WMD Part II by G-gnome

Finishing Off The Front Cylinders

At the end of WMD Part I, the front cylinders had been constructed, and had the steel bands and clips attached, but nothing else (even the ends were only just sitting in there). They still needed a lot of work to make the reality equal the design; it was time to finish them off!



The completed cylinders have the ends screwed down, hose and fittings in the ends, headphone and microphone jacks and a swag of custom LED indicators.



Once again, the first step is always the 'measuring twice' and marking the positions of holes. I also marked the ends for drilling.



I made some more 3mm LED holders by drilling out the centres of M7 screws to 3.2mm. These were longer than the ones in the timer window. Great care, slow speeds, cutting compound and a sharp drill bit were essential to go through what was, essentially, an inch of stainless steel!



I drilled the cylinders (and tapped to M7), and counter-sunk some Armor Rings (as seen on the ends of the case in WMD Part I). The screws-cum-LED holders simply passed through the rings and screwed in to the cylinders. Besides the end caps that were to take the hose fittings, I drilled 8mm holes in the ends that were going to butt against the keypad to allow wires to pass between the keypad and the cylinders (for power, HDD LEDs and others).



I tested some hose fittings to check the holes. The final fittings used were straight, not the 90-degree ones shown. I also used some plexi circles, left-over from the top cover....



...to add a red surround to the hose fittings. I epoxy glued them to the plastic surrounds, and screwed the surrounds to the end caps, with the threaded end of the fittings passing through the hole in each cap.



The fittings themselves, were cut from some Innovatek panel compression fittings. Stainless steel springs were added and squeezed through the fittings before tightening. I also used black power cord, run through the inside of the hoses, to darken them to match the red plexi in the case.