Julie's Pants

AlienALX · November 14, 2021

Today's job. You guessed it, more masking.

AlienALX · November 14, 2021

Silver flake.

AlienALX · November 14, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ewhGqS4D_Q

AlienALX · November 15, 2021

Wet sanded.

Next time I do that will be when I am colour sanding the clear coat. Gave them a clean. I also cleaned up the edges on the back too. So the whole lot can have some clear now.

AlienALX · November 16, 2021

I had an issue with the clear coat. I know that Kobra sell this in two types. Matt and gloss clears. I think someone put the wrong cap on this one.

I've been using this stuff for two years in all types of weather and it has never done that before. There wasn't even any orange peel, so the application was perfect. At first I panicked and started wet sanding too early. This achieved two things. 1, it made me realise I could polish it glossy and 2, I put two fingerprints on one panel that took an age to polish out today. They are now done, though. Just a light polish along one edge needed (I must have missed it) and we're good.

The flat red line now has much more definition. Very happy I did that.

Onto the elephant in the room. I still need to repair the scratch. I sanded it back ready for blending. I also had a mishap, though I am not claiming responsibility, given that 1. Both panels had fallen off the case in transit and were loose in the box and 2. All I did was pull off some masking tape. I reckon it was already bent/cracked.

AlienALX · November 16, 2021

Well after five days of work I wanted to play. Do note, I am 99% certain the grey "Antec" part will be changed. Got a few ideas, not sure which one to go with just yet.

AlienALX · November 16, 2021

OK so now that the main paint is buttoned up it was time to move onto ideas. Like I said, I don't like the grey bit with "Antec" on. I did think about removing it (you can) but then I just thought I would make a cover for it.

Then I remembered that about two years ago I had an idea for stabilising Kevlar into a sheet so I could make shapes with it etc. So I went and dug that out. It's woven Kevlar into carbon. I didn't realise until today what a pain it is to cut. Soon figured out you need to hold the edges with tape, but man even my really sharp scissors struggled.

What I did then was epoxy it down onto a piece of 1mm acrylic that I had spare.

I will then create edges with blu tak or something and pour in some clear resin. Well, I say clear, but I will probably tint it red.

AlienALX · November 21, 2021

Blocks are now on.

And I've ordered what I need to complete the loop.

I also found my smaller hole saw set, so will remake the plate adapter for the flow meter with the correct sized hole in it.

And as you can see from the pic there I'm with soldering iron.

So that's now ready.

AlienALX · November 25, 2021

What an absolute nightmare. Hory shet.

I started at around 7pm. Might have even been earlier. Looped up the rig.

The first thing I realised was that there was a capacitor on the new board right in the way of the pump outlet fitting. Because the pump top is quite big this meant I could not fit it how I had originally test fitted it.

I tried the pump every single way, but with the port coming out straight the glass would never fit back on and with it on the right it runs into the front IO board. TBH? this is a stupid mistake by Antec, and one I am really peed off about. I could not even relocate the pump, because there is literally one place you can put it. In the end I cannibalised some Corsair standoffs that come with an AIO and this brought the pump out away from the mobo tray enough so that the fitting cleared in the original position. At this point I looped it.

Then I realised I had made another mistake. The pump to SATA cable I bought (EK) is 12v only. God, what a racket. That's OK though, I can sort that out later. Ran the loop for about two hours with the hardware turned off. Noticed I had a leak. Guess what it was? yup, a straight rotary AGAIN. Managed to replace that with a straight extension (didn't matter because the fitting that goes into it is rotary) and tried again. Noticed another leak. This time... You guessed it ! exactly the same type of straight rotary. Only this time I had no replacement.

Thankfully it is the one going from the flow meter into the pump, and there is nothing under it. Plus it's a tiny drip. So then I powered on the rig. Nothing. NADA. Fans going absolutely crazy, no POST. Now at this point I shat myself. Like, totally shat myself, and figured I had bricked the GPU somehow which at this point in time would be irreplaceable. However, I noticed that the RAM RGB was not working. At which point I realised I had seen this before. Once I over tightened the clamp pressure on a CPU block and saw the same symptoms. So, I took the board out after draining it and added springs to the back as I should have done originally. Bingo bongo, it boots.

However. Now I have other issues. Firstly one of the RGB connectors on the hub has snapped (they really are the worst headers I have ever encountered) so the pull fans on the rear won't light up. This isn't a major issue as there is another header, however it means I need to completely remove them all as one of the daisy chains has pulled out also FFS.

So I have ordered some more bits. Firstly to completely remove the sh@tty straight rotary and fit something that won't friggin leak. I also get a free drain port, which I will no doubt need.

Bitspower one was out of stock. Plus it was 3x as much as that. I've ordered this to create a 7v feed to the pump. I really can't be assed paying AC for their software every year and fitting an enormous controller just to run the pump at 7v.

And these. Because the ones that came on it all fell off and have trashed the top of my pedestal.

OK. So the final problem. Because I had to space the pump away from the mobo tray the glass no longer effing fits. Seriously, you couldn't make it up. So I have ordered these.

I will show what they are for when they are fitted. No point trying to explain it.

AlienALX · November 25, 2021

AlienALX · November 25, 2021

Right. All of the panels are now 100% complete. I cut some subtle decals for the right side.

And made the cover panel for the plate that covers up the wiring hubs.

Fixed the RGB too, so that now fires on all cylinders. Once I fix the loop I can do the final assembly. Got a piece of paper towel wrapped around the fitting that dribbles atm.

AlienALX · November 25, 2021

Oh and as for the GPU? It'sa very nice.

AlienALX · November 26, 2021

I have now fixed the loop. It needs possibly one more thing, will explain at the end.

No more leaning tower of Bitspower.

Aura Sync = fail. Yesterday the CPU block started flickering. I thought the LEDs were dead. Turns out that the controller simply cannot handle all of the RGBees. The res started doing it next. So I have gone back to the controller and just found a few modes I like.

But yeah, between that and Icue not doing what it should either I've lost a lot of hair. Really annoying crap. So now I have red with a white rotational flash. Looks awesome.

Only took about 30 photos to get the timing right lol. The fix btw was this.

I've ordered a Barrow one in chrome just like it but I already had that. In the loop. When I began I did not have the chrome 11/8 rotary 90 I bought (there was one left) so I used the black one I already had and that T ball to do another 90. Last night I realised I could use those, so that is now done.

Which leaves one thing I need to do to the loop. Fit a flow pipe into the res, or, drill a M4 hole in it so I can fill it properly so the coolant doesn't splash and introduce bubbles. There is only one way to avoid it, and that is to use the back port (like, in the back) as the entrance. However, I would have had to cut the entire chassis apart for that. Sod that.

AlienALX · November 26, 2021

Just made and installed the new button panel. In a place that doesn't get covered with wires and USB cables. Case had no reset switch, which I wanted. Thankfully I found these in my projects box so they cost me nothing. Have braided with carbon braid and will wire them in tomorrow.

AlienALX · November 27, 2021

OK so like I said the pump was hitting the glass. Well, the pump top. That's what these are for.

Just one problem. They are M5. The bolts that go through them are M6. So yup, I just had to drill out 8 of them. That may sound rather easy, well good luck holding them lol.

Eventually I won. I only wrecked one, but that was OK 'cause I got 10 and only needed 8.

A much better solution than stacking silver washers in there (Seen another guy with the same issue). Antec should provide spacers really. A water cooling case needs to be very flexible and this? well it just isn't.

Et "Viola" (yes that's a deliberate typo because its my fave.)