Wall-E DVD-ROM Mod

Here in the Netherlands the guys of http://www.BouwEenPc.nl/ ((translated Build A PC )) has made a very special mod-competition. A competition in 3 rounds, elemination style. The modding needs to be done according to rules.
The first round we had to mod a DVD-ROM drive. Only one limitation; it had to be functional enough to let the DVDs slide in-out. Didnt have to read them. Ok, so most guys ( 17 to start with ) started with cutting the
DVD-ROM drives open, adding LEDs and windows.
I wanted to do something different, and this is what I did:

Take three old DVD-rom drives.

and a toy-childrens-binocular, cost 1 euro.

With some Vikureen and some blood, sweat and tears I hope to make something like this.

Wall-E Junior.

The arms are almost ready, the bottom DVD drive opens the loading ramp-door and the caterpillars are coming along nice.

My inspiration.

Had to rush this one, because I was going away on holiday in one week.

( I finished this mod about 3 weeks before the movie came out here in Holland )

OK, lets show you some photo's.
The thing that makes Wall-E so special are it's eyes IMO.
From trailers and ofcourse lots of pictures of the internet, I draw the next sketches.

The 40 mm I measured of the kids-binoculars.

With the aid of a radius tool and a slingshot drill....

..we had two holes of 40,5 mm in no time. The binoculare fits snug into them.
Later more on the binocular, now a quick jump to the arms and hands.
First a paper layout of the hand.

Cut from thin aluminium.

Folded it and gave it a rough surface*

The other side with the "thumb"

A piece of square aluminium profile.

With some milling and two old nuts, I made a shoulder.

Two pieces ofcourse.

To connect it all together, I made this from a piece of round steel and a M4 bolt.

Found some more round tube.

Perfect fit.

Put it all together and you get two very simple arms.

*
about that roughing up the surface;
Wall-E is 700 years old and this is how he looks !
A sparkling brandnew Wall-E...... no way !
(and it makes my work a lot easier hehehe )

Openend up the plextor drive to extend the eject button.
It is now that I see three things about this DVD-rom;
1-Its very old, 2- How HUGE and complex the circuit board is and 3-
that plextor utilizes the bottom of the DVD case to cool three ICs with heat-compound.

A piece of aluminium just to mask the two other drives, ducktape if just for this picture.

Side view with one arm against it, here i'm cutting a hole into it.

Something else; from the pictures of the internet, we can see how roughed up,
dirty and damaged Wall-E is ( I guess I would be too after 700 years )

and because I havent got that much time, I didnt made a window with LEDs, but a simple adhesive sticker.
As you can see, the sticker is way to clean....

So I used some coarse sandingpaper, e voila.....

The loading-ramp. Just a pieve of aluminium sheet and some ducktape.

and with the drive open.

Fiddled with a elastic and for you guys I made a small movie of it.

Laadklep test

What do you think ?

With some hard cardboard, which is still a bit flexible, I made the eye casings.
Temporarely fastenened with ducktape, for the glue to set.

Glues is hard, removing the tape.

And fastened on the neck ( which is a old lamp holder )

Cut two slots in the sides for the arms.

Fits nice and tight.

And a slot in the top for the neck part to hold.

And this is the result.

Made some fitting side-panels.

And finaly.. the toy bulldozer is in !

Oops, some parts just fell of ;)

And then youre left with this.

With some paint, brushes, stickers and sanding paper I finished this mini mod.
Just didnt have the time to make a proper mod as I usualy make my mods, but this is what you guys get.
Lots of succes to the other competitors and good luck!

Frenkie

I am so sorry Frenkie, while I was copying this for the gallery I accidentally removed the comments left by others. MY BAD!!!

If you posted a comment here for this mod, I'd thank you if you would repost it. Sorry folks.

Nobody's perfect.



( my name is nobody ? )


:)

Cool stuff! Like how you work with the arms. Best of luck with the competition mate.

finally showed it on tbcs i love this when you showed me the other day

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acey

Cool stuff! Like how you work with the arms. Best of luck with the competition mate.

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Thanks, I got to third place with it. Next i'm building is a Command & Conquer powerplant, with a PSU as bases.

man i would love to see this comp as it goes on, keep us updated

This mod has hit the pages of engadget!
http://www.engadget.com/page/5/

This would just have to use the Wall*E desktop theme from Hyperdesk.

this thing rocks! :up:

Here's a link to the actual article on engadget http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/14/v...mod-directive/

i saw this ages ago... he is making a psu thing now... its alot cooler

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DonT-FeaR

i saw this ages ago

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I did too. This worklog, not the article, though.