Project│Red Nineteen :: Custom PC, Readers' Drives - 23/10/06

I'm the same. As it stands, I could get away with lacquering it all after two coats, but under very close inspection of the panels, I can make out tiny problems, so will be putting a good 4 or 5 coats on, with a thorough sanding in-between.

 

I found that if there are some slight inperfections in the paint, 3-4 coats of lacquer can cover over them. It also gets reed of orange peel as I was quite scared with the orange peel effect I had but it cleared most of it up. Next time, I'm going to buy a black case

Small Items like case bezels and fans I find much easier to paint!!
Hope it comes out well

OldY

 

Yeah, looking forward to see more, and its good to be that perfect

 

Red Nineteen Project Log 29 - 9th July 2006

Nearly there!


^ All 4 fans sleeved, along with the Bulgin switches.


^ The black painting is coming along nicely. Probably one more coat left to do (currently about 6 on there).


^ Showing the top-panel in black. I can't wait to peel back the newspaper and see the contrast between the Nissan Red and Gloss Black!


^ You may have seen the ACryan CCFLs lying around in previous shots. The inverter looks a bit plain in a crappy plastic casing - and I happen to have a small metal box that I bought from Maplin a while back...


^ Cutting out a hole at the side...


^ Polishing the top...


^ The new inverter in place, soldering on the new switch...


^ Soldering and sleeving the power cable...


^ A shot from the side.


^ Hey presto! On the left is the original casing, with the PCI blanking plate switch, on the right is the new metal case.


^ Testing they still work!


^ Off.


^ Remember the fan controller? Well a few logs ago, it had 12 wires coming off of it, now I've reduced it back to 4, to make way for 3 LEDs.


^ I surprised myself, I've not done any soldering in years, but I was able to get a neat finish on the legs quite easily. Lead solder is easier to work with than lead-free solder - anyone else agree?


^ Testing the fan controller - 3 LEDs are mounted on the board itself, a further two are mounted via about 30cm of wire - to allow me to mount them elsewhere in the case later.


^ Someone mentioned mesh a loooooooong time ago. Instead of forking out £10 for some 'modders' mesh, I found this piece in a disposable BBQ - £1.79!


^ The CCFLs with about 90cm of extra cable.


^ All sleeved up, ready to go!

One question to those reading - my CCFLs only seem to light up three-quarters of the tube now - any idea why? Do they not like extra cabling?

The rest of the evening I'll put on the final coat(s) of black and start on the lacquer. Tomorrow morning, before I head off to work, I hope to add on another coat of lacquer, finishing the lacquer by tomorrow evening. Which leaves Tuesday (after work) to put everything together - this is it!!!

 

That exactly why. I had this happen with all the ccfl's I've extended and thats part of the reason I wont use ccfl's in my mod (the other part being I've had an inverter as well as a tube explode in my face. Lucky they were on my bench and not in my case )

 

Aha, I'll shorten them as much as possible then - need to measure them up though once the paint has all dried.

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Just started putting on the first few coats of lacquer. In an hour or so I'll remove the newspaper masking off the Nissan Red and continue lacquering - expect some pictures showing the contrast!

 

Red Nineteen Project Log 30 - 9th July 2006

Last log for the weekend...


^ The BBQ mesh has been painted black. Once everything is dry, I will cut it to size and fit it where the PCI slots used to be.


^ The panels prior to lacquer.


^ And tada! The case completely un-masked with one coat of lacquer on!


^ Another shot.

I apologise for the quality of all the pictures, but they've been taken with my sony Ericsson K750i camera phone. It's a lot more conveniant than a digital camera. I'll be taking some high quality pics once the project is finished.

Everything will be drying overnight, ready for some more lacquering tomorrow morning/evening. I personally think the red and black go really well together...

 

well, this is certaintly coming along well!!!

Funny, im using Halfords Spraypait too.. Its also suprisingly cheap for how good it is...

 

Looks extremely good :]
I got some ideas to my case from this, if i ever publish it ill make sure you get the credit
As for the CCFLs, IIRC, the tubes dont like when the inverter - tube cable is modified, only way is to put the extra cable to inverter - molex end :\
But im not really sure, as i have never needed to extend the cables.
I love small cases
Looking forward for completion
[Edit]
Ermmh, censor for a heart ?!
*** - < 3 ?
Yea, looks so :E

 

Would not using thicker guage cable solve the problem as it the CCFL isn't lighting all the way up due to increased resistance? Thicker wire would then decrease this resistance getting you back to where you started. Why not raise the question in the Electronics forum? I'm sure someone there will have the answer for you that will let you retain the extra cable length that you need.

