It's terracotta (I is intrigued!). Look, do you live in the UK? If you need it, email me some SkecthUps and I am happy to turn something on the lathe or mill for you.
Bingo. I can just hear the curse words as I carefully try and Dremel holes in it only for it to shatter into pieces
Ooh, a seasonal rant thread. Me Too! These have been a problem for a while. I don't get how complete newcomers can have a fully sponsored system, and all they do is paint the case, (often poorly,) and assemble parts. Yes. More events! Particularly ones that require creativity and invite feedback. The modding community was always about raising our skill set, and the more communication in a log/contest/forum, the better. Part of what made Andreas's & Mr3D's projects so awesome was the presentation. They didn't just show up with finished parts, they showed some of the creation process and R&D involved. Everyone learned a thing or two from their projects, and I know I've stored a few great ideas away because of them. I've always been about doing more and pushing what I'm capable of. I've hit a few walls too. I also have several projects fully designed I just can't build because they are beyond my abilities, Vault. I imagine we all do. What you need to do I figure out how to do it at your current budget. You can't afford a CNC, but you could probably do it with a router and jigs/templates. Dremels are crap for a lot of things, accuracy is one of them.
The idea came about about oo? five years ago now? I always liked Radiohead. The problem is, when Radiohead were current the area I lived in used to call people names who liked Rock music etc. It was all house and Garage and raving and so on. I loved Creep from the first moment I heard it. The words haunted me. It wasn't until much later that I would buy all of their albums and become a true, solid fan. Out of all of their masterpieces one song sticks out to me. At first, like most Radiohead songs, I had no idea wtf it was about. I just knew it was depressing and moody. And I loved it. So it would become the name of the buiild. <04> Fake Plastic Trees. The font is Arial Black, BTW. Already IDed that long ago. Now the song is about Canary Wharf. Thom Yorke went there to a café and in his typical moody/depressed way began to look around and notice that pretty much everything around him was fake. If you listen to it and or read the lyrics you can see the sentiment. A green plastic watering can For a fake Chinese rubber plant In the fake plastic earth That she bought from a rubber man In a town full of rubber plans To get rid of itself Now the idea for the mod. Again, you are going to have to do this like some one with autism. IE - picture things in your head, create them and visualise what they will look like without any pictures. This is how I do everything, from building computers, to bikes, to putting the food on my plate. We will start at the base. A sheet of 3/4" something wood. I haven't quite decided yet. This will be a square, with a 45' bevelled edge (I do not have the means to cut that). It will be sanded, stained and laquered. *maybe* MDF with a burl laminate. Then, in alu, <04> Fake Plastic Trees using Arial Black font so it matches the album identically. Then we have an enormous terracotta pot. This fixes to the board, which will keep it upright. Then one, or possibly two, ITX power supplies. I think there is one that would be powerful enough alone now. These are vented through the back of the plant pot. Then a sheet of anything that fits snug. This is bolted down all the way through the pot and into the base for strength. Then, coming up vertically out of this plant pot is a 480 or bigger radiator. Then the rest of the pot will be filled with, you guessed it, fake plastic earth. Bolted to this radiator is this. This needs to be machined from three pieces of acrylic. Layer one (the front) is clear 5mm? I reckon it would hold. Layer two is 10mm (the middle) and then the back is 5mm brown. So that the whole tree appears brown. So front and rear layer. And the middle. Obviously these would need channels, again out of my reach with a mere Dremel. The pump would be hidden in the plant pot, with nothing but a hose coming in and out of the dirt. I like soft hose because it is far more organic. Now the tree obviously needs to anchor, though I am pretty sure I could manage that. This is all front of the "rig" if you could even call it one. Then we follow the lyrics. A green plastic watering can For a fake Chinese rubber plant And fixed to one of the tree branches is this. 5mm clear front, 10mm machined internal part and 5mm green rear. And the inner part. Do note, all of the images you see were thrown together as I type this. This is the first time I have ever even so much as raised a mouse pointer to bring this into something visible people can see. And then a fake rubber plant, very similar. All g 1/4 linked together by clear hose. The tree is bolted over the radiator. The motherboard and GPU are bolted behind the radiator on custom alu bits. This I reckon I could manage without any machinery. And so on.
