Case Mod - In Progress Steampunk/Dieselpunk Computer MK2, 24th of January

Hi all,

After reading all the fine work done by other users here, I'd now like to share my work I previously shared on "BrassGoggles" with the wider Modding community. What better place to do it than here on Bit-Tech?

Though my project is now completed for the computer part, I still need to build speakers, I'll give you pictures of all the work done from the beginning to where I'm at now.

So here goes this is the "case" I started out with, sorry for the BAD quality!:



I Actually had 2 of these, this one and one with a wider carriage (for A3 paper), both were beyond saving imho...

So first thing to do was disassembling the typewriters which gave me the bare frame:



The bare sub-frame sits in the background btw... Now I could take measurements for the keyboard and the computer case that will sit inside the frame.

Having done that I started on the keyboard. I selected a small old-fashioned keyboard, a "BTC 5100C".



Inside these keyboards is a circuit board which was still to wide to fit inside the typewriter frame, so I cut it to size. Using Resin I glued the parts back together into their new positions, Then I reconnected all the severed pathways of the circuit board... A LOT of work!





After that it was time for the first finishing touch for the keyboard... Leather!





If you're wondering, the leather has been stitched to the plastic you see in the pics...

At this point I also made a start at making the computer case. As this case will sit inside the frame completely out of sight it didn't need to be a really good looking case, But I was tring to make it in such a way that later on I'll be able to upgrade the motherboard easily.





Ok, so far my first post... I'll post more asap...

Have a good one!

Wire!

 

Steampunk/Dieselpunk Computer MK2, 26th of January

Hey hey,

I found some time to put up some more of my work, so here goes!

Here I finished up the rough metal work for the computer case itself, all parts were cut using a Dremel with a cutting disk. All major parts were done here:





Test fitting the slot-in DVD-burner:



Making the harddisk mounts using an old dead drive:



Making the DVD-drive mounts:



After making the mounts to attach the case to the typewriter frame and tidying up the case a bit I primed it and painted it flat-black:





Okay, the case is not a real looker but it wont be visible once the computer is completed anyway.

Next up, was mopping and repainting some of the old visible metal work of the main typewriter frame...

 

That's pretty ambitious, but very interesting. I've always thought those old typewriters lend themselves for some good Steampunk nodding.

Interestingly they often had glass side panels so you could see the workings inside --just like we window PC cases nowadays!

Oh, and it must have nixies. Can't do this without nixes, or analogue gauges. These are fairly simple to incorporate to display e.g. CPU load or temperature.

 

Case Mod Steampunk/Dieselpunk Computer MK2, 29th of January

Hi guys,

Here's some more of the work I did

When looking at the typewriter frame I decided it needed some work because the paint had gone flat over the last 75 years... strange huh? So... I started polishing and mopping where possible and some repainting on the worst areas/bits.

Before paint:



Here's my first paintwork on the frame, it ended in disaster... soon after painting the paint started creating fish eyes... probably because the paint didn't agree with the old cast iron...



So I sanded it all down to bare metal and primed it first:





The frame after 3 coats of paint and blending/polishing:





The smaller parts after primer and 3 coats of paint:



While waiting for paint to dry I worked on the keyboard, that was quite some tedious work, but well worth it!

Here's the half way through picture, only the letters are done here:


Here's a picture of test fitting the keyboard. All keys were made besides the spacebar and the Escape and Delete key. These last 2 needed to sit slightly higher because of the shape of the frame, so there I needed to lengthen the stalks.



Here's how I made the keys btw from left to right:

1: The original (Olivetti)key label.
2: The glass top, releaved from 75 years of dirt. Note btw, these glass tops are about 1 mm smaller then the metal rings.
3: The metal ring from the an Olivetti. Note the Olivetti key's have 5 tabs on the bottom which can be bend under the keytops to fix them more securely in place. The Triumph ones don't have the tabs so I choose to use those, to be safe, for the lesser used keys and secured them with a little bit of glue.
4: The keytops, skirts taken off and made round to friction fit the rings
5: On the sheet of paper are the laserprinted new keylabels... I opted for a parchment background which I, now I'm finished, I can only barely see...



Ruff cut out of the new label


Mark it:


Cut it out off the paper, then I used a file to flatten the keytop as the original surface was curved in the Y-direction


Then I put it all into the metal ring....


And placed the new key on the keyboard to do an "as fine as possible alignment" of the keylabel


Finally I took it of the keyboard again to bend the tabs down, as said, only for the Olivetti keytops. After this it's ready to go to its final position.


