Project Black Betty

Another Update, It's a small Update but it's.. okay, I think :).

That piece of scrap I mad last time.. Well, I bended it and that failed.. besides that, it was far to big. I failed.

So, it was time to make the perfect cardboard version. At least a piece of it. A new version of the last shield will return in it, only smaller. This carboard version is made out of three parts.

The round holes will be drilled ofcourse, but it is difficult to do that in cardboard. There got to be lines in the biggest shield, before I'll made them, I have to made the shield around the wiring. That one has to get the same lines.
I said: This cardboard version is made out of three parts. The smallest one is difficult to see, It is the two points at the bottom. These ones are only half as wide as the other four.

Maybe I am going to use some UV-plastics or showerhose(holders).

So far... Give your opinion! But most usefull are story's about how to bend. I'm not an expert at this level. I have a round piece of metal that has the right shape for the bendings. But it's difficult to use in the vise, because the vise is always there... Think about it, it's difficult to explain, but you'll know what I mean.

Any questions? :)

UPDATE! Huh?! Yeah, it has been awhile. I've been so damn busy. Sorry! My life was all school, school, sport and some other hobby's... I simply had no time for modding. How frustrating. I had no time and no inspiration. I've got some insiration again... and time.. We'll see. I'll explain later.
We're have we been? Ow yeah, the shielding for the CRT. I made some progress on it since my last update - I trashed it :) . Lol. Sort of. I figured out some small things with it. After that I still couldn't decide what the right design would be.
There are many other things to do at this project. So I decided to leave the shielding of the CRT for a while. Anyway, here is what I did so far.

This is some metal misabuse. It's that thingie I already made before. It's far from perfect now.

Like I said, there were so many things to do. One of them was polishing. Nothing but polishing aluminium. Like I said, I had no inspiration. And polishing just had to be done. So, why not? Bad choice, polishing so much stuff is boring and takes to much time! Never mind. Here are the shieldings of the hdd halfway:

The shields are still dirty because of the polishing compound. My workspace didn't became cleaner. Lol.

Al compound is removed. I polished it up a bit more, so we are halfway! Shiny! :)

Just because everybody does. Having a cool object reflected in it.

The holders are polished to.

That was it for the dark paste. It became time for some lighter compound with a softer buffingwheel.

CHROME CHROME CHROME. Yes, only if I had the money and if I knew where to find a good chromer. But hey, I can live with this. What do you guys think?
Meanwhile, the workshop still doesn't turn out cleaner. Now you can see how I support the material. And I am using some tissue that is used in the kitchen. This stuff (like toiletpaper) doesn't scratch the surface at all! At least, less then let's say cotton.

Just a totalshot. One of the shields has a less shiny place. IRL you can watch yourself in it, it's just less shiny :(. I don't have a compund to buff afterwards. To make the shine complete. The shields are still a bit dirty anyway.

Some nice pictues, after all these ours of work I just HAD to post them.

Finally time to assemble it all. I've been looking forward to this. Enjoy!

With a HDD.

Finally. Our next victim :) . The PSU? Yes, it has to be done like the shields of the hdd. I'm probably going to make new holders. Maybe next update.

I hope the next update will be soon! Any questions? Again, all reactions are welcome!

UPDATE! It has been a month since last update :(. I've veen sick again, and I was to busy. Besides all that, my hdd crashed so I had no system and almost all pictures at high res. are gone. But you got to move on... This update is small, but I had a lot of work on this update. To explain what I did we need to go back in time. Does anyone remember this one?

Yes, I was really unsatisfied about this thing. Like I said in the last update, I want to get every detail at this project perfect. And the PSU is our victim this time. So what was a better place to start then.. this plate?
Two things had to change: the edges on the inside, and the scratches. Something like this:

After some filing and (wet)sanding:

Way better! :)
Finally it was time for some polishing then. The result: a big mess, do you see any workspace?

Better:

Today was a modproductive day! I just finished polishing. At that moment I found uit that the batteries of my digital camera where low. So I took the next picture with my cellphone. Well, I can live with this.

Well, no high qual. picture from before mounting this plate. I couldn't resist mounting the plate ;) . The batteries where loaded, so watch this:

Yes, this looks how I ment it to be. What do you guys think?
Next thing on the list of things that need to be done: Make new holders, these ones are screwed up (by me) and I wont post any pictures of that.

