PROJECT LOG Project: Military Tech - A fundraising project in support of veterans

If you change your "charity" to an actual "charity" i will donate parts to this project.

AIP links best charities.

Top choices

Army Emergency Relief Fund (A+)
Air Force Aid Society (A+)
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (A+)
Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (A+)
Fisher House Foundaton (A+)
Armed Services YMCA of the USA (A-)
National Military Family Association (A)


Also, playing devil's advocate here, there are more than just soldiers in the armed forces. If you're going for a full on "military theme", I would try to incorporate air force, marines, and navy/coast guard in there as well. Guns, boots and jeeps are great and all, but relegates this to an "army" theme over a "military" theme. Either way, I understand your heart and actions are definitely in the right direction here, Im just being a bit "picky" if you will. Good luck.

I'm not sure what you're talking about Bob. "Guns, boots, and Jeeps"? I didn't see any Jeeps. If you're refering to the rifle standing in the boots with the helmet on top I believe this is a universal symbol for a KIA troop across all branches of the military, A.K.A. Armed forces, not just the Army.

bob4933 said:

If you change your "charity" to an actual "charity" i will donate parts to this project.

AIP links best charities.

Top choices

Army Emergency Relief Fund (A+)
Air Force Aid Society (A+)
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (A+)
Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (A+)
Fisher House Foundaton (A+)
Armed Services YMCA of the USA (A-)
National Military Family Association (A)


Also, playing devil's advocate here, there are more than just soldiers in the armed forces. If you're going for a full on "military theme", I would try to incorporate air force, marines, and navy/coast guard in there as well. Guns, boots and jeeps are great and all, but relegates this to an "army" theme over a "military" theme. Either way, I understand your heart and actions are definitely in the right direction here, Im just being a bit "picky" if you will. Good luck.

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Sent you a PM with some details.

In referance to the all encompasing military theme and all 5 branches, I realize that I never typed up the symbolism behind the side window design.

Although there are 3 branches and 5 vehicles, you can combine vehicles to cover all 5.
- The tank = U.S. Army
- The aircraft carrier = U.S. Navy
- The jet = U.S. Air Force
- The tank + the aircraft carrier = U.S. Marines
- The aircraft carrier + the jet = U.S. Coast Guard




I know it's slightly confusing without the explanation, but given the detail on the branch seals they didn't fit well with the green subdued theme. Otherwise I would've done all 5 seals on the front panel mesh as badges.

Blaylock said:

I'm not sure what you're talking about Bob. "Guns, boots, and Jeeps"? I didn't see any Jeeps. If you're refering to the rifle standing in the boots with the helmet on top I believe this is a universal symbol for a KIA troop across all branches of the military, A.K.A. Armed forces, not just the Army.

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I think he might be referring to this statement in the first update -"Someone also mentioned doing a Jet/Ship/Humvee style design so I will have to play with that a bit."-. The tank was supposed to be a Humvee but I couldn't find a silhouette I liked. I liked the way the barrel of the turret passes through the carrier for the visual depth.

- - - Updated - - -

*slaps forehead* I forgot to post my update Friday, so I'll post it now before today's update that will come a little later.



Our next steps in fabrication work..... begins with our sexy new workspace thanks to our Alphacool mat.




Then we can get the placement of our Flag on the side panel




Cut out the star block where the SSD will line up and we can mark it up for cuts





Then drill the start holes for our favorite jigsaw.




Switching gears to the SSD cover itself, we first make our cardboard mockup




Then we can mark out the bends and cuts on the small sheet of plexi I have. It's super thin and should bend pretty easy. I need to make my bending station and procure some heat source to bend it. Also you can see the cuts marked out to make the drive bay cover door.



So we got our soldier memorial piece printed out to the correct size(just about 6" tall)




And the tedious work begins cutting out the design.




The outlines have been completed. detail cuts for the rifle and helmet will be done on the painter's mask once in place.

Update 10/10/16




Some friends came from out of state to visit this weekend so no work was able to be done. However, I did do some design tweaks and updates to the concepts. Wanted to show everyone my plan for the diamond plating.




Also cut the window design out of the side panel to replace the image that was the placeholder.




Additionally, a local PC builder has agreed to cover any 3D printing I might need. So I came up with this GPU backplate and Fan Grill. What do you guys think?




As always let me know what you think.

Blaylock said:

I'm not sure what you're talking about Bob. "Guns, boots, and Jeeps"? I didn't see any Jeeps. If you're refering to the rifle standing in the boots with the helmet on top I believe this is a universal symbol for a KIA troop across all branches of the military, A.K.A. Armed forces, not just the Army.

Click to expand...

haha, I was on my phone and that first picture looked like a jeep for some weird reason xD. I CLEARLY see the tank and aircraft carrier on the pc ofc.

And I had no idea that was an official KIA thing for all branches, I've never seen it before (shameful or not, I've only seen MIA/POW emblems). In any case, my mistake, and we discussed it via pm anyway. Thanks for the correction on that though.

bob4933 said:

haha, I was on my phone and that first picture looked like a jeep for some weird reason xD. I CLEARLY see the tank and aircraft carrier on the pc ofc.

And I had no idea that was an official KIA thing for all branches, I've never seen it before (shameful or not, I've only seen MIA/POW emblems). In any case, my mistake, and we discussed it via pm anyway. Thanks for the correction on that though.

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Definitely not shameful, rather consider it lucky that you haven't encountered it. During my deployment the HQ commander had one set up inside our building right in front of a wall that hung pictures of all of our soldiers that had been KIA. It does something to you to have to walk past that every day for 14 months. Made it worse that our office door was right next to it. But then again, it did motivate me to work a little harder each day.

