SR-X

[Caliche]

Hello! Its been over a year since I completed Aelro Dynamic and have been quite busy in the past year attending and finally graduating from college while working full-time. In the spare time I had, I sketch'd up ideas for my next case. Which leds finally here to my next project: SR-X.

The inspiration behind SR-X is first all the skillful people at work at Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Second to all the unacknowledged workers out at AFFTC Det3, their work everyday protects the national security of the US and leads to new innovations in technology. Thirdly, I wanted to challenge myself with a design more complex than Aelro. SR-X will be a geometrical nightmare.

SR-X will be composed of dual watercooling loop cooling the CPU and GPU's. The motherboard, video cards, and associated perpherials will by EVGA Classified Series. The storage will be composed of either 2 solid state or 1 and 1 combination of SSD and Platter Drive. The design will be able to accomodate a 1000W+ power supply.

The materials in SR-X will be an aluminum inner core with a carbon fiber-titanium composite skin. I have already ordered up 11 sheets of 24 X 36 .040 T6061 and 2 sheets of 24 X36 .090 T6061. I will be racing against the clock on this one and I hope to complete this build, though, at this moment there are no promises and I HATE to say this, though, I have been applying for new jobs since I have graduated.

Update:

Update:

Got started today on the construction of SR-X with the motherboard base. Starting at the core of the machine and working out.

From a Layout blueprint, I masked, measured, and drew it out. Using a Air- Grinder with a cutting disc. I'm checking out Laser Cutting right now. waiting for the quote to come back.

Cut-Out

Roughly setting where the MB will be placed.

The MB will be positoned on top with the PS underneath.

 

[Caliche]

While waiting for my main Aluminium order to be completed for picked up, I've been using up old Alum from the Aelro build.

I stop by Home Depot and picked up Ryobi 12" drill press demo unit for real cheap. I'm goin to be drilling alot of holes for all the Rivets that will hold SR-X together

SR-X blueprint for the Main Compartment Frame, Mid-Bulkheads, and Radiator Compartment Frame.

Started by drawing out the Main Compartment Frame and than Cutting

The Middle Bulkheads are next. Once placed they were created for geometry symetry and deflection. SR-X wouldn't look right without these. The will also serve as space and a conduit for wires, hoses, and anything else. They are at the Bottom of photo.

The Radiator Compartment Frames. These frames will straddle each side of the Radiator.

One side of the Radiator Compartment and Mid-Bulkheads

Just waiting on my Angle Alum so I can start putting SR-X together.

 

[mannyman]

Im not sure where you are going with this, But all the luck to you and i will watch it till its done.

 

[Caliche]

I started off the day by trying to draw out the right and left frames until I ran into a measurement problem which had to wait until lunch, so I could run home and check it out against the Layout blueprint.

The blueprint below is for the Left and Right Frames. The scale is off and that is what I had to fix.

Finally got them drawn on the Alum. by 5pm.

I ventured out to get some rivets with my co-worker cause he had to get wheel pullers. I intend to use rivets to hold all the frame pieces together, though, that is being put into doubt.

The reason for the doubt is the Riveting tool needs so much clearance I just bought 8 feet of 1/2" angle and I knew I would run into this, :wallbash: So I will either use bolts or buy bigger flange angle.

I than turned my attention to the IO panel and rear Motherboard Bulkhead. I just had to re-design this bulkhead last night due to clearance issues. Thank God for Sketchup this time around.

Here is the angle piece being positioned for securing the Main Compartment Frames. I will not be Welding due to the possible warping, though, dont totally rule welding out. I"m 95% certain. Now I just have to decide whether to use bolts or rivets. I am trying to conform to a certain style.

 

[cnealjr]

Half the fun in modding is overcoming unforseen obstacles! Looking great.

 

[Caliche]

Rivets, oh Rivets. I had the problem of securing the rivets properly. Than Attila gave a useful solution. I thought about it and did some test and I was not happy with the way the rivets were clamping the metal together. Off to the trash with these.

I ventured to Lowes and found something called Binding Post. At .80cents a piece from Lowes, I ventured around town to no luck, until a guy remind me of McMasterCarr. The sure did have them and they are cheap. The plus side is they can be taken off, unlike rivets:thumb:

Started back on mounting the Main Compartment Frames together and these binding post worked great.

SR-X is starting to come together. I still have a ton of holes to drill for the Cooling tubes and Electrical, which even makes the binding post better.

 

[Caliche]

Hello. Weekend Update.

Jumped straight into the Mid-Bulkhead installation. Began by drawing and than cutting

I measured down the Frame from the blueprint where each bulkhead had to be positioned. I relied on the keel line of the frame for getting square. Than I proceeded to install the brackets. The brackets need to support the entire radiator assemblies and such. That is why there is three bolts.

