Okay, well, I figured since macro and sevral other people from the forums have proven to be very helpful (and over all, nice! *gasp!*) I would put my current project up here while its being worked on,instead of my homepage. Give you guys a little something to chew on. Pictures and captions etc will follow in a second post. But first a little information. I will basicly continue to update this thread as i work along and have more progress and pictures to show, eveyrthing from PCB work, LED's, cutting, basicly the whole nine yards. The case that is being used, ironicly, is an old, clunky, very roomy, yet very boring AT tower I had sitting around with nothing to do. I never really looked at it from a 'modding' angle untill one day I was poking around, and one of my freinds made note that I should make a custom case mod for my server, which is named Satan, and has become a sort of in-name among people I know. what follows, is a rather bizzare development phaze of me getitng my hands on a sackload of UV/blue superbrite LED's, a purple litewire,resisters,straws, tubes,cheap KY lube (dont laugh! Have you ever looked at how crystal clear that stuff is??) neon dyes, markers, and anything else i could fool with for some lighting effects,and alot of spare time, and a taste for experiemntation. also, some pain(t)-job work so far. I plan on taking this old case, and doing some very custom lighting tricks with it, some asthetic, some spectacular, some simply because i felt like it. Basicly what will follow is some pictures of what was played with, whats going to be actualy put into production for the mod, and things that were played with for 'later' parts of the project. Some of which i might hint at, or might not, just to keep you in suspense.. This thread should be good for people who might be looking for new ideas, I plan on twisting a few old ones around for a new look here or there.. Again, this will be updated as work progresses,comments and ideas welcome! Caveat: My webcam SUCKS. Be warned, its a crappy little Intel cam that can hardly grab half the visual spectrum as it is, let alone all these pretty bright lights. You will just have to deal with it,or you can chuck me some money for a better one. Also, the pictures taken so far -were not- intended to be used as a 'project log' sort of way, so they are rather shoddy. Future images will be made with better foresight.
Meet the ugly duckling from hell. So, you wanna see what this ugly, pre-mod beast looks like? Its tall, its dirty, its even got dents in it! This isn't a fixer-upper, this is outright resurection.The paint on the lid had so much damage, I already stripped and polished it as best i could, sadly, the aluminum in the lid has alot of material imperfections, and looks quite splotchy, even after a clean and polish. Dents were removed with a few small metal working tools such as a ballpin hammer, a sand sack, and lots of care. Meet the creeper. Anybody just have a flashback? How about seizures? No? Here, have some more. There,that ought to put the fear of beige towers into you. I knew before i even got started, this would be a bit of a chalange, sure, i -could- go out and buy some new, already snazzy looking case, and throw some lights and windows into it, but we have all seen *that* before. /me ducks and dodges flying objects. So i take the plunge, time to start stripping it down.. You might notice, that the inside of this case is actualy fairly shined and reflective..this was already giving me ideas, however i do plan on pushing it to a chrome finish inside for lighting value. Naked glamour shot version. Next post? fun with plastic repair, sandpaper. and cheap knock off lite kits. (Trust me, things do start looking better, really!)
woah, that babehs got a 5.25 sized floppy drive (3.5 drive in a 5.25 casing), you don't see many of those these days... At least those old cases where built like tanks. Welcome to the boards. Perfect place to get started with a project log...
