Homestarrunner.com updated 12-31-04 SOON TO BE UP AND RUNNING!!!

You can either use a small screwdriver to lift little edges of the metal connectors in the molex out (they're keeping each one in the end connector), or buy a molex removal tool. They're kinda overpriced, usually about $10 USD, but they'll pop out a wire easily.

Then you need sleeving and heat shrink or electrical tape. Heat shrink looks a lot better.

Vantec is currently selling a kit for $15 that will let you sleeve the whole PSU but it doesn't come with a molex tool (which is really dumb because the kit is useless without it). Still, if one came in every kit that'd drive the price up $15/kit and you'd have tons of spare ones around... would be nice if they maybe sold a molex removal tool for $5.

 

modge podge is something that you use to finish certain projects. it dries hard and with a shine. it may not be able to paint over it so you may want to check into that, i am not really sure.

i know there are posts on how to get the molex connector off for the wires, but i am not exactly sure where they are and i am not 100% sure how to explain it. somebody else will have the answer.

 

Its really easy to take off the molex connectors off, but if your talking about ribbon cables, thats ahella of a lot harder...look in mod guides, we were recently discussing this.

btw, i now know everything you've bought off ebay
joysticks....dremel.....lab coat?

 

hahahahhaha that is just kinda creepy dude. I am really excited about some of the stuff I bought because it also has to do with modding computers.

Labcoat= My brothers christmas present

Joysticks and buttons....I wasn't going to tell anyone until I actualyl started modding but i can't hold it in anymore. I am planning on building a MAME machine. It is going to have 2 set of joysticks and 6 buttons each, and the coolest part is that i am going to have 2 USB guns that are hooked up so that I can play all the really good shooting games like Area51 and Time Crisis!!!!!!!wooooohoooo!!!!!!!

It is going to be awesome, I have already designed the box and it is going to be full size.......6' tall and 3' wide!!!!!!!!!!!

The only problem is that I have run out of money so I can't purchase the plywood I need to make the box, but thankfully most of the stuff that I need for this project have already been bought......this is like the first time in my life i have pre bought anything, I think I am going to do this more often.

But dude no more of that looking at the stuff i've bought....ahahahahahaa......that is just REALLY creepy.

 

Where is this at? I am interested. I was just looking at some sleeving at performance-pcs.com but I can't decide whether I should use silver sleeving or all black.....I am about to post an update that will specify why I might do all black.

Suggestions welcome!!!!!

 

Newegg.com sells the sleeving kits.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...317&manufactory=1453&DEPA=0&sortby=14&order=1

They are there towards the bottom of the page.

 

Update: Making the window

Update: Making the window

Well I have been up to a lot but unfortunately i haven’t gotten my pictures developed yet (boy do I hate the old fashioned cameras). If anyone wants to buy me a digital camera that would be much appreciated!!!!!!!

Ok today I am going to talk about the making of the window. It isn’t much but I think that it is worth talking about.

Ok first off I started off with a piece of plexi glass that was 18” X 24”. It is nothing special, I think that it was less than .25” thick but I am not positive. Due to Lowes decided to build a store right next door to me, I can get this stuff without paying for shipping. It is pretty cheap too!!!!!

Here is a picture of the plexi just before I cut it, I have the parts that I am going to cut covered on either side with masking tape to protect the plexi glass from scratching:



While I was cutting this beautiful window out I forgot what settings I needed to set my jigsaw to and so I accidentally chipped a piece out of the side of the window:



Fortunately when the window was put into place behind the metal, you couldn’t see the screw up.

Ok I have finished cutting out the window, now onto the next step, making the screw holes for my beautiful screws. I am using screws that screw into each and then lie flat on either side. I have no clue what they are called, but one is a screw the other one is like a post that the screw screws into…..uhhhh yeah.

Here is the finished product still taped down after the screwing in:



If you look on the left side you can see one of the screws that will eb holding the window down. I decided not to put a rubber strip around the edge of the metal part of the window becuase....well I was to lazy to go out and buy one to be honest, but I think it looks pretty good without it.

