Case Mod - In Progress Project: Warp Core - offline indefinitely...

Azayles - bought another lot as I'd already wasted some and planned to use more

Djayness - THANKS!

riekmaharg2 - Thanks Keir! I tried putting the pump back together but it still didn't fire up. That was weeks ago so maybe I'll give it another go at the weekend.

Cheapskate - Thank you! Maybe cable braiding hose? Cable hosing? Not sure! Going to be drilling holes in the MB tray and routing them through there so yep I think I'll leave shrink wrapping them. Hopefully they should look good all lit up with UV LEDs!

 

I've been found out! Yeah one of the pins came loose from the wire when pulling them out using the removal tool - its a cheap ATX extension so that's probably why - trying to get it out, some of the connector came loose but it's re-connected and my PC works fine!

 

Very good idea - I think I will definitely try seating it in something, even just a little as the tube ends looks a bit unprofessional.

It shouldn't do, I mean the metal connectors still make contact okay - they just aren't sheathed in plastic. I don't fancy undoing all the cables to fit another so I'll leave it I think

Yeah some are but I did get a faint smell of electrical burning when it first stopped and I looked at it so hopefully if something has died it will be exposed enough to see. The D5 is working fine so it's not a big issue getting the DDC working again!

 

Thanks for the tip! Thankfully I was sanding and washing a lot at the same time so maybe this cleaned my fingers meaning the paint job turned out okay!

I got some florescent acrylic from Chilled PCs yesterday - I have big plans for the internals this weekend. Watch this space!

 

Sorry for the wait. All I can say is moving house takes a long time!

The idea is to create an illuminated floor for the mid section that looks like a computer panel in Star Trek:



At least, maybe without all the text etc, just the lines and maybe a couple of buttons. I started with an opaque piece of blue acrylic as a test subject. First I marked out the lines - this is pretty tricky getting them all straight but the curves were very tricky indeed. Going to need some practice before I do the real thing as I need some tight curves going on and I've made a bit of a hash of it so far!



Here's all the lines marked up - looks pretty good as it is doesn't it!



Next I sprayed the acrylic with the same graphite paint I used on the case as I'll be painting the inside at some point too.



Gently peel them all off...



And voila!





Think I may need a light at either end but it's looking okay so far. The light source should disappear once I've applied a few more coats so it's just the lines showing. Hopefully with a bit of yellow and purple in the mix too, it should look good.

 

Thanks Alexis! Have to say I can't take all the credit. A lot of ideas for the method came from Neptune's Trident and p0Pe's PC-beto!

 

It's line masking tape. It's more like thin insulating tape and is much more flexible than masking tape. It's used for delicate sections on cars but does lend itself to modding too! Big_Adam introduced me to it a while back and I've been using ever since!

I may try that, but it's only one coat so I'm hoping a few more will do the trick!

 

This is probably the biggest update so far, thanks to a nice long bank holiday weekend! I decided to press ahead using the acrylic/mask/spray paint technique. I started playing with designs and realised it wouldn't be too tricky to have different colours in the design.

You can see below the general idea - 4 sections of acrylic in blue and yellow, each with its own design.





I then made a scale drawing of the design and taped this to the acrylic ready for Dremeling!









The design had to work around the fact there are four tubes that need to pass through the mid section. To make things easier, I managed to get the design going through one piece of acrylic so measured everything up and started making holes!







Here's the four pieces together for the first time.



Now to start masking off the design...







Now I realised early on that having four pieces of acrylic was going to mean nasty join marks after I'd painted it. I hit on the idea of having a final layer of clear stuff (hadn't decided what to use at that point!) to give the final layer a smooth finish.

In the end I used a large piece of acetate cut to size and stuck down on the four pieces of acrylic. I hoped and prayed that the paint would take to it!



Which thankfully it did!

With the finished article looking like this!









A few bits of over-spray but this can be sorted.





I'm loving the look though, really pleased with it.



Holes cut for tubing - a bit rough but I plan to have some chrome connectors here anyway.



That's all for now!