Project: Digg (custom case) Finished

That front panel is awesome. I like it alot.

There's no reason to spend extra on PPG
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You're right, all you need to do is date the Daughter of a regional PPG representitive :D :D (I never, ever need to buy paint again :eek: )
 
There are quite a few other trackballs with the same size ball (and are blue) but they're either transparent (which makes it hard for the eye to read), the wrong size, or an ugly blue.

Though I doubt it needs to be limited to phenolic or acetal, they're probably just the best possible. You can find rock spheres on ebay in interesting colors but none are a bright blue. There's also billiards or snooker balls but most are too big. I know snooker is sometimes played with a 1-7/8" cue ball but I'm not sure about the rest of the balls. Probably 2". Anyway I just figured some of you might know a better direction to search in.


Besides that, anyone have an idea how they print on these things? Silk screening?
 
i use a logitech trackball i got from office depot when i use my brothers laptop.
i would use it on my desktop, but it has no scroll wheel.
 
my dad has his own printing business so i went to this huge printing expo thing at the la convetion place last year. near the silk screen printing spot they had this other thing, its like a hand held stamp, it has a ruber part at the bottom, like thick grey rubber, and then a handle, you grab it, put the dye in this special ink, press the rubber onto the dye, and then take the rubber and press it against whatever you want, it works on things round because we tried it on cofee mugs, also doesnt bleed. the setup would probably cost alot but you can try to recreate the setup or find somebody who has that machine, or you can mask the ball and powder coat it, muahaha.

preeeetty shure that silk screening is only for t-shirts or flat things... because it requires a flat silk screen.. lmao.. and then it presses onto whatever you want when you hit the foot button.
 
Ya well I guess my idea is a moot one right now. Not enough time to figure it out. I really dislike running into dead ends with good mods.

Moving on.....
 
Qtip, you could try looking at Phoenix Imaging. They do custom hydrographics for automotive applications, but might be able to do your trackball as well. I have had a few interior panels done on my truck (red carbon fiber) and they look and wear great.

http://www.phoenix-image.com

I hate the idea for a great mod to just die without trying to help myself.
 
the trackball needs all of those little black dots on it, or else it wont know where its going, and itll just sit there.

you could just stick an led inside of a trackball to make it glow.
a 2.5" lcd with an RSS feed from digg in the mouse would be nice too.
 
filthysanchez said:
the trackball needs all of those little black dots on it, or else it wont know where its going, and itll just sit there.

you could just stick an led inside of a trackball to make it glow.
a 2.5" lcd with an RSS feed from digg in the mouse would be nice too.
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It doesn't need dots as transparent balls work fine except when moving fast (probably because the transparent one I'm using is old and has scratches. Isn't an optical trackball just a glorified optical mouse? So basically it'll work over a lot of surfaces (even a wooden sphere/ball).

As far as other mods go, I'm working on one but not those :D
 
i dont know,on mine they all look like they are strategically placed.
on mine, the dots start at the top, and go down pretty evenly.
its a cricle on top,as well as on the middle and bottom.
you could try it with a marble or something completely clear. and if it works, paint the ball.

but yes, an optical trackball has some type of laser to track it.
 
I know a lot of you are probably hoping for the case pics but I've got nothing right now. I do however have a pic of a painted part. You'll just have to wait for something else tomorrow. That green reflection is a mountain dew bottle, whoops. Not the best pic in the world but you get the idea.

digg28.jpg
 
Everfalling said:
very nice. paint's a little darker than the blue's you see on digg though. cool beans otherwise :)
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It's bad lighting. It's reallllllllllly light from straight on. From the side it appears dark blue.
 
Qtip42 said:
I know a lot of you are probably hoping for the case pics but I've got nothing right now. I do however have a pic of a painted part. You'll just have to wait for something else tomorrow. That green reflection is a mountain dew bottle, whoops. Not the best pic in the world but you get the idea.

digg28.jpg
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I thought it was chameleon paint :D
 
If I had a nickel every time someone dropped-the-ball this last week, I'd be a millionaire.

Forgive my lack of posting as I'm making up for lost time. Here's a pic for ya. I'm not exactly happy with the engraving because it isn't centered but I'm all out of switches so oh well I guess. I really need to step up and get these tools myself so I don't have to deal with people who don't know how to work their own machines.

digg29.jpg
 
Looks good :D

my only suggestion is swap the red switch for something little more fancy looking... it looks a little plain. Everything else is shiny metal, but that switch is plain plastic.

Edit: Learn to spell :p
 
I'd make some argument why I should keep the red PSU on/off button but the only thing I can come up with is I'm keeping the price in mind (of this case).......in reality, I'm not :D

Thx for the link o~z
 
.dxf?

I wonder if there are any engravers around my location. I should look them up.
 
Everfalling said:
so how's that a bad thing? you did the little roll eyes emoticon..
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the red switch is his switch for the power supply that he relocated to the panel. so that switch has to be on all the time. so they have to be non-momentary switches.
 
I think it would be cool if he made the power button like this...

To turn the computer on you flip the toggle switch and push on the Digg button, then the computer fires up; to turn it off just flip the toggle switch the other way.
 
Borgschulze said:
I think it would be cool if he made the power button like this...

To turn the computer on you flip the toggle switch and push on the Digg button, then the computer fires up; to turn it off just flip the toggle switch the other way.
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yeah, you could do that, but i donno how safe it is to power off the computer by the PS switch every time.
 
nice panel, but I think a blue switch would look better, and I have seen them before too
 
Everfalling said:
yeah, you could do that, but i donno how safe it is to power off the computer by the PS switch every time.
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You don't, you just flip it off when you turn the computer off from within the opterating system.
 
Ok so finally I'm getting the case glued together. Will take a day or so to dry but in the mean time I've been "enlarging" the trackball I bought because it feels cheap and small. Will probably have pics at the end of the day.
 
Great, my website was hacked. How nice. Will have pictures up once this is fixed, sorry folks.

Edit: ok everything fixed. Here's what I did to the trackball. It's just a bit bigger because I hated how small the original was. I'd primer it but I'm all out right now. Should look good in blue. It's a shame I can't mod a scroll wheel in there.

digg30.jpg
 
nice. should look great painted.

why can't you cange out that ball? nothing in acrylic that matches the size?
 
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