base because it looks cool and it was designed well enough for me to switch out the plastic top. When I first attempted modding the plastic top I tried re-tapping the two plastic holes. Unfortunately I snapped off a plastic divider and the area around the tapped plastic was weak and eventually cracked with a little pressure. So I tried remaking it with polycarbonate… but my unsteady hands and questions about the material with cooling fluid made me want to try it again.

My third attempt (with the #2 on it) was with acrylic but my lines and the mounting plain was uneven. So, I tried a fourth time and it looks and works beautifully.

The reservoir:
So I apologize because I didn’t take pictures of this part. But all I did was go out and buy an EK rez and slice the acrylic cylinder down to the length I wanted. Then I topped it with another piece of acrylic instead of using the fancy top. But for ease of use I put a hole on top for pouring more water into the loop.

The radiator:
The radiator was an easy fix. I just had to replace it with another slim (30mm) radiator that possibly had a fitting inlet/output on the bottom of the radiator. Except, I wasn’t able to find a radiator like that made by any company. There were radiators that were 30mm thick and there ones with spots for fittings on the bottom but not both of those features. So I grabbed one that was 30mm and tried redesigning the case a little. As you can see, it’s a close fit.

The pump:
I am going to see if I can revive the Thermaltake pump for another project but to move this project along and to make a little more room, I went with a Danger Den pump that I decided to modify. The clamp top of the pump didn’t work with how I had my case designed so I decided to make a quick disconnect top that the reservoir feeds directly into. To Danger Den’s credit they provide detailed instructions on how to dismantle their pumps. I was impressed and it was easy to take the part off that I wanted to mod.

Next, I sliced off the clamp spout, gradually widened the hole with increasing drill bits and the tapped the hole.

Here’s the finished top.

And here’s the pump re-assembled with the reservoir on top of it.

And why didn’t I go with some fancy pump/reservoir combination? I didn’t have the space and I used bargain sites to get some of the parts.

Here’s a quick picture of me testing the CPU block and the reservoir.

That’s all for now, I’ll post another update this weekend with the other work that I’ve done! Thanks for reading!

[monkeyfun]

Update #24:

As promised, another update on time! Just to finish off the last bit from the last update, I ran my completed loop for a good 48 hours WITH NO LEAKS! I think I’ve worked out all of my kinks and hang-ups with water cooling and feel completely comfortable in finding new ways to screw up my loops!

Light rails:
This next set of pictures is presented a little out of order. Three days ago, I dropped off seven pieces of the case (all of the outside pieces) with Seattle Powdercoat (http://www.seattlepowdercoat.com/). Two of the pieces were the top/front-side pieces that frame the strip window. I have some strip LEDs that I want to light up that window so I had to fabricate some rails to attach the strip lighting.

First I had to figure out where to place the rails that wouldn’t interfere with any of the parts that have already been fitted for this case. I also had to make sure they were going to be close enough to the strip window.

After riveting the rails in place, I did a quick fitting to make sure everything was still going to work. This is actually the most time intensive part of this case… I have to put the motherboard in and seat the video card in its bracket. Then I make sure it fits with the water cooling pieces. All the while, gently handling my hardware so I don’t accidentally @#$% my expensive parts.

To help hide the rivets, I sank rivet holes, filed them flat and then patched and sanded the top. I fear that the patching and sanding won’t last the sand-blasting process the powder coaters put the pieces through so I did my best to make the rivet fill the holes as much as possible.

Some painting:

While the shell pieces are at Seattle Powdercoat, I decided to paint the internal pieces. Since several of these pieces probably won’t even be seen or only small parts of them seen I decided to make the muted with a flat black.

I also painted the PSU shell to match the rest of the internal décor and then accented the logo for my nice sponsor.

Strip Window:

While I was waiting for my paint to dry I decided to redo the strip window that I initially made. When I was bending the angles I ended up giving the poly carbonate a little too much heat. And then it didn’t fit in the frame the way I wanted it so I ended up sanding it down in the parts that pushed against the shell. The result was sloppy and tacky. I didn’t like it.

