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With the completion of my Half-Life mod, I find my mind a flurry with all sorts of ideas. I will soon be purchasing a new rig to house my Pentium D 805, and already have a wicked idea for that case (hopefully it will surpass my Half-Life mod), but until them I'm left with other thoughts. My girlfriend lives in an appartment complex that allows people to discard their unwanted junk on the table in the complex's lounge. She came over to my house one night with a case that she had found on this table, and I was struck with inspiration. For a long time I have wanted to do an over-the-top case, and now that I have a spare case, I feel I can finnaly make a really cheesy case without feeling bad about ruining my own investment.
On to the mod....
As far as cheesy stuff goes, the first thing that comes to my mind is flames, so I've decided to put flames on every inch of this thing. As you may have read from my previous work log, I was without a digital camera for quite some time. My housemate finnaly recieved the cord to his in the mail, so for the time being that's what I'm using. Before I show my progress, let's first examine the victim.
As you can see it's just your standard, everyday, normal stupid case....with one difference...
*WARNING* - this next segment may horrify you...
This case has one of the most restrictive fan grills I've ever seen. In fact, it's so restrictive that if anyone can show me a picture of a more restrictive grill I'll give some rep. This thing is amazing, i've never seen anything so funny.
Looks pretty bad eh? I don't know if you can tell or not from the picture, but see if you can make out what's below the grill itself.... keep looking....give up??
This is the reverse side.....WTF. Who would make such a godawful contraption? I guess this is just an indicator of how old this case is. Anyway, I think i'll have to touch the exhaust system up a little bit
So far I have done the left panel. I just cut out some simply flames and a 120mm intake hole. I wanted the flames to start out really large (like at the top), and slowly decend in size, but the side panel of this case had a really ugly layout of ventilation holes, so I had to improvise.
And that's all I've really done so far. I have a somewhat unique idea (at least I havn't seen it) for the top so stay tuned! If you're wondering about the color scheme, so far I'm thinking green with black tips on the flames.
Flames are cheesy. This case is going to be my chance to make a really over the top case instead of a clean functional one. I couldn't really think of a better name
Here's what I had time to do today:
I left my 3 inch hole saw attachment at home so I had to use my dremel. Oh well, it's good practice.
I'm going to the hardware store tommorrow to get some PVC and bondo
And here's the cuts planned for tommorrow (hopefully i'll be able to do more than this, but who knows how late i'll get up)
Can't you just taste the cheesy goodness?
edit - In case you were wondering, the left panel is metal, the top/right/bezel is all plastic which makes the cuts nice and easy.
Ok well I've accomplished alot in the past few days, but the digital camera has eaten through all my extra batteries and I don't feel like sacraficing another wavebird to take a couple pictures.
I went and got some PVC and bondo, but the shortest size Ace carries is 10ft. Anything below 10ft of 3" PVC costs more than 10ft of it, so now I have about 9 feet of useless PVC laying in my backyard (yay!). I also picked up a bit of bondo.
I really wish I hadn't left most of my modding supplies at home, because I'm really starting to wonder how healthy this obsession is for me. I spent a good 20 minutes the other day cutting PVC with my dremel and had a nice taste of PVC in my mouth for the rest of the day. Then, today, I worked with bondo (my first time), and decided it would be really smart to mix and apply the stuff with my bare hands! Well, after a tiny application I felt something was amis and decided to read the warnings. And I quote "Harmfull if absorbed through skin". Oh well! A nice 4 hour napped solved that worry...
Anyway, I have another midterm on Tuesday (10/24/06), but hopefully i'll be able to get to the hardware store afterwards so I can pick up a respirator, some filler applicators, some sandpaper, and some batteries. Until then......
I finally figured out how to properly use this digital camera today, which means I'm gunna go back and replace all those bad shots with nice clear ones, so stay tuned! I have a midterm to cram for though, so for now I just have one pic of some of the bondo work i did today (with my bare hands )
Yay!!!! Be sure to check out my Half-Life mod in the near future, as I will re-post all those images !!!! I'm so happy I can finnaly make a worklog people will want to look at. Anyway, that's one of the PVC tubes I made. Once I get a bondo applicator I'll do the front up real nice
edit- OK, so i have some issues with studying....here's some progress money shots. Don't mind the biohazard being so messy, that's why I'm buying sandpaper tommorrow.
...fear the evil smiley....
So I've been doing some finishing cuts recently while patiently awaiting the arrival of my respirator. Once I get my mask I can start sanding the bondo on the front and start painting. For now I've just been working on the top and thinking about color schemes.
