Project: Frankenstripe

Alright, some of you may remember me trying to install a fan in the side of a Micron case.

It didn't turn out too well.

Note to self--80 mm fans take 3 1/2 inch holesaws, not 3 inch ones.

Anyways, as I posted elsewhere, I came across a cheap ass piece of plastic at Walmart last night. Brought it home and quickly chopped it some and sanded the edge that got chopped. It now looks like this:

Please forgive the shakiness, I took that pic without a flash while I had it sitting under a blacklight.

Here's a quick refresher of the hack job that didn't turn out too well:

Did a couple of rough draft drawings of how I wanted this window to look and then decided I didn't like the beveled corners, but anyways:

Bear in mind, that first pic was under a blacklight, and it doesn't do it a damn bit of justice. THIS THING GLOWS. I personally think it looks cool as all hell, so I went down to Radio Shack (gasp!) and paid way too much for some UV CCFLs. I also picked up a toggle switch, since I'm not gonna give up a PCI slot for the damn on/off switch. I bored out a very rough hole:

and in the spirit of form following function:

mocks up quite nicely.

Now the fun part:

I taped up the backside of the panel with some good ol' duct tape and marked off my window.

Yes, I know it's cockeyed. That's the point. :D

At first, I was gonna dremel the metal off (worked quite well on the toggle switch hole), but one minor problem: I forgot to charge my battery! Oh well, I bought a jigsaw today just in case (no pun intended and besides, what kind of a modder would I be without a jigsaw?!?), and took the panel outside and scared the hell out of the neighbor's yappy mop of a dog for a few minutes.

This is what I got for my hard work:

I'll finish up this beast tomorrow, as my dremel is charging.

"The Frankenstein Design, a registered U.S. copyright, and the VH logos, registered U.S. trademarks, are used on this website under license from E.L.V.H., Inc. The owner of this website is entirely responsible for all content and material on this website, and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, VAN HALEN or E.L.V.H., Inc."

+rep dude for been persistant...keep it up

Thanks man. If nothing else, I am VERY bull headed!

Not sure what case you are using but that looks like the side panel of the older beige style Dell XPS.

Keep it up dude! We all have moments like that, when something just goes wrong, doesn't work, or constantly turns out below your standards. You might never be happy but all you can do is keep trying or give up...giving up is not an option!

-Dave

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chaksq

Not sure what case you are using but that looks like the side panel of the older beige style Dell XPS.

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The case is a very cramped Micron case. As soon as I find something somewhat decent, the mobo is going to find a new home. And since this damn thing is pretty much 1 molded piece and one side panel, I'm thinking going ghetto on it and going crazy (in a tatseful way) with those stickers that you can get out of vending machines at gas stations.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DaveW

Keep it up dude! We all have moments like that, when something just goes wrong, doesn't work, or constantly turns out below your standards. You might never be happy but all you can do is keep trying or give up...giving up is not an option!

-Dave

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Thanks for the kind words DaveW. I've found that two things apply to modding:

1) TAKE YOUR TIME. Don't rush it, otherwise yer gonna screw something up.

2) If you do screw something up, WALK AWAY, go play some music, smoke a pack of cigarettes (if you're addicted that is, thank God I'm not), watch a movie (I prefer a movie from what I call the Sergio Leone trilogy), etc. Then come back to it with open eyes, and then either fix it or incorporate the screwup somehow into the finished product.

All right, I'll get off my soapbox or whatever the hell it is I'm standing on and get to modding.

A 'Why in the hell didn't I think of this sooner' moment hit me.

JUST REMOVE THE DAMN METAL SHEET!

One step closer to done. I also got to thinking that while I'm not the biggest fan of moulding on computer windows, I might go that route to hide the 'practice' that I'm doing on this case.

Also, I somehow lucked into a four day weekend--this should be done by Monday, if not sooner.

:::Pricless words of love:::

If you ever give up I will come to your home and beat you with your own dremel.

J/K

Seriously NEVER SURENDER!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by danthegeek

:::Pricless words of love:::

If you ever give up I will come to your home and beat you with your own dremel.

J/K

Seriously NEVER SURENDER!!!!

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You can take my Dremel when you can pry it from my cold dead hands!

If nothing else, you're at least having fun...

You give it some!

Alright, quick update for now, and probably another one around 1 am or so (I'm a night owl!)

First off, I slid the panel back on and marked off what needed to be chopped out of the optical drive cage:

This will be knocked out hopefully late tomorrow morning, weather permitting (snowing right now)

And here's the window in it's current state:

A little cockeyed, but after I take the dremel to it some more, it should look much better.

And I'm almost afraid to show this pic, but what the hell:

Cable management? What is that?

Once I find a decent case at a decent price to transplant the mobo, I'll probably get my hands on a modular PSU.

And one last picture. The CPU fan was sounding like it was about to throw a bearing. Upon further inspection, I saw this:

Dunno if you can really tell in that picture, but some of the insulation got ground off by the fan. Good thing I've got some shrink tubing, that could be a bit dangerous.

