AcuteJungle66

Hi everyone!   iST.Modz  here I am super proud to be representing United Kingdon in this amazing contest from Thermaltake. 
Here is some info on my modding background I started doing pc builds and repairs back in 2006 for family and gaming freinds, I done my  first custom hardtube loop back in 2017 and decided to mod the case, in 2018 I entered Thermlatake UK modding trophy and won with Project Neon.
I have been able to make some life time freinds along the way at events susch as Computex, Gamescon and EGX, I would like to wish all the modders good look and super stoked to be participating against such proffesional talent.
Stay tuned for more updates on my project and here is a few pictures of my previous mods I built for Thermaltake.
A massive thank you to all the sponsors, Thermaltake, AMD, Zotac, ASRock, Plextor, TteSPORTS and LUXA2
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you and its a honour to be taking part good luck to my fellow modders 

Gah! Should have remembered they crop the stream later. Only watched about 100 of them 🙄
I still can't believe it. I just see it as something I made so it can't be that good. 😅

Nice, I knew they would eventually show it on SOTG; they would be crazy not to.
16:22 though 😉

Had some fantastic feedback and responces from both the PC crowd and from the division community in the last few weeks. Today though, today was something else.
Should start at 16:04
To not only make the Agent Highlights on the State of the Game stream, but for Hamish to set it apart as something special is just, honestly mind blowing.
Thank you to everyone who's voted so far, if you haven't already please go and vote, even if you like one of the other mods and vote for them, just go and vote! UK peoples can win the same case and PSU we used in the mods! Thanks.
https://www.scan.co.uk/shops/thermaltake-modding-challenge

Finally here with my final build post. It's been fun and stressful but its done. Thanks to all the sponsors 
Thermaltake 
Scan computers 
Amd
Seagate
Asus 
I've put white coolant in added some stickers and some finishing touches 
I'm happy the way it come out in the end.
Good luck to the other competitors in the tt2020casemodchallenge 

Project ISAC is finished! It has been a hectic last couple of weeks to say the least, I've barely had time to eat or sleep, so for now you'll have to make do with the final competition video, but I'll be back with the final update log and plenty of pics in the next few days.
I'd really appreciate it if you'd vote for me in the competition, the link to which is below. Thank you to everyone who's stopped by, commented and offered support and guidance of the last few months. I'm off to raid the liquor cabinet 😅🥃 🍻🍾
VOTE HERE
(note that once on the scan website competition page, you'll have to hit the 'vote now' button to take you to a gleam page that's rather large. you'll need to scroll down a fair bit to log in and then the actual voting bit is the 10th gleam entry down)

Ahoy hoy Mod fans!
A working week since the last update, quite a lot of that time has been spent on a rather large piece of work that I can't show just yet. 32 pieces measured and cut, 102 holes drilled, come to construct it and one of the 2 types of bolt I'm using was too short 😖 Just 2mm longer and would have been fine. 🙄 But new bolts should be arriving in the next day or 2.
That's what I've been working on in the shed during the day, but in the evening I've been working on case internals, especially the wiring. Seems even my tools are Division themed 😂

First off are the 36 motherboard cables for the front section, which are all going to be pretty darn short.

Then the GPU cables, which have a path even Lewis Hamilton would struggle with. You can also see the loop starting to take shape and 2 nifty little brass ball valves that will be being used.

 
I was very lucky as the 18AWG wire I got from Pexon is too thick to fit into the GX16 connectors, but luckily I had that orange wire got just before the comp when I was planning something with my own rig. Had just enough to get all the front section wires, apart from 1 of the GPU wires, came up just 1 inch short. 😟 So the 6 pin connectors will get 2 orange and 1 white and will hopefully be able to hide the thicker wire in between all the others.
There's also been lots of other little fabrication and case work been done. Knocked out these brackets, which you may tell from the treacherous proximity of the countersunk holes to the edge and hastily shortened bolts wasn't quite fully thought through. 🤔

But they work 😄

And now you can see the reason for the deep scoring on that 2nd PSU mount cover. There will eventually be something a little more secure than just a thumbscrew to hold the cover in place 😜

The pump/res is going to be mounted on top of a shoggy sandwich to kill vibrations and noise, but I can't just plank a fat wedge of foam under it and call it a day, so I made a housing for it and got it glued and clamped, but it's still in the shed curing. I might put some holes in the side as the orange and black of the foam fit the colour scheme and a few round holes will make the alu angle look a bit more structural.


As the THICC 360 rad will be going in the front chamber and fan in the rear, I needed to make a 30mm hole for it's drain-port and Thermaltake's brilliant rotating drain valve.

As well as that there have been a few minor modifications made to the case here and there. I cut out the last rung of the vertical rad support as it wasn't going to be used and was in the way of the pass-through section. A couple of cable tie points needed to be Dremeled off as they got in the way of things, few other holes for cable routing and such and I modded the GPU support bracket to cope with it's decreased living space, but forgot to take any pics. There will be plenty later don't worry 😉
Also needed to put in a few more holes to the new motherboard tray, mostly along the bottom edge. 4 small holes for it to be screwed into the original tray and keep the lower edge steady, 4 larger holes for cable pass-throughs. There's also a couple of holes will sit behind the motherboard itself for a little sneaky sneaky cable management 🤫

That's all for this update folks. A lot of the work being done now with the cables and everything is just very fiddly and awkward and visually very unimpressive. Hopefully have something very soon for you that is. As it's now so far into crunch time that I've no teeth left, I might just pop in with the odd pic here and there. T-minus 7 days 7hours 7 minutes....... Until then Crap fans, stay tuned! Same Crap time, same Crap channel.

Has it already been a week since the last update?
Well, I better get cracking then!
So the next thing I wanted to get sorted out was the panelling/trim on the 'business side' of the case. I kind of had an idea of how I wanted it in my head, but thought it safe to try with foamboard first.
Which is just as well, since the prototype was a fair bit wonky:

But at least it served its purpose, it enable me to fine tune things a fair bit before moving on to the actual acrylic pieces.
So a little bit of jigsaw action resulted in:

So my inital thoughts were that I was at least happy with the shape and relative symmetry of it, and I like that some of the lighting was coming through the acrylic; but ultimately I decided that I would like it better if I painted it. 
Which then gave me an idea. What if I put on some stars (as in the stickers we used to get at school for doing a good job), painted over it and then peeled them off? I wonder if that would work:

So slapped some primer on it and put it to one side for now, as I wanted to turn my attention to the front and top panels:

Managed to get it bonded at least, but I knew that getting the seams all smoothed out would require a little bit of elbow grease later on. 

Same with the front, quite a bit messy here as I was slapping it on there a fair bit. But it was nice to see how the front would look with the panel filled in like that. Frankly I quite like the look, was exactly what I was going for!
So I put both of those panels to the side for now, so they could cure, and moved on to putting some paint down on the trim panels from earlier:

Not too shabby. Some slight imperfections due to not having a sealed painting booth, but only really noticeable if you really get up close and personal. These should hopefully do the trick.
The last week or so we've had fairly wet weather up in our neck of the woods, so when I got a brief dry spell I took advantage of it and cut out the acrylic for the other side panel:

With that cut at least, I just need to get it bonded to the panel then smooth out the seams. Then we can get cracking on making a stencil for it and getting it painted. But there's a good chance that will be one of the last items we tackle.
With more dry weather this week, it was then time to keep working on the top and front panels. I knew from the get-go that this was going to be tricky for me, and would require building up the seams/sanding down/rinse repeat.

