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Case Mod - In Progress Rusty and weathered NAS box (Synology DS213) , UPDATE: 07.05.

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by maRiio, 1 May 2013.

  1. maRiio

    maRiio What's a Dremel?

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    Hi guys! :)

    Since there was so much recognition and credit of all of you guys on the last works I did (which I highly appreciate!) I’m not the born blogger, but I will (try to) do a processing log of the next case which I planned to work on since I got asked several times to do so. Before you read on and take a look at some of the shots have to say I won’t do any photos when I do some drilling, tapping some threads or anything like that – either I won’t keep my camera all the time in my workshop whether I’m not the one who switches to a camera while modding since I cannot really enjoy it when doing so. I hope you guys understand and forgive me! :)

    In case you missed my recent work (or want to take a look at it), beside in my signature here’s the link to it.

    http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=3326493#post3326493

    Basically it’s two external hard disk drive shells which have been given an old, rusty, weathered look.

    Since I own no more hard drives to make a case for it’s time to recycle my old Synology NAS and get a stand-of-the-art version of it. And with stand-of-the-art I mean USB 3.0 – can’t live without it anymore :hehe:

    Anyway…
    Before starting to cut something out of the case I might regret later I always do some sketches first to see if I like what it’s going to look like. This time I started with some Photoshop (instead of some non-identifiable drawing on a piece of paper) to get an even better feel of it :)
    Temporary I’m going with the idea to cut pretty much off the case since I’ve got a few plans what the inside should look like so apparently the outer shell has to go anyway.

    [​IMG]

    Basically the outer shell (or what’s left of it haha) is going to look like the one I did on my last HDD-case-case mod (the orange one) but with a few major modifications regarding the overall look of it. I’m planning to recreate some (or one big) dent(s) (I guess that’s the word for the bending in the metal you get when hitting it with a hammer? :hehe: ) since it should be quite easy to recreate it when working with polystyrene (the white material for the shell).
    Temporary the color of the case will be some kind of blue but I’m not quite sure if that fits with the overall look. I guess it will be decided when it comes to painting :)

    So let’s start... with bending some plastic. I bought some A4 sized sheets of it in different material strengths (2,3 and 5mm) but I guess I will stay with the 3mm one since it’s the most comfortable one to work with regarding the bending process.

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    The case has an outer radius of exactly 22mm for which I need some metal with exactly this radius aswell to bend the plastic over. On my last two cases I used the case itself for bending but since the Synologys housing is totally made out of 1mm plastic I guess when heating it with a heatgun the case itself would melt away before the polystyrene gets soft :hehe:
    So I had to make me a little friend which helped me for that task…

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    …and regarding his nature he was very friendly and made all the bending stuff some relaxing work :)

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    Here are the first parts I started with :) They will be mounted on side of the front for which I (I have to confess) absolutely don’t have a clue how it will look like…

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    When the first parts were basically finished (regarding their shape ;) ) it was time to make the bigger parts which will reside on the right (and mostly later unharmed) side of the case.
    Again I cut and bent the polystyrene and dremel’ed the hell out of them :hehe:

    [​IMG]

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    …following the test if it fits and (what’s even more important) looks good. Basically it looks awful since it’s white… and no color… yet :)

    [​IMG]

    I will leave you with those (even few) pictures since I didn’t have more time to work on the case.

    Cheers,
    Mario
     
    Last edited: 7 May 2013
  2. maRiio

    maRiio What's a Dremel?

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    modding the back...

    Update time!
    But the update itself is just a little one since there wasn't enough time this weekend to get the stuff done I set myself as a goal :waah: Anyway I'm quite satisfied with the things I achieved until this Sunday evening :p

    Altough it's not that much...
    I started to design a backplate for the case since there was absolutely no other (good looking) way to mount the fan I ordered and wanted to use. My buddy Bene was so kind and machined two backplates from 3mm aluminum plate (cheers to you, bro! :thumb:) I designed in AutoCAD.

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    First of all I wanted to make simple, plain backplate for the case but somehow I wasn't very pleased with the idea to NOT mod the backside of the case. Luckily I had a spontaneous idea when looking at some of my first sketches...

    Here's the result :hehe:

    [​IMG]

    Looks like a bad accident, I know haha, but it isn't :hehe:
    Again I want to achieve some kind of rusty, weathered look with a little pinch of explosion stuff going on :D
    To bring a little more life into the whole case I cut the fan in two pieces aswell to fit the broken and bent plate. The cut was done quick but there's some dremel-weathering left which needs to be done to the fan.

    [​IMG]

    After filing the cut parts I drilled four holes in the backplate to get the two parts of the fan mounted.
    I tried to heaten the fan's plastic but unfortunately that stuff is SO heat-resistent I needed to fire it with a 600°C to get it a little bendable. Since I do before I think one of the blades suffered from the enormous heat :(

    [​IMG]

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    After that step was done I cut the other plate to function like a spacer between the original and the new backplate. This one will be redone later and is just for showing purposes right now.
    Next thing to do is to do the mounting of the backplate to the chassis wich will be kind of a difficult task since the logic board is quite big so I have to make sure no screw hits some fragile things on there...

    [​IMG]

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    More until next weekend; Cheeeeeeers! :)
     
    Last edited: 5 May 2013
  3. flix

    flix Minimodder

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    Nice project.
    I'm looking forward to the next updates.
    Keep up the good work.
     
  4. maRiio

    maRiio What's a Dremel?

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    Thx flix, I try to keep the updates coming ;)

    Again I had a little time to mod on. But it's just a little update...
    I started bending the cover for the rear end. It was just a mess keeping the material in place with some tape and don't destroy the plastic of the case itself when trying to heat it. But in the end it worked out quite well...
    Another thing is to capture all the bending going on in this piece since it's quite reflective. Later with a matte finish it's a little easier to look at :D

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    May I introduce you my next "little" helper...

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    *drums*

    *drums

    *drums*

    and so on... :hehe:

    Anyway, here you go :naughty:

    [​IMG]

    And here's the victim it's supposed to cut in. I had to take a deep breath to perform that task... because I guess the warranty get's voided :waah: :p

    [​IMG]

    Anyway. Got the Makita equipped whit that beast and started cutting.

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    *knock knock* - Who's there? - MO****F**** BIG-A**-DRILL! :hehe:

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    I guess 99% of you won't know what that hole is supposed to do for later on but I will let you step in the dark until I get my side panels finished hehe. I hope to get them done this weekend but since it's "GTI-Treffen" here in Austria I guess there won't be too much time for me to be in the workshop.
    Ahhhh. One little thing I did today aswell.
    Screw to Hex-Screws into the backplate to fix it to the rest of the case :)

    [​IMG]

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    That's for now. Hope you enjoyed it guys!

    Mario
     
    Last edited: 7 May 2013
  5. Knighthammer

    Knighthammer What's a Dremel?

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    This is interesting for sure. Subbed!
     
  6. KrunchR

    KrunchR What's a Dremel?

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    Nice work. Looking good.
     

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