Project "AT tower renewal" is now FINISHED March 24

Hehe, tis a very cool idea tho

I have bought a skyhawk full tower AT case, an am waiting to see what you do with yours for inspiration

Keep up the hard work

 

Here's another half assed update.

You may have noticed how slowly I work, that's about 90% laziness. Most of the time I spend on this case is staring at it, thinking of things to do that I'll probably never realize.

Anyways, I'll start today's update off with a little bit of information for those who actually read the text in worklogs.

I'm waiting for a chance to use the CNC Mill at my school to created a custom lucite fan grille. Assuming it works out, the front intake will be a 92MM low CFM fan (factoring in the projected dual 80MM intakes on the side, and HDD coolers, the case is going to be intake biased). If the CNCed grille doesn't work (say it shatters, or the cut isn't fine enough or any number of things) then I'll just go for a 4 Inch holesaw and a 120mm fan for the intake.

The AT case's instrument cluster (fancy name for the place where the on switch was) was interestingly placed, but it had too many vestigial components that were outside the scope of my full scale conversion. The turbo switch, gigantic on/off button and keylock for which I didn't have a key, all had to go. Taking them out however, I was left with several gaping holes which would be hard to fill with modern components.



My plan for this panel is a to consolidate all the functions that people put into drive bays and have it look nice. I'm going to have a 4 port, 3 position (7v,off,12v) baybus, keylock (in series with the power switch, so I can lock the computer from powering up) headphone jack, and a two in one power/reset switch (a DPDT center off momentary switch)

Behind a layer of plexi, I will have a strip of aluminum HVAC tape, which should hopefully give a fancy metallic appearance without looking too tacky. Here's a template/artists conception of the layout.



I figured my best bet would be to just fill the old holes in with some kind of auto body filler epoxy. So I basically did this. I couldn't find the same stuff as this guy used, so I hope my choice holds.



Filling the holes from behind



Here are the holes completly filled. A bit of sanding and aluminum tape and you'd never know the difference. My only worry is the body filler not sticking to the plastic and coming off.

 

looks like an old Gateway, is it?

 

Yeah I think. It had a P100 in it when I got it, but I figure the original system was a lot older, probably 386.

 

Moving along incredibly slowly with another update.

Today's update covers the new array of drive covers. I'm also going to mention the gradually progressing instrument panel.

My work in these areas has drawn much inspiration from this mod
http://www.bit-tech.net/article/89/

and it's use of printable transparencies.

First up, I used HVAC aluminum tape to cover all the plastic beige drive panels with a metallic look. This stuff is hard as hell to work with, since it's actual metal, and the slightest fault results in an irreperable scratch, or even worse, a crease, which simply cannot be ironed out.

I then printed off transparencies for each of the drive bays, and applied them using 3M spray adhesive.





You can see my reflection in the last one.

Sure, it's nowhere near as good as real aluminum, but from a distance, they do look quite nice.

The drive cover with a hole in it would've been an HDD cooler, had I been able to find a 40mm fan.

On to the instrument panel. Made from a piece of lucite with an OHP transparency for the labels, it would be quite nice. The only major issue is that I didn't account for the size of the mic jack (it's one of those jumbo sized ones, so I can plug my bass guitar into my computer) and it hits the keylock. I don't know how I'm going to resolve this, so I'll probably move the keylock to another spot on the case and put something else in it's hole.

The label backing is all crinkled up, because it's enormously hard to make proper holes in this material. I'll obviously be doing it again, and repositioning the labels so that they can be read behind the washers on the switches.




As I mentioned before, fan controls are included here, so no need to have a baybus.

As always, post with your comments. Seriously, post whatever crosses your mind, I need to hear it.

 

Seriously, I think you're doing a great job. The transparencies look really sweet. I might have a 40mm fan laying around in a box of bits somewhere..... I'll have a look in a few mins and let u know.

Where did you get the ally foil tape ?? Could do with some of that stuff for a future mod I want to do.

Keep up the nice work

Darkside

 

Got one. 40x40x10mm 12v brushless fan. Works too

If you want it please email me.

chris_amps@ntlworld.com

Don't want anything for it, let me know.....

Darkside.

 

I have that computer!
Mine's a 486 DX2 66.
It's a bit different. I don't have the G on the bottom, just a kind of fan grille typr thing.

EDIT: Mine was originally a 386-33, installed new motherboard.

 

Re: Project "AT tower renewal" updated Dec 15

Not one to burst your bubble there dude, but my atx board has a jumper for a keylock, and if you plug a keylock into it, and lock the keylock, the system wont power on...