I finnaly got my new sander and have sanded both side panels down. (I don't know why the picture came out all weird, but they're smooth as hell) I decided not to sand down to the bare metal because I don't want to waste sandpaper I desperatley need for my next mod. The metal side was sanded down with 160 grit then 240 grit, and the plastic side just got the 240 grit.
The back side of the plastic panel has these plastic reinforcement things, so I cut them down and sanded it all to make sure you can't see any protrusion on the other side.
Oh ya, that method I just described was also implimented on the top I cut. Here's a pic of just the top.
I know I said I was going to do something crazy on the top, but I have decided agaisnt it. I don't quite have the money to spend on more supplies, and I feel that since this is my first time working with bondo, the results might be poor. Oh well, I'll definatley use the idea later
I also gave the rear an additional 80mm exhaust.
So that's the good news....
Unfortunatley, there's always bad news.
Problem #1 - Can't fit the PSU
I've tried to get this thing in there, but the opening is just too small. It's really not a problem though, the screw holes line up fine (two of them anyway...) So I just need to make it a bit larger and add two holes.
Problem #2 - Can't ft one of the front 80mm intake fans.....yet.
I didn't look down at my case till a couple days ago and realized "oh, the front piece is way bigger than the metal chasis" Of course, I should have realized this because that's how most of them are (I had been staring at a Centurion 5 for a long time before I was given this case, and I guess I expected a similar design )
As you can see, the PVC goes outside of the boundries of the chasis. Once I get a drill and dissasemble the case, I'll be able to correct this
That's all the problems, but I still do have one decision to make.
Should I include that snazzy fan guard from the original case????
That's it for now....hopefully I'll get some front sanding done tommorrow or this week. Here's a pic of my workstation to hold you over till then....
I made the wooden thing out of some scrap 2x4s laying around and that rock is what I use to hold down whatever i'm wokring on (can you believe how expensive vise grips are!??!?) The mess is from working with a stupid plastic case (and pvc)
Well the rain has been making my life difficult, so I have been painting whenever I can. Things are coming along nicely, and I just recieved a couple orders of UV stuff.
On top of this stuff I also got some little toggle switches, UV green cable sleeving, some UV wire, and some other random stuff. I also got a respirator so I can sand the bondo. It seems like tradition to show yourself in whatever sort of breathing device you have, so here's my update.
I applied one coat to the whole thing, sanded it down, then applied another. The front panel needs one more good sanding and it should be ready for paint.
I've also been painting the chasis
I'm going to paint the front intake tubes and the entire chasis with ClearNeon UV spraypaint
I am also going to be testing the clear UV spraypaint on plexiglass. I'm not sure if it will turn out well. I brought my riveter back with me after thanksgiving at home, and can start finishing up this project once the rain subsides and I finish paintning.
The only thing the rain is good for is wetsanding. I've sanded down the first coat of all the exterior panels with 600 grit. I'm kinda pissed I broke through to metal/plastic on some tiny spots, but it'll probly turn out just fine. Im gunna apply a second coat, then some clear, then sand, then clear, then sand, etc.... This will be the first case I'll use rubbing compound on, so I'm pretty excited.
I have a final at 7:30 pm tonight (two and a half hours away), but once I complete it (and the one at 8am tommorrow), I'll have two full days to do nothing but "relax" and finish this thing. As a sign of good faith, here's some teaser shots of the chasis.
I guess taking pictures outside produces way better quality pictures, too bad I don't see much daylight
Feel the power...
I have completed the case some time ago, and have finnaly gotten hold of a decent camera. The last thing I needed to do before I finished up the paint on this case was deal with the switch panel. This is an old 500mhz pIII, and does not need anywhere near the cooling I have provided it with, so I added a bunch of switches.
The three 3/4" round rocker switches are standard easyness. Just measure em out and drill holes. So simple!! I even cut a corner and bought a wood boring bit instead of a hole saw. It worked wonders on the thin plastic.
I also purchased some small square ones online. These frustrated me to no end. I ended up making the holes for these square switches with a drill and some files. It was so annoying I had to get intoxicated to do any of it, and the results suffered. They all ended up being misallinged due to the fact that I rushed the initial sketch and did not pay enough attention while filing. Oh well, don't care. I then went about making the switch plate. I was going to take the time to make it really pretty, but now I just want to start my next mod, so I rushed this as well. Doesn't really matter seeing as it will be hidden.
I used a little black electrical tape to hide the horrificly misalligned square holes haha.
Next post is the finished pics.
I hope you all enjoy checking out the finisehd result. I should have taken those night pictures using a tripod like I did with the day ones, but oh well. Be sure to check out Project: Kill Box!!!! I should have that project thread started tonight with some pictures up
-ratchet