Sandpaper fatigue anyone? Sandpaper. One of the most basic inventions, and one of the most tiring as well. We all know that most cases and computers, esp the older ones, have this nagging texture about them, and even worse, is when you have nicks, scratches, and what ever else the previous owner of this case felt the need to inflict on this poor thing. If you squint at the earlyer pictures, you can make out the worse of the scratches, but the nicks really stand out, especaly those in the grill vent and sides of the bay areas. Using a plastic compound, which you can find at almost any craft store, i patched and filled the really bad nicks and notches, and the less fatal marks, i smoothed out and sanded.. and sanded... and kept sanding. I started with a fairly rough grit, just to speed things along in getitng the texture down smooth, and leveling out the plastic of the case. (Yes, it was actualy very uneven all around, like around the edges from the injection molding) And then finished off with a ultra-fine wet sandpaper to smooth things out as much as possible. The end result was quite a relife, after this stage, i knew this case might just work out yet. Sure, my arms were about to fall off, but dangit, that plastic never looked better. Before, after. look, magic! (still a few of the really bad nicks can still be seen if you really look, but i'm not nearly finished cleaning those up yet) But before i went any further with that face, I wanted to make sure one of my earlyer ideas would actualy work... Notice the notch that runs all around the upper half of the case. Thats just the right size for one of those cheap lite-wire automotive kits, and i just happen to have one at my disposal.. Despite what the cam says, thats not blue, its purple. See? I told you my cam was crap, its colorblind. I was impressed with how well this cheapo lite worked, in fact, i got it for 12 dollars at a US walmart automotive section, they have Red, blue, purple, and i recall a green one as well. they even have some that say they glow to music, but I didn't get that one. they come in 3+ foot strips, with a handy dandy built in and small inverter, plenty of wire to reach where you want, and they run quite nicely off any 12V DC supply after hacking off the ciggarette lighter plug. (AKA: you can wire it directly into your 12 power leads) The rumble you hear is budget modders all across the US running to walmart.. After some fooling around, i started to lay in this lite wire to see if it would actualy fit how i wanted, if not, i would have to widen that notch and make room for it.. I was lucky! it fit all around save for two points. The corners at the top of the grill were not wide enough. A few trips back and forth with a very small dremel bore to widen it up, and a a bit of time to smooth out the corners, and eveyrthing fit in quite nicely. (note, this was all done before/during/after i sanded the face, sue me, i'm using my images out of order All nice and tight. Most of this won't even require glue or any sort of fastening, it fits that nicely into place. Around the drive bay area is a suken indention, i had plenty of lenght left on my litewire, and decided it would be nice to run the wire back behind the face, and out over these areas, so a few small holes were required, nothing serious, just need a drill bit the same size as the wire is, and some careful working, and presto. The wire just made it with an inch to spare. Right now it is loose, and has a little slack, when it is mounted for keeps, it will be tightly secure and flush against the surface. Slowly but surely, things are getting better. Next post: Fun with Superbrite blue LED's,black gloss paint, and, you guessed it, more sanding! (Hint: You should go buy stock in sandpaper right now.)
(This chatteriing brought to you by the letters O and W) Hey dane, thanks for the warm welcome, I'm really starting to dig the scene here. Re tank case: You have no idea, this thing weighs a TON. This case was also built before they started being 'nice' and dulling the edges, i dont know who is cutting more, me, or the case. I should start a score on cut-count. Owner-cut-case: 5 Case-cut-owner: 12 I think it's going to try for a fatality next.
