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Jean R built - Da Module Thingy (Not sponsored, Handmade, it's the first time for me at CMWS)


Jean R built

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2 weeks later
I had a problem with the aluminium tube, it wasn't the same thickness on all it's length.
I had this same problem with the final parts of the big Cs, thankfully for those I was still able to get the parts done.
But for the handle it didn't work, I didn't have any aluminium tube of the same size around so I went a different route rectangular tubing.

The new handles were of a different shape, maybe stronger as there were steel corners riveted inside the aluminium tubes.
The handles were going to be wrapped, so the holes and rivets wouldn't be visible.

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I had to modify the top fan module, the opening system I was going to use would not work well with the new handles so I went with another option it was not the only change caused by the tube problem.
These are a couple of pics of the teeth for the shells, these clamp them to the bottom crown.

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Between the modules there are some neoprene padding to prevent noises and vibrations.
I used rivets to make a solid structure for each element composing every module, but all the modules are connected one another by screws + nuts for future maintenance or repair.
Here is a photo of the holes on the main frame base, I made it when I was refining the base crown itself and before putting the neoprene strips on the main frame base.

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I tried to thread the parts, but it was just a try, as I already knew from past experiences if the aluminium isn't thick enough it's not the best for thread strength so I went with Inox fasteners.

As we got close to the finishing part I made a final choice the shells wouldn't be bare aluminium, I already thought about it at the beginning of this project and all bare doesn't work for this case.
I left the rest bare aluminium, so these parts have a lot of contrast with the black shells.
One of my many passions are cars and bikes, I don't have a problem doing anything on a car or bike and I already restored and modified upholstery, that's one more reason to choose the leather wrap path.
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2 Days Later

 

when I was sure the shells are going to be wrapped with leather, I had more freedom with the shells and every rivets will be hidden.
Not having to leave the shells bare aluminium was handy, I could work faster on them and I just had to make sure to not scratch badly the inside.

These are the top crown teeth these keep the shells aligned and are now riveted to the crown, but you can't see them when the shells are on

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Welcome to the brushing train :toothy8:, using this technique save a lot of time when brushing a lot of small parts with the same finish.

Before

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After

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If you want a finish similar to this on aluminium https://forums.bit-tech.net/styles/smilies/bit-dremel.gif
Patience
Sand paper grit 80 until you remove all the bad looking scratches and get all uniform
Patience
Sand paper grit 320
Patience
Brush to get more matte finish but not to fast or the metal warm up too much and tend to become almost orange peel looking and not brushed.

If all goes well at the end it will look similar to a lot of brushed metal products you buy in stores.
If you get the "orange peel" problem let the metal cool down, and start from grit 80 but go slower this time.
It happens nothing tragic as long as the metal is not too thin for your needs.

Here was the case when testing the top teeth at the early afternoon

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I took the next shots just before dinner, and show how the shells were evolving to the final shape of an octagon gemstone from every side not only from the top or the bottom.

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The next day I was going to finish the borders especially near the handles, and rivet the base teeth as there were already the holes done but I need to finish the inside near them before locking all parts in place.
As you can see after the tube problem the round tube act only as support and will stay there as frame, I don't have enough elements made from it to justify having only 4 round tubes maybe in another project.

Then some pics of the top module, I have chosen to put the wings outward so it's like they guide the airflow and they do if you think about it.

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Some may have noticed that there were no holes for the power buttons, that was because I wanted to use a remote power switch on the desk.

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The next day
Some of the forums member pointed out the temporary handles look, the handles were supposed to be made with round tubing with a very different and clean design.
But I didn't have enough aluminium tubing to craft them, so I thought I had to sway to another path to complete the project with what I had left in my garage, and they still helped me in grabbing the case without having to worry to scratch the frame.
Worst case scenario I could change them or delete them altogether, they were screwed on the top crown not riveted so it took just a couple of minutes to remove them and be done with it, but I wanted at least one handle so I had to look into it.

Here a couple of pics of the shells teeth, do you remember that the main frame has bended wings near the base? Beside looking cool they hide almost completely the teeth especially when the hardware is all in place.

Where are they?

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Gotcha https://forums.bit-tech.net/styles/smilies/grin.gif

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5 days later

 

There was a lot of brainstorming in and out of the forum about the handles, but I had to keep going while thinking on what I was going to do about it.

Update about the CPU cooler bulge added layer.

