Scratch Build – In Progress Hypno-Toad Rebuild--April 2012 quick repair and refit.

I love Red Green. "Get a bigger hammer" could be my motto!

Yeah...I've changed my opinions on some of this stuff this year...
-A big part of the problem at the time was I was using high-speed bits.
-TribalOverkill's vaseline tapping tutorials helped with tapping. I still can't successfully tap 6-32... Wire gauge drill bits would probably help that.
-I used a spade bit on the speaker mount.
-Hole saws work good running forwards too, just make sure the panel is secured well. It could spin around and smack you.

 

First holes I attempted tapping into acrylic were 6-32 and they all turned out great
4-40 isn't that hard either.

I'm gonna be trying out my holesaw for acrylic soon; gotta cut some disks with a 1/4" hole at the center for a commissioned project, namely an acrylic base for a modded Antec 900 (logs of his project at http://www.diy-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80854 and http://www.overclock.net/case-mod-work-logs/264860-project-sr-1-antec-900-mod.html )

 

OK... now yer just braggin'

 

Don't we all

 

I don't know what you're talking about.
I was torn between using 'egotistical SOB' or 'know it all b*stard' in my sig, so I know.

 

I'll jump in here and flex my plastics knowledge.

There's a reason they make plastic specific drill bits.

Best thing for a bigger hole, if you don't have plastic drill bits--a unibit. If you have a drill press, you ought to have a unibit. Takes 20 seconds to make a 3/4" hole.

Best thing for cutting big fan holes--circle hole cutter + drill press ($12 off amazon). Hole saw on a drill press works good also. Just make sure everything is very well secured, and back plated with a sacrificial board.

navig

ps I've tapped plastic with 3-38, 4-40, 6-32, and 8-32.

 

by unibit I assume you mean a step-drill bit; those work really well, but sadly I don't have any in my shop

 

Not much use for a step-bit here. They are good for sheet, but the steps get in the way on thick stuff. It might be interesting to bore out a 3/4" back plate with one...

I have 2 circle hole cutters, but never used them because one was wobbly, and the other was overkill. Neither would cut 1/2". That reminds me- The countersunk rivets on this case were a b*tch. The pull rods were not long enough for the riveter, so I had to pop them with pliers.

-And I've tapped plastic while fighting a 15' crocodile. (Sorry, got caught up in the momentum...)
You people quit picking on me and my inept plastic tapping!

 

Hehe

I was just commenting on my experience; not trying to put you down

 

Just when you thought it was safe...

It's Baaaaack!
I decided the black lexan monstrosity that is my first build has to go. It's loud, and that's keeping me from using it much.
I love the 'toad, but it needs some changes before I can stand to use it again. One thing is the fan that gave it it's name. The Logisis stove fan in the front MUST go. The booger is LOUD. So loud that they didn't put the db rating on the box. I want two things to change about this system: the noise level and the functionality.

-Guess what I'm adding here. I chopped up my old homemade clipboard and sanded it with 220 grit to get a nice frosted look, (and hide the scratches.)

-BEHOLD MY BIG NUTS! *ahem* jeeze, I said it again! sorry!...habit.
I glued the plate directly to the bottom of the i/o riser and to this long strip of green that MY BIG Nuts*cough* (sorry again) are holding in place. The ends were glued to the aluminum with epoxy.

I'm impoving the look of the wiring too. I had to pre-drill this with a tiny bit, bore out the 'approach' with a countersink bit, then drilled the full 1/4". even with the backing board I chipped the underside.

-Test fit. The black tube is the color I plan to use. Hey Tribal! look familiar?

-Next problem... I'm using the unused psu case, but I want to use as few fans as possible, I want to get this rig down to two 120mm fans. I will put one in the front, and one in the powersupply. The problem is where I want to put the radiator. -right on top of the psu intake. the problem is there's very little room between the psu hole and the motherboard. More ducting? I have very little green plastic left...

-anyway.. I'm mounting the psu case to the bottom of the case. I made some little feet for it.

-I added captive nuts -BEHOLD MY*ack, cough* sorry!! - to the inside of the feet and seated them with solvent.

-I figured out where they would sit and drilled a little well for the ends of the screws.

-The new fans are in the mail, and I don't have any 120mm running around loose I can use to get a rough fit. That didn't stop me from starting the cutting for a new fan. I'm friggen crazy like that.

-I needed to drill out a DEEP countersink for the fan holes. I used one of the old holes to mark the depth I need on the drillbit.

-OOh! a Saint Patty's Day clover! -or just the pattern I marked for the front expansion. I'm keeping the 80mm holes in there.

-Cooling option #1 (Yeah, I'm in a warped mood.)

-Cooling option #2, also known as the Delta shotgun.

-I went out to the jungle to cut out the front with a rotozip router. I decided I would try to use the rotozip spiral blade for this, despite the fact that I knew they mangle the hell out of plexi. I have a lot of filing to do...

-The edges left by a spiral saw blade. -notice the chipping...

-And here's my current problem and why I used a spiralsaw blade. Dremel bits aren't as thick as this faceplate.
That's all for today. 'cept for the cleanup.
What do I call this if it's a mod of a scratch build?

-

 

"What do I call this if it's a mod of a scratch build? "

A scratch refinement?

 

MKII?

Redeux

Born again

MO Better

DSSM - Different Stuff Same Mod

Maybe just I'm back!!

John

 

More like SSDM -Same Stuff Different Mod.

 

-Thank heaven there was nothing fragile in there...