Directions: Read in a well ventilated area. Paint, paint is fun, I love to paint. I painted everything when i was a kid, model cars, RC racers, planes, walls, furnature, pets, woodland creatures, my dad. I painted alot. Thankfuly, I have some level of experiance under my belt dealing with these things, having done a little automotive paint work, and serious model detail work, I had a few tricks up my sleeve.. But I also had one hitch: cash flow. I couldnt afford to go out and get super high quality black automotive primer, gloss, and clearcoat. not to mention, the cans usualy run out too quickly... The goal? To get as glossy a finish as possible, with off the shelf black paint, and keep it all within the budget.. The paint must be durable, cheap, yet responsive to rubbing and polishing after aplication, and it has to work well with a clearcoat afterwards... Sound like a hard find? Yeah, right, get back on the boat, billy, we arn't sinking just yet. Billy, meet Mr.Rustoleum. (Don't laugh, just wait and see) Thats right, rustoleum, Good ol' black gloss. And why not? I have used it before with good results, might as well give it another shot. worse comes to worse, I have to strip it off again and try something else. (I'm a persistant SOB Meet the test candidates. Mr drive bay cover (just as nasty and textured as the rest of the case) and Mr aluminum plate (scrap from some doorframe, also in shoddy condition, but its aluminum, close enough for a test) After giving the drive bay cover the sandpaper treatment, rough grit for starters, then fine, and finaly, superfine wet sandpapering..The surface was smooth and flawless. To make a long story short, here is a picture of the end result of that test, without buffing, rubbing, or even a clearcoat, this is just straight paint. And no, that blurr you see at the edge isnt a bead, its the reflection from the windowsill above I can already hear a few people saying 'you cant get plain ol sloppy spraycan paint that glossy without polishing!' And most of you are probably right, rustoleum doesn't like to smooth out like that on its own. It usualy picks up a slight 'wave' to it. Here is the trick: Before you paint,get the proper paint thinner for it, fire up the air compressor and get an airbrush of the stuff ready. (yes, i have all the fancy compressor paint job equipment, but i cant afford paint for it, remember? BUDGET mod. Give that plastic peice a fine mist with the thinner, then give it a good first coat with the paint from the can. wait about 2 minuts for it to settle and set slightly, and do the same thing for the second coat. all this does is, well, thins the paint, duh. it gives it just a bit less thickness and lets it really smooth out at the surface. There is a whole line of chemical and technical blithering i could go into about why this works so well, but just take my word (and images) for it. NOTE: THIS TAKES *PRACTICE* - If you thought it was easy to overspray normaly with a spracan, this just makes it *worse*, esp if you are painting a standing surface (one that isn't laying flat like this was), overdone, it can make the paint like water, and it will seriously drive you crazy! *play with it first*, it can be done, and it can yeild awsome results with cheap materials and some careful aplication. NOTE 2: *test* your thinner first.. some thinners will react badly to the paint, and cuase all sorts of nasty (or cool, depending on your POV of the reaction) side effects. A good way to find a thinner that will work, is check the chemicals used in your paint of choice, and find a thinner that is closely 'related' to it in chemical base, and has few 'side' chemicals or additives. Test test test TEST! If I can do it, you can do it. NOTE 3: This will lenghten the time it takes for the paint to dry,give it overnight/all day,just to be sure. Now then,you are probably wondering what else i did.. Well, I -did- paint the lid now that i think about it.. Nearly the same result. I went a little lighter on the thinner trick this time, seeing as how this is a standing surface and i didn't want to risk sags. but one good buff and polish should finish it right up to match with the faceplates. I love painting. I love black gloss. Maybe i can black gloss my house..Hmm.. But now that that part is done, i need to start planning what other goodies i have in store, after all, i don't want to paint my faceplate untill i'm sure i'm done modding on it. I want the grill to glow, i want custom windows, i want electronics, watercooling, groundeffects,readouts, LCD's, fans big enough to blow dorathy and to-to back to the farm, i want..Er.. Hmm, i want money, thats what i want. But for now, i don't have that. so i turn to invention. With 50 (thats right, 50) superbrite blue LED's, some PC board, some resistorss, a multimeter, and some crazy ideas, i start hacking together strange things just to see how well they work, and just how cheap i can build them. The post that follows shows some -very- experimental ideas, just me with spare parts and whatnot fooling around to see how well they work with light, and what kind of effects i can produce using materials that were never, ever, ever meant to be used in this manner. you have been warned.
