Media Player Case

[Cymae]

Ok, so I saw a really cool mod on the internet by somebody who made a case for their IPod out of a book. Well, I really liked that though I think i can give the design a little...more power!! :D

Original props to NinJA999, for the original instructions go here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/EDZNBEBGM3EP286J59/

So I'm going to start with a little more stuff. We have:
- A book
- Some soft foam
- Superglue (DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE, I GLUED MY FINGERS TO MY TABLE BEFORE, IT HURTS!!)
- Some PVA
- Some magnets (oooo mysterious)
- My handy dandy media player
- My super stylish portable headphones


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/Cymae/step1.jpg

Not pictured: pencil

Protip: Go to your local charity store looking for a book, You want something with about 2 fingers space between the media player (with the media player and book on the same level) and the top of the book. This will allow you to pad the case appropriately without running out of room.

The book I chose was a collection of works by Harry Bowling (thanks for such a superbly fitting book), which is hardback. If you glue everything together hardback shouldn't matter too much, but i like the extra sturdiness). Don't worry if its too heavy, remember you'll be scooping out a lot of it and replacing it with foam.

My book case (tehehe, pun!) is going to be padded and will magnetically close (yes that's why we have magnets) to assure that even if i drop it, it shouldnt pop open and damage itself in the impact! I picked a book large enough to house both my media player AND my headphones, which will make it an excellent tool for carrying it all around without tangling it up.

Will start now, update soon!

[Cannibal23]

sounds like an interesting project. dont think i have ever heard of someone doing this before. will have to keep an eye on this one

[Cymae]

Okay, so I thought I'd give you a bit of an update before bed.

I started by drawing an outline of my media player and headphones onto a page about an eighth into the book. the idea is that i want my WHOLE media player to fit inside the recess so I only have to put padding in a small recess above, without having to cut out extra for my media player. Here's how i drew the outlines:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/Cymae/Picture003.jpg

I then proceeded to remove everythng and cut out the hole for my media player. I don't think its a good idea to cut out the hole for the headphones until after finishing the media player compartment hole, otherwise you'll get really annoyed with it. Cut a bit out, remove it and then use the hole as a stencil for the next bit. This of course means that you'll begin to have a smaller hole closer to the bottom. I just spent a few minutes cutting at the edges until it was reasonably straight. there should be enough room in there for your media player to comfortably wriggle around:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/Cymae/Picture006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/Cymae/Picture007.jpg

I'd like to reaffirm the point that you shouldnt play with hobby knives. I was reaching over behind me for something and didn't quite close the knife properly and now i have a deep and nasty cut on the back of my leg. It's off to the doctor for me tomorrow! I am also a bit of a clutz...but you get the general idea. I'll hopefully have an update in the next day or so, i have uni all day, so i won't be able to get to it till i finish with my classes.

Also, I'm a little worried that having my magnetic closing system might mess up the hard drive in my media player... it should be seperated by quite a bit of paper but im not sure if its safe...any suggestions?

[elbarto241]

are u sure your media player runs on a Harddrive or is it flash memory?

[.Maleficus.]

Judging by its size, I'd say it uses a HDD.

About the magnets, I'm not sure. There have been mods around that have magnets close to the hard drive (I forget which one, but one used a magnet located close to a hard drive to hold a remote to the case) but I'm skeptical. If you don't use a very strong magnet, you should be ok, but don't quote me on that.

[Cannibal23]

i have worked exensively with magnets on a previous mod. i dont believe putting large very strong magnets really close to a hard drive is a good idea. they have 2 very strong rare earth magnets in them wich help control the read write armature. placeing another magnet too close to this may cause magnetic interfearance and the arm to not react the way it usually should. you can test the strength and magnetic pattern by placeing it under a sheet of paper and then dusting the paper in iron fileings to see the general size of the pattern. all you have to do is tip the paper and let any loose stuff fall off and you should be able to see the outline of the magnetic field. if its small enough it may not cause any interfearance depending on its position relative to the hard drive

[Cymae]

they're not very strong magnets...i got them from the craft shop and i can yank em apart without any sort of trouble..

edit: and yea, it uses a 20gig internal hdd. I loves my media player ^_^

[Computer-Geek]

what media player is that ? Sorry for being off topic. This will turn out good just watch yourself with sharp objects lol.

[Cymae]

its a Medion portable AV Player. best thing since sliced bread, it plays onto the tv, records from it, plays video (avi, no special format thats only used by the media player), music, has a picture gallery, accepts SD memory and you can use it as a pc-free memory dump off usb :)

[simon275]

That sounds sweet. Where did you get in from. I looked on there Australia site and they don't have product listings.

[Cymae]

Aldi :P

[simon275]

haha lol aldi has so much stuff good find.

[Cymae]

Ok...so I evened off the edges and then thought done! lets superglue this baby together. Superglue is a GREAT way to seal the pages, because its absorbant and dries faster than you can say "OH NO MY PANTS!!!" Unfotunately, in the process of supergluing it, I made a massive mistake...You see, the book I chose was thick enough that the pages slide over when you close it. so in order to be able to close it exactly how you want, you have to clamp half the book in the right place so it doesnt shift when you glue it and re-close it. I didn't think of that. So now my book doesn't close. It's back to the drawing board, but damnit I'm not going to lose this!!!! I WILL DEFEAT YOU!!

[Zephik]

Ok...so I evened off the edges and then thought done! lets superglue this baby together. Superglue is a GREAT way to seal the pages, because its absorbant and dries faster than you can say "OH NO MY PANTS!!!" Unfotunately, in the process of supergluing it, I made a massive mistake...You see, the book I chose was thick enough that the pages slide over when you close it. so in order to be able to close it exactly how you want, you have to clamp half the book in the right place so it doesnt shift when you glue it and re-close it. I didn't think of that. So now my book doesn't close. It's back to the drawing board, but damnit I'm not going to lose this!!!! I WILL DEFEAT YOU!!

You know, what I would do is this. Get one of those fake books that are completely hollowed out. Then, get some sort of Styrofoam and slowly dig out the shape your after. Then take a shaving tool mahjigger and clean it up real nice. Stick that puppy inside the book and voila, totally pro.

Using an actual book and hollowing out never turns out right and it always looks sloppy/messy. Its also hard to predict for things like what happened. The same exact thing happened to me back when I was in middle school trying to do this. But I tried to glue all the pages together (aside from the cover) first, before actually trying to hollow it out. The book got all deformed and weird and ended up not wanting to close right, so I just abandoned it right there.

Here are some links for ya though, they should be of some help hopefully. ^_^

http://lifehacker.com/software/diy/diy-secret-hollow-book-157211.php
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Hollow-Book

[Cymae]

i swear i will not let this beat me! i know what I have to do, should be ok. Thanks!!