Hey. Yo, how you doin'? Yeah, This is my first worklog in English . After starting this one, I started a few other english worklogs. Which can be find here and here. There are currently four dutch worklogs: http://www.casejunkies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13187 http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1157170 http://forum.bouweenpc.nl/topic/1335 http://ediejo.dnrhosting.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=79 So, time to show it to the rest of the world.. Damn, I had more then twenty updates. I could never, ever translate all that. I e-mailed Wil Harris, to ask him, what he tought about it. He said, he thought it would be a good idea to post one update every day. Until I've posted them all ofcourse. Sorry Wil, this is to much work for me, I can't do this all by myself. I decided to write just one big startpost, with one big discription of everything that has been done till now. Hold on, here it comes! So, it started out with a big Chieftec Full tower. I had to get that middleplate out. So, I used the Dremel. That was one of my first Dremel tryouts. The other one was the PSU. I wanted to use showerhoses for the powerlines. There are three of them, wich goes to a junction-box. The ATX-cable is just sleaved, wich goes directly to the motherboard. No big deal. I also made a side panel for the 5,25" part of the case. Satin black and a lot of polished metal, that would be cool. So, painted some parts. So, here is the PSU assembled . Backside also done: And throwed it into the case. Next part was the VGA-stealth. Currently an on-hold part of the project, I'll finish it later. Yes, there is a 9800XT card in there. Cool huh? After that, I decided to build a new PSU backplate, some holders for the PSU (wich are just foor the looks, not functional) and side shields for the PSU. All made out of alluminium (3mm). All taped off: Made some details on it: It all had to be polsihed up. Looks like crome, doesn't it? After all that, I started with the sideshields for the harddisk racks. Holders for all of these shields: Sanded down and mounted (has to be polished up to). So, enjoyed that part? Look what I am currently busy with. A 5" monochrome CRT screen, isn't that sweet ? I am disassembling it now, does anyone has a trick to unmount the high-voltage from the tube? Oh, yeah I am going to mount it in the front of the case, you'll see that later. And yes, it is working, however, the VGA-card does not detect it. So, I first have to plug in another screen to get a signal on the screen. I'll fix that later. Well, I guess almost ten percent of the work on this case is done. Maybe even less. Replies are always welcome. Don't blame my bad English, if there are a lot of faults in it, just say it to me and I will fix it. These are not all pictures of the work. If there are request for pictures, just say it to me and I'll post them. Don't be afraid to visit one of my dutch worklogs, I can always translate some things. Time to start updating and translating them for you guys. Oh, and please don't be afraid to post a reply.
It's looking good.. I see that you've cut out the stamped grilles on the front but not on the exhaust fans?
Thnx . Yes, I did. The grills on the front where just useless. The could only made noise and collect dust. The exhaust fans on the back are more usefull, they cover the fans that are directly touchable. The front fans do have the plastic front cover, the exhaust ones on the back don't. So, I decided to leave these things on the back. They are not ugly, just usefull. Making something myslef woul'dn't make it that much better I guess. These things are so dull, that they won't catch a lot of attention. That what I'm trying to accomplish, trying to let other things get more attention.
re: Black Betty bam-a-lam sorry,I couldn't resist but really,good stuff nice start on the cabling awsome retro crt monochrome! lol good times, good times
Well.. The exhaust side of PC fans aren't dangerous.. It's the intake side that cuts pretty bad. My fingers suffered that fate quite a number of times already. The stamped grilles still create a little backdraft and can cause a little increase in noise. Might be worth considering cutting the grilles on the exhaust. And if you poke around the insides of your case often (like I do), then chrome wire grilles will help protect the wandering fingers from the intake side of the fans.. Plus.. It's more polished shiny metal on the inside..
I never said they were that dangerous. Hm, allright, I'll think about that. However, I think I'll leave them for what they are, it keeps a little bit of the Chieftec charmes. I'll look at the exhaust fans again at the and of this project .
Good luck with the mods.. I do have the steel Mid-tower Dragon lying around in my living room but I don't fancy 80mm fans anymore so it's staying there.
