Project Mr Pib (or Paint it Black) Updated 1/13 Pic-o-rama

And I mean BLACK

This is for my son. Wanted to jazz up his system but being xmas didn't have a huge mod budget so all this was done with stuff I had in the shop.

We start with the system. An old HP vectra desktop... there are about 5,256,842 of these currently in existance. This was a system given to me, no cover or bezel. Just the chassis, mobo, and PSU. But something to work with.



Since I don't have a cover or bezel, the plan is to make both out of clear plexiglas.

HP did put a nice little compact PSU in this system... me likes. I orginally planed on taking this appart and painting the case... but it became apparent that was going to be more of an ordeal that planed so left it the way it was.. (I may paint just the parts that show later)



Another nice aspect of the way they engineered this case is the duct that blows air from the PSU over the heat sink on the 466 cely processor. So the processor has no fan and the system is incredibly quite. This would make an excellent HTPC platform. But it is very dirty and has to be dressed up.



Not sure if I am going to use it yet but went ahead and cut away the grill on the front fan port just in case I end up using it in the future.



Stripped cut and cleaned with isopropyl



ewww... that all came out of the case and the duct...

 

Here are the ingredients for the paint job. Gloss black for the metal parts and the only black vinyl dye I had which happens to be flat black. (got them in front of the heater to get the paint up to temp... if you do this don't leave there for long, it is compressed after all. It was cold in the shop so I had to take some extra steps to make sure I got good results)



I drilled out the rivets holding in the drive cages and gave it two good coats of black. (sorry this is so black it is really hard to get a good image of it - it soaks up the light big time )



Now for the CD-ROM... can't have bare metal and beige in a black windowed case... prep for painting..



Take out and store in a safe place all the delicate parts.



In removing all the decals on the outter case, came accross this helpful one on the back. I like having this info on the drive so I'm gonna keep it.

 

Masked it with painter's tape... and cut out with craft knife



There... nice and neat...



After the painting of the drive, pulled away the tape and got some paint bleedage in there... must not have got the corners quite stuck down... oh well still pleased overall.



The whole drive painted and put back together... happy



The case parts have been laquered and put back in the case and riveted secure... the silver rivits really pop out on the front panel against the black..

 

And whilst you view the mod progress, here's a little light music from Mr Jagger and Friends:

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
With flowers and my love both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a new born baby it just happens ev'ry day

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facin' up when your whole world is black

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you

If I look hard enough into the settin' sun
My love will laugh with me before the mornin' comes

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

Hmm, hmm, hmm,...

I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black
Yeah!

 

hehehehe... GOO get's the idea. The best of the Stones ever if you ask me...

 

A Black Sharpy marker will take care of the volume knob.

(Best pic of drive I got right now)

 

the volume knob is actually a medium/dark gray color.. I kind of like it the way it is. but the sharpie idea is a good one... I'll see what the boy says, if he wants black, then we'll go to town on it with the marker.

Thanks for the idea

 

So the vinyle dye worked on the metal just fine?
Does it scrape off?
Or is that why you are using the lacquer also?

 

black lacquer is on the metal parts, vinyl dye on the plastic pieces. Cd-rom bezel, drawer, and the fan duct are dyed. Chassis, cd-rom case, etc painted with the lacquer.

Did a coat of clear lacquer on the metal parts too after the color coats were on.

 

pretty, do something to make some contrast though

 

Naah, black looks good even alone...

just a q: the cover will be made out of bended plexi?

U could put leds on the edges and lit it like delbert did in his case...

 

that's the idea... not sure if you can tell from the pics but the top corners of the chassis have a slight radius curve (looks like about a .5" radius) so I will have to make a form and rout the edges to match the curve. Otherwise, I just could've used the edge of my workbench... will try to get that done new year's day.

 

Love that song.... but I need to chop Al Pacino's line and put it on the start of the song.....
"Vanity..... definately my favourite sin.... HAR HAR HAR"

 

update 1/6/02

Ok, got some work in on this babeh this weekend... time to work on the fabricated top. I have a whoppin 24x48 sheet of cheapo plexiglas I got at a DIY store but I need to make a form to use to bend the plexi... Along the wall of the shop I have some remnant pieces of a cut up MDF door that will work fine.



need to make a mold that will mock the dimensions of the chassis. This piece is too thin to do it in one piece but that actually worked in my favor, gonna make the form using two pieces to make it adjustable in case I make a mistake measuring and to give me a chance to maybe use this for a purpose with other cases of different dimensions in the future, i.e. a little flexability.

Measure my depth dimensions and cut... little trick I picked up to clamp a carpenters rule to the material to make sure you get a good 90 degree cut



Then I use the first one to act as a guide for the dimensions of the second piece to get the same lenth...



