January 14th, 2016So, yesterday was a big day and a long day.
The morning started in de Plastics Lab at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, again...
(Sidenote: IDE doesn't really belong on a Technical University in my opinion. I mean, half the students there are girls! 50%GIRLS! on a Technical Uni! but yeah... Also - They're all hipsters).
But let's continue.
So, Plastics lab.
An IDE friend of mine helped me around the lab (although really, he was my ticket in).
We started drilling sunk-in holes for the screws that were to be attached to the power supply to the oil basin lid. The lid is a 10mm acrylic plate, so the small PC case screws weren't long enough - that's why the holes had to be sunken. First a small drill all the way through for the screw part, then a bigger drill up-to 3/4 through the plate for the screw's head.
After this drilling, bigger sections of the lid plate were to be cut out. These would be the I/O slots panels holes from the MoBo, Graphics card, LED controller and power buttons. I also custom made a little chip board with the I/O slots attached that you would normally find in the front of your PC case (audio jacks, USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and SD-card reader).
This was going to be hard.. We asked the lab operators what the best method would be, for we though drilling the corners out and then saw it out with a lint-saw. But yeah, they were like 'hahaha, what! Why don't you boys use the laser?'
'Laser sir?'
'Yes! The LASER!'
As an aerospace engineer, I never use fancy hipster IDE stuff like 3D printers or lasercutters. Just give me the old screws, nails and especially rivets.
So yeah... We drew a quick CAD file with Catia and gave that and the plate to the operator.
Minds where blown.
The result?
So yeah, after that - we went home to see if all the parts fitted through the ports. This was the part I couldn't sleep of the past few days - seeing I would completely have missdrawn something on my building drawing.
But yeah, everything fitted except for one part...
You guessed it - the huge ass, motherf*ing Graphics card.
The card was the hardest part to measure, since it's slot placement depended on the accurcy of how far it would go in the PCI-e slot, which depended on the tightness of the motherboard screwed on the attachment acrylic plate, which placement depended on the accuracy of attachment of that plate to the lid plate. Quite immeasurable when doubt factors come in to play..
So, after a lot of normal-PCcase-backplate-slot-attachment bending on the GPU, it fitted.
Back to uni. At this point, the protection plaster could finally be removed from the acrylic plate - at least partially. The plates had to be attached!
First I thought acrylic glue would do the trick, but the attachment backplate for the motherboard was 4mm, which would be too thin to glue to the lid plate said the lab operator.
So, corner profiles and screws had to be used. After that, the screws that came through the 4mm plate had to be shortened, otherwise they would touch the back of the MoBo at a later point.
Your friend in need? The Dremel!
A bit of washing benzine and fiber cloth to remove the never-to-be-reached-again fingerprints on the plate and the plates were attached.
At this point it was evening.
The actual building of the PC, began:
So yeah, the day just went on and on.
Attaching the power supply, then the motherboard. The graphicscard (which was a thight fit again).
At this point, one of my roommates joined me in building.
This is 2 hours later, with us attaching the cables to the power and reset buttons:
Another hour and a half...
And then... after half a year of planning and saving:
It was FINISHED!So, as you can see - a bit of cable management was still needed.
Which I did.
This is the result after another hour:
So, friends and viewers - the PC itself is finally complete and working.
Now the only thing left to do is making the basin with an airtube, a bit of red gravel and some aquarium ornaments.
After that, pouring the oil and dipping this PC in it.
The last part will be uploaded in the coming days.
See you then!
