Hello all, thought it was about time I posted, since I've been lurking (and admiring the great mods) on this forum for a year. I'm calling this a "quick and dirty mod" because I only had 2 days to do all the work, and I'm only modding the front of the case. This is fine, because where the case sits, you can only see it from the front. I only had 2 days because it's my fiance's pc and she wanted it back RIGHT NOW PLEASE! Furthermore, I will definitely be cutting some corners that other people wouldn't, especially in the areas of polishing and "fit and finish." Hopefully, there will still be some things here that will be useful for others' projects, and/or methods of work. So-- when I decided to upgrade my fiance's pc, I chose to reuse the drives, and what ever I could, but I had to buy new MB, CPU, memory, and case. I found a cheap MB/CPU deal at Fry's (a giant discount store with lots of computer and consumer stuff,) and they had Antec 1600 cases w/ PS on sale. It's a sturdy case with easy to remove sides, and well designed drive cages, so I bought one, even though it is one of the ugliest cases I've ever seen. The photo doesn't even convey the true ugliness of this case. It's smooth and shiney. ***. So the bezel had to go. Looks better already. I didn't really have a plan for the mod, I just knew I'd have to get rid of the bezel. I thought I might just paint the front of the case, or replace it with a nice piece of plexi. Looked thru my scrap pile and found this: It's left over acrylic, 1/8 inch thick, white. What's know in the US as "milk plex" because it looks like milk! It's not opaque, but you can't really see thru it either. So I cut some pieces, big enough to cover the metal front of the case, and while I was at it, I cut some the size of the drive bays. I knew I wanted to stealth the drives, no matter what else I did. Then I had to cut the opening for the drives. I used a technique called "plunge" cutting, only in this case, I held the plexi in place and raised the blade of my table saw thru it. I marked the cutout on the masking tape so I could see when I raised the blade enough to cut the opening. I repeated this for all 4 sides of the opening. WARNING! Don't try this at home! Unless you are very comfortable with the risks involved. There are safer, and easier ways to make these cuts--dremel, drill and jigsaw, file, router, etc. I chose this way because I have the tools, and wanted to work quickly. The table saw makes a relatively clean, very straight cut that needs minimal sanding or polishing. Especially for my "quick and dirty" techniques. Test fit: I'm starting to like how this is looking. I looked at the possibility of pushing the drives into the case, flush with my new plexi, but there wasn't enough room. So I thought I'd try adding a second piece just like the first, maybe with some sort of bolts as standoffs. When I held the 2nd piece in place, I could see too much ugly stuff around the drives, and realised I would need to make some sort of filler piece. I cut a strip of plexi, drilled some air holes, and tried out the look. Hmm, to many holes, and too big. Plus, what was I going to do at the corners? Try again. That's more like it. I had heated the strip with a heat gun for the test bend, but I thought I would need to be more precise if I was going to get all the lengths right, and get the 2 bends I needed in the right places. So I cut 2 peices of MDO (paper coated plywood, smooth and strong) the width I wanted, clamped the plexi strip in between and heated the places I wanted to bend. Another piece of MDO helped me keep the plexi straight next to the bend. Finished corner: Uhh Ohhh. there were little hairline stress cracks in the strip, and they opened up when I made the bend. Superglue closed the cracks, but even though this was a "quick and dirty" mod I couldn't live with that, so I remade the piece, and redrilled the vent holes, and recut the long parts of the U shape to length. That done, I could start thinking about how the new bezel would attach. i realised I would have to have a way for air to get thru my new vent holes, and into the case. So I snipped out the existing case grill: the result was somewhat less than clean. Hmm. Didn't want to use my Dremel, 'cause it would throw bits of metal into my mobo (did I mention that I borrowed my fiance's pc while she was out, and without her knowledge, for it's makeover?) Bits of metal and mobos don't mix well. So I reached for my nibbler. It makes bigger bits, that don't fly all over. Much better. Now to make the corresponding hole in the plexi. Layout, mark and drill with holesaw. Time now to glue the bent piece to the flat piece. I held it in place with a board, and used gel type crazy glue to "tack" the peice in place. Then I went back and added gel glue to the entire length of the bent piece, like a welding bead. Test fit: Up next-- mounting the USB ports, stealthing the drives, LEDs, and buttons, and a surprise!
Nice Job Hey man, nice job. Looks pretty good for a first try. Looks like you put some effort into and it shows. I want to see how this turns out.