Switching topics before I get too distracted, I'm off to print the copies for my presentation to a sponsor this afternoon. Fingers crossed.

Good luck Dalchi. We're all rooting for you.

Blaylock said:

Good luck Dalchi. We're all rooting for you.

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Thanks for the support Blaylock! Everything went great in the meeting. The company is the one I work for, until I get word from legal and corporate communications, I can't say who it is. But at least they will be providing some material they manufacture for the side window.

Also, I changed the GPU backplate to better represent honoring our veterans who have served and lost their lives. As this project centers around Memorial Day and the VFW, I figured this was more appropriate than the cliche on the last one.



Updates will be a little slow for a couple weeks as I am waiting for my raw material sponsors to get everything to me. Until then I will be completing my GIGABYTE modding challenge build "Blue Fury" and if I do well enough, I think it'll be enough to push them over the edge to sponsor this build. Wish me luck and a steady hand. If anyone wants to follow "Blue Fury", I can post my worklog here on OCF, just let me know. *thumbs up*

Thanks to all who have followed so far, the support and encouragement has been awesome!

I like that back plate design, and by all means please post a link to your other build.

Blaylock said:

I like that back plate design, and by all means please post a link to your other build.

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I'm glad you like it!

I will get that other build log started after lunch, it definitely has a shorter time frame than this one. Submission deadline is Nov. 14th so just under a month to complete *thumbs up*

Update 10/20/16





That's right ladies and gentlemen! We have new sponsors to announce!




First, I welcome Lowes to the mix and while they don't have the budget to donate they are willing to work with me on the prices of materials that I need. The manager is a solid guy that was quick to communicate even with his busy schedule. A big thank you to Lowes for their support so far.




Next I want to mention Home Depot. I'm currently working with the manager to sift through my materials list so he can provide the most that budget allows. It didn't take long for the manager to come aboard the project. I happened to stop him in the middle of the store and within a couple minutes he expressed his interest in sponsoring the project with some donations.




And last, but certainly not least, I introduce The Paracord Store who have graciously agreed to provide the paracord supplies for this project. Located semi-locally, about 3 hours drive from me, they can be found online at www.theparacordstore.com. They have some great prices and shipping is actually not too bad, they offer several options for shipping. One of the biggest things of interest is they carry more than just the standard 550 cord. They have a range of sizes to include 750, 550, 425 and 275. But to the delight of the modder inside of me, they carry CORELESS paracord. To make it even more interesting is they carry 20 colors of coreless paracord and over 100 colors and patterns in 550 paracord. Needless to say they have a great selection and looking through the colors makes me start thinking of all the other builds tucked away in my cerebral mass.


So take a moment and help me thank these sponsors for their support on this project. As a business it's hard to make a living in our current economical state, so I can't express my gratitude enough when I see this kind of support.

Until next time, Happy Modding!

After your first post, I am unable to see the images. That said, I really like the concept and hope to see the finished product soon.

don256us said:

After your first post, I am unable to see the images. That said, I really like the concept and hope to see the finished product soon.

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Looks like Photobucket's servers are down today. Bah! That's what I get for not hosting locally with OCF. If they don't come back up soon, I'll go through and update them.

11/2/16 Small Update



Just so everyone knows I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I wanted to say hi and share something new. I'm currently tied up finishing my Blue Fury build for Gigabyte's Mod2Win contest.

I got the samples of green paracord from TheParacordStore.com and compared them with a scrap piece of metal I painted. I first was going to do Black/Green/White color scheme(first picture), but when compared to the paint the white just was very bright. Instead, I'm going to switch it up and replace the white with their Khaki color(second picture). At the bottom is the sleeving design that I am going for. There won't be a huge amount of Khaki used, but just enough to offset the black and green.

Hey Dalchi

Have you settled on a platform for this build yet?

Lochekey said:

Hey Dalchi

Have you settled on a platform for this build yet?

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I'm waiting to hear the final word from Gigabyte on sponsorship of the motherboard. I think they are waiting to see how my Blue Fury build turns out that I'm doing for their Mod2Win contest first.

Im just here for pics....

TransformedBG said:

Im just here for pics....

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Well, welcome anyway you hardware pron stalker. Hope I can deliver with some quality.

Update 11/28/16



Hey everyone!

I do apologize for the long delay in updates. I had to switch focus and get my Blue Fury(link) mod complete in time to submit for Gigabyte’s Mod2Win contest. So while the delay was a bummer, there was some good to come out of it. But that I will save for another update.

Onto today’s update, I worked on marking and cutting both a new motherboard tray and back panel. So far I have cut the panels out, marked the location for the standoffs, marked and cut the opening for the PSU and mounting holes. Additionally, I riveted a L support under the PSU to give it more strength. I will do an additional mount on the motherboard tray as well.

Well that’s it for now, keep an eye out as our focus has turned back to completing this.

Update 12/13/16



Good afternoon DDCM fans!

I hope everyone is doing well this holiday season and the number of stressful days will stay to a minimum. I finally have some more progress to share. I had taken a bit of family time and took a small trip to see some family and take my kids on the Polar Express. Needless to say, given the headaches at work it helped me refocus. Here’s a picture from the train with our awesome matching pajamas.



But enough of the silliness, and onto the project. I was able to get the new panel almost all complete. Just have to tie in the corners together with some rivets and it’ll be ready to hit with primer. Seems like a lot of work to gain a few mm of cable management space.