If you see a light at the end of the tunel,its proof they MOD stuff in the afterlife! Lights! Science! Water! Neon dye! KY SEX LUBE?! What do these things have in common? Not a darn thing, until now. What follows are some of the..er, weird little ideas i have been playing with, some are just tests, some of planned ideas for later use in other parts of the mod process. some are..well, just for 'ooohh-aahh' value, read and be..somewhat mortified? amused? i dunno, up to you. Note: If any of these ideas are of use to you, feel free to try them out, but please give a little credit. And if you want to build something to -market- with these ideas (Which i highly doubt, but who knows?), you might want to talk with me first. And without further ado, the good (bad?) stuff! First things first, As i said, i want that grill to glow.. so of course, i wire up a single blue LED and see what i can do with it, see how well the light comes through the grill.. Not bad, but thats just one LED, and I know i can do better. And the cam makes things look a bit brighter than they really are, but not too much. This is where the ideas atart flying around at mach speeds inside my head, i can try a reflective surface behind the grill, a sort of 'light box', or maybe i can play with light refraction..i could put a frosted plastic of some sort behind it and glow that, or i could... Well, you get the idea. So, i start to play around.. After playing with acrylic shafts, tubes, glass, plexi, and anything else i could get my greedy little fingers on, i happened to come up with... this. What is this? Is it some kind of new cathode? is it a really FAT wire that glows? Is it a flux capacitor ready to zap you off into some unknown time? No, its a lube-lite (now you can laugh, i did!) The design is so simple, it hurts, but the result is actualy quite interesting. Grab a normal everyday straw, the clear sort. Take some thick substance of clear nature (KY in this example) and put it into the straw (how you do this is your problem,I used a nursing syringe) Take two LED's of your color choice (Superbrites work best) of the proper MM size. They will fit rather neatly into either end of the straw, almost making a seal on their own. Use two small wire ties to tighten them down so they dont slip and leak. (you could epoxy/resin seal them in place if you really wanted to) Wire them up, set your voltage to the peak of safe operation, and watch the fun! The 'bright speck' in the middle is an air bubble i put in there (very, very carefuly), but i am also playing with the idea of putting stained gel in the tube to see what i can result. stained with what do you ask? Why, stained with -this!- Yes, thats an entire glass of the stuff, glowing like radioactive goo from hell with only three LED's under it. (and the glass has a very thick obstructive bottom to it) What is this mysterious green goo that i play with? did i rob some powerplant of its waste, did i venture to area 51 and steal it? No, i cracked open a green hilighter and dipped the stuff into the water a few times untill i had a tint that worked well with the LED's. That in itself actualy looked very cool, as you might be able to make out here.. I played with tons of other ideas, but none of them really blew my skirt up like these two did. I am also assembleing the parts needed to build these two mods by macro the 20 LED night rider found here http://www.bit-tech.net/article/82/3 and the HDD meter found here http://www.bit-tech.net/article/83/2 And no, neither of these mods will be used quite like you are thinking, but thats for things i have yet to build. Whew, that wraps up what i'v done so far, so no more additions today, but as soon as i have something worth showing, expect more additions!
I think i swallowed a LED, i got brighter. Hey guys, thanks for the support Doesnt look like much yet, IMO, but its getting there. Hopefuly with the next update, i can put up some more eye-catching stuff. M00nin: I thought about that for a long time,what colors to use and the like. now while the case itself is black and (later) silver. (somewhat gothic/industry in mind) the insides and lighting will look very future-tek with greens and blues. there will be windows (yes, plural) to show off the insides and what will be done in there,lights will be dynamic, adjustable, and do more than just sit there and glow like a desk lamp. But i never did get to the idea of any 'fire' like colors, i did that with another case mod, and honnestly, i was so displeased with the results, i actualy sold the case almost as soon as i finished it. it was static, lights on,or lights off. the red colors were very obtrusive to the eyes, didnt reflect well at all, and i never really put the color 'red' with 'energy' or 'power', which is what a computer is. Wouldnt Satan have the most drop dead sexy machine around, with all the power it could hold? God prolly uses a candy colored crapintosh or something. *ducks*
nice job on the paint... that's the exact same paint I used on my case... I did use rustoleum clear enamel after the black but in retrospect, probably wasn't needed.. it was actually glossier before the clear enamel... nice work. you say not much yet but it is already a hooooooooge improvement. Just goes to show how even simple mods like el wire and painting done right can have some rockin' results this is what project logs are all about to show the transformation.. much more effective than just showing "after" pics. I didn't have the forthought to document any of my mods so I just mooch off others.
