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2009 MOD CONTEST - |BLACK/CHAMBER|^Cu (Copper)


TonyStarks

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Well Dobrinkrkr, inspite of visiting a lot of sites all over the world, this is the first time I see it used to mod. I had some parts chrome plated for a previous mod but besides being poorly done (some flaked off) it was really costly plus one of the covers was so warped I could not use it. Doing the plating at home will give me more quality control and the added satisfaction of having done it myself (not chrome, needs a lot of electricity to work). I would have been disappointed though, if he had shown us the process in an industrial plating vat that needed a 440 v. transformer and hydrochloric acid to clean the parts.

Chemistry? Most of us barely passed it (atleast in my class in my school)! So a detailed explanation can get most of us interested in it, a shove in the right direction, specially when explained in laymen terms as did Tony. Kudos to him for helping fellow hobbyist (I suppose, no sponsorships mentioned).

Hope Tony doesn't mind this small chit-chat, heheh. :roll:

Cheers and Saludos

Guys i really don't want to be accepted as flamer or something like that. I am astonished by tony work and i said already that its amazing idea to make it at pc modding.

About anodizing at university we did at high chemistry classes but it was long time ago. I am eager to see next pictures.

About self made modding parts i am 100% for. All home made parts gives great satisfaction :bounce:

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Who said anything about flaming? This type of discussions are normal in this forum, so feel free to express yourself (even if it is on Tony's thread-he gave us his permission, heheh).

BTW, always my pleasure to meet true modders and for me, wow, from Bulgaria (I'm from Mexico)!

Plating in the future? You bet! Chatting with modders from around the world--always!

Waiting to see more updates and "pearls", best of luck. :wink:

Cheers and Saludos

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Sup everyone!

Sigh . . I've been working so late trying to get this done that I haven't had time to post an update. I'll try to get around to it tomorrow.

I really don't know if I'll be able to get this finished! I say they push back the deadline date by a few weeks!!! :toothy7::thumbup:

Lol, though I know that won't happen . . just found about this contest a little bit too late. Well, we will see what I get done. Time for bed so I can hopefully get some pics up tomorrow.

Goodnight fellas

Cheers!

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I suppose you voted for the extension, but really, it can't be delayed too much as there are other contests going on too and its a mess when they overlap. Just like someone suggested to me, get the most done without sacrificing the basic plan, but you have to cut back the detail to do so. Hard decisions to be made but atleast you'll finish and might be surprised for all the trouble! Won't know till you finish tho.

Cheers, Saludos and Good Luck on you decision.

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Hello all!

I hope everyone's work is coming along; I'm starting to get nervous lol :mrgreen: Anyway, as promised, here are pictures of the plating results. I really like how they came out; I'm loving copper more and more. I decided to go with plating because of my color scheme and because of the my desire to match certain metal parts to the color scheme, and also because I found it was near impossible to find copper screws of any aesthetic interest. There hardly exist any copper screws and those that do exist are just phillips head wood screws; not exactly the look I'm going for haha. I found a couple (literally, a couple) of Indian and Chinese manufacturing sites that seemed to offer some copper cap screws but they were VERY obscure industrial companies.

Anyway, in response to the questions about the copper plating process, what I'm using is a small copper plating kit purchased from Caswell. They are one of the go to stores for the finishing industry and have all kinds of kits, tools and products for everything from powder coating to plating to buffing and more.

Since my parts are relatively small I just went with a plug-n-plate kit which is their smallest kit. The anode doubles as a plating "brush" that you wrap with a cloth material and use to "brush" copper plating onto the desired object. But, as shown in my pictures, you can use the wand, as they call it, as an anode instead for dip plating. The copper wand, or anode, is wired directly to a transformer that you plug right in. It's a 4.5v 300mA power source and it's constant so, you can't adjust your amperage. Because of this, instead of adjusting amperage as you would on an adjustable power supply, you have to play with a few different factors to get the plating right. It's not obvious right away, so you have to play with it a bit, but after a while you get a feel for it. Basically, you have to play with the amount of surface area you are trying to plate in relation to the amount of anode surface area you submerge. Not enough surface to be plated with result in too much power and the plating will burn. Not enough anode being submerged will result in no plating. The opposite applies as well. Another thing that can be done if you are still overpowering and burning the plate is to add "robber" parts into the solution which will act as additional surface area. It's also important to make sure that your parts aren't too close to the anode or that will cause burning as well. And, the longer you let it plate, the thicker your plate will be; and here, again, it all depends as to what you are trying to do. For what I did, which is just for aesthetic purposes, I didn't need a super thick layer since these items shouldn't be subjected to a lot of rough wear. But, you do need to get enough plate on to be able to buff and polish it or else you will rub through to the original surface.

If done properly, the result will be a salmon pink colored plate (for copper) that has a coral like texture to it (kind of like a chalkboard, in my opinion). You then have to buff and polish it to your desired finish. Do note though, that the condition of what you are plating and making sure that it is completely clean and degreased prior to plating is EXTREMELY important. You can use plating to fill scratches in the original surface to a certain extent but nice surfaces are preferable.

I am by no means a professional plater. I just like to learn things like this myself and to experiment. While it is relatively easy to do, you aren't going to get a plating kit, open it, plate, and get awesome plating results 10 minutes later. You have to practice and experiment with all of the factors that go into plating before you start to get a feel for it and what you need to do to get a successfully plated surface.

