Case Mod - In Progress Radio! - Big update! 26/7

Introduction

A while ago I stumbled upon an old Philips radio. Although the radio was in a pretty bad shape, I like it and gave it some thinking. After a while I came up with the idea of transforming the old radio in a computer case.
I'll start with some pictures of the radio the way I found it:




The Idea

I want the radio to be capable of fitting two motherboards, 2 PSU's and about 6 HDD's. And of course I want to provide it with some decent cooling.
I've made a very simple sketch in SketchUp, to make my idea more clear:
The front:

Inside:

Lower inside:


Deconstruction!
I began with deconstructing the radio, some pictures of the process:


Fully deconstructed:

This picture shows the lower and upper compartment clearly:

And the front, taken apart as far as I could:


Update 1
I started sanding all the parts, to remove the old, damaged paint.
The front:

The side:

And sanded all parts:


Update 2
Because the radio is old and not properly maintained, the old glue didn't work properly anymore on certain parts, so I today I put some new glue on them:
Upper backside:

Lower frontside:

Next I sanded the last part, the cover, which I forgot last time:
Half-way:

Done:


The sanding is done and there's some new glue on the parts, so I'll be ready to start modifying the radio in the next update.

(PS: Be easy on my english, I'm not a native speaker)

 

oh wow, following this one

 

Update 3

I decided to build an entirely new backside. I went to the local DIY-store and they sawed it free of charge. After some filing and sanding the parts fitted perfectly.
Upper backside:

Lower backside:

And eventually a part for the upper compartment, I will explain the use of that one later:


Update 4

Today I started building a new front, this will hold a fan controller, the switches, etc.:

Next I made the part which will hold the motherboard in the lower compartment:

An overview of all the parts until now:


Update 5

This afternoon I made various aluminium parts which will hold the different "wooden"(MDF) parts.
The process:

The parts for the upper backside:

Support for the lower motherboard part:

And the parts for the lower backside:


Update 6

I started sawing a case-window on the top side:

Done:

Next I made the holes for the PSU's.
Preparation:

Done:

And it will look like this, when a PSU is fitted:


Next I will be working on the motherboard tray's, so stay tuned

 

Update 8

Today I made a construction so I can hot-swap my mobo-tray's

Preparation:

Half-way:

Done:

How it looks like with a tray on top:

To make the idea more clear, I made a short film of the swap-process:


Update 9

Today I started making a ventilation-hole for the PSU's:
Preparation:

Done:

I made a frame around the hole and put some mesh in them(not glueed yet):

I also finished the second mobo-hot-swap system, first some drilling:

Little parts ready for sawing:

I forgot to make some process pictures, so flashforward to an overview of the parts I made this week:

At last I also made a sketch of a fanhole-cover I want to use maybe, I'm curious if you see what I meant to make(it has something to do with music):

I would like to know what you think of it and really like to know if any of you got some tips for the fanhole cover or maybe other parts

This is the progress till march 30, from now on I'll try to keep you posted by providing 1 or 2 updates a week. I hope you like my project and I like to hear all your tips, comments and thoughts

 

Pink Floyd, old radio...
You, sir, deserve a lurker's first post in a long time.
Definitely subbed!

 

/Follow, verry nice, awesome woodskills

 

I love those old radios! Have fun with the modding!

 

Nice,

For the video paste the youtube code (this m6uuE5j6TCo) and wrap the youtube tags around it.

 

Wow,

This will be a really nice job by the time it is finished.........

 

You sir, have some wood skills for sure!!!!! This is going to be epic!!!!

 

Nice work. that case must be about 40 years old.

 

Cool

I don't fully understand what that means but I think thanks
Pink Floyd is in my opinion still one of the greatest bands ever, can't wait to see Roger Waters performing The Wall live next week in Holland

Thanks!

I love them too and I'm definitely having fun!

Thanks, it worked

I hope so

Thanks!

Thanks, I was wondering myself lately about how old this radio is, but I think 40 years is a good estimation

Update 10

The weather was very good today, so I was able to do quite a lot of modding. I started finishing the PSU intake-hole and the-other-useless-hole-that-was-already-there-in-the-bottom-hole. First I glueed(is that a verb in english?) the frame.
The PSU intake-hole:

And the other hole:

Next I put the mesh-panels in and it was finished.
Bottom:

From the inside:

Then I glueed the frame of the window in the top of the case:

Finished:


Next I started making new feet for the radio. I used a miter-saw to cut the 15 degree angles to make them look like the original feet:

The new feet(right) and the old feet(left), which was pretty demolished by the previous owner:

Waiting for the glue to dry out:

I couldn't hold this one with a holder, so some improvisation:

And this is how it looks:


I came up with a plan for my hard disks. The radio will be capable of holding six 3,5" devices and four 2,5" devices. Way to much for my current needs, but it's more futureproof this way and I have a lot of space anyway The idea exists only in my head, so you will see what this parts are for when I'm going to assamble the rack
First I went to the DIY-store again to buy some MDF-panels and I let them saw the long cuts.
In front the panels I bought today:

Like this:

It turned to this, hold together by some tape for now:

Next I had to cut 14 identical pieces, so I came up with the following, some tape on my sawing-machine:

It worked out pretty good:

All the pieces of the HDD-rack I made today:


I will try to finish the HDD-rack this week and maybe start working on the fancovers