To make the new piece fit better I filed down the frame rather than the poly carbonate and the new pieces fit like a dream and look much better.

I’m starting to run out of things to do for this case! Here’s my checklist until completion:

Cable Sleaving Preparation
Pick up pieces from Seattle Powdercoating
Wire, solder, and install the strip LEDs on the light rails.
Finish Cable Sleaving
Assembly and Test
Figure out what the @#$% I did wrong
Fix whatever it is I screwed up
Re-assemble and Test
Curse the gods and look for what’s wrong again
Blame the fourth guy that posts after this update for screwing up my case
Cry, drink, sober up and then apologize to the fourth guy that posts after this update
Actually fix the problem
Install updates, patches and new games for taking case to LAN parties

If any of you are interested in seeing this case in person it will be at PAX PRIME 2012 (http://prime.paxsite.com/) and the November PDXLAN (http://www.pdxlan.net/portland/). As a side note, I’ll also be bringing the case to show at the panel I’ll be speaking at in PAX PRIME 2012. If you’re at PAX come see me talk about modding (yes, I know I’m probably the LEAST qualified person to talk about modding) with other crafty people of a geeky nature: http://prime.paxsite.com/schedule/pa...rts-and-crafts


Thanks for reading!!!

[SXRguyinMA]

she's coming along nicely

[monkeyfun]

she's coming along nicely

Thank you, sir. Unfortunately I'm in the mind-numbing phase of sleeving. I have a while weekend planned on watching zombie movies and sleeving. Fun times. Fun brain dead times.

[monkeyfun]

Update #25:

Ten days ago, I dropped off nine pieces of the case (all of the outside pieces) with Seattle Powdercoat (http://www.seattlepowdercoat.com/). When I did this I specifically asked if the job could be completed in a week (part retuned Wednesday/Thursday. Thursday evening I called and they said that they would have to parts completed on Friday. On Friday I got two calls asking some questions and then was told to swing by the shop 15 minutes before closing. When I arrived only the secretary was still in the shop and the owner and all the other workers had gone home. She showed me what was completed. Only four parts, the one that were to have the red/black fade, had been worked on. The five parts, that were only to have a single color on them, hadn’t even been started.

…I was dismayed. I was polite and kept a nice face for the secretary (screaming foul obscenities in my head). I needed the parts to do lighting and to determine if I needed to shorten the PSU cabling. The secretary was not going to let me out of there with my parts. So I paid the full bill, $312 USD, for the four parts that they had “finished” and said I’d be back for the remainder of the parts on Monday.

This is what I walked away with:

Here are close-ups of the “fade”:

So I began, fixing my $300 paint job.

Here’s the near finished product:

And then I matched the frame so the clear strip windows will match the shell:

While I was doing all this work and the day was nice, I took the opportunity to address the beat up fittings I’m using. This is what they looked like before:

Of course, if painting your fittings isn’t your cup of tea and you can’t afford new ones, you could always try planting fittings in your garden and growing new ones.

While I was waiting for the powder coat painting to be finished I started preparing to do all my sleeving. I picked up some paracord.

Then I tried getting all of my pins out the hard way… by jamming two needles into each side of a pin and then yanking the cable out the back.

Once I did a couple the hard way, I tried using the tools MNPCTech provided me. It was much easier using the tool.

And then I accidentally tossed the tool while I was yanking on a cable and it landed on the insertion tip… and broke one of the prongs off. So, I went back to the hard way…

Here’s a small teaser of the cabling. I cabled the lighting cable (before/after):

That’s it for now.