So onto the pictures . . I'll upload a few of the buffing pictures tomorrow; I left my other memory card at my "workshop".

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Some of the allen pan head screws that will be replacing the screws that hold the ATCS 840 front panel. Also, some of the longer socket cap screws that will be used for some front panel bay stuff.

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More socket cap screws; these are for my custom Aquatube reservoir holder. I plated a number of other socket cap screws for other purposed on the exterior of the case; some bay devices and other external items.

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I love these! They are just some thumbscrews to replace the ATCS 840 originals.

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This is a screw cap for an Aquacomputer fillport that I'm planning on fitting into the top of the case to make things a little easier. Next to it is a small spring hinge that is to be used in something that I haven't mentioned yet :mrgreen: I've built a custom bay holder for the Classified motherboard's ECP device that has a small door that opens to allow access to the ECP. It's basically to allow easy access while protecting it from accidental (or intentional) pushing of the buttons. I did put in a small window though to allow a view of the debug/temp LED display. This hinge is for the door. I've built all the parts for this little holder and just need to put it together now that I have completed the hinge.

And . . . a little preview of tomorrows pictures . . the copper top panel! I'm close to done with it. I'm finish up the beveled edges and then need to complete the finish; it's already partially through the sandpaper grits so I need to continue with that and then use my buffer and some buffing compounds for the final finish.

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Cutting the plate to size . . .

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Disassembled ATCS 840 top panel that Coolermaster SO graciously replaced for me; my original was scratched. THANK YOU COOLERMASTER! Second pic is the with the copper panel cut down and fitted on top to determine the adjustments that are needed.

Well that's all for tonite . . more tomorrow! Hopefully I'll have finished that panel and if I get to the computer early enough I'll try to upload some other pics.

Thanks for continuing to check out my worklog fellas!

Cheers Everyone!

S. :cat:

wow nice man wanna do mine also lol

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Hello friends!

It's been a while since I've had a minute to post an update! I keep working on this project until 3 AM every day and getting home and just wanting to go to bed! So, I'm going to take a few minutes here before going to bed to post a number of pics up on my work on the top copper panel that I showed my start on in my last post. I still don't know if I'll be able to finish this in time but I guess we'll see. I will point out that I do have more work done on this project than I've been able to post so far so I'm not as behind as it might look but still; It's gonna take a small miracle to get this done in time. Anyway, without further ado . .

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I think I mentioned before that I'm making this top panel to sort of look like the square panel on the front of the ATCS 840 that is at the bottom in front of the intake fan. So, shown here is the beginning of the center hole cut. 1/4 inch copper isn't too bad to cut but let's just say it doesn't cut like aluminum!

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Got the center cut out with a little bit of blood and sweat . . ok I'm exaggerating a little bit :mrgreen: I cut the corners straight as the corners will be rounded with a Dremel and Rotozip w/ end mill.

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So, here we have the panel cut and with the corners rounded out. As I just mentioned, I used a Rotozip fitted with a 1/4 inch spindle 4-flute end mill; this worked well for doing the brute work. I then cleaned it up with a Dremel carbide cutter bit which works well to make the surface much smoother for filing. I will later file those inside edges to get them ready for sanding/buffing.

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I then rigged up this little stand for sanding. What I did was stack a few pieces of FLAT wood and clamped thin strips of wood on either side on the top. The strips of wood are placed to hold the panel in between them firmly while being thin enough to not get in the way while sanding. I wasn't about to try sanding this big panel while trying to hold it steady with one hand!

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Top copper panel placed into my rigged holder and in it's original condition. The copper didn't come in that bad of a condition but it's still far from being a mirror finish! Time to sand!

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After several passes with the belt sander from 60 grit to 80, 120, and finally 240.

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So, the plan is to bevel the edges of this top copper panel to approximately match the bevel on the front, top ATCS 840 panel where the HDD activity lights, power button, and I/O ports are found. So to do this, I measured the angle on that panel and tried to recreate that angle as precisely as I could with a little device I rigged up. I clamped my Dremel's flex shaft at the appropriate angle against the sanding surface I put together. I then used a strip of wood as a guide to run the copper panel against to get a straight cut. It took a little adjusting and getting used to but it ended up working very well!

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Like I said, it took some careful and gradual adjustments but with some careful work I was very happy with how the edges came out; perfect for filing! I just really wanted to be sure to get equal cuts on each side instead of doing this completely by filing and having to do a lot of back and forth work trying to match my bevels.

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Here are the edges after some initial filing. As you can see, they did come out very equal which was my goal with my little setup. I'm very proud of my edges! lol :bounce:

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All filed and time for time for some serious sanding work; beginning of it's journey to a mirrored finish!

And that's all for tonite . . I'm starting to pass out here . . time for bed. :sleepy3:

The panel is almost completely done now, it's been all polished and I just need to finish a few buffing passes with some coloring compounds to bring out a nice luster in the mirror finish. Hopefully I'll have time to post some pics tomorrow.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and doing well on their projects . . and hopefully have less work to do than I! :hello1:

Thanks again for the kind comments from everyone! I know a few of you have asked a some questions; I'll try to answer them soon.

More soon . . .

S.

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