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I made the choice that added layer was going to stay bare aluminium with a brushed finish, and fixed with a couple of small screws, the shell was going to be leather wrapped like the rest of the shells.

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3 days later

 

So this little epic adventure was still going forward.

As everything I've done on this project or cars by the way, is self taught and it's the first time I've been working on so much metal, I had to study some of the things I'was going to build as the work continued.

At that point I was sure about how to to finish the shells, but I didn't have the external cable guide complete, and it's attachment point could have involved modifications.

And here I was crafting my very first hinge, I had bought a couple of piano steel ones a couple of months before not a beauty but not bad looking either, but as my brother said I made all by hand till that point so I wanted to complete it that way.

I was crafting a lift up hinge, that would allow the external cable guide to move outward and upward to make a bit comfortable to access the cable passage of the top crown, and it kept it parallel to the case.

A couple photos of the hinge mounting plate to check if the distance was enough

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A photo of the first try, it was some aluminium pipe scrap I had around I tried to convert it to flat bars by hammering them down...

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Even if it's fun to do some cold hammer smithing to craft, these worked but they would need too much work to look even decent, so I scrapped them.

Here is the second try with inox pipe and aluminium mounting plate


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These were more in line with the rest of the case, I wanted to put a spring somewhere, so when you removed a security pin it would open up by itself, but it is too small so I left it without the spring.

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2 days later

 

I was thinking about the edits I have done to the project due to it being bigger or mainly material shortage problems.

I then made the choice, I was going to finish it closer to the original concept I have in my head and the drawings I made, like I did with most of it

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Two days before I was finishing the external cable guide mounting plate, and I got an Idea :smilebox: to get the case closer to the original concept, so I modified it so the next day the module would have been complete.
Here a couple of pics of the module, it was square but it wasn't not screwed, just clipped on the frame so in the photos it sat a bit funky

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As I was working on the top crown too for the mounting plate, I took the occasion to get it ready for the shells locking system.

So the case was obviously not exactly the same as the first concept, and some proportions were not going to be the same, but it was going to look closer to the original concept and even better now.

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5 days later

 

Update, It took a bit more time to get everything perfectly square, mostly because of the new handle but it was all on and aligned.

So when I was sure all the module parts were OK, I started to shave off unneeded metal Old School Yeah!!!

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A shot of the case with the module on and the test PSU on, I wanted to make sure you could press the PSU switch with everything on.

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Here a Pic of the handle rotated, it was going to be the only way to be able to open the top fan module and have access to the I/O Ports and the Shell's locking screws

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Here a couple of Gifs I made of the moving parts, the shots could have been better but I didn't use my phone support, I didn't want to get it dirty.

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6 days later

 

I had a lot of small modifications to be done to get a good cable routing, and some correction to the GPU cooler that would touch the frame when mounting it in.

Here a couple of shots of the GPU cooler

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The GPU is an MSI R7 360 OC, nothing super dandy that I'm hopefully going to change in the next few months, but the stock cooler was A super noisy, B not extremely beautiful.

I recovered the copper tube and the added finned aluminium part, from an old Zalman cooler I had back in the day on my first scratch build if memory serves me right.
The external aluminium frames were crafted like the rest of the case.

 

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After that in the next days I was going to finish off the shells leather, then the only thing missing should be the remote switch case and the metal scale that cover the top of the handle mounting plates.

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The next day

 

I didn't knew anyone was interested about the assembly phase, so I just shot a couple of pics when assembling the PC, yes those are my knees :toothy8:

 

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Here some pics when it was assembled but not 100% finished, I had to use it as openair in the first days, because the new GPU cooler was to big for the temporary case I was using during the building process :toothy10:.

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I had put a banana for reference obviously, this came out as a tight build there is not a lot of room left inside.

I then discovered that the 2 big fans were addressable RGB with 3 pins 5v, while my MB has 4 pins 12v.

I told to anyone reading the build log, that I had the intention to put a controller for that in the next months, it was my fault I bought them with the sleeved cables that were on flash sale, and I should have checked in advance.
But they are PWM, moved a lot of air and are super silent, so I was fine with that considering it was a temporary solution.

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1 week later

 

I was going to add some holes on the frontal acrylic panel, because it was closer than I thought to the GPU and it got starved of air.

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After some days I've made the choice of removing the remote cable power switch, it was cool as concept, because in that configuration the case doesn't have any buttons, and you could turn it on from the desk, but when you have to move it the switch becomes a big hindrance.

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