Okay, that's it for this update, more next time, hope you like my work

 

That looks like a convincing old skool keyboard. Nice work!

 

Wow, that is an EPIC piece of work!

How does it feel to type on?

 

Case Mod Steampunk/Dieselpunk Computer MK2, 30th of January

Hi,

Another post today! But first...

Cthippo, Thanks! The keyboard has a really nice feel to it and is really nice to work with. The only "bad" things are that the arrow keys are positioned differently and it has no "Windows" key, I am however planning to make a windows key somewhere else on the machine, not ideal but it'll have to do...

Nexxo, Thanks man, I sure tried to make it look that way There are no Nixie planned though... I have made something nice to the Nixie like theme though...

Some more work of mine:

OK here's about where I left off yesterday but now also the typewriters subframe and the front trim is in, look at that reflection...



Time to make the power button, here are the buttons I had, I went for the green one... (and cleaned it up a bit)



I made a bracket for it, again, it's not pretty but after some grinding and a coat of flat black much better looking

Here's the bracket before paint and cleanup:


With the front trim in place:


So now I had a few of the most important parts done, I decided to assemble the computer itself. I bought a Zotac board and fitted it out with an Intel i3 and 4 GB of DDR3 memory. I choose an i3 because I was concerned about it overheating in such a confined space. The MB can support an i7 if needed though. Here it is all in place, I did change out the long SATA cables to shorter one since this picture btw:



Anyway, I closed the case, installed Windows 8 and started a burn-in test. The temp quickly got up to 60 degrees C.... that's no good, So I made some extra ventilation holes and restarted the test:



Result... 55 degrees C, still not good enough imho...

so to get hot air out of the system I added a 5cm fan and a Zalman fanspeed controller:




That did it! At maximum load the temp doesn't go over 45 degrees C...

In the meanwhile I also cleaned up the "letter hammers", sadly they won't be functional, but I like the look of 'em!



Now, it was time to put it all together. First the keyboard, subframe and the computer case went into the frame:


Also, I cloth-wrapped all the cables on the inside of the system to get the period look:


Added the trim and letter hammers:


That's it for this post!

Next up is the carriage and the monitor!

Greets,

Wire!

 

Steampunk/Dieselpunk Computer MK2, 4th of Februari

On with the progress!

Here's what I did for the monitor frame and the monitor mount.

I decided to go ahead and make the frame out of one piece of MDF...





I took out my Dremel with Router attachment and first routed out the front of the case and afterwards the backside:

The rough cut front:


The rough cut back:


In the meanwhile I broke down the carriage as far as needed and did a test fit of the new monitor frame



It sits on a U-beam in the back of the carriage which used to hold the TAB-set-tabs... These I took out which left me with the empty U-beam. Here's a quick picture of how it fit's together using a piece of scrap MDF:



Then I finished the woodwork on the frame and did another testfit:





With the new monitor backside in place:



As seen from the back, the fiberboard will remain unpainted and made to look like an old TV-set. The metal part in the bottom is going to be covered in leather:



Close-ups of the corners:

A finished corner on the front:



The back is going to be attached using brass nails:



and with the screen fitted:



So now it was time for filler, primer, a lot of sanding and paint!

here are a few of the carriage parts in primer:



On the long part in the middle I again had some fish-eye problems... I think it was the brand I used, so I switched back to "Motip", its never failed me yet!

Anyway, a friend of mine offered to let me use his paintbooth to do the paintwork on the frame and that part that needed repainting and here are the results:





That's it for this post, next time I'll write about the back support and monitor backside!

Regards,

Wire!

 

Really nice idea and good execution so far. Subbed.

 

That is awesome. I've seen a few computers inserted into old typewriters before, but not nearly as good as this! Beautiful work.

 

Steampunk/Dieselpunk Computer MK2, 5th of February

First of all,

Boorach & Nexxo, Thanks guys! Glad you like it!

So, more progress, today the monitor back brace.

Beneath the carriage there is a support structure (the diagonal beam) of which I liked the look:



So I decided to use it in the design for the monitors back brace, here's what I designed in ACAD:





I made 2 of these on my first CNC, build as a side project to make these kinds of parts

Here a pic of the router, It's my first router, wood build with home-brew stepper drivers. It's not much to look at but she does the trick :



In action while making the parts:


Here the first part I made... crappy quality though, backlash trouble on the CNC's X and Y-axis...


