Case Mod - In Progress Project: Blue-Hellfire Feb 2 Stick a fork in it...its done!!!

Hmm...I Wonder why...

 

ok.... couldn't bother waiting for the weekend to post a bit more of this mod in progress.
hmmm i hate stock pc case feet. especially when they look like this.

they were screaming at me to kill them each and every time i looked at them.
not liking to leave anyone disappointed i had to oblige. off they came.

simple push through pin construction made removal easy enough.

took a bit of a stroll over to Homebase to find something suitable to use for case feet.
about an hour later i ended up back home with these.

drawer pull handles with a knurled finish on them.sad bit was they only had 3 in stock. so my wife being the loving woman she is undid the display model from the front of thier display section, threw it in a bag for a different knob and just told the cashier thats the way we found it.
gotta love a chick who bends rules so i get what i want sometimes hehe.
one of the reasons i wanted to replace the feet on the case is because i am planning on a 120mm intake fan mounted inside the bottom of the case. need room to let the air draw in. plus i generally think they look tons better than the stock crap.


note favorite coffee mug in picture

plenty of clearance now and after i hit the knurled bit of the feet with some color matched paint i think they will look mint.
now back to the front panel......
i still had 2 more holes to drill in the front panel before i considered it finished.
i had to make room for these.

i know i know... i said 2 holes and theres 3 switches there. one i have other plans for but not in this part of the build.
the other 2 are basic momentary switches.
they will be replacing the buttons on the dvd drives to open and close them. since i plan to stealth them behind face plates i figured i might as well go the full monte and do a proper job of it.
so i drilled the 2 holes

so now the front panel looks like this

i am quite happy with this result as it will give me ample area to botch together a mess on it when i grab the airbrush in a few months =oX

with the front panel nearing virtual nirvana i figure its time to take a look at the rest of the case to see what i can throw together with some bubble gum n duct tape.
before i can rebuild it i obviously had to break it thoroughly so out came the power tools (insert Tim Allen grunt here)

time to get rid of some rivets..
started drilling out the connecting rivets

got to the front dvd optical and hdd frame and have a rough idea for what i may do with it.

i will cover that in a different update, for now i just kept drilling rivets
till i got it broken down to look like this

its totally amazing how many of them little damn things they use to hold something so small together.. i know car manufacturers that don't use as many lol.
so now tis all in pieces for this update ending. next one i see what else i can break bend twist n twirl to end up with what i want in the end.
cya next time
same bat time
same bat channel
=o)

 

Looks promising so far, what where the feet from origionally?

One point of criticism for you log though, does your camera have Macro mode? It would make your closeups not so fuzzy.

 

the feet were originally cabinet drawer pulls. and i am looking into finding a better camera for the closeups. as was said in the beginning of this post. i am stuck between an old vivitar and my n95 right now for pics =o/

 

found some more time for another update.

where i left off before we had new case feet and a chassis broke down into pieces.
i planned to add extra ventilation to the case with a bottom intake and an upper blow hole.
these of course need holes for the fans to draw air through.
here is where i get to come back to my £5 hole saw set and and let you know how much of a quality piece of equipment it really is.
the poor thing didn't have a chance in hell of cutting a hole through either steel panel.5 minutes at low speed effectively damn near flattened the teeth of the cheap blade right out barely scribing the circle shape into the case floor.
it did good on the plexy for the front but appears to be useless for anything pertaining to metal.
finally giving up on the hole saw idea i grabbed my jig saw and proceded to add the additional ventilation holes.

its not the cleanest cut in the world but after some attention with a file at a later date it wont look too bad.

the hole placement is set back far enough so the rear of the front turbine intake ends where the side of the floor panel intake begins.
should create plenty of air flow coming in.
now to take care of one of the exhaust mods to help remove some of that hot air.
i covered the top panel with tape and measured out where the power supply will end up. then layed out the placement where i want the upper blowhole.
grabbed my trusty jigsaw again(didn't bother even tryin the wanna be hole saw this time =o))
and this is what i end up with

now i don't think in the final product that this will be the only hole in the top panel.
i can almost bet that by the end of the build i also add a windows either over the optical's or the power supply.
just have to decide on that once i get to that stage i guess.

alright, lets take a look at the ugly stock rear panel

first off can someone explain to me why case manufacturers add extra holes to case bits for no apparent reason.

