Project :blingGreen(04/03/2005 - MaximumPC's June issue! Rig of the Month!!!)

Big daddy where are you?? been wating on updates.. is the bling dead?

 

Hehehehe... no not dead... not even on life support! But *seriously* delayed!
Had both kiddos in the hospital as of late and the $$$ has been sucked into a medical "blackhole"!!!!

Time to spend on this has also mysteriously vanished into same said "black hole", but I tweak and think on it every night. I've pulled the crushed velvet out and am rethinking it's application. Not quite so wavey and ripply, maybe a bit more taught. Also working out the internal colors. The green of the case is obscured by the window tint, and the abundance of blue fans are pretty much the only colors showing thru the window. Not a very good bling*GREEN* namesake! I've got ideas and plans in the works that might rectify this though... we'll see.

The next update will be substaintial, trust me on that! But it will have to wait a bit on the $$$ to pay out to all of the overpriced medical expenses that my kids have opted to hit me with!

Thanks for the concern TheDon, I appreciate it.

 

Hope it all works out as I look forward to seeing the finnished case

 

Sorry to hear about the kiddos. Hope it all turns out alright. I have my first one on the way so will have to wait and see how that works out for me. I will be waiting on pins and needles for the new breath of the green bling.

 

The Don. I'm more geek than you are! 16,76529% - Geek

 

Some werk on tha Bling!

Well, you find time when you can, and you find the money when you can... and when the 2 get together and meet... well, it's a nice feeling!

I auctioned off a ton of old hardware that I had here @ home. I managed to buy my son's "most favoritist case", the Cobra, and some OCZ low latency, high performance, Dual channel ram!!! SCHWING!!!!

(How bad of a geek does it make me when I worry about the picture of my memory! )



Sweet copper goodness, in a 1 GB dual channel chunk! Lovin life!


I've been in a debate on "how" to get my dark blue flames to be seen while in the darkness of a lan party...

Well, here is my first attempt at resolving the issue.
(and here are my tools!!! orange is the megamouse, the red is my jig saw, and you can see my flexi shaft poking out @ the bottom with the multipurpose bit attached


What I'm doing here is the following:

1) Whip out the Mega Mouse sander and put a good coarse grit sand paper on it, pulled the protective sheeting off of one side, and commenced to sanding it to a foggy white surface. I did this for a few reasons. One- when I side light the UV plexi, the scuffed surrface area will be more reactive to the UV light source. Two- I needed a way to back light my flames. This should provide me with the effect that I was looking for! I did not snap a pic of this step, sorry....
2) Cut a sheet of UV reactive plexi to the proper length and width to make sure that all flames would have coverage.
3) Trace out the pattern of my flames on the plexi by holding it to the window panel side, holding it up to the light, and marking out where I want the flames to be.
(here is a pic showing the results of the above 2 steps...)

You will notice on the right that I had already experimented with bith the Jig saw and the drywall bit for the dremmel... oh my. The drywall "drag and cut" bit for the dremmel is a DREAM COME TRUE!!!!!! No lie,If you are trying to figure out a good and accurate way to make that plexi shape, give it a shot! I'll post up pics of the bits I used after I am completely finished with the flames... but for product reference, here is the link

This plus a flexi-shaft made for some of the easiest cutting I have EVER experienced!


The results of this method are captured below:










4) Flip the flames over and give them 3-4 coats of transparent Blue UV reactive paint.





After it has dried for a while, make it permanent by hitting it with a coat of clearcoat.



I had run an experiment on the plexi using a small square that I cut off early, and placed it in my case, behind my flames, and the effect was nearly perfect!!! I'm going to redo the internal wiring to allow me to move the second UV tube a bit closer to the window, and not so much in the back behind the drive cage. I have my UV LED's in the house as well, and will work on a 4 unit, 3v LED circuit running off of the 12v line (see how bright they are, if I need to run parallel to up the voltage, then I will set up that way, but that is a bit later...)

Anywhooo.... letting the CC dry. I'll possibly have this mounted later tonight, then I go to work on my cabling, and a bit of color work with my fans.

 

Initial Success!!!!

I still have to string together the LED's and see how well they illuminate the plexi, but the existing UV CCFL 's are giving me hope! It already looks much better!

I have a little cleanup to do to some of the flames, but for first shot... I likey!





