external housing - mac style!

[steff79]

Hi...

... I bought an Apple iBook G4 some month ago... I love it and it's supersexy.. the only thing that hurts is the limited harddrive space an the fact that the 12'' iBook has no Superdrive option... so I decided to use 2 external devices to reduce the pain. A 120gb Harddrive from Samsung and a DVD Writer from NEC. But all those nice looking external housings are way to expensiv and way to "not looking good with my baby". So, in consequence I have to build my own case with lot's of goodies...

So, I made my plan and decided that the case should be out of MDF (don't know the english word). Unfortunately there was no store in town with MDF <16mm... so the measurements are a bit larger than a thought, but i don't care... yet

What would/should be inside is:

- DVD Writer
- 120gb HDD
- Bluetooth USB Stick (for cellphone, printer, mouse)
- 4x USB2 Hub

I ordered 2 of the cheapest 3.5'' USB2 external Cases and cannibalized them in order to get these things...

Then I start to build the housing... first of all I rounded all edges with an "Oberfräse" (Sherlock calls it "mill to fixture"?!)...

Then I drilled the holes for the DVD Writer...

After that I milled some airslots for the Harddrive and one the backside, and a slot for the DVD Writer. I also added holes for the powersupplies.

Then I primed some of the parts...

The last thing i did so far was to add the mandatorily apple logo an glue the hole thing together...

After priming the case i realisized that i forgot to bondo the slots [smiley=seestars.gif] and gave the hole thing a nice bondo and sanding job (i also smoothed the apple logo an all egdes)... here's the result:

And this is the fastening for the harddrive. I wil glue it in, when the paintjob's done...

The case with it's fresh and new color. unfurtunatly it's not this glossy i wanted it.

And because *everybody* wanted a plastic apple... i did one. And i like it... woohooo!

Here's a picture of the backside with a bunch of electronics, that need to be fixed inside.

All screwed up

And here a "family-picture" with my ibook.

That's it... tell me what you think about it.

 

[dargon]

Hmm, I like.

 

[gigglebyte]

not bad...I am wondering why you didn't go FireWire instead of USB2 though and "Oberfräse" I think would translate to Router based on what it did...if you are looking for the gloss try using a clear coat and see how it looks after a couple of coats of that

 

[steff79]

I didn't go for firewire because i was not able to get an firewire-bluetooth-stick

It's a bit glossy... but not as much as ih hoped... but i won't change it now... i'm happy to use it now...

 

[CrimandEvil]

Use some clearcoat and maybe encase it in plexi.....how about backlighting that Apple logo too? Anyways...
Thats really cool man, good job on the mod.

 

[Elledan]

I like the Apple

And yes, an "Oberfräse" is a router.

 

[Adisharr]

Nice project there man.. good job

 

[Tos]

nice work, but it woudl be awesome with a nice sleek paintjob + clearcoating to mimic the Powerbook's look ( adding depth to the paint )

otherwise, I like it

 

[Deadlierchair]

A really great and useful mod. Like the people say above, the more glossy paint would be nice, but it looks awesome the way it is. Have you thought about adding a fan or something to make sure things don't get too hot?

 

[ProphetSix]

Ditto on the fan. I bet that MDF is going to insulate and make it a sweat box!

But damn! That is sweet. Nice job on both the look and on incorperating all those items into one box. Looks sweet as hell. I think if you do go back and add a fan, you NEED to do something to light up that Apple logo. I mean, come on! A plexi logo/emblem on the front, all alone, and NOT lit up???? FIX IT, or we revoke your [H] status! Nice job though.

 

[bluesteel]

ITs also known as MDF in the states by the way which jsut stands for mass density fiberboard I beleive. Anywasys its not exactly smooth smooth so I would have suggest using a nice grain filler first to help with the glossy finish you were going for, still it looks good to me, you made it who gives a damn

 

[TheMostWantedPolishTwin]

looks pretty sweet.. great job!

 

[Magic H8 Ball]

ITs also known as MDF in the states by the way which jsut stands for mass density fiberboard I beleive. Anywasys its not exactly smooth smooth so I would have suggest using a nice grain filler first to help with the glossy finish you were going for, still it looks good to me, you made it who gives a damn

Medium Density Fiberboard