So not quite done with them yet, but I'll get there. I'm just hoping that the weather is dry when I am finally ready to slap primer on them.
With those sitting outside to dry, I figured I would turn my attention back to the interior; as there are still a few things to take care of.
First up was seeing how the stars turned out:

Sorry about the reflections, it's a bright day so the TG makes it a bit tricky. Crappy photo aside, the stars turned out pretty well. Whilst not exactly my cup of tea, my stepdaughter absolutely loves them; so that's the important thing! I also think that the black edging (which is just a roll of rubber moulding) really just sets it off, just needs some slight tweaking so it is nice and straight. I'm also going to clean up that area on the right close to the latch for the glass, so it looks a little bit more streamlined.
Originally we were planning on using Armour Etch to engrave a design on the glass, but I am not convinced at all.
We (it's not just me) feel that once we take care of some of the other decorations in there, that it would then just become 'too busy' or detract from the interior. But once all the other bits are done we might change our mind.
Please feel free to let us know what YOU think.
I cannot take credit for this next small alteration, as it was actually my partner's idea; and in my opinion it was a really good one:

Just a little bit of black mesh at the front, just for a bit of contrast. Plus of course it does serve the functional purpose of collecting some of the dust, so that is bonus. Whilst it looks fairly black from that angle, once you shift a bit it then lightens up a fair bit:

Not too shabby at all.
Well that is all for now, I just have a few more finishing touches for the interior as well as tidying some things up; and then I can focus on getting these exterior panels all sorted out.
With only 2 weeks left, I was really hoping to be done this week so I would have all of next to work on the final video; but depending on the weather, I very well may be cutting it close!
As always, thanks for the support and feedback, it has been great fun so far.
Stay safe!

Gooood Moooorning Modding faaaaaaans!
These regular updates are becoming a terrible habit After the previous days eye drama I'd had to finish early, so there were bits that needed removing from the original motherboard tray to make room for the power cables. So, first thing was to mark them up and cut them out.

I started using my jigsaw, but the spaces were too tight, so I knew it was time to break the newest member of the Makin modding family, the new Dremel!
(Whoof whoof!)

No not you Dremel, the other Dremel, this one.
(Whimper 😢) Don't be sad boy, I'll take you modding later.  😄
With those sections cut out there'd be plenty of room for the aviator connectors. I'll probably need to have a couple more cut outs for front panel connections etc, but I'll wait till I've had a chance to play with the layout before making any decisions on those.

Need to cover up the rad section with the steel sheet too as although just stripping the paint off the original probably wouldn't have looked too bad, there were a few too many holes in it.

Got the sheet cut to size and then marked out all the hole positions to see what would need removing.

I removed the middle section where air would flow through and where the rad would be screwed into the rad, but the rad would still sit on the steel so you wouldn't see any gaps, plus a little window for a fitting to pass through from the rad to the rear chamber.

It fit great, but I had trouble with the lip around the large hole round the top stopping it fit flush. I had considered leaving that and trying to remove material from the steel sheet piece, but the easiest thing was to remove the lip.

(the action you saw in the short video clip)

It all fit together beautifully. I drilled out another 20mm hole for a pass-through, at the bottom right of the rad.

I'd had problems with the sheet sitting flush into the lip at the front of the case, so I'd also drilled a few holes through the sheet to line up with existing case holes. I could then screw to 2 together and keep it in place nice and tight.

With all the power and watercooling holes cut into it, I can get to work on the wiring and plumbing. That will probably be an evening job while I work on other little projects in the shed during the day :naughty:. That's all for now folks, but I'm sure to be back soon. Same Crap time, same Crap channel. Until then Crapfans.
 

Has it already been a week since the last update?
Well, I better get cracking then!
So the next thing I wanted to get sorted out was the panelling/trim on the 'business side' of the case. I kind of had an idea of how I wanted it in my head, but thought it safe to try with foamboard first.
Which is just as well, since the prototype was a fair bit wonky:

But at least it served its purpose, it enable me to fine tune things a fair bit before moving on to the actual acrylic pieces.
So a little bit of jigsaw action resulted in:

So my inital thoughts were that I was at least happy with the shape and relative symmetry of it, and I like that some of the lighting was coming through the acrylic; but ultimately I decided that I would like it better if I painted it. 
Which then gave me an idea. What if I put on some stars (as in the stickers we used to get at school for doing a good job), painted over it and then peeled them off? I wonder if that would work:

So slapped some primer on it and put it to one side for now, as I wanted to turn my attention to the front and top panels:

Managed to get it bonded at least, but I knew that getting the seams all smoothed out would require a little bit of elbow grease later on. 

Same with the front, quite a bit messy here as I was slapping it on there a fair bit. But it was nice to see how the front would look with the panel filled in like that. Frankly I quite like the look, was exactly what I was going for!
So I put both of those panels to the side for now, so they could cure, and moved on to putting some paint down on the trim panels from earlier:

Not too shabby. Some slight imperfections due to not having a sealed painting booth, but only really noticeable if you really get up close and personal. These should hopefully do the trick.
The last week or so we've had fairly wet weather up in our neck of the woods, so when I got a brief dry spell I took advantage of it and cut out the acrylic for the other side panel:

With that cut at least, I just need to get it bonded to the panel then smooth out the seams. Then we can get cracking on making a stencil for it and getting it painted. But there's a good chance that will be one of the last items we tackle.
With more dry weather this week, it was then time to keep working on the top and front panels. I knew from the get-go that this was going to be tricky for me, and would require building up the seams/sanding down/rinse repeat.

So not quite done with them yet, but I'll get there. I'm just hoping that the weather is dry when I am finally ready to slap primer on them.
With those sitting outside to dry, I figured I would turn my attention back to the interior; as there are still a few things to take care of.
First up was seeing how the stars turned out:

Sorry about the reflections, it's a bright day so the TG makes it a bit tricky. Crappy photo aside, the stars turned out pretty well. Whilst not exactly my cup of tea, my stepdaughter absolutely loves them; so that's the important thing! I also think that the black edging (which is just a roll of rubber moulding) really just sets it off, just needs some slight tweaking so it is nice and straight. I'm also going to clean up that area on the right close to the latch for the glass, so it looks a little bit more streamlined.
Originally we were planning on using Armour Etch to engrave a design on the glass, but I am not convinced at all.
We (it's not just me) feel that once we take care of some of the other decorations in there, that it would then just become 'too busy' or detract from the interior. But once all the other bits are done we might change our mind.
Please feel free to let us know what YOU think.
I cannot take credit for this next small alteration, as it was actually my partner's idea; and in my opinion it was a really good one:

Just a little bit of black mesh at the front, just for a bit of contrast. Plus of course it does serve the functional purpose of collecting some of the dust, so that is bonus. Whilst it looks fairly black from that angle, once you shift a bit it then lightens up a fair bit:

Not too shabby at all.
Well that is all for now, I just have a few more finishing touches for the interior as well as tidying some things up; and then I can focus on getting these exterior panels all sorted out.
With only 2 weeks left, I was really hoping to be done this week so I would have all of next to work on the final video; but depending on the weather, I very well may be cutting it close!
As always, thanks for the support and feedback, it has been great fun so far.
Stay safe!