So after some tuning I made the 2 final ones, it's not fast going, 3 hours milling a piece:



And I milled the bottom mount parts (in the red circle):



The bottom mount and the 2 braces in a mock-up:



The 2 mounts and the 2 braces in a mock-up, sorry for the bad quality pics btw:





The parts cleaned up for paint, if you're wondering, the 2 braces are upside down in the pic :



The top mount on the monitors back panel, by now I also made the "ventilation" holes in the panel top make it look more like a vintage TV-set. The label in the middle was only a mockup print.



Here's the label applied for real:



And here it is with the metal electronics box upholstered in black leather:



Back to the brace... By now I applied the first coat of flat black paint, I was going for the industrial cast iron look, getting there nicely imho...



And I finished the monitor back panel by attaching the top mount and blending in the label using a few layers of clear coat.



And for the first time fully assembled and in place, I was really pleased with the look of it!



That's it for now! Next up, the status panel and something special!

Greets,

Wire!

 

Sweet!

Ask Skyrip (he is also in the Netherlands) if he can do the monitor parts in aluminium for you.

 

wow i do like what your doing lot of hardwork to get the feel of the mod correct and iits looking sweet

 

Steampunk/Dieselpunk Computer MK2, 6th of February

Hey hey,

First of all, reply's!

Hi Nexxo, The fun for me is making as many parts as I can myself. As the brace doesn't carry any weight, MDF was strong enough. I'm not sure if my CNC could cut aluminum but as it's a wooden system it probably wouldn't be a good idea with lubricants and such involved in milling metal..

And lastly, thank you Montymole, I do try!

And now, on with the status panel!

Remember these parts?


Well, the beam in the bottom used to house the ruler for setting TAB's and such. It now houses the status lights for the computer, the keyboard and something I think is pretty cool!

Here's what I did:

Some of the parts, it's paper, white plastic (PED I think) and a glass plate:


The keyboard status lights assembled:


With a LED hooked up to some batteries to see how the light would look coming though:




Both panels assembled


And the panels installed:




And seen from the back, it's not pretty but it won't be visible with the monitor in place. Reading all your projects, i'm now ashamed for leaving it like that...



So now there were 2 slots left...

In really wanted something in there and while searching I found these things:

It's a Nixie Bargraph, using either IN9 or IN13 tubes


But sadly these things are way too long and chunky for the space I had. I decided to go ahead and copy the look and feel of them. So here is what I made:

I went out and bought a "Velleman VU-meter kit K4305", this kit comes with 2 small circuit boards and some green and red LED's. To fix that, I also bought some orange LED's to replace the green and red ones.

Ok, now this is where some things went wrong and I lost a bunch of pictures... crap...

So in stead I'll tell you what happened, I:

- Soldered the parts onto the boards and tested them, no problems there...
- Cut to glass plates to the size of the slots in the status panel.
- Printed two slots and "right", "left" on an overhead projector sheet and cut them to the size of the glass plates.
- Cut a slot to the same size as the printed ones out of the white plastic I used for the status lights.
- Then painted the inside of the slots black.
- Took the springs out of two Ballpoints and stretched out the springs to the length of the slots
- Then assembled it all...

This is how it looks on a white background:


Two finished with the to circuit boards next to them. I mounted the boards as they lay here on my workbench so when you see them installed, you're looking at the side of the LED's.



This is how the looked installed:


Close-up's. You can clearly see the white background I made for the panels. I removed that since these pictures. Now the LED's sit directly behind the slot, behind the LED's there's a layer of aluminum foil to reflect and spread out the light, it makes the look just right!:





so, an overview of the panel with all the wires hooked up and wrapped:


From the back:


And now... With the monitor back in place a "nice" grainy pic showing the VU-meters in action:

Close-up:


And, a first for me, a small movie! Sorry about the quality, I used my 4s in bad light...


Okay, that's it for this post! Next time I'll show what I did to finish the carriage and some other small things I did to the system!

Hope you like what I did

Greets,

Wire!

 

OMFG, that's awesome !

 

Steampunk/Dieselpunk Computer MK2, 7th of February

Hi all!

@GuilleAcoustic, Thanks man!

So, again some more updates!

Here is the finishing work I did:

I upholstered the visible side of the U-beam on which the monitor sits with leather:




I installed a momentary switch to make the carriage return act like an Enter key, It's hard to see in this picture but it's in the very center of the picture. The switch is wired directly to the keyboard. Oh, the dirt in the picture has been cleaned up as well since :


Then I started on the paper drum, I wanted that to act as a scroll wheel. The idea was to make a scroll wheel of a mouse ride the surface of the paper drum for this and make it sit on the inside of the carriage so it's out of sight...

