Scratch Build – In Progress Project Stealthlow - Completed - preview of project next

I recommend the foundation of the +100 rep button, but for the moment +rep for you buddy, I am enjoying the ride as always!!

 

Awesome work Waynio
Love the fan mod,got a couple of white enermax fans might nick your idea but paint the metal bits black

 

Cheers mate .

It really was not sure if it's the copper sticking or bevel cutting is just difficult to do + that was the first time I've tried cutting a bevelled anything with the scroll saw so was a little bit mad going for it without any practice , still needs a bit of tidying up but the difficult bit is done should look very nice once it's fully cleaned up, won't be able to use files on that not even needle files could do this so I'll have to slither the jaggie bits off with the scroll saw & then use thin strips of sand paper, time consuming but not difficult.

Gives the alu grill a nice copper glow & some extra depth when viewed from different angles as I imagined it would .

Cheers Jase that's part of the goal with this case (make a contender ) Air cube must have been a bit on the half arsed side so I'm making sure this one isn't was only meant to be a re-make of my first with added challenges, I didn't think I'd end up putting this much effort into it but when I seen how nicely it was coming together it motivated me to push a bit higher & to take my time in getting it right .

Thanks Alex nice tune , hopefully the extension modding bits arrive quickly, it would be nice to get this up & running in the next week or 2 then I can enjoy everyone elses until I get the modders twitch again which I definitely know will come again eventually .

Thanks skullen it would be nice to see loads of different fan mods, I think it was Attila making his own fan frames that got cogs turning in my head & now I've had a play with these modular fans it's given me some sweet ideas for full custom fan frames & even blades for bigger fans but I'll stick with these modded fans for this time I love how ideas bounce of each other & evolve in modding .

It's like Bodakers tron bike got me thinking about Kaneda's bike in Akira I'd like to do some kind of Anime inspired mod & wow theres so much crazy cool stuff to base something on .

 

Your attention to detail is starting to amaze me Wayne. This build id just getting better and better.
The question is what happens next, how do you follow something like this up?...lol

Just thought I'd put that thought in your head

 

Easy, make a bigger one. And if that doesn't work, make more of them.

 

Thanks Jeff .
How to follow this up with the next one , you got me nah , good basic outline of a plan with some basic design touches just like this really & more random impulse modding ideas as I go oh & MOAR skills & tools for required tasks & I just seen some jaw dropping DIY engraving done by [WP@]WOLVERINE & read his beginers guide to engraving & was a very good read I can see myself getting another dremel in the future after being inspired by him & getting enough practice to be able to do a nice job theres so much I want to learn & life & ok health might not be long enough to learn all I want to but it might be so I'll just take it as it comes .

I believe that's mostly what it takes, keep learning new skills & getting good at them but same keen creative enthusiasm if the enthusiasm goes then theres not much chance of out doing previous efforts, so far I've just been getting keener & keener .

I think once a person reaches such a point where most of their skills are so high then they don't need to make something better than the last & they just keep making new things & differently because they enjoy it & they all turn out awesome .

.

 

O...M..G... that copper accent on the lower front grille...
I'm in love *drool*

 

Thanks jokkos I just finished reading your Der_Meister log, awesome stuff mate .

 

Before you even TOUCH the case with that Dremel engraver: PRACTICE! HAAAARD!
Or you'll cry, cry, cry yourself to sleep after failing miserably.

 

As much as I'd love to add a load of sweet detail to the case I will not be doing it on this I know you don't get that good in a short time, like dremel cutting, took me a while before I could cut complex holes to a good standard, I'm a little crazy but not completely , suppose if I was to put myself under a concentrated practice session over a month or more I could do some good stuff but I'll pass on messing this case up until I'm good enough .

Got all the side panel windows that didn't sit fully flush mill drilled down a touch & they all sit flush now , also marked where the copper panel needs trimming down to & slithered away with the scroll saw & then push pulled strips of 240 grit paper through to sand away most of the blades teeth marks & brushed & lacquered so looks sweet now , also re brushed & lacquered the front bottom alu panel too as it could have been done better so did, I'll update properly with photos tomorrow when I have good light .

