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Project: It's about time

R

rowejg

n00b
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
56
This thing of beauty is my current case. In fact, it's my first case I "ever" had.

PreMod01.jpg

(edit: BTW I had forgotten to take pics before I started sanding, so the top is already done.)

Started with an old Pentium and has been upgraded from there. And seeing as this case is now quite old, I figured time for a change. I initially figured I'd go out and buy a Lian-Li or maybe even a LanBoy. Then I figured I'd just try my hand at modding it nice. I also need to clean up the inside:

PreModInside.jpg


*Ehem* Yeah.

So my idea is to make it all nice and shiny...literally. I already plan on modding all parts of my system: Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse and all. I'm thinking of a chrome or metal flake finish on the outside. Not sure on color yet. However the entire interior of the case will get a "chrome" job. Seeing as it's an old steel case the heat dissipating properties of this case are crap so it shouldn't matter too much. Of course a window and and lights will be included.

However. Seeing as this is my first mod. Any comments, tips, or suggestions are appreciated. They can either by posted, PMed, or emailed to me. [ rowejg (at) gmail dot com] Thanks in adavance.
 
This is being done on my off time so it may not go too fast. But here's the first days worth of work.

PostSand01.jpg


PostSand02.jpg


This is just work on the cover of the case. I used a power sander and 60-grit sandpaper to take off the exterior layer of color. I know this is going to take some time, but just what you see now, took 4 hours of sanding. And there's still clean up work to do and then finishing the metal with higher grit paper.

I'm starting to think I'm going to go with a blue metal flake color for exterior finishes.
 
what do you mean not go fast, you already got the case looking like little read X's, nice work.
 
Good. I was worried for a second there. Trying to figure out why they weren't showing.

Also I thought of a special surprise to work on now too. I'll save it for later. And maybe I'll throw in a little homage to the snide comment. ;)
 
That's what I'm thinking right now. And since the front bezel is all plastic do that in a metal flake blue color as an offset and then maybe chrome paint the keyboard minus the keys.
 
I liked my brushed aluminum because you won't see smudges and the like as much as you would with a mirrored finish. Just my opinion, but I don't want to have to worrt about polishing my case and all that.
 
PostSand03.jpg


Well here's the case outside after being done with 220 Grit paper. It's coming along nicely, still some uneven areas though. Will keep working on that. However there is a problem.

Problem01.jpg


It's hard to see even outlined (in red) but there's areas of yellow discoloration showing up. I can sand them out, it'll disappear for awhile then show up somewhere else, then I clean that area and it's back to where it started. It's getting kind of aggrivating and I was wondering if someone knew what it was and if so how to correct it.

If I can't find a way to fix it I may just have to abandoned the brushed look and paint it again.
 
Its is steel right? It will oxidize over time.... maybe try a clear coat to protect it? A light coat of oil works too, but will be pretty damn messy on a computer case :)
 
damn rust gets everywhere. are you planning on trying wetsanding for more mirror finish? maybe try that for even better rusults.
 
For the finish on the case I am planning on wet sanding from here on out up to 2000 grit. Basically I've done dry sanding this far is because the lowest wet-dry paper I could find was 400 grit. However, depending on if the yellowing keeps showing up, I'll either go for a brushed look or paint it. I've settled on that the yellowing is primer from the original paint. I took some Comet cleaner and it took out the yellow hue but you could still see where it had popped up. I guess the outer coat is going to have to be a feel it out as I go along.
 
Anywhere you touch it may start to rust in the same day. Only light rust you can rub off with a cloth, but it attacks quickly. Especially if anything damp touched it.

So Id say go directly from sanding to washing to clearcoating with less than an hour between when you stop sanding and start spraying.
 
mousemod1.jpg

(I swear I put this in the first time. Oh well.)

Well here's the first part of the mouse mod I'm doing for the project. It's a Microsoft Wireless Mouse v2.0. Just changed the red LED to blue. Also, it turns out the grey backing pops off once you have the mouse opened so it'll make it a lot easier to put Monokote on it to make it look aluminum. If anyone is interested I can post a walkthrough to taking it apart since I'll have to do it again anyways. I know there's already a link to a Twisted Mods for a Logitech Mouse, however I only needed to use one blue LED. My mouse is working fine and no power drain on the batteries either. May add another LED to light up the mouse wheel. I'll post some more pics tomorrow after I do some more sanding work to the case.
 
For back in the pentium era, that is a DAMN nice case. It's even nicer than the case I got with my p3 600mhz. How much did it run you back then?
 