Got the Bulkhead installed on the Main Compartment Frame now onto the Left Radiator Frame

A Thermochill 240 from the Triphane build. There will be a Black Ice 360 installed in the compartments. So I used this for mock-up.

Rear Radiator Compartment Bulkhead. Had to expand the compartment in width 6mm more to accom. the brackets and screw heads.

IO panel Bracket and Bulkhead

I installed these in a Up to Down direction to help support the overall expanding frame that will be on each side.

This is just the Left side, I have to duplicate the entire process on the Right side. Plus there is still alot more that will be attached on the left side here.

The watercooling tubes will come through these bulkheads into the Main Compartment.

Overall, the entire frame is really rigid and strong. Which is what I was shooting for, but sometimes you dont know how it will come out till you build it.:clap:

 

[Caliche]

Time to get to the Juicy. Been busy working fabricating the left wing core assembly.

Started off with the usual drawing and cutting.

I ran out of binding post yesterday so I got on McMasterCarr and ordered another 150. Great thing is that I got them today since I live so close. I opted out of the black anodized because the anodizing was coming off. :sigh:

Here is the assembly complete from several angles.

The next step will be attaching the left wing assembly to the radiator compartment. I got the bulkheads drawn just need to get to cuttin n such.

 

[Aus10]

Looks awome im not sure what to think im trying to figure out the end like whats it is going to look like when its done...

 

[Caliche]

Looks awome im not sure what to think im trying to figure out the end like whats it is going to look like when its done...

Thanks! Jus stay tuned. There is going to be carbon fibre involved, so probably in about month that will happen maybe sooner.

 

[Joe S]

Wow, great work so far. I also wish I had some idea what you are going for with this. Did you do any design renderings or sketch's that you can share, or is it supposed to be secret?

 

[Caliche]

The bulkheads were the last pieces that needed to be fabricated in order to attach the wing to the Main/Radiator Compartments.

Got them attached.

Finally attached the wing to the Radiator Compartment. When the Radiator is installed it should bring rigidity and support to the entire wing structure. When the skin is applied to the entire case, this will theoricatically reinforce the entire structure, though, I dont want to depend on the case cover.

I may make some other bulkhead brackets to reinforce the Radiator Compartment, if the radiator fails to bring proper support to the wing.

 

[Caliche]

Wow, great work so far. I also wish I had some idea what you are going for with this. Did you do any design renderings or sketch's that you can share, or is it supposed to be secret?

Its Classified! lol. Ya I do have google sketchup renderings.

 

[cnealjr]

I would assume it is aviation related, maybe a tribute to the SR-71 Blackbird? That's what I thought of with the title and the info in the first post.

 

[Joe S]

If that mobo and PSU weren't in those pics I would never even think you were building a PC case. It deffinitely looks like it has elements of a plane.

 

[Caliche]

I would assume it is aviation related, maybe a tribute to the SR-71 Blackbird? That's what I thought of with the title and the info in the first post.

Correct! While not exactly a tribute to the blackbird, it is aviation related.

If that mobo and PSU weren't in those pics I would never even think you were building a PC case. It deffinitely looks like it has elements of a plane.

Yes it does. That is what I am trying to achieve here.

I have seen alot of cases get built and made in a variety of simple and crazy designs. In my 8+ years of modding, I can never truly recall a computer that is built like this. I'm trying something new, hopefully, and I'm doin my best to make it come out as good as the render.

Thanks for the comments

 

[xSalvation]

I would assume it is aviation related, maybe a tribute to the SR-71 Blackbird? That's what I thought of with the title and the info in the first post.

Ha...When I first saw the general shape of the case I thought it was going to fly away when he turned it on.

 

[Joe S]

Ha...When I first saw the general shape of the case I thought it was going to fly away when he turned it on.

Haha, he should just make it a PC/RC Glider. The ultimate flying computer.

 

[Caliche]

Haha, he should just make it a PC/RC Glider. The ultimate flying computer.

haha, maybe! I could take it to my university and beam radar waves at it and see if it has a lower radar cross-section? Than I would wonder what to do next!

 

[Jesse B]

This is looking great! Very intrigued to see how it will look when things start coming together...

 

[Caliche]

Its been a moment since I have logged. Been busy with writing a paper on possible climate change. In the time I could spare, I worked on SR-X. I pretty much had the left wing done, so I started work on the right wing.

I already cut-out the pieces for the Radiator Compartment frames. I just need to fab up the bulkheads for the right side

I re-worked the process in the way I would build the right wing. I didnt want to cut and make each bracket by itself since that can be very time consuming. So I just took the angle and pre-measured each bracket and hole and than drilled the whole angle at once. Once the angle was drilled with the small holes than I could take the bulkheads and pencil in where the holes had to be on each bulkhead. From there it was re-drill to bigger hole to accomdate the binding post and cut each bracket off.

