[DJLiquid]

My house was inherited from my wife's parents... along with alot of 'stuff' before I could get into my little project, I really needed to clean a space to work in.

Ok I should have taken a picture of the mess that was in here... basicly I know some people are horrified by the disorder of my work shop. Trust me you can see the floor now and the benches are clean. It is 100 times better, I also redid the electrical in here to give myself some outlets to work with... cause I think dremels work better when they are plugged in.

I will change this bench around some more in the future but for now it will do just fine.

OMG *** happened to mah case! Oh yeah... I deriveted the case and removed all the stickers, cable management clips and basicly anythink not metal. Degreased the parts and did some 220/320/400 sanding on some troubled spots. The rest of the spots got light sand treatment with 400 grit.

Time to paint?

Nope... no painting for me. I needed to set up a "clean room" in the garage.

The theme to Dexter is playing in my head...

I took apart some old romex wire to make hooks... figure what I will do when I actually start to paint is put a part on a hook. Move that hook to a central area and spray it, then move it to an out of the way space to dry.

It is not raining but there is a threat of rain... so painting must wait.

Since the weather continues to foil my project... I decided to work a bit more on my work space. Picked up some cabinet grade laminated 2'x4' and 1'x4' sheets at a local building recycling shop. Did manage to anchor the shelves into the walls - a 4" mason screw does wonders for piece of mind.

Gives me a nice water proof surface to work on - also cleans off real easy (no little metal burrs getting stuck in the wood)

I spent a little more time touching up a few pieces of the case... You can see the extra holes I added to the motherboard tray.

Got a new bench vice (bout time too) - next step is figure out what to do with 30+ years worth of used paint buckets... And move the rest of my power tools into the room. I would like to move my 4' tool chest in here but I can't see a way to make it fit. Shame.

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[DJLiquid]

That was a fast update!

Fan Control and Fan Bus:
Given the sunbeam rheobus has 4 channels with 20 watts per... I can safely run 4 of my fans on each channel. The problem I have always had with this, the Y-cables/pass thru plus etc... I really dont see the need to split the signal in that manner. What I wanted was a controller that allowed me to plug in 4 fans onto each channel.

Parts -
Old CD-Rom x1
3 pin Y adapters x6
Sunbeam Rheobus x1
Random 5.25" bay cover (plastic) x1
ATCS 5.25" bay cover

Back of the controller
I used an old slot cover for the plastic to mount the plugs. I cut the plastic down to fit inside the housing. Then I taped off the whole piece and spaced out where the plugs should go. I then used a drill bit and a dremmel to make holes just large enough to accept the wires but not allow the plugs to fall through. A few of the holes are a touch larger than I would like - but when installed you would be hard pressed to notice.

Interior shots:
I used hot glue to hold the wires on the back and keep the plugs secure. I then grouped the 16 plugs into 4 sets of 4, twisted each groups red/yellow/black wires together and soldered them to a length of primary wire. I then attatched each groups wires to its own 3 pin plug and attatched that to a channel on the sunbeam rheobus.

Its not my best soldering work - I ended up using an old weller to solder with... 140/100 watt. I just couldn't get used to it. Finished the job but this did prompt me to fix my Wall Lenk 400/150 gun. Maybe I am too impatient but the speed of the Wall Lenk heating is so much nicer than the Weller... future soldering will be much cleaner

Assembled shot
I removed the sunbeam's faceplate and replaced it with a plate from the ATCS 840. Just drilled a couple of holes for the dials to go through and called it good.

more updates as they come. Stay tuned

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[FalloutBoy]

That fan controller mod is a great idea. I might do something similar down the track. +rep!

 

[DJLiquid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FalloutBoy That fan controller mod is a great idea. I might do something similar down the track. +rep!

Thanks

I thought after I completed it I should have taken some more pics of the process. In the end it really went quite fast (and loads cheaper than buying a fan bus)
Anyway I should have some more updates in the next day or two. I started priming all the metal.
2 passes of self etching
2 passes of sandable
Will be doing 2 more today or tomorrow - depends on how fast I can get some more pressing obligations done. I hope to get the color coat sprayed on Saturday. Then the painful wait for curing starts.

