Project Mac Cube: Complete (Pictures and Videos - 16/08/05)

Keep an eye on ebay for uncomplete cubes they can be had for reasonable prices

Thanks

Click on the pictures they are all thumbnails linking to 800x600 shots

 

Hi Gordy.

Great project, have thought about it myself aswell. Those cubes are uber sweet ! Can I ask how much you paid for that?

Thanks
L

 

About £70

 

Actually, they link to 150x113 shots

Most of them anyway -

they are a little broken.

 

They are 800x600 is the silly forum playing up.

It tries to shrink images even if they are smaller than 640x480 click on the links and then close the window it creates.

 

Just doing some testing hoping that I could get it to work if I did it differently -
No luck -

Yours (the first one) and Mine (the second one) both don't quite work correctly





Tried in FireFox - worked closer to the way I thought it should, but it opened 2 windows - one of a thumb and one of a full size pic -

Then, I turned off my Google pop-up blocker in IE and I was able to get it to open the full size window (and the thumbnail window)....

So, this has always worked in bit-tech before - what's going on?
_____________________________________________________

Edit -
Did some more investigation just to make sure I was doing it right - went back to this post that tells 'how to' -

looks like clicking on a pic now opens that pic in a new window whether or not the pic has a URL in it. what happened? Is this related to the recent upgrade?

 

It's caused by a plugin that bit have installed to stop people from posting images that are over 640x480 wide and screw up the forums.

The only problem is that the plug-in is massively flawed

 

So - um - un-install the plugin?

 

Not up to me its on the bit forum server tis the bit-tech's job to remove it, nothing I can do about it

 

I know - wasn't directed at you - just in general...

 

You and your Apple->PC mods Gordy

 

Atomic indeed

It does look ultra cute though

 

The issue lies with a piece of javascript that is inserted in to every image tag that a user posts. It checks if the width of a picture is greater than 650px. The script appears to work if the image is actually >650 wide. However the thumbs on this page don't trigger the If{} block of the JS but the OnClick trigger is valid so it's opening the popup window for the 'full' sized and the <a href> link that is user generated. The code is executing properly it's just flawered. I'll post something in the feedback forum if someone else hasn't already...

 

yeah, mac cases always have been "prettier". not that i care, never have cared much for soft lines and pastels...

but if he does paint it black... OH, he should paint it a really deep blue and paint the clear acrylic with that UV paint... on second thought, ignore me. if i ever get money and motivation i want to try that.

 

hehe its only my second Though I still want a g5 case

 

I'm still in two minds about painting it as I've done far too much painting of late and my lungs need a clear out hehe. And add to that its hard to get the finish when I'm using my spare room/office as a paint studio

I've not done any more work on this mod as I've been away all weekend but I've done some measuring and I can squeeze the two hard disc's and optical drive in with the heatsink in place so I will keep it in place as it add's massively to the strength of the cube and looks cool! The only issues is that certain bits need removing and they are fixed with solder but I have a solution for that

 

Well its time for the first update on this project and its something I don't normally do thats for sure!

I had a play with the internal layout and I worked out that I can fit 2x hard discs and one laptop optical drive in the cube chassis whilst still using the heatsink/structural element with a few changes. The advantage of this is that I dont have to machine a whole new structural element. It would be a nightmare to recreate. The only issue was that the bottom section of the heatsink would have to be removed.





You can see the bottom section in the second picture above. At first I thought it was screwed into place but I quickly realised it was soldered in place. This gave me some second thoughts on the idea but I came across the idea of heating the whole heatsink till the solder melted....

So for the first time ever for me I had to use my oven for modding 280 degrees of modding power hehe!





I wrapped the heatsink in foil to save my oven, apologises for the sorry state of the oven its in desperate need of a clean hehe. After five minutes in the oven the parts fell apart in my oven mitts!











I've also started to create the new top chassis plate along with the motherboard plate. During the creating of the motherboard plate I discovered that the chassis is 16.7cm thick on the base and bareing in mind the dimensions of the motherboard is 17.0cm that creates a small problem. I will have to sand back the area where the motherboard will fit to squeeze it in.

I've not taken any pictures of the plate so far, but I will do that tommorow.

 

Just curious -

The cubes were (in)famous for cracking around the corners of the cube. Does your cube have any of that and was there ever any solution?

 

They tend to have hairline cracks around the screw points , there are some scratches on my cube but I can't find actual cracks. I really need to clean it up and see what state its in. Busy on the interior at the moment as its the most pressing matter.

 

I've had a chance to do a few more bits on this project, first thing to do was to make a motherboard tray after a couple of different designs I got one that worked. I had trouble finding a method of fitting it to the heatsink whilst still being able to mount the motherboard standoffs. I realised the best way round this was to use existing threads and I found three in the middle of the heatsink and even more luck they were m3 threads!

So I went about putting the heatsink and the handle mechanism back together this was far from easy!





Then the motherboard tray was attached to the heatsink. It sits flush to the heatsink which will help cooling I hope.





With the motherboard in place it works a treat.



I then did a test fit of the heatsink/motherboard tray combination and it fits perfectly. I didnt test fit the motherboard as it wont fit without the port cutouts that was next!



I've started on cutting a rectangle into the chassis, I used a nibbler tool which takes little "bites" of metal so its great for this sort of thing. The only problem is that it gives nasty blisters without gloves and I hate using gloves grrr. I'd forgotten how hard steel is compared to aluminium this was hard work. It needs finishing yet but a particularly nasty blisters has stopped me for the day.



Thats all for today I hope to get the motherboard into place tommorow and then finish up the motherboard tray.