I made special marks to keep the brackets from getting out of order. Further long, I just went to numbering the brackets. I may stamp each bracket and frame piece in the future to ease down the possible confusion that can happen.

I turned to installing the front main bulkhead for the Main Compartment. I had to re-work the bracket design, so some of the old holes will not be used anymore.

Well, now comes the part that modders dread. When you made something and it is completely WRONG!:wallbash: That is what happened when I started to finally assemble the right wing and one bulkhead was not lining up. I had to go over my Sketchup blueprint and saw that the bulkheads were completely upside down from how they should have been. TO the Trash with those.

BAD

How is technically should be

After some re-cutting and drilling. I did manage to start to piece back together the right wing assembly with the left wing assembly needing to be completely re-done. :wallbash: Some times, things just happen.

Here is what is done so far, Now.

 

[Jesse B]

That's too bad about those mistakes. Nothing is more frustrating than doing a bunch of work only to realize you've goofed

 

[Caliche]

That's too bad about those mistakes. Nothing is more frustrating than doing a bunch of work only to realize you've goofed

ya epic fail there!

 

[formula409]

Pretty awesome undertaking....thats alot of work.

 

[sketch]

what....

very interested in seeing the results on this one.

 

[Caliche]

Pretty awesome undertaking....thats alot of work.

what....

very interested in seeing the results on this one.

Thanks for the support. Updates will be coming, I'm doing this climate paper and that takes precedence of SR-X, I know I know I am stopping by McMasterCarr tomorrow to get binding post hardware

 

[Caliche]

Weekend Update! Over this past weekend, which is Independence Day here in the USA, I had time to work on SR-X. I did little bits of work over the past week.

I was able to finally get done both wing assemblies and mount them. I ran out of binding post during the week and it jus so happened that I was going to be going by their facility. I stopped in and picked up 250 more binding post.

I drugged SR-X outside and took some pics of the corrected frame. Also gives reference to how big SR-X is.

It wont fit in back!

The inner frame brackets for the Main Compartment were up next on the fabrication block. I failed epically the first two times around in trying to get the angles and bends right.

Finally got it right on the third try

I left the aluminum panel in the pic to put pressure on the frame. I needed both of my hands to take the pic.

There will be two frame pieces. I ran out of material so I'm dead in the water till this week. These pieces will be modified even more to accomodate the cover.

I'm looking at landing gear right now from RC models:dremel: hhhmmm

 

[Danja]

Any chance of you putting a fuel tank & engine on that build, and flying it to LAN parties via R/C?

 

[Caliche]

I've been working long hours over this climate paper. So I had no time for SR-X last week and started to work again on SR-X this week. Update time.

I took off both sides of the Main Compartment to drill holes for mounting the internal frames.

drilling

Frames mounted into place. These frames will undergo further cutting and bending to get the angles for the main cover of SR-X. These frames are utilized for mounting the main cover

I needed to reinforce the Radiator Compartment. So I had a long hard thought about what to do! Maybe put in more bulkheads around the compartment and I than thought about a bar of some sort. So I dug around in the scrap bin and came out with this piece

I had to trim off about 8mm of material cause of clearance issues with the bottom of the radiator. What a ......!!!! After about 2 hours of cutting horizontally, that I had to file the rest of the piece down and I had to due the whole process twice.

the scrap pieces, I felt like Attila here:dremel:

Pretty sturdy for now. Figuring out what to do exactly next.

 

[cabanaboy38]

Can't wait to see it completed

 

[Spidey329]

Very nice. Kinda reminds me of the F117.

 

[drakken]

If the end were round instead of pointed it could a B-2 like the Spirit of America.

 

[GoodBoy]

Is it going to fly or is it going to float? Looks interesting can't wait to see it completed.

 

[Caliche]

Can't wait to see it completed

Stay Tuned

Very nice. Kinda reminds me of the F117.

Thanks

If the end were round instead of pointed it could a B-2 like the Spirit of America.

Ya, I had that debate with myself over pointed or squared off. That is how the B-2 is.

Is it going to fly or is it going to float? Looks interesting can't wait to see it completed.

maybe, lol!! If I get some small R/C jet engines

 

[Caliche]

Hello. Google is being a complete failure!!! I have SR-X rendered in Sketch-up 8 and have been drawing blueprints and such from the model. Now, one would think that with a model and Google, that cutting the material to specs shouldn't be hard!! Wrong!! When dealing will complex shapes, you have to position them to be completely flat in Sketch-Up before outputting them to Layout to get the Dimensions. The dimension tools in Sketch-Up suck, ugh!!

Well anywayz, time to log.

Got the measurements and angles down and this is where the problems start.