Oh I definitely will 😅 back on it already 👍

Looking awesome so far Andy!
Scares like that with your eye are never fun, glad you're okay.
Absolutely cannot wait to see the finished product, just don't hurt yourself any further please  

Ahoy hoy modderinos
Back once again for the renegade master, wait, no, for another episode of Project ISAC.
You know how I should the tray fit nice and snug? Yeh well a little 2 snug, it needed a few mm trimmed off the edge as well as a couple of notches put in for where to top rad hole has a lip. This took far longer than I thought, even with the rough cut file, it's likely down to me not having very good technique as I'd do a couple of strokes that would take a lot off, then apparently nothing would be removed for the next 5 mins 🤔 Probably made harder by the difficulty in clamping it to something solidly.

Also had to take a smidge out the corner to go over where the rad mount is fixed to then floor.

With the tray now sitting properly flat I could get to work on planning, measuring and marking out where the pass-through holes for the water and main power cables. This took quite some time as things didn't quite line up as I'd previously thought, so the loop needed a re-think. What I'd previously been planning for the power cables got scuppered when covid dried up my supply and 'plan b' turned out to not be viable either. Rather than passing the cables through holes I'll be using aviator connectors, this will separate the front and back nicely though and their different styles/themes.

Even once the overall layout and design was set, it took quite a while to get everything exactly right, particularly with the aviator connections as I'd have to make sure the thin hex nut that fixes them in place has room to turn, while also trying to get them as close together and lining up with the connections on the motherboard. As they're quite small and light they'd have a tendency to shoot off at the slightest nudge. In the end I had to stick them down with blu tack, but that made adjusting their positions harder. A lot of faff, but it was important to get these positions and measurements spot on.

Ever seen a GPU backplate with a 6-pack? Well now you have 😂 I had planned on getting into those lines with a wire brush wheel, but when I saw how awesome it looked after the initial pass with the abrasive wheel, I had to keep it.

I punched and then drilled out all the holes with a 4mm bit to start off with. Once they were done, I took the tape off so it didn't interfere with the next steps and marked what size hole was needed next to them. I also put a cross through the motherboard mounting holes, just to make sure there wasn't a mix up, as that's exactly the kind of ####-up I'd make 😅

Particularly for the 24pin holes, I wouldn't be able to get the drill in from the back of the sheet because it would bump into the bent-up section, so I had to do it from the front. Took an age to get a configuration that worked, trying different combinations of my odd bits of wood propping it up trying to get it to rest on top of the workmate, when all it took was hanging it over the edge and 1 piece on the rails. 🙄

First I widened them all the just under half an inch with a step bit with lots of increments, which helped keep them all in check and in line. Then It was time for the big boy 😲 I'd be taking it up to 5/8", so marked the 11/16 in red so I knew when to put the brakes on.

Like a glove 😄

I was using cutting lubricant to stop the step bit trying to grab on and dig in too much, kept the swarf fairly neat for the clean-up.

Pretty happy with the first set. The last hole has strayed off a little, but you can only really notice up close and once it's got the connectors and wires over them it won’t be noticeable. People probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out 🤔😅

After drilling out the holes for PCI and EPS power, now it was time for the G1/4 pass-throughs, for which I'd bought this 20mm hole cutter specially.

Get some interesting patterns of swarf in the saw after cutting. One looked like a christmas tree!

After that I deburred and cleaned up and holes and then had to cut some out of the bottom of the case. Now I always where my safety specs, but I hadn't been wearing any other face protection while cutting and sanding most of the time and had seen some horrid sights while blowing my nose, so I'd been careful today and worn a mask. While cutting with my jigsaw something shot out, hit the face mask and ricocheted under the safety glasses and into the corner of my eye 😖😳
Luckily, it was one of those moments where everything seems to slow down (like some sort of danger activated Max Payne-esque bullet time) and I'd seen whatever is was flying towards me and managed to get my eye shut in time. Still stung like a #### though. I rushed off to the house and checked my eye for any damage or debris which there didn't seem to be. I thought my contact lens out and rinsed my eye with the contact lens cleaning drops I have. Seems I had very lucky escape, especially as it was the left one, which is my dominant eye.
WARNING - Eyeball closeup
With my eye cleansed and calmed, I grabbed the goggles from my mayhems blitz kit and quickly finished off the cut and tidied it a little. My reaction to being struck in the eye had caused the cut to go a deeper than intended, but it shouldn't matter too much. I'd had just about enough and my nerves were still pretty shook as I hastily filed and sanded any rough edges from the case and called it a day. Really please how the holes came out, all bang on bar that one, which is really tricky with a hand drill and an aggressive chunky step bit, especially in such a tough material.

Obviously there still some more to come out of the case for the PCI and EPS power cables, but that can wait till my hands stop shaking. 😕 That's all for now folks. Be sure to stay tuned for another episode of "What Andy maimed next" 😅 Same Crap time, same Crap channel.

Ahoy hoy Crapfans!
Despite telling myself that I'd update more often I just don't like showing stuff before it's finished, but the end result today is worth the wait.
So, remember that big package?

It contained a sheet of mild steel, 1000mmx600mmx0.9mm. 😲

It's a heft beast, you don't appreciate how light aluminium is until you start working with steel. Getting this first piece cut was quite an ordeal, having to try and balance it with one hand and cut with the jigsaw with the other hand. Was much easier when I got the first cut in and it fit on the workbench properly.

Now I had thought that the corners of the piece that came would be nice and square, but they were slightly out so my piece ended up a bit off and needed some careful adjustments.

Filing the 0.9mm steel was a lot tougher than the 2mm alu too, was really hard going and took 2 days to get it finished, but finally had a nice square piece exactly 360x460 😁👍

Which will be a new motherboard tray and pass-through plate.

This bottom left corner has a bit of a tricky profile to it, which meant the sheet wouldn't sit flush.

At least until I gave it the profile to match 😉

This sheet isn't replacing the original motherboard tray, as that provides a lot of the rigidity and support for the case. To attach the new one, I'll be drilling the motherboard mounting holes through it, then sitting it on top of the original motherboard mounts and #### the new one's into them. To get the hole positions I clamped the trays together, used a Sharpie to put a mark where the hole was and a centre punch to scribe the centre.


With the hole positions marked out it was time for drilling.

I started with a 2mm hole so I could check the positioning and adjust the hole for any errors in either the marking or drilling. There were a couple that were a bit off, but I was able to pull them back to the correct position with a round needle file and then my 6" smooth cut round file, also using them to enlarge the rest until they were all 3.5mm and centred.

To give me more room for the fittings, tubing and cables I took out the original cable holes out with my Dremel. Sadly, when removing the lip on the motherboard tray it attached to, my Dremel died 😭  But at least he died doing what he loved best, destroying cases 😄

Now with the motherboard and CPU block having new custom armour, the clear plexi block would look a little vulnerable so...

