Spirit of Motion - Scratchbuild Log

[MaximumBubbleMods]

The painted portion above the grill will have to be 3D printed in three separate pieces because of its size. I started by printed the rear most piece as it has some additional work I can do to it while the others print. I designed in a channel for an intake or exhaust within the print! First of all it looks stupid cool and secondly I want to have a little active air movement. It is designed to fit a  single 140mm fan.

 

The first unfortunate thing I noticed when I took the finished piece off the print bed was that the bottom had pulled away from the buildplate slightly. I needed these to be perfectly flat so I could glue them together. I'll have to figure something out to straighten that edge back up.

 

In the mean time I want to make this intake/exhaust grill look cool! I have some old pieces of mesh and grill from an old Corsair case I salvaged from somebody who threw it out. I traced out the shape first and then kept trimming little bit by bit until it fit in there nicely. I used a scissor for the mesh and tin snips for the grill.

 

 

I had many screw holes in the design but only think I'll use three of them. I painted the grill black and used some Elmers spray adhesive on the back of it to stick the mesh to the grill. It worked great.

 

I don't know if I will run this down into the case or use it as exhaust. The case it totally open but I would like to have some kind of air moving actively through it to help. You all should let me know what your feelings are on this one please.

 

[MaximumBubbleMods]

On 9/15/2020 at 8:51 PM, DutchGuyTom said:

Directing airflow will be difficult in your case. Nonetheless, having the fan act as exhaust is probably the most effective option of pulling air up and away from the case. Adding another fan to the second middle top piece could help as well but then the front piece could use some perforation on the bottom to help with airflow. This is all just speculation though and it may be better to just test different configurations.

 

P.s. this is looking fantastic and I look forward to seeing the finished project. I also hope you, your family, and friends are staying safe and well during these times. Thanks for involving us on this journey.

 

Thank you very much for the encouragement and kind words Tom. I hope the same for you and yours!

 

If I had access to a larger printer it would have been great to have the ability to print a couple fans into the upper hood/scoop/tailpipe! I actually cut down my original design that had x2 120mm fans and swapped for the single 140mm at the rear so that I could print it all at once. I totally agree that having any significant control over the air flow in this case is difficult, but at least it is very open and any warm air building in the upper section of the case would be removed with the fan in a configuration that pulls sir up and out the rear. We will see how it goes! 

[MaximumBubbleMods]

This is a little more picture heavy and word light. Time for the body work!

 

Like I said previously, I had to print the top in three separate pieces due to build volume limits. I had this creamy white color on hand so that is what I used. Black would have saved a little time since I would not have had to paint the underside black later on.

 

I test fit the pieces to just see how cool it looks!

 

One piece had a significant warp and a couple needed a light cleanup to be square so I decided to use the table saw. Using my crosscut sled I made a couple light passes on the faces to square them all up.

 

It cut okay but there was some plastic the re-melted to the cut face. I taped down a sheet of 120 grit sandpaper to the table and sanded away any of the material that remained so that the pieces would sit completely flush with one another.

 

I decided it would be best to glue the pieces together on the grill. This is because the spine fits in the groove pretty tightly. I don't want to be off the tiniest amount in my glue up and have to sand inside the groove to widen it so the piece fits back on.

 

I put a little tape on the areas that had a chance of getting superglue on them just to be safe. I also taped the front piece tight to the front of the grill so it was centered and sturdy.

 

I really like using the small gel super glue tubes and I ended up using one complete tube for each of the slices. I then simply slid the 3D printed piece down the spine and pressed them together tightly for a little bit.

 

Bondo time. Mixed some up on a piece of plastic, grabbed a soft squeegee, and put a modest layer over the entire surface as quickly as I could.

 

 

 

I waited about 30 minutes and then hit the bondo with 120 grit sandpaper wrapped around a small wood block. I block sanded the bondo in a cross hatch pattern until I started touching through to the plastic.

 

The print lines and seams were mostly gone now but I could feel a couple areas that were low when I ran my hand across the part. Sooooo..

 

After the second coat of Bondo I block sanded the part again until I was happy and the part looked and felt great.

 

I gave the part a quick wipe down with some diluted isopropyl alcohol and sprayed around 6 coats of primer probably with a couple minutes between each. A day later I wet sanded that primer with some finer sandpaper. Sanding the primer took out the remaining surface defects and couple pinholes that remained after the Bondo.

 

 

Another wipe down with the alcohol and then I was spraying the red down. So fun to spray a flashy red on a curved part like this!