Top of the wing

While these pieces fit, they are not perfect, so I am not happy!! :duh:

I decided to move away from the wing and onto the front of the Main Compartment.

These pieces went alot easier and alignment up correctly.

These pieces confirmed that Google was boon-doggling me with my specs. I running into the same problems that I did on Aelro Dynamic and Aelro didnt even have blueprints. It has been somewhat of a frustrating weekend, I starting to figure out remedies to the problems at hand.

 

[Deleted member 82943]

never ceases to amaze me what you guys can do, keep it up!

 

[Caliche]

never ceases to amaze me what you guys can do, keep it up!

thanks

Update Time:

Hello. In trying to get to the molding process as quickly as possible I continued on the coverings for the main compartment.

after alot of re-measuring and google work, I came to a comprise

perfect! The angles were 2+ more degrees from what google stated they were.:wallbash: I got it figured out thanks to builds like Aelro, in which, free-hand impovising was necessary.

Started on the side coverings.

The frames still have to be modified for brackets for holding on the coverings. That may not happen till after molding, due to not wanting to put holes in the covering and than later having to go back and fill them in.

aligning up to the middle

Going to start working on the back covers of the main compartment next

 

[Caliche]

With a break this past week in trying to finish my climate paper, due to my Professor being absent, I went to work on SR-X. This weekend the upper left wing assembly will be complete with coverings along with the main compartment. Lets get to it.

Drawing to finish the rear cover of the Main Compartment. These covers will be later modified after the molding and infusion process to cut slots for the cables and wires.

This is the view from the back and directly to the right you can see where I started the coverings for the Mid-Radiator compartments. I didnt have my camera with me so I jus kept pushing forward.

The view lines are looking real nice. These covering had to be slightly pitched due to the upward trending angle on the Radiator compartment. The angled appearance gives the Mid-Rad. compartment a very nice feel and look.

The coverings for the Radiator compartment. Once this whole cover assembly is tac welded and later infusion, the cover will provide additional support for the wing assembly and any interior part or hardware that will reside in there.

Have to go back and do some trimming.

The precision on these lines with the cuts made me real happy. With Google boon-doggling me, I definitely thought that I would have to go back and re-do most of the compartment frames. It turnes out I dont have do. The rest on there frames exactly how there suppose to.

Up Next

This piece is for the rear exhaust side. I got this paint pen to help me mark lines on bare metal. I still preferr pencil, though, this paint pen is permante. I do recommend.

Both side of the exhaust upwards towards the front are done nearly.

The rear wing covering

The geometry has been pretty tricky so far. I have to finish quite of few pieces of the front part of the left side of the wing. I will show those later this weekend, when I get them done. Than I have to do the entire process a second time for the right side of the upper wing. I dont know just yet if I'll wait on that and go onto the bottom part of the wing. SR-X may not fit entirely on my work bench, ugh, hey what can I do, lol! Beyond all that, I have to figure out the support struts/landing gear for SR-X, so I can get it properly up and off the bench. Well I think that is enough said for now. Mod On!

 

[formula409]

crazy stuff

 

[Caliche]

Finally got the climate paper done, so I could turn my focus back to SR-X. I have to side-step for a minute. I made the August issue of Custom PC magazine for my Aelro Dynamic.

That is just an awesome feeling!!!

Back to SR-X. Last time I logged, I just got done with the left side of the wing assembly. During my little break, I did do work here and there, though, I waited till I had enough material to post an update.

The lines on the front face are looking real means.:rock:

With the geometry mistakes that I and Google made on the left side with measurement, I did a more thorough inspection of the angles and measurements. No ROOM for error. This part of the wing assembly turned particulary trickery so in conforming to be symmetrical I had to make sure my measurements were on point. Symmetry can be a real mind-bender and fabricating nightmare if not thought out properly ahead of time

The covers for the radiators

Seeing the rear exhaust outlets in the flesh excites me, cause it looks better than the render. Once you can start to rub your hand across the angles and lines, I dont know, it jus makes me want to keep pushing myself in my design.

The whole top cover is essentially done at this point. The next step will be to get it tac welded. I trying to formulate a plan of attack next. Whether to go to weld or start on the bottom. The bottom is even goin to be trickier than the top due to the power supply. The render looks like a mess on the bottom and I havent gone back and played with the render. I got some ideas in my head.

Than there is the great debate raging in me in how I am going to mold the front face. Do I combine the top and bottom portion of the front face to be one piece or do I incorporate the bottom front face into the top cover in the mold process?? That leaves the mold from sitting flat and that adds another dimension in the infusion phase.

Beyond all that I still have to get the bracketing made for the top and bottom covers. hhhmmm, that is going to be interesting!!! I still rackin my brain over how many countersuck bolts I should use to secure the cover, cuz this my make it into a wind tunnel. I guess I'm crazy!!!