The Mother Board

Ok,... I'm back. Feelin a bit better. Now,... back to the brackets. Last time I was having trouble with the res sliding in the brackets. Well,... I redesigned the brackets and got some new stuff.

Dec-06-2007

Some stuff from mcmaster.


I actually got some 1/8" o-rings because,....


The ones I was using before were so damn y,...


These 1/8" o-rings work but in my opinion they are a bit to much. SO,....


I got some 3/32" o-rings which are a lot better. Strong but not so bulky looking.


A lot nicer.


I also got these 3/32" x 3/4" rings too. I want to try something else,... 4 of these per res. I want to make a nice aluminum band with "U" bend on each side to hook in the o-rings. This way the system looks more balanced,... aluminum/ acrylic to o-ring. You know what i mean? I think the little rings will look better then one rings stretched up and over. We'll see.


I also got some bumpers. A modder from one of the forums I post said to use stick on bumpers from mcmaster. Out of "stick on bumpers" I see,... "bumpers". You guyz know me,... no tape no glue etc. So U looked up bumpers and found these nice push in bumpers. SOLD.


These will keep the reservoirs from sliding around. They are cheap too. like $5 for 100 of them.


I've got quite a collection now.


Here are my plans for the new brackets. Kind of the same which is good because I like this style of brackets. I did not want to give up on this. So let get to work,...


Need some acrylic blocks.


Cut down,...


Cutting the "V" groove.


Pretty good but its weird,... they are all a bit different or off from each other?!?! Maybe because I forgot to tighten the damn drill press table before I start cutting them!!! DOH!


Cutting the middle of the "V" groove out with a 1/8" end mill. I didnt want to use an 1/8" because its kind of big or bigger then what I wanted to use. But I had to because of the slightly off groove centers. DOH! You know what,...


I'm startin over,...


This time the table is locked and tight. I'm using one block to align the saw blade.


If I dont cut my fingers off using that blade like that,... it will just flat out take my head off. You see the dent in my friggin wall! That from the piece of acrylic that was cut off and got flung by the 3000rpm blade.


Here's the jig I'm using to cut the "V" grooves. I glued it the the vise jaw. The jig and jaw is taped up though. Anyways,... all I have to do is load the jig and cut.


MUCH BETTER!


The left overs,...


Wow. So much better.


Carving out the middle of the grooves again. This time I am using the 1/16" end mill I wanted to use the first time.


Very pro,...


Very small.


So cool!


Two new jigs,... they are the same actually. A single and a sixer.


It's for cutting another angle,..


NICE! God I love this.


So cool.


Yet another jig,...


I'm drilling with the end mill. Making room for the captive nuts that will be on the aluminum portion of the brackets. This jig is glued to the vise too. You see,... I measure to drill one hole. I drill one side and then flip it around to drill the other side. It's faster and more accurate then constantly aigning the press for each cut.


Captive butt holes,...


Using the same jig I used to drill the captive nut holes... I drill the holes for the retaining acrylic rods. Drill one side and then flip it over to do the other.


Now,... using the "V" groove jig,... I drilled for the bumpers. I am sinking the bumpers too so they dont come out all that easy. Plus to give them a slightly lower profile too.


Wicked,...


Who is the friggin man! These things look so damn cool. They are just so perfectly together. Amazing.


The 2" res,...


The 2.5" res,...


Niiiiiiice,...


Ok,... I am going to back tonight. I have to fixed two xPO's though,... I continue here when done with them. I'll probably glue the xPO's togther and then put them off to the side for the night for some EXTRA curing time,... so I can back back to these bad boys;)

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A.C. Ryan | Thrust & HEXX

Small update,... got to the studio late. I was tired. I started the aluminum work.

Dec-07-2007

Piece of 5052 aluminum.


Here's the design I'm shooting for. There are no "V" grooves in the design because I'm goign to cut the "V" groove the same way I did it the last time.


I'm going to offset the braclets like this to save on aluminum plus I think it would look cool like this:)


I cut my big piece up and I started cutting my bending grooves.


Some burr but very nice.


