GIGABYTE 30th Anniversary Mod Challenge -- Rehab

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

More work. To get the GPU setting level, I made up a little bracket out of some scrap 2mm Al.





Simple. I thought about securing the GPU to it as well, but this works well and will function with any GPU. I did make it slightly adjustable as well, so I can fine tune it later.

Next up I had to bite the bullet and get the hood done. I've been putting this off for a couple of reasons, partly figuring out how I wanted to attach everything, but mainly I was worried about screwing it up royally.

So first of, we have a hinge. Nothing special, just a 2 foot aluminum piano hinge.



Cut it down to size.



For all this to work the way I envision, I've got to notch each half so the hinge mounts on the bottom and pops up in the middle. This was the first thing I was worried about screwing up. 2mm notch on each half.



Test fitting. It came out pretty well. Nice and tight fit, which makes the next part, lining it all up straight and square, a bit easier



To attach it, I had thought about rivets, but I didn't want them showing on the top. Then I thought about brazing it, but would have warped the panels and done who knows what to the epoxy and filler on the original half. In the end, I used some JB Weld epoxy, I've been having some pretty good luck with it lately.

Clamping side one to the hinge.



Side two took a little more ingenuity. I cut some square tube to spread the pressure out and make sure I got the best contact possible.



Some quick and dirty tips for those who may not know. When clamping something for epoxy or whatever, tape the clamp. Tape gives, good epoxy doesn't. Also, I'm not sure if anyone else does this, but I lay down a square of tape for mixing epoxies and fillers. I used to use some scrap acrylic or whatever I had laying around, but I'm really liking the tape. It doesn't move around so you don't wind up covered with epoxy trying to hold a little piece of scrap and you simply ball it up on itself when you're done. I'm liking not being covered in epoxy after I'm done. It's a perk.

After a little bit of cure time.



And mounted on the case.









I've got a bit of tweaking to do and some filler to clean up the hinge, but I'm loving it! :S

Down to two main items on my fab list before paint now. The first is the off side panel. I love the solid feel of Fractals doors, but the soundproofing material has got to go. Putty knife to remove the material, some goo off to get rid of the sticky stuff and then a quick run over it with some 220 grit to knock a good portion of the paint off.



Next up was figuring out the window for this side. I decided that basing it off a back window of a coupe would be pretty cool. It would give at least a partial view of the components without just following the outline of hardware, which would have looked funny, and it also fit the theme to a tee. The con of this idea is that at least half the coupes I looked at for reference were chopped and had a non-standard window. The pro of this idea was that half of the coupes I looked at were chopped and had a non-standard window. So really all I had to do was to make it look window-ish. Figured out what my size constraints were and made up a little template so I could mirror my ends.





Next up will be cutting it out and starting to figure the front grill.

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

Quick materials and paint update with a small bit of modding. First off the modding...

Off side panel window is cut. Now to figure out how I want to feed air to the PSU. Rely on the little bit of space between the window and the fan to provide enough air, do some sort of grill on the window(yuck, not a fan!), or put the window on standoffs? I'll have to think about this one.



As far as materials and paint, I stopped and picked up what is going to be the base color for Rehab...Viper Blue.



And the biggest news of this update are the fittings for the loop.



EK rotary 90's because they're nice and compact and some spanking new MNPCTECH hardline fittings that Bill was awesome enough to hook me up with. I had to have them cause they fit this theme so well. They just look like they belong in an engine bay!





A big thanks to Bill and MNPCTECH, and expect a video detailing these little babies soon!

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

Since I've got fittings now, I figured I'd put a bit of the board together to get a feel for the upcoming loop. Have to get all zen with it.

My pretty little i7 installed.


I'd say this Heatkiller block is the whipped cream on the top, but it weighs a ton.



And decked out with the MNPCTECH fittings.





I want a blue or red anodized look on the fittings, similar to AN fittings, but Bill said they're only going to do black, which I totally get. So I've got two options to get the AN look I want. Number one is paint, which with the knowledge of Brad at DDG, seems pretty doable. Adhesion promoter, candy, then clear. Number two is to actually anodize the caps. Yes, there is a home brew method. Yes I tried it. Yes, I was worried I would blow up my garage by accident.

I just did some trial pieces of Al to work out the feasibility of this crazy plan and I'm pretty happy with the results. They aren't great results. In fact they look pretty bad, buuuuuutttt, it worked. Now to just refine the process.

First trial piece.



It's got some blue tint. I'm pretty sure that this is from to weak of an acid solution.

Trial number 2.



