Project: "Water-Logged" ... External Radlicious Box

[Indignity]

First off, I'd like to thank all of you that have contributed ideas and given feedback regarding the purchasing of an aquarium pump for this project.

I'm planning this to be an external RAD Box for cooling 1-3 Loops at the same time.

I'm having 2 - 77' Bonneville Heatercores manufactured for me by a handyman that came recommended by CyberDruid over at OCN. That should take care of the cooling needs pretty well & if not, I've got an MCR320 to mount in the front if need be.

I purchased the case from another member @ OCN in their FS section & very happy that I did. Here's some shots of it:

Here's what I received:

Time to get to work a little you think?:

Before:

After:

Now to show you the beast before I get to work stripping/sanding & cutting:

Bottom; had to remove the feet to get at the retainer screws for the drive bay.

A little prying to get it out, but I was able to fix the bend I made in the case :O .. they must have wrapped this steel case around the drive bay before final assembly. There was also a solid metal piece that was mounted just above the drive bay for rigidity.

Here's the unit as I wanted it :

Thought I'd just document some of the measurements in case I had to refer to them again

And finally, I need to decide what to do with the Heater Cores as far as mounting. The doors are going by-bye as there's no reason to keep them.

Vertical:

or Horizontal (room for both on one side?):

The PSU:

Well, that's it for now, tomorrow it's sanding it down, then thinking if it'd be worth it to do some body filler.
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Day 2:

Indignity likes chemicals

I picked up some goodies on the way into work today:

Instead of the old tried & true method of elbow grease, I got some citrus stripper, which I've used before for different applications. It worked a charm every time I used it & has a nice Orange smell to it.

I applied a coat to all three pieces at around 7:45am this morning & then proceeded to bag them up so the stripper wouldn't dry out.:

At 5:00pm, it was time to check it out. I opened one bag & proceeded to use a scraper to remove the paint. Well, I must say, I was pretty satisfied & this is going to save a bunch of time. It still took a little bit of effort with the scraper, so I'll leave it sit overnite. I'll still go over the pieces with steel wool & acetone before hitting it with the primer in the first picture. Before I do the primer, I do have to think about doing some body filler, which might make things look better in the end.

................................................................


Day 3:

Well, been a little setback today as my Grandmother passed. I'd been handling her affairs for a little over 3 months and she was in Hospice for the past 2.

RIP GrandMa !!! We'll miss you!!

 

[hockeypro889]

Sorry to hear about your grandmother. I hope the case comes out well.

 

[Indignity]

Had some time at the PC trying to clear my head & came up with a semi-mockup within sketchup. There's still components I have to add as well as another section of the case with the PSU.

 

[Indignity]

Needed something to occupy my time this morning, so I went into work where the case has been soaking in the stripper. Sad to see that the paint didn't fall off, but the pleasant smell of Oranges kept me going.

Here's the results of ~ 3 hours of work:

I've decided that I'm going to get some body filler & do it up right, so I won't take many pics until I get back to the beef of this. The last three exhibit the result of sanding with 150grit paper on an orbital sander. I also have some paint to remove from some hard-to-reach places... Acetone to the rescue soon enough

 

[Reaper]

This has so much potential, I will be checking back often

 

[Arcygenical]

Subbed!

Man, stripping and removing all the paint! Crazy amount of work!

 

[filthysanchez]

I think adding a coat of clear alone would look neat.

 

[Indignity]

I think adding a coat of clear alone would look neat.

I agree that would look really clean!

The only thing is there's tons of extra holes in the thing that need to be plugged up. See, I'm not going to be using a shroud. I'm gonna seal her up tight as a vergin, which will force the air out & thru the heatercores.

As a matter of fact, I bought the body filler tonight, so there's three days worth of progress alone (apply, smooth, wait, sand..... repeat). I will take a couple of pics for the sake of doing so because I like a mod pictorial as much as the next guy

 

[Arcygenical]

Wouldn't it be more efficient to have air being sucked/blown directly through the heatercores, than attempting to blow through them with latent pressure?... And WAY easier to accomplish as well.

 

[Indignity]

Well, here's the thing Arcy... there's simply not enough interior room to accomplish that & I'm really thinking of getting more & more acrylic involved to display the interiors. I'll start by painting the inside of the case flat black, then coming back with random sprays of a clear UV paint followed by a bunch of UV LEDs I bought off of eBay from Japan . ... by the way, it looks like 3 110.31CFM Scythe Kaze-Jyuni SY1225SL12SH 120x25mm fans pushing air into the case ... I figured the case has about 12 cubic feet of air to move at any point & time. Of course, i'll probably dial them back with the Rheo, but even at 80%, 90CFM x 3 will move the contents of the case about 10 times every minute ... tell me that's not enough work for the heatercores

The outside is yet to be determined, but like I had said, i'm a few days away from even thinking about that. There is an automotive paint distributor right down the street that I plan on stopping by to see if they have any errors ... it's also a hotbed for custom bike enthusiasts being the home of the Harley.