*shrug* it will still look cool

 

neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed (tm) more pics.....

 

Re: Re: Project "AT tower renewal" updated Dec 15

Really? Because I always assumed that they did away with keylocks a long time ago. But as long as that's there, I'll just use it.

Oh and Darkside, I don't think I'll need to take you up on your generous offer. I was actually making two HDD coolers (since I did have two 40mm fans, but one of them is tied up on my Northbridge, since the normal fan broke) When I have the mobo out of the case, I'll probably epoxy a real heatsink on there and cool passivly. At that point, I'll have the required two fans.

 

project log too slow, need more frequent updates

sorry, my a.d.d. is acting up

 

No probs, but it's here if you need it. Keep up the good work on the case, need more pics soon

 

Merry Xmas DV

OK, so we're all dying to see the next installment but let's give DV a break, I'm sure there's other things he has to do...

 

Another small update. As I described in a previous edition, I was making custom fake aluminum drive covers with glued on transparencies for labels.

The blank covers were easy enough, but I had a bit of trouble with the first bay, the Antec EasyUSB.

At first I thought that I would have my floppy drive mounted in the EasyUSB drive conversion bracket. But after thinking about it, I realized that the floppy protruding would upset the balance of my otherwise blank front bezel.

Then I thought about stealthing it via some complicated method involving a blanking plate and some springs. That idea failed pretty quickly, once I realized the difficulty of getting all the materials to work.

Finally I settled upon mounting the floppy drive so that it sticks out the rear of the case (and I'll cover this in a later installement)

First, I installed a blanking plate in the 3 1/4 slot
.

Breaking out the trusty body filler epoxy, I first filled the gap around the blanking plate on the USB bezel. I then sanded it flush.


I gave a rough coat of metallic grey spray paint. Not to improve the overall finish, but to cover up the edges of the bezel where the aluminum tape won't cover. It'll make the lineup of drives look more seamless.



Applied the aluminum tape



Glued on the decal treatment thingy, and cut out the excess around the USB port




Tada

 

w00t, that's very neat

(the USB thingy)

 

looks veeeeeeery cool so far! will look killer once finished

 

that USB bay looks lovely... can't wait to see this finished...

 

That USB mod for the front panel looks really great. Filling it up like that was a great idea. I've got a full-tower case lying around, and your case gives me a few ideas. Looks great up to now! Can't wait to see the final product!

 

Remember last year when I was talking about my special magic way of mounting the floppy drive?

Well I thought it over. Stealthing would be as complicated as it would be impractical. But, I still needed a floppy drive, and I didn't want it to be visible from the front.

From there, I figured my best option would be to mount in the back of the case, in a hole left by the old power supply.

I simply took a plastic drive converter I had lying around, screwed it into the chassis around the hole, and it left me with place to keep the floppy drive, that will leave it readily accessible, but not readily visible.



In case you can't tell, this shows the drive converter stuck to the back of the case. It takes up a lot of real estate, but luckily, I have plenty to spare.



Here's what the back of the case looks like. There's still a little spot there I'll have to patch with something, but overall, this mod solved a lot of problems.

Now, what could this horrible looking rats nest of wires be?


That's right, it's my instrument panel. It sure as hell doesn't look like much from the back, but it actually works perfectly (which even surprised me, seeing as how I made it using wire and old molex connectors I stole from a power supply.)

Remember last time when I was talking about how I mis-measured, and the back end of the microphone jack conflicted with the keylock? Well I ended up just fabricating a new piece of plexi. Problem solved.

It features 4 12v/off/7v fan controls with LED indicators (I unsoldered the LEDs from an old keyboard, which is why they're green, albeit, quite bright)

It also features a microphone jack that I can plug my bass guitar into for recording, or a microphone for other purposes. I was going to make it a headphone jack, but I realized I already had one, on the stereo that sits on my desk.

In addition, it includes a keylock inline with the power switch, so that I can restrict the power to the computer if need be.

This is all mounted on a piece of plexi, with carbon fibre vinyl applied onto it. I was originally going to use a backpainted sheet of transparency, and include labels, but I couldn't get the damn transparency to cut out right. It's pretty much impossible to cut out small circles in that stuff without it shredding, or the color flaking off.

Anyways, here it is from the front


I realize I'm a horrible photographer, and my entries are pretty boring. But coming up next, I'm going work out some paint for it, and cut a window and top blowbole. Stay tuned