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.