Spider-Man Box (For my 4 year old) UPDATED: 1-14-05 Fanduct, and window finished!

Hi All,

This is my first project Log here.

Who, what, when, why?

OK, I wanted to give my 4 year old son a computer for Christmas this year. I had already replaced my MB, CPU, RAM, HDD, Case, PS, and most everything but my video card. I was going to paint up my old case, slap all my old stuff in, and give it to him for christmas.

Dec 3rd, I got rear ended at about 55 MPH, totaled my truck, and was out of work on doctors orders for 2 weeks. No new video card for me, no computer for my son. Got the insurance check for my truck, but still not enough money to replace my vid card...

So Christmas comes, and goes.... We make the best of it even though money's very tight, and I've been off work for a couple weeks. I stumble apon an ATI 9700 Pro AIW on ebay for a steal, so I pick it up day after christmas.

Day after that I get strep throat.....

Here we are a week later. I've scratched the idea of using my old case, mainly because it's an ugly POS, that can't be modded into anything decent. I already cut the window, and painted the chassis black, but oh well.. it's done.

I have an old NEC 9716 that my mother in law gave me for some reason.... TO MOD IT SEEMS!!!!!

Here's a few before pics








Now, it was originally a Pentium 200MMX with a whopping 3 gig HDD, etc etc.. Obviously outdated for even a 4 year old.

Hmmmm, now how in the world am I gonna get an ATX motherboard in there?

We'll deal with that later. Today I'm just working on the face.

Step 1: Make the detachable grill area permanent, and get rid of the holes.

Not much to see here, just epoxied the grill piece on


Next, bondo up the holes from rear first, then front







OK, now that that's done, time to smoove out the rest of the face

From the rear (The 5 1/2 covers are already epoxied in)


And From the front


Now for Primer.



As it stands right now, there are still miles of work ahead.

The face is'nt completely smooth YET. I still have some sanding, and a tiny bit of bondo to do, it's just easier to see what your working with in primer.

Where the grill was originally will get a 120mm fan (only one in the case). I'm not sure how to aproach this yet. It may end up getting an rc prop cone, and subwoofer port tube, but will need a grill somewhere over it, again.. for a four year old.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll update as I finish stuff.

Any feedback is appreciated

 

sorry about your accident

gl with the mod

 

sorry about your accident

that front looks pretty cool, keep modding

 

Sorry about what happened to you man. But why did you bondo the front blowholes? That looked cool-and would have been even cooler if just painted black. However, I do say that the end result does look rather cool

 

A couple reasons.

1. I can't leave anything As-Is.

2. I thought it looked cool myself, but I didn't want the NEC badge, and model label. No way to cut 1/8" square holes to complete the pattern.

3. This system will never have more than 1 drive. No point having the drive bay covers if they're never gonna be used. So I covered them to make it look cleaner.


4. Again, this is for a 4 year old, so the simpler the better. Less stuff to shove legos in, etc. It will have a floppy drive, but it will be internal. I'll be the only one that will ever use it, and that will be very rare.

I guess that's more than a couple... whoops

 

hahahahaha yer i know where your comming from! I had my sone Zak on a pc from about 2 , hes 8 now, but i can remember when he was about 3 why i couldnt get his floppy and cdrom to work! they were full of toast !!!!
Kids do this ****!!
But other kids dont know where your comming from

spiderman themed cases are way cool for kids!

Its looks smooth and clean i like it!

Just 2 things, when you applied the bondo to the back ! did you ruffen up the plastic and take the shine off it? bondo hates plastic, the holes will actually act like anchor points for the bondo so this time the bondo will hang in there. ( the holes are a trick i actually use to help bondo stick to plastic)

the front comming along well, but as you can and know any paint is just going to show nasty edjes when its settles.

You maye at this point just be able to give the whole panel a good once over with spot putty now.
this will seal down all your edjes.

Work the spot potty from edge to edge not just over the parts that have been worked on. 2 or 3 days later ( the longer the better to allow everthing to settle and "sink back") then a good wet rub with 600-800 wet and dry.
Trying not to go back thru to the orig plastic or bondo again.

Remember those old screen security doors ? they have a good strong plyable modders mesh in them, ive found a lot of this stuff at scrap metal yards

 

Thanks for the replies.

