Project: The Chrome Goat... total system mod (May 19th, 04 update)

Me too. And anything you send to a professional electroplating shop will look WOW. Or they would not be in business.

 

This is very cool (pun intended)! Ambitious and shiny - great stuff. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

I estimate that the entire job will be around $350... by the time I'm done. What you see in the pictures so far is about $200 worth. But, this is done at a shop that does little else besides chrome and they are *very* proud of their plating. I think I could have gotten it done for half of that, but the quality would have suffered.

 

the chrom looks cool

 

how did you get it chromed?

 

http://vb3.forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=507587&postcount=43

What he did was stripped the case. He kept the four metal plates: the inner chassis where your front plate, backplate and the top and bottom, and sent them to a shop where they chrome plated it.

There are products out there that will let you spray on a chrome/mirror finish, but its not the real thing.

Chrome Plating is a 3 plate process. Nickel, copper then chrome if my memory serves me. Its great for rust protection and chemical resistance.

We like it for the shine.

[edit] Stabs G-Gnome with some neon green acylic. Get back to work on your Orac³ [/edit]

 

Too expencive for me.. i think..
but nice......

Wat a heck i'm talking about... ok too much alcohol tonight

 

Mini update... teaser pics.

I've had a few people ask me about Nixies and what they do. My thermometer is still in the 'programming' stages so I can't show any real examples of *that*... but I can at least fire a few tubes up so ya'll can see how bright they are. There is a reason why so many people are infatuated with these little tubes.



That's a little test light... hopefully that won't be the temperature I'm running at =p. Also, I did obtain a scientific nixie AND a cool +/- nixie, so I should be able to display negative temps as well. Cool, no?

This is a shot from distance... so you can see how bright they get. This is from about 6' away.



Second teaser...

This is my curse... and will probably be the reason why I take so long with this project. I should be focusing on the chiller, but my parts are still in transit. So, I start a bit on the thermometer... but then I get bored. Sooo... then I start bending some acrylic for the many many panels that need it. Then I look over and see that my heater cores are still in 'stock' stage... with their 6" pipes and such. Sooo... I hack them off. Then I start soldering on some barbs and I look back at my plexi bending table and go back to that.

Soooooooooooooooo...

I swear I have ADD. My mom even thinks I do.

Hey look, pizza...

Oh...

Anyway... Teaser pic. SO I have half-ass heatercore and a half-ass shroud. The heatercores will of course be finished in... take a guess... and the shroud will also lose it's 'half-ass' status. I started out with 1/8" acrylic for the shroud but it didn't look like it could hold the weight of the fan up top (chimney shroud ^_^) so I switched to 1/4". It carried the light a *lot* better and appears like it will have no problem with a few pounds of blower atop it.



The fingerprints are visible, as are the minute nicks and scratches that I need to buff out. That's all fine and dandy... I mean, the curves look nice and all, but it's not until you switch the lights off that the real show begins:



Now, that is a lot cooler looking. The problem I'm having with it is the apparent 'need' for the night. That sucks. Hopefully when it's finished and shiny and such, it won't look so lame in the light. I really envy those that can design their cases to look just as good in the day as in the night. That's why I've never been a huge fan of UV (with exceptions, of course). I don't want my case to look kinda plain... get "that's neato" reactions and have to resort to "wait, let me turn off the lights" to get a strong reaction. I mean, turning off the lights with Barry White playing in the background isn't supposed to be for showing your COMPUTER off. Maybe I'm just being paranoid with the pictures. The curves look better in person =p.

Anyway... the top has to be evened out, scratches buffed out... second panel attached (I found some really cool Acryllic piano hinges for the joint)... and LEDs hidden better. Then the top blower-shroud will be joined with the top of the HC shroud and I will reach nirvana.

I probably should just stop taking pictures unless there is something 'chrome' in the pic... a spoon even.

 

You might consider lightly sanding the inside surface of the shroud and painting it. That way its a nice deep shiny color during the day and glows brightly at night.

 

Oh... I should have added that comment. The insides of the plexi will have a glossy-white paint undercoat. The sides will be brushed a lot heavier and the outside finish will be *very* buffed. The whole 'IPod' effect. That, and I can't come up with ideas of my own .

 

You said just chamfer the edges of the acrylic and you get edge light effects like that??

If I could get that effect .. wow.

So far it And half ass is better than no ass.

 

Actually that case is an Inwin Q500....I used to have one

 

MMMm.... Nixies. Looking foward to seeing them fully setup.

 

Cant wait to see this develop.

For those of us in the us, here is a link for Nikies.
http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/nixies.html

 

Any new progress here? Can't wait to see those nixies in action. Are they going to show just the temp, or will it be a multi-purpose deal?

 

Man I love Nixies.... I've GOT to use them sometime...

 

Woah this case is like BLING BLING!

good job

 

Love the I-mac look. Love the chrome. Love your ideas.

Keep up the great work!

 

tis a dope mod
sounds very bling and looking forward to seinght finished case

 

Sorry about the lack of updates lately... I've been really sick with some sort of chronic migraines. There will probably be a lot more stuff to show by Friday, provided that this new pain killer works out for me. I finished my little strip heater for acrylic bending... it's making things amazingly easy. My blower PSU is in the chrome tank... along with a few other smaller pieces. The blower goes to the 'arteest' on Thursday, so we should have some cool pictures of that in a few weeks.