Getting the design sorted was such a faff. it was just small enough to fit onto an A4 sheet of paper. "Brilliant" I thought, "I can make the design in SketchUp and print it out so it's nice and accurate ". Could I get it to print out properly scaled? Could I heck.  Spent ages searching for how to guides, none of which worked when I tried. 🤬  Sod it, I'll just draw it, but at least I can set the Division 2 logo size in paint.net and print that properly...... Nope. 😖 That wanted to play silly-beggars too. I ended up putting the picture into word and setting it's size using the margin ruler to get the right size printed. 🙄 I glued the paper to the sheet of alu I'd be using, drew the pattern onto it by hand, cut out an 80mmx80mm square with my Stanley knife for the logo and glued that in.
First up I drilled out the outer circle using a 3.5mm bit. In hindsight I should have used a 3mm bit as the 3.5mm didn't leave much room for error, of which there were a few 😬

I had planned on filing that out before doing anything to the '2', but luckily I realised if I did that, there would be very little holding it in placed when drilling and filing, so that got drilled out too and was the first bit to be filed.


Came out just perfectly 😃👌

Here you can see where the drill has strayed over, so annoying, but I should be able to work it in ok.

The circle was MUCH tougher to do than the '2', with such a small space to work in. I'd increased the size of the 2 from the original design so you'd be able to see more of the block through it. It was easier than trying to get the circle thicker, but I wish I'd spent a bit more time trying to get the circle thicker. Still looks great though and good to finally have something Division related going into the mod.

With the logo pretty much done it was time to get the rest of the shape out.

In no time I had it filed out and stripped the paper off. I needed to get a better look at the circle and see what needed doing. The 2 looks perfect though, just needs the burrs on the edges taking off.

Couldn't resist getting it on the block for sneak peek.

It wasn't till I was doing my morning download of pics that I realised I'd forgotten to file out the gap for the power connectors 🙄 Had to redraw the pattern on the metal and hope I'd filed the rest accurately enough not to put the measurements out.

Soon had the gap done though and afterwards I set to work tidying it all up. I did some work on the circle to smooth and even it out and deburred it all. I'd also started work on trying to sand out all the little pock marks where I'd got a little "overenthusiastic" with the needle file 😅

I'd also filed a small bevel around the edge of the piece to soften it up.

Much MUCH sanding and brushing later...

I hadn't been able to remove the pock marks entirely, let’s just call them battle damage 😅 Still looks 🤤

Now it was time to make it a shell. I used my square files to cut a grove in the sheet to make the bends cleaner and easier.

No bending brake here. Just some steel grips for my workbench and a bit of brute force.

What I hadn't accounted for was that the hole for the power cables making that section very tricky (and unwilling) to bend. There may have been a hammer involved 🤔 The tab on the side didn't go smoothly either, I hadn't removed enough material for the bend to go 90degrees, so I had to bend it back to file some more out then try bending again. This unfortunately led to stress fractures forming on the edge, might be able to do something about them, will have to research that. If anyone has any tips that'd be much appreciated.
You might just be able to make out the be able to make out the errant edge here. Hopefully I can smooth it out, maybe a light hammer tap and a sand?

It doesn't look bad though 😃


Now I was going to end the update here, but then this morning I thought, why not put everything together for a few shots? 😉 I'm going to try and gets updates out more regularly, every couple of days in the morning when I have a bit of time in between my morning physio that gets me moving again, along with a Columbia's worth of coffee ☕ So stay tuned Crapfans! Same Crap time, same Crap channel. Until next time.....
(*larger expandable pics)





😍😍😍

Thanks for the kind words folks, it is much appreciated. 🥰
I went into this whole contest with solely a 'theoretical' understanding of how I could use the acrylic. In my head the plan was to create a cleaner version of the View 51 Snow. Now this isn't to say that the case doesn't already look great stock, as it certainly does; but we all know how factory paint jobs can be, especially when dealing with multiple materials.
I'm now getting to the stage where I will start to see whether these ideas actually work or not!
So catching up from the last time I checked in, once all those things above had been painted and lacquered, it was time to start putting some pieces back together.
First up was the small front panel where the power switch and USB ports etc. reside, as well as getting the 200mm Riing Trios in:

I had removed as much of the fan bracket as I was comfortable with, as I still wanted it to successfully hold these monsters in place. Whilst not perfect, it definitely makes things less busy behind the fans. Some other minor things were making the Power Button and Reset Switch black, just to give it a little bit of pop.
Another reason for starting to get things like the fans and front panel in was to get started on cable management, as that would eventually be a slight pain. At least at this stage there were barely any cables:

It's a shame that the above shot doesn't show how glossy that front panel is, but I suppose that's what happens when you just take candid photos rather than lighting them properly and whatnot. Admittedly when I'm working on a PC I just want to get stuck into it, so pausing to take a pic is something I constantly have to remind myself to do!
I then put the thicc boi back in as well as the 3 Riing Quads up top, and it was time to make some new bends:

I think this shot gives a better idea of just how white the case is now after the paint job, you can also see a decent bit of reflection on that bottom right corner.
After several iterations of different bends, keeping in mind I wanted the area of acrylic on the right to not be covered up by tubing, these are how the final bends turned out:

I had considered having the CPU>Distro run travel at a 90 to the right and then straight up, but running it straight this way kept the panel nice and clear for...
...well, stuff 😉
I flushed the system several times with Distilled Water and then ran just the pump for a couple of days to make sure there were no leaks. Everything checked out, so it was then time to drain the system and put in the proper fluid. Whilst the system did look pretty cool with clear coolant, there was really only one choice:

I've honestly never used the P1000 coolant before, but I have a decent amount of experience with opaque coolant from other brands. So I'm unfortunately well aware of some the issues that can be encountered. My first build with some really cheap stuff turned quite yucky after a few months, but usually the reputable brands work quite well provided you do the prep work correctly.
Next step was to get the system filled and get out all the air bubbles, so ran the pump once again for a good couple of days:

I always love how much quieter a pump runs when you use a pre-mixed coolant compared to distilled water, just that slight change in viscosity makes a world of difference.
I briefly turned on the system fully, just to make sure everything worked. System was absolutely fine, it just took me a little while to get used to the TT RGB Plus software. But I got there in the end.
Before proceeding any further I wanted to get to work on the cables around back. I had all the intentions of making it super-clean back there, but if you recall, the rear panel was going to be modified with a lit Unicorn's Head (still the plan). In order to help facilitate this, as the actual cutout would be clear, I needed a blank canvas back there. So instead I did an alright job of running the cables fairly tidy and then slapped this in there:

Now nobody will ever know what sins lurk beneath 😉
I haven't started working on the actual panel that will go there yet, waiting on some dry weather up here as I need to cut some acrylic outside. But once I get that done I can then get it bonded to the panel frame and start working on that. So shouldn't take too long.
With the back kinda sorted out for now, it was time to return my attention to the interior of the case:

I was pleasantly surprised with how it looks in person so far, the glossy acrylic really shines; which ends up giving a nice combination of reflecting light as well as letting some through. 
Next on the agenda was to start working on the basement. This is another part of the build that I wasn't sure whether it would give me the effect I wanted or not, so I just very quickly took some off-cuts and slapped them in there to give myself an idea of whether it was going to work or not:

The image probably doesn't do the visual effect much justice, but sure enough it is functioning as a lightbox fairly well. So I was very relieved it would work as intended.
As of today I've got 3 weeks and 1 day to get the build finished and a video made. So in reality that translates to between 1-2 weeks left, depending how much time I want to leave for filming and the subsequent editing.
The outstanding items still to be completed are:
Finish off basement and the trim/frame for the side panel Clean up interior and put in 'stuff' Finish fabrication then Prime/Paint/Gloss Front and Top Panels Fabricate and then Prime/Paint/Gloss Rear Panel Glass Etching So I think I should have enough time to get those items done. With that being said though, I will likely only have another 1 or 2 updates this month. Well, before the video goes live at least; as I want some of it to be surprise after all.
Anyway, thanks for popping by and make sure to stay safe folks!

