1.1.1 Preparing the Parts

In this section, you will prepare the materials required for the casing.

Cutting the Acrylic Parts

1. Download the latest CAD diagrams from the github page.

   Open these with your favorite SVG editor. (eg: Inkscape )

   130608_tempescope_CAD_part1_of_2_r2.svg

   130608_tempescope_CAD_part2_of_2_r2.svg

   *actually at the moment, the door of the control panel is missing. You could be inventive and just cut one yourself that fits, or wait for someone to add it to the diagram...

2. On your acrylic board, mark the boarders of each part with a pencil

   The photo below shows how I went about doing this (note that the diagram above may have changed since this photo was taken).

   

   It helps to mark each part with the part number (CB-T, C, etc) so that it doesn't get lost while you're cutting.

3. Cut.

   

4. Drill Holes

   Everywhere there are holes marked (eg: "SC-R" for the fan outlet, and "CB-S" for the control box wire outlet), open appropriate sized holes.

   There are different ways you could do this, I did it by first drilling tiny holes (upper right image), plying the piece off (lower left image), and then filing the inside of the hole. As you can see in the bottom picture, the hole should snuggly accommodate a 25mm x 25mm 5V fan.

   

5. File & Clean

   Using files and sandpaper, ensure all of your acrylic parts have straight edges. You are bound to make some scratches on the acrylic while you are doing this, so use acrylic cleaners to clean out scrathces too.

   

You are now done with cutting the acrylic parts!

Preparing the pipeline

(You may want to do this subsection after you finish 1.1.2 Sticking the Parts Together, as you may need to adjust the pipes to fit your product.)

In this subsection, you will prepare the pipes required for pumping water up from the Reservoir to the Rain Bucket.

1. Fill acrylic pipe with salt

   You should know what this means if you've done your reading and read a web tutorial on how to bend acrylic pipes.

2. Bend pipe

Heat the pipe with a lighter and slowly bend the pipe about 3cm from one end, and 1cm from the other (assuming you have a 30cm pipe). Adjust this length according to how large your box is.

3. Attach PCV pipes on both ends

The PCV pipe on the 1cm bend goes in the Reservoir and connects the water pump to the pipe. The other end hangs in the Rain Bucket.

At a later stage when you've started making the electronics, you should try fitting the wires of the RGB-LED through the pipe, and see that it fits in the box.

All of your parts are now ready for sticking together!