The dremel battery is on the charger at the moment, so I'm gonna head down to Home Despot and see what I can find for some molding.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrumThumper

Also, I somehow lucked into a four day weekend--this should be done by Monday, if not sooner.

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Pfft. It's Monday, and I'm nowhere near finished. Although I did spend the last twenty minutes doing this:

I got a bit carried away and am going to have to do some reshaping when I'm done:

And the $10 toy that I did this with:

Optical drive cage got pwnd. Next up, fixing the window!

Heh, I don't even have to walk away for long. Normally if I screw something up really bad, I just go buy a mountain dew or iced tea then come back and keep working. Most screw-ups get a sigh then back to work I go.


Can't wait to see it finished.

[QUOTE=danthegeek;86299]:::Pricless words of love:::

If you ever give up I will come to your home and beat you with your own dremel.
/QUOTE]hahahhahah i almost fell off my chair when when i saw your post and start laughing
roflkopter:D

First off, this will be the last damn plastic case I mod.

My poor dremel can't take this kind of abuse lol. I really need to get me a corded one.

Anyways, I busted out the duct tape and outlined the window (again). Got half of it cut before the battery went tits up.

Left side and top cut.

I'll give the battery an hour on the charger, cut what I can till she dies again and repeat as necessary.

EDIT--Only got about a 1/3 of the right side cut after 1 hour on the charger. I'll finish the cutting in the morning, mount the plastic and begin touching up the cage. Then comes the last part (for now)--wiring!

A To do/buy list:

Finish window.DONE
Finish cut on cage.DONE
Install CCFL unit with custom switch.
Buy two of these. DONE
Buy one set of these since yellow seems to be becoming a predominate color.
And lastly:

BUY A NEW CASE.

And repeat as necessary :D

dude do you have a pentium 2 or something??
why is your cpu vertical??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by intergalacticman

dude do you have a pentium 2 or something??
why is your cpu vertical??

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I never have listed the specs of this machine have I?

Intel Pentium 3 @ 550MHz
3 x 128 Megs of PC100 RAM
Maxtor 60 GB HD
SE440BX2 Mobo

Outdated, yes, but it plays music, which is all it's really used for.

I suggest you go study up on the history of the Pentium III Intergalacticman. The answer is quite obvious really.

Looks much better. Now I just gotta find some moulding. Suggestions?

Also, I ordered the two new Vantec IDE cables this morning, since I got my State tax return. I'd much rather have to pay in, but meh, whatever.

Next up will be the cage in a couple hours.

I'm getting fed up with this dremel. Beginning to think the battery might be near the end of it's useful life.

But then I stop to think about all the stuff I've used it on and remember that it's seen some serious work in the last five years.

I got about 5 minutes worth of grinding in on top of 10 minutes finishing up the window before the battery fizzled out on me this time.

That Ryobi setup down @ Home Despot is looking nicer every day...

Your machine's specs aren't that bad. I use about the same in my Dell XPS.

Looking good so far. I really need to do something to that XPS of mine probably will be just a large window. A corded dremel definately sounds like what you need.

I have this gnawing feeling that your Dremel battery is pretty kaput:dead:?!

I agree that a good way forward may be to get a corded one then you have no mucking around when at the crucial moment of completion it wont all goe horribly flat!!

So I answered the moulding question on my way to work yesterday, and went down to the hobby store to get some 90 degree angled plastic. A little cutting with the dremel and the x-acto and this is what it currently looks like:

Got a little more trimming to do to get everything more or less flush, and then I'll get a sheet that has prefabbed squares on it for the corners. After everything looks cool, it'll be painted. I saw a small airbrush at the hobby store for putting metal flake paint on model cars. Wasn't all that expensive either. Hmm...

Also, I'll be getting a new rotary tool next week. $50 bucks down at Home Depot, and it comes with all the trimmings, INCLUDING Ryobi's version of the flex-shaft.

Definatly should start looking into a corded Dremmel. Sure, you loose a little mobility, but you gain greater reliability as well as more power.

Where in walmart did you find the plastic? I know they sell it at Lowes, but it tends to be a little pricey...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dfigravity

Where in walmart did you find the plastic? I know they sell it at Lowes, but it tends to be a little pricey...

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Have a look at this thread in which he tells where he found it:
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ead.php?t=7270

Well now, it's been a couple weeks since I last updated. Not much has happened, due to real life (read: Wedding and School) taking over. I have, however, with a little bit of Ichbin-style finesse (j/k) I have managed to get all the plastic crap off the skeleton.

Not only is this beast getting the window which is 99% done, but she's gonna get a paint job to go with it.

Enough chit chat, because as we all know:

:pics:

It's a linux box, and like any linux box, it's gotta show its true colors:

The Intel sticker will be going the way of the dinosaur. The badge from the previous pic will be going in the corner right above it.

This has got to go. I'm currently thinking about front side USB.