The same way I was drilling the holes,... positioning the press to drill a single hole on one side and then just flipping your work to drill the same hole on the other side of the your work. I set the press up to cut this first groove 7/16" down from the edge. To cut the other side I just flip it.


I did that flipping thing for all these grooves. They are all dead on:) But check it out,... the grooves, there's to many! LOL. I want to stagger the brackets keep them as close as possible like in the second pic I posted but I guess I was tired and had them side to side. I dont know. Whatever.


Very cool. Need to sand away that burr.


Better.


Look how on that is,... totally happy with this.


All drawn out and center punched. Needs to be drill now. I'm contemplating whether I should drill the holes for the retaining acrylic rods now or do it after I have it bent with one straight drill right through both. If I do it now,... and then bend, the holes will be off from each other a bit. but atleast the holes will be where they are suppose to be. I might have to do some adjusting. Might be tideous. Or I can bend the entire thing and then set it up in the press and drill straight through both of them. the holes will be aligned with each other but,... I dont know. I might drill after I bend.


Start fixng these xPO's too,... they had the bad seal too but they were pretty good compared to others. I had to heat these to get them open where the other I could just tear open. Going to remake them anyways. Shouldn't take long.

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A.C. Ryan | Thrust & HEXX

How many Pending Patents do you have ?

I have lost track on how many items you have made

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THRASHER2's benchmark scores
Project T2's Spinner Case

Update.

Dec-10-2007

Some have asked,... how do I drill such lovely holes in acrylic. Well,... here's quick explaination. You are looking at various bits I use to drill my holes.


These are boring bits. They work great! They are perfect for acrylic becaused they scrape to cut. These work better for acrylic then they work on wood. I use these for one pass drilling through thick and even thin acrylic. I usually run these at about 1200rpm when drilling. Sometimes I use water to lubricate and cool when drilling with these. Notice how the one boring bit is way shorter then the other. This is because I shortened it for strength. You dont want your bit sticking to far out from the chuck because the bit has potencial to sway when drilling.


Uni-bits. These work great too because the the cutting angle is so that it doesn't really gouge. Only down fall is that you can only drill through materials no greater then 1/8". I drill at about 1200rpm with these. I dont really use water to much when drilling with these.


Here you see 2 regular drill bits. One of them is altered and one is not. I'll get more into this in a minute,...


This is a countersink. I use this alot. I use to to scrape away the outer rim of any holes I drill(not all) because the very edge of a hole or even a piece of acrylic is the weakest area, chipping basically. If you cut that very edge away you strengthen that area making it less vunerable for chipping. Plus say you should chip a hole a bit while drilling. You can countersink the holes cleaning up the chipped area. Also,... if you tap and holes there WILL be some burr on the outer rim of the hole. You can clean it away with a counter sink. Countersinking looks great too, industrial looking, not just a hole.


Now,... back to the drill bits. You see the bit on the left, thats the altered bit. You see the cutting angle I gave the bit? how it slants upwards more than the bit on the right? This is so that it srapes to cut instead of diving right the hell in the acrylic tearing it to pieces. It's a very easy thing to do too.


The picture explains all. You see the angle in which im holding the bit? You want something like 70 - 80 degrees as a cutting angle.


You dont want this though,... grind the bit so that it has an angle greater then 90 degrees. If you do that it wont cut. It will melt your acrylic.


You can drill straight through with one pass using an altered bit. You can drill continuous too as long as its cuttign well, meaning your not melting your work. I would reccommend drilling a bit and then pulling out to remove the scrappings. The scrapings seriously heat up the acrylic because it rubs around and around inside the hole. You can use water too. If you alter your bits correctly though,... you wont need water. You'll here a nice scouring noise and you should see heated ribbons forming while drilling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clPgSNSFgl4

Fixing some xPO's. The seals when done right are so damn nice. These are bullet proof.


Look at those seals! God I love it.


These are just about done. I am getting another one in the mail soon. I already made parts for it. Just need to put it together, sand, and polish. I'm going to let these sit and cure so in the mean time,...


Brackets. Cut apart the rows.


Individually cut.


Cut their shape out. These were easy to cut out. No fancy manuevers or anything. straight cuts.


Jig.


Jig in use.


