Eskimod 2.0

[Todd K]

Very excited about this week's arrival.  Huge thank to to Avexir for their contribution to the project.

[Todd K]

So if you're not familiar with Avexir's Raiden RAM, essentially it's a DDR4 memory module with a tiny lightning tube on top.  You can check it out here.



So clearly blue isn't going to fly in the Eskimod, so I have a couple of options for turning that blue into something that will match the project.  Transparent paint or color gel.



Now the transparent paint worked pretty darn well with my Jetflo fans last year.



But I think I'm going to start with the less permanent solution: lighting color gels.  These gels are typically used with hot lights and should hold up fine in the case.  We'll see...  oh, we'll see.

I started with paper to make a template.  



Traced it so that I could cut the gel on it.



Applied the gel and cut out the template.



Now the gel didn't want to fold around the ram very well so I taped it to the edge of the 3D printer bed sheet of glass, then used a heat gun.



And voila!  It holds it's shape.



Some super thin double sided tape from the Downtown project.



Fits fairly nicely up the side of each plasma tube.



And there we go!  Instant yellow color filter.



Um...  now I just need to nail down a stinkin motherboard so I can test it out.  Dang...

 

 

[Todd K]

On the upside a little ray of sunshine from Minnesota today.  Case feet from MnpcTech.com have arrived.  You can check those out here.  Nice and sturdy.  Should look fantastic on the project.





Big thanks to Bill Owen and MnpcTech for their contribution to the project.

[Todd K]

Now that I have a mobo selected time to run a test post and see how things look.





Now with the yellow gel over top.  Looks like it should work out nicely.

[Todd K]

So, based on the above I need to re-create the gel templates.  This time I'm going to create them as a full squared-off cover.

 

 

 

A fancier pic, but a better view of the gel cover.  Still going to have to paint the heat spreaders to match.

 

 

Cheaps will be glad to hear I didn't use heat & glass this time.
 

[Todd K]

Well acrylic has arrived and building is ramping up.  Time to try and find my workbench under all the Christmas stuff...



Ah!  There it is.



So for drilling acrylic I found these bits this spring.  They're for drilling glass and ceramics.  I presume they'll do okay on acrylic too.



And I already know I'm going to have to drill & tap some new holes in a bay reservoir I have coming.  So why not test it out today?



Test drilling seems to have gone quite well.  Needs a little clean up on the bottom of the holes.



And the tapping seems to have gone fairly well.  The plug is snug.



Now to cut out a motherboard tray.  I have an old piece of polycarbonate from a window of my first ever mod project.  Been sitting on a shelf for a year or two, so time to repurpose it.



And this is why you wear safety glasses folks.  Two chunks of cutting wheel went careening off of my face.



So after that I just finished it up with a hacksaw and some hand files.

Will be drilling some holes and mounting it directly onto the square tubing for uber support.

[Todd K]

It's all about the details.

 

[Todd K]

Early start on a long weekend, woohoo!  Began the day designing a bracket for the motherboard.  Thinking I can make it removable so that's it's easy to work on and install.



Result:



And sound the angel music (aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!)  The acrylic has finally arrived!



Much cutting later...







Getting closer.  Finding that the hacksaw > jig saw > rotary tool.  Yikes, I just bought a pack of cutting wheels and two broke immediately.



And a quick fit test.  May have to sand a millimeter off around the edges.  Better too much than too little.


 

[Todd K]

Cutting down the side panels and sanding them even this weekend.

Fit seems pretty good so far.  May have a millimeter or two to shave off the back side yet.







And the internal side panels still need notches cut out.

[Todd K]

Some final checks on measurements.  Two of the panels go outside and need some further sanding down of the edges.  The remaining two go inside the case and require some cuts for the motherboard tray, rear deck fans and top reservoir.  Just marking down the sanding and cut points for tomorrow.