That is definitely blue. This was after adding some more acid to my solution. I'm not sure why it came out streaked, whether it was cleaning, or my solution needed to be mixed better, or something in the dyeing process. But hey, it worked! Just a few more trials to get the kinks worked out and I might be able to anodize these on my own.

Switching gears, while I was picking up the dye for the anodizing experiment, I decided to pick up the fabric materials for my interior side and start getting that lined out.

First up, smoothing the edges of my panel so it didn't rip the material.



Then I used some spray adhesive to lay down a bit of padding.



The fabric I chose was a tan suede with flocking on the back. Didn't need the flocking, but that's how I found it. I stretched it around my piece and tacked down the edges with some more spray adhesive.



And voila! An aluminum pillow!







I think it's going to look pretty trick with everything installed. And I really like the pillowing effect around the components. Though I am going to go back and give the SSD trays rounded edges and they will be painted to match the blue on the exterior.



And again, thanks to my sponsor:

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

Sooo....anodizing....yeah...HEY, WHAT'S THAT? A video??? Nah, I'm totally not trying to draw your attention away from my anodizing project.....so these fittings...

And to go with some fittings, we need a reservoir.



It's got a 1/4"NPT inlet and outlet, but I need a couple more holes, specifically 2 extra G1/4 holes for my loop inlet and outlet. So out comes the tape and pen.



Let me tell you, this thing was a beast to drill. Near impossible to clamp down, hard to hold onto, and the stainless...well let's just say it doesn't like to be drilled. At all. But after a lot of WD-40 and cooling periods so I didn't cook anything, I wound up with this.



Notice how one hole is nice and pretty and the other is a ragged mess. Lets just say that it's hard to hold a polished stainless tube covered in WD-40 when a large bit in a drill press catches. The damn thing swung around, jammed my thumb, beat against the drill press leg a few times till it knocked the chuck loose and then fell to the floor....<-all of that...twice. So you'd think it'd be a mess right?





Yeah, it got a ding and a scratch. I thought the drill press was going to be dead and my thumb broke, and you can barely tell anything happend to it. My damn thumb still hurts.

So after my "stress testing" to make sure it could handle the rigors of being in a computer(it will outlast any component in the system, especially if drill presses are involved) I went ahead and threaded my holes for G1/4.



I'm missing an o-ring on one of the fittings because the rough hole didn't tap so well, I've got to do a little thread repair on it. If it goes well, I'll tell you what I used. If not...more stress testing on a new catch can.

With that done, I'm trying to get some little details taken care of. One of them is notching the motherboard tray support so I can sneak some wires through while hopefully keeping some of it's rigidity.



I'm also at the stage of prepping for paint. Most things got a pretty aggressive sand to remove a lot of paint before a nice coat of primer, while the radiator got a shot from a sandblaster to knock it's paint off.



Another part of prep...filler. Got to fill in some of my mistakes and also clean up the top panel and hood.



In between waiting for the filler and primer to dry, I decided to work on the finish for the motherboard tray. Since it's a classic hot rod theme, I thought doing some engine turning on the aluminum would be perfect.



I tried a few things for the turning. Above is 400 grit paper on a 3" polisher, good but not great, not a lot of bite. I also tried a 2" green removal pad on a air grinder, but I had problems with either too much bite in the center of the circle or not enough, depending on the brand of pad I used. Also, they tended to build up aluminum so I got some gouging. In the end I went with a 350 grit 3M Trizact disc on my 3" polisher. And the finished product.



You can see where there was buildup on the pad, but I like the concentric ring look. Plus redoing it with an emery stick(I think that's recommended way) would take forever and the pattern would be too small for my taste.

Thanks for following along, and once again, a huge shout out to Bill.

[crowTrobot Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close crowTrobot]

Wow, those rings turned out great. Keep up the great work bud.

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

Wow, those rings turned out great. Keep up the great work bud.

Thanks!

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

So I told you all that if the thread repair worked, I'd let you know. I'm letting you know it worked! I am actually shocked.

This is what I used. It's about $25-30, which is pricey, but compared to replacing a $60 part, it's not horrible. Plus there's enough for another use too, so call it $15 to fix a set of threads.



First, you cover the threads of your bolt, or in my case, fitting, in a release agent. Then mix up some epoxy and slather it where you want threads again. Screw in the bolt/fitting and in like 5 minutes, screw it back out. You get this.



Let it cure overnight, and sand off the excess...





It's messy, pricey, and I wouldn't trust it to hold water without an o-ring setup, but holy crap it worked. That fitting is finger tight plus a bit with no problems.

And then naturally I after I get that all worked out and fixed, I decided to order another catch can because perfection. I'd like to have one without dings and I feel a little more confident about drilling it, so I'll try again, but it's nice to know I've got one that works.

