Got a New Case!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks, NoN. Expensive crimpers are nice if you do a lot of crimping. I've already done twice as much crimping as I had planned on when I started working on my first case and bought a cheap pair of crimpers like these (they were only $10 when I got them somewhere else that no longer carries them). They have built-in strippers but they were somewhat underwhelming and I got better results using a knife. If I ever loose what little sanity and remaining brain cells I have left and embark on another project like this, I will invest in a better pair of crimpers and strippers.

That's a good looking job. A spot of solder on a crimped pin will prevent slip out (it needs to be really tiny to avoid filling the pin or leaving a glob that will keep the pin from going into the connector body). I had to do that on one of the Corsair front panel connector pins that had the wire slip out on me. I didn't have another pin like that handy so I just stuffed the conductor into the part of the crimp that was supposed to hold the insulation, held a soldering gun to the pin, and melted a tiny bit of solder to the pin and wire.

 

[NoN]

Yeah, i haven't yet done much of crimping, that's why i didn't look at an expensive one. I have to see around for a cheaper one and looks the one you mention is OK. Unfortunately seems the tool is a little more priced here as for electronic devices, but i'll find one.

I could do little soldering but i think it wasn't worth to do it for so tiny Awg wires + i know what you're talking about letting a globe around the crimp which is not very nice at looking and hardened the wires could break the crimp more easily. I'm doing soldering when i've no choice or ran out spare parts.

It will be needed if i decide to undo the actual braided sleeves of my PSU (nearly finish with warranty, and + i'll be only modding the cables!).

Unlike you did (but far prefer your black ones) i will keep the colored one that came with mine and put some heatshrink around each wires, near terminal before new sleeves.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...I could do little soldering but i think it wasn't worth to do it for so tiny Awg wires + i know what you're talking about letting a globe around the crimp which is not very nice at looking and hardened the wires could break the crimp more easily. I'm doing soldering when i've no choice or ran out spare parts...

If done correctly, the solder won't show once you poke the pin into the connector body. The idea is to have the solder wick into the joint instead of surrounding it with a glob. The solder should show on the surface but you should still see the individual strands through the solder. Also, the solder will wick up into the wire under the insulation and that helps to reinforce that week point. You just don't want it to wick more than 1/8" past the start of the insulation.

...It will be needed if i decide to undo the actual braided sleeves of my PSU (nearly finish with warranty, and + i'll be only modding the cables!)...

Actually, it may not be needed. If you will keep the same length, you can just remove the pins from the connector body, cover them with a layer or two of making tape so they won't snag sleeving, the slip the sleeving over them and onto the cable. The sleeving I linked earlier in this thread is good at expanding and stretching. If the wires are colored, it wouldn't hurt to cover them with black electrical tape first so the color won't show through the sleeving.

If you need to cut wires to shorten then, it's actually easier (not to mention more sanitary) to crimp on new pins than to do a splice and solder job.

...Unlike you did (but far prefer your black ones) i will keep the colored one that came with mine and put some heatshrink around each wires, near terminal before new sleeves.

I take a black felt pen (fine and ultrafine Sharpies) to any colored wires that show or will show.

 

[NoN]

If done correctly, the solder won't show once you poke the pin into the connector body. The idea is to have the solder wick into the joint instead of surrounding it with a glob. The solder should show on the surface but you should still see the individual strands through the solder. Also, the solder will wick up into the wire under the insulation and that helps to reinforce that week point. You just don't want it to wick more than 1/8" past the start of the insulation.

I use a liquid soldering material since a while for little electronics as it permit to go deeper and in a thin layer on parts. But it still "globe" if i heat it up too much...a question of right temp!

As for the PSU re-sleeving, i'm not sure yet about the length to shorten but some modifications could be made for my needs. I also want to split the sleeves in two braided cables onto the same rail to make them more flat & less harder to bend (e.g: on Psu PCI-e cable, separate Yellow 12v from the Black ground), because if i do wrap them as they already are i'll have the feeling having done the same but with a different sleeved color!!!

I think i'll still be using heatshrink at terminal, but its true that the colored wires will be slightly visible under the sleeves and it will stiff the wires if i try to double the sleeving!

It is anyway cheaper to buy the connectors parts and the appropriate Awg wires than buying a set of new PSU cables, so if the result doesn't suits me i might do the all cut, crimp & sleeves to connectors to have a deep black color.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Liquid soldering material? I'm not familiar with that (or even heard of it, other than tinning compound). I use rosin core wire solder. I just hold the iron to the joint, touch the solder where the iron and the joint meet to help with heat transfer, then hold the solder to the side of the joint opposite the iron until the joint is hot enough to let the solder wick itself into the joint. How much solder that gets taken into the joint is determined by the size of the wire (smaller is better) and how long it is held to the joint. Once the correct amount of solder is applied Just enough to cover the strands but still leave them visible), I pull the solder wire and the iron away from the joint and let the joint cool undisturbed. The cooled solder should be bright and shiny.

