Hello everyone. My name is Ryan, I am 18 years old and from Cincinnati, Ohio... I used to be a member wayyy back in the day. Finally i decided to join up again and start reading the forums. Well now I have been inspired to start my own project by the large number of good looking cases on here. So my first post begins my first project log. lets get to it... Here's what i'm starting with. Its a black AMS CF-2029S with an ordinary side window(forgot to take pictures of it the window but it won't matter much) As you can see this case and setup is a mess. A dusty mess of wires mixed in with the ever so ugly red cotton sleeving on the replacement PSU because both of mine are shot . Thank god for image resizing software! Just to clear the record.. my name is NOT Dan... and that sticker isn't referring to Dan's Computer. Dan's Comp is a BMX mail order magazine. I've been riding BMX for a few years now. The case had front panel audio, usb, and firewire. Not sure if i'm really going to be needing the firewire and audio, but we will see at a later date. These are the front ports uninstalled There she is all emptied out. Like the Etnies sticker in the front? Yikes, look at all that caging in there. Definitely un-needed as I will be creating my own mounthing methods. So its down to the workshop I go! First thing was to get the hand drill because this case is completely held together by rivets!! Hard drive rack taken out Floppy rack removed And yes, the motherboard tray and back fitting was removed as well. Why? I've got an idea in mind! For the motherboard tray I will be creating i wanted to create something I haven't seen yet, that has my own unique style in it. I started off with some clear plexi and got to work measuring out the tray. Here is the scroll saw I will use to cut my plexi. For straight lines, if you can clamp a board as a guide, this is a very good method to use cutting plexi. Very clean, straight cuts, and it doesn't even take too long! So, here is the plexi motherboard tray all cut out. Notice that i have marked the wholes not only for my motherboard, but all the extra holes that were on the old tray as well. This is because I will undoubtedly be upgrading hardware, and I want this to be compatible if my future motherboard has a different hole configuration. My first idea was to drill half way through the plexi, as there will be a layer over top of it. The layer over top will have the standoffs screwed into it and it needs to sit flush on the plexi (thus the holes would allow this) So its over to the drill press This is the depth i wanted to start with. and the drilling actually went pretty well. Then during cigarette break i decided i would just drill the holes all the way through, as i didn't like how the holes would look from the other side(even though you will never see it). It's all in the details! Now it was time for the covers. My design will be as follows in the blatantly juvenile design... With that in mind I grabbed this material... This stuff is basically what the outside of your refridgerator(spelling?) is made out of. It is white shiny, and extremely ugly. I like the texture though, so I'll go with it. Because the material was cut in such a long skinny shape, i will be combining 2 pieces for each side. So the edges where they meet will need to be as flat as can be. So I worked them on the sander and was happy with the lines i got. Doesn't look like much yet but theres more to come -CasteR
The entire motherboard tray will need to be held together by something. So i grabbed some nuts and bolts and scrounged up 9 of these Here's a look at the 3 layers sitting together, sorry for the bad picture quality. They now needed to be clamped together and drilled for the 9 assembly bolts. (A process that I somehow forgot to take pictures of) Looking ok, the white is still dirty and ugly, but no worries. The ends of these will definitely need to be cut off. but I'll get to that later Now the fun part! To make a long story short, I sanded and wet sanded all 4 sides down and the edge i got is nice. It's hard to see on camera but its a nice smooth surface After that was done, I needed to work on the actual mounting of the motherboard. This was a fairly simple task.. I drilled into the top sheet and screwed the stand-offs in without a problem. Looks pretty cool besides, of course, the white Here is the finished piece. The holes look a little rugged but thats because they weren't touched up yet. And to finish the night off........ I went ahead and made myself a present. A nice tobacco pipe..... Pics of the final motherboard tray soon! Let me know what you think!, thanks -CasteR
I apologize if the pictures are coming up slow, they're linked from my own personal server and its not the quickest machine
<ot> Nice to see like the only other modder from the Tri-State area. I'm down in Florence KY. </ot> I don't remember ever seeing linoleum-esque materials used before on a case mod. It's a shame you couldn't get a single peice that would cover the whole backplane though. Keep up the good work, maybe you could bring it down to MML this summer.