I already started wetsanding the shields:

I have made some designs for some shielding. The begin and end of this project where a bit lost I think. But that seems to be over now!
I would like to make some mockups, test them out and post them. Hopefully this weekend or next week. All kinds of reactions are welcome again ;).

Update! Yes, it isn't always taking months. This time it's time for some mockups! Like I said last time. Besides that, I collected some sketches, I found out that there were a lot. So, I came up with the idea to scan them onto the computer so I can put them online. So other people could use them. I need more webspace to do that. Let me know what you guys think. I guess I've talked enough now. Time for serieus sh*zZ@: UPDATE :) .

Shields for the front of the PSU! That's the keyword this time. They will give the PSU more body an they will finish the other shields. I might going to make more of these shields and use them for the back of the PSU and the back of the CD-roms. Here's a drawing:

New holders! Sketch:

Enough drawings, time for a cardboard mockup. After this, the fun is going to begin. It's all going to be made out of polished aluminium with some UV-green plexi behind it. We used some cardboard, a knife, a pencil and some other stuff do build this:

That's starting to look like... something :) . It contains two pieces, that are both going to be made out of aluminium.

In my opinion, it's a bit... stupid. So I saw a green marker laying around. And so I thought, Why not? These details are going to be cut out ;).

It's seems to be one part..

I drilled the holes with a 3mm drillbit in the DREMEL. After some screwing you'll get tapped M4 holes in the cardboard :) . That's how the back piece is mounted to the front shields.

The mockup is mounted with some tape, maybe it's time for some holders at the side?
But that isn't the only problem! How about this?

The side first! After some designin, cutting and gluwing (the edges) this is what I came up with:

There's enough space for led holders ore cable holders!
With shield on it:

The problem of the ATX-cable wa solved easily. I should have rounded the corners of this hole, but that came up in my mind at the moment I already cutted it. Thank god it's only a mockup. As you can see, the mounting of the shieldings with the side-holder isn't correct either. Measured something wrong.

The shielding are going to get the same rounding as the side-shields have. The roundings went a bit lost while I was busy with the cardboad. But that's all going to be allright. Aluminium keeps better in shape then cardboard ;) .
It think this is the final design for these backshields. As soon as I have time I'm going to build them. What do you guyz think of it? The cardboard mockup is a bit crappy. I can't wait to build this out of aluminium! But I don't what to do anything to hurry, I simply don't want to make any mistakes. Reacties are welcome again ;) .

Update! I started working on the holders for the PSU shields. I don't know what to think about them. All details worked out as I wanted them, but you are not going to see a lot of it (actually nothing) when the shields are on. Ah, I had a good time building it :) . I'll post everything here so you can learn from it. Just watch it and let me know what YOU think about the final result.
So, we needed a piece of aluminium to cut the holders from. This stuff is perfect, thin and soft. Easy to hande. So I took the mockup and a pencil to make sure everything would fit.

We don't need black aluminium. This thing needed the orbital sander.

Taped in.

Drawn out.

Rough cut with the jigsaw.

To make sure what worked out good or bad, I did the front holder first. After some filing and sanding:

I used a knife to remove the tape from the areas with material that needed to be removed. I don't have a scrollsaw :( . A good handsaw neither. So, It's all removed with some good old filing. By hand.

The small pieces in the middel are removed by drilling and filing away all the material that left. Cool? Again, no scrollsaw is used.
The rest needed to be done to.

Need some holes...

I did not drilled all the holes here. I wanted to this in the end. To make sure everything would fit. You'll find out later what I mean. Holes aren't threathed, to make sure there won't came any dirt in the holes.
Time to remove some tape and finish some stuff.

This one is missing four mounting holes. The edges needed some cleanup.

After some sanding and polishing this is how it looks, halfway polishing:

Like I said, I do not have a scrollsaw. Everything is done by filing by hand. Took this picture while cleaning up, LOL:

It was such a nice wheather. So, I decided to go to the backyard and do some orbital sanding there. Even the higher grids went fine with the machine. I did also sanded down the side shields, they need to be perfect to.

That's halfway polishing. I made a very stupid mistake. That has cost me a lot of time to remove. To mark the area's that needed to be cut I used a knife. At one holder I drawed long lines, all over the shields. Almost unremovable scratches were made at the good areas. Argh. But after a lot of orbital sanding, they are gone :).
Anyway, after some polishing:

LOL, next.
I think the polishing looks, kind of blurry. Don't know what went wrong. I'll polish it up by hand later.
For safety, I taped of the shields. This one does have my copyright. GHEHE.

