Mistress Black Widow (Work in progress)

[FrostBite]

This is my second shot at making a mod though, I'm not sure my first one really counts :p I've been inspired by quite a few people here with great projects, and ideas. To many to list so if you see your idea here, thanks! In addition, I just got off my summer classes at college, and I've got a whole 2 weeks of break! What better than to waste money on computer modding, no?

Here's the case that I'll be using. The first case I ever got when I upgraded from my 486. It's built pretty soutly, all aluminum
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Took a picture of the wrong case covering. Yes, I have two nearly identical computer cases. I was high in high school, I'll admit it
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Drawing out the what I'm going to cut tomarrow
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Ordered items from Xoxide
4x Firework 80mm LED Fan (Red)
3x 80mm Fan Grill
1x Dual Red Cold Cathode Kit

Shopping list for tomarrow
Home Depot
- Dremel
- Red flag tape
- Liquad adhesive
- Rubber lining
- 8x bolts, nuts, and washers
- 80mm hole saw
- Handles
- 25 x 25 board
- 3x vice grips
- Plexi Glass

Autoparts Store
- Sand paper - 220, 230, 400, 600, 1000, 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper
- Sanding block
- Primer paint
- Enamel paint - Black and Red
- Rubbing compound
- Plastikote ultra vinyl color - Black and Red

Radio Shack
- 4 SPST 3/8 switches

As you can see, I don't have anything at all. I have no experience, but I'm going to try my best with the 2 weeks I have. The only things I do have are a sodering iron, soder, wires, tape, and safety googles. There's other stuff I probably still need but this should last me the first week. I incorperated a lot of what I've seen in the past month or so, reading quite a few guides and putting this together. My goals are:
- Paint the inside case all black
- Sand the outside, paint, sand, paint, sand, paint, sand, and finally add rubbing compound so it'll be as shiny as a showcar. I'll wax it every month or so too.
- Flag tape all the wires
- Vinyl paint the plastic covers, and my CD-Roms
- Make a non-LED baybus switch for the 4 fans, 12/off
- Blowhole on top
- Handles
- Add a plexi glass window to the case cover, with a 80mm hole for a fan. Also, will paint the black widows hourglass right near the middle
- Custom fan grills, hoping to make 4, all about the black widow

The main colors will be the black outside, 4 red fans inside, and 2 red cold cathodes. May the modding begin!

[timetrap]

Sounds good, bro. As a fellow first modder (I guess this is technically your first one), it'll be awesome to see things take shape! How much do you think all that will cost ya?

[CrimandEvil]

Sounds interesting. :)

[FrostBite]

I did something really stupid when I started. A month ago I really wanted to make a baybus, and mod my case. But than I got discouraged because of the prices of starting it all off. Cmon, making a baybus for $40+ because I didn't have anything, when I could buy it for 20? I than proceded to be even more stupid and buy an x-dreamer II case. It's great, but now that I think back, I've lost touch of what I wanted to do. Now I'm going to have to really pay for it. It's going to be nearly $100 for the stuff I need now, not including the $100ish I wasted buying the stuff I already have. But fortunetly, if this goes well, I've got a whole slew of things I want to make!

[FrostBite]

Spent the whole morning shopping - Kragen Auto Parts, Radio Shack, and Home Depot.

Radio Shack - $31.74
Kragen Auto Parts - $41.16
Xoxide.com - $48.60
Home Depot - $151.66 :(
Grand Total - $273.16 :eek: :mad: :(

I'm going to cry
The items
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[timetrap]

Oh wow dude, that's a lot of cash... :rolleyes: Now you had better do 10 mods to break even on all the purchasing!! :D

[FrostBite]

Sort of disappointed from buying all that stuff because I couldn't find any handles! Now I'm not sure if I can add any at all, since I'm going to spend a lot of time getting a perfect paint job.

First day of real work, and boy, it sure seems easy when other people do it.

Here's the bare case with everything taken off, and the 3.5 drive bay to the right of it.
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Spray painted, and hang dried. Everything is really smooth except for that back plate, i put a bit to much there.
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3.5 bay spray painted and hung dry also
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Opened the dremel and was about to throw aside the manual until this caught my eye. Did they personally make this for me? :p
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Ahh my first thingy that cuts it. I still didn't read the names of it, but I did read 2 pages of the manual
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3 grueling hours later and 5 of those disc thingys, 3 of which I broke in the span of 10 minutes, it's finally cut off
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Now on to the baybus. I got the schematics from www.fanbus.com, a very useful site with the schematics. I added some spring clips to make my life a bit easier.
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Wiring
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Fully wired, and it works fine too
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Tomorrow I have planned some basic sanding, primer, and 1st coat of paint. Going to make a top blowhole, measure and cut the plexiglass for the cover, inside bottom, and inside right side (from Holley's guide of hiding wires).

