Getting back to bare essentials
A base metal and a stripper walk into a bar…
It could be the start of a corny joke.. but it’s really the start of something beautiful. After a whole bunch of false starts, finally success! The anodizing is gone and the bare aluminium on the Alphacool NexXxos GPX block is revealed. Will be so much more in keeping with the overall theme of my build.
I’ve also solved one long-standing problem with the build. I’ve always wanted to paint the support frame on the Alphacool Susurro fans, as the blue doesn’t fit with the theme of the build. Was scratching my head wondering how to take the fans apart, as they don’t have an accessible c-clip as most fans do. Got to the point where I was going to irreversibly disassemble one so I could see how they’re made, when I decided to have one more go at pushing the fan hub off. Previously I’d balked as it seemed like something was going to snap, but if I was ready to write one off anyhow…
Once one came off, all 10 were disassembled in no time at all. Turns out there’s a slightly oversized flexible washer on the end of the spindle, so it holds the fan on with a combination of friction and pressure. Time for paint!
Now that’s out of the way and not taking over my workspace, I can get back to figuring out the radiator placement on the top of the case and the acrylic pieces that I’m making for the inside.
Just one more thing for this week, I was lucky to win a prototype tube bending kit from Alphacool (1 of only 7 currently). The Eiskoffer kit is fantastic on first impressions, and I’m really looking forward to learning how to use it as I get closer to the tubing stages of this build.
Thanks again to MNPCtech, Modmymods and Alphacool, who have been awesome throughout this process.
