Project:ONE | Detail Shots and Explanations | UPDATE:11-20

It's looking good so far. You could be indanger of having more bondo than plastic at this rate though

 

Actually, I keep sanding most of it off

 

Well, Im still bondoing **** up.

I felt some grooves in the left side of the case that I had already bondod up so I had to fill it some MORE.

I suspect that when I reglued the broken piece on I glued it a little to far in. Allowing a slight decrease in depth. So I applied a larg amount of bondo to that area.



Also, I decided to apply a little more the the right side:


After that I attempted a few different techniques for sanding the side down.

One little technique that I had used before was a little bit of dish soap in some water and to dip the sanding block in it. I Found this technique TOTALLY useless when sanding the bondo, the sandpaper became clogged with bondo and plastic. Also, I tried some regular wetsanding and this attempt was somewhat successfull.

Here is the left side again after some sanding and after I applied a little more bondo in some of the dips:


Also, I decided to apply some more bondo to the old port hole lables:


A little more sanding and I should be ENTIRELY done with all the bondoing.

Im still planning out the layout of the internal components. Im trying to find a suitable 1u Power Supply. I was planning on useing the same one that mashie used in Oenone but the shipping for that little thing is like $25 and the PSU itself is $89 and I just cant afford that RIGHT NOW, anyone have any suggestions?
Hopefully later tonight I can start fabricating the fins that will go over the old vents.

Thats it for now.

 

Ok, I finally got ALL the bondoing done. I just need to sand it with some 400 and then 600grit sand paper and then get it painted.

Here are some pics of the bondo sanding job.









BTW, the foam under the sand paper worked like a charm. For some reason all the sandpaper I was using without the foam was getting clogged with bondo/plastic. I ruined a ton of sandpaper by them all getting clogged.

Also, Im having trouble thinking of ideas to mount the fins. I cant seem to come up with a very practical way to Mount them and bend them in a way that is easy.

Basically, Im going to have to bend the fins out then to the sides to conform to the shape of the base of the case. And I cant bend the sides without having the aluminum bend back to its orginal state. Anyone that has bended metal should know what I mean.

Thats it for now.

BTW, I have been up for 22hours now. WOOHOO...work in 3 more hours then 3 hours of work then Ill see how it goes from there.

 

I really like those cases... what color is it gonna be, since all those I've seen were in the same blue color...

 

Aint you reading any of this thread?

Im gonna get it painted chrome.

 

i thought you decided against chrome

 

No, I just cant seem to think of any other color besides chrome that will go nice with look I want.

Maybe black. but Im not sure how the case would look with a nice black reflective gloss finish.

 

Well, I went a bit crazy last night and decided to attempt the forbidden HD WINDOW MOD!!!

The drive was a old Maxtor 20gb drive that I had.

Firstly, Im not sure if this will go in the case. Its a pretty crappy HD. In fact, I got rid of this one in Project:ZERO because it would run REALLY SLOWLY!!!!.

A few days ago I took a regular screw driver and got all the screws off except for one. The one in the middle of the platter spindle. This morning I decided to take the DREMEL to it. I made a little notch in the screw to allow me to unscrew it with a flat head screw driver.

After I made the notch I hooked it back up to see if the drive still worked. and IT DID. Although when I attempted to run scandisk on it it said "Cant access volume" I think this has happened before but I cant remember.
Anyway. I took the hd and removed the screws and placed it in a plastic baggy.


Then I placed another baggies opening on the opening of the baggy that held the HD. I did this so I could transfer the TOP of the hd out without breaking the seal to much ALLOWING for dust to get in.
Here is a pic of the HD top in another baggy besides the HD.


And a somewhat closeup pic of the platters:


After removing the top There was another piece of metal or something glued to the top of the drive cover.
I put an exacto blade in between it and the drive cover and slowely made my way around it loosening it up. I also cut my hand in a few places on the Drive cover itself. It had some sharp edges. Im not sure if its aluminum or what but its some very STURDY metal


I had originally decided to to the whole top as a window using that metal piece as a window guide. I even made a new cover but the platter spindle came out to much and it was useless because t was impossible to get a seal. I cut out a piece of plexi and marked all the screw holes and drilled them out. Then I sprayed the piece of plexi down with some Novus 1 to remove the static. Then I wiped it down with a tack cloth to remove any particles of dust on it. I placed it in a plastic baggy and once again made the transfer into the HD Baggy. But alas, My attempt was useless, the damn hd spindle stood to tall. Sorry, I dont have any pics of this piece. Im hoping that I didnt get any DUST on the platters during the few times I opened the bag. Im certain I didnt but I wont know untill about 10am today when I test the DRIVE.