Sorry I didn't post about what I did to the inside of the case....I just figured out that I didn't have the pictures of the insides developed yet.

Hope this will fulfill your fixes for mad modding skills....ahahahaha...i hope.

 

Um just going back to the lettering on the keyboard you can buy this stuff called letracet (or something like that) which basicly lettering that you press onto things you can also get sheets of the same material that you put through a printer and make up your own lettering. Go to your local art shop and ask them about it. Also a lite spray of clear Paint might help against wear on the lettering.

Other than that Keep up the awsome work I love home star runner It's hilarious watching some of the emails when you pissed.

 

What's the status on those photos? I'd like to see the paint job.

This project made me go back and visit homestarrunner.com again. I used to visit it a lot. Yesterday, I caught up on my strong bad emails

 

Update: New Dremel

Update: New Dremel

Well I just recieved my new dremel tool that I bought of ebay like 2-3 monthes ago!!!!!!

I accidently gave them my old address and then the people at the old house almost stole my dremel!!!!!!

But I have it now, cost me like $40 (US), that is including shipping and everything. I saved like 15 bucks but whatever, I have it now and there is no going back. Well here is a picture of the beast itself:



Also my dad got me a Dremel bit set that has like a whole bunch of dremel bitc, and like 50+ cutting wheels so that is good. Here's a picture of that:



Ok I will be posting in a just a second here about the actual moddig stuff i just have to finish typing it up.

 

Update: Inside of the case

Update: Inside of the case

Sorry I haven’t posted for the past couple of days I have been pretty busy with school and I just got some more pictures developed so I should be able to post a reasonable amount now.

Also I would like to inform you that my boxing gloves arrived today, and they are SWEET!!!!!!! Many thanks go out to TekMonkey for the suggestion.

I am sorry to say that the picture of the side of the case that I took turned out REALLY bad so I don’t have a picture of that to show, I do however have some pictures of other various mod’s I have done on this project.

Ok like I promised…..maybe a little late but developing pictures takes a while….I will now talk about what I did to the inside of the case. And as usual I got to excited and forgot to take pictures of my piece of art before it was modded. But basically it was just all silver…the usual inside of a case.

What I decided to do was paint the entire inside of the case mat black. That way it seemed that the only thing in the case was the motherboard, the cards and the other stuff that I didn’t paint because it would be screwed up by the paint. The stuff that isn’t painted….I hope….will sparkle because the cathode on the inside will shine off the electronic components. I don’t know yet if this will work but whatever. Here is some pics of the finished product:





If you were wondering I am going to put in dual Red cathodes that I got off of ebay for like 10 bucks….great deal….AND THEY WORK!!!!!! I though about using UV lights and then using some UV paint on the inside but decided against that when I figured out that I could only fit one UV light in the case. Here is a picture of the UV and dual red cathodes:





The wires that come with the red cathodes are white so I had to change that. So I decided to experiment with them a little bit and paint them with black vinyl die, turned pretty nice for the first time using vinyl die:

 

Update: Inside of Case (continued)

Update: Inside of Case (continued)

Well I also took on the challenge of painting all the drives and the power supply. The hardest thing to paint was the DVD drive because there were so many little parts you have to cover up when you paint the drive tray. But all the other stuff was fairly easy, just mask over the electronic components and then paint. I had a picture of it but when it was developed it turned out really bad, besides you aren’t missing much. It is just all black. But to fill in I will show you the painted hard drive:



When I painting the inside of the case I though about it and realized that if I painted the back of the case, the part that shows through, all black then it would really kind of ugly. So I decided to paint the back of the case……red. A picture of that is here:


(sorry about the picture lying sideways, I forgot to flip it)

Here is a picture of the finished case, this shows the red strip on the outside and how it will blend in with the back of the case that I just painted:


(the picture make the case look a lot worse than it actually is)

After I finished painting the back of the case I realized something, all the drive covers were still silver. So I had to paint those red too. But then I realized yet another thing…..the outside needed to be red but then the inside needed to be black!!!!!! Well I just used my new found best friend masking tape and tape off the area that I didn’t want painted, and painted the other side. I did this for both sides and it came out pretty nice. Here are some pictures of the plates:



I had to fiddle with the video card and network card to figure out to get the mounting plate off of the card. But in the end I found the screws. I also modded the network card a little bit. Nothing much but I got the idea somewhere off of Bit-Tech, again I don’t remember who from. But what I did was to take off the LED’s that were originally on the network card and to replace them with jumper pins that I could the n attach LED’s to fairly easily. I don’t have a close up of the modding I did but I will tell you that it works all right.

Oh I also just received some super bright yellow and red LED’s. They will be used a little everywhere during this modd, but mainly for a super secret thing that I am going to do the front faceplate. (Its going to be awesome…..yes I said AWESOME!!!).



I did one more modd to while I was painting the inside of this beast of case. After I had painted the entire power supply black I thought that it would be cool to have some yellow LED’s that lit up the fan. That way I could have a little color contrast to the red. It didn’t turn out that great because I couldn’t figure out how to make the LED’s splay the light enough so it mainly just looks like 2 point of yellow behind the fan.









When I was painting the floppy drive I thought it would be kind of cool to have the button that is the eject button be a different color then the rest. So I painted this red. This will actually be visible in the new faceplate that I am making so that will add a little color to the front as well. Here is the end result of that:



I thought that I would give you guys something to drool over maybe. Here is a picture of my spray paint collection (remember you have to start small):

 

Update: Modding mouse

Ok no one has posted in a while so i thought i would throw in an update of what i just finished.

Update: Modding Mouse

Ok first off I started with a REALLY crappy Yahoo internet mouse that I had gotten from some place or another. No clue where. But then my most generous brother in law gave me a pretty nice trackball that he wasn’t using. Not good for playing games but good for looking cool next to my screen.

Ok as usual I forgot to take pictures of the original mouse but here is a link to one:

The Mouse

It kind of looks like that except white. But you get the basic picture.

Ok basically all I wanted to do was just make the mouse blend in with the rest of the case.

So I started off by painting the bottom black because I thought if the entire mouse was black and then I painted and “H” on the mouse in red, maybe it would look kind of cool.

Here is a picture of the bottom being painted:



First I started by just painting the entire top of the mouse red. Then I masked off the areas that I wanted to stay red, that being; The “h”, the buttons, and the circle around the trackball.



And then I painted the entire thing black, I painted black last because it goes over red a lot better than red over black.



And then after the masking tape was taken off, here is the final product:



A lot of people are probably wondering why I didn’t paint the mouse all red instead of black. Well first off I wanted to have a red circle around the trackball. And then second is that I wanted to have an “H” painted on the mouse. But if I painted it in black then that would just not be right.

As a final touch I painted the entire mouse with 2 coats of gloss.

I didn’t do anything to the cord but I am thinking about getting some of the chrome sleeving material and then cover all the cords with the stuff. Not real sure yet though. Suggestions are welcome!!!!!!

 

Nice job with the mouse, even though trackballs suck

Still waiting for pictures of strongbad painting to be developed? I want to see how it turned out

 

looks very nice, dont know how i missed it

keep up the good work

 

Wouldn't the monitor look better if you recreated the Compy 386 one in the Strongbad Emails?

Cool looking case, nice idea with the wallpaper

 

Yeah I thought about this, but then, since you never actually get to see the rest of the computer I didn't know How I could make it blend in. For some reason if something doesn't blend together it kinda bothers me, like I will see it and it will just look a bit weird. Can't exactly explain it very well though.

About the final pictures of the case, well i just took like half a roll of film and I will get them developed by this weekend. I took so many pictures, just to make sure that I get at least a couple good pictures of the case.