Defyant, Yeah, all of the surfaces were thouroughly roughed up before bondo. The inside of the flopy drive was gouged to all hell with a dremel cutting disk to give it a nice rough surface to bite into, and the rest was sanded with 100 grit, and carved up with a #11 x-acto blade.

I've got a little bit of experience with bondo, and getting stuff to stick to plastic.


Nothing likes to stick to bowling pins.

Here's a question though... How are the rattle can clearcoats?? I've only used "real" clearcoats in the past, strictly "isosyanate overdose" automotive clears. However, it's cold here this time of year, and my garage isn't heated, so no fun with Iwata, or HVLP gun for me on this case.

 

I used Do it Best brand Gloss Clear coat..turned otu real nice..as usual you have to work in light layers and sand between coats. I orgiginally started off with rustoleum clear coat but for soem reason neevr read the can....it was a crystal clear coat (tahstw aht ti said) and coems out kinda matte...so the only Gloss I could find was at my work (the Do it Best).

Nice idea always good to start'em young.....really too bad about the accident then getting sick. That really sucks Especially around the Holiday season. Hoep ya feel better.

 

Without sounding harsh to others, i never use cans..... they can give an ok shine, but nothing like proper 2pack or ic's, its a tuff call.... i spray 2pak on cold days and nights , just use your retarder(thinner) to account for hot and cold..... somtimes i'll get a bit of bloom , but its nothing you can't chop and buff in the wash.

I'd be more inclined to use the "can" as my base coat, then use proper auto 2pak clear over the top, this will give you the same tuffness and shine as pro jobs.

My lungs are testamony to how much i spray 2 - pack isocyanates


The pin is awsome

 

You know when I was 4, it was all hoops and sticks, action man, and books

Good luck

<A88>

 

Thanks for all the replies guys!


I got some of the actual case finished this evening.

I've installed the mounting plate for the atx motherboard, and installed the motherboard, psu, dvd drive, and vid card basically as a mockup.

These are all the actual components, just making sure everything will fit, etc.

The i/o plate for the motherboard actually went in easier than I thought it would. The case back overlaps in some areas, but it still looks good, and I had a gap in one spot.

you can see the gap here. That's a piece of duct tape holding it in place.


Here's the filler piece I used. It's a joggled piece from the bottom of another case, so it will overlap on the inside of the case, and the outside of the i/o plate.


Here's the filler piece and the plate all riveted in place. (it's painted black... was from the case I WAS going to use for this.)


Here's the motherboard installed. Is it BTX, WTX, BS, who knows.
The fan cage will be removed to fit the 120mm fan. Bonus is that it will be blowing directly on the geforce 2 mx400 video card with a non functioning blue orb cooler.


The next to are mockups of most components installed. I'm not sure if I'm going to sleeve the psu or not. I may just tape it. The side will have a window, but it will be very odd shaped, and red tinted so you won't be able to see much in there.


If you look closely directly under the CPU HS, there is an 80mm fan. I'm going to blowhole that straight down. It should be more than enough cooling for this rig with the 120mm intake fan, as it won't be overclocked at all, and the original case it was in had 1 80mm fan.


Last picture for tonight, I've actually finished the faceplate since I took this one. This is just for size comparison. (that's a MINI dragon case next to it)


If I'm not working tomorrow, I'm going to pick up the 120mm fan, and the intake tube for it. I've decided that I'm going to get the red spiderman grill for the front fan. It'll be recessed a couple inches, so fingers should be safe. With a red LED fan behind it, I think it'll give a cool effect.

So far I'm liking the case layout. It's cramped, but not too bad. Everything fits snuggly, but airfow will still be decent. I wish I could fit all the crap from my full size chieftec case in something that small and still overclock the hell out of it on air.


Now off topic..

DÈF¥âÑt¸.·´¯`¤: The spot putty I've used in the past, and on this is made by bondo, it dries in 25 minutes, and doesn't settle after that. It's really a PITA because it starts to dry out to the point that it won't pull smoothly about 30 seconds after you start with it. Therefore I have to work a small area, then move, and go back where I started when it dries or else it pulls up, gets chunky etc.

I spot puttied most of it tonight, then blocked it off, primed, blocked again. It' s done until I put the huge hole in the front. Unfortunately weather is looking really grim around here. When I prime, I have to run it in the house immediately to dry it. Actual painting is gonna be tough, as i won't be going solid color on much of it, and airbrushing takes time. I don't feel like trying to paint when it's 5 degrees out. Clearing is out of the question, as I don't want to expose the family to the fumes. It's bad enough I weez from the crap.