how is someone actually supposed to be able to control and direct air flow is there are extra holes and louvers all over the place to dissipate the slip stream.
eh first to close up the louvers..grabbed the small hammer and the 2.5lb mini sledge to use as a backer.
holding the mini sledge against the back of the panel i lightly tapped down each louver with the small hammer until all the gaps were closed.

the back panel itself had mesh covering the area where 2 80mm fans could reside. i wont be needing this much ventilated real estate so i will have to fill some of the stock mesh.
grabbing some masking tape i first masked the rear panel from the inside. then came to the outside and only applied masking tape to the area where the 120mm fan will sit.

then i grabbed my body filler and *POOF* i got thrown outside again.......
eh at least its a nice day out hehe
ok so i mixed up some body filler and carefully covered the area where the louvers were and also the vent area. this also took care of a few other random holes the manufacturer put in the case for no apparent reason.

let dry for about an hour and peel off the tape.
then i was left with this

grabbed my trusty sander to start knocking things down to level

and ended up with this


still needs more work to get it totally flat but it looks much better than the stock crap already in my opinion.
i will be removing that stock mesh area once i get things leveled out and replacing it with something different. havent decided with what yet but you will be the second to know.(wife being first)
ok since the rear panel needs a bit more filling and sanding and you guys know how all that looks already i will move on to a different bit and just bring back the rear panel later in the build when i am ready to cut the stock grills and get it ready for paint.
important bit:
i need a show of hands here......who thinks the stock panel on this case looks like crap?

(/me raises hand, annoys wife long enough to make her raise her hand and threatens to take away his 2 girls pocket money away for 2 weeks if they don't raise their hands as well)
ok majority rules.
now we have to do something about it.
since the beginning i have planned a window in the case but i didnt want a basic rectangle or circle.
i also want to stay with the hellfire theme i have picked so i covered the whole side panel with masking tape and started testing ideas with my wife as a control panel
(she doesn't really get into modding and just kinda puts up with me cause she loves me) after a few different sessions of hearin her eh, ugh, ewwww, i got to a " that one looks ok"

once i had the design layed out i ran out to the back garden.
eh i would have gotten kicked out here anyhow once i start cutting so i might as well save a step and just start here for a change.
grabbed my drill with a fair sized bit and drilled a hole at the center or each flame curve.

starting points for the jigsaw.

after about 30 mins i ended up with a rough version of what i want it to end up like


this week i will see if i can spend a few hours cleaning up the edges a bit on the flames . the jigsaw does an adequate job but does leave rough edges that will need to be filed down and sanded.
i think thats it for todays update..
weather is supposed to be nice so i will spend some time out in the garden

( prolly sanding or dremeling something)
and maybe get the BBQ fired up later today =o)

note that its modded too..got the biggest charcoal one (gas is cheating for real BBQ) available, then brought it home and sunk it into the top of a stainless steel hospital table. 17 jigsaw blades later i have a great BBQ with a work surface built in =o)
cya soon

 

i was gonna grab one of Bills Blowhole covers from Mnpctech for the top but i figured i would try my hand at a custom version first and see if it fit the mod a bit better.
i grabbed a piece of plexi and cut it to the rough dimensions of the cover i want.
then i traced on the outline of an image i planned to use.
out came the dremel.
after 30 mins of


and

i had the image cleaned up sufficiently to hit with some primer.
that left me with

covers the hole fine in the top of the case

and will look good once i add some mesh behind it.

i dont think it looks bad and it will fit in with the theme fairly well once painted and installed.
also with the mesh.i look around locally for "expanded metal" mesh as i am a cheap sob lol
heres a bit of a tip if your looking for cheap (free) mesh
hit up the local quick change oil service places in your area.
ask them if they have any of the old air filters in thier trash ( if they say no they are lyin.)
the mesh backing on them is great as a use for grills and the likes


recycling at its finest =o)

 

looks good man, keep her up

 

just ordered up 4 of these LiteON DH-20A1S-18C Black 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8 / -RW x 6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA Black



2 for my rig and 2 for wifeys
i already plan to stealth them in the front panel of mine and relocate the open/close button
will have to see what i can do about the chassis of them tho.. they are a bit ugly n nekkid

 

Nice work on the blowhole cover. Looks like the air filter mesh works well, I'll have to ask round some garages