I think in total my grandmother (that's right, I was spoiled...of course I was about 14 years old at the time) paid $2,400 US. Luckily for me everything has been able to be upgraded in there. I'm going to upgrade the internals again since my current specs are starting to fall behind, but hey, I can at least still play HL2. :D
 
Got up at the crack of dawn this morning to take my case into a body shop. I called a friend who works at a local car dealer and he arranged me to take it in this morning. I went in to ask about that yellowing, and it turns out both suspicions were right. It's a chemical rust preventer. They said it was showing up in areas I got a little over zealous in sanding the paint off. They said I could just countine to buff the rough areas out and they'd quit showing up. Also they suggested an abrasive cleaner with a scrub pad could do some magic on the rough areas too. So that's what I did after I got home, and here are the results.

PostSand04.jpg


PostSand05.jpg


PostSand06.jpg


As you can see, my abrasive cleaner (Comet...it was the only one I could find that specifically states safe for stainless steel, which the body shop guy said it was.) did one heck of a job. I took some wet/dry 200 and 320 grit sand paper, that they were kind enough to give me, and did some inital clean up. I then took the Comet and moistened it barely like was suggested and used the green scrub pad and muscled it around. My arms hurt by the way. :) Gonna do some more later, but first, lunch. Later all.
 
looks good so far. what are you going to do to your keyboard and what kind of a keyboard is it?
 
PostSand07.jpg


Shiny shiny.

Well, here's where my back decided to say stop for today. That's up to 2000 grit of wet sanding. I'm pretty happy where it's at right now, although there's still a bunch of scratches that are fairly light but it still looks ok. Gonna go get some more sand paper and some rubbing compound to see if that'll help. Any suggestions will help too. Also, to answer a previous question, I have a Microsoft Internet Keyboard and my plan is to take monokote and give it an all over aluminum look, change the LEDs to blue and possibly back light the keys. So right now it's time for some Tylenol and to prepare dinner. Also, in the next couple of days I'll post the plans for my surprise. This is gonna be hard to figure out how to work, so questions may be forthcoming. Later all.
 
Ok, update for today. My back and arms continue to bother me from yesterday, so I decided to do less than hard things for the mod. I finally found a wire brush bit for my dremel so I finished taking off the leftover spots of paint on the case. I also drilled out the rivets holding in the CD bay cage, and removed the back plate for the motherboard. So here's the plan for painting. I'm going to paint the inside of the cover a high gloss blue. As will be the drive cages and the power supply. The motherboard tray will either be polished out and clear coated like the outer case, or if the tray doesn't have as high of a luster as I want, I'll take some chrome paint to it. The case frame, and the connecting edges of the cover will get a black rubberized coating to reduce rattle noise. The front bezel will get a few grey primer coats and then have chrome monokote applied as will the CD-RW bezel. And I'll also put a window in with chrome edging. (Shape ideas are appreciated.)

Now, for my great and probably overly difficult idea.

I'm going to build a fully acrylic pendulum clock. Gears and all. I have a drawing that I was going to post, however my scanner doesn't want to cooperate. I've done all the basic calculations and , on paper, it works. Now here's where I need the help. I have no idea on where to go to get laser cut acrylic. I'll have all the measurments put into a CAD program so it should be pretty easy otherwise. I'm going to place it in the upper 5 1/4 bays. So ideas and comments will help. I never realized I'd actually be using physics and calculus for a case mod. Oh well, later all.
 
well i wouldnt cut the window in some regular shape. ie - square,circle,etc.
when i had the idea of cutting a window into my case, i wanted to cut the window into the symbol of the airforce. the symbol in upper left corner. and the stik a fan on the side of the window to cool off the VGA. just my idea. i can probably draw up a few diff. designs and scan them later on today or tommorow.

edit: as far as the laser cut acrylic either google it. i saw plenty of services that do this type of work. or post on [H] iam sure someone will be willing to do it.
 
rowejg said:
I'm going to build a fully acrylic pendulum clock. Gears and all. I have a drawing that I was going to post, however my scanner doesn't want to cooperate. I've done all the basic calculations and , on paper, it works. Now here's where I need the help. I have no idea on where to go to get laser cut acrylic. I'll have all the measurments put into a CAD program so it should be pretty easy otherwise. I'm going to place it in the upper 5 1/4 bays. So ideas and comments will help. I never realized I'd actually be using physics and calculus for a case mod. Oh well, later all.
Click to expand...

I even though I should have, I didn't see that coming. That's an extremely awsome idea. I eagerly await the drawing.
 
basicclock.jpg


Ok, so I know I have no PS skills. I had to do a quick mockup in PS since my scanner started clicking and making other funny noises. Very very very basic. Missing a few gears and I'm still working on their positions and how I want them to look. I'm thinking instead of straight lines doing like a gothic curved look. Also, I'm still not sure on what font to do the numbers in yet. I would like to light the hands but I still haven't figured that out yet. Hope you all like.
 