Here’s my checklist until completion:

Pick up other pieces from Seattle Powdercoating
Wire, solder, and install the strip LEDs on the light rails.
Finish Cable Sleaving
Assembly and Test


----------------------------
If any of you are interested in seeing this case in person it will be at PAX PRIME 2012 (http://prime.paxsite.com/) and the November PDXLAN (http://www.pdxlan.net/portland/). As a side note, I’ll also be bringing the case to show at the panel I’ll be speaking at in PAX PRIME 2012. If you’re at PAX come see me talk about modding (yes, I know I’m probably the LEAST qualified person to talk about modding) with other crafty people of a geeky nature: http://prime.paxsite.com/schedule/pa...rts-and-crafts

[monkeyfun]

Update #26:

Am I allowed to post two updates within 24 hours? Am I breaking some Modder’s Code of Conduct? Bah, why not? I might as well get this tiny little update out before I go to sleep.

I started assembling the frame so it’ll be ready for me to do the fitting and wiring of the LED strips:

Once again a quick little peak of the case before everything gets put inside:

All of the fittings have been painted and dressed with their nifty little washers:

The cable sleeving is about 60% done. I’ve gotten all of the sleeves on the PSU. I still need to make the hole on the PSU slightly wider and do some touch up painting on the PSU. I also need to sleeve the Bulgin switches and the SATA HD power cable.

Here’s my checklist until completion:
Widen cable hole on PSU
Touch-up paint PSU
Pick up other pieces from Seattle Powdercoating
Wire, solder, and install the strip LEDs on the light rails.
Finish Cable Sleaving (60% complete)
Assembly and Test

We’ll see how many of these things I get checked off the list tomorrow… It’s cleaning day around the house so time will be a challenge. Thanks for reading!!


----------------------------
If any of you are interested in seeing this case in person it will be at PAX PRIME 2012 (http://prime.paxsite.com/) and the November PDXLAN (http://www.pdxlan.net/portland/). As a side note, I’ll also be bringing the case to show at the panel I’ll be speaking at in PAX PRIME 2012. If you’re at PAX come see me talk about modding with other crafty people of a geeky nature: http://prime.paxsite.com/schedule/pa...rts-and-crafts

[monkeyfun]

Quick picture-less update:

About the my powder coating experience:
When I look at situations like this there is a certain amount of cost/benefit analysis to how I react. At the moment, I am neck deep in a mod, preparing for a panel in front of a couple hundred geeks, nerds and modders, and remodeling and preparing my house for fostering a child. I could go all nerdrage on this business and invoke the wrath of the internet on the business, leave foul reviews on Yelp and call the better business bureau. But all of this takes energy I'd rather focus on the good things in my life. This 'lesson' didn't detract from my quality of life. It's focused me on improving my painting skills and started me on the path of research for powder coating my own stuff. While it sucks I spent a chunk of money on this, I've learned to take my losses with a grain of salt as long as the mistake is not repeated. I like to screw up in all new different ways.

All that being said, I did take a hour out of my busy day to go talk to the owner. He reacted exactly as I expected, defensive and stated what I requested was different than what I produced. I didn't throw it back in his face, that my results were corrections for his mistakes. I asked what he could do to remedy the situation. We agreed that both sides could have been clearer on communication. He offered to completely redo the bad pieces (unfortunately I don't have the time). He stated that he'd give me a severe discount on the next job. He was adamant that a refund was out of the question.

So I have options for future builds:
I can go back to this guy with a better communicated request for a discounted job.
I can shop around for a better deal with another painter with the lessons I've learned.
I can do it myself.

Any way I do it I'll be factoring my time in as a big priority.


Now, back to the mod! Things are coming along. I didn't have much time to work on the case yesterday, but I'll have a couple of hours of work tonight. I'll get some more pictures up and start getting ready for the end photos!!!

Finish Cable Sleaving: 80% Complete
Wire, solder, and install the strip LEDs on the light rails: 80% Complete
Paint Job fixing: 95% Complete

Widen cable hole on PSU - Done
Reassemble and test PSU - Done
Pick up other pieces from Seattle Powdercoating - Done

Touch-up paint on PSU (got a couple of scratches while sleeving).
Assembly and Test