EDIT: I see I forgot to change the title like most people do on this forum, I will do this next time

 

Radio! |Update April 9th|

Update 11
This week, I've been working on the HDD-rack. First I had to glue the parts from the previous update:

Result:

Second I sawed the last parts of the HDD-rack also:

An unexpected visitor stopped by while sawing:


I gathered my courage and managed to get him/her away, and this are the parts:

Glued them:

Sawed some more parts:

In between I made a prototype of the HDD-slides, with this:

I created this:

They fit perfectly:

Flashforward to glueing the HDD-rack:

And this is how it looks, I still need to make the backside and finish the edges:



This week I'm going to finish the HDD-rack and I will try to make it hot-swapable

 

That would be a Barnacle Goose there sir

Loving this mod. As was previously said, old radio + Pink Floyd = cannot fail.

P.S. Hope you enjoy the gig matey. I have the distinctly unpleasant knowledge that my wife went to see them on the original Wall Tour in 1981-ish. Just one of many live performances she rubs my face in

 

Now this might be waaaay to late... But are you going to keep the LP player on top?

 

this is looking so cool, clearly there's a lot of effort being made" i can't wait to see the finished product

 

Thanks, and I sure will enjoy the show tomorrow

Nope, I never listen to LP's..

Photo-update 1
Haven't done any modding today, but I did make some pictures to give you guys a clear overview of the radio in the current state.
Front-side, with cover:

This cover can slide to the side so I can reach the HDD's:

Close-up:

Without cover:

Backside overview:

Close-up of the upper compartment, two 140mm fans will be fitted in the front:

The lower compartment, I will probably fit a 200mm fan in the front:

PSU-compartment:

And the HDD-compartment, I'm planning to fit some other stuff here, but have to think about that some more first:


I know this was the laziest update ever, but I thought it would be a good idea to give an overview of what I have been doing for the past weeks. Next I will be working on finishing the HDD-rack, fitting the motherboards and make room for the cooling and the wires

 

Actually it is a verb, but its spelled Glued, not criticising since your english is way better than my Dutch.

I think i know where Angel is going with this....it's not about using the LP's its about keeping the realism/antique flavor. Just having the player still on top, even better if it still spins, would add to the illusion that it's still an old radio, not a powerhouse computer.

Oh, and BTW Sub'd

 

Thanks, for the correction
I understand your point, but the LP'player just takes room I need for the computer and it was not visible on the outside anyway. I'll ensure you that you will not see a sign of the pc inside on the outside

Update 12
It's been way to long since my last update but here's one! The upside is: quite a lot has happenend over the last month, so here comes a pretty big update. I haven't been able to work very fast because of the fact I need to wait for parts or tools a lot, because I don't have all the tools I need at home, and I'm also doing my exams so that takes a little time to
First of all, I finished the mounting of the motherboards on the trays. The whole process was new to me, so I had to make the most parts multiple times, but I've learned a lot
First of all, I've sawed the spacers, I need 18(9 per motherboard) but I've think I've used about 40 to get them right The spacers are just a steel pipe sawed into pieces:

It was hard to get the holes exactly in the middle, but with a lot of trying I've been able to make 18:

Then I've tapped the holes, never done this before so I broke the first tap, but after a while I get a hang of it and it worked fine:

The result, not sure about the bolts though:

For mounting the spacers I first marked where they need be:

Then I drilled some holes for the spacers to fit in:

I used this stuff to glue the spacers:

Glued both trays:

As you can see, a bit messy, so I cleaned it up a little:

Done:

I also received this package from Brink Of Modding(Modding shop of Brinkz0r), I really don't know how they're called in english:

I will use this nuts in the aluminium parts which are to thin to tap:

Mark the holes:

Drilled with a 5,5mm drill:

Pulled the nuts into the aluminium:

Result:


Glued the parts to the radio:

Result:


More glueing:


Result:


The I got really tired of the useless hole in the bottom:

So I decided to close it, first I used to chisel to lower the surface around the hole a bit so I could fit a thin piece of wood and some filler:

After some sanding:

Stuck with a hole on the inside:

Fitted a piece of MDF:

After some filling and sanding:

Now that I got rid of this hole, I was able to enlarge the PSU-intake hole for some more fresh air. I will make a custom removable dust filter for this hole soon:

Testfitting PSU:


With the PSU installed I was able to determine the location of the first wire hole, first I drilled some small holes:

Holesaw Cheesecake:

After drilling:

Completed(Dont mind the filler, just filling some holes there, will be flattenend ofcourse):

I also testfitted some old motherboard in the upper compartment:

And found a way to hold the expansions cards, will be tapped just like the spacers:

Finally I began working on a new HDD-rack, because of likely resonance problems and the complicated swapping proces I decided to build a new one. Some sawing first:

Some cuts in an old mouse pad:

Looks like this:

And it will look like this(sorry for the crappy picture, our camera broke down and my phone camera is really awful in the dark):

I've finished all the parts, after I've painted them I will assemble the whole HDD-rack and make some proper pictures.
Now about the painting thing, this will be the colour for the inside:

The outside will be varnished like the original radio

So this was the first update in way too much time, I will update far more frequently from now. In a week I'm done with my exams and I will have more than 3 months of vacantion so a lot of modding this summer
Thanks for watching!

 

very nice ! good job ! i want more !!!