Phase III - Complete! - Phase III makes MaximumPC ROTM!

[cc3d]

if you're a member of the modshop, please vote for Phase III if you think it deserves it!! It's in the finals for the rig of the month!!!


http://modshop.net/users/cc3d/rig/phase-iii

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Hello all. This is my first (and I promise it will be the longest) post to WizD. I look forward jumping into the mix here. Already I see there's a lot of good experience and knowledge to gain from. I hope I can contribute as well.

Phase III is the name of the mod project I will log here. This project is about 70% underway. This project is more of a creation rather than a mod as I am fabricating everything but the actual computer hardware.

I will not begin the log and picture posting until I have things more organized. Should start posting the beginnings this weekend.


Until then, I've attached an image of several of many fan grill covers that I designed and fabricated. These were all made from scratch and are of 1.5mm stainless.

Thanks and I look forward to digging into what I learn here.

CC

[cc3d]

I originally started with a very small cage design (~14" cubed). This was constructed with 1/2" tube aluminum. Turned out to be cramp as well as a lot heavier than I anticipated.


Below are the fitted and painted concept images of the 14" cube design. I expanded the top side and began to work out color schemes.


At this point I decide to scrap the 14" design and re-think the purpose of this case.

I wanted to end up with something with enough room to be very versitile. Kind of like a working test bench, but not so opened up that I couldn't control the temps. SOooooooooo, I said to hell with small designs and went with the 16" cube. Sounds like it's only a little bigger huh? 16" cube is friggin HUGE! So I came up with more ways to make use of the big box. Here are the concept and post-design images



This case will incorporate a complete 1/2" water cooling system, room for 3 x 5.25" drives 6 3.5" drives expandable to 12 3.5 inch drives. The entire case will be accessible while the computer is running this includes both the top and bottom of the motherboard.

CC

[cc3d]

Here is the final layout for the parts before loading stock metal into the waterjet for cutting.

As I have deemed this project as exploratory, I decided to cut all the parts from aluminum to make it easier to modify.

The downside? Painting. I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.



Since I could design the entire case in 3D prior to cutting, I could reduce the number of mistakes at fabrication time. Note that I said REDUCE. It does get costly to re do these parts.



Here is a pile of cut parts.



Now I have to figure out what went where in the design. The idea here is to mock up the entire build and get everything fit together.

Once that is complete, I'll take it all apart and paint this pile of aluminum.

CC

[fivecheebs]

Images arent working for me. It says file not found on the server if i try the url on its own.

[Crunch]

Originally Posted by fivecheebs

Images arent working for me.

Nor me...

Sounds like a good project though...

[redfox]

images are working here. looks like you are off to quite a start

[Pug]

That's looking pretty accomplished for a scratch-build.
What software are you using for the mock ups?

[cc3d]

I use Lightwave 3D for the 3D mockups. I model the design there first. I then transfer that to CAD ( I use AutoCAD and TurboCAD). With CAD drawings I determine my cuts, etc.

Modeling it in 3D I can work out how everything will fit together before proceeding.

I've been a 3D design artist and an engineer my whole career and I try to fit all that into my hobbies.

This is what I have in mind for my next mod:

http://www.tccook.com/library/cu_bike2.jpg


I wish anyway

[cc3d]

Okay, so I am putting it all together to make sure things FIT together like they're supposed to. Here's a homemade radiator:

take a small coil of 1/2" (ID) copper tubing.


in case the coil in a homemade cage that fans can mount on:




mount 2 x 120mm fans, mock up the entire water cooling system.



before you shoot this down, understand that I DID test this and it works quite well. There is 5 feet of copper tubing there and fans keep the copper quite cool. This in-turn, cools the water down. I will have to slow the pump down as the water flow is a little TOO fast.



a little paint and we're ready to put this radiator together for good.

Here I stacked the fans on, they will get painted so they are just standing in for a quick photo here.



more to come

CC

[cc3d]

So, here's a quick run through of how I did the drive bays. Using measurements from standard 3.5" and 5.25" drives, I created the concept models:



I broke those out into 2 dimensional cut forms in Turbocad:





I cut these out of 0.125" aluminum on a 4x4 waterjet.

There were parts of these cuts that had to be bent on a manual break.

I then put them together with rivets.





As for the 3.5" drive bay, I plan to mount those drives vertically in the bottom part of the case.