Yum, not enough white around these parts..Looks very crisp and clean, a very good-lookin', innovative and original job indeed so far . Looking forward to see how this turns out! Mid @ 7am
Mounting the USB ports and buttons Just a quick post before sleep... After sorting out the vent hole, I needed to mount the USB ports. They had to be on the front of the case so my girl could easily use her camera cable. I was starting to get a nice clean look, and didn't think I could get good square holes, so I decided to just mount the ports next to the floppy and stealth them when I stealthed the drives. Luckily the original ports were mounted on a pc board with a hole in it that I could make a bracket for. I marked out a hole and drilled it in some aluminum "U" I had laying around. Then I cut the piece off to make the "L" shaped bracket. Much easier than trying to drill in a tiny piece. "L" mounted on the card. I lined the bracket up on the case and drilled a hole, and attached it with a fine thread screw. Of course, I didn't plan ahead, so I needed to drill a bigger hole in the "L" to fit the screw, so I made that piece over again also. Didn't take long. Time to remount the Power and reset buttons. But they are too ugly for words. So I think, I'll just make new buttons out of plexi and attach them to the old switches. But how to make 1/2 inch circles? I'll chuck a piece in my drill press, and use it like a lathe to make the circle! So I cut a square, hot glued it to a 1/4 inch by 2 inch flat head bolt, and put it in my drill press. It took a while, and I experimented with several things trying to cut the plexi while it was spinning. I eventually removed most of the material by holding my Dremel with a sanding drum next to the spinning piece. When it was round, but not the exact size, I held a file and sand paper against the edge, removing a little at a time until I had a good fit in a 1/2 inch hole. I made 1 circle for Reset, and another for Power. The power one, I used a sharp point to score grooves in the flat part of the circle so it would have a ring-ed texture. If you decide to do this, keep the drill press turning fairly slow, and don't wear gloves! You don't want to get caught up in a spinning tool! And be careful! I used a spade bit to drill two 1/2 inch holes in my plexi bezel. The best spade bit for plexi (and wood) is made by Irwin, and is called the "Speedbor." It has points on the outer edges that score the plexi and make a nice smooth edged hole. I wouldn't use regular flat spade bits, and normal bits for metal or wood tend to grab and chip the plexi. Now I had buttons, but needed a way to mount them. Surprise! This turned out to be more complicated than I thought. First challenge was guiding the buttons as they are depressed. The switches needed to depress 1/8 inch, which is the same thickness as my plexi, so I needed to double my thickness. Once again, drill the holes before cutting the tiny peice free from its stock. Glue the piece to the bezel, lined up with the existing holes. Then I needed a crossbar to mount the switch to, and to keep everything from pushing in too far. More plexi cut and fitted. Everything was secured with hotglue, until I was sure it would work, then I used crazy glue to permanently join the pieces. (Except for the switches, in case they need to be replaced. Then I glued the LEDs right to the back of the plexi. They were conveniently still in the clear plastic strip that Antec used to mount them at the factory. Here is the bezel at the end of the first day of work. I was a little behind, and knew I would have to answer the question "Where is my computer and WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO IT?" Up next, we get stealthy!
This is looking nice..dare I say it, ipod-esque ..Cant wait to see it progress - bravo man, you certainly know what youre doing .
Thanks! Thanks Midwinter, will anyone believe me if I say the IPod look was totally unintentional? I didn't even realise the similarity until it was done! This project was totally driven by my need to complete it fast, and what I had on hand. That said, I did want it to look good! I'm very glad if people like the look! Back soon with more photos....
Air brush? Ha, not likely. I'm much more mechanically inclined than artistically. And in this case, it would be wasted effort, as you can't even see the sides of the case. I know, for most modders, they do a lot of stuff that will never be visible, just 'cause they can. Those things take time. Years in some cases. And while the end result is worth it, and sometimes is clearly a work of art, for this project my goal was to get rid of the ugliest parts of the case as cheaply and quickly as possible, hoping to be a little creative at the same time. I have already been drawing my next couple of mods, and they will involve MUCH more time and effort. But I'll be doing them for my box, without the one day time constraint. Anyway, I better post some more work!