Hey, would you mind sharing your paint "baking" technique with me either via PM or a post here?

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Arcygenical]

Hmmm, well, with fans (and clearance) like that, I understand what you're getting at!

As for baking, it's really simple. Spray the part you wish you bake in it's entirety. No light sweeping coats or anything, just one thick, heavy coat, and carefully put the (freshly sprayed, still wet) piece into an oven, preheated to 180-220f (the temperature of choice depends on the type of paint used... Going for 200f is a safe bet though!

Leave it in there for 1 hour, then carefully remove it, and place it somewhere cool, dark, and dry... Leave it for 1 hour (if you baked your primer, yes baking primer is a VERY good thing to do) or overnight (if you baked a colour coat).

However, be warned... If you paint one side of it, then let it dry in the oven, and sit for a few days, then paint the other side, and place the dry side DOWN onto some hot metal surface in your oven, it WILL get marked up. Therefore, if you must paint in steps, be VERY careful that a baked surface does NOT touch a hot surface!

There's one last catch. If you use too much paint (like, a really, REALLY heavy coat) it *will* run in the oven. So, you want complete coverage, but not a mudslide, if you get what I mean . If you'd like to be absolutely certain your paint won't run/drip... Let it sit for 10m in the position you painted it in, to dry to a tacky consistency. Then bake it. This ensures the paint won't run when it gets really hot.

 

[Indignity]

Thank you Arcy! That's just what I was looking for & to be honest, I couldn't remember where you put together that instruction set before

 

[Indignity]

I've forgotten to update this thread.. sorry!

3-17-08

Very, very small update as to what is going on.

I think I have everything now accounted for except a final touch that I thought about doing for the "bling" effect. If it wasn't mentioned previously, I will not be using any shrouds for the heater cores, so I have to find some radiator paint or find something to hide the fins as they stick out really bad. Not having shrouds, shouldn't affect the efficiency of the unit at all as it will be completely sealed as best as I can. Having 3 fans each capable of moving 134 cubic feet of air each, I think that will be plenty.

Good news:

CyberDruid@OCN made me a custom RES with an embedded Fan Controller ( Extra Pictures & How it came to be )

As for the rest of the case, it's coming together very slowly. I tried fighting with body filler (aka bondo) & it only semi-works, so I'm going to try a fiberglass filler usually used for automobiles. I have also decided to make it a little easier on myself by cutting out a window on the rear side and mounting the two fans to that. Haven't decided on smoke or bronze yet. I'll also cut a window in top that will house the 3rd fan.

I've got tubing and some C-Channel ordered from CD that will be arriving with Into The Abyss (by the way, that loop will not be part of this mod project.... at least not yet).

I hope to have the Windows cut, at least the primer coat(s) on, the first part of the external colors on & possibly baked (time permitting). If it goes quick, I might even get the final coat on.

I'll try to get some pictures.


----------------------------
3-20-08

Well here is a small pictorial update.

First the goodies I have so far:

fstfrddy's handywork (thank you bud!)

The nylon zip-tie radiator mounting thing-a-ma-bobs & the modder's mesh to cover up the ugly fins.

The wrong fans arrived today (They'll be up for sale soon)

Front part where the custom RES is going:

As you can see, I've cut off the doors & cut out the rear of the case in preparation for the assembly of the fans and Heater Cores.

As you can see here, I have primed the majority of the case parts. The only thing lacking is the main chassis, which is really becoming a bear to remove the paint. Hopefully, I've got a solution to that little problem soon ...

There's also those vent holes & some un-needed holes in the top & chassis that I will be covering up with this:

This part, I'm thinking of changing up a little bit. I was going to drop in a 120mm on the top of the upper part, but I'm thinking maybe 2 x 80mm in the front instead. Here's a comparative, please let me know what you think!

Before:

After:

By the way, on a side note, CyberDruid finished his handywork on my custom build and is in the process of making sure it's stable before I get it \o/
Pics:

Worklog is here if you are interested in reading it

 

[Ockie]

Sorry about your loss.

I remember using those towers a long long time ago, they were pretty neat and solid.

If that orange peel was red, I'd say you killed and bag someone there lol


Great build.

