A steampunk work in progress

[AdamPinnock]

So I've been working on this build over the summer, and have recently had to return to Uni and so progress has halted, the build is functional yet not completely cosmetically finished. I'll split the progress I've made into several posts or this post will be huge, but I just wanted to show off what I'd already achieved as this is not just my first completely custom build, it's actually my first PC build entirely, and I wanted to come out of the dark ages with some gusto, and I thought the components I had chosen deserved a home worthy of them! So here's my progress, a very steampunk inspired, from scratch build, that I've spent too many hours assembling and scratching my head over!

 

I'll say the build is missing much documentation, the camera I had to start with had a broken autofocus and compiling all the scraps of paper I sketched things out on would take forever and they're quite a few miles away anyway. So sorry for the jumps in progress and lack of good photos (until the later posts). The next build I do will have much more of a structure to documentation.

 

Post one - Inital stuff and frame/radiator assembly

 

Post two - The blasted reservoir fabrication

 

Post three - Components arrived! and subsequent warranty voiding

 

Post four - Fittings! and plastidipping the pump, plus a run down of all the work before:

 

Post five - Final (well, for now) Photos!!

 

So stay tuned, I'm rather busy right now so I'll be able to make about a post a day! I hope you enjoy!

 

1 - Initial Stuff 

 

The first parts I bought for this were the sections of aluminium for the frame  - just standard open box extruded bar which I cut, drilled and tapped the threads to create members for the frame, in addition I bought the 2 radiators (alphacool 45 420mm) and the D5 Vario pump, to gauge where the mounts will be. 

 

So, first off I did what most do and take to the 3D modelling program to visualise some early designs, I ended up rendering one design for a side-by-side radiator and pump assembly which I thought looked cool at the time, before physically offering up the parts and finding out it would take too much space, but the render looks nice and I wanted to show it. 

 

 

Followed by the rough assembly in the real world:

 

 

From the hours I'd spent already, and the 'fabricated' look to the build I then had in mind, I moved from 3D modelling and went to sketching, sorry again I don't have the sketches to show. In synopsis, I had the idea to mount the radiators in a block, fans on the inside, and have that block at 45 degrees to the rest of the case. I did some testing with a smoke machine to determine how far the radiators needed to be apart to still work effectively:

 

 

and then went on to build the cooling block:

 

 

After making the 45degree brackets, I then went on to make the frame for the motherboard tray mount and other components:

 

 

And then spent too long to admit what orientation I wanted everything and where the cables where going to be routed (turned out fantastic in the end):

 

 

That's that for that post, the next one involves my awful idea to create a brass-look reservoir from scratch and the hhhoouuuurrrrssss I spent with a ball pein hammer and a cannonball.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

A 

 

 

[Anthony_95]

Interesting

 

Followed !

[AdamPinnock]

2 - The Blasted Reservoir Fabrication

 

This is probably my favourite part of this build, I originally had the idea to make a full-metal brass reservoir, until the 'whole-room-watercooling' conundrum of Linus's left me thinking otherwise. Essentially did the same thing as I was going to, except wrapping the brass around an acrylic tube to stop any corrosion mishaps. 

 

First off, I knew I wanted a domed top on the tank, after having already bought the 90mm OD acrylic tube and the disc to plug one end, I had a limited market on buying brass domes with a radius of 45mm. This actually soon turned out to be NO MARKET WHATSOEVER. So I bought more sheet brass plus a mild steel cannonball, a quick lookup on planishing and metalwork and about 4 trial attempts, blowtorch burns and ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD I started getting what I was after:

 

 

That one component probably takes the lions share of time spent on this thing - I don't have a photo until it's actually combined with the other brasswork but getting a complete hemisphere is hard work.... Anyway, after that I tarnished the section of brass I had for the body with the blowtorch and bent that into a tube to give the general shape of my reservoir:

 

 

Working on the retaining rings and other flanges:

 

 

Before combining them with the main body of the reservoir, cutting down the brass to show the clear acyrilic (I liked the 'leyton jar' look) and soldering and polishing up the metal. Final thing was to add the return tube and various fittings to give the effect I was after:

 

 

Overall I'm pretty happy with this part, it was a lot of fun to build (even if at times I just wanted it to end) and it taught me a bunch of skills I never expected to learn! But the results where rewarding, so building your own reservoir: 8/10 would recommend.

