Project "tensa sama ke-shi" (Heavenly Chain Computer Case :P)

@Silenced_Coyote : Well, I try to do something unique.. If I have the best intentions and can't make 'em real, I should at least try to make them .jepgs ;) But, I can't decide whether to keep the flame window or use a shredded cloth pattern there too... I have made lots of patterns and I'm far from happy.. The masks stay, the full side stays, but the window.. mmm...

@The boy 4rm oz: 10ks and I sure hope myself. I do some 4-6h modding day by day.. Should be done sooner or later this way.

@calumc: I could use paste, but I have special shims made from a silicon material or mica plates.. They are used for small installs and are easy to service. They are used in PSUs and common stuff.. this is way to low-power to need thermal paste.. And I don't have any at all right now :P

Back to the worklog:

{Written in notepad at first, cause my ISP thinks it is funny to cut the line and do stuff without telling anyone. One moment I was alright, the other, no packets received. Also, if it isn’t their fault, I may experience the same problems I have with my vista rig... So, it could be a virus or bad drivers… I am so sick of this unsecured network I am right now... It’s been Hydra last month, now Jeefo is spreading around…}

August 15th

...more progress on the case... Today was time for some metal cutting and shaping. For me to use the fan mount I made yesterday some holes had to be cut and some metal removed. So I took the angle grinder with an old disc (will regret that later and change it) and the ‘dremel’ with some new discs. I marked and cut some parts, but first thing I did was kill the bad noise generators at the back of my case: the stamped grills!

Next I took a marker and drew some lines on the front part of the case. There are some things that wouldn’t like a fan installed there, like the measly 80mm high restriction stamped grill and the surrounding metal, plus the 5,25” bay:

They have to go ;)

After doing the straight and easy cuts, I started cutting the bay metal. Horrible results with the worn out disc… I changed the disc with a new one and repaired... errm, cut away the bad parts ;)

After doing all that cutting, I thought I was going to have a nice and easy install... Wrong! I had to cut another notch (in the middle pic) and some corners up the top of the plate to allow the plastic part to sit flush.

Next was gluing with a local type of chemical weld. I used some old training weights I found in the tool box. Then after two tries I got the desired position and waited 10 minutes for the glue to harden. The strength is acceptable. But it says 24h before full strength.

It was tough to cut and design. NOT. :D luckily, with all those metal cutting tools, the case was safe now.. Clearance is good enough, fans are quiet at 5V and all is well… Or is it?

I wanna have a hard drive and not show it, so I decided to hide the vortex cooling unit so that the knob doesn’t hinder the door from closing. I had to cut about 4mm in the aluminum panel I made... And I bet I’ll do it a gain when I get a DVD unit. But everything fits to less than a millimeter.

Ignoring the bad cabling right now in the front area, there is lots of space to pull air for the fans, the hard drive has a passive way of cooling itself too and there is even space for a low noise fan on the sonic tower. Also, I glued the front bay plates that remained and prepped them and the whole panel for cutting/bondoning.

I also spent the last part of my paycheck to buy these: 40 blue and 40 red ultra bright LEDs. These were about 40 hard earned $ and makes me sad at the though of having loss this many (or more, never counted them) LEDs before, after a nice, messy party L

Also, I bought 50 2g tubes of super glue, as there isn’t ant source here for bigger quantities, like the bottles I’ve seen on some logs.

I may have to reinstall windows to get the LAN working again, and do it on 2 systems.. But what the hell.. I have all the time in the world.

Thanks for reading.


August 16th

I continued with some delicate work. This has never been my strong point: cutting small pieces of plastic. I needed some intakes and decided against the small slots on the side.. Why? Because I didn’t want the mounting poles inside the face plate to be visible. Then , I couldn’t cut with such precision… The dremel kept jumping away, hot pieces of plastic were flying everywhere… So, this is what I did:

I put tape on the sides before. Now I marked it again and cut the paper away to see how much intake I was creating. I say it is pretty good for 2 120mm fans at 5V. Just look at the pic with the fan frame. The cut area is comparable in size

Using the dremel with a toothed disc, I cut away a lot of plastic… that leaved the question how to cover it and mask cutting mistakes…

I keep most of my junk that can be recycled: these are the grills from the Antec case, plus some scrap from the first n0name case. I cut it to shape and fitted the grill inside the hole. I repeated the process and glued them with superglue at first then with the 2 compound adhesive, for strength.