It's giving me more ideas!


What 'cha think?

The blue flames will contrast nicely with the UV green I am going to attempt next (loosing the LED blue fans in favor of green UV reactive.)

Power supply will stay blue, just to break up the monotany...
Yipee!!!!!

 

Weee... That was a nice one

 

Glad to see you back Tech.. hope all worked out for the good. Nice job on the flames.. Can't wait to see what it looks like when it is done.

 

Thanks T-R and TheDon! Appreciate the feedback!

TheDon, I look forward to an additional flurry of updates in the near future. You've walked this far with me... why not continue the stroll!

Thanks to everyone for your patience on this. My wife is about to kil me! "Why can't you just call it *done* and move on to another one?"

Well... because this one is not done!

 

It looks good and all... but still very rough, take sum sandpaper to it..

And in my opinion the case seems a little "overcoloured". But you have done very well

 

'Zactly right!

I'm hoping that I have some time this weekend (or maybe this week) to get those smoothed out.

Driving me nutz now... everyday I look at it, it's getting more and more on my nerves. Eventually, I just "make" time to finish it!


Thanks for the response!

 

That


... looks like seaweed, not fire...


maybe you should do like a... aquarium theme?

 

give that plexi sheet an array of orange leds along its egde and see the flame really burn

Just a suggestion though .

 

You gotta make some time man. I am getting a craving for updates. You can't let me down man.

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




COOOL IDEA! Thanks!

I am, and I commit to this, I AM... going to get those flames smoothed out by this weekend, then I'll get to work on the remaining lighting of the flames. UV or colored... that is one of the last tasks.

Feels like the Death Star trench run... "Allll-mosst thheeere...."

 

*crrrrrack*

Well... I have now DEFINATELY committed myself to making the window the way I want it..

while trying to sand down the edges and not damage the tint/window/lexan, it was nearly impossible to do.

So I popped the gluing on the UV flames and popped them off the plexi.
THen i got to thinking... "Since I have it here, I have not liked the tint that I put on it, detracts from the green on the inside of the case."

"Riiiiip"

Ya know, if I just put a ton of tint adhesive on this lexan, and cleaning it off id going to be a pain in the a$$, why not pop the lex out, re-cut another clear sheet, and while the lex is out I can fix my bent flames, hammer some of the bends out, and use the open window to *trace*, (not guess like I did before) the flames on to the protective backing of the blue UV acrylic.

*snap*
*pop*
*crrrrrack*

Well, now I am back down to my metal frame on the window, and plan on "improving the overall approach to the window over the last execution.

So... it starts again!

More later after I have some progress to display!

 

*breathes big sigh of relief that I didnt put flames on my mod*

Looks very nice Mr. Daddy, keep it up

ps, might have to invest in one of those drywall bits, very handy

 

**Bump** where are you good sir??

 

*werkin....*


I have all of my LED's/Resistiors/optoisolators/thingamajiggies that should be in my hands by Friday. I have a LAN competition that is coming up end of Feb.

and I have a MAJOR upgrade to drop into this project!
(rubs hands together...)

My wife is about ready to slap me... but I intend to have MAJOR updates and bling'age to be touting through this weekend (assmuning all my parts arrive!)

Yeah, I started *finally* finding my time (ripped away yet again by sick kiddos and too much work), and I started posting up on some of the other threads.

Asking for advice in some of the other forums, etc....

Oooooo... I like your avatar too! Nice clothing selection!

Soon, very soon... will it all start to become painfully clear just how much this baby is going to jump!


Evuhree-bodeee *Jump* *Jump* *Jump*

*Jump**Jump*

....

Hehehehehhe... I'm a bit stoaked to have FINALLY found a solution to a problem I have been mulling over for months!

I'll post up pics of the parts as they arrive!
2 parts should be home when I get off work...

And part of this upgrade was fueled by this little 1 minute of fame that happened to me @ Quakecon!!!:

Looky here!!!!

That is me starting it off... middle of it, and ending it! And it has an *indirect* addition to the upgrades on this machine!

More later.....

(I almost started to post up an update last night... but then I looked over log and saw all of my "getting started now" and "going to get this done" comments... and I decided... "Nope, not till I got pics to show!" Well, the beginings of my pics will start tonight my friend... they will start tonight!)