Canada's Own Falcon
03-20-2006, 01:39 AM
ok guys, got a couple questions for you.
first, the project.
I first found this project (http://www011.upp.so-net.ne.jp/kat2/pc/ern005/ekana.htm) a while back, and thought, cool. Then I saw another of his "case" mods here (http://sae.cside.com/sae/kat/pc/ern002/emaya.htm) and I thought, awesome, I want something like that. Now, I don't want to be sitting and carving stuff from styrofoam all day for one, and 2, I don't know really how safe those things are for computers, especially overclocked A64's running at 40+ degrees c. So I thought, why not get a model (my girlfriend in this case... no pun intended) to be a body model. Here's where my questions come in.
I've worked with Fiberglass before, but only in laying it on something (I built, with a couple friends, a car out of wood, foam, and fiberglass, it ran on batteries, and, due largely to aerodynamics, was able to complete 37 2.4km laps before dying, running only on 2 car batteries, and a 45 volt DC motor.) Anyways, very different application, but it worked, and fiberglass was easy to work with.
My steps I was thinking of go a little like this.
Take a negative body mold of my gf using doctors molding plaster. (the stuff they use to make casts.) (yeah, I know, lots of vaseline is needed here...)
after that, I am thinking that I will apply the fiberglass to that, and get my positive duplicate. After attaching all the parts together, I will have the hardrives suspended in the head, and the mobo mounted on a fiberglass plate, (fiberglass + Balsa + fiberglass I think this method will work perfectly here) on as much of an angle as the body will allow, cords will plug into the back, and the optical drives will mount into the legs.
She will end up sitting on the desk so the drives will come out through cut hatches in her legs. My thoughts were to use silicone fingers to cover the hinges for the drive hatches, and have them pop up as the drive slides out.
My worries about this method are simple, how the heck do I get the drives out if the eject buttons are hidden. I was thinking servo's to push the buttons, but I really don't know how that will work. Second, how long would silicone last before it starts to die, and crack from hardening. (I've never worked with it before)
Any thoughts on this, supplies wise, steps, or any hints sugghestions. This will be my first fully custom case mod, and the first time I will be doing Full body molds, I've done hands before, but never a full body, should be very fun. If I can get a good enough idea together I will be starting this thing with in a couple weeks, and will see about keeping everyone posted on how things go.
first, the project.
I first found this project (http://www011.upp.so-net.ne.jp/kat2/pc/ern005/ekana.htm) a while back, and thought, cool. Then I saw another of his "case" mods here (http://sae.cside.com/sae/kat/pc/ern002/emaya.htm) and I thought, awesome, I want something like that. Now, I don't want to be sitting and carving stuff from styrofoam all day for one, and 2, I don't know really how safe those things are for computers, especially overclocked A64's running at 40+ degrees c. So I thought, why not get a model (my girlfriend in this case... no pun intended) to be a body model. Here's where my questions come in.
I've worked with Fiberglass before, but only in laying it on something (I built, with a couple friends, a car out of wood, foam, and fiberglass, it ran on batteries, and, due largely to aerodynamics, was able to complete 37 2.4km laps before dying, running only on 2 car batteries, and a 45 volt DC motor.) Anyways, very different application, but it worked, and fiberglass was easy to work with.
My steps I was thinking of go a little like this.
Take a negative body mold of my gf using doctors molding plaster. (the stuff they use to make casts.) (yeah, I know, lots of vaseline is needed here...)
after that, I am thinking that I will apply the fiberglass to that, and get my positive duplicate. After attaching all the parts together, I will have the hardrives suspended in the head, and the mobo mounted on a fiberglass plate, (fiberglass + Balsa + fiberglass I think this method will work perfectly here) on as much of an angle as the body will allow, cords will plug into the back, and the optical drives will mount into the legs.
She will end up sitting on the desk so the drives will come out through cut hatches in her legs. My thoughts were to use silicone fingers to cover the hinges for the drive hatches, and have them pop up as the drive slides out.
My worries about this method are simple, how the heck do I get the drives out if the eject buttons are hidden. I was thinking servo's to push the buttons, but I really don't know how that will work. Second, how long would silicone last before it starts to die, and crack from hardening. (I've never worked with it before)
Any thoughts on this, supplies wise, steps, or any hints sugghestions. This will be my first fully custom case mod, and the first time I will be doing Full body molds, I've done hands before, but never a full body, should be very fun. If I can get a good enough idea together I will be starting this thing with in a couple weeks, and will see about keeping everyone posted on how things go.