Thanks for the comments!!!!

 

Update: Making a new Faceplate

Update: Making a new Faceplate

Ok I am now in the present. Most of the stuff I have posted on so far had already been modded. But now I need a some recommendations. First off Here is my original face plate….plastic, ugly, and beige:



Since I sanded all the rest of my case I kind of wanted to have the front be brushed metal. Only problem was that I couldn’t find a big enough piece of aluminum at the Lowes near by so I just got a piece of steel. I have no clue if steel brushes out to the same shininess as the aluminum, so I don’t know if it will match.

Then I was looking at the faceplate and how I would attach it and such, and I decided that I needed to still use the original plastic faceplate to hold the new face plate on. So I cut out everything except for a edge around the middle that I could glue the new steel faceplate too:



Here is a quick picture of the piece of steel with masking tape covering it so it doesn’t scratch:



Next I had to figure out where the CD and floppy drives were in comparison to the faceplate. I was trying to figure out a way that I could make a mold of the CD drive and then trace through onto the metal so that I could draw out what I wanted to cut….but I thought and thought and thought, and then fell asleep. But then I woke up this morning and I was looking around my room and I spotted he solution. Sitting innocently in a plastic egg, SILLY PUTTY!!!

I flattened out a section of it that was big enough to go over the entire CD drive cover. Like so:



I did the same thing with the floppy drive and the floppy drive eject button.

Next I got out my Dremel tool and starting hacking away at the ¼” steel. Not until later would I question WHY I used the Dremel tool instead of my jigsaw???? But it doesn’t make a difference now. Here is a picture of the front being cut out:





I am currently making a new piece of steel for stealthing the CD drive because the one I cut out is a little messy.

Now I need everybody’s opinions out there. As you know I painted the back of the case all red, well I can’t decided whether I should paint the front all red or if I should buff it out like the case??? I am going to for sure paint the old plastic faceplate that I am using for mounting, red. But I don’t know about the new metal part.

ALL OPIONS WELCOME!!!!!

 

thats klass

http://homestarrunner.com/dance.html

 

Ok I am sorry that I haven't posted in so long but I haven't had any new pictures to post. BUTTTTTT now I just got a roll of film developed and I have the pictures that everyone have been waiting for. Yes I have pictures of the finished Stong Bad picture, finaly.

Here they are, there are so many just to show different angles and stuff.





If you will notice the sciggly marks that have been scratched into the case near strong bad's left cheek, that is where I was removing the over spray paint with my newly acquired dremel. The flash makes it seem a lot more visible than it actually is.



There are those little specal marks on the front side of the top of the case, ou can only see them from certain angles. I am not positive what they are but i think it is the acid from my finger prints, not positive though.



There's a close up of his eyes. They are all right, they are painted nice but they are way darker then Strong Bad's eyes actually are. That I like the worst about the paint job is the eyes, they are really hard to see.



Just shows how nice the separation of the colors turned out.

Ok on to some pictures of stuff that i didn't have very good pictures of before.



The network card painted.(next to it you can see a small blue plastic bb that goes to my air soft dessert eagle. It is so awesome)



A picture of the network card and the video card that are painted and plugged in.

Remember how I asked about how I was going to sleeve my power supply and I wanted to know if there was a special molex remover that i needed? And then Spotpuff brought to my attention how much the lame things are, $10!!!!!!!!!!!!! So i decided I would make one. I took a smaller jewlers scredriver and filed it down so that it would fit in the little whole, and now i can remove molex cables REALLY easily and i didn't have to spend any money on it!!!!!!!!!

Here it is folks the one the only, POS molex remover:



I also thought i would post a picture of the sweet boxing gloves that I am going to make into my speakers:



I will have an actual construction update pretty soon I just need to recieve some special ICs from Jameco and then hook up my cool idea that I have.

Opinons are greatly apreciated!!!!!!!
Thank You!!!