Call me bored if you will, but that is the inspiration for my.. um.. creations. I do not spend hardly any cash because I want to see what I can do with a little patience, ingenuity, and spare parts. Call it recycling if you want.
This first image is a 3.5 floppy drive that has been re-purposed. The real thought behind this was the fact that I have several 2.5" SATA hard drives laying around. Instead of plugging them in, inside the case I rebuilt a floppy drive by ripping out the guts and using the leftover metal to create some rails for the drive to slide in. The power connection and SATA cable are Epoxied into place and will never move. This makes the drive Hot-Swappable and I can change out drives whenever I want, without having to have them all plugged in.
I have also coated the entire inside with Plastic (not plastic coated) playing cards that I cut to the correct size and glued into place. This prevents any metal on metal scraping and also leaves the Hard Drive labels intact, plus the "bay" is slightly tapered so the drives fit in much easier. The drives slide into place very smoothly and you can easily feel when it engages the connectors. The front is a blank 3.5" bay cover with the hole cut into it and bolted to the floppy case.
This next idea was born from seeing a direct touch heat sink (some of you have seen em I'm sure). Well I got the idea to bend up some copper tubing and create my own liquid cooling system. Keep in mind this project is in it's infancy and I have no idea what the exact results will be. The surface area that I have pounded flat (well not completely flat, water still has to flow through) is 1.25" square and I have the 1/4" tubing soldered together already. It might be a waste of time, but I don't think it will work all that bad. The image here is what I have made so far. The bottom is surprisingly flat but I am going to lap it anyway, it only makes sense to do so.
My next step to to install flare-nuts (I am choosing flare adapters because they are pretty much leak proof and easy to remove) on the ends of the copper tubes and create a manifold that will increase the tubing size up to 1/2" ID (inner diameter), perhaps 3/4", I am not certain yet. Four 1/4" tubes is close to the same capacity as 1/2" so it should suffice. The radiator is going to be a recycled heater core from an automobile, the one I am looking at is about 7"x7" and it will fit into the top of my case quite nicely (since I have a Full tower case). I have four 120mm fans from an old Apple PPC (found this on the side of the road) and at least 2 of them will be cooling off the radiator. Now I need to figure out what I will be using for a pump and reservoir. I also have to put a block of metal on top of the copper so the tubing wont flex, I have some stainless steel and will probably epoxy a metal slug onto it. I will also be adding a POT (potentiometer) to control the fan speeds in simple speed control circuit.
Just thought I would share my crap, have a good one folks. I will update this when I get more done with the second project.
This first image is a 3.5 floppy drive that has been re-purposed. The real thought behind this was the fact that I have several 2.5" SATA hard drives laying around. Instead of plugging them in, inside the case I rebuilt a floppy drive by ripping out the guts and using the leftover metal to create some rails for the drive to slide in. The power connection and SATA cable are Epoxied into place and will never move. This makes the drive Hot-Swappable and I can change out drives whenever I want, without having to have them all plugged in.
I have also coated the entire inside with Plastic (not plastic coated) playing cards that I cut to the correct size and glued into place. This prevents any metal on metal scraping and also leaves the Hard Drive labels intact, plus the "bay" is slightly tapered so the drives fit in much easier. The drives slide into place very smoothly and you can easily feel when it engages the connectors. The front is a blank 3.5" bay cover with the hole cut into it and bolted to the floppy case.
This next idea was born from seeing a direct touch heat sink (some of you have seen em I'm sure). Well I got the idea to bend up some copper tubing and create my own liquid cooling system. Keep in mind this project is in it's infancy and I have no idea what the exact results will be. The surface area that I have pounded flat (well not completely flat, water still has to flow through) is 1.25" square and I have the 1/4" tubing soldered together already. It might be a waste of time, but I don't think it will work all that bad. The image here is what I have made so far. The bottom is surprisingly flat but I am going to lap it anyway, it only makes sense to do so.
My next step to to install flare-nuts (I am choosing flare adapters because they are pretty much leak proof and easy to remove) on the ends of the copper tubes and create a manifold that will increase the tubing size up to 1/2" ID (inner diameter), perhaps 3/4", I am not certain yet. Four 1/4" tubes is close to the same capacity as 1/2" so it should suffice. The radiator is going to be a recycled heater core from an automobile, the one I am looking at is about 7"x7" and it will fit into the top of my case quite nicely (since I have a Full tower case). I have four 120mm fans from an old Apple PPC (found this on the side of the road) and at least 2 of them will be cooling off the radiator. Now I need to figure out what I will be using for a pump and reservoir. I also have to put a block of metal on top of the copper so the tubing wont flex, I have some stainless steel and will probably epoxy a metal slug onto it. I will also be adding a POT (potentiometer) to control the fan speeds in simple speed control circuit.
Just thought I would share my crap, have a good one folks. I will update this when I get more done with the second project.