Fortunately I have some sleeving to tide me over - pics of that forth coming as well. I've just about finished doing the case's front panel wires (usb/power/eSATA)

 

[tincanman]

ohh that fan controller looks legit
and look at all those fan headers lol
also, depending on what fans you have, you might max out each channel and create some heat issue
maybe a small fan at low rpm??

 

[DJLiquid]

Mainly I plan on only using 3 of the 4 channels per channel. Unless my math is wrong I have 1.667 amps on each block and my Yates are .3 amps and my CM 230mm are .4 amps. So I should be safe - still the underside of the housing has a hole in it already and I might be able to stick a small low voltage fan in there...

I'll look into it a bit more this weekend when I have the time.

 

[tincanman]

nice to know, if you are running like scythe ultra kaze or deltas, then you are in deep trouble
yate looons and cms are ok

 

[DJLiquid]

Small update - I expanded my painting area... I was having a hard time getting good coverage on the parts. I redid my 'paint booth' and finished up my primer coats.

Here you can see the additional holes made for cable management. Both were done using a dremmel. The cuts are pretty darn clean if I do say so myself - when I throw on some c-channel any slight irregularities will be hidden.

I have since touched up some spots with 600 grit (removed the little hair nibs) and removed the overspray. Now I am just waiting for the temps in the garage to climb some and I will be spraying the color coats.

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[DJLiquid]

Some small update shots -
Finished spraying the base and clear coats - need to let em cure for awhile.

The rest of the parts hanging in the garage.

That area that looks grey is just some dust thats setteled ... I will be cleaning that off shortly.

A few shots of my sleeved case wires.

Used MDPC-X small for the LED/Power/Reset buttons - then put them all into some USB sleeving to minimize the amount of cables running through the case. The firewire I used SATA sleeving and the USB wires I used ... USB sleeve (imagine that...)

All in all I am very happy with how these turned out.

I'll be working on the sleeving while I wait for the paint to cure.

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[Jolly-Swagman]

Like the Fan controller Mod , well done and the sleeving coming along well too!

 

[DJLiquid]

Case is still dirty - but got it put back together. Still have some touch ups to work on and I need to finish my sleeving.

Extending some fan wires

sorry for the blurry pic - left to right
stripped - new pin - new pin crimped - new pin soldered

tools of the trade - wall lenk gun, auto strippers, crimpers, stipper/cutter and pliers

roll of 16 guage wire and some new atx pins

PCIe cable and 6 of 24 atx plug done

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[DJLiquid]

Delayed update - was busy with life...

Got the whole bit sleeved and installed

 

[DJLiquid]

I like quick updates - I finally went under water and here are some quick shots (I will take some better ones in the near future)

Under the fan controller is a DVD drive - just did a simple stealth mod on it.

Hope ya like it

 

[DefiedV]

Whoa that is fabulous work, I really like that fan controller idea. I think it safe to assume your favorite color is black haha. Cover up that yellow sticker and maybe add some white sleeving and your good to go! Kept it up man.

 

[BrokeBrain]

Nice build.

How did you get the extra holes in the motherboard tray so perfect?

Thanks.

 

[AFQ]

Please take that kink coil off, it looking ugly. Rest is awesome.

 

[DJLiquid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrokeBrain Nice build. How did you get the extra holes in the motherboard tray so perfect? Thanks.

I used masking tape to tape off the tray, I then used a square to get the length and width lined up right. Then I kinda "fudge-a-mated" the center of the rounded areas and took the diameter.
Then broke out the trusty compass and drew the rounded area on the new hole areas.
I used a dremel and reinforced cutting wheel to make the cuts. Normal operation on the straight parts and I held the wheel at an angle to slowly work out the arcs. I made my cuts small and then ground down the cuts to match up with the drawn lines.
Touched up the edges with a file - hit em with some sand paper - then put on some rubber c-channel.

Took awhile to do - might have been easier with a jigsaw... but I didn't have a good blade handy and didn't feel like running to the store.

 

[BrokeBrain]

Thanks, how much sleeving did your order from MDPC-X to get all of that done?

I'm getting ready to order and don't want to get too little.

 

[DJLiquid]

I ordered the family pack and 2 extra small kits. I made extensions for the wires and sleeved those. I have a lot left over

 

[rmp459]

what kinda rad and what temps are you seeing ?