I wasn't suggesting double sleeving (other than black tape to hide color; felt pens can be used for that with less bulk). A common way to resleeve a PSU is to strip off the old sleeving and replace it with new sleeving; that was the process I was describing. Doing a really good job on cables permanently attached to the PSU would require opening up the PSU, something I normally do not recommend because the capacitors inside can hold a lethal charge for quite some time.

Even when using a heat shrink by the connector (which is usually a good idea unless the cable has to make a sharp bend there), there will be a small bit of color showing, such as by the blue Molex connectors on the cable you pictured. If you had taken felt pens to those wires before putting on the shrink, there would be no color showing.

Using the original cables does have the advantage of less opportunity of making any mistakes. It's easy to make a wrong connection and it only takes one to fricassee something expensive. That's why I check my work multiple times to make sure I didn't screw up anything (and I have caught mistakes more than once).

 

[NoN]

Hey Lady,

Here a picture of that "lead free pewter" in liquid state that i'm using. Its quite handy because when you do have to solder a wire, just soak in it or use a toothpick to fill the crimp/pin then heat it up with your iron.

It does exactly the same effect as rosin core wire solder but you can have a hand free to hold well the cable to the crimp or pin.

About sleeving the PSU main rail i will surely remove it from the connectors side then re-sleeve the same way back so i' will not touching the capacitors inside and put only a black plastic clamp to tight it on the PSU boxed side.

For the other cables, yes, it'll be easier to just follow the schema with or without little modifications.

You can put a heatshrink deep inside the connectors on each wires on the main sleeving and another bigger heatshrink to rub the all thing and finish the job proper. Just don't heat them too much on the first heatshrink because it might stiff the wires to bend.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Hmmmm...I'll have to keep an eye out (ouch) for that stuff and check it out. I suspect it won't have the control of separate wire solder, though. It might be good for sweat soldering, though.

I rarely have a problem with holding the wire while soldering. I just position it so it will stay put and put the tip of the iron under it so it the wire rests on it; it usually stays put without any added help.

An alternative to using a small heat shrink sleeve to hid wire color at the end of sleeving and the larger heat shrink sleeve is to use individual sleeving like you show in the second picture and let it run directly into the connector, like this:


The trick is to use a temporary shrink on the end of the sleeve and use a flame to heat it enough on the end to actually melt the end of the sleeve to the pin, the cut away the shrink afterward. What will be left is a sleeve fused to the end of the pin which can then be inserted into the connector body. I don't use it because I don't like how bulky individually sleeved wire cables look.

 

[Britton30]

The brand name is hidden NoN.

 

[NoN]

The brand name is hidden NoN.

That's a generic sub-branded by "Camping Gaz" corporation...not much infos apart cautions of way using it.

@Lady, i wasn't intend to sleeve PSU Rail wires one by one, that's why i thought about small piece of heatshrink on each. But this solution can do the trick!!

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I finally got a combination of reasonably cool temperatures and reasonably well behaved allergies this morning so I got up early to paint the PSU shroud I've been working on. While I was at it, I also painted the gizmo I told you all about earlier. For some reason, rattle can paint and I don't get along very well. The self etching primer I used on the aluminum of the shroud and the zinc plate of the gizmo goes on fuzzy, even if I try to put a wet coat down. I was able to wet sand the shroud after putting down some regular primer and that took care of the fuzziness. I had to take some body glaze to the some minor pits and wet sand that before putting on the color coat. In the case of the gizmo, however, it would have been a nightmare to sand the regular primer after shooting it on so I just left it that way and hit with some color.

Here is a reminder of what the gizmo looked like:



This is what it looks like after painting and replacing the PCB and with a 2.5" HDD in it (I'll be putting the SSD in it when I do the swap).







Today, I picked up the extra gizmos I ordered in case I ever use more SSDs in the case (they came from a close out type vendor so they will become unavailable before long) and the extra 140mm filters since those are also apparently going to disappear and plastic will eventually break. I'm going to need a box the size of the case to store all the spare parts.

Later today, I'm going to put the front cover back on the case. I may need to take a rattail needle file to the bottom 5.25" bay mounting holes to slot them slightly so the drawer face will be flush with the front panel since I added that piece of aluminum to the front of the drawer. I want to wait a week or to for the paint on the PSU shroud to finish drying so I won't mess it up when I finish working on it. I want to put a custom sticker on the side. I have some magnetic tape I'm going to use to hold the shroud to the PSU but I don't want to stick anything to the paint until it is good and dry.

 

[Britton30]

I hate to sound passé, but that's a swell paint job Jeannie. Love the big pics too.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks, Gary. I'm paying for yesterday. My back was killing me this morning and my allergies are driving 'round the ben, up the way, and down the rabbit hole. Fortunately, things are starting to settle down a bit. Today is going to be as hot as...well, you know what I mean, so today might be a good day to kick back and watch some movies; I have all three Men in Black movies now.

 

[Britton30]

Good idea Jeannie. If you haven't seem all the MIB series yet, do watch them in order. Then there's 3 Matrix, 6 Star Wars, and 10 Star Trek movies to wade through.
Not to mention Spider Man and Batman.

