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Rated: 100% (2 votes)
Loading ...Cosmos Skulltrail
coolmiester
Its that time again to get a commissioned project up and running for the Coolermaster stand at Multiplay i34 which doesn’t leave much time so expect this one to take shape pretty fast once all the background stuff is out the way.
There are three major sponsors which I’m eternally grateful for and have all supplied some killer hardware so i’ve first of all got to thank those involved for making the mod possible and vow to hopefully do them all justice.
Sponsors Include:
Coolermaster
Intel
Zotac
System Spec:
CM Cosmos S
CM 1100watt PSU
Intel Skulltrail Motherboard
2x Intel QX9775 Quad Core Extreme CPU’s (Socket 771)
2x Zotac 9800GX2’s
4GM RAM
Watercooling
By me ;))
So, let the games commence!
Guess this is a bit of a give away but hey, i like vents!
All stripped and ready for anodising
I didn’t get anywhere near as much as what i’d planed today but i did get both vents mounted ready to be stuck in place after the panels are flattened and sent for powder coat to give better finish for paint but no real hurry as the painter is on holiday next week.
He did drop some of the paint off today which as always is pretty much just like a new car so i’m happy with that.
I dunno, i seemed to spend more time looking at the damn thing today than getting into my usual attack mode but i seem to have more of a game plan so i guess all was not lost
Oh yeah i borrowed a Cosmos 1000 side panel off my mate Tom so i didn’t have to deal with the mesh panel in the Cosmos S which was a big help.
No laser cutters here………..all done by hand
OK, there’s a few imperfections which you wouldn’t get with laser but much more fulfilling to know you did it all yourself with a fret saw.
Anyway, as you can see the front of the Cosmos S mesh is being replaced with 5.25 aluminium plates which will be anodised black once all the cut-touts have been finished and have chrome hex bolts.
The top one will hold a 4″ TFT - two which are already been cut are for dual reservoirs - middle one will hold fan controllers and the bottom one for both Zotac and Intel logos
Few shots of the finished Zotac logo with frosted white and orange plexi attached to the back which will be lit up from behind once everything is anodised and installed.
………hope they like it
Rated: 70% (4 votes)
Loading ...Project: Cosmos SLR Mod - Finished
coolmiester
The Coolermaster mod competition will be announcing finalists in a few hours so there’s no real harm showing the finished case (i hope)
Anyway due to working against the clock I didn’t really get a chance to keep much of a log but here’s the end result.
Got all the water in and got the hard drive caddy’s painted which turned out giving a great contrast against the red so really pleased with the overall progress, oh and I did manage to sort the front input panel out after it was mentioned a couple of times so cut a new one from aluminium and polished it, also painted the mic/headphone inputs so thanks for pointing out the error of my ways.
Anyway thanks to everyone for the input and encouragement and who followed yet another journey plus a big thanks to those who voted for the Bit MOTM and basically just a BIG THANKS to everyone.
The full work log can be found at Project: Cosmos SLR Mod
Pictures speak a thousand words so i’ll shut up and let the pictures speak for themselves and be warned there are plenty of them:-)
Rated: 60% (2 votes)
Loading ...Rad & Fan Mounting
coolmiester
Nothing much of interest happening so just a quick update on mounting the chrome X-Flow Black Ice GT and chrome Aerocool fans.
Nice to be able to see the chrome fans through the vent on the back which i’ll probably light up red maybe but the chrome and black against the red gives a great contrast.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Powder Coat & Rad Mounting
coolmiester
First off got the back of the door painted in matt black and added some blow hole trim just to keep things looking tidy when the door is open
Then had to cut out the top of the Cosmos chassis and fabricate a grill/bracket type thing out of the waste aluminium from the window cut (waste not want not) to hold an X-Flow 250 radiator up top which was riveted into place then the whole chassis went off to powder coat in flame red similar to the SLR interior.
Chassis looks awesome so then it was onto chopping up the hard drive caddy so the 140mm fan could fit.
Just chopped out a bit of the centre section and added a couple of threaded rods with aluminium tubes slid over……..which were polished so everything still looks cool and the caddy cage is still 100% usable.
And that’s about it……….till next time
Not yet rated
Loading ...Exhausted
coolmiester
Some exhausts……
Last job of the day I angle cut some aluminium pipe into 4 sections (2 for each side) to replicate the SLR exhausts and then polished them.
The little cut out bits from the side panel will be getting some gloss black and clear coat which the pipes will be mounted to and the inside of the pipe will be getting painted matt black.
Back to the centre console.
Got the aluminium mesh painted and all fitted up with the Vantec fan controller and Danger Den Fill Port so that’s as good as finished now.
Then onto finishing the exhausts and painted the cut out sections from the side panels in gloss black then clear coat then masked the exhausts up and painted the inside matt black to give the effect of carbon on a real exhaust which turned out great so mounted them to the freshly painted cut outs and bobs you uncle.