I checked out that case on CMG, it's looking pretty damn good. I like the puffy paint for webbing Iidea, may have to steal that. The side grill is the same one I'm gonna use, only smaller. I should have bought it when cooler guys had it on sale for $1.99.

 

Well, another project this morning that looks pretty promising *subscribed*

 

Jeesus. had no idea you were dealing with 5 degrees!!! i think its could when it gets down to 10, we have pertty good painting weather all year round, I also have a designated poper spray booth/shed wich helps.

I know how bad the weezing gets after 3 or 4 panels of 2packing, i think its time to invest in a proper mask!

but the mod is comming along great, and with the skills you've got its ganna shine ,

Thats ganna be one happy 4yr old

EDIT:
is that RD ram in that board?

 

Looks cool so far, hope you had still had a good xmas m8

Keep modding

 

Looking good bro! What are the dimensions of that case? I was going to build something very very similar but with a atx board..

 

8 1/2" Wide
14 1/4" Tall
17 1/2" Deep

And that IS an ATX board.

 

Can't wait to see the paint job. Spider man is cool, but the green lantern can kick his butt. Would've said a**, but we have fisher price toys in here.

 

Oh my bad dude... I thought it was micro atx...

 

Fanduct

I got the fanduct, and 120mm red LED fan installed.

I didn't take as many pictures during the making of everything as some would like. Sorry, I tend to just keep working.

First Pic: Here's the duct waiting to be installed. It's a 4" PVC slice piece. If it looks BEEFY, that's because it is. The walls are at least 1/4" (6mm) thick. It was a complete pain in the @$$!


Second Pic: The face Plate with the hole cut. I didn't have a hole saw that would work so I dremeled the hole.


Third Pic: Here's the duct in place. It's epoxied from behind, as well as JB welded in place. Honestly I think the JB weld was overkill, but I had it laying around. I got it pretty close, but it needed a little bondo around the edges to get everything totally smooth.


Fourth Pic: OOPS! Forgot to take pictures of the bondo work, or painting of the faceplate. This was with the flash. The glow from the fan is alot brighter than it looks. The fan is running at 7V, and is very quiet. The LEDs are at 12V and VERY bright.


Fifth Pic: Here it is in the dark. It's actually brighter than it looks.


---------------------------------------------------------
Notes on fan:

I wanted to run the fan at 7V for sound reasons, but the LEDs were too dim.

I tested the LEDs alone at 12V and they worked good. Not as bright as the finished fan, but bright. I also tested the fan alone at 7V, and it was fine.

OK, dual voltage LED fan. I cut the monitor wire and ran it from the LED circuit to the the ground on the 4 pin molex.

Next I spliced the positive from the LED together with the 12V line for the fan itself. So the fan, and LEDs were running at different voltages. Rough schematic below. The colors are the colors that everything ran to in the molex plug.


Fan+..............Fan-
.|...LED+....LED-...|
.|____|.......|.....|
......|.......|.....|
......|.......|.....|


Well, it worked for about 2 seconds. Then the LEDs went out. Dead.
I'll probably never run this setup again, but if you can find the flaw in my wiring, please let me know just for refference.

What I ended up doing was using 4 bigger red LEDs that I had. These are from Autozone, and cost me $5 per 3 at one time. I bought them because they come prewired to run at 12v, and have little mounts included. Anyway. Now the fan has 2 plugs. 1 for the fan @7V, and 1 for the LEDs @12V.

In the end it's a hell of alot brighter than the original version, and it's silent. It was alot of work that I probably could have avoided, but oh well.

------------------------------------------------------------



OK, next is the side panel. It's actually 2 sides (top and right side).

First Pic. Here's where you can finally see something spiderman related


Second Pic: As usual i left out just a couple steps
It's not finished. I have some cleaning up of burrs, etc to do still. It's all cut though, and cleaning it up should'nt take long at all. I'm going to order a piece of red tinted acrylic, and bend it at a 90 to fit both sides without a seem.

"what's a dremel?"

I'll be relocating that brace that runs through the window.

All in all it's coming along.

Don't know when the next update will be. I have to order a few things now, and wait, then wait some more.

Feedback?

Thanks

 

Wow, awesome dremel job. I especially like the placement. I cannot imagine your son to be anything but thrilled when he sees it. You rock.