Ok, I had a really wicked idea last night. However, I don't know if it'll work. I need someone who really knows computers to answer this one. Due to the extra space between my motherboard tray and case cover: What's the chances of moving the pins for the ATX power connector and HDD connectors on the mobo to the back of the mobo. Power should be relatively easy, it's a matter of reversing the leads in the power supplies cable...right? HDD cable I'm not sure of. Is it just as easy to move the pins around in a IDE cable? Post post post people. If I can figure out how to work this I've got more cutting and fabricating to do.

edit: Oh, and I do have an old P2 mobo I'll test it on first, don't wanna fry my main mobo. :)
 
clockfront.jpg


Here's a CAD of the clock. After space restraints this is what I could come up with. Not exactly what I wanted, but still good. I may do some more flourish with the design but for now it looks ok.
 
Based on paper calculations, every 8days. So my idea is to have a simple motor attatched to the winding gear to automatically turn it "x" number of turns every 7th day or so. It's basic design without integrating it would require it be wound the same day each week. I plan on trying to rid some of the support structure from the design but that'll happen as I put it together.

edit: Here's a link that I used to figure out the basics. It's pretty neat and anyone else looking to do something wether it be a casemod or otherwise it's a good resource.

How Stuff Works: Pendulum Clocks
 
rowejg said:
Ok, I had a really wicked idea last night. However, I don't know if it'll work. I need someone who really knows computers to answer this one. Due to the extra space between my motherboard tray and case cover: What's the chances of moving the pins for the ATX power connector and HDD connectors on the mobo to the back of the mobo. Power should be relatively easy, it's a matter of reversing the leads in the power supplies cable...right? HDD cable I'm not sure of. Is it just as easy to move the pins around in a IDE cable? Post post post people. If I can figure out how to work this I've got more cutting and fabricating to do.

edit: Oh, and I do have an old P2 mobo I'll test it on first, don't wanna fry my main mobo. :)
Click to expand...

It's been done here on the forum- I thought it was in the Electronics subforum but I couldn't find the post .... maybe someone else here might know where it is, but I couldn't find it....
 
Just a quick update. I wasn't able to find anyone that carried the monokote, however one of the guys at a local hobby shop suggested SpazStik Chrome paint. He showed me a model he used it on and I was sold. So instead of monokote I'll use the SpazStik. Tomorrow I should have pictures of the paint job on the CD-RW. I decided to just do a final pic of that. I've got the last coat drying now. Oh, and if anyone knows how to remove the CD tray from the drive that'd help. Later.
 
ok.. the ATX rewire... i found the work log of the guy who did it

DETN8R - Gruntville...

sheesh took me 20 minutes to find it *sigh* but I _KNEW_ i saw it somewhere..... ;)

//
Project: False
\\

 
Ya know. Thinking about the ATX... if you choose too (might be a *pita)
instead of moving the plastic molex connector to the back... you could
[H]ard wire the ATX cables directly to the mb... (wire cutters and snip the
molex off the end)...

or. if you want to make it modular... you can get more wire (take from a
dead mb and dead psu..) wire your "spare" wires directly to the underside
of the mb and at the end of the wires somewhere nice and hidden (but easy
to access) you simply add the mb molex to the wires from the mb.. and then
you simply plug the psu into that... it *should* work... just make sure you
are wearing rubber shoes and not touching anything metal etc when you
turn the sucker on ;)

but seriously.. that is one way you could keep the RMA factor intact on your
PSU (not mb.. but oh well) unless you do any PSU modding anyways

^_^ good luck
 
Well what I was thinking was making a wiring setup to where I could just slip a mobo on, but then I thought about it and since I'll probably be upgrading after the mod is done, there's the chance (Oh who am I kidding) the connectors will be in different places. So what I'll do is probably just do a lot of the rewiring of the case until then. I'll clean up a good deal of it still though. But thanks for the link. It'll be useful later.

Oh, and I thought it pointless to keep the old metal drive cages since it'd hide at least the CD-RW mod, so I'm going to rebuild them out of acrylic. That way I can still see a good deal of my works, plus it'll get rid of the PITA drive rails that never line up correctly anyways.
 
cdrw01.jpg


cdrw02.jpg


Well here's the paint job on the CD drive. I'm not happy with it. After letting it fully dry overnight the pop marks showed up. I think the bondo I used to fill in the channels cracked. I like the color though, so I'll strip it and get rid of the bondo and just keep the channels visible. Oh well.
 
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