Thanks for the kind words folks, it is much appreciated. 🥰
I went into this whole contest with solely a 'theoretical' understanding of how I could use the acrylic. In my head the plan was to create a cleaner version of the View 51 Snow. Now this isn't to say that the case doesn't already look great stock, as it certainly does; but we all know how factory paint jobs can be, especially when dealing with multiple materials.
I'm now getting to the stage where I will start to see whether these ideas actually work or not!
So catching up from the last time I checked in, once all those things above had been painted and lacquered, it was time to start putting some pieces back together.
First up was the small front panel where the power switch and USB ports etc. reside, as well as getting the 200mm Riing Trios in:

I had removed as much of the fan bracket as I was comfortable with, as I still wanted it to successfully hold these monsters in place. Whilst not perfect, it definitely makes things less busy behind the fans. Some other minor things were making the Power Button and Reset Switch black, just to give it a little bit of pop.
Another reason for starting to get things like the fans and front panel in was to get started on cable management, as that would eventually be a slight pain. At least at this stage there were barely any cables:

It's a shame that the above shot doesn't show how glossy that front panel is, but I suppose that's what happens when you just take candid photos rather than lighting them properly and whatnot. Admittedly when I'm working on a PC I just want to get stuck into it, so pausing to take a pic is something I constantly have to remind myself to do!
I then put the thicc boi back in as well as the 3 Riing Quads up top, and it was time to make some new bends:

I think this shot gives a better idea of just how white the case is now after the paint job, you can also see a decent bit of reflection on that bottom right corner.
After several iterations of different bends, keeping in mind I wanted the area of acrylic on the right to not be covered up by tubing, these are how the final bends turned out:

I had considered having the CPU>Distro run travel at a 90 to the right and then straight up, but running it straight this way kept the panel nice and clear for...
...well, stuff 😉
I flushed the system several times with Distilled Water and then ran just the pump for a couple of days to make sure there were no leaks. Everything checked out, so it was then time to drain the system and put in the proper fluid. Whilst the system did look pretty cool with clear coolant, there was really only one choice:

I've honestly never used the P1000 coolant before, but I have a decent amount of experience with opaque coolant from other brands. So I'm unfortunately well aware of some the issues that can be encountered. My first build with some really cheap stuff turned quite yucky after a few months, but usually the reputable brands work quite well provided you do the prep work correctly.
Next step was to get the system filled and get out all the air bubbles, so ran the pump once again for a good couple of days:

I always love how much quieter a pump runs when you use a pre-mixed coolant compared to distilled water, just that slight change in viscosity makes a world of difference.
I briefly turned on the system fully, just to make sure everything worked. System was absolutely fine, it just took me a little while to get used to the TT RGB Plus software. But I got there in the end.
Before proceeding any further I wanted to get to work on the cables around back. I had all the intentions of making it super-clean back there, but if you recall, the rear panel was going to be modified with a lit Unicorn's Head (still the plan). In order to help facilitate this, as the actual cutout would be clear, I needed a blank canvas back there. So instead I did an alright job of running the cables fairly tidy and then slapped this in there:

Now nobody will ever know what sins lurk beneath 😉
I haven't started working on the actual panel that will go there yet, waiting on some dry weather up here as I need to cut some acrylic outside. But once I get that done I can then get it bonded to the panel frame and start working on that. So shouldn't take too long.
With the back kinda sorted out for now, it was time to return my attention to the interior of the case:

I was pleasantly surprised with how it looks in person so far, the glossy acrylic really shines; which ends up giving a nice combination of reflecting light as well as letting some through. 
Next on the agenda was to start working on the basement. This is another part of the build that I wasn't sure whether it would give me the effect I wanted or not, so I just very quickly took some off-cuts and slapped them in there to give myself an idea of whether it was going to work or not:

The image probably doesn't do the visual effect much justice, but sure enough it is functioning as a lightbox fairly well. So I was very relieved it would work as intended.
As of today I've got 3 weeks and 1 day to get the build finished and a video made. So in reality that translates to between 1-2 weeks left, depending how much time I want to leave for filming and the subsequent editing.
The outstanding items still to be completed are:
Finish off basement and the trim/frame for the side panel Clean up interior and put in 'stuff' Finish fabrication then Prime/Paint/Gloss Front and Top Panels Fabricate and then Prime/Paint/Gloss Rear Panel Glass Etching So I think I should have enough time to get those items done. With that being said though, I will likely only have another 1 or 2 updates this month. Well, before the video goes live at least; as I want some of it to be surprise after all.
Anyway, thanks for popping by and make sure to stay safe folks!

great mod !!

Thanks for the encouragement guys, much appreciated.
Would have replied sooner, but spinning a lot of plates at the moment; I'm sure many can relate!
32GB of Thermaltake TOUGHRAM RGB and an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X arrived last week:
So quickly put the core components together to make sure everything was working alright.
The ROG Strix X570-F Gaming is good looking motherboard, and there is plenty of space in the View 51:

Using PCIE Gen 4, the Firecuda 520 should be blistering fast. Was also nice to see that using the 1st M.2 slot does not cause the X16 slot to bump down to X8 like on previous generations (X470/370).

Whilst I have not installed it just yet (I want to keep it safe and sound), the 14TB Ironwolf Pro is an absolute monster:

The TOUGHRAM is some good looking memory, and the Ryzen 3700X is sitting underneath the Wraith Max cooler. For a stock cooler it is admittedly pretty decent, but this build is destined for a custom loop.

The stock cooler on the AMD Radeon RX 5700 from Asus also functions alright, but gets pretty loud when the fan get up to higher speeds. Another component that will greatly benefit from a water block.

The Toughpower GF1 is an 80 PLUS Gold certified fully modular PSU, 850W is more than enough for the job.

With everything installed fairly quickly (did not put any effort into cable-managment of course, as it will all be coming back out again), it was time to make sure the PC booted alright and everything worked as intended.

Sure enough, everything worked without any issues. After dialing in a few settings within the BIOS, it was then time to make sure that the PCIE extender also worked.

Yep, everything is working just fine.
Whilst I'll be fairly 'radio silent' for a couple of weeks yet due to exams and whatnot, I will have a couple of updates that I prepared earlier. Not related to the design, but as far as tweaking a few bits and pieces.
But as soon as my academic work is out of the way, I'll get torn into this project and keep you up to date!
 

Starting to take shape nice and clean.

It's Friday, it's deadly hot outside, my shed is now a kiln and I've got a broken tooth throbbing away. That can only mean one thing...... UPDATE TIME!!!!!
Seems like forever since last time, so much has happened, so many ups and downs, there's a whole load of pictures so I'll try and keep it brief. Maybe.....😅
So we left off with the cpu block cover cut, bevelled and a little sanding done, but a lot more needed to be done to finish it off. I strapped some 400grit sandpaper to a piece of furniture board and went to town.

 
Came out pretty nice.