I ripped the second piece to a width that, when added to the second piece minus a gap, will add up to the overall dimensions of the case... see here



Using the chassis as a guide to make sure everything is square and accurate to the edges, I screw them all together with another piece acting as a base.. screwed together and flipped over we get this. Now you can see that later, if I have a case/project that is wider or narrower, I can adjust the pieces to adapt to the new dimensions... almost like I know what I am doing... tripped over this idea totally by accident since I didn't have enough material to make the form in one piece...



This chassis has radius corners that I want to mimic to get a true fit. So I find the closest router bit that matches it (turns out to be the 1/4" radius bit)



Then I use the router to round the edges of the form..



The result is a nice routed edge that is similar to the chassis rounded corner..



Now it's time to warp some plexi...

 

It's plexi morphin' time!

First I cut the plexi to size (I always add some inches to the width dimensions for reasons I will get into in a bit)...



Then I clamp the material to my form...



Using a piece of wood to act as a gate I clamp it down and pour on the heat using my heat gun. Since this plexi is so thick (did I mention it is 1/4" thick plexi? I don't think I did) it takes some serious persuasion but patience is rewarded. I had to bend it once to get it close, took a break and on the second heating got it real tight against the form...



another look from the side to show Jackie Gleason mode "how tight it isss!"



The second bend was waaaayyy more fussy for some reason. This time for my gate, I added a strip of forged steel I got with my metal brake. I provided a better edge to work with and since it is so damned cold in the garage, I figured it would help moderate the heat on the material a little better. After the first TWO heatings I got this far...



another view



After four sessions, yes four, I finally got RESULT!



Let it cool and took it off the form..




Got the chassis out to see how it fits... very tight



Then (this is where I get to why I always add extra to my material) I measure where the top falls on the case and then cut the top to size for a perfect fit..

 

time for the front bezel (this is gonna get a little ghetto)

Most computer front bezels have the front plane but they also have sides because the front bezel plane sits .75" away from the case. I am not going to make a box shaped bezel. Since I planed for the top I made to hang over the front edge .75" all I need to do is make the front panel. The problem is how do I mount it raised off of the surface of the chassis. Originally, I planed on using small blocks of black painted wood but then I got into logisitical problems with how to secure it all together... then as I was cleaning off my workbench, I found something that solved my problem like a sword of light. I had saved a clear plastic stick that was on a set of venician blinds we had thrown away. This is the little stick that dangles down and you can twist it to asjust the pitch of the blinds. I proceeded to cut .5" pieces (because the .5" spacer plus the thickness of the plexi adds up to .75") on the table saw to act as spacers.



Cutting these was really hard because I only needed .5" pieces.. I surrendered and ended up cutting a little longer pieces and filing them down to size. Then I put each one in my benchvice and drilled a hole through the center of it. I fixed them to the case using very short hex screws... the hole I drilled in the spacer was just smaller than the screw so it basically self-tapped... then I cut my front bezel piece and drilled holes where the spacers where located and then screwed the bezel to the spacers using, what I think are, sheet metal screws... they were very good at self tapping because they have an aggressive set of threads.

This is the whole shebang assembled...



Notice the switch and LED assembly in the top left hand corner of the case, I decided to leave this setup but I needed to work around it so I put the front bezel on the router table with a 1/4" flute bit and routed out a window for it to poke through. Later, I will probably work out a cosmetic cover for this because I wasn't perfect in my routing.. it also required quite a bit of filing to get it there as well..



Then I masked off the top and the front bezel for a paint job... Since it is fairly cold in the garage, this is taking some time but here is a pic of the prep for that...



Going with a backside painted silver and black combo. I have about two coates of a metalic silver down but it is slow going... then I will lay down some gloss black behind that to frame the silver accents. One other technical note... I applied some black electrical tape along all the edges that touch the plexi top, both to protect the paint and to keep sound of the system and vibrations to a minimum... against the black chassis, it's almost invisible and provides a perfect platform for the new top to sit on.

 

lol, we're gonna have to change your title to "Bender."

Nice work on the top.

Got any close-up of one of your spacer assemblies? Is that stick hexagonal in cross-section? (/me eyeballs about 900 of those on the blinds here at work...)

No pic of the partial paint job!?! YOU TEASE!!!

 

Unfortunately, I didn't photo-document that stage too well because I thought it was boring I did a closeup crop of the other pic... sorry for the junky pics... the sawdust and plexidust (which is more toxic than pixiedust) clings to all this stuff like a magnet.. this pic gives a pretty good view of the insulation tape gasket I created...lol



I can easily take better pics of this if you are interested, especially since the front bezel is off for painting...

I cut it just as you see on the table saw... if that answers your question... and don't get fired for skitching blind rods from work... that would just be too sad...

Well, until I can get my dirty hands on some IPS weld 4, I'll continue to bend and screw (and yes, I'm aware of what I'm setting myself up with that wording..)

 

may I suggest

as a prospective avatar.

 

Very nice job o n the plexi bending. i myself used 1/4" plexi for my VFD stand and I can also say that it takes a while to get it to bending temperatures. very nice work.



ps: more pics please...