Pinnacle 24: Piano Black

CnC is acting up. I think it needs a new electrode for the plasma, that or a swirl ring. Went to replace it and found we were out so now I have to wait for the parts to come in before I can cut it .

WOW that was done with a dremel? Mad props! PPCs has acryan mirroed acrylic btw.

Quote:
CnC plasma cutter. I couldn't find any mirrored acrylic at ppc.

Checking those out now to find best price.

Found my camera. Here are some better quality pics



You can see where the plasma was acting up and would lose arc.





The finer details came out nice though. I was worried that they would just melt off as it was cutting but the aluminum held up pretty well. I still need to touch up the insides of the cuts though.

Finally found what was wrong with the plasma.... Motion delay override for the physical was set to 1.5 and should have been set to .9 so the plasma was arcing and even though I had the software setting at .9 the override was holding it for 1.5 seconds. Just enough time for the plasma to burn out where it pierced and to lose its arc. I went ahead and cut a second side design I created to test it. I need to rework the design and give it some more play on the outsides so I can have enough room to glue the sheet of acrylic to it. I also got a prototype design made for my 480GTX shroud which will be cut from aluminum as well.

I also ordered a 24x24 sheet of ruby red mirrored acrylic to back the skull cutout. I think I am going to paint that black and paint the web red with smoked acrylic to back it.

I had made a shroud a while back, never used it, it rusted plus it wasn't perfect for what I was doing. Here is the new revision of that shroud. It will be made from aluminum, is a perfect replica of the inside of a Black Ice GTX 480 rad and will allow for more airflow than the traditional gutted fan casing shrouds, theoretically at least though it may not actually function any better. It's going to be the same outside dimensions as the radiator itself effectively doubling it's height. I will also be using bondo or some other form of material to marry the two once I bolt the shroud to the radiator. I will then resand everything and paint it to match the new color scheme which I haven't come up with yet. I am thinking black on the inside with a white outside.

Also putting some red stripes going diagonally across the skull side for some contrast maybe. The side will be backed with red mirrored acrylic I have ordered and that will be here friday.



That's one face, which will bolt to the radiator, and the other face, which is identical will bolt to the top of the case or the fans and then the case if I can fit the fans inside. If not I will just build a housing for the fans as a new top.

The shroud is getting built tonight.

Got my new shroud faces cut out now I just need to cut new 50mm sides for it.

As you can see, on the Black Ice GTX there is a very very very small lip all the way around so it is tough to get a good seal. I found that with just fans there actually is no seal at all and a lot of air leaks out because of this.



To combat this I am going to bondo the shroud and radiator together to marry the two in an air-tight combination. All the gap right below the shroud cutout will be filled in.



Otherwise the shroud faces came out perfect I helped the machine a bit and slowed it down which causes the material to heat up very badly so I had to not only cool it by spraying it with coolant while it was cutting but also had to get in there near the torch and hold the material down so it wouldn't flex badly.

The cutout couldn't have come out better though.

Got the new side cut out. Now to clean them up, tack them up, and then bondo everything together.



If you are wondering why the faces are long on one end, it's because the radiator's tanks are on that end. I plan on making the two pieces one solid piece with nice smooth lines, kinda like a custom speakerbox that is made from fiberglass would be.

UPDATE

Shroud is ready to be tapped and mounted, then bondo'd to the radiator.

Somebody at work got fired and I being the tech guy inherited the camera he was using so I took these shots with it. My camera is 12MP, this one is 8MP and I think it takes better shots. It takes them faster so there is less blur and the pics are clearer.

Mine is a Kodak EasyShare Z1285 (Got it on sale 50% off at Walmart for $100) and this new one is a Kodak EasyShare Z812 IS.

Incoming pics!!







If you look in the upper right of this picture you can see an aluminum frame for my 1978 Lola 492 that I am rebuilding.



Gun started giving me problems, aluminum is a very soft metal and will sometimes curl over inside the MIG gun.



Cleaned it up with a flapper wheel and then took it for a quick spin in the bead blaster.




And the fit was near perfect.