 
Then moved down to 600 grit, this time with the piece stuck to the wood and the sandpaper on a block. I had finished off and then managed to scratch it again 😖 So annoyed with myself, but it would likely need refinishing after the next step, need to crack on.

 
I wanted to try and get a polished look on the bevel, at least have it smooth and shinier than the face. so I dry sanded it with 600 grit, then 1200 grit, then wet sanded with 1200.

 
Next up came the polishing wheel, I'd do about 1/4 of the edge at a time, then rotate it 1/8 so it overlapped well.

 
Used some smurf #### polishing compound with it.

 
Managed to get it looking pretty nice, some of the polishing had slipped onto the face, but I was expecting that to happen and would be dealt with in a final sanding of the face.

 
Once again I strapped paper to the flat board (600 this time), this way I figured the 2 flat surfaces together would just do the face and not the bevel.

 
Whilst I was able to sand the face without the bevel getting scratched, it wasn't sanding evenly, very odd. I thought it might be the janky way I'd stuck the paper down, so I'd go back down to 400 to even it up but I had ran out, as had the 2 Screwfix, a Toolstation, B&Q and Wickes that were local to me. 🙄

 
Whilst waiting for replenishment of sandpaper I had lots to do on the motherboard piece. First off was to take some of the back out where this cap was.

 
Back to the makeshift milling machine!

 
Didn't have too much drama milling it out, had one little wobble, but I gave it regular squirts from the metal cutting lubricant and it smoothed out.

 
Very nice. 👍 But does it fit?

 
Sure does! 😄

 
Now I had to tackle the big fan hole, couldn't leave that open and bare. Some nice brass mesh might sit well in there. 😉

 
I clamped the armour down with the hole over the gap in the workmate and pushed the mesh into the hole, first with the hammer head face, then using the screwdrivers bit holder to push it into the edge.

 
Voila!

 
Now it was time to tackle the finishing on the front of the armour, look lovely, but too shiny to go with the motherboard heatsinks.

 
With a large awkward shape I decided it would be best to stick it to the wood. When doing the cpu piece in this manner I noticed the bits that didn't have tape on wouldn't get sanded as much as they'd bow with the pressure, so I wanted to make sure it was well covered to get a nice even finish. Maybe a little too much? 🤔

 
First off was the 320 grit Mirka pad.

 
Nice. After this I went onto the 1200 grit grey Mirka pad...

 
Noice. 😁

 
Now time to get it off the board. Just pull it up here, just pluck it, oh, hmm. It seems to be a bit stuck. Thought I'd heat it up with a heatgun to ease it up. Started at 50, think i went up to 100C in the end.

 
It began to pull up a little, a corner here, a corner there, finally got an edge going. I was using a thin metal scrapper to get under where I can, using a chisel to leaver it up. Yeh a chisel. You can see where this is going can't you..... 🤬

 
Devastation.😭 Looked quite deep, felt deep too. I swore a lot, managed to get the metal off the wood, swore a bit more, almost cried, I thought it was game over, but managed to bring it back from the brink and sand it out. Think it felt deeper than it was as the edges of the gouge would have protruded from the displaced material. Such I heart stopping moment though. I needed a cigarette after and I haven't smoked in 4 years! 😂

 
It was then very carefully cleaned and quickly sprayed. It was looking good, added a second light coat, still good, one bit looked like it wasn't quite as covered so did a third coat, at which point I got a couple of spitty bits from the spray can :sigh: It would probably be fine once it dries, but I should have left it. Always have to overdo things when they aren't quite perfect and then they get worse. It's so annoying. (this is pre-spray)

 
Luckily it turned out absolutely stunning 😲😍

(Larger expandable pic)
Unluckily it was when the heatwave kicked off and it had got so hot in the shed that the clear coat had got soft and a little tacky and I got finger print impressions in it. I had to remove the whole lot. 😔 To be honest I'm not entirely convince the clear-coat I got is suitable for bare aluminium. When I first got it I contacted Rustoleum to check and they said it would be fine to use on it's own. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it's just not the right stuff, but I don't really have the time and funds to be experimenting with that kind of thing at the minute, so I'll leave it bare for now and maybe look at it again towards the end if I have time.
Now onto the the brass hole cover. It looked good, but something wasn't quite right.

 
Should have had the wire in the mesh align with the angled edges of the armour of course. I even set it like that in the first pic I showed of it. Silly me. 🙄

 
I quickly knocked up a new piece with the mesh lining up at the right angle and then taped the bejesus out of it with the fan guard I'd made earlier for a test fit.

 
It did not fit. 😔 I'd forgotten that I'd ended up getting mesh with larger holes than originally planned as I didn't want it to be too restrictive. Larger holes meant larger diameter wire and quite the difference in mesh height. I had been waiting an age for the mesh and had made the fan shroud before the mesh came. I thought about attaching it all to the armour anyway and then milling it down (I did think that might have to happen anyway to get the right height), but I wasn't confident in the strength of the bonds in the pieces of the shroud, Since it had broke in 2 already, I did not want odd pieces flying across the shed while milling, so I resided to leaving the shroud out for now. I might try again later with a small strip bent to shape, but I've got to crack on for now.
To attach the mesh I returned to our good friend JB Weld. I covered the back of the mesh in masking tape, spread the JB weld onto the mesh leaving a gap around the raised hole section so non would go into that space from any spread. I then placed the mesh on the armour and lined it up with the angled edges before pressing the tape down and clamping a piece of aluminium sheet over it to keep it flat and the pressure even.


 
Worked pretty well. There wasn't any ingress into the main hole, but there was some into one of the screw holes.

 
Soon had that cleared out. Cut the back with a stanly knife then cleared to hole with a file and deburring tool.

 
The holes for the screws that actually attach it to the board would need some washers underneath so the 2 surfaces would meet properly. For this I will use some brass washers; an M4 the screw would actually pass through, then and M3 and M2 for the screw to sit on and put pressure onto and make it up to the right height. This should give a nice little brass edge to them to match the mesh. I decided to glue them together before glueing them to the armour.
While they were drying I went back to the CPU block cover. I'd managed to get some more 400 grit sandpaper from Halfords, got it taped to some wood and started sanding it carefully. But it still wasn't sanding evenly, was the wood flat? Yes. Sandpaper ok? Yep. Hmmmm. Oh, is the cover flat? Nope. Definitely bent. :duh: Seems because of the shallow jaws of my clamp and the pressure of the polishing had got it quite out of shape. I did my best to get it flat and for the best part it was, but also not quite. In the end I had to abandon the polished edge and use the Mirka pads to brush it. Disappointing, but not the end of the world. I had been told by someone in the know (a lecturer of art who specialises in metalwork and such) that what I was attempting was very difficult, but I gave it a shot anyway. Still looked good. Shame I forgot to take any pictures of the entire process 😖🙄😅
With that done and the glued washers drying I thought it was time for a sneak peak

 
Maybe less sneaky?



 
Happy with the result I went in to cool off and do some physio. After I was looking back at the pictures I'd taken and I wasn't happy with the cpu block cover. I'd brushed it with the same pads I'd already used on the motherboard armour and it hadn't quite come out as well. So I went back and cut some new pads and did again with fresh 320 and 1200 pads.

