Newb WC System / Budget -- Critique!

[goodolarchie]

Bump! Will be adding pics here soon.

 

[capneedle]

Your shroud design is very similar to mine. I like the use of fiberglass as well because of the ease of moldability and the quickness there is with it. See the link in my sig to see my shroud and scoop design via fiberglass.

 

[goodolarchie]

Your shroud design is very similar to mine. I like the use of fiberglass as well because of the ease of moldability and the quickness there is with it. See the link in my sig to see my shroud and scoop design via fiberglass.

Yeah I saw yours and posted a while back, I'm still jealous of your casting gaws... my sea glass will be function.. not form
Fans come today, then its time to cut holes, final sand + primer and flat black paint for the shroud.

Everyone reading this thread should be referred to the update I made in the first post
<<<<<

 

[Jas]

Hey noticed you were having a problem with the CF60.

When you are puttin gevery thing in your case, get a big pot of water on the stove, bring it to a boil, and place the sectiosn of tubing that war ekinking in the boiling water for abuot a minute, take the tubing out, and quickly stick it in pplace, when it cools down it should mold into shape of the bend and not kink.

Oh yeah, use some tongs, and some gloves so youdon't burn yourself.

 

[goodolarchie]

[Kneels before hologram] It is your bidding, my master.
Anyway, it'd be nice if I had problems with the tubing, because that would mean I had a case to begin fitting it into
Mostly I was just unimpressed with its flexibility vs. the normal vinyl tubing I'm used to. I'd heard about the hot water trick, I'm sure it works wonders for the PVC. Will steaming hot water >> bathtub not work well though? Seems easier than tongues, fitting tubing into a pot, etc. Hopefully this trick will prove useful in the next.. say couple weeks. I'm tempted to rip the air junk out of my mid-tower and try using the maze4 in it now. The only issue I have with that is until it was finished I'd be PC-less. I was planning on, if the venice project worked well, using the leftover parts to WC this pc as well.
I guess I'm going to home depot to find some of those spare parts I needed, including the four L brackets idea for the HC mount mod. Should I worry about the clearance issue from the barbs on HC being significantly less OD than tubing? There is also not much barb for it to grab onto.. I guess I'll have to try it wet to be sure. I just don't get why those fittings which say they're 1/2" barb are so much smaller than the 1/2" fittings on.. everything else.

 

[capneedle]

I used 5/8" OD barbs for all of my 1/2" ID tubing. This was done to avoid any flow restrictions as the ID of the barbs was then 1/2". Worked beautifully, but needed to do the boiling water trick. I just boiled the ends and slipped them on. Boiling tubing does work very well and highly recommended. You don't have to get it super hot, just enough so it's more moldable.

 

[Jas]

[Kneels before hologram] It is your bidding, my master.
Anyway, it'd be nice if I had problems with the tubing, because that would mean I had a case to begin fitting it into
Mostly I was just unimpressed with its flexibility vs. the normal vinyl tubing I'm used to. I'd heard about the hot water trick, I'm sure it works wonders for the PVC. Will steaming hot water >> bathtub not work well though? Seems easier than tongues, fitting tubing into a pot, etc. Hopefully this trick will prove useful in the next.. say couple weeks.

A hot bathtub of water will work too, but you will see a much better molding from boiling the tubing. All you really want to do is get teh tubbing warm enough that it begins to soften to the point that it can reharden. It realyl depends on the type of tubing. Most plastics will start to soften up aroud the boiling point of water.

 

[goodolarchie]

I used 5/8" OD barbs for all of my 1/2" ID tubing. This was done to avoid any flow restrictions as the ID of the barbs was then 1/2". Worked beautifully, but needed to do the boiling water trick. I just boiled the ends and slipped them on. Boiling tubing does work very well and highly recommended. You don't have to get it super hot, just enough so it's more moldable.

Well I wish I had different fittings on there, but its somewhat moot now. Next time I'm at the depot (tonight?) I'll take a look and see what other fittings are available. I promised I'd update w/ some more pics.. so here we go...