-It was a shipment of fans mostly. I picked out what I thought would be quiet fans and one Chinese knockoff for future fitting purposes. I gave these fans a test run and compared them to the typhoon. 16db is either loud or the knockoffs are better than I thought. There was little difference.

-Here's a shot of one of the psu feet after they were cleaned up and glued. I still may have a clearance problem with where I want to put my radiator.

-The fans I bought are shaped funny, so I need spacers to mount one to the front. This is layers made from scraps for that.

-I filed them down with the help of the drill press...

-and added a layer of hobby foam to get them tall enough to work.

-A front shot. The hole is not yet polished up. I need a new buffing wheel first. That boog took a long time to sand down.

-I picked this trick up off the net somewhere... Cut out some discs of hobby felt...

-Impale them on a needle...

-Sew them roughly together...

-and twist the whole thing onto a long screw. I'm using a 2" 6-32. If you don't have an adjustable chuck head for your dremel, you might want to find a screw that fits a standard chuck.

-I did some experiments on ABS to see how well it could be stained like the plexi. I wanted to do something similar to the fans.

-I taped off the seam where the electronics are exposed and marked the fan up with permanent markers.
Then I took it outside and splattered it with plexi solvent. It wasn't until I noticed the surface kept its original texture that I remebered that CASE FANS ARE NOT MADE OF ABS. All I had done was wash some of the ink off.

-I did remember from my modeling experience that permanent ink runs when you spray it with clear coat. It's not as permanent as I had wanted, but it's roughly the same look. I was hoping to fuse the ink, then clean off the taped off areas like in the experiment pic.

 

first of all this is my favorite most fitting name for a case: Hypno-Toad scratch case!

Anyways gj keep it up looking forward to seeing more!

 

Heheh, good thing it's not the Hypno-Toad lick case. ;P

It does have the coolest and most unique plexi color and pattern. Nice to see the old amphibian getting a work over.

 

I kind of like the new look of the fan.

 

lol the fan actually looks a bit snazzy! Cheapskate you honestly, for real, never cease to suprise me. True modding is taking something simple and using inginuity to make it perform better without costing money. You have done this time and time again..

 

Thanks everyone.
@Scirocco - I wouldn't lick THIS plexi, even after I cleaned it! I saw where it came from. I guarantee you will trip out on it!

@Stuey & Thacrudd - I wanted a more splotchy wash on the fan, but this works with the faceplate well. (I see they removed the 'surprise' spelling wordfilter.)

 

PSU modding *BZZZZT*

An update, but first, distractions...

-I parted out a couple of dead Dell servers the other day. I was hoping for more parts than I ended up with. Even the high-end stuff is proprietary junk.

-The first thing that caught my eye was a front mounted USB/firewire/audio port. D*mned if they didn't complicate that too.
1=motherboard control switch jack
2=tamper switch
3=motherboard main jack. this includes the firewire and power switches?
4=speaker (hay! I know this one!)
5=audio+?
6=USB+fire+?
You can see it will take forever to figure out the wiring, and I'm not sure I really want it any more. Anyone know where to get the schematics for this lump of poo? None of it is ATX standard. Some things that would come in handy would be the layout of the surface-mount jacks. I could trace the...traces to where they output to.

-I dug out some '70s green crushed velvet to cover stuff like fan labels. Do you think it will match? I need something to treat the edge seams with too.

-I swapped the 'good' power supply out of the donor system and got to chopping it. I let it sit around for a week in hopes the capacitors would lose their charge. I was lucky. The wiring on this one was simple.

-desoldered. I have officially voided the warranty on a $10 PSU.

-I want to add a radiator to the top of the PSU. After mounting the box to the bottom of the case, I still had less than 1" between it and the motherboard tray. Here I'm milling the feet down a bit so I have some more room. It's going to be close.

-I cut out holes for the stuff on the back of the PSU. I don't need a hole for the voltage switch. Later I had to grind a little bubble out on the inside so the switch would sit flush.

-I cut out a hole in the top for a 120mm fan. It seems pointless that I used the last bit of good plexi for this panel, but I have something now for a front fan grill.

-To make sure I got the risers glued in the right places, I taped them to the PSU unit and added the solvent with everything in position. Later I drilled 1/8" holes. Because this is extruded plexi, I could screw the 6-32 screws directly into the holes. The screws heated up during installation and made their own threading. I only had to cope with the horrid squeaking noise the screws made going in.

-Frankenstein-style case bolts. I'll fix this later with shorter bolts and by gluing the nuts on the inside.

-Everything got soldered back together. Many thanks to the review button on my camera. I forgot to label the top of the power plug. The knock-off fan is getting used for now. The other fan would have been a real pain to mount.

-and I plugged it in for a test and-*bzzzzt* *aaaIIgh!*...
Nothing bad happened! My first attempt at a PSU mod was a success, (so far.) I'm still not sure where to wire the outlet ground. I screwed it down to an insulated part of the board. Now there's the question of electromagnetic interference. Will I need a foil hat to operate this computer?
I need to put a grill over the back fan hole, and do some ductwork for the front, (MORE ducks?) I need the big mesh in the front to vent air out of the case, especially if it's going to be heated by the radiator and the PSU guts.

If anyone feels like moving me to the project logs, please do.

Edit: On the failure note, Is there any reason I can't change the old .14A fan out with a .2A? (Ironically, The fan in the A-Power PSU is the same brand as the Typhoon.) The White fan is whole .3Amps.