 
MUCH better. Shame I can't rid the armour of streaks entirely. Used isopropyl alcohol which I would have thought would leave it streak free, but would still leave some. But it does look so good. At least I think so anyway. 😄


 
Just got to glue those washers on and they're all done and it's time to move back to the case. With that it's all over for this update Crapfans. I'll leave you with a few more pics of the finished motherboard, which I'll post without the URL link and a larger size for you all to ogle at 😍. Stay tuned for the next enthralling roller-coaster ride that is Project ISAC. Same Crap time, same Crap channel. Until then Crapfans....

Awesome progress! Love the clean look! :))

Hey there folks, been a little while since my last update.
I had originally planned to get a fair bit done last weekend and have an update for Monday, but things didn't work out that way. But anyway, what progress has been made since the last time?
The front and top panels were not going to plan, which is definitely my own fault. I think I misjudged just how tricky doing the things I wanted to with the acrylic would end up being! After seeing how the first run ended up looking, it also made me realise that I would end up painting those bits anyway; as the raw acrylic would look slightly out of place.
So I decided to try a different material:

Yep, that is going to work a lot better. Need to do some finishing work to it of course, fill in the gaps and sand smooth. But at least this mock-up gives you an idea of what my plan was for these areas. Hopefully the final product will look alright!
I had ran out of supplies, so just put those pieces to the side for now. With the holes all lined up I could now turn my attention to the fan/radiator brackets:

I trimmed off some of the front fan mount so it's less busy, then gave both mounts the usual primer then paint. Unfortunately I was out of clear and couldn't purchase any locally, so had to wait until this Friday until I could give them a few coats of that.
Since that was on hold, I turned my attention to the interior of the case. I figured that whilst I have a lot of exterior work to complete yet, I could potentially get the inside sorted in the meantime. So that is exactly what I started on:

The rubber moulding/trim isn't quite perfect at the moment, but is lined up fairly well for now. Whilst all of my measurements for the acrylic panels were fine, once I popped all the bits in I soon found that I needed to sand some of the edges down a little more. It was definitely a tight fit.
Speaking of tight fits, it took me ages to get the GPU in; I'm still amazed I didn't crack the acrylic in the process. I really should have put that in before the rear acrylic piece, but oh well:

Before I get bombarded with comments about having the exhaust at the bottom and the 'but heat rises' argument, yes I know. I am no stranger to the concepts of cooling a PC, and the decision to have all the fans orientated the way they are is purely aesthetic. Whlst the 200mm Riing Trios have lighting on the front and rear, the 120mm Riing Quads do not. So they needed to be orientated this way to provide the lighting necessary for the other acrylic pieces yet to be installed. But with that being said, the airflow that will be present within the case is more than enough to overcome the mechanics of convection.
I installed a single fan guard on the fan underneath the GPU, so as not to catch the riser cable. Those fans won't be visible anyway, so no biggie.
Just today I managed to apply clear coat to the fan mounts as well as the small front panel, so the plan is to get those installed tomorrow so I can carry on with the interior. Once the rest of the fans are installed, then I can start on some cable management around the back:

Whilst I will naturally try to make things as neat as possible back here, most of it will end up being covered anyway in order to faciliate the plan for the rear side panel.
I also wanted to add a little easter egg for my stepdaughter. Even so she already has a PC (which I made from old bits several years ago), this will be a proper PCMR build; so plopped a cheeky sticker on the unused drain cap for her:

So whilst I wait on things to dry before moving on, I thought I would start working on something else:

That's all for now, thanks once again to everyone that has been stopping by or keeping tabs on my progress; the support is greatly appreciated. Hopefully the next update will be the interior all sorted out.
Stay safe!

Ahoy hoy modderinos!
What's this? Another updatealready!? And it doesn't involve the motherboard armour!!!??? 😲
Yep that's right, mostly due to needing one last part for it, but also because I need to do something else before I go mad 😅 So inline with the brightenisation of the motherboard, the CPU block was next up for an enlightening. First I needed a good copy of one, didn't work out too well just sticking it on the copier.

 
By cutting out the first copy to reflect the light in the surrounding area and then shining a bright torch through the plexi block....

 
I was able to get a much better copy and clearer image. I put the block back together and taped up the coldplate for it's trip to the shed, to make sure it didn't get damaged.

 
First up to the chopping block were the mounting arms. Soon got rid of that paint with a Dremel sand drum. Nice and easy 👍

 
What wasn't so easy was getting rig of the deep score lines from using the roughest grit sanding drum 🙄 I went over it again with the higher grit drum I have, it was already used, but I thought that would be better for not putting more score lines in. It helped, but the worst bits remained still. I was conscious off taking too much material and the arms no longer fitting the block properly, so I thought it would come out when sanding the finish into it.
Much, MUCH sanding later and there's still some deep scores about. I try one of the abrasive wheels I got for the Dremel. That only removed the sanding lines and did nothing for the bad bits. More sanding, still looks crap. I remember I have scotch pads, give them a go, get a nice finish pretty quick but there's still those bad bits. 🤬 I think about giving in and just having it crap, so I go indoors and clean them up. But I just can't leave it.
So I go back to the shed. I tidy up a little while I have a think about how to solve it, put some Dremel bits away. I do have some new drums, let's try again with one of the new higher grit ones..... Yep, that's done it. 10 mins later they're good for a quick final brush with a scotch pad. Another 20 mins. Done.

 
And I'm thoroughly done in. However seeing as they're steel I don't want them rusting, so knock up a quick paint booth and give them light dusting of clear coat to seal them.

 
Onto the next day and the next part, the block. In a similar vein to the motherboard, it'll get a nice new aluminium cover. I stick the photocopy on a small piece and cut out the rough shape. I decide to do the 2 inner holes for the fittings first before doing the outer edge. First I need to find the middle.

 
After finding the diameter of the holes, I dial the compass into half that value and make a small arc in the middle from 3 points on the edge. They didn't intersect exactly as there's a fair degree of inaccuracy from my initial measurement, compass setting and then placement, but there's a tiny triangle there to centre on and punch.

 
I drilled out a 4mm hole then used the step bit to it's largest diameter, before filing from there using a round file.


To finish the inner circles I switch to a half round file when it will fit. With those complete I started on the outer edge and neatened it up with a rough hand file.

 
From there I moved to using the flat side of a second cut half round file to get a smoother finish and begin getting it to a better shape.

 
When I got close I moved to a smooth cut half round file. I'd go round the edge once or twice and then check against the block to see how it was going. The cover on the block sat in a little lip and wasn't completely flush to it, which combined with a little bit of light bleed meant the size I was aiming for would probably be before I hit the black edge.

 
I worked slowly at it, brushing the file often to keep the file clean and the cut true. I moved from working at it from a very front-on position to almost from the side, after I found I hadn't quite been getting it perpendicular. From this angle I could better watch the file and how it was working the piece. Slowly i edged in, checking it on the block until, bingo!

 
I gave it one last very light passing just to smooth the finish out, put it back into the vice, tilted it back and filed a bevel into the edge, then finally cleaned the template off. I had intended on brushing the surface to have it match the motherboard, but the smooth sheen of a finish the alu came with is just gorgeous and I was very tempted to keep it that way.


 
The mounting arms ended up looking great with just a couple of light dusting coats and really complimented and evened out the finish.

 
Rather annoyingly I managed to scratch the surface of the cover when trying to twist it into the right place, just above the right hand port, so I'll definitely be refinishing it now. It was the original plan though and I think will look better if it matches the arms and the rest of the motherboard. Might look out of place being shiny with the rest a more matt look.

