TIP-3000
Final Assembly
Well… it’s done. I don’t think there’s much else I can say. Hopefully these pics will speak for themselves. You can leave feedback in the worklog if you like. I’d appreciate knowing what you think of the case, the design, the worklog, etc.
Just on a side note, currently, the two needle dials are still not hooked up to anything. I have everything prepared to install the final piece, but I can’t find a shop that sells the correct parts. When I’ve found it, I’ll install them and maybe post a movie of the whole thing working. As far as future updates are concerned, they’re possible, but who knows? I quite like it the way it is now.
I’d like to thank some folks at the end here:
Kimberley, for having the patience to give me the space I needed to do this. My Dad, for lending me most of his tools, and for his constant support. Euan and Cheryl, for keeping me company during the boring parts (like filing) and for their help. I’d like to thank Jon, although he isn’t around anymore, his support at the start of this project kept me going. Chris from Maplin, thanks for your help with the electronics. Finally, Howarth Switchgear, for helping me to find the right materials, and offering me good prices.
Finally, thanks to everyone who left me feedback, gave me ideas, and supported me during the creation of this mod.
Questions
seems like that liquid metal is crap to work with.
Hell yes. I really, really, need to get some Bondo. I’m guessing I’m a Bondo master as I actually managed to get some results out of this crapolla. To be fair, it’s not designed for this use case, but it’s murder to work with. Avoid at all costs.
wow, you finished something?
Yeah, I feel the same way!
Can you hide the blue wires behind the dials?
Well, that’s one of the ideas that didn’t work out so well. I wanted to continue the diorama onto the front panel, and have the wires on the front look interesting. For this purpose, I intentionally used a wide variety of randomly coloured wires. The effect looks ok when you’re sitting next to it, but looks weird in the pics (even amateurish). the problem is that there isn’t enough wires, to be honest-but if I ever stick my LED plate in there, then it would probably looks suitably interesting that this would no longer be an issue.
wow very nice. Gotta like the industrial mesh. I would like to make a techies suggestion to add an air filter behind the mesh to keep that nasty nasty dust off the very expensive electronics.
But dang Very nice patient work… Especially for a first mod.
The air filter was something I considered, but I think it would really ruin the look of the whole thing. But I know what you mean about ruining the electronics… after all, there’s 11 fans in this beast (which, by the way, can run so close to silent… those Akasa Amber fans are great, and the Zalmans are nice too) and they move a lot of air. Thanks for the compliments too man.
one tiny little sidenote… maybe you should try to get the needle-gauge-thingies in orange also… they look just a little bit off to me
I had thought about this, but decided to stick with the green-i like the contrast, and they go with CPU cooler, which has a green LED fan in it. I think they kind of jump out and say, “I’m a different part of this computer. I’m the control Panel. Look at my different colours.” If anything, I’d change the backgrounds so they didn’t say “Signal”, and maybe something more interesting, but I’d probably still keep the green.
the details are great, the light the control panel(maybe a less powerful LED would work better), the right window…
The LED’s aren’t as powerful as the photos make them look. That was a longer exposure time with a tripod.