Case Mod - In Progress Project: Hyponome - updated May 20 '08

Starry, starry night:

Now, I know that this is an aquatic theme here, but I did need something to break up the sea of black on the backside of the motherboard tray. Deep sea and deep space are both black as hell, so I figured some point lights spaced out for a starry effect might look nice. Maybe instead of just a nautilus, it’s some sort of biomechanical space cephalopod floating through the depthless leagues of the universe… or maybe it just looks cool Anyway, mixed themes aside, I needed some holes and some LED holders here.







I wanted to space them out and arrange them in a way that seemed haphazard, but not clumpy. I actually made numerous layout attempts to get just the right look and it was made difficult by the fact that I had to avoid the space behind the processor as the back plate for the watercooler wouldn’t leave me enough room for the led holder nut AND the wiring for the LED. As it was, I was going to have to grind down the back of the LED holder flush with the nut to make clearance for the rest of them anyway. So, I had to arrange them in a way that filled the space without looking like there was a giant rectangular gap. The final pattern worked out well and while the gap was there, it was minimized in appearance. I took into account not only the distance from the nautilus to frame the pattern but also the occlusion of the window that would sit over the area. I wanted the visual spacing to be as pleasing as possible, which meant even distances between the lights and a uniform spacing from any framing elements as well. It may seem unnecessary, but the overall look would be a lot cleaner and look less like someone threw it together in a garage.

Now it wasn’t until I had the final layout marked and drilled, that I had an idea to fill the area behind the processor – the trick was to keep as little as possible on the back side of the metal. I was already planning several name badges for the case, so putting one here would be even more redundant and would look pasted on. Instead, I decided to add a lit signature plate – not a necessary thing for the case, but this would be an appropriately out of the way area for something like that. So for clearance, I cut out a rectangle in the plexi the same size as the plate would be, but not through the motherboard tray – there would only be the mounting holes and a hole for the wiring through the metal.





While I was at it, I went ahead and cut out the white plexi nautilus shape that would go behind some aluminum, so I could have even white light shining through patterns in the metal. This was the plan for the signature plate as well (among other things yet to come too), so I cut out the rectangle for that at the same time.







Now, I haven’t lit much plexi, so I didn’t know how many LEDs to shove in and what kind of spacing was needed. To find out, I made a test jig with a breadboard and some scrap plexi.





This is the more opaque 7328 white plexi, which I figured would give better diffusion when used in thin sections. The problem with it is that it doesn’t transmit light as far linearly. With clear plexi, the light travels very far linearly so that the edges glow nicely, but I’m going for perpendicular light transmission, so I have to balance transmission with diffusion.





The 7328 is like a vacuum for the light using embedded LEDs – if I had the room to shine the LEDs from a distance straight through the thickness of the material, it’s diffusion would be perfect, but I can’t. So that meant shoving a crap-ton of LEDs into the plexi instead. This would make wiring more difficult, but I could have a well-lit badge with just a 3/16” depth. The area where the LEDs are located is the brightest, as you can see.








Since I can’t achieve the same brightness anywhere else, I was going to have to use the space between the LEDs. I tried staggering the placement instead of opposed positioning as well as different spacing options.





In the end, opposed facing actually produced a more even result but I had to use very close spacing no matter what layout I tried. So I’m going to have to shove 12 3mm LEDs into this 1 ¼” x 3” piece of plexi in order to light up an area that’s approximately ½” x 2”. As you can see, I would be wanting a better solution for the other items I would be lighting (namely, using the 2447, more translucent plexi). Getting the wiring to fit was a terror, but I did manage it.









I used jumper wire for it’s thin profile and convenient rigidity. If I had thought to use some veroboard or something similar, I might have saved myself the trouble and just accepted another layer of thickness to the plate. With that in mind, I may remake this part later with the other plexi and that method. In the meantime, I filled in the cut areas around the wiring with some Apoxie-Sculpt for insulation and to re-assert the profile of the piece since it would sit a millimeter or two proud of the black plexi.







After sanding the material down to shape, you can see where some of the wiring is exposed again, but not to worry as I sealed the piece with clear coat before adding a layer of chrome spray paint. However, the solvent in the chrome layer bit into the clear and the metal particles in the chrome started swimming on the surface. It produced a nice matte metallic finish instead of chrome, which was better looking, but I had to test the piece again to make sure it lit and used a multimeter to make sure no current was leaking through the metallic paint.





It turns out the paint didn’t transmit any current at least in this more diffused form (have to try it still when it turns out the way it’s supposed to).







I layered some adhesive vinyl on the back and insulated the wiring connection for vibration purposes and to make sure no shorts could occur anywhere. I also layered some on the top surface with a window for the lit area to function as a kind of “light gasket” once the top aluminum plate was attached.





Here it is with the brushed aluminum plate in place – the signature isn’t cut out yet obviously, but I ordered some miniature end mills and a router tip for my dremel to take care of that step later. Hopefully it works out well, or else I may have to use my jeweler’s coping saw (time consuming) or resort to watercutting (expensive).


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Nice LED work.

 

Thanks! It's a tight freakin fit, but hopefully it looks as good as I planned once the plate is cut. It's a fair amount of LEDs for what will end up being a rather muted glow, but it's not like they draw a lot of power or give off any meaningful heat.

 

The agony of da feet:

Getting tired of the puns yet? What? I can’t hear you over the sobbing…

The case feet were easy – just ordered up some brushed aluminum feet and stuck ‘em on with some cut down M3 screws in the case's existing threads. The supplied mounting screws were larger (6/32 I think), so I had to use washers to fit, but that was as much hassle as was needed. I went for actual case feet instead of the supplied wheels (which are quite nice) as I really didn’t plan on needing to roll it back and forth and I didn’t feel that they would fit the overall look of the case once completed. The case feet I chose fit the material theme and are quite understated. You really don’t even see them under the case, but if you look for them, they match.