Aside - I can't remember what music video it was, but Radiohead open-sourced the 3D data for it...So if you can figure out a way to incorporate Thom Yorke's 3D-printed, severed head in to it, that's totally do-able
@Sn3akr - I picked up CNC because it was something I wanted to learn, and because I never want to spend a month in so much pain I can only sleep on my left side ever again, (finishing a rig with a file.) It's definitely not, "right click, print." I drew a part up the other day for Bill that I had to make compromises on because the software puked on the more complex design. His machinist has probably had some choice words about me in the past, too. If Attila had finished one of his hand-filed masterpieces last year, he would have obliterated the competition. There's always going to be a build that slaps people like us into the dirt. This year it was CNC built. I'm OK with that. I learned a lot from him, and that's why I'm here. The sponsorship stuff is difficult. My first sponsoring from DangerDen was due to probably 100 e-mails, and some positive recommendation from a Bit-tech staff member. It's down to 100% forum networking and reputation, (Which is why those fully sponsored assembly logs confuse me.) I've gotten a lot of my sponsorship via some absolutely fantastic company reps, and members of the community. I feel like we are just in a quiet period. Another Russian jewelry maker or woodworking expert could show up any day now, -Maybe a CNC instructor that wants to overclock his Wii? -Who knows. -Anyway, I'm rambling, and probably missed half the things I wanted to reply to.
I find this discussion pertinent and I have seen it happen several times. I have already organized many Casemod championships in Brazil and this discussion is frequent here. Since in Brazil everything is very expensive and tools are not accessible, the disparity of manual jobs between CAD jobs, is like a cliff. However, you have to understand that things evolve and we need to adapt to that. Today the fight is with a CNC, tomorrow will be with a new technology and those who are accustomed to the CNC will feel at a disadvantage. A lot of times it is the guy doing a manual job wanting to compete with a CNC that invents a different technique or better and professionally evolves his work. Sometimes that's the challenge for the guy to perfect himself. If every time we encounter a difficulty like this, we create a division, in a few years there will be more divisions than works to reward.
I find it very dissappointing to read this reply by you. I didn't expect this from you at all. I thought out of everyone on here you would understand how mods were made. And that it is defenitely not this easy. That it takes a looooooot of time and effort and trying to create something. Also your "competitive self" seems to be getting the best of you. Where people on here used to mod for fun it seems you do it to win prizes and then moan when you don't win. Which is saddening. I did the NUC build because I was asked to join a competition. I did not win anything in that competition btw. I did win motm on here with the same mod. And one of the people that did win something just bought a chassis from another brand and put in an acrylic window. Where I did what no one had done before. Create a chassis completely from acrylic where the chassis itself had all waterchannels in them and running from one panel to the next one. With a floating NUC in the centre and the loop going from one radiator split to 2 minipumps and only gathering back together in the custom cpu block. Now what? Should I go and cry to Peter Brands that he got a higher place even though I put in way more time and effort? Even though I did not cut them by hand? What was more modding? The simple handwork or the elaborate design, drawing, measuring, testing and doing something completely new? I have been in too many competitions to moan about this anymore. I mod for fun, I try and "break even" at the end of the day when getting asked to do a mod by a 3rd party. I don't make money from it. When I stop having fun I will stop pc modding. Besides this I PAY for lasercutting and CNC cutting and powdercoating etc. Which is what everyone in this thread can do if he or she wishes to go that route. Hell a lot of casemodders would be willing to help with specific things done. I do it all the time and I get help from others as well sometimes. But maybe we should get an amateur section done and then remove all the tools the moaning modders use. Using a Dremel? Not allowed buddy, just a handsaw and handfiles. Using a spraypaint or airbrush setup? Not allowed hombre, only rattle-spray-cans. Using a jigsaw? Nope. Using a plotter? Nope. Maybe swe should ban everything electric? Maybe all of you moaners in this thread should go back to doing something you enjoy instead of trying to win something or make money from it. Putting all of this on the side: I will still gladly follow your casemods and give them a big thumbs up when I see them. Because I like your work and I see the effort you have put into it.
So you honestly mean to tell me that the NUC build you did was anywhere near as involving, or as much work, as a full large mod? I know what goes into it believe me. I didn't say it wasn't hard or fiddly I just said it was tiny and you had it cut by CNC. Then you welded it together (which you did) and that was it, just fill with water. And yes, I know you pay for things it's quite obvious. As for the rest? not getting into it. We had this one before. I said I wasn't competitive, I was accused of being otherwise so I just said "Please do not enter any more of my mods into any competitions ever". I think that about says it all. I've not asked for that to be reversed either.
Damn I remember that thread, feels a bit weird being on the other side of the fence now. Seems not much has changed really to an extent.
Wait you mean the people who have been doing it for a long time and have gained the skills and tools through hard work are capable of making better mods? Mind... blown. If you want people's attention, you'll need to to compete with the best. You're asking them to give out 8th place trophies because you "tried your hardest" and are entitled to recognition?