Its probably one of those little portable TVs for camping and stuff. My friend has one thats like 4", he uses it in his garage. Be careful with that screen though, if you remove the ground underneath it (the big suction cup thing) without being grounded it can kill you. My teacher was talking about it a few days ago. At least it can with a full size TV or monitor, but those little ones must pack a few thousand volts at least.
Probably nearly 10,000 volts with enough Capacity to kill you. Just get a screwdriver a paper towel roll and a long wire. Plug the wire into a house ground or attach it to a metal stake. then attach the other end to the screwdriver tape the screwdriver into the cardboard tube then you have the insulated suber screwdriver of 5" bW tv de-charging unit.
Thank you all . Where I get that screen from? That's a long stroy. These screens were used in old pay machines or something like that. They are also usable in old video studio systems. And if you look at very old IBM-machines, you may find an old machine wich has one with green fosfor. I found out that there are still company's wich are producing or selling these things. If you have luck, you may find one wich is easy to connect on a VGA-card . I think these things could be found on ebay or something like that. I'll try to dismantle that thing when I have time. Probably this weekend. So much to do, so little time . Oh, well. Just let's hope I won't get shocked.
My first UPDATE in English. Cool. 19 September 2006 Started working on the CRT screen mod. Enjoy! The original frame was crap! I had to disassemble it. This picture is made on a moment.. I was really scared. I could'nt get that suction-cup thing of, i was to scared, because of the high voltages. No toy for me I guess. I was feeling like a.. Oh wel, I pulled that thing off . Fireworks, sparks, did my hair turned upwards? Nothing . On the left you see the frame, wich you probably will not see back. In the middle, the PCB, on the right, the CRT. Did I say nothing from the frame? Sorry, these holders from the CRT were just to hard to copy. Drilled them out and re-used them. Sorry. Found a nice piece of scrap to make a plate to mount the tube onto. It's aluminium, 3mm thick. Put it underneath it, draw it, saw, file it and.. Tapped some holes, mounted it all. Just a beautifull picture: Decided that this was the right place voor the cathode ray tube. Got the dirty black layer of the metal. It was bad weather and the garage was full, so I couldn't use a sanding-machine to finish it. CRT assembled, resting on an old piece. What a beauty! I love these old pieces of technic. Quick fit! Fits perfect. How I am going to mount this thing? I was thinking about make a plate in front of it. Where the front of the CRT will pass thrue. The only problem was, how to mount that second plate? I'm working on that. I am going to buy new optical drives (cd-drive is broken, and the dvd isn't fast enough), I already ripped of the fronts of these ones. I am going to stealth all of it. There's going to be one big shiny sheet of aluminium where normaly the 5,25" drives fronts should be. A plate with some details, place for the CRT screen, small fronts for the sleds and buttons for the optical drives. And everything without screws on places you can see them. I want tou mount it behind the front panel. Sweet?! The 3,5" covers are going to be bondoed. Maybe I will place my USB ports there. Behind it I will have a space to put my inverters and electronics like that. I am just thinking about a fancontroller or ledcontroller. Before I forget, the PCB from the CRT. I thought there would be more space uppon the optical drives. (It won't fit underneath them.) I think I am going to mount it underneath the upperside of the case. More CRT mod next time! How was my first English update?
24 September 2006 Update time . I was going to make a sheet to mount the crt at the front of the case. That plate had to be mounted in front of the other plate. So the front of the crt should pass trough it. It had to fit exactly! That wasn't easy. So here it is. Holes aren't tapped yet, and the big hole for the crt is not big enough. After fixing these problems: Oh yeah, I couldn't find four same size screws. Two should be perfect for a while. Hm, doesnt seems to be much work done, however it costed me a lot of time. Wel, before is start going on, I have to clean my "workshop". To be honest, I need some help by mounting the crt frontplate onto the chassis of the case. This chassis is kind of weird. It has a lote of holes and pop rivets in it. Not so much space for screws to mount that plate. I think I am going to make some kind of a rail, where I can assemble the front plate onto. But how to mount that rail? Anyway, I made some designs for the shields that are going to cover the back of the CRT . You may find out next time.
You should be careful with placing a CRT monitor inside a computer. The transformer in the back contains thousands of volt, even when not turned on.
You mean that white block at the PCB? I know, I know. I'm going to isolate all of the wiring, and the PCB will be worked away in a small tray .
