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 one might do 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!

Gluing the Acrylic Parts

The diagram below shows how each of the parts you cut out in the previous subsection comes together.

Try to keep this diagram in mind as you go through with this subsection.

1. Construct the box

Glue,

• B: the base
• FC: front cover
• BC: back cover
• SC-L: side cover left
• SC-R: side cover right
• CB-T: control box top
• CB-S: control box side

together.

You should have something that looks like this (but without the top cover):

At this stage (perhaps before actually gluing everything together), if you have access to your electronics, you might like to try placing the mist diffuser and water pump to check that it fits.

2. Construct the Rain Bucket

Glue,

• TC
• TCG1,TCG2,TCG3,TCG4

together.

You will get something that looks like this (the walls of the Rain Bucket should actually be a little higher than in this picture):

3. Drill holes in the Rain Bucket

Drill holes in the base of the Rain Bucket to allow water to drip through. This actually takes a lot of experimentation, to get holes that give good drips (and not a constant stream of water). Try different hole sizes. You can always seal the holes with silicon sealings if things don't work out.

4. Glue knobs

The Rain Bucket and the water guard (that nests above the Reservoir) needs to be detachable, so that the insides of the Tempescope can accessed at anytime. The "K"'s on the diagram (little pieces of acrylic) should be glued on to the box, so that they can serve as supports to keep the Rain Bucket and water guard in place. Glue the knobs in place (about 3cm from the top for the Rain Bucket, and in line with CB-T for the water guard). You should be able to place the Rain Guard and water guards like in the photos below.

5. Seal

Using a silicon sealing (the ones you use for your bathtub are fine, but you can get special ones for acrylic. Ask people who make home aquariums.) to seal all sides of the box, especially the control box.

Don't worry if you mess up (like me) and get a horrible smudge on the side. You can clean it up anytime later, or just paint over it.

6. Test Watertightness

This is the most important part of the construction of this machine, to ensure that your house doesn't burn down.

Do everything you can think of to check that your box is watertight.

• Close up the holes (for the fan and the cables) temporarily, and dunk the base of the box in water. Check no water seeps through overnight.

• Do the opposite. Fill up the entire box with water, and check no water seeps out overnight.

• Fill up the Control Box with water and check it doesn't leak.

• Put water and shake.

• Spray with running water. Check the seals don't come off.

7. Decorate

At this stage, your box should look like this:

Now may be a good time to decorate your box.

You may try giving it a smoky look by sanding the top and bottom with course sandpaper:

Or spray paint it white:

Whatever suits your senses.