 

[rokar]

This is looking super sweet!

 

[NickS]

Sorry about your Grandma bro . This is coming along great though - subscribed.

 

[Indignity]

Sorry about your Grandma bro . This is coming along great though - subscribed.

Thanks Nick, appreciate it!

Planned addition post:

I've been thinking about how the hell i'm going to access the interior once everything is closed off. Do I want to unscrew a side panel or the front panel? The answer to that is an obvious NO!!!

Now, onto the solution.......

I had asked you guys what you thought about the 2 80mm fans in front because I was looking to gain some room inside the upper part of the case. The majority of the wires from the PSU will reside in this upper portion. Granted, I'll be making extensions to feed down the copper tubing that will go into the "crevasse" on either side of the front door. Those areas are going to eventually be sealed off with expanding foam with the copper tubing in place (kind of like a conduit). I also plan on installing two power blocks to connect any electrical components like pumps/lights/ect without hopefully having to make extensions for them.

Okay, the functional portion I was speaking of to gain access to the interiors... I will be using a Gas Spring (strut, lift, or whatever you want to call it) that will lift the top a total of 12" from left to right.
One of these:

The top will be attached to the right side of the case with 2 brass hinges. To form the seal, I'm going to find some type of weather-stripping that compresses well. The top portion of the case (pre me cutting into the top unless I decide to just utilize the two fans on the back of the case as their going to be moving over 250cfm) weighs about 8lbs alone. With the PSU, there's another 5-8lbs.

I have not decided how i'm going to latch down the cover yet when it needs to be closed, but I do plan to add 2 4" white CCFLs on a switch that powers them on when the top is open - If anyone has any laying around they want to get rid of, please PM me.

 

[soundguy]

thats a very nice job there mate...

also, the your custom build from cyberdruid is looking great, loving the fans sticking straight out of the case, just don;t put anything in there...

 

[Arcygenical]

Holy Christ!

 

[Indignity]

thats a very nice job there mate...

also, the your custom build from cyberdruid is looking great, loving the fans sticking straight out of the case, just don;t put anything in there...

Those fans are actually recessed behind a custom 1/2" Acrylic face with the fans open. They are getting covers soon on orders from the Mrs.

Holy Christ!

As far as updates, I've been incredibly busy with life. I did have my hand with the fiberglass and man, what a mess. I have a couple areas I have to redo, then sand it down & apply primer.. then I'll take more pics

I have my new rig & that's been fun to toy with .. The thing is too large for my little desk so have to come up with a way to make it work or buy a new desk

 

[justler]

Have you ever worked with aircraft paint stripper? Does basically the same as your citric stuff but much more caustic. If you paint it on and wear rubber gloves it'll strip the entire thing in about 10 minutes.

Just have to be careful about getting it on your skin... it will burn you. Water neutralizes it though. You can get it at some auto parts stores

 

[Indignity]

Thanks for the tip justler, but I'm well past that point ... any additional paint that is on the unit isn't going to be a concern. I've removed as much as I can & what's left will be covered up with a different material. It's mainly in the front 2 cavities that will be filled with expanding foam.

I forgot to mention that I purchased an unused Swiftech MCP600 from a gent in the FS section here. Well, he packaged it in tons of bubble-wrap, but USPS was still able to break the housing. I called Swiftech directly & worked with a gal there named Michelle. Had me a replacement housing in no time at all.. Their CS is very good!

I believe I have everything I need for the build now so I can proceed nonstop. The only thing I'm missing is a fillport & I think I seen one FS

 

[Arcygenical]

Yeah, Michelle is a really nice woman. Glad she came through for you!

 

[thebeephaha]

That Antec 900 is sick. First Antec 900 I actually really like!

 

[Indignity]

Fiberglass application, pre-sanding (I am not too proud of the outcome, but I did start getting the hang of it towards the end):

The case is upside down by the way

Pressies:

Got 2 great deals on the pumps:

Although, the Swiftech pump came broke in shipping although it was surrounded in tons of bubblewrap. Swiftech's CS is awesome & got me a replacement housing for $25 shipped.

UV PSU modding kit & LEDs:

Temperature Monitor:

Ultra Kraze 3000rpm Fans:

The Good Stuff!! :

What do you do if you don't have your own CNC machine or any type of tools to form a decent type of manifold? You improvise :

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but 1/2 of it is polished already to see the effect(you can see that better in one of the pictures above). I have already purchased the 1/2" barbs that screw onto these, just couldn't find them prior to taking the pictures.

And lastly, I needed to find a way to cut the acrylic a little more efficiently and cleaner: