Hold My Beer Episode 10: FLOOR IT! The floor of this computer case needs an upgrade, its stamped "metal" of some sort with plenty of holes and divots and clips n stuff for items I wont need ... and its stock, who needs that... I had an extra chunk of plastic from a screw up on "project dolphin", which BTW is ongoing but in the background, that happened to fit the floor space of this machine quite well. The end was trimmed to length and fitted into place Clear plexi is not that interesting I was thinking I wanted something green down there, but I do not want to spend money. Looking around the house I saw this green T-shirt from instructables.com that I had won as part of a BBQ contest, perfect! Green and Free! Using some spray adhesive I proceeded to "upholster" the plexiglass with a T-shirt Now I have a tidy green floor to match my plywood paneling
Hold My Beer Episode 11: Windwers Been a week or so, been exploring new to me idea's, been reworking and rethinking ideas. One of those was how to add a large side panel window into a baby AT case. After doing some "careful" measurements I came to a couple conclusions. I could make a side window in a nice and safe size, which blocks a part of the video card, and the edge of the beer bottle res. Or ... I could be stupid and maximize the window leaving very little room for mistakes ... Gee golly guess what I did? The safe bet is 1 inch (25.4mm) from the edges, screw that, I marked out 3/4 inch from the edges (19mm) darn well knowing that I would over cut that, and not accounting for the bend radius nor the thickness of the case sheet metal. Add onto that the internal framework, which is in contact with the shell, extends a tad over 1/2 inch (aka 13 mm) and the tolerance stack-up means I have about 1/16th (or 1.6mm) to fit a side panel window without crashing. Marking that garbage up I then proceeded to drill a hole Then took the power sheers I recently got at a second hand tool store to the side of the case (OMG you have to get these if you can) Sheet of plexi was cut to size, put into place and tacked at the corners with acrylic hot melt glue Every bubba's friend, black RTV silicone was applied to hold the panel in place, as clamping pressure I placed my damn near 70lb granite block on it ... cause its heavy and big Using off cuts from the case and the acrylic I tried a couple samples of RTV + plexi + metal case, and they all looked like hot garbage from the outside ... then it dawned on me that I have a long section of plastic T moulding, that gives me a smooth straight edge with the profile I was wanting. The T part of the T moulding was sliced off with a razor knife, giving me a flat convex profile I wanted, and that was cut at 45 degree angles to fit, and taped down. Tape was positioned so the parts could be flipped back, and RTV applied. This gave me the smooth look I wanted, while filling the gap tween the plexi and the metal case and didn't look like a hawt mess, once things were dry I knifed and scrapped the excess and gave it its first cleaning.
for whatever reason the forums no longer allow me to post images larger than 512 in on direction so tiny pictures I guess (usually I post 1024x512ish)
The image hosting has been a little picky since the software migration. You could try raising the .jpg compression to lower the file size. Metal shears: If it's a really old unit, there could be felt-filled holes for oil. A lot of old tools failed because they used bushings instead of bearings.
Hold My Beer Episode 12: Bout Friggin Time! Its been a while since I last posted on this subject but, heck due to holiday's, getting a whole new workstation (which of course means completely cleaning, deconstructing and sorting my old one, I had to build the new one and sort it out lol) + work + a list of Honey-do's + I like to spend time with my family + I had to figure out how to do some stuff on this project + international postage + I need some "me" time = whew! This episode focuses mainly on the front bezel, which is still not finished but its 90% there. These old cases have a metal shell bent in the shape of a U, the back is retained by (6) screws and the front is retained by a overlap on the front bezel plastic. Since I do not have that plastic I had to recreate the overlap and figure out how to attach it all, while remaining as trashy as possible. The inspiration came from the big box store which sells this long strip of bent aluminium meant to act as a transition piece for cheap thin laminate flooring. Cutting off one leg of the Z shape left me with a nice L shape with "close enough" dimensions to fit exactly what I need. Measurements were taken and V notches were cut to make a rectangle frame and now I have a channel for the front of the case to slide into. Next I take some wooden stock from the same store, rip it and cut it to size to make a front bezel frame Once fitted, the aluminium channel is screwed to the frame, and the wood is given the "aged" process I have done on other wooden parts, IE steel wool, ammonia, and too much gel stain left to dry. and the bezel is left to dry.
Hold My Beer Episode 13: Truck Nuts This case needs some feetz, the stock case had some wimpy plastic feet that pushed into the case, not only did that suck, they pushed into the case where I have a floor and one would collide with the motherboard... lets redneck it First step is to go to tractor supply and buy the biggest hex nuts they have, which at my store was for a 1.25 inch thread for tractor tires, those in hand the problem is they are new and shiny. To rectify that the nuts were wire brushed and cleaned with acetone to get rid of any coatings on them, next a solution was mixed which contained white vinegar and table salt until the salt would not dissolve any more at that day's given ambient temperature. Fizzing steel is a good thing right? Once the fizzing subsided the nuts were removed to dry off in air without cleaning the solution off, and a couple hours later... Clear coat was applied and once that dried the faces intended to mate with the case were once again cleaned with acetone, along with the bottom of the case. In order to attach the feet to the case a good ole redneck solution was applied, JB WELD. For those not in the know JB WELD is a strong epoxy that is reinforced with steel particles, I know a guy who "fixed" a transmission mount on a honda civic with the stuff and drove for like 30K miles before selling it still holding on fine. The stuff has a reputation... Once let to set up for about 15 min (I was using the quick set version) I tested the bond by lifting the pc roughly a half inch off my secondary work surface by one of its feet, its not going to slide around, but I needed clamping pressure. This machine is getting heavy with all that is in it so that would have been enough, but for extra clamping pressure lets toss the 70ish LB granite surface plate on it and let it sit overnight I think that will do for feet
Hold My Beer Episode 13: Shut the front door Back on the front bezel, I cut out some screen door material, but that proved to be quite transparent, so the inside framework, the panel holding the rad and fan and the wooden bezel was painted matt black (thank god for walmart brand craft paint, only 59 cents per gallon lol). Going back to the quoted post, whatever runout appeared on the outside of the bezel was promptly wiped up with a wet paper towel, smearing the water based paint into all the nice grunge, faking its age a bit next was to attach the screen door / window aluminum mesh ... this stuff is left over from when I replaced the screen in our sliding back door, and its been sitting outside for 3 years ... though you cant really tell. Strips of hardboard were cut to hold the screen and glued into place. Thick n quick is my nickname ... growing tired of waiting for glue to grab I grabbed some scraps from the frame and wedged crap in place to clamp the assembly I then squared up the wooden + screen door assembly with the detached inner frame from the case, and used deck screws to hold it into place now that the inner frame and the bezel are attached, the assembly can be riveted back onto the case, making fan replacement and cleaning a total pain in the ... but with the plywood mobo tray that's pretty much the case anyway unless one is dedicated.
It came out pretty good. -Far better than it should have with your attempted Bubbafication. -but then I knew a guy that used 5 gallon buckets to house car speakers... and have seen a 2-story trailer house.