 

The cable I've used to extend it is about twice as thick as the original, so that shouldn't be limiting it.

Also, Kustom PCs sell cable extensions purely for these lights here. They're 75cm in length and don't look anything special.

I'll cut the cables down once I've measured up how much extension I need exactly, then test them to see if they're back to normal. If not, I'll do as you suggest and see what the electronics forum thinks.

EDIT: I've done a quick google search, which turned up with this and this. Basically it seems that CCFL wires from the inverter are high voltage and cannot be extended successfully with standard wire. I'll try shortening them as much as possible, but it looks like I will have to revert to the original wires and extend the power to the inverter box.

 

I've found out what was causing the dim CCFLs - I removed the sleeving and seperated the wires from each other and they're lighting up as originally. So I'll add a second set of insulating heatshrink and try sleeving them again. According to the various pages google and bit-tech searches showed, the high current can pass easily through heatshrink.

 

lazlow nice work so far, but I'll say one thing.

Those black window beading u use to put the sharp edges away, I should keep them out of your work. When I see those things around a window, I just think, hmm the maker did design a nice mod, but some details are gone. Detailing a window with Window beading is less nice than keep them naked...

 

I remeber playing with my ccfl's when i exteneded my wires and they wernt working properly. I found that if you re-twist the wires as they originally were (mine at least) that they work better.

 

The project is finally finished!

I'll be posting 3 more logs - 2 sometime today and the third in a week or so.

The first of these 3 will show the final stages of putting it all together.

The second will show final shots of the project, taken using the Sony Ericsson K750i, as with all previous photos.

The third log will have some high-res pics, hopefully taken with a Digital SLR.

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Give me a few hours to write the 2 logs for today though - I spent 6 hours last night building it all up, along with taking 106 pictures!

Hopefully you will all like the finished result... stay tuned!

 

Can't wait... very nice so far!

 

Same here, I'm excited to see how this thing turned out!!!

 

Hooray!!! Can't wait to see the finsihed article

 

Sorry for the lack of logs, I will get them up sometime today - I promise!

Until then, you'll have to make do with this teaser pic!

 

Red Nineteen Project Log 31 - 12th July 2006 - Part A

This log details the final assembly of the project. There are a lot of pictures, so scroll down if you just want to see the end result...


^ Both Ferrari logos arrived. The top is a plastic 3D logo, whilst the bottom is a vinyl sticker. Both were sourced from eBay for a couple of quid.


^ The box of bits left to put into the rig - wires mainly!


^ And the case as I brought it in from the garage. It had dried for about 24 hours when this was taken and that's about 5 coats of paint and 5 of lacquer.


^ I don't have any polish to hand, so decided to use some car wax - afterall it's the same material and paint on the case. Still need to wax the rest of the panels at the time of writing...


^ The logos in position.


^ Applying the first to the windowed side-panel.


^ Tada! I know it looks a bit orange, but that's the lighting/camera - it's a perfect red.


^ And the 3D logo mounted to the case floor - you may remember I had cut out an acrylic 'false floor', but decided against it in the end.


^ It's slowly coming together - putting the front panel on just to ensure everything looks OK.


^ With the side panel on - look at the natural red light - no need for case lighting (but it's going in)! The glossy look reflects quite a bit of the room without polishing it.


^ Looking in through the side-window at the internal logo.


^ Looking through the back, which looks quite plain at the moment.


^ Remember the mesh from the BBQ? Here it is cut-to-size. Unfortunately some of the paint chipped off - luckily on none of the bars that are visible though.


^ The 2 x 80mm rear Akasa Amber fans fitted with the mesh and beading. I originally fitted them with nuts/bolts but opted for the supplied fan screws.


^ It looks like I over-estimated on the length of the cable! Twice as long as it needed to be, but nevermind - better too long than too short!


^ Instead of ruining the front panel with screws/bolt-heads sticking out, I super-glued the two 120mm fans to the inside. This allows for very accurate placement of them and also keeps the front nice and smooth.


^ The rear 4 x USB2 and Firewire brackets in place.


^ A shot from the back, showing the small PCI-slot window too. I know I have enough mesh to put there, but the window carries on the theme from the side-panel. It also allows you to peer in at the GPU cooler, if you're that bored.


^ Thanks to whoever pointed out that the o-rings sit on the inside! Fitting the Bulgin Vandal-Proof switches.


^ Both switches in place and the two fans...


^ The fan controller clear-acrylic superglued to the inside of the fascia. The controller screws onto this and the knobs fit onto the front.