After the glue set, I bondoed over and proceeded to the upper segment. This is the only odd shaped grill, as it is close to the front locking mechanism.

For the upper part intake, that feeds air to the vortex, I couldn’t use ugly stuff, like a big hole or something… So, I re-written the kanji for the project name and simplified the second and third symbols, because my drill attachment wasn’t small enough for such fine letters or cutting precisely for that mater. Symbols are marked and prepped for cutting.

…and after cutting. I got pretty close to what I wanted, but I may have to spread some bondo over some scratches I made. Also, I used some of the vinyl I bought to see if it looks good… I think it does, but even if I managed to put the stuff without air bubbles trapped, there where some debris I didn’t notice that were caught under the vinyl and they are visible and mar the finish L Must redo it, add some mesh under the symbols and maybe paint the plastic black before applying the ‘glossy paint job’. Although this looks kick ass in real life, this is a finger print magnet! It is so shiny and distorts light in such a sexy way… then it gets covered with oils and grease and loses its’ sleekness L

Enough for today. I’m making a strict schedule for the following days, as from the 5th of September, school re-starts for me and I have 3 exams waiting… @#$@@%@#.. so, must weigh the cost of those exam I may fail.. bye for now.

PS: ISP has issues, talked to them , they reset my line and now I can download with 100k, but can’t even upload a picture on photobucket, let alone send my work-related mails.. aaaargh…

today: I'm up and running and so is my uploading. Some bondo work today coming right up.. in a few hours ;)

Mate that looks great, you have done a lot of work in a short amount of time.

10ks :p I give my best :)

Well, more work done today, although it may seem less.. I had run in the most common problem I have experienced since starting to do stuff virtually before actually doing it.. things don't always go as you please. Why? Well, because you have to take into consideration a sufficient amount of variables to do the job.. like the dimensions of a piece of steel, or the fact that it has something stamped on it. This was the main problem for today: when I did the rough sketch of the sides, I didn't quite take into account the stupid model they imprinted on the side, spelling TAC.. whyyyy? I mean why did they do it? I have to cut it away because they stamped it so hard I can't dremel it flat.. it would be too much work and maybe make it more flimsier to bondo it and re-flatten it... I may be lazy,
but I am creative:

masked the entire panel and left the areas to be cut/kept visible. Although my cam didn't capture it, there are lines marking where I can 'go' with the cuts and with the window.. So, I have to hide the PSU, hardrive, hardrive cage, cut the round hole out, keep the side vent AND use the CGI flames/shreds.. Impossible :(

So, I had to keep in the limits, but still use as much as possible from the design..

I kept this lil feature 100% from the design.. Used an A4 paper to copy the lines from the screen and then penciled out the back. After pressing hard and repeatedly with a ball pen on the paper, the design was imprinted on the masking tape and I just had to refine it :) In order to keep the design positioned correctly, I drew some arrows for alignment sake.

After some gooood time with a pencil, a black pen and a marker... the flames are a bit off, but I had to hide stuff and keep within some limits... so the flames are tweaked horizontally :)

These pics contain valuable information for when the time comes to cut the window.. You can see that this job will be made in steps: a big, unpreccise cut, smaller cuts.. and then some refinements. The pic in the right is what should guide me to the final form. The vent won't be cut, but I wanted too see what design could integrate it, as it is black and I plan on keeping it black. :)

Right now, I am considering cutting the mask... And using some lit plexi under it.. That would be interesting, right? The vinyl will still cover it.. unless I get enough money for a full black/white paint job. But maybe cutting the mask will look some much better.. Have to try.. so, you know what I'll be doing the rest of the day: modeling. fiting. trying. Can't do noise at this time of the day, so this activity fits just right :)

See you later.

