Case Mod - In Progress Project; Mark1

Damn! that's huge compared to you!
Nice Tshirt, although you dont look as if you really know what you're doing

 

LMFAO thats pretty funny man

 

Lol
Nice! Another Lexa mod! You're going nuts on it! nice work! I'll be watching.

 

OK, a quick update today, not too much to report.
Got the front header area cut away.



Let me tell you friends, that was the exact opposite of fun. No room to move a file, no room for any dremel attachments... Ugh

Still needs some finish filing though...

Next I need to cut down the fins a little bit so the plastic cover will fit and be flush with

the front of the fins.



Thats all for now, gotta go to work!

 

OK, another small update. Just been working on this front header more. Got more of the filing done.


Sits down in there nice now.




I am going to cut down the pcb a little so it doesn't hang over,



Been really busy, so haven't had time to do much.
This weekend I will drill a couple holes for wires and start filling in the gaps.

 

One thing I'd be worried about at this point would be shorts from that pcb. Do you have a plan to insulate the bottom from that metal piece you've made the cutouts from?

Keep it up!

 

Yeah I thought of that. Just some clear electrical tape, probably, or something to seal up the bottom of that pcb

 

Sooo.... Let's take a look at the material I'm using, as well as some of the methodology
as it's evolved.


Here is the source of the material.


They are data recorder boxes. "The little black boxes." On the end you'll see where the
heatsinks come from.


The boxes are made from some kind of aluminum (alloy?) cast, hard as hell
(hardened?) and a nightmare to work with sometimes. So far I've ruined my (really nice)
jigsaw, dulled three files, and gone through more jigsaw and sawzall blades than I can
count.
Speaking of sawzalls... When I started, I didn't have a sawzall. See this lip?


It's not possible to cut with a jigsaw. Solution? Drill a hundred holes then file down all
the ridges.





Sweet baby Jesus that did suck. Also it resulted in piles and piles of metal shavings,
which my wife was just thrilled about.



I don't have a workshop, I live in a crummy little apartment, so I work in my living
room. (in case you haven't figured that out by the backgrounds in my pictures lol)
Something else my wife is thrilled about.
Here is the result of the drill/file method



I am happy to report that I finally made the trip to my friendly neighborhood Harbour
Freight and got a sawzall and a new jigsaw.



Much better. Still, each cut is a pain, and I have to file and file and file..... Gawd I am
sick of filing. I don't even want to use my filing cabinet anymore. filing.....

 

Err, great looking mod and all, but what is with the pictures talking about imageshack and skiddies?

 

idk wtf that is?! I saw it someone else's worklog too
if it doesnt go away I'll stop using imageshack

 

hey, they went away yay! I wonder what that was about.... at any rate I might switch to photobucket anyway

 

Here we go, nother update.
Got the front piece glued together. This weekend I will be working on filling all the
gaps. I cut down the pcb,


Well crap. I cut it down to the point where I didn't need to cut the groove in the second
fin. Oh well.
Anyway, I figure I won't be using the plastic piece I cut out. I will just make my own
cover. Here is a test piece. This is not the final piece, but something to give me an idea

of what to do. First, I apologize, I had a hard time getting good pictures.




Here you can kinda see what I am going to be doing to match and blend that bodyline

of the case.



Here is something that will boggle everybodies minds.



That's right, door. Permanently glued shut.

Made some cuts...



and we have access again.






Sanded down the edges, to clean it up a bit.




The cover still fits nice.

 

OK, so the next couple of days will be spent switching all my pictures to photobucket, cause I am tired of imageshack. first that crap with the big black boxes filled with some psuedo political crap, now I got the red X of shame and my pictures don't show up on imageshack's own site. Soooo, excuse the lack of progress this weekend

 

Cool project, have fun with the sanding! It will pay off in the end though.

 

What he /\ said, plus have fun switching the photohost over... that's a pita!

so I don't get why you glued the door shut? mind boggled!