Almost done.


Very nice.

_________________
A.C. Ryan | Thrust & HEXX

Hey everyone! Here's an update. I didn't get to spend as much time in teh studio as I wanted because S@#$ happens. Mother dragged me to court because my father(hardly a father at all) is trying to screw my mother over. I haven't seen this man(hardly a man) is over 13 years. I was sitting in a chair and he comes in with his lawyer, granted I had my face covered in ,... he's like, "Uhh,... are, are you charles?". I'm like "I dont even want to talk to you". He's like, "Ok,... I understand". He don't understand,... he doesn't even care. He only cares about himself. Assh@#$! Anyways,.. that ruined all of friday. We were there at the court all friggin day! Oh my gawd! By time I got home I'm like screw this, im going to sleep! I got up at like 6am and then headed out to the studio. Anyways,... here's what I did.

Dec-15-2007

First,... here's the one and only women in my life right now. Mom. I love her to death. I would kill for her without thought, without hesitation,... in a heartbeat. This is my mother. She is single. So if any of you SINGLE modders out there are interested please email me;) LOL.


Being ins court all day I was bored. My creative sense kicked in and,... Negative shadow art?!?! Posing?!? LOL. It's crazy cool though!!! This pic,... I am TribalOVERKILL.


Invisible wall.


Bustin a move,...


I'm DA BOSS!


Detained. Yes,... there are people watching me. Laywers, cops and all. TribalOVERKILL doesn't give a S@#$. Did I just talk about myself in a third person?!?! Oh god. LOL.


Flipping the bird.


I am sexy,...


Bracing.


Trapped.


Working the pole baby! The bars or lines you see are the beams of the windows.


Time to work,... bending the brackets.


By hand. It's easy. I mean its hard but with some effort it's easy.


Bending the other side is a bit harder to do.


I used this arcylic block and a tack hammer to finalize the brackets shape.


Done.


Very nice. Almost there,..


You guyz have to forgive me about the audio in my videos. Sometimes the mic works and sometimes it doesn't:( A video of me bending the sides of the brackets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln8FiIVJrDc

Bent the sides up.


Now I have to bend the sides back down to make that hook to hold the o-rings.


Going to use these tools I made a while back to do it.


Oh and this flat head.


You stick it in there like that and hammer the back of the flat head to bend it up.


Bending the o-ring tabs back,...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTq1uaC5tGs

More negative imaging,... I'm hooked.


That hose is normally blue!


Oh damn,... look at the acrylic pieces and the drawings! WOW!


Nice,...


Freaky,... I love filming with my hand out in front of me like that. Kinda like a first person shooter:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDEI6ikYAjk

All that negative stuff I just posted was a bathroom break. LOL, joking. Anyways... bent the tabs over but still have to bend them back down. a bit.


Like so. Not perfect.


Lost 3 of them.


I cleaned them up a bit.


Starting to look nice.


I have to cut the "V" groove now.


Like so,...

_________________
A.C. Ryan | Thrust & HEXX

Next update,...

Dec-16-2007

All "V" grooves cut.


Looking good!


Drilling the mounting holes for the acrylic piece.


Drilled.


Decided to use captive nuts and 6/32 bolts instead of the acrylic rod. Why? Because the holes in the aluminum were kind of mangled a bit and jut having the acrylic rod there,... it wouldnt look all that nice. I'm going to try and get the company to use the the acrylic rod method though. They ahev better capabilites over there so it will come out nicer.


Tihs looks ok to me though,... very butch looking.


Very nice.


So these are just about done. I have to do a bit more sanding and it will be time to make the portion of the bracket that mounts the shields. Shouldnt be to big of a deal. After that is will be time for shields! God I cant wait,..

_________________
A.C. Ryan | Thrust & HEXX

GENIUS!!!

Dec-18-2007

These are done.


This is the top piece I need to make. It will allow for shields to be mounted to the reservoirs. While I was messin around with this something just like hit me,... an image. I share this with you in a minute.


The top piece is narrow but this is only for the mockup. I need it to be super easy to bend. The two raised ares to see will have captive nuts installed under so the shields can be mounted on top of it.