 

[Indianatone]

OH yeah, I have most of those myself more than once (VHS, DVD and Blu Ray). Jeannie take it easy. I cannot do what you are doing except soldering connector, did that for a custom cable hack for my Dell Precession T3400 to feed an add on USB 3 board with 5V power. One end is a regular 4 pin molex and the other was a sata power connector. Nice machine for free. Has a quad core 2.66 and 4 Gb DDR2 for Windows 7 32 bit. I have a fax modem in it for the times I need to fax. Came from my Tammy's work minus hard drive, sound card and video card. Found the correct sound card on E Bay for less than $20 with the 10 pin proprietary connector and I seriously could not be bothered to research and build a cable. I also got a 160GB and a 2 TB data drive for the unit. I already had a Radeon 6670 and the USB3 card and the fax card was in it. Its my emergency back up machine if one of the other three breaks. I'll post some photos of that one and my other machine which had an Asrock motherboard in it that started suffering from missing SATA ports and after it refused to find the boot drive I bought an Asus to replace it. Gary know all about Asrock paperweight boards. I have soldered up the sata connectors on the MB as they were dry jointed and you could waggle the connector and see them move. Its out of warranty and in the junk pile but OK probably works. So like I said take it easy, I have been enjoying the adventure of Arizona's Lady case modder supreme.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks, Tony! I did take it easy today; too easy, in fact. I was going to watch a MIB marathon (I've seen them all but would like to see them again) but Good Neighbor Sam was on TV so I decided to watch it instead. Fell asleep midway. Watched a couple of Bones reruns after waking up. After I finish here, I'll probably watch an episode of Remington Steele (I have the entire series and I've been gradually working my way through them), read a little, then crash. Mayhap I'll watch the MIB's tomorrow.

I did put the front panel on the case and worked on the elongating the mounting holes slightly for the drawer and hot swap bay I added to the case so those are now pretty much flush. The aluminum insert I stole from a 5.25" bay cover and put onto the drawer front fits in very well. Fingerprints are going to be an issue so I need to locate a small, square, flat bottomed stick-on plastic or rubber foot to put on the front to use as a push point. I should have one knocking about here somewhere.

I can't think of anything else I need to do to this case other than finish up the PSU shroud and wait for the humidity levels to go up to reduce the chances of frying anything when I make the swap (it's really bone dry right now). The paint needs to dry for a week or two before I start sticking things to it (a custom label and magnetic tape to hold it to the PSU). One reason I decided to make the shroud was I was pretty P.O.ed (to put it mildly) at Corsair for sticking a large, ugly, tacky (pardon the pun) specifications sticker on top of the PSU and saying removing any sticker (not just the tiny one over a screw) on the PSU would void the seven year warranty. I could have easily made the shroud cover only the cables coming out of the end (and wouldn't have minded leaving the original on the case if I could have removed the ugly one on top) but, as I said, I was P.O.ed at Corsair so I decided to make the shroud cover the PSU and cables and make my own label to go on the shroud instead of using Corsair's (it would have been easy to duplicate). I liked the ship logo but didn't want to use the Corsair name (vindictive old bi...broad, aren't I?) so I decided to use the first name of the 16th century female Irish Chieftain and part time pirate (a corsair is a pirate, albeit from a different part of the world), Grania O'Malley aka Grace O'Malley (take that, Corsair, no free PSU advertising for you!). This is the design I settled on:



I'll print it on a 3 1/3" x 4" label, spray it with an art fixative (which I need to buy), trim it to size, then stick it to the side of the shroud.

If you guys want to see some really good modding that makes mine look sick (not hard to do), check out some of the ones in this forum. I got a lot of my inspiration and ideas from there.

 

[Britton30]

Good idea for the label, I took the liberty....

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks, Gary. The trimmed size of the label will be only 2.25" x 4" (the side of the shroud is only 3.5" high) so the sail over the name style won't work well and the shaded lettering would be too small show up well. One of the early versions I tried is pretty much identical to the last one you posted. Corsair uses both the side by side and over under style so I tried maybe one to two dozen variations until I hit upon a combination of position, size, and font that worked well for me. Not that suggestions aren't welcome, however. I haven't printed any actual labels yet, just samples printed on letter size paper and cut out so I could hold them up against the shroud to get an idea how it would look.

Here is the version like yours (this was one of the final two; I've deleted all the others):



And here is the sample of the version I settled on setting on the side of the shroud (I still want to try it with the shroud in the case before I settle on an exact location). Forgive the lousy photo but I had a huge problem with glare until I killed most of the lights.



If the label was any larger, it would be too much.

 

[Britton30]

No problem it's fun to fool around with logos, or any image for me. I figured if you liked any that I did the printer would scale it to fit the label size.

Yours looks good there. I think I would get some fridge magnet material and glue the label to that instead and it could be easily removed if need be.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks but it won't work. The shroud is made of aluminum. Nice idea, though. I actually have an almost paper thin 4.75" x 6.75" piece of the stuff I salvaged from an advertising fridge magnet for a company I won't do business with and removed the label from just to see if I could.

 

[Britton30]

What, magnets don't attract aluminum?

My bad, now I recall your saying you made it from Al. Have you posted pics of the shroud? I'd like to see that, I'm going to be doing a rebuild on mine soon...I hope.