The next step in all of this is dragging the paint out as long as I can. I've gotten everything ready except for the hood panel and it's wearing me out. Trying to figure out how to keep from messing the hinge up with epoxy, filler and paint has had me pulling my hair out.

So I pulled the hinge.

I really wanted a clean look on the top, but in the end I've decided that bolting the hinge on is going to give me the best outcome.

First though, I drilled the holes out through the mounted hinge. That way I know the panels will line up.



Then I popped the epoxy joint.



And then lots of sanding to get rid of the epoxy and filler. While I was at it I also smoothed out my bend. with a bit of filler.





And then it was time for...



Thanks for following along!

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

So I did get my blue laid down the other day. Here's a nice shot of the color and effect.



The top panels and the side panel still have some paint work left, but I can start the assembly now. Actually I have to. I need to line the panels up for the flames and that means putting things together. But first, I finally got my drive situation worked out. I went ahead and added another 240GB Vector 180 and picked up a 256GB OCZ RD400 NVME drive, cause, well, I want to play with one.



On to the good stuff...

The motherboard heatsinks look nice...if you've got a black and gold build. So they've got to be....modified.





First they got taken off and disassembled.



Then a nice soothing bath of Sodium Hydroxide, or lye, or in my case, drain cleaner.



Looks relaxing, doesn't it? It's even got bubbles. In playing around with the anodizing, I found out that NaOH is great for removing anodizing. And after the bath.



I'm assuming there's something with the gold anodizing that is a little tougher than the black. Those pieces have an oxidation layer or something. Nothing a scratch pad can't work out though. Then it was time to put them back on the board.



Much better. Now it doesn't clash with my color scheme.

While I was there, I went ahead and mounted the RD400. Yes, the sticker is ugly. Yes, I'm definitely pulling it off and covering it with something that matches the build better.



Then it was time for the board to meet the tray.



Before putting the case together, I went ahead and made some new corner brackets. My first ones were jacked. I'd planned on CNCing them, but it was quicker just to cut them on the bandsaw.



Now I can put some stuff together.



And I had to throw the radiator on to check it out. I shot it with gloss black then Killer Chrome, super fine aluminum particles that come pretty close to chrome.





Not as shiny and polished as chrome, but not bad for a spray can.

Then I threw the MB and tray in.



And then a couple of the gauges. I did a turned pattern on the bracket to match the tray and painted the backsides of the gauges since you can see them. Well, not in this picture, but they aren't hidden away so they needed some thing better than white and tan. I went with Killer Chrome on the gauge itself and black for the mounting nuts.



It's definitely coming along.

[crowTrobot Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close crowTrobot]

How bad were the fumes for the anodizing removal? I've always been scared to try out chemicals since the only workspace I got is outside during the summer and I can't do anything in the winter.

Those M.2 drives definitely could use some heatsinks (looks cooler too). I think Plextor is the only one that comes with a non-sticker cover right out of the box. That RD400 is pretty fast though.

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

How bad were the fumes for the anodizing removal? I've always been scared to try out chemicals since the only workspace I got is outside during the summer and I can't do anything in the winter.

Those M.2 drives definitely could use some heatsinks (looks cooler too). I think Plextor is the only one that comes with a non-sticker cover right out of the box. That RD400 is pretty fast though.

Yeah, I can't wait to get the RD400 up and going to see if I notice the difference on a system drive. I didn't notice the fumes this time, but the last batch that I did I wound up kicking the attic fan on for some air movement. It wasn't that it was horrible, just didn't want it to build up. As a gauge, I'd say you'd need some air movement inside(open window and fan at least) and if you were doing it outside and carrying it back in to the sink, you'd never really notice it.

[crowTrobot Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close crowTrobot]

Hi, just a couple of friendly reminders as the deadline approaches:

1.) All required photos have to be uploaded up at http://event.gigabyte.us/mod2win/login/ as well.
2.) Modder Profile and worklogs must be completed to be considered for final selection.
Completing Your Worklog:
-Post images and a description of your mod progress to the thread you created in the Modders Inc. forum under GIGABYTE 30th Anniversary Mod Challenge.
-If you are entering with a completed or 'in progress' mod:
*You must be able to provide a full worklog from start to finish with images and a description.
*Your mod must not have started earlier than June 1, 2015.
*Your mod cannot be an entry from a previous GIGABYTE Mod Contest.

Completing your Modder Profile:
-Requirements for mod submission:
*The title of your mod entry.
*A description and concept of your mod entry.
*At least five pictures of your final mod entry with external and internal aesthetics (preferably high resolution, jpg file format, maximum size 1MB).
*At least one picture of your final entry with clearly recognizable GIGABYTE components (must be specified).
*One picture of your final entry with a hand written time-stamp for verification.