Also been thinking of how to mold the grill pieces. The very top will be of the spider, and I will draw a white web line connecting to the cover fan, which on that grill will be an open spider egg with a few baby spiders coming out. The exhuast fan grill will be of the black widows hourglass. I am unsure of what to make for the power supply. Any suggestions?

As for the molding itself, I've decided to try to work with clay. I make the model in clay, bake it, and than press it onto another piece of clay for the mold than back that one. I'm not sure what to fill the mold with than after. Been reading some guides and talking to a few people, some ray silicon resin, others say I should go with some white plaster of paris (sp?). Maybe someone can throw me a hint for that :)
The hourglass one will be made of plexiglass. It's going to be a rough copy of what Bonz did except I'm going to make the middle part clear since I'll have a bright red fan there. The sides will be black, and I'll spray paint that by masking taping the hourglass.

[Sobek]

Don't primer and paint on the same day! Let the primer set in for at least a day. Ignor what the can says. Most people will tell you it is better to let primer, paint and clearcoat "cure" at least one day before adding more. I've spent 3+ weeks painting my case and I'm still not done cause I let everything cure 1-2 days and take my time. It will look a lot better if you are patient.

I wish I had seen this thread earlier, I would have told you that you can get some of that stuff cheaper at Walmart. I got a sanding block (hardly even use it too), the same brands of sandpaper, spraypaint, and some really strong plastic clamps there.

You're doing a good job so far.

[FrostBite]

Did some late night sanding, and primer, Going to let it set. Unfortunitely, I don't have 2 weeks, so what I'm going to do is let it set for 12 hours, sand, coat, set for 12, and do it 4 times.

Prepping for blowhole tomorrow. I'm an organizing freak
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With primer
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Bah, I don't know any walmarts near here anyways :( Now I have only my dreams, so tread lightly.

[FrostBite]

Ok, had enough fun with the camera. Now for the real work. It was mostly vinyl painting, and after hours upons hours, I love masking tape now.

DVD burner, and the front panel. I'm going to paint the other cd-rom red outside, and a black tray/button. Added a little black widow hourglass to the power button, hard to see.
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Dremeled the front intake and back exhaust alum mesh that was blocking it, and sanded it down.
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Added a plexi glass bottom, and spray painted it. I'm doing what "Holley" did on one of her mods. I'll add some wood blocks to elevate it a bit, add velcro to both sides, and hide my wires underneath.Going to probably do the same thing to the right of the motherboard to hide more wires.
http://premium.uploadit.org/Dhameon/CIMG0296.gif
Blowhole on top, sanded it down with 220 grit than 400 grit, and added primer.
http://premium.uploadit.org/Dhameon/CIMG0297.gif

I've also been trying to find something, but I must have the wrong name. I'm looking for "color coat," which is applied after you sand, and primer, but before you spray paint it. Is that what it is called or is it something else? Or am I mistaking it for clearcoat? Doing this part from linear's guide here (http://linear1.org/gm/archives/00000156.php)

Something else I've come upon is that some parts I spray pained on the vynal are very glossy/smooth while some other parts are not. How exactly do I add some texture and make it smooth? Sandpaper them? The problem is that one side is smooth, and one is not, on the same piece!

Going to be molding the fan grills tonight. Bonz gave some good advice to try wax, but after being explianed to me from a hobby shop, I shyed away. Instead I'm going to make the model in clay, bake it over night on 400 deg, imprint it onto clay, bake again, than pour inplaster of paris.

[FrostBite]

Oh yeah, also need some opinions. I will have 4 fan grills - blowhole, side exhuast, back exhuast, and power supply. Top one will be of the spider, and with that I'm going to draw a web design of string web, connected to the sied exuhast fan which will be of an open spider egg with one (maybe a few if I make a good mold) on. Back exhaust will be a plexi black widow hourglass. The power supply, I'm not sure exactly. Any ideas?

[ness1469]

It's "clear coat" that goes on after...although it usually doesn't carry that name. Sometimes it's like, crystal seal, clear sealer, paint guard, lord only knows. Look for a spray can with a clear cap... and the cans near it should be what you are looking for.

edit: doh, re-read the post ;)

2nd edit: Ohhhh... haha, linear isn't talking about a product called "color coat"... he's talking about the colored spray paint. He's saying that in the primer, if you make a mistake it can sand out and not be noticed. But once you start to do color, you usually can't.