Stealthing the drives and a surprise! Hello again. Time to document day 2 of work. My fiance' was relatively OK with her machine being worked on, but definitely wanted it back TODAY! So I got up early, hit the local Home Depot for some stuff I knew I'd need, and went to work! I knew from the beginning I'd be stealthing the CDROM and DVD drives in the standard way. (Thanks to all who have gone before, so that it's possible to even SAY something like that.) I.E. sticking a blank plate to the drawer with double stick foam tape. Before I could though, I'd have to figure out what to do about the floppy and USB ports. My first thought was to make a bezel that fit around the floppy and ports, but that would take lots of time to do right, and probably not look very slick. Then I thought I'd like to make a door that covered all that mess, but was easy to open. I had some ideas for mechanical things, but discarded them in favor of simplicity (maybe on my next project.) Once I had the idea in mind, things started to flow, and I have few pictures. I'll try to describe what you're seeing and the missing steps. Disclaimer: I think this idea is my own, but if I saw someone else do it, please comment, so I can give them props. (I read some other modding forums, but mostly this one. It's got the best projects and the best logs! If you saw this idea on another forum, I'd like to know, but I probably didn't see it there.) I decided to build a simple pivoting door that completely covered the ugly stuff. Here is the finished door (blurry), and the power and drive activity lights: Now for the details. I thought about all kinds of clever and complicated hinges before I went simple and chose a fixed pivot point. This meant I just needed to fasten a rod to the back of the door and make something to hold the rod in the correct place while allowing it to turn. The rod was easy. It's just a 16d nail with the head cut off. That leaves a steel rod about 3 inches long, and about 1/8 inch thick. To get it to line up properly, I needed to make a holder that would keep the rod flush up against the back of my faceplate, and wouldn't let the rod tip side to side. I cut 2 small strips of plexi, drilled 1/8" holes in them, and then cut them again so the hole was right up against the edge of the piece. I laid my faceplate down, put my door with the rod attached in place, and glued the strips to the back of the faceplate, with the rod going thru them. I was so happy it all worked, I put it together without taking a pic. In this shot, you can see the top strip, but not the hole for the rod. Here is another shot of the open door. I could do a drawing if anyone is really interested. The door worked great. To open it, you push on the right end, and it pivots around the rod. To close you just push it closed. Friction keeps it open or closed. With the door in place I stuck on the blank plates I made for the CD and DVD. This left a drive bay open. Time for the surprise! I made a drawer! (This is temporary. Eventually this bay will get a card reader.) My girl had seen a drawer that fits in a drive bay in a catalog of geek gifts, and actually thought it was a good idea. So...since I had the plexi, I thought "why not practice my plexi bending skills and make a drawer?" I formed it the same way I formed the vent strip. I made a wood block the size of the bottom of the drawer, clamped a piece of plexi to it, and heated the edges. I was able to fold the edges into a box, and then when it cooled, I glued the corners. I would NOT recommend this technique. It is much easier and more precise to cut all the pieces and then glue them together. Trust me. MUCH better result. But I had everything already set up, so I gave this a try. After some re- heating and rebending (I didn't account properly for the thickness of the bends) and trimming on the table saw, it fit! The white tab is a temporary handle. The next and final tweek for this project will be to add a blank plate to the front of the drawer, and a spring to the back so it will pop out when pressed. Like the glass door on a home stereo rack. Last thing to do was to attach the face plate to the other plate, and then to the pc. I got some flat head machine screws and polished the heads (hat tip to G-nome and others) and added a spacer between my plexi plates. I bought 12 inches of chrome 1/4 inch tubing at Home Depot. (It's normally used for getting water into your toilet tank.) I used a tubing cutter to cut it to length, you could use a hacksaw or dremel, and installed it between the plexi. Drilled slightly undersized holes in the case, and viola! In place in my office: You can see why I didn't think it was worth doing anything to the sides or top of the case. Here's another shot, my next victim is sitting on the right And one more shot, slightly blurry, sorry: Left to do, finish the pop out mechanism for the drawer, and stealth the drawer. What made this a "quick and dirty" mod? Mostly I needed to get it done in 1 day. It took 2. About 10 hours total including the trip to Home Depot. I used materials at hand, and didn't spend much time thinking thru any of the design details. I just wanted something less ugly than the stock bezel. If something worked, I went with it. For me, it was quicker to remake some parts than to fully design them. As we know, even the best designs sometimes need adjustment anyway, so I feel like I was able to save a step. I also cut some corners. For example, I just filed and sanded my edges til they were smooth and wouldn't cut someone who touched them. I didn't polish them. I originally thought I would "flame" polish them with a torch. This is a good, quick way to get shiny edges, but decided not to spend even that time. The 1/8 inch is a little thin. If you look, you CAN see some things thru it. Like the tape on the CD and DVD drawers. Overall I am very pleased with the result. I think my floppy cover door is innovative, let me know what you think. The IPOD look was totally unintended, but the new bezel does look very clean. My girl also likes the result, which is a big plus. So there you have it. The Quick and (maybe not so) Dirty mod. best, zuk