Okay, the El cable, the paint all looked super sexy, but that lighting just pushed it into uber sexy! This is one thing I hate about the project logs area, I get too many crazy ideas and not enough cases to perform surgery on. With crazy lighting like that, your case is going to look mighty sexy /me rummages through drawers and cupboards in an attempt to find my own strange substances to add to other substances then light up.
AT to ATX conversion You'd mentioned at the beginning of the log that this was an AT server case? I have one kicking around myself but of course being an AT case it won't fit an ATX Board.. I also happen to have an ATX case that was <Ahem> Concussion modded by a friend of mine. So i'm just wondering if you've got some trick to get ATX stuff into your AT case? I was planning on cutting the mobo tray out of the smashed case and putting it into the server case but i'm concerned that it's going to have to be exact or i'll have a hell of a time getting cards to sit right in the motherboard later. Any ideas or am I just in for a lot of careful Dremel work?
AT to ATX *sigh* see, this is what i get for leaving out details! thats a very good question, and im glad you asked! now for the kicker: Thats an ATX PSU and a ATX mobo in an AT case. *long pause* No, im not smoking crack I have done this before with several old AT tower cases, some nicely, some slapishly. but overall, the process is rather simple really. If you look at the mounting points in AT and ATX boards/cases, there are more than enough to line up and actualy mount the hardware. the slots are all in alingment still, so thats not a problem. only things in your way are the holes for ports, and maybe making a screw hole or two for a power supply. maybe some slight adjustments depending on the backfaceing side of your power supply (this case needed to be rounded a bit there for the blowhole) then of course, you need to make a pushbutton for the power, this can either be a completely new switch. OR you can hack the old switch if its a pushbutton on/off type. open it up (pry the tongs out) and look inside for a little bar that ticks back and forth to hold it in the on/off position each time it is pushed..pull that out, and your pushbutton switch just becamse a pushbutton only. change a few wires into plugs for an AT mobo, and you are all set. If you want to get really fancy, get a spare backplate from a case (you know, the little aluminum plates for the diffrent kinds of AT mobo's that you put into some cases, some have diffrent port configs) cut out a hole for it in the back of your AT case.. mount it, and you just made very nice looking ATX portholes on an AT frame. I will do some details about the conversion of this mod in progress from AT to ATX later, since i will be 'neatening' the case in the back. (right now its just cutout so everthing is able to reach the ports) Overall, i wouldnt call that a 'hard' mod, really, depends on how neat you want to be about it i suppose. some people just cut out squares, some people cut out squares and make new plates. I saw one guy replace the entire back of the case. On my case however, i will be scrapping another AT lid for metal, and making an entire plate that covers the back of the case, (painted to match the lid) and mount it with some decorative bolts which i also plan on using elsewhere in the mod. I might do that as my 'next step' in the mod, seeing as how its not all that difficult, and maybe it will help some people out who wanna recycle olf AT cases. Feedback: would that be good, or should i wait and do something else? Eddie: I noticed that about the enamle myself, (why do you think that test peice of aluminum never showed back up? ), i will test another peice and see if i can track down some really nice crystal clearcoat (automotive stuff) for cheap, but im not going to worry about it, the paintjob so far is working out very, very nicely! kargin: Oh, poo, now look what i did, i sent the modders on a household goods lighting spree. Just wait till you see what i have planned for the water cooling system, -that- will send you into coniptic seizues.
Frothing in anticipation. Also I am very sleep depraved. Everything sends me on a household goods lighting search. Or well... Okay, so I'm like that normally Coniption fits are fun. Especially when done in groups.
That's a great idea with the clear straw, LEDs, and jelly. It's a great way to stick lots of illumination into a small area. It's sort of like a neon tube, but thinner. Great way to illuminate stuff behind a grill! I'm going to go get myself some 3mm straws and get to work!
Mini-update Right now im cleaning up my workarea, but after that, tonights little project is doing all the hellish measuring, sizing, cutting, and fitting with a mockup of what will become the stencil for the back plate of the case. I should have the time to cut the final material around sunday or monday, and probably paint it too. (first two cans of paint are still going strong!) Later tonight i will be posting some details of just what has been done to this case to convert it from AT to ATX, and i will have some more upclose detail pictures of just why this works so well along with the stencil work. you WILL go retro, you WILL go retro! No AT case will be safe!