The top piece need to contour the inside of the shield. I need to make a special pipe thing to form these.


Shields will cover most if not all of the o-rings. These are the Limited Edition xPO shields.


NOW! Look at this! It just hit me! When normally I'm like sweet! I said,... F@#$! LOL. Why? Because I waisted all that time messing around with the acrylic and evrything,... look how simple this thing is! It's works great too! It makes so much sense to me. These two piece right here as narrow as they are will mount a reservoir just fine! I plan to make these and most likely these will be the brackets I send to the company. They are simple and easy to make. They look great. It just makes that much sense to me. I was kickin myself when these came to mind. All that time waisted.


Both of them together,... they look great! I can see them as polished and even better,... anodized black.


i want to turn this hook around so you can't see it looking from the side. Would look hot. The same as the bottom piece.


Made some strips of 3/8" wide aluminum. This is going to be the width of the pieces.


so straight its cool.


I cut them in half so they are about 6-7/8" long each. I have to figure out exactly how long they need to be.


New top piece with hooks turned around.


See it loks better from outside.


So cool.


I'm going to make a plain top piece to for those who dont want to use shields. Now,... Qhs, DB,... it up to you. You want to use the acrylic/ aluminum bottom or do you want the new all aluminum ones? The new aluminum ones wont take long at all to make. I dont care which ones you decide on. Anyways,...

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A.C. Ryan | Thrust & HEXX

OMG LOL! I can't take it! Just got my pc running again. I have three upDec-23-2007s, here's the first.

Dec-23-2007

Ok,... so I though I would try and make a nice peg board to try and from my brackets,...


To say the least,... it didn't work very well.


So I did it the old fashion way. Problem being that it's to hard to do this way. Takes to long and it ruins the finish. There no way for me to sand this and polish it in it's entirety.


Here's the bottom piece. It too was pretty hard to make. There's no way for me to make this bottom piece many times using the method I used.


Looks good though:)

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A.C. Ryan | Thrust & HEXX

HOLY MOTHER OF MASS PRODUCTION!!!

I should visit you sometime soon in the future for factory seconds and rejects... go dumpster diving

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Ok,... so there is a way!

Dec-24-2007

There's is a way to pull off the brackets I want to make. But first,... I'm not sure if I am sure about the design of these things. Here are some polished strips that I will use to make the bottom brackets.


For me to make these without ruining the finish,... I need to groove them. I dont want the production ones to be grooved like this. Reason #1: the grooving weakens the brackets. Reason #2: you can see ALL the ugly groove things from the side. So ACRyan will have to make them without grooving. Wont be a problem for them though.


Grooves cut. This is one side,...


And here's the other side.


Just like the grooving,... i'm measuring once and drilling many.


All the same. Thats looks so cool. Now,... back to the not being sure about the design,...


This is what I was thinking. It's looks sooooooo clean! so simple and so clean. The one and only thing I dont like about it is that,... the method of fastening the reservoir isn't obvious like the other one is with the hooks. But,... thats what makes this bracket look good! It's just slim and small and clean. Not as mechanical or industrial looking as the last.


The process in which I bent them. The trick is to find what should be bent first.


This is what I used to bend all these. A piece of wood. LOL.


Done. Easy.


Damn thats just so neat and clean looking. They are like tucked away under the res,...


This is how you fasten. You use the shape of the bracket. simple right? But now,... the top bracket has to have the hooks facing out so that it can be assembled with ease.


Check this out. Goign to turn my rivit tool into a threadsert tool. This is a 6-32 bolt in which I altered.


These serts need to be pulled atleast right now they do seeing the bracket was bent before they were stalled. Now,... initally I was going to create another piece to go along with this piece so this piece would have hooks too. But it was ugly and pointless. I was going to use the threadserts to hold the pieces together. Well,.. I already drilled the 7/32" holes for the serts so I couldnt use the captive nuts. I want the company to use the captive nuts though. They look better.


Anyways,... you screw the altered bolt into the serts and then stick the other end into the rivit tool. Just squeeze! It worked so good!


They look great. This is a final product right here.

_________________
A.C. Ryan | Thrust & HEXX