 

 

On the second to last coat I blasted a little bug right out of the air and into my paint job of course.

 

Surgical bug extraction, a final coat of red paint, and a few minutes later, it was clear top coating time. Like the sides, this had many coats so that I could have material to sand and polish after it dried. Around 5 heavy coats.

 

A couple days later I took to wet sanding. Started with 1000 grit and then moved to 1500. After I was happy with that I buffed, polished, and waxed. I took some fun progress photos as I went.

 

 

And of course I had to put it in the grill the moment I was done!

 

[Blue4130]

16 minutes ago, MaximumBubbleMods said:

 

If there was a way to like a post more than once, I'd be spamming it. Fantastic attention to detail. 

[TVwazhere]

7 hours ago, MaximumBubbleMods said:

Spoiler

Me: OMG that's amazing!!!

Also me: OMG we have the same Ryobi drill set thats amazing!!!

[MaximumBubbleMods]

14 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Me: OMG that's amazing!!!

Also me: OMG we have the same Ryobi drill set thats amazing!!!

 Haha I love it so much! Thank you man!

[MaximumBubbleMods]

It's time for some wiring!

First up is the sata cables for the SSD and laptop optical drive. I also needed a slimline sata power cable for that ultra-slim laptop optical drive. I've never seen these before so I just picked an adapter up from a local computer store that I could modify and picked up two 36" sata cables also from there that I needed. Only needed like 22" but that is the way it goes sometimes.

 

I cut the adapter in half since I only needed the slimline sata power. I just used a razor blade and it cut through easily. I then tested to make sure it plugged in nicely into the optical drive with the accompanying sata cable.

 

 

I wanted to try using something other than paracord  so I ordered MDPC-X sleeve sample packs from Titan Rig. They come completely unlabeled in baggies though and cost more than $7 each so ended up still needing to make an educated guess on some very similar red colors. A piece of tape on each with the color name would have been really appreciated! I got my sleeving and some materials in though from them and was really happy with the color. I used Italian Red and Blackest Black.

 

I've never sleeved a sata cable so I'm happy that it came out looking nice. I then ran those from the SSD and optical drive, through the 3D printed channel to the back of the case, below and behind the motherboard, and then out the top to plug into the mobo.

 

 

Tackling the power for the SSD and optic drive was a little unique. I made a really short sata power cable and then took the slimline power wires from the sata connector. I simply soldered the wires from the slimline to the wires I had coming from the sata.

 

 

I sleeved that and used some 3D printed combs in black to keep things tidy before installing the cables.

 

 

I don't want a bunch of wires crossing over each other so I made up a CPU cable with enough length to stay low and go along the power supply side out of sight. It then neatly comes out to make a sweeping bend into the motherboard connector.

 

GPU cables are super short and cute. Below is a picture of the first one I did.

 

EVGA is generous with their cable lengths which is awesome but this case has very short cable runs for the most part. You can see in the picture below how even the motherboard cable had almost half the cable length removed.

 

I ran out of the crimp connectors unfortunately so I ended up soldering some of the last wires I needed to do. I didn't like how busy this cable looked in this build with individually sleeved wires so I went with four bundles with an asymmetric pattern. I am SUPER happy with how it looks.

 

 

I made another tiny power cable for the Corsair H115i that was not special but very fun to make haha

 

 

I then installed the NVMe, riser cable, CPU, cooler, a temporary power switch, and for the first time tested the system.

 

We booted and everything worked! I downloaded Forza and played for a little while to "test" the computer lol

 

I started by running a pair of wires for the power button to the back of the case. I used the same route as the sata cables. Behind the motherboard to the back bottom of the case. The wires were extra long for wherever I decided to put the switch.

 

 

I saw a piece of equipment in a dumpster at work that the shipping department threw out because it had broken. It had the literal perfect power button on it so I salvaged that perfectly working button for this build! I made a little pouch to catch any potential debri that may fall into the case, taped the back of the case as well, and started drilling my hole.

 

 

Just look at this bad button. It has a super satisfying click too! Win.

 

[Senzelian]

Those cables 

How much time have you invested into the project so far?

[MaximumBubbleMods]

12 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Those cables 

How much time have you invested into the project so far?

 

Thanks so much!

 

It is better that I don't know how many hours are invested  There are a couple zeros at the end of the number though for sure at this point.

[TVwazhere]

*Look at this amazing custom case! No expense was spared-*

On 10/9/2020 at 10:41 PM, MaximumBubbleMods said:

 

Spoiler

 

Oh that button? I got it for free out a dumpster find

 

Just goes to show you that anything can be refitted to something amazing

[Blue4130]

On 10/11/2020 at 2:59 AM, MaximumBubbleMods said:

 

Thanks so much!