Ugly backside? make it vanish! Ready to laugh s'more? You haven't seen where the real eyesore on this case is just yet, as mentioned before, this is an AT tower, sporting ATX power supply and hardware. Not as hard as it sounds, really, but this tower however, was rather brutaly hacked in the back to achive the needed function.. look for yourself. As I said, its pretty nasty back there. Determined to do a few 'new' things with an old case, i figured the best thing to do would be to plate it with a simular material as the lid, gloss it like the rest of the paintjob, and make things look much nicer (even if it is horrid behind the makeup). First things first, i would need to make a sort of mock-up of the peice, and later, use it as a stencil for cutting, drilling, and sizing the sheet of metal i plan to use later, or at least to get some rough ideas of what would need to be done. Cardboard is cheap, might as well play with some of that. Tool of the cardboard modder High tech stuff, man! I got me a sharpie, snips, a straightedge, and a ballpoint pen, i'm mad skillz over here. Anyway, first i work at trimming and getitng this peice to fit into the alotocated space. What i ultimatly want to acomplish is a flush edge-to-edge fit between what i will make later, and the existing lid of the case. This took a little doing, but i did finaly manage to get it fairly flush. (i will be cutting frindly when i do the metal, and working my way back from that for a snug fit. but this is cardboard, so who cares? Here is where it all started once i got it to fit in flush with the back. Just how flush is it?? That flush Now that i have that in place with some scotch tape (not made from real scotch,sadly) and since i removed all those nagging bolts and screws from the back of the case before.. i can reach through the open front of the case, and poke my screw holes with whatever is handy for the job, i then put the screws in through the mock-plate, and into the case frame like they normaly do, this will hold it in place while i take the lid away. Now that i have that thing secured, and the lid off, i can get inside and trace some important places, like the hardware slot area, and the hacked out square for the ports, like so.. and that gives me somewhat of a starting point for some cutting, like so. Not rocket science, we learned this stuff in preschool.. I spend the next few minuts trimming here, cutting there. and i also size up the power supply and such on it as well, things that need holes anyway. sooner or later, i end up with.. this. nothing too magical about it really, but its starting to take the shape i will need to base off of. You get the first peek at the ATX plate sitting in place. nothing is really holding it there, yet. So i keep fooling with it, cutting away at peices here or there, cleaning up edges and making eveyrthing as on the dot as possible, and i do all this without taking off anything like fingers or other limbs of my body. And after a bit more twiddleing around,i fassion the 'indention' for the new ports and such. nice and neat, even if it is just a mockup. but in doing this, i have noticed quite a few things i will need to watch out for when making the real thing. before and after. - Gee, even with just cardboard that looks better, talk about sad shape. Some details: The inset for the ports will actualy be a seperate peice which bolts to the frame. the port plate and the inset around it will be two seperate peices. The inset for the cards will be painted to match, its removable already, so thats no problem. four bolts and its out of there. The main back plate will really just be a single peice of aluminum, cut to fit, then drilled, grinded, edged and whatnot to meet the specifications of the job. other than your typical 'measure, mark, drill, measure, mark, cut, measure mark, cut-big-hole-here', it really is no diffrent from putting in a window..just..backwards. I will put up pictures of the final product peice, sorry, but my cam won't reach out into the worshop.. It might be a little while before i get this part done, for the simple fact that working with metal material is a pain in the you-know-what when you are doing more than just cutting big holes in it. I also need to ensure that i have enough material to do this in the first place, it might become a three peice, who knows. Oh, yes, almost forgot. I found some very nice polish, by the time i post the rest of this part, i will also be posting some pictures of the newly polished insides.with any luck, i might be able to use this thing as a shaving mirror while i have it open. Thats enough for me, i'm going back to bed.