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Case closed:

I started reassembling the case after cutting up and drilling the front panel. I had ordered some countersunk pop rivets at the beginning of the project so I had all that I needed. One problem seemed to be cropping up, though – all the new rivets were a bit loose. I’ve used these things before and there wasn’t any reason that these should be acting this way. At first I assumed that the mandrels were popping before the swell had actually reached the surface of the material, but upon inspection as I applied one, that wasn’t the case at all! I tried and drilled out a few more before I found what the problem was. It turns out that the countersunk holes in the case were just a bit larger than the heads of the rivets (normal amount of clearance to make sure you don’t have any heads sticking out), and when the face of the rivet was pulled against the face of the tool, bringing it flush with the surface of the outside material face, it created a little gap behind the rivet head between it and the material. Phew – a little convoluted there. Basically, since the rivet head sits in the hole a bit, pulling on the mandrel to set it pulls it out of the hole a little bit until it hits the tool face. The solution was to take one of the M3 nuts I had laying around and slip it onto the mandrel before inserting the rivet! Instead of the tool face meeting the material surface of the case, the nut spaces it out and fits inside the countersunk hole, thereby placing all pressure on the rivet head instead of pulling it out of the hole. After I used this little ghetto fix, every single rivet fit snug and tight.





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Nice case!
My current mod project is working with the same case, but it's refreshing to see a different spin on the same case. You're doing very nice, creative work so far, I like it!

 

Thanks! Glad to hear it! The V-series is definitely a popular case these days and an absolute pleasure to work with. I simply can't recommend it enough!

 

I haven't used counter sunk rivets before, I have found the standard ones to be sufficient enough. Fantastic mod so far. Keep up the awesome work.

 

The way that the case is built wouldn't allow normal rivets to work, unfortunately. The side panels fit flush against the case edges with no gap to allow for a rivet head. The original construction used counter-sunk rivets on the case edges for that reason, so once drilled out, I had no choice but to use the same to replace them.



The result is a nice clean construction though, and once I found a workaround, the application was just as easy as a normal pop-rivet. I'm actually thinking of using the same rivets for a couple of future projects that are currently in the planning stage.


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I see what you mean. They do look good though.

 

Yeah, it's a clean look and the counter-sinking really widens the range of applications that pop-rivets can be used on.

 

Everything looks great, but....
I'm confused, so those aren't normal rivets? Where did you get the 'special' rivets? I will need to know for my V2200 mod.

 

They basically are normal rivets, they just have a flat head instead of the domed one.

 

Oh, okay, thanks for answering. So you made them that way with your M3-nut-trick or you bought them that way? Where did you buy them?

 

Something I should have added is that the holes you put them are also slightly countersunk for a completely flush finish. You can buy them from your local hardware store (here in Australia anyway) but I guess you could sand or file the heads down on some normal rivets.

 

I bought these from McMaster-Carr - it's a company here in the states that I've had quite frankly very good service from. If you haven't checked them out yet, run don't walk to their website. I only found out about them relatively recently, though they're certainly well known to others. The selection of materials/tools/hardware is immense and the prices are reasonable - even more so if you're on the kind side of the exchange rate.

As far as making the countersunk rivets from regular ones, that could range from tedious to impossible, depending on how you go about it. Check out McMaster's website for diagrams of the rivets themselves if you need (under the fastening and sealing section, click on "rivets", then choose the "blind" style). You'd have to grind the rivet head into a cone shape from the underside, install it, then grind down the dome to a flat surface. You'd end up with a rivet head that was much smaller in diameter, and risk marring the surface you're installing the rivet into, not to mention the hassle of it all. Much better just to buy the other rivets as they're not very expensive. I did have no luck whatsoever finding them in any local brick-and-mortar store, so online may be your best bet.

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Yeah I forgot that the underside of the rivets were different lol.

 

Ooooh, is it the Warhammer 40000 Apocalypse rulebook that I spot under that lovely case?

 

Good eyes hehe. I think it's just a White Dwarf issue, but it does betray one of my other major hobbies - between 40k, computers, and guns, I'm surprised I can afford to eat. I think in some of the other pictures I have, you can see the sea of grey minis on my work desk. Maybe someday I'll actually get them all painted up! Not until this case is done though.

Let me see if I have time to muster an update today - been busy working on moving my business to a new location...

 

Reassembly continued...

While I was putting the case back together I had a few more things to add and tweak. First off was tidying up a few unsightly screws on the front intake fan mounting.

I simply shortened the bolts from this:





to this:





And I also needed to add a new, small piece of infrastructure in order to mount some later embellishments and a metal guide for some of the wiring. Both of these pieces needed to be added to the divider plate and so I decided to mount them using the same rivets that would hold the drive bay down.

For the wire guide I started by cutting out my aluminum blank and giving it the basic bends using a small anvil and a rubber jeweler's mallet.







I then added the secondary bends using mainly pliers and a little bit of mallet work. I drilled the mounting holes and gave it a once-over with a fiber wheel to smooth things out. The mounting piece that would go across from the guide was simply a bit of aluminum angle drilled for rivet mounting and then fitted with captive nuts on the perpendicular side.







Here it is mounted. The flash was unfortunately a bit extreme, but you get the idea as far as the placement goes.





The two smaller hooks along the length are there to hold the wiring for the front I/O connectors and the power/reset buttons. The other hook on the end is to guide the optical drive SATA power cable from the grommet in the divider around the hard drives to the PSU.

The angle piece simply exists to provide perpendicular mounting threads for some aluminum pieces that are part of the nautilus design that will go on this side of the case.


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