It All started November 16, 2005. I just picked up an aluminum toolbox for my xbox the day before. I need to get my Xbox in something. See, I traded my Xbox case for a psone LCD. It was a great deal I just couldn't pass up. This was also a bad idea. I had no idea of what to house my Xbox. I thought, why not build a case out of acrylic? Problem was, no local store will cut thick acrylic sheet and sell you that little chunk. You have to buy the $100 sheet! Yeah no thanks. Many months later, found perfect solution. This toolbox. 11/16/05 Purchased the case at Meanards Stripped out all foam padding out of bottom half The case, it's pretty secure, the only way to get in to cutoff the hooks or break the box. Also looks like those suitcases used to carry money, haha. Here's the inside of it stripped. (just bottom half) Originally it was foam, but that had to go. Underneath reveled some pretty crappy wood. Not good. 11/17/05 Hand sanded inside to remove leftover glue and foam Cut aluminum plates Cut acrylic base Much better! I cut thin gauge aluminum to cover all the wood up, it looks great. Another shot of the shiny interior. Here's most of the Xbox sitting on the acrylic tray. All screwed down and secure. Here's how it should look once complete, well almost. Another acrylic sheet will be placed to cover the Xbox so that the other half can hold like controller and cords and mic. Another shot of how it should all be placed. 11/18/05 Cut holes for xbox rear ports Cut slot for dvd drive After about 7 dremel disks, the ports are done. Another angle. Inside shot of the newly cut ports. Cut slot for the dvd drive. Took half an hour to cut, file, and fit. The drive open Another shot of the drive open with the case open.
6 MONTHS LATER!?!? (what happened? School. ) Since it's semester week I found it the perfect time to finish my Xbox. FINALLY! Also the fact I'll be moving in with my sister and brother in law for the summer to work. I did not want to haul my xbox when it has no case. Here we go.... UPDATE - 5/17/06 I got the DVD drive mounted finally and bolted on. The only thing that troubled me was it hanged down little bit too low. So I had to file the DVD slot on the case.... After I filed the slot to make it bigger. The bolts that hold the DVD drive up. Tested the drive, it opens with scraping on the case. Getting ready to drill holes for the fan controller. Using the 5.25" bay cover that came with it as a guide. Holes drilled out. Lining up my guide so I can drill the holes for the LEDs. Good news is the fan controller fits, bad news is it's a little bit crooked. But not too bad.
UPDATE - 5/18/06 As I rolled out of bed for my last day of school I see this thing starting me in the eyes. Then after the hour we had to be there for I started to work on my project once again. If I want to finish this before Monday I'll have to work on it everyday. I decided the bottom acrylic "tray" had to go. It's cracked and the velcro looked really bad. Once I got rid of the acrylic tray I had to do something with the aluminum that covered the bottom. Those velcro strips aren't coming off, so out with the old... In with the new... My new method of holding the acrylic tray to the case. I didn't want to drill a hole into the acrylic because you have to go full speed with the drill. If you don't you'll split and crack the acrylic into pieces. Not good when you've come so far with it. I've done this many times. >_< With the new acrylic tray I had the option to change somethings. So I changed how the HDD was mounted. This allowed for better wire management, as seen here. If you look at the DVD drive, I've also added a long bolt to hold the drive better in place. Another angle. Here you can see I've started the control panel. This will hold my controller ports and power switch/eject switch. I've cut the holes for the controller ports. Not exactly easy cutting small square holes with a dremel. This is how and where the control panel will sit. In order to use the case and allow the four fans cool the xbox you'll have to have the xbox opened. This is a nice feature if you don't want someone playing your xbox. Just shut it and lock it. The control panel will be attached and supported by the bottom acrylic tray with long bolts. Right now the switch and ports are just sitting in there. I'll be hot gluing them to the panel. I'll also be frosting the acrylic so that you can't see through it. How it looks ATM.
UPDATE - 5-19-06 Today I started around 12-ish and had to take a walk to Cenex to get 4 long bolts. Here's what I started first on today. The control panel! It's attached to the bottom acrylic tray with four long bolts and a series of nuts. 12 in total. Another View of the control panel front I frosted the acrylic so it's not nearly as transparent. I then hot glued the ports and switch circuit board in place. Here you have a good idea of how the acrylic tray is held to the case. It's not going anywhere. Here's another view of the bolts and the brackets....oh my? The control panel in place. Another View Hear is the window that will cover the bottom half of the case and also hold the 3 fans. The fan holes cut. They were a bitch to cut because the hole saw I got is retarded (it wobbles) or it's because the fact I was going in reverse to cut the holes. Had to do this to avoid cracking and breaking the acrylic. Hinged the door, added supports, added handle, added magnetic cabinet shut. After about 24 hours of modding and cutting and hacking in 3 days, this is what I've accomplished.... FINISHED PICTURES!!!
excellent idea.. gotta make one myself, those Xbox machines are really fragile when transporting them! excellent job buddy
thats nice. i have allways wanted to put a computer in one of those cases. and a lcd in the lid would make that one of the best xbox's ever
it just need an LCD (like Bender386 and Lancer said), and perhaps a paintjob.. But still, nice finish
ok so i just found one of these cases in mu house. and im going to do the same thing with a old computer i have thats just sitting on a desk with no case at all.
Thanks for the comments guys. I was going to put my psone LCD in it, but it just wouldn't look right. The little 5" LCD on the top of the case. I want to get like a 15" LCD TV. But it's out of my budget. But I will accept donations. Who knows, maybe I'll put little bit more money into it with my summer job. Moddingchaos, I believe this is a log, if not please define log, haha.
On a side note, you can go slow with acrylic, you just need the right bits . Or to start with small holes and enlarge.
Ah yes, I forgot to change that. I actually went slow with the 80mm fan holes. So I contradicted myself. Thanks to Case Mod God, I didn't have an incident with my acrylic window. http://www.casemodgod.com/5dollarmod2.htm Followed that guide and it worked perfect. Even though my hole saw wobbles, lol.
sui winbolo: i meant bender386, if he was gonna make a similar project with a case, then HE could make a log .. I know this a log