Your case You have an AMS CF-2029S case only its not silver its black, either you or someone else pre-modded it because the black version I've seen has a vent on the front for the front fan.
@z4114 Florence eh? I'm there a bunch as i go to a couple skateparks down there from time to time. Linoleum-esque materials are definitely a first to me too. but then again thats the spirit of modding in my mind, originality! I will eventually probably switch out these pieces for full pieces that fit better, but if not, i'm not too worried about it as you'll never see it anyways @Supra55 this case has never been modded. It looked the way it did out of the box. heres a link i just found http://www.directron.com/cf20291bk.html that is the case except mine has a window on the side that i never got a picture of. Thanks a ton for the tip though! lost the box a couple years ago sorry for everyone who can't see my pictures. i'm going to change my host now so they should be up soon!
The only two skate-parks I know of are Ollie's and the City park at the corner of Ewing Blvd and KY-18. If you goto the city park, that's incredibly close to where I live. Oughta goto the Wafflehouse right there, drink coffee, smoke cigs (since we can still do that here, stupid Ohio smoking ban), and come up with crazy ideas.
Those are the two exact parks i go to Waffle house is amazing. i'm definitely down to do that sometime! I'll bring a pack of reds and some money haha. Wait, your cigarettes are much much cheaper, maybe i'll wait til i cross the river to buy those haha
pictures are good for me, and come up quickly... nice start though, seems you have some nice ideas, will be watching this one
thanks for the comments. the pics work well now as i changed them to photobucket hosting instead. look for the completed motherboard tray soon(its done). I might be repainting the top cover as i dropped a couple bolts and chipped some of the paint off. But heres an idea...
Got bored tonight and went ahead and started workin on another task to help me later on. I have decided that i might be relocating my psu later on if it can be more convenient to me, so i went ahead and made an adapter cable so that the computer's power chord can still be hooked right into the back. i'll have pics of that up later as well. let me know what you all think of everything so far!
Hey, I'm just down the road in Lexington, and I work in Georgetown. You can get a 4x8 sheet of that exact stuff at lowe's for about $12. Easy enough to have us cut it down for your car too. Come into the Georgetown lowe's sometime, I can show you a TON of cool modding supplies you'd never think of. I swear, I spend at least 10 minutes a day just wandering around, mod plotting. Funny that you're a mtn biker, I'm a road biker personally.
i just had a friend come into town on a road trip today, and he was talking about how much fun ollie's is. how weird is that? anyways, looking good so far.
i'll have to check out a lowes now! theres some close by me! i'll have to go roam around. i do the same sometimes. as far as the two covers are concerned it was free material and i like the texture when its not gloss. so i just used it. if i figure out somewhere to use it later on in the mod i'll definitely let you know! As far as biking goes, I ride BMX which is basically just skateparks, dirt jumps, vert, etc.. etc... Road Bikes are awesome though! I have a buddy into road biking
Next time your there, check out the drawer liner section, we have a 20" roll of brushed aluminum with adhesive on the back. I have all sorts of cool ideas on how to use it! That acrylic mobo tray looks fantastic, you did a great job on the edges, I'm presuming some sort of led is in it's future?
Very small update, but some eye candy Just went ahead and took some pictures of the first led in the mobo tray. The effect I am trying to get here is to light up just the edges of the motherboard tray with no light escaping, hence the two cover sheets. BEFORE YOU LOOK!!! These pictures represent only what this plexi looks like with the light in it, and what i mean by that is this.. The led's in the board will be white led's, not blue, and this one was just stuck into the stand-off hole. When i get the white led's i will drill holes further into the motherboard. and there will be either 3 or 4 leds total. But these pictures just give you an idea of how the tray works sorry for the bad pics. i'd take more but its a huge effort to take them, import them, convert them smaller, and leave 2 copies of each on the server, and now upload them to photobucket what do ya think?
