Nursing Station

[Crazy Buddhist]

As mentioned in a recent thread I recycle a lot of computers. I am currently rebuilding a Pentium III for a student nurse who needs a machine at home for using the internet and doing coursework.

A pentium III is perfect for someone with these requirements as long as you can get enough memory in it.

The machine itself is currently under construction and awaiting a couple of parts. As I hate boring white boxes and have never done a plain "paint job mod" on anything, the student nurse is going to get a colour co-ordinated royal blue and silver gloss machine.

I started work on the paintjob yesterday on the mouse. This is not a peripheral worklog (mods don't move please :) ) - it's going to be the whole PC bit by bit but I am starting with the mouse:

An old logitech, plastic was sun-yellowed from sitting on desks and it looked ugly.

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/mouse1.JPG

Take out the ball and retain.

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse2.JPG

undo the single fixing screw:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse3.JPG

Then the top half will click off and you have two halves of a mouse;

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse4.JPG

Unclicking the three retaining clips that hold the buttons to the top of the mouse will release it:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse5.JPG

Tipping the buttons forward they will slide out through the opening in the mouse cover:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse6.JPG

This leaves three parts that will require some painting:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse7.JPG

Just have to click out the circuit board from the bottom section:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse8.JPG

Now that's ready for painting too:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse9.JPG

The paints are royal blue gloss, silver and a clear gloss coat that I will be usng to toughen up the finish, especially on the silver. Before painting I cleaned the plastic components with a scouring pad and washing up liquid to degrease them but also as the small scratches from the scourer will leave a keying surface for the paint to grip.

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse10.JPG

My painting shop, also known as a kitchen:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse11.JPG

Blue Gloss goes on the mouse body. This will be the main colour for the whole PC, screen and Keyboard too:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse12.JPG

Silver on the mouse buttons:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse13.JPG

... and on the underbody. I have masked off the underbody base with tape first so no paint is getting scraped off on desks:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse14.JPG

Once the paint was dry (nearly see below!) I reconstructed the mouse:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse15.JPG

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mouse16.JPG

If you can look carefully you can see where I screwed up the paint job trying to reconstruct the mouse before the paint had fully hardened. So tomorrow stage two of this mod is taking the mouse apart again, sanding down and flattening the blue on the upper body and repainting it.

More to come .. Nursing Station may not be based on the hot nurses we had for Jon's birthday ( I don't think the person getting the machine will appreciate it). Going with this royal blue and silver with thick gloss all over and probably Ying/Yang or medical symbols on the flat surfaces of the machine and screen.

It may only be a PIII but it can still be a thing of beauty :D

CrazyB

[Crazy Buddhist]

Nursing Station is nearly finished. Took apart the case and keyboard today and painted them and repainted the mouse. I'm no Van Gogh!

The machine on my desk fully functioning and ready to be spruced up:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/donor1.JPG


http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/donor2.JPG


And the painted items drying in the kitchen - sorry there is not much detail between these stages but a) I'm knackered and b) most of you, IMHO, know how to use a screwdriver ;) :

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/paint1.JPG

In the picture above you can see how I paint CD/DVD drives: eject the drive, turn it off, slip out the front panel, mask up around the tray with paper and tape, leaving the front panel a little lower than the front of the drawer so I can paint the lot without taking the thing to pieces completely.

Below is the power button. I'm actually much more interested in the photograph in the newspaper it is standing on ... I buy newspapers not to read but to paint on and clean windows .. that story I must read now.

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/paint2.JPG


http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/paint3.JPG


As I mentioned this is a machine being donated to a student nurse. It's a Pentium III 733MHz with 512MB RAM, 40Gig HDD and 128M ATi ALL-IN-WONDER graphics card and Creative Soundblaster soundcard in her.

Using Nlite I slipstreamed service pack 4 into my SP3 version of win 2K, then cut windows down to the bone - reducing the iso from over 330MB to under 220MB and also set it up for a unattended install which which worked like clockwork.

Nice little pentium III giving it burn in trials yesterday it's quite happy to watch fullscreen DVD's - plays great, fullscreen Youtube video's, webrowsing and office applications all installed along with some special medical applications I had around and an antivirus (Antivir) and firewall (ZoneAlarm).

Tomorrow I reconstruct the case, keyboard and mouse, re-install all the hardware inside and spray the eject button on the DVD drive.

Pictures will be forthcoming :)

I'll try and snap one of the recipient for Jon ;)

CrazyB

[Crazy Buddhist]

Can't rebuild the Nursing Station yet as the paint is not set. It's gone off enough that I can handle the pieces gently so ... Here's a taster, a mock up:

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/Mockup.JPG

And something I'm almost ashamed to reveal.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
................honestly.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
....................................Oh helll why not.
.
.
.
.
.
.
CrazyB in person ;)

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/CrazyBuddhist.JPG

[Crazy Buddhist]

Well I'm posting from nursing station. A video I took from my fuji finepix camera that auto installed is currently uploading to youtube in another tab.:) Will add it to this post as an edit. The front is being resprayed by a professional car sprayer tomorrow as I made a complate balls up of it.

The vid is of a DVD playing on my 20" Dell monior fullscreen on nursing station. It's a black and white movie and also I captured the newly refurbished machine. Only the new front and the keyboard to rebuild.

CrazyB


X8WHgGVsHs8

[Crazy Buddhist]

Done! One blue and grey gloss PIII ready for a new home and a new life :)

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/done1.jpg

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/NS/done2.jpg

CrazyB

ps Mods .. Jon .. This thread can be moved now ... completed mods? Thx.

pps Yes the pics are taken with the PC on my bed ... currently living in my living room/bedroom/workshop. I'll spare you the pictures of the chaos which surrounds me lol

Link To Original Worklog (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16426)