Here's what I did:

I selected a Conceptronic mini/laptop mouse for this:


I took of the housing and ripped out, ehrm.... carefully de-soldered the red LED in the back and the optics insert, as I don't need the mouse functionality anyway:



What's not visible in the next pictures... I kept only the bottom half of the housing with the circuit board. The bottom half of the housing I had to cut down a bit to make it fit inside the frame of the carriage, then I added in a bracket so I could screw it to the frame. When all of this seemed okay I proceeded to wrap it and the cable for it in cloth isolation tape (Automotive insulating tape by "HPX").

All of this resulted in this look, the light colored track on the drum is purely coincidental btw...:




And... Here it is, fully installed... invisible, yeay! :


At this point I re-installed most of the carriage components. By now I decided that the two pieces that sit above the knob that turns the carriage I painted black earlier didn't look good, so I switched them out for chrome plated ones.

Untill now the carriage had been sitting on a spare frame I have, time to marry the carriage to the "real" frame:



Then I finished some work in the keyboard. Earlier I said the Escape key and the Delete key needed to have their stalks lengthened, so I did:



Then it was time to fix the space-bar:

It took me 2 evenings to do but I did it, who knew it would be so difficult to get that stabilizing structure in place and working properly!

It's not much to look at but here is what I did:
- Shortened the original spacebar
- Rounded off the new ends
- Hollowed out the spacebar
- Fit in the part that connects to the actual button
- Cut the stabilizing brackets out of another keyboard
- Fit the brackets to the spacebar
- glued the parts in place permanently using epoxy resin/glue.

After the epoxy had set only a little cleanup work and some polishing was required to finish it completely. Here's how the spacebar looked after this all:





And installed:


And for those of you who are interested, here's a picture with the spacebar flanked by the 2 pieces I cut off. Here you can see, a bit at least, the difference between cleaned up and original:



What else? Well I polished out the back panel of the typewriter which covers the Motherboard I/O-panel and I upholstered a part of it in leather:



And, as there were only a few small jobs left to do I decided it deserved to get it's badge refitted:



I also decided to go and make an I/O-panel to have a USB-port and some audio in and out ports in a more convenient location on the system.

Here's what I did, I fit the print with the I/O ports, which has a metal mounting bracket, into an extra panel I had. The metal bracket I soldered to the metal panel. The panel you can see above was taken out and replaced by the one below. The only thing it needed at this point was a coat of paint and a few cables to hook it up.



After cleanup and primer+paint, what a difference huh?



That's it for now, next up are the power cables and the HDMI, which at this point looked terrible:



Greets,

Wire!

 

...

Dat LEDs... Real functional carriage return arm... real functional paper drum...

fsk... grlbb... hhgnngh...

 

That´s...wow...

 

Steampunk/Dieselpunk Computer MK2, 11th of February

Hi!

First... my reply!

Nexxo, Matiss.... oh my, such praise! Much appreciated guys!

So, on with the updates!

I forgot to take pictures of making the computers power cable but here it is. It has a brass sleeve for the ferrite bead and as the plug is a straight model a simple copper sleeve for the plug itself, crappy pic again...



At this point the HDMI looked like this, a flat cable and a skinned angle-plug. Again sorry for the TERRIBLE quality of some of my pics...:



So here's how I fixed that:

- I drew a wrap in ACAD.
- Printed the wrap and transferred it to cardboard for a testfit
- I then cut it out of brass sheet
- Then I went over the folding lines with my router to make the folding easier and cleaner
- Preformed them and put a small line of solder in the folds to make them sturdier as the brass tends to break after folding 2 or 3 times.



- Then, satisfied about the fit I soldered it all shut...



And here it is cleaned up and plugged in, a bit square though... still not shure if I'll leave it like that:



See the powercable next to the HDMI? Here's what I did for the powercable for the monitor. I'm really pleased how this one turned out:

I forgot to take pictures of the computers power cable completely and I don't have pictures of all steps along the way of the monitors power cable. So forgive me for not showing what I did for the ferrite bead...

Here's what I do have, making the sleeves for the plug:



Making them fit together properly, not sure if you can see what I was doing here...
- I wrapped crude sandpaper around the same diameter pipe as the other sleeve
- Then moved the sleeve to be shaped along it to give it the same shape





Soldered it all together including a copper cap, barely visible in this pic but trust me, it's there In this pic I also did some polishing:



And... I thought with the copper cap was a bit bare so I fit a different cap on it. If you're wondering, it's a typewriter keyring, it was too big at first so I made it fit and a glass insert on the back with a custom paper insert.



And, plugged in:



Well, that's it for now! hop you like it

 

Really nice touches. Love your attention to detail on this build, will really make the build stand out once it's completed.