Hadn’t noticed till I was re-sizing the pictures but you can really see the shine/reflection in the silver paint work and that’s before its machine polished so another satisfying day all round:-)
Rated: 100% (2 votes)
Loading ...Mirror Tinting Vents
coolmiester
Just got a bit of mirror tint on earlier today which makes the vent look a bit easier to make out
I would have preferred to put much more of a curve on the bars just like the real thing like this (thanks to Reckless187 for the photo) but the aluminium was way to hard to and i seem to be running out of time so ended up sort of rounding the corners which is a good second best.
Anyway, got them rounded off and polished up and they look pretty cool…….
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...More Side Vents / Windows
coolmiester
Got the paint back today which looks fabulous so I carried on with the side vent/windows in an upbeat mood but while I was waiting for the paint to turn up I had a little go at polishing one of the bars and I’m glad to say they aren’t going to take to much work to get them nice and shiny but still need to round the ends off but paint arrived and couldn’t wait any longer to get the vents in.
Had to tap both bars then cut the plexi to fit and fixed the slats into place with button head hex bolts and measuring twice cutting ones worked well this time as they couldn’t have fit any better.
Its still hard to get an idea what they look like by photo but I must admit I’m more than happy. Just got to make sure to get the other side just as good.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Side Vents / Windows
coolmiester
Time to start playing with the side vents/windows.
Basically just drew the vent onto cardboard freehand and cut it out and transferred it onto the side panel then cut both sides out with a jigsaw.
I ran a mouse sander over the panels to get rid of the brushed anodised finish as the panels will be painted at some point the same colour as the front door.
I cheated a bit and had the 4 aluminium bars that would end up being the backbone of each vent (2 each side) CNC’d at a local machine shop as it would have been a nightmare trying to get the angles correct especially as it 10mm thick alu and much harder to work on with small hand tools.
Anyway I could only get the CNC cut so much as they were done before actually cutting the vents in the side panel and I wasn’t sure how big the vents would end up being so there was always going to be a bit of work to do on the alu bars but ended up getting them to fit perfect.
Once they were all fitting nice, I drilled holes in both the panel and bars then tapped the bars to accept 6/32″ button head hex bolts and basically did test fit on the whole panel.
All looking pretty good though the bars still need the ends rounding off and polishing but thats for another day along with cutting the plexi for the actual vent bits
Hope you guys like photos
Not yet rated
Loading ...Centre Console
coolmiester
For this one you have to use your imagination and look at the SLR centre console to get where i’m coming from.
Basically the top section on the Cosmos has a blank plate that has a similar shape (even though mine is all black for some reason) - anyway there is a 240 radiator going underneath so could do with a bit of extra ventilation plus i needed a place to mount a fan controller and a fill port so i set about making an aluminium bezel that would tick all the boxes. Cut out the overall shape from 3mm aluminium and then cut 4 vent holes that will have mesh added and painted black later, followed by the 4 holes to mount the fan controller and to make it a bit more pleasing on the eye i cut out the bottom section and using some of the left over plexi from the front door, mounted a polished fill port which fills up the gap nicely
That done, the whole plate was polished and will be mounted up top at a later date and if you use you imagination it kind of resembles the SLR centre console
Oh yeah and I eventually found a machine shop that seems to be on the same page as myself when it comes to fabricating one off bits like the 4 CNC’d rails that I picked up today and will hopefully end up going towards making the 2 side vents for the case and time will tell what else we can come up with.
Not yet rated
Loading ...Finishing Front Door (part 2)
coolmiester
My apologies for keep on harping on about the front panel and boring everyone to tears but it has taken a long time and it does look pretty cool even though i say so myself but i promise to move onto something else next update. Anyway, i used filler primer hence the yellow colour but even after that the MDF was still showing some problem areas so resorted to using Isopon body filler and gave it a really thin layer of the stuff followed by more dry sanding upto 2000 grit which proved to work a treat as it started looking really smooth. This morning i got my hands on a couple of rattle cans of Mercedes silver and gave it four coats with 15 minute intervals which went on without any problems at all. It still needs clear coat then machine polished once its completely dry but i just had to mount the aluminium mesh which was previously painted black to the Merc badge and try another retro fit with the black plexi and SLR badge in place. See what you think……….i took a few pictures on the bonnet of an SLK which isn’t by any means an SLR but gives an over all idea!
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- Mirror Tinting Vents (100%)
- Cosmos Skulltrail (100%)
- More Side Vents / Windows (100%)
- Side Vents / Windows (100%)
- Starting Front Door (100%)
- Powder Coat & Rad Mounting (100%)
- Finishing Front Door (part 1) (100%)
- Project: Cosmos SLR Mod - Finished (70%)
- Rad & Fan Mounting (60%)
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