 

OK, so it has come to my attention (more than once) that people may feel a lack of
direction in this build, hence a lack of enthusiasm.
I admit I did not undertake this project with a concrete plan. I had a general idea, a
few things I wanted to do, then I let the inspiration come to me. I took an artistic
approach to this whole project. Da Vinci reworked his ideas many times before
realizing a final result. And just like Da Vinci, I have a few things I know for sure and
hold to, and let the rest come to me as the pieces speak to me.
K enough art teacher speak.
I have a few ideas that I've had from the beginning, and that I know for sure that I am
going to implement. Namely, Largely, the doors.
Ahh the doors. Something that can make or break a case. Or just plain break and screw
the whole deal up. This case has a neat looking door. Sharp body line that I love, cool
lighting....
Now how can I make it better. How can I make it, different.
You saw that I glued part of the door on, then cut part off
Here's the idea, presented in no-talent sketchup.

This is the front piece to the door.

The whole front of the case has these matching
pieces with this beautiful finish.

I am going to cut that in half. I will mount a servo that will open the door as such,


then another servo, mounted on the inside of the door, will "slide" the door back, as so;


this of course will be mimicked on the other side. (and remember, that door will be cut in half)
There are three places this will occur.
On the mini-case, where the Imon holds it's place of honor,
Of course the main drive bay area,
and...

On this bottom section,


Those are some progress shots showing the bondo work coming along.

Think armoire doors,

 

OK ladies and germs, here we go....

Not much of an update today, but I promised I'd get something out this week.
This piece has been kicking my butt all week.




Hopefully you can kinda see where I'm going with this. I have to sand down all the
bondo in between all the fins, for one. The problem is, it's very difficult to do by hand.
I used a dremel with this attachment,


But that left a rough finish. Btw I know that's not the designed use for that attachment,
but it actually worked really great for that. I still use it, but only to take the bondo
down a little, not all the way.



I have come up with a potential solution to this problem, a simple block of wood,
sanded to the size to get in between the fins.


Here's the other problem area.



I am trying to get a smooth transition between the plastic cover for the front header,
and the rest of the cover. This really is the area I am having the most trouble with. I
can't quite figure out how to attain the look I'm going for.
I'm thinkin I will just take a break from this part and work on a different area for a
while....

Here is the front of the minicase. The plastic there is cut off the front bezel from the
second case.



Here is the piece I am thinking I will attach here.




I know it seems a bit odd, or backwards to attach the bottom piece here. My reasoning
for that is twofold; one, I it will make the plastic level with the front of the Koolance
unit. Two, it is longer, so it comes down to about where I want it. One other thing (ok
so it's threefold) is this gap will be a great spot to mount this remote control reciever
that came with my Hauppauge tv tuner.



One other thing, got a surprise in the mail today, the data cable I ordered. It's a usb to
serial cable. I have to give a quick shout out to bestlinknetware.com. I searched and
searched for this cable, and I would find a 12" one for $13, but the wouldn't work.
Then I would find a 6' cable for $30 plus. That wouldn't work either lol. Plus, they were
all blue. Yeah, so, anyway..... But this site had this cable, in black, 40" long, and for 8
bucks. Oh hell yeah. And it got here really quick, I was surprised! [/schelling].



This cable is for my servo controller, when it comes on Monday.

So that's all for today. I was hoping to show some more definitive progress, sorry guys.

 

looking fresh

 

Hello all again just a quick text update today....
So starts the beginning of my weekend today. Gonna run a few errands, including a trip to ye olde Harbour Freight as well the my freindly local neighborhood Home Depot for supplies.
Quick stop by the doctors office (always fun) then it's on to modding! Oh yes I plan on getting some serious work done this weekend. It's on like Donkey Kong.
Gonna do some (more) work to the front piece, as well as an idea I recently came up with, a place to stash my ipod.
I got my servo controller in the mail, and I only got one servo (lame) cause I'm perpetually broke these days.
But I plan on figuring out how to mount one of the servos for the doors, and hopefully get those going in the right direction.
We'll see!

 

So just got back from running around... Got cleared for surgery (yay) and a trip to Harbour Freight resulted in a little more than just sawzall blades.




Oh yeah. It's not huge or anything, but hey it's a friggin drill press heck yeah! I'm super excited I've wanted one for a long time. This will definitely come in handy!