 

That's that for today, love to know what you think so far!

 

A

 

 

 

 

[AdamPinnock]

PARTS! - Ogling and then warranty voiding

 

When these came I knew saving up was a worthwhile thing, and more than a fair amount of hours in several summer job isn't as hopeless as I had thought!

 

Specs: 

 

Mobo - Asus Rampage 5 Extreme

CPU - i7 5820K

RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 16Gb (16Gb more on the way) 3000MHz

GPU - Asus Strix 980TI

SSD's - 2 x Crucial 120Gb

HDD's - 2 x WD Green 2Tb

PSU (Upgraded the CX p.o.s) - EVGA Supernova P2 1000

 

Waterblocks:

 

Mobo - EK R5E Kit

CPU -  EK Evo supremacy

GPU - EK 980 TI Strix

 

Tried that fancy thermal grizzly kryonaut stuff on all the waterblock applications as it seemed fairly decent and the one tube did the whole lot

 

 

After a boot up to ensure everything was functional I got cracking and whipped off the stock coolers:

 

 

In fact I had enough thermal compound in that tube to practice getting an ultra-thin coat over the surface of every single component that had contact with the block several times, yes the photo looks like it's caked on, when in reality that's like a 0.25mm coat, the kyronaut applicator works incredibly well!

 

Looking at how the fittings would be (earlier picture before adding the GPU waterblock):

 

 

And then the proper workbench stuff got going, next post will show getting the wooden parts made and sprayed parts in place before routing the pipework and getting the build functional!

 

 

 

 

 

[JT8101997]

This looks amazing! I have actually been thinking about doing a build like this myself. Can't wait to see how this turns out

Alt+MAlt+N

[AdamPinnock]

4 - Trying different fitting combinations and woodwork

 

Moving on with the actual layout of components and how the fittings will join the pipework and other stuff, again taking to the workshop, I chose to recess the pump into a panel, this gave it a much more 'industrial' feel, although the satin black finish didn't suit it exactly, so I used some plastidip 'anthracite grey' laid over a coat of 'vintage gold' to dull the colour and bring it into line:

 

 

Here's the pump up close - I included the tuning mechanism off of a guitar modified to fit the screwdriver slot on the pump for speed adjustment and aethestic! This is also before filling the gaps in the drilled holes for pipework (had to make them larger as the fittings needed to be soldered, and caused certain parts to be wider)

 

 

This gave a really nice effect I thought, I'll be obtaining some copper-coloured paint to give the boltheads a 'rivet' look, which should look nice.

 

All the wood in the build on display is mahogany which I had lying around in the shed, gluing and shaping went fairly smoothly:

 

 

deciding the orientation (still hadn't by this point) of the motherboard actually came really easily, after observing the 24-pin, GPU 8pins, sata ports and cpu fan headers where essentially all in the same place, there was an inch and a half gap in the design where they could be hidden to such an extent that only an inch of cable showed on the entire build! Difficult to see on the picture, but to the immediate left of the pump/reservoir location:

 

 

And also playing around with where I wanted certain things - like the obligatory pressure gauge, of course:

 

 

Next post is just some nice shots of the current state of the build! I was in-between phones here and so didn't get many photos at all sorry!

 

A

[JT8101997]

I really like the guitar tuner for the pump Looks great so far.

 

Alt+MAlt+N

[Maxwit44]

@AdamPinnock Awesome Bud there bud. It would be cool if that gauge was a functioning temp gauge for your coolant, but out side of that, Really nice work!!

[AdamPinnock]

@AdamPinnock Awesome Bud there bud. It would be cool if that gauge was a functioning temp gauge for your coolant, but out side of that, Really nice work!!

Thanks! The Gauge is definitely on the list when I have time! I looked into it and the way those old gauges work means i just have to gut it and install a servo

[AdamPinnock]

 

I really like the guitar tuner for the pump Looks great so far.