 

[goodolarchie]

The Good

The Bad

and The Ugly

 

[crash013]

Very ghetto indeed

 

[goodolarchie]

Very ghetto indeed

hehe. Maybe after I give it the krylon touch some of that ugliness will be hidden. Black does wonders where white shows every little ><

 

[pwnt by pat]

Looking good so far. It's nice to see someone making a fg shroud.

Anyway, my suggestion:
Put another thick layer of resin on top of the fiberglass. It looks like you used no where NEAR enough resin on the whole thing. The shroud needs to be completely soaked with resin - basically looking like the inside of the shroud. Also, to cut down on the amount of resin you use, (liquid I assume) add flour or sawdust to the mix. It will make the resin nice and thick.

Also, when you paint, black will show you a LOT more than white will. Trust me on this one. Make sure you bondo and sand. Drywall sanding spongues help alot. You can get them really cheap at Home Depot and they have 60 grit on one side and 100 on the other. They are AMAZING for sanding curved bondo surfaces.

Finally, to greatly improve the pretty-ness of the shroud, cut the sides off until they are all flat and even. Obviously, this will get rid of that butt ugly curl.

 

[goodolarchie]

Looking good so far. It's nice to see someone making a fg shroud.

Anyway, my suggestion:
Put another thick layer of resin on top of the fiberglass. It looks like you used no where NEAR enough resin on the whole thing. The shroud needs to be completely soaked with resin - basically looking like the inside of the shroud. Also, to cut down on the amount of resin you use, (liquid I assume) add flour or sawdust to the mix. It will make the resin nice and thick.

Also, when you paint, black will show you a LOT more than white will. Trust me on this one. Make sure you bondo and sand. Drywall sanding spongues help alot. You can get them really cheap at Home Depot and they have 60 grit on one side and 100 on the other. They are AMAZING for sanding curved bondo surfaces.

Finally, to greatly improve the pretty-ness of the shroud, cut the sides off until they are all flat and even. Obviously, this will get rid of that butt ugly curl.

Yes! Some good constructive criticism. Here's what I did to make the shroud:
1 layer of sea glass cloth + lots of resin. Dried, sanded off the burrs, smoothed out, etc. Applied second cloth coating, plus lots more resin. Overall, I'm not concerned about the sturdiness of the shroud, I could pretty much stand on it before I cut the two 120mm holes, and it wouldn't go anywhere. The white stuff you see over the top is formula 27, basically a marine/automotive stuff for f'glass, more durable than bondo (won't crack, etc). It has two coats, plus lots of sanding. I may do some more sanding, I've pretty much settled that it will be function > form. Plus the shroud itself will be pretty much hidden inside the case, the two fans will cover much of it. I'm headed to depot tonight, I'll probably grab some of those sanding sponges (I used to have a block that you could fit your own paper into, then it tightened and worked marvelous, I think a dog got a hold of it).. put one last f27 layer, a good sand for good measure and put the paint on. I'm not trying to win any awards here, if the shroud keeps the air from going around the HC then it has accomplished its role
Hmm.. black has always done wonders for me. I guess I'll try it and if I don't like that.. who knows. They didn't have a charcoal or dark grey colour available for under $5.

 

[goodolarchie]

I know you guys all missed my updates, so I'm sorry for the lack thereof
/sarcasm off
Unfortunately, the PC below was running w/o the CPU fan for a few minutes and now won't boot for some reason. I ordered my venice 3200+ & DFI board, so I should have those up and working and I will no longer be PC-less again. I have my mid-tower completely modded and ready to WC as soon as I have a working chip/board/ram again. I just got the server case today, boy has this f'glass shroud been a PITA! I should have ordered the DD one afterall, I've probably spent 20+ hours on it alone and it still looks like crap. BTW, my advice is don't modify your HC until you have the case its going into. I soldered some brackets to mount it to the front of the server case, and its too wide (~8"). Damn. Well, I can't wait to have a PC again. Looks like I'll be back up and running on Thursday, if I'm lucky.

 

[pwnt by pat]

If you'd be interested, I could make you a fg shroud. Just PM me. For my work, check out:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=371621&goto=newpost
IM "sewerbeing" and ask for a pic too.