Still looks good, you haven't altered your original design too much.

I admit, it is close, visually, but if you look mathematically at it (sorry for size):

this is how I had to skew the image: mask is smaller, at 0.7 scale, flames are denser and the bottom can't be kept.. still, I'm 90% happy :)

Great work man, I can't wait to see it finish

Both designs look great. I think your first one would have been more suited to a full tower or a server case. Another mod perhaps? ;)

Dude, that panel looks killer! I can't wait to see this cut out!

Wow, I like the panel so much, I am a fan of bleach to. This case is gonna be sweet!

Thank you for your cheers :) Been some time since the last update, but hey, I gotta work for money, and have to learn too :( Still, when I have my brain full of formulas and can't take anymore.. break time. So, I tool a break from my studying and picked up the 'dremel':

do you know what this is? :twisted:

..now you can see it better.. I took some progress pictures while cutting, to let the tool cool down. I used one huge disc I made and I used less than half of it to do all the work.. till the last pic.. I paused my work for today because my parents are coming home and they hate it if I work with power tools.. in the house..

..All I did today was some rough cuts, the filing will occur at another time. I have six different shaped files to do it with.

my cutting technique involves grinding more than cutting, so I'm left with some serrated edges and no AA..

..same here..

..This is how I cut bigger portions out of the panel.. Just cut small pieces, bend em and then grind them down.. then make the cut rounder..

..window side done.. guess what is next..

..the mask!

..here is the progress I made today.. It is hard to cut further because the cutting disc hasn't lost that much from its radius, so I have to take my time and leave the smaller cuts for later..

..the panel as it is now is fairly close to my design.. with a bit of more detailing I will have exactly the panel I planned..

another problem I'm gonna have is with the teeth.. I'm gonna need some finer discs.. Like the original ones, but I don't have any.. aaargh.

Well, enough for today.

Window looks great.

Exams are over (I hope), so I have plenty of time :) What for: this project! So, today I've been doing some more tricky cuts, cleaning up, sanding, filing... even some work around the house that got me tired.. But I'm happy 98% ;) Still some things need doing, then I'll be 100% pleased.

Modding day started really badly, as I had to do some stuff before it and got my fingers sliced and my hands really..sanded :) As I started filing the window, I noticed my finger was dripping:

..well, the file went right into my finger.. so I had to change my working finger for a while..

..this is where I am now.. I cleaned the cuts as much as I could, but I must wait till tomorrow for my finger to get better.

I marked the window on a piece of paper and made sure I had enough overlapping material to fix later.. I'm not sure whether I should use nuts&bolts or try something different, to keep the outside clean..

And here is the plexi.. I marked it and cut it more than half way. I had to stop, cause the tool is getting really warm and it is 8 o'clock..

The plan is to have the panel white, the black flames on top, clear plexi with some sort of etch.. more ragged flames, red LEDs and some tinting :)

Tomorrow I'm doing the rest of the window, cutting the vinyl and maybe bondoing the front part's honeycomb grill...

Cool design man, I am liking how the hollow mask is coming.

10ks

Well, now I have 3 cuts that bled, countless that are just skin deep and my hands hurt.. I've been also sanding some walls, to get them smoother before painting, in my house.. so.. I want a mechanical sander :(

This is where I am now (did some stuff today, but there is tons more to be done and time is flying):

..while cleaning the cuts I made with the 'dremel', I was thinking: careful not to cut yourself >> bam!

..window cut and tested..

..window installed and some things marked.. I teared the backing off later, but I remember my plans :)

..a bit of the etching and wiring done.. a bit I say because I put in only 7 LEDs, 7 + 4 to go.. And I have to make some nice etches too, not just the back of the mask..