 
I will however be trying to polish up the bevelled edge to give it a little highlight, which I wanted to start on before brushing the face. Using some sandpaper wrapped around an off cut of aluminium to make sure it's flat, I first sanded the outer perpendicular edge to make sure than was nice and even and smooth, then gave the bevel a quick going over to try and get the worst of the filing marks out.

 
And with that we have to end this episode, for that's all I had the time, energy and mental capacity for. 😔 But fear not, for I will return in no time at all for our next enthralling encounter, so stay tuned Crapfans!  Same Crap time, same Crap channel.

Morning Crapfans!
Well that's another week that's flown by. We've now been given a date of 24th July to have the mods completed and a video submitted so I best get my skates on. Particularly with this motherboard armour which should have been finished already. What's that old saying? Keep it simple stupid! 😅
So with all the holes now in the the right place, I had to enlarge the 2 holes for the mounting screws as the threads for them sit a little over 1mm below the bottom side of the alu plate. I'll be mounting some washers to the underside of the armour for the screws to pull on and then they'll sit flusher to the top surface too.

 
So I enlarged the hole from 2mm to 3mm to 3.5 to 4, all with no problems, was nice and centred still, but needed them a little wider still. I thought about using the round file again like I did for the others, but it wouldn't fit in the hole yet. "That's odd" I thought, "I didn't think the other holes were that much bigger. The file must not have had as much taper as I thought." So I pull out the 5m drill bit and

 
😖 As I looked for a file or something suitable for cleaning that up I found my smaller round file, the one I'd used for the other holes, that would have fit in these to enlarge them. Joy. 🤬 I ended up countersinking the hole to clean it up, which meant doing it on the others as well for some continuity. Was pretty darn annoyed at such a stupid mistake, I hadn't wanted to countersink them but it doesn't look too bad. More importantly, I can continue with this piece and not start again. I think I'd rather cover the motherboard with duct tape than start again.

 
With those all sorted, now we needed to tackle the chipset cooling, as the fan will find it difficult to breath through the alu plate. So open sesame!

 
After marking the centre of the hole by lining up the original cover, I drilled a pilot hole then used a step bit to get it that big. but it wasn't big enough. I'd got some carbine milling bits for the Dremel, so used one of those to get close to where I needed to be. I was apprehensive about using it to go all the way as it could get a bit grabby and I didn't want to mess it up at this stage.

 
After filing most of the rest out I checked where I was in relation to the fan, see if I needed to remove some in a particular direction, which it did.

 
I'd drawn the circle on the back which wasn't great, especially as the pencil rubbed off fairly easily. Should have measured the centre point on the motherboard, then drawn a circle on the front with a compass, but at least I'd checked and could fix it from here. I drew a slightly larger circle that was centred to help gauge the edge which helped a lot. I kept checking it against the original and the motherboard to make sure it was going in the right direction and wasn't getting out of shape.

 
In the end I was pretty pleased how it came out and how round it was. I won't claim it's a perfect circle but it's really close. I decided to leave it at that point as I have a tendency to go too far with trying to get something absolutely perfect and end up making it worse.

 
Next up I needed to fashion a fan shroud to direct the air over the heatsink, for which I'd use some aluminium angle. I decided to try and get the shape fairly close to the original so used several small pieces.

 
These pieces were too tall and I needed to get them down to 8.5mm. I had this little compound table and figured I'd try and use it in conjunction with my Dremel stand.

 
It was not as easy as I'd hoped to get this set up. Just mounting it to the Dremel base took an age. I'd have it set right start tightening the bolts and a washer would slip and get stuck so I'd have to pull it off again, get it lined up, get the bolts back on, tighten, slip...... 🤬 I ended up having to lie on my back under it to get the bolts tightened and stop the washers slipping. Not made easier by my decision to use nylon lock nuts to stop them coming undone from the vibrations it would make. Then I wanted to mount it direct to the workbench, but the bolts I'd bought to ensure they fit flush underneath the Dremel base were too short to fit through the workbench top. I had to search the house for a piece of conti board to mount it on. Then I tried to get the bolts flush with the bottom of that, but I didn't have the right bit to drill out the nut recess and I ended up wrecking the first set of holes. Luckily the bolts would sit either side of the workbench piece so I just let them poke out and then attached it to the bench with some grip clamps.

 
At least it worked! 😃

 
But it was slow. Really slow. It had at least given me a platform to be able to get at the edge that needed removing, which was nigh on impossible in a vice. So I cracked out the "rough cut" file and used that instead.

 
Now I needed to look at the side that would attach to the armour, make sure it didn't hang over the edge or cover any screw holes. So I transferred the pattern over to the underside where they'd live.

 
I'd also need to check some pieces against the original. As you can see here, the long straight piece would interfere with the fan and would need to be trimmed.


 
It took a little while to get them all done, filing angles onto the corners to get them to fit properly as well. I had to file a bit, check it's alignment, file a bit more, but eventually I had them all done and stuck down with double sided tape for a test fit.

 
It needed some more work doing to it. The fins of the chipset heatsink hit the angle and they were also still too tall. Must have measured that wrong thing as I needed to take at least 2mm off.

 
Back to the shed I went, filing away like a man possessed. Luckily the "rough cut" file can take material off pretty quick when given some welly. As the clamps on the compound table went to about the height I wanted I could use that to gauge where I was and just give a few final strokes with a second cut file to smooth and make sure they were level. I also changed the setup on the corner that sticks out. After filing the original piece out there was barely anything left to stick it down with, so I made a new piece to point outwards and took some of the other piece to give it some room.

 
And it fit! 😃 🤘

 
The compound table had taken a fair bit of abuse though. It's only a cheap chineseum ebay one with an aluminium bed, so fairly soft material compared to the nuts and bolts of the clamping mechanism.

 
I wanted to stick the pieces together as a single unit before fitting to the motherboard armour, so I got one of the old card templates and glued it to the original armour plate I made, then stuck the pieces to that with double sided tape.

 
Then give it a test fit just to make sure everything was in the right place. Good to go! 👌

 
Now it's time for our good old friend JB Weld 🤩

 
The original plan was just to put some on the joins to stick them together, maybe spread a little to reinforce, but things kind of got out of hand 🤪 At least I can be #### well sure it'll be stuck together 😂

 
I then turned my attention to the armour piece itself. I gave all the edges a good sanding, try and get rid of the filing marks. It was filthy after so I gave it a wash, which took the paper from the template off. The finish underneath was still decent so wont require too much work to put a nice finish on, so I covered it in masking tape to protect it. This top edge had been bothering me a bit. I'd cut it too tall but I didn't know if I wanted it brought down flat or at an angle to match the M.2 heatsink.

 
After asking around a bit, the general consensus was to angle it and I do think that would look better there. I just wasn't sure if it would look out of place being as all the other edges are flat. Didn't take too long to sort it out and it does look so right.

 
I'm waiting on a final piece to finish off the armour, which has just taken way longer than it should have. Probably didn't need to do all this for the chipset cooler, probably could have left it and it would have been fine, or made it simpler, but sometimes I just have to do things right or it will bug me to oblivion. In the mean time I can finally start working on something else, but that's all for now folks. See you next time for "what crappy overcomplicated next" :winking: Same Crap time, same Crap channel.