 

Slithered bits off the front bottom copper panel with the scroll saw & then smoothed off the copper panel by pulling strips of 240 grit paper back & forth to get most of the cut marks out & then brushed & lacquered, took quite a bunch of hours but worth it.

And also fixed something that has been irritating me every time I see it, not every side panel window fit flush so I took the offending pieces out & took them to the drill press with milling bit, it's a pain to set up for the depth & it's a bit of a nightmare controlling the piece I run through but managed it just fine & now I have 100% flush windows .

 

Absolutely fantastic work bro! Thats a piece of art for sure!!! Please finish this mod, my heart cant take more awesomeness!

 

Absolutely magical.

 

Phenominal work, absolutely stunning.

 

Wonderful - nothing short of a surefire MOTY contender.

What's left to do now?

 

Cheers Alex it'll get finished soon I could easily put all my gear into it right now but it needs a couple more bits doing to it .

Thanks stoned .

Cheers Jase still a little more to come before final photos, hope I'm not boring anyone .

Cheers Nutman things to do.
Small ATX extension & the parts for that should hopefully be with me tomorrow, Copper P cable clips & possibly 2 or 3 more mounting holes for the clips, replace all the visible black bolts with stainless ones which I'll brush so they blend in better.

Got an idea floating in my head for the PSU which I think I should pull out & do , in fact I will, it's too nice not to .

One thing I'm unsure about, I want to use dual LED's for hdd activity, would be a nice touch if I could wire 6 LED's for hdd activity but 2 would do just fine, anyone know how to go about doing that? I suck on elecronics but can follow guides usually if it doesn't look like algebra or some other alien language was thinking of splicing a ready made dual LED meant for connecting by molex & putting a 2 pin header on it would this be doable without damaging anything or would they just light a bit dimmer?.

 

Actually, you can run 6 LED's from the motherboard's HDD activity pins just fine - but it requires some fiddling around and checking that your motherboard can put out the required current. See the link, it'll tell you the resistors and how to connect them up.

Supply voltage: 5V
Voltage drop / LED: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode (The values are quite high tho )
Desired LED current: 15-20mA or 20-30mA with super bright LEDs.


And if you want to make whole strips of LED's as HDD activity indicator, you can use a transistor ( a lot cheaper, easier, safer and reliable than with a relay) with few extra resistors to control the stripes. But this requires making up your own circuit and solder.

Edit: An example schematic;

 

Every time I check your thread this just keeps looking better and better.

I wish I could give you a good answer on your LED question. If I remember right, most MB headers put out 3v to the LEDs. You would need some kind of a relay from the hard drive activity header on the MB to your LEDs which would need to run off of 12v via a molex plug in.

 

Im sure someone on here could help better buttt.

You want an optocoupler, easy to wire up and you can then use the signal from your motherboards led power to trigger the IR reciever in the optocoupler.
an optocoupler works as a switch, when the optocoupler receives the signal from your motherboard it will close the switch and complete a second circuit with say an external power from a molex thus turning on your led's.

this is an optocoupler..


This is the wiring for the optocoupler


optocoupler wiring


the advantage of this way is that you can run as many LED's as u want

PS there has to be the correct resistors for the leds etc but this as just an example so you can see how simple it is. hope this helps

 

Schematics & mA's & what nots now I'm lost like always guess there is no other way of making a newb understand it well so it's ok I might get around to learning some basic electronics some day but not yet thanks for the speedy & helpful reply though mate .

Thank you voigts, I've put the custom hdd led out of my mind now .

Oh & it just gets more complicated, well to me at least thanks for trying to help though mate, to be honest at this point in time I'd rather just buy plug & play type bits I seen a 20 LED header thing that looks like you can plug a switch to it but not sure if it can be used to do a custom hdd activity led http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_8717.html so I'll pass on the idea & keep things simple .

Thanks for the speedy helpful replies guys appreciated but I've changed my mind about it, 1 it won't be tidy 2 it might actually be a tacky idea what I had in mind so I'll just do something I was going to do since the begining & use always on LED's powered by molex & use the vandal switch for HDD activity .