After awhile of thinking I decided on just doing a little window on the platters.



I had originally decided to have 2 windows side by side like in the areas I scribbled in but I cut it into one big one. I wish I would have went with the 2 windows but I have an idea to make an aluminum cover to go over the top of the drive so that Idea may come back.

After testing several pieces of plexi and found them all to be to thick for my liking I used a cd jewel case to get the window from. After I cut it to to shape I was ready to glue:


I then applied the glue and put the piece on and then I clamped the piece down.


Im planning on putting a BLUE LED in there as well. That mod will be done in an hour or so.

Im hoping that the HD still works. It survived a dremeling so Im hoping it can survive a particle or 2 of dust. It has a filter in there that Im assuming is for collecting any dust that might be on the drive platters so Im very hopefull. Thats it for now, Ill post back at 10 when I test the drive.

Im not annoying anyone with the constant updating am I?

 

Great progress. Glad to see you taking the risk to window your HDD. Hope it all still works, best of luck !

More updates the better, means you been doing mroe moddin


-cLoWn

 

I've just read this from the beginning to here.... very impressed so far. Those SGI cases are really nice, wish I'd kept mine from a while ago.

Be very interested to see if your hard drive still works though - like the shape of the window in that, and will look good with lighting inside.

Keep up the hard work,

Darkside.

 

Yeah, Im really hoping to get to work on the frame and the fins.

BTW. Is there anyone that has any experience with shaping and bending metal?. I COULD REALLY USE SOME HELP WITH THAT.


BTW, I have just glued the BLUE LED to top lid, im waiting for the glue to cure now.

Im also going to cover the lid in a carbon fiber sticker to give it a cool look as well as cover the scratches I made.

 

WELL, im posting from the NEW HARD DRIVE.

Unfortunently scandisk showed 12kb in bad sectors.
Except it only displayed the info for short time

anyone know how to access scandisk reports from within windows?

 

dont they make other HD diagnostic programs? You could try using one of them

 

In NT (2K+XP) look in the management console (Right click on My Computer > Manage) then go > Event Log > System. The details should be in there. On 9x (95-Me) then it doesn't record the details.

Metal Bending: Obviously the easist way is to use a sheet metal bender. However you can for small amounts get away with not using one. There are two methods that work well and which you use will depend on your metal and how strong it is.
For weaker metal you can clamp the smaller side of the sheet in a vice that streches the entire lenght of the bend. Clamp it between two other bits of metal, pre made square corner is great for this. the line you want to bend should be just shy of the outside corner of the L bar. Then bend the metal over with your hands and a hammer. If the sheet is thick or difficult scoring with a cutting disc will help a lot, go 1/4 - 1/2 way through depending on the thickness.
The second method is two clamp the sheet with the to-be-bend facing downwards. underneath the sheet place an upturned L bar (or similar) just shy of the bend line. Using a hammer gently tap over the sheet.
Diagram should hopefully make everything clearer:

 

This is how I want the bends but I dont know how to go about making the second bends without the first ones straightening out.

 

picture no work

If you raise the sheet of the bench and use the second method all should be peachy

 

sorry. it works now

 

yeah got it.

um difficult. how accute do you want the angle to be? if it's only very slight then you should be able to pull this off. however, if you talking about quite a sharp turn then this could be very tricky. creating some sort of 'mould' could be the way to go - you can then hammer the bar into it to create the shape. you could cut slits in it how you might with paper. or get a bloody hot furnace and make the metal all maluable...

oh idea: perhaps a modified pipe bender would would? they're designed to work the other way round but maybe...

 

Its not a sharp angle or anything. its a pretty slight angle to wrap.

These are going to be the fins that cover the existing vents on the base and its doable I know. I just cant figure it out.
Someone suggested that I use a torch but Im not to sure how I would go about making those angles?
Ill pick up some heavy gloves while im there at home depot to just so I wont burn myself.


I just thaught of an idea.

Make the first bends then cut out some areas like teeth so the top bend can expand outward. Then make a piece to go over of teeth like part to make it look all nice.


Im gona head over to home depot and buy some alu to work with.