Now that I've had the ammo can for over a year at this point, i've finally gotten the motivation to start work on it. I know ammocan's have been done before in all shapes and sizes, but the idea still appeals to me. The praticality of them is what appeals to me most, and most of the cases I've seen lack that, so no holes in the case, and a durable inner frame for the cpu. I've already started on it, but I'm currently lacking a digicam, but I should be able to get my hands on one soon. I've hacked up a $15 case for the important bits, and just bought enough angle, bar and box stock to build a 1:2 scale model of the empire state building, so now its just figuring out how everything fits together , I should have space for an atx mobo, atx psu, 3x 3.5 internal, and atleast 1 if not 2 external 5.25's. Edit: And the name is practical , I one of the first cuts I was making for this project was cutting up the back of the el cheapo case, through the psu mount, and went "Hey, that looks sharp, I should watch out for that", and then five minutes later impaled my left hand on it , and then ground it off and went back to work before discovering a few minutes later a large amount of blood accumulating .
ohhh I think I´m in love If you do this projekt serriosly it culd be a realy nice case keep it up good work! m8
Heh, as long as I stop injuring myself, I should finish it in the next few weeks . After bending the box back into square, I cut the new backplate out of some 22 gauge steel sheet metal, pop riveted it to the scavenged backplate, and added another set of mounting points for the 3.5" drive cage. It does, however, look like there will only be room for one external 5.25" . Oh well, now I just need to finish working out the bracing.
Hey, what good is a computer if you've only got nubs to use with it? Mod safe! Hey now, that's what slim cd-roms are for! They're a modder's god-send. I'm in the planning stages of a fully-custom case for a car-mp3 / dvd player, and the whole of the project would be impossible w/o a slim drive. I hope to be joining these forums in more than just a lurk-capacity soon.
Heh, I wear ear plugs and glasses, and a half face respirator when needed, I just dont like working through gloves, not enough tactile feed back. And I want the case to work with off the shelf hardware for a full sized system, so no matx or other small/specialty parts. I've got a slim usb 2.0 cdrw/dvd drive that will end up in my dash in my car, and they are pretty snazzy.
That's all understandable. As for safe modding, I think the only required gear are glasses and possibly a respirator. Gloves make precise handling of objects really difficult. Ear protectors are a "must-have" for some people, including myself. Another thing that's crucial to safety: having your workpiece secured correctly. In this forum, people have had parts of their thumbs hacked off by spinning blades and cutters, and I bet 90% of all the injuries could be attributed to lack of simple safety precautions or not having the proper vise, fence (for your router), or work-stop (bench dog, router fence-stop) installed on whatever surface or equipment you're working on/with. I'm fairly new to modding, but I've been woodworking for a long while. I still have all my fingers and toes, thankfully! A good idea is a bench-mounted vise with soft edges. Soft plastic material works well to hold a project, and dampen vibrations while working.
Ok, finally some pictures fuzzyish pictures of the bit of work I've done, my camer doesnt seem to like all the unfinished metal. The new backplate sandwiched to the old backplate. This is the general idea for the layout of the inside bits. The backplate in the ammo can.
Now thats looking clean Me likey! You can fit some more cd drives in there, I see one spot thats lookin might fine for one! Just use your handy dremel and anything can be done, just keep fingers clear of them high-speed spinning objects, they can bite back pretty hard. Cant forget them piping hot things. I'v had plenty experence with those trust me ....... Its called a hot glue gun thats been on for an hour, seems to inch twords your finger... YEEEEOOOWWWCHH! Left a handy scald mark, its almost gone now tho
hey good work! Theres so many ammo can and other old military hardware cases we should start a project log ring, any ways check out the project in my sig, mine is on a very long hold until I get enough money to buy a digicam
Heh, yeah, but cases like yours and zapwizards are on a whole different level, they're all crafty like. I've been following yours, tracking down all the different bits shows your determination, I just wanted an ammocan case . And on a about the case note, I started to build the internal frame for the case last night, which I'm sure will end up being overbuilt, but its in my nature .
Actually, its a Slot 1 motherboard . I wasn't an AMD man back in those days. And its just being used for mock up at this point, my main system will hopefully end up in it .
New pictures: Again showing the general layout of the case. I just realized as I was taking these pictures that I'd need to flip the HDD cage 180 in order to be able to rivet into place, as the 3/4" alu frame that I'm bulding around it would be blocking it. Which is what most of the major work left will be, expanding the frame into 3D, mirroring the existing 3 pieces attached by another two to create a box around everything. I'm also going to fab a backplate of sorts for the psu to screw into out of the same 3/4" angle alu. The reverse angle. The 5.25" is actually riveted to the front of the case at this point for fitment purposes after being coped to fit next to the frame, but I'm sure I'll drill them out at some point to add this or that. And I made 2x 5.25" bays fit, with about 3/16" to spare . Altho this means I'm going to need to rework how the pc frame attaches to the ammo can, I figured its worth it as I wanted two external bays. Face of the case with a few more rivet holes. I'm thinking about just cutting openings for the drive trays, and mounting some 3/4"~1" bar stock on the end of the trays to effectively stealth them. . There's also going to be an 80mm fan in the expected spot, but im at a loss as to what to do for more ventilation. I might add some open grilled space above the expansion slots.
Why not do a luvered vent for the fan, jbweld bolts on the inside so nothing shows on the outside other then the vents?
I thought of that, but I think I might just rivet the fan to the case to keep the same feel as the rest of the face of the case.
Ended up working on some fit and finish things for mp3dub this weekend instead of on this, working out the last few nibbling issues that have arisen from being in the car (loose connections, damaged cables, etc), so most of my time was spent soldering rather then hacking away at puncture wound, but i did attach the 3.5" cage in the dirrection I orignially planned, just easier that way. Hopfully Ill get some more time this week.
make sure not to screw up that sticker on the top of the case, cause that is badass other than that, it looks good Happy Modding!
So I was working on the frame when I started measuring, and I just realized that somewhere I lost an inch, so I'm going to have to rework the layout of the hdd cage and possibly the psu.