 

It is better that I don't know how many hours are invested  There are a couple zeros at the end of the number though for sure at this point.

And then if you factor in the cost of your time. Let's say a VERY conservative $50 per hour... This is aiming to be a $20,000 build in the most epic way. I am once again speechless and in awe. If your dad doesn't have a bumper sticker that says "Proud Dad of Worlds Greatest Son" them let me know where to send it.

[MaximumBubbleMods]

On 10/12/2020 at 5:55 AM, TVwazhere said:

*Look at this amazing custom case! No expense was spared-*

Oh that button? I got it for free out a dumpster find

 

Just goes to show you that anything can be refitted to something amazing

 

All I could see in that dumpster was a beautiful button that needed help haha

 

It is so much fun when you get to give something a second life too! 

[MaximumBubbleMods]

On 10/12/2020 at 6:14 AM, Blue4130 said:

And then if you factor in the cost of your time. Let's say a VERY conservative $50 per hour... This is aiming to be a $20,000 build in the most epic way. I am once again speechless and in awe. If your dad doesn't have a bumper sticker that says "Proud Dad of Worlds Greatest Son" them let me know where to send it.

 

Your killing me with the feels man! Thank you thank you so much for the support and kind words.

 

I know my dad is going to be super blown away and I can't wait to unveil it!

[MaximumBubbleMods]

Little update with some small modding of my first NVMe I've ever used which is pretty fun!

 

I wanted to put a heat sink on the 500GB, Samsung 970 EVO NVMe cause it looked kinda boring. I bought a very cheap heatsink that had a nice grill look that I knew would match the build style well.

 

I put it on the drive to test the fit and make sure it was all good first.

 

That all went great and I only dropped the tiny screw like 14 times haha

 

I then took it back apart and using fine sandpaper and some water, sanded the black anodizing from the top of the heat sink. I sanded that very fine until I got a very fine brushed finish that contrasted sharply with the rest of the heatsink. I put that back together and the result was a fantastic improvement aesthetically!

 

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, MaximumBubbleMods said:

 

Your killing me with the feels man! Thank you thank you so much for the support and kind words.

 

I know my dad is going to be super blown away and I can't wait to unveil it!

Does he know about this or will it be a complete surprise? 

[MaximumBubbleMods]

On 10/13/2020 at 9:17 PM, Blue4130 said:

Does he know about this or will it be a complete surprise? 

 

He knows I am building him a computer but not the style/design/color/hardware/etc. I asked about some things he wanted/needed in a computer and then just went from there!

[MaximumBubbleMods]

Fun detail update!

 

I needed to embrace the radiator in the grill more by designing an additional feature. Radiator cap!

 

I designed a cap to fit the scale of the radiator and the angle it was mounted at. 3D printed, sanded, painted, and finally made a couple vinyl stickers to look like a classic caution (and of course a signature). More shots of this to come!

 

[PriitM]

Sweet mother of god, this looks nice. 

[Bouncewasp]

This is epic dude, will be watching to see how it develops!

[Badomen]

Its awesome, maybe we see Tachometer for CPU/GPU temp/usage measuring:).

[MaximumBubbleMods]

On 10/22/2020 at 11:57 PM, PriitM said:

Sweet mother of god, this looks nice. 

 

 Thank you! I'm loving it too

 

On 10/23/2020 at 12:14 AM, Bouncewasp said:

This is epic dude, will be watching to see how it develops!

 

Thanks for following!

 

On 10/23/2020 at 5:01 AM, Badomen said:

Its awesome, maybe we see Tachometer for CPU/GPU temp/usage measuring:).

 

Maybe not on this build but that is a great idea!! 

[MaximumBubbleMods]

The finer details continue

 

 



 



 

[Godlygamer23]

This is seriously amazing. Great work! 

[DJ46]

I've been following this build from the beginning and I love every single bit of this, but I can't help myself - the fact that the anti-vandal switch is yoinked from something else is hilarious.

[MaximumBubbleMods]

15 hours ago, Godlygamer23 said:

This is seriously amazing. Great work! 

 

Thank you gamer!

 

5 hours ago, DJ46 said:

I've been following this build from the beginning and I love every single bit of this, but I can't help myself - the fact that the anti-vandal switch is yoinked from something else is hilarious.

 

Thanks for following along! It is hilarious and surprising that of all switch types to be yoinked from the garbage, it was this type