 

Alt+MAlt+N

 

Cheers! Appreciate it man

[AdamPinnock]

5 - Final (For Now) Pictures!

 

So here's the build as she stands currently, sorry for the jump, since the last set of photos I routed, soldered and joined the pipework, added the temperature probes, made the drive bays (not seen, they're underneath the main platform) and filled the loop! 

 

I will remove the strix sticker, I needed the backing paper and just stuck it wherever temporarily, but didn't remove it before the photo haha

 

 

So still quite a bit to do! I will be hoping to engrave some of the wood with a Victorian steam era style, finish some of the 'cosmetic' pipework, polish a few things and add more woodwork to hide the small amount of cable on show! But for now, I'm at uni for the next 9 months.

 

A

[JT8101997]

But for now, I'm at uni for the next 9 months.

Aww

 

This is amazing though. Are you planning on building more of a case around it or is it going to stay like it is to show everything off? Either way it would still be awesome

But i was just asking cause i was thinking you could have some pretty cool stuff wood burned into it. Also you could maybe have gears coming out of the side of it and maybe attach a motor to them or something. That would be pretty cool.

[Trik'Stari]

........Well this is just outright epic. Someone give this man a large grant and some employees lol

[DaltonM]

Damn! This is an awesome build dude. I can't wait for the conclusion.

[AdamPinnock]

Aww

It's a shame isn't it! I prefer being in the shed with the saws and drills, but studying at least I have CAD by my side to dream up other projects!

 

And keeping it open for the most part, whilst arming myself with a can of compressed air haha! I like your thinking... I've had the gear idea in mind from the start! although that'll be a finishing touch, the pressure gauge and gear servos will be controlled by a Raspberry Pi which I've had in my draw for a while - as the total system load reaches max, the gears will turn faster and the gauge will flicker from 90% to 100% to give an 'overload' effect - I'll be starting work on the script for that soon hopefully, just a shame it'll be a while before I can add it to the build!

[NumLock21]

Nice project, but 2 of the ram sticks needs to go into the front red slots, cause black ones won't work until all red slots are used up.

[AdamPinnock]

Nice project, but 2 of the ram sticks needs to go into the front red slots, cause black ones won't work until all red slots are used up.

They work fine, perhaps 5% slower though? I know its not optimal for a quad channel kit from the DIMM prioritisation, but either way as I wrote, 4 more sticks are arriving in the next week

[NumLock21]

They work fine, perhaps 5% slower though? I know its not optimal for a quad channel kit from the DIMM prioritisation, but either way as I wrote, 4 more sticks are arriving in the next week

So it detected all of your ram? I even called up Asus on it and that's what they say as well in the manual. They were wrong then?!

[GoldSrc]

Damn, this is some fine work here, subbed.

[AdamPinnock]

So it detected all of your ram? I even called up Asus on it and that's what they say as well in the manual. They were wrong then?!

Yepp, even the XMP overclocking profile is functional. The only difference is that it runs as 2 x Dual Channel rather than 1 x Quad Channel. Interesting you say that though as RAM detection wasn't super straightforward on my board to begin with: as you can see in an earlier post I had the sticks in the red slots, although on applying the XMP profile, I 'Lost' a stick of RAM and only 12Gb was detected, then experimented with one stick in a black slot, only 8Gb was then detected. Got frustrated, pulled all sticks out and tried individually in all slots and no issues per stick or slot, so ordered another set of 4 sticks to fill all the slots and also troubleshoot a bit more and for the mean time just filled up one bank of slots... and then all 16Gb was detected... checked the settings and yepp, 2 x dual channel!

 

If you have the same board and RAM, it'd be cool to hear if you have a similar situation!

[Father Fuzzy]

diggin that res great work

 

very cool project 

[JT8101997]

I honestly like this so much i'm actually considering tearing down my current build and making it into something like this lol. Looks like a lot of work but i have some cool ideas myself and it would probably be a fun project. I've wanted to do a build like this for a while now. Then again though i only have like $40 at the moment... Maybe next year

[mao91]

Phenomenal work. I'm stoked to see the finished product in action.