..I was thinking of adding LEDs to the side of the mask, to light it up more evenly, and on the lower part of the panel, where the bleach name would be etched. I'm gonna go with the name of the series style as it appears in the beginning of the anime, each and every time :)

..my fingers hurt.. I'm tired.. I'm gonna watch some zombie movies and listen to my bleach music collection :) night.

So cool, I wish I had the same skills as you for cutting with a dremel. BTW which is your favorite opening/ending in the anime?

10ks :) I like the current ones the most.. It has to do with the action and the video part too: the intro was eerie the first time I saw it, but I could tell the action was going somewhere I won't like :) but mostly because I have a bad memory and the others are blurry in my head :) good thing I have them all. I'm a member of bleach exile and it's a good thing they offer a lot of the anime materials there for download, although I only have fan art and music from them.

There are 6 openings and 12 endings. I remember the openings better, but I don't think I've ever said "Man, why did they change it?" twice.. I was always shocked when they changed something.. but.. it was all for the best :)

Worklog related.. I'm really tired, didn't have time to sleep last night.. Gonna do some light stuff today, if I feel like it. I think bondo will do.. I like the fumes ;) (THEY ARE DANGEROUS, IT WAS A JOKE! :))

EDIT: now you made me listen all day to bleach songs :) I think my favorites are (in order):
aqua timez - alones
rie fu - life is like a boat
asterisk - orange range
tsumasaki - oreskaband

and my ringtone: shiro sagisu - on the precipe of defeat
:) I hate u know :p

Wow. This is amazing. Cant wait to see it done and painted this is going to be awesome.

looking good mate

10ks guys

I'm gonna paint some parts black, mainly the interior.. but no I don't have any paint.
Seeing as I'll be leaving home tomorrow, I wanted to spend my last night here doing what I like most: detail work.. I mean modding :)

After a long tedious working day yesterday (grape harvesting.. prepping the wine-to-be mixture..) and a long shopping day today, I spent the last 6 hours cutting and assembling stuff. Of course, the window panel was firsted for the first time - now. And oh big surprise, it didn't fit cause of the huge sonic tower. Some force and I bent it into submission. A 3 millimeter
job, but it was in the way of the 4mm acrylic. After making it fit, the pc wouldn't boot and I had to reset the CMOS, re-seat stuff inside.. wasted some time, cause I'm an idiot sometime.. well, all is working now and with no problems.

So, some pics:

after lots of fidgeting, cleaning the surface and applying and reapplying the vinyl, I got it smooth and started cutting with a new blade.. I made some stencil-thingy to trace the top flames, cause I wanted them to be as close as manually possible to the design.

The several manual steps have changed the design by a slight amount, but if I ever do this again, I will be more careful :)

some shots of the panel, with leds and ambient light on or off.. not much difference. It's clear to me the other leds are needed, and also the etch. But that will have to wait.

this is a step not in the 3d design, cause it would be too much of a hassle and I did it faster the freehand way.

drew some ragged flames and cut them :)

and this is the look I'm going with. It isn't finished as I am keeping a trick up my sleeve. Think of this as the "primer".

I found another thing that is a bit representative for Bleach: their way of communicating. Thru hell butterflies.. or moths, whatever they are. I just think that no one made black ones before. This surely removes all happy, spring/summer time happiness out of them :) I hope. I'm gonna do one for the top of the case, which looks a tad empty to me, in the back.. I'm not sure whether to use any, but I'm thinking of making a couple.. At least as practice for cutting the vinyl.

also, If I would have a laser etching machine.. I think you know where I'm going ;)
What remains now is some black painting, some ethcing, some more leds.. some more vinyl art and then some secret stuff I'm planning. See you next time (hopefully not in 2 months time..)

That looks great!!

dude, we have got to get you a better camera :P. Everything looks soooo awesome. Amazing job on that side panel cut. Great work, can't wait to see more.

Mate absolutely fantastic, you have done a great job so far.

I think the soul chain (cant remember if thats the proper term) on the front of case would be awesome. I had this same idea for a case but you have gone above and beyond what I could every do. Looks great +rep