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Just to let everyone know, work continues on schedule. I haven't done an update because I am in a bondo-and-paint section of the project. This means that I'll do a bit, snap a picture, wait for it to dry and go work on something else. Therefore, there's not enough of any one thing to give a proper update. In the next few days, I should have an update showcasing the progress on the base, which I am very happy with. Thanks for checking in!
As mentioned, I’ve been trapped in the “work a little and then do something else while that dries” stage of the project, leaving me with bits and pieces of a number of things that don’t lend themselves to a full update. Finally, I am moving through that and will hopefully have several updates this week. Today’s update will deal with some work on the front bezel, and the fitting of the PSU.
First, the PSU:
The power supply for this project is coming from my gaming rig, and is a SeaSonic 600W PSU. This thing is pretty much the whole reason that I had to make the base for this project, as it wouldn’t fit in the case with a full ATX board. Mounting in the base is fairly simple, as it rides the rails of the metal cage part. All I needed to do was to fashion a back plate for it.
I cut this out of some standard metal sheeting, using a stencil I made from the back of the case the PSU is currently in. Then, it was just a matter of Dremeling it out, drilling the screw holes and mounting the PSU to test fit.
There we go. After some finish filing, this will be good to go.
The bezel certainly required more work.
For one thing, I won’t be keeping the lights and reset button section, so that will need to be filled in. Also, there is the spot towards the top where the Packard logo was. Finally, there is the power button hole. When I knocked the old one out, I found that the hole was about a millimeter too big for the button I will be using. Therefore, that will need to be filled in and re-drilled.
The bondo here is partly that I wanted to fill in some scratches and gouges, and partly that I mixed up too much. Oh well, that’s what sandpaper is for. :)
After I sanded it down and sprayed a light coat of primer on it, I was able to see that the filled-in needed some more work to blend them in. So – more Bondo.
This time, I intended to mix up the amount that I did.
This time, when sanded down, everything is looking good. Now, there are only a few pits that need to be filled in with putty and it is structurally done.
After some finish sanding, I will get this primed and painted. I will be back in a day or two with another update, so stay tuned.
looking sweet dude
nice work,.. that stuff can get annoying
good work
Back again. First off, before I forget: I added a power button to the bezel.
Just thought you’d like to know.
Today, we’re going to deal with tombstones. I’m going to need a bunch of these, but I only made a few as prototypes to see if my idea was going to work. What I did was to first cut them out of the same type of foam board that I made the base from.
Here they are in context:
The next step was to use some of the spot putty on the edges to cover the non-ridged internal foam.
Oddly enough, the spot putty reacted with the foam core and made it collapse in on itself, where-as the Bondo (which creates heat when it dries) did not when used on the base. I had chosen the spot putty because A.) it allowed me more working time, and B.) didn’t require me to mix up a batch of anything. Even with the reaction, it just took me an additional application to get where I wanted:
After some detail sanding and some primer, I went back and filled holes. After this was all finished, I went over each piece with some stone-texture paint to give them the right look. It turned out great…and….I….don’t seem to have a picture of it here in my PB account. I will remedy this later and add it to the worklog
Next, I’m going to touch base on the top of the case. The only modification that needed to be made to it was the blowhole, which I cut in the chassis. Instead of cutting a hole in the corresponding plastic panel and adding a grill, I decided that I wanted to just have a drilled vent. The plan is to use a red LED fan under it, and put a bloody handprint over it.
For the vent, I actually found one that I liked on another computer chassis – but I didn’t want to cut it out to use as a template…so I balanced it just so, and then maneuvered the drill inside as best as I could and buzzed a few guide divots. No pictures of this, because the job required three hands as it was, so there were none spare for the camera.
In the end, though, this gave me some guidance to start the drilling…
…And drilling some more…
…and then reaching this:
To shamelessly toot my own horn, this was a step back and take a good look moment for me. For something free-hand, this looks almost machined, and I’m damn proud of it.
Which is good, because the paint-job brought me right back down:
The paint that I used ended up not hiding any sins. Every imperfection in the surface – ones that are normally completely covered by the paint – shown through, clear as day. This is what I get for saving a few bucks.
So, I sanded that bad-boy down, added some putty, and then hit it again with the fine-grain stuff. It’s looking better:
Currently, it is in my garage letting another few coats of paint dry. I’ll take a look at it again tonight and see if it’s ready to move on to the hand-print stage of the game.
That’s it for today’s update. Let me know if you have any questions.
Dude, that vent looks awesome. Like factory-stock, but with a nicer layout and less "dead space". Very nice. +rep
The tombstones look promising, as well. So what's goin' on 'em, hmm? Hmmmm? :D
Excellent job on the vent man. It looks like it's a factory job. +rep.
i..... respect... no ...... admire your enthusiasm to mod
Fuzzy, Mitt and Fear - thanks for your compliments. Glad that you like it as much as I do.
Now, time for an actual update on the base of this project.
As you know, I built the rough shape of it out of foam board around a metal frame. After that, I bondo’d the outside edges to give it some strength, and then set about attaching it to the frame.
I used pop-rivets to affix styrene sheets to the frame, and then glue to affix the styro to the styrene. The blue painter’s tape is there to hold the top edges of the styrene flush to the metal until some super glue dries. This is to hold the edges flush until I Bondo over them.
After it was dry, I cut the styrene at random heights along the side so that there wouldn’t be one single “fault line” under the Bondo, which would invite stress cracks later.
The next step was to start covering the styrene, as well as fill in craters along the sides and front (notice the cavity for the second optical drive.) Here it is after the next sanding:
It was at this point that I came to the conclusion that I would never be happy with the front drive bay as it currently existed. The styro was just not holding a clean cut for the drive bay, and it was just never going to look right. Rather than scrap the idea, I turned to the one building supply that had never let me down: Plexi.
I didn’t have any full sheets around, and since it was going to be covered any way, I made do with scraps. Here is a close up of the main piece, custom-cut to fit the front drive cover:
Then, a bottom piece and a liberal coating of Bondo:
Sanded up, it was a thing of beauty:
Now, I’m good to go, and have a base “bezel” that I can be happy with. After that, it was off to my paint booth. (Also known as my garage.)
The first pic is just primer, and the second includes a black base that I used for under the next layer. The horizontal surfaces are to be painted with a slightly textured brown that will be the “dirt” under the graveyard grass. The vertical surfaces are to be painted with the same texture paint that I used on the stones to symbolize cemetery walls, churches, etc.
Having finished that and letting it dry for a few days (with the humidity I’ve had, textured paint takes a long time to dry) I got to begin on the fun stuff. First, I masked off these finished sections of paint:
…then grabbed some spray adhesive and some good old-fashioned railroad scenery:
End result, is this (notice the painted tombstones in the last picture – sorry, the flash drowned them a bit.):
Every day is a step closer. My personal deadline is rapidly approaching, but I think that I’m running pretty much on track. More to come soon.
wow that looks great. i like it