Drilling holes, taping them. And three of the six holes are.. a bit.. completely f*cked up. They are of! BAH. You'll see I am not going to like this part. You'll find out that it is not wide enough. Anyway, it fits. I'll make a new one if it looks worse with the shields on. Take a look yourself:

It all fits:

Everything needs to be bend. Here's the first. Nice or what?

We use some, tape to tape it of, a piece of steel, a wooden block, a hamer and some clambs. Like this one, only the edge isn't taped of:

Done?

This is one holder. I cutted the bending marge away.

There you go:

I couldn't find a second piece of steel. So I took a big piece of aluminium. It worked out anyway. Only the edges don't look really good.
Know what funny is? I made these thing to big. I included a bending marge and the width of the side of the case and the backplate of the PSU. So it should be one bending marge to long. Right? And it does! Nothing more, nothing less. So if I took of that piece, it will fit. You know what gets most ugly when polishing? The edges :), so let's take it of.
Used a knife to remove tape from the areas that are going to be removed.

This line is perfectly straight. So the edge doesn't. It's only getting better.

Sanding and filing. Now you can see how much is going of.

The other one to:

Drilling holes and it fits!

Perfectly! :)

Some other holes to. (all holes are tapped)

Tadaa!

To bad you aren't going to see a lot of it. These holders are providing enough space to build some LED covers in. A piece of plexi, drilling some holes and I can mount a LED wherever I want :) .
I think I'll need some spacers between the front holder and the other two. And how about some spacers between the shields and the holders?
So, what's next?
Polishing up the shields, holders at the underside of the PSU, shield for the front of the PSU, shield with holders at the back of the PSU, shields fot the HDD trays and many, many, many more.
And I'm going to put UV-green plexi behind all shields. I was thinking about 5mm or 3mm A.C.ryan UV-panel. What do you guys think, 5mm or 3mm?

All reactions are welcome again! Everybody that is going to make his/her final exams.. Good luck! I'm out of time, because I need to spend a lot of time learning. Tomorow is the first exam, dutch. So, I don't know who else is going to pass his/her final exams this year but, good luck!

Small UPDATE!
This case had lots of imperfections. Those are irritating me. I started to remove those things. What material does Chieftec make these things of, it's hard stuff and difficult to remove. Next project will never be a Chieftec or so.
Imperfection number one where the edges at the holders of the hdd trays. Because of that the holders of the shields didn't fit perfect. Crap.

Case stripped down, time for some Dremeling, Filing and other heavy duty stuff!

Upper one done.

Lower one to, sanded down.
That was cool. Time for number two. The holes for the intake fans. Crap made by Chieftec, just some Dremeling by me. Time to fix them. Here you can see they are not strait and sharp.

Close but not there:

Better.

That's how it should be.
Time for something different. Interesting stuff. A holder fot the shields at the backside of the PSU.

This holder is the same size as the holder at the front of the PSU. Only differinces are that this one will hold two shields instead of three and this one contains a beam in the middle (kind of an H-shape). How easy is that, right?

Holders for the holders are simple to, those wil hold the side-shield either.
For the people who have NO idea what I am talking about:

Here's what the shape is for. Say goodbye ugly vol-selector :) .

Making holes into cardboard is difficult, that's why everything became kind of crappy.

I guess this is how it should be. I'll have to make it out ot alu, same old story (see last update). I wanted to take more pictures but the batteries of the camera didn't like that. The lefside of the holder is not exactly what I wanted, I think I might going to change that. Aluminium version will follow soon.
All kind of reactions are welcome again.

Hoi piepeloi!

Update!
This is goign to start real good. But at the end of the update you'll see it's far from that. So it will probably be redone. Bet there is good news! Let me introduce to you, the latest member of the casemod community. Ollie. He has been a great help!

Allright, today we are going to make a little holder that is going to fit underneath the PSU. I had thick and thin aluminium. I took some thin stuff, it's just a bit thinner than the other holders. It's easy to handle :) .
Used an orbital sander to sand it down:

Drawn out...

Holes drilled

Ollie, what's the right tool?

Not bad, for a first time. And for an elephant. Would he have talent?

I did not need help while filing and sanding.

Halfway polishing...

Holes tapped and drilled up.