-Submitting your completed mod:
*Press the Complete Profile button under your profile - Complete Profile page.
*Once you complete your project, this will be considered your final submission and you will not be able to make further changes to your profile page.

Entries that do not satisfy all stated rules on this page will be automatically disqualified.

Cheers! Thank you for your participation and good luck in the competition.

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

Oh god, so many details to finish up! and only like 2 1/2 weeks left. Better get to it.

First order of business, the new res. I managed to drill and tap it without breaking fingers, drills, or the res itself. Well, I think it's impossible to break the res without running over it with heavy machinery, but I definitely didn't add any dings like last time.



I spaced my holes a little wider this time because the last go round felt like everything would get a little tight.



Makes for a nice comfortable fit now with fittings and a stainless valve.



Next up, it was time for a bit of wiring for the SSDs. I need to have the cables hooked to them to mount them so bring out the soldering iron.



Since my last two builds were unsleeved, I decided my penance would be paracord.



With the cables hooked up, the SSDs went on their backplates and then onto the off side panel.



After spending all that time laying down that beautiful blue, I got a little wishy washy and went and painted it white.



and then yellow...



And then I tried some candy sunset orange for good measure. Wound up with this.







I wish the orange would have shown a bit better, but other than that, I'm stoked about how it turned out. My layout def needs some work. Although I hoped it would turn out good, I really expected to mess it up at least once. In all honesty, my expectations were to not get the fade to look right and wind up having to repaint and go with ghosted silver flames. But pulling off the old school look is just awesome.

Once I calmed back down after not messing the paint up, it was time to take things apart.

The 1070.



The Avexir Raiden. And thank god they came apart, I was dreading having to tape those up.



I also pulled apart the Corsair SF600 and the Alphacool pump/top, but I didn't manage to get pics of them. Then a few coats of black and Killer Chrome.





And then put it all back together.













I'm loving the Killer Chrome and hating it too. The effect depends so much on the angle. The RAM really shows it off. Straight on, it's got a definite silver/metal look, but if you just showed me that back stick of RAM, I'd swear it was chromed.

[DDCustomMods Case Modder Find all posts View Profile Close DDCustomMods]

Looking good so far, really loving the old school flames. Reminds me of the paint job I did on my go-kart body back in my teenage years.

So I was working on Blue Fury making my top exhaust/rad area, and I had the thought it almost looks like it should be on your build not mine. Kinda a hood intake/side exhaust design.

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

Looking good so far, really loving the old school flames. Reminds me of the paint job I did on my go-kart body back in my teenage years.

So I was working on Blue Fury making my top exhaust/rad area, and I had the thought it almost looks like it should be on your build not mine. Kinda a hood intake/side exhaust design.

Thanks. Yeah, I'd thought about some intake/exhaust grilling, but in the end I tried to save as much flat space for paint as I could. One or two tiny flame licks would have looked odd. I threw around ideas for a intake scoop, velocity stacks and even louvered vents, but they just didn't work with the space and other ideas I had.

[InsolentGnome Level 4 Find all posts View Profile Close InsolentGnome]

So I've started piecing things together and got the painted RAM, GPU, and pump put in.



Getting everything in place let me get most of my cabling done. Just need some combs which are on the way.



For tubing I decided to go with 1/2" OD stainless steel. This is .035" wall T-304 seamless tubing.



I ordered 8' thinking that would be enough, but I didn't count on fighting my bender so much. 4' later, I've got one bend, but it's a nice one.



I ordered more tube, but now that I've got the bender figured out, the rest should go quick.

While waiting on tubing, fans, and the X-Carve to knock out the start of my front panel, I went ahead and finished up my skins. After the flames came 3 coats of clear, then a sanding to level things out, then 3 more coats of clear and sanding to get it all smooth. Finished of with a good buffing and polishing after hitting it with 1500 and 3000 grit paper and I wound up with this.







It sucks that my camera has a hard time picking up the colors in bright light. But in some of the shots you can pick up the fade from the yellow to the orange.

For the top panel/hood, I ordered another hinge to replace the first one that had been epoxied on and cut it to size. Then with some button head screws and acorn nuts, I put it together. It came out perfect. No screws would have made me happier, but this looks sharp and definitely isn't going anywhere. Plus I didn't have to fight the hinge while painting or polishing.





And a shout out to my sponsor again, MNPCTECH. Bill sponsored the fittings, but I keep finding myself going back and buying feet, LEDs, and now billet cable combs.