 

quick update...did some work this week on the induction fan for the front turbine unit. (pics will follow for the weekend update.
a mojority of this mod will be painted deep candy blue but i need to come up with a color for the interior chassis parts.
right now i am leaning towards high gloss black as it wont detract from my blue lighting i have planned for it.
i also have the option for white but i think that will end up being too "in your face" when everything else is added.
any other ideas or thoughts?
dont really want to have it same color as outside of the case cause i dont want to lose the work i do in there in a mass of blue.
thanks for any input =o)

 

BIG 's to the top blow hole cover!!! Nice work!!! Great tip about that mesh.

A nice high gloss "appliance" white could actually look quite good if done right. I think that it may go well with the blue exterior.

 

Omg, really funny because I nearly did the same sidepanel design.
But I have spotted some bucklings. How do you plan to fix them ?
Overall the project looks very promising and I hope you will do a great job on that case.

Oh, yes the sidepanel definitely looks like crap ;-)

 

the lil ripples in the panel shouldnt be a problem.. i have years of auto bodywork under my belt so gettin them flat shouldnt hurt too much =o)

 

Alright... that should be helpful ;-)

 

Awesome cuts man, this is coming along really well

 

Looking Great Cobra!

Just one thing - don't you have any shoes? The whole thread is pictures of casemodding + feet!

 

hmmmmm....no one told me there was a footwear requirement for modding....
**runs off to check the rulebook**
nope on page 14 paragraph 2 line 23 it clearly states
"please dress accordingly for modding as we are not responsible for any accidents,lost or broken body parts, super glued fingers or toes. failure to do so is at your own risk.(in otherwords mod how ya want..we dont care if your nekkid we just want to see the mods"
actually its just been quite nice out and tend to not wear shoes around the house..only when i get dragged out shopping or whatnot lol
should have a decent update this weekend..just bangin my head tryin to make my mind up on the interior color choice. still got a few weeks before this even thinks of gettin paint on it tho so i can procrastinate for a bit more =o)
cya on the weekend

 

Hi everyone, been a fairly busy week here in non mod life so i will go through what i have done so far in the spare time i have had.
first off my wife snuck in a gift this week for me

they will go well with the theme of the mod once its completed
up close and personal this is how they look


did some lookin around here and there to find a way to make a turbine fan nose cone.
in and out of every hobby shop in and around London and no one had anything usable for what i wanted it to look like.so it was time to think outside the box and see what could be subbed in to do the job on it and make it look right.
decided i would hit B&Q(home depot in the states)and see if i could find something ,,,,,anything with a cone shape on it.up and down every aisle, even checked out every type of cap to damn near every product they had just lookin for the right shape. was no good =o/
so me and wifey stop at woolworths cause we need a few small things out of there for the home.
low and behold wifey actually found something to work.
Silly putty!!! well not the actual putty, but the egg shaped container its sold in =o)

so i took the upper half and stripped the stickers off of it.

once i had it sanded lightly and ready to go on i grabbed the super glue.
i centered the half of the egg on the fan hub and taked it on with the super glue.
after 3 or 4 times popping it off then putting it back on so i make sure its centered i finally got it where i wanted it.
so i hit it with some primer and this is what it looks like now.



remember the optical / hdd cage

well it needs to go on a diet so out comes the jigsaw for the rough cuts.

after a few decisive cuts i am left with this

this leaves me the bit at the top for the opticals and then the small support bit at the bottom for the turbine fan support.

thats where i am gonna leave things off this atm. i have alot more planned for this week all pending on available time.
remember everything so far in this mod has been the "rough draft" the refinement is yet to come once i get the layout close to where i want it.every edge still has to be filed or sanded,and every piece primed and painted.
still waiting on opinions for interior color choice.
i am leaning towards high gloss black at the min bit cant commit yet .
cya in a few days =o)

 

Good find on the nose cone. Also rather than starting a new thread i may as well ask my nooby question here. When painting fans, do you need to mask off any areas? I was worried that paint would clog up the bearings etc.

Cheers

 

farmboy,
as a general rule basic painting of a fan wont harm the motor or bearings as they are predominantly sealed. if it makes you feel better about it you can always disassemble them to paint ( little circular clip under the sticker on the face of the fan ) then reassemble.