As good as polished up.. It's kind of blurry. Don't know why that is. I tought the fibers of the polishing wheel started to stick together. But after toturing the wheel with a steel brush the result didn't turned out better, maybe worse. Crap.

Taped down. Made some small grooves and filed some edges under an angle. Why that is? And for the people who couldn't figure out what this was going to be... Time for some bending work.

Tape removed. Looks cool, right? Wait until you see this...

It's far of! This happened while bending, at the last moment. The left side is.. screwed up. Damn.

I am not satisfied with that. There are two things I could do. Bend, sand and polish up this holder. Or.... Make myself a new one which is perfect. I could make a smaller one next time, so I could put a piece of UV-green acrylic at the back, while it is still in one line with the outer two :) .

I think I am going to do that. Maybe tomorrow, or I could start cutting acrylic for the shields. What do you guys think, 3mm or 5mm acrylic?
All kinds of reactions are welcome again :) !

Update!

Not every part came out as I hoped it would.. So I'll tweak it a bit.. And I will be making the front holder again.. and tweak it. What's done so far:
Acrylic! I've bought three sheets. ACRyan stuff. 3mm clear, 3mm UV green, 5mm Uv green.

I will be using this stuff a lot, the edges are lightning up at daylight. Notice the difference between 3mm and 5mm.

To checkout the plexi with some UV light I decided to buy a.. gadget. I wanted something with LED's. A flashlight with 5 LED's or so. But I wasn't able to get one in Holland here.. (And they are 50 dollar or so outside the country.) So I bought this thingie at a poststampcollectorsshop.

Did I show you the bending work? Probably not.

To bad I didn't take pictures of the bending itself. I couldn't figure out a good way. What I did was, bending it around a pipe. Clambed the shield onto it and smashed it around the pipe with a block of wood and a hammer.
Back to the acrylic. A strip of 3mm thick UV green, taped down. I't's wider than the shields.. Hmmmmmmm......

Cut down...

Here's the tricky part. Tape down the front of the shield. Put it down, heat up the acrylic and clamb it down with a piece of wood. Push it down, let it cool down.., That's the way I did, worked perfect. The heating is done with a .. paint burning thingie.. err. I have no idea how people call these things, lol.

Drilled the holes, tapped them and bolted them. One by one. After that it was just a matter of filing and sanding the plastic to size. One is already done.

Just a cool picture.

I putted this thing I my vise as it says.. CRACK! Right.. on top, there's the crack. Not a big problem, just made a new one.

All done.

Errrr....?

See what I want? I thought it might be beautifull to let everything came forward.

What a mess.. And everythings smells like.. Burned plastic.

Yay!

The edges are not polished or whatever. Just sanded down. I don't know what to do with them. Just sand everything down, or polish them up. What do you guys think? I think I'll try to polish them up and checkout how it looks.

This front holder is driving me nuts! The holes aren't lined up, so the shields aren't either. The shields theirselfs are perfect! The holder in the holder are not :( . I should have remake this thing already. This is why the shields aren't lined up perfectly.. More next time :) !

Update!

First, special thanks to Jeroen Zelle . He is providing me webspace for the pictures :) .

The backside of the PSU.
The holder, taped of and cutted away what needs to be filed away.

LOL.

Done, the upper one is the cardboard mockup..

The holders for the side, drawn out on a piece of aluminium..

Tadaa!

How to make sure they get identical?

To make the grooves to bend, I used a hammer and.. that thingie you see on the pic. Worked fine :) . You can see that the alu already starts to bend at the groove :) .

Bending..

Cool !

Meanwhile.. I turned 18 yesterday. I had so much fun at my birthday :) . I didn't get a scrollsaw... But I'll have my first driving lesson wednesday. Friends of my decided to gave me a car. Ollie was the person to test it... This pic was taken last night, around one o clock. After all my friends figured out what sounds this car made, lol. I just had to show you guys this picture. So much fun!

Cool. Holders.

Fits :) .

As you can see, I've made some cardboard mockups for the side shields.
What I think looks cool:

That was cool. The shields still dó not fit perfect. I think that the holder on the inside would look better with some UV green behind it, to. Just like the holder at the back. What do you guys think?
Working at the PSU starts to irritate me. I want to finish it ASAP, I think I'll do the polishing later on. I'd like to start working on the CRT, the frontpanel and the harddisks. I'd love to build in the hardware ASAP. I already designed a lot of stuff. More, probably this week. All kinds of reactions are welcome again :) !