[v3rt1g0]

I'm surprised.. That paintjob actually looks nice on the front bezel.
I almost always hate spraypainted cases, but your looks good.

[FrostBite]

*sigh* Today was not a good day, so many things went wrong!

Woke up, checked my email, and found that Xoxide.com sent my package, after about 2-3 days of processing with a credit card online??

Removed the old hd mount from my other case, and going to mod it into this one so I can make the hard drives in front of the front intake
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Had more problems, wood would not stick to metal, and velcro would not stick to the plexi. After I had glued them on, I removed them 30 or so minutes later. Wood attached to the metal ripped off the paint! Good thing it won't show.
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Only good thing that I got done was the clearcoat over the front panel. Looks really nice and shiny, I can shave when I look into it, albiet, I do look red
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Another headache I encountered is that I have no back panel to cover up my motherboard where the ports are. It seems that I'll have to make one out of the plexi I got.

Still haven't gotten time for the fan grill except for the hourglass which I have drawn out on plei glass which I'll cut tomarrow. I want this all done before next saturday, going to LanManitic! Anyone else in So Cal going?

[FrostBite]

Bah, internet went down, and when I got it back up, forums where down! Sorry for the lack of updates.

Day 4 - Didn't do much and don't remember much. I've been working almost non stop, mostly fixing errors. I took a nap at 8pm, and woke up at 8am! I did get my package though from Xix
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Day 5 - Made the plexi i/o plate, looks ok now but I may need to do it again, which would be my 3rd one
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Here's how it looked last night, didn't clean up much stuff and haven't decided where to put the cathodes
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Front case, sorry for the blurriness and the gloss
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Day 6 - Lots of wiring, lots and lots of it. Here it is now:
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Some close ups. Hid a lot of the wires under the motherboard, or under the plexiglass. It looks pretty good at arms distance, looks OK if you staring right at it trying to find flaws and errors which is good I guess heh
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Behind the computer
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Looking at what the plexiglass hides
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After 2 practice ones, here are my final 3 for the fan grills. I decided not to make the spider mold yet, that's gonna take a hell of a lot of practice and patience, none of which I have now. It's going to be plexiglass, and painted the ouside black while the inside clear for the case fans to light up. Will cut tomarrow:
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And of course, my headache. I spent the last 6 days sanding, priming, sanding, priming, 3 times a day for 5 days straight. I got it so nice and flat, added the black paint. I let it dry than added the clear coat, and this is what happened:
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the POS started to bubble up or something. I was about to cry. I don't know why the hell it did that, can someone please tell me? I'm pretty pissed, going to have to start it all over again. This time though, I'm not sure I'm going to clear coat unless I know what is going on.

After I put the motherboard in, I really noticed how small this case actually is. Compared to my x-dreamer II, this thing has almost no room at all. I'm going to take it LAN'ing with me so I guess that's a good thing.

Hanging in there, the mainboard is done. Just need to flag tape the last 2 fan wires, and work on the case again. Hopefully I'll have it all done by Friday. Going to reformat my computer sometime this week so I can make it to the LAN with a nice new comp!

Happy Labor Day Ya'll

[FrostBite]

Oh yeah, anyone know a good place to place the cathodes for maximine light for my case? I'm not really sure, hoping someone in the community has tinkered with this and knows the best place. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[TMOA]

As far as i can tell the bubbling is caused by a few things , incompatable paint mixtures, applying the clear too early and or to late (oddly mit sounds funny but if the underlying paint is at that brittle drying stage the clear shrinking as it dries can wreak havoc..lol

Anywho it seems mostlikely you used different brad paints for color/clear that would be my honest guess (not there so cant be 100%) as to why it actually bubbled :(

Otherwise the case looks killer and also you did a real fine job with the flagging tape i have some here for my case but have yet to attach it , what did you use to hold it while ya wrapped?

for the CCFL's one on the bottom back along the door edge and usually one up top on the opposite panel behind the PSU works nice in smaller cases , although you could do a L shape along the rear door edge

[FrostBite]

Otherwise the case looks killer and also you did a real fine job with the flagging tape i have some here for my case but have yet to attach it , what did you use to hold it while ya wrapped?

I tried that liquade electrical "tape," and it sucks, don't bother using it. Just use black electrical tape, and bind it tightly, making it look like black heatshrink.

Yeah I guess I need to let it dry longer. Sigh, really bugged the shit out of me.