Remember this guy?

He's about to get gutted. I need the LEDs.

Here's the top and bottom of the case. Remnants of a sticker on the topside. This is where the goo gone is going to come into play.

Ahh, the skeleton. Yes, the skeleton. (Plus rep to whoever can tell me what I'm paraphrasing!)

This concerns me. Kinda hard to make out, but it's some kind of spring/hook that the mobo is resting on. This machine doesn't seem to have a tray. Interesting...

EDIT: It dawned on me that I didn't say what the paint job was going to be. I've decided to combine two of my favorite things:

This color scheme:

And this paint style:

At first I was going to do a full fledged Van Halen inspired paintjob, but realized that with the window that I've chosen, it would look gaudy (among other things). I think the Denver Bronco colors are gonna look sweet with the window myself.

I have that SAME exact case. Got the old Micron back in 1996 :). I love those cases. You can take the drive cages completely out, put them back in, and basically do anything you want with them.

Finally. It's mounted. And it don't look all that bad.

First off, I made a trip down to Ace Hardware. Spent $2.20 (by far the cheapest amount I've EVER spent there).

A selection of M4 nuts, bolts and washers.


One final mockup before digging out the Dremel and DeWalt:

Rough mockup of how I felt the layout should go. Note the trim laying under the window. It's going to be on the finished product:

A couple minutes of drilling through plastic and I got the first set of holes knocked out:

A little duct tape to temporarily hold the window in place:

Marked it up with the permanent marker, and drilled the holes. If anyone needs to do something similar, I cannot stress that going SLOW is the key here:

Which leads us to the final mockup:

Next step: Sanding and priming. After some more thought, I've dropped the Denver Bronco color scheme. This case is most decidedly 5150.

Feedback is welcome and appreciated as always.

One quick update:

Primed. Will let it set and toss a few coats of white on them tomorrow and begin the tape job tomorrow night.

Also, I'll be priming the base and front panel tomorrow as well. Base will be getting straight black as the color and the front will be Banner Red Gloss according to the rattlecan.

Then I'll get to tear apart the CD-R drive and do the faceplate. That should be interesting.

Okay I was just looking at the pics and that is a Dell XPS case. Micron and Dell must have used the same case. Can you get me some pics of the whole case with all the covers on. The side panels, top, bottom, and chassis are identicle. The only thing different is the front panel.

I am working on the same exact case except by dell. My Dell

yay! eddie's pain style!, this gotta be good now :D:D, gj so far!

And now for a nod to Defyant. I was browsing his large collection and saw a great way to take care of the crappy 3.5" bay drive slot that's built in. And in true modding fashion, I'm gonna take it a step further.

I took the little bit of mesh that came with the case for my John Deere mod (which I really need to get cracking on) and chopped it down to size:

Here it is seated in the case:

And a view from the front:

And yes, that is blood. Got just a little carried away cutting this stuff. Tis but a scratch!

Also, I drilled out the Plastic LED cover. Gonna put one of the blue LEDs from the Wii gift card in there if it's the right size. If not, then I'll order from LSDiodes.com

Sorry about the thumbnails, Photobucket is down for maintenance.

After some thinking and a little bit of research, I changed the color orders: Black, then white, then red. The original Frankenstripe guitar that Eddie played was white with black stripes for the longest time, then around 1982 or 83 he added the red paint. So I've got a layer of black down at the moment.

Yes, I realize you can see scratches in the case. It's meant to be that way. Just wait till you see the final product.

Also, I had a couple drips happen off the tip of my finger. Not that big of a deal, I'll just make sure not to cover them up with tape and do a little wetsanding action. And I've got to learn to keep my finger flush with the spray nozzle! Or get myself a dedicated spray area so I can hang these pieces up, one of the two.

So tonite, I sand. Tomorrow morning, I paint again. Hopefully there won't be any drips.

I'm off to throw down another layer on the side pieces.

Edit--I've decided to hold off for the time being doing the front panel. Defyant's webpage
is...inspiring...

Edit--Totally off topic--Ed's out of rehab. Back to the 1995 Balance era look too. Hopefully he stays clean this time!

Just thought I'd share that tidbit with you all.

Love the dedication with this mod and can't wait to see the finished product. That paint job sounds like it will look awesome. Good job man can't wait to see how it turns out.

Quickie update, as I'm on my lunchbreak:

It's do or die time.

Please tell me that's a 4.5in PVC Pipe Coupling piece.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Omega

Please tell me that's a 4.5in PVC Pipe Coupling piece.

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Actually, no. It's a 3 inch. I still have that 80mm casefan that is going, no, make that GOING to get installed in this case.

Besides, it seems that everyone is doing the 4.5" thing. Figured I gotta be different somehow ;).

Say 'Goodbye' ugly front panel...

Tomorrow I shall take the jigsaw to it. Maybe the Dremel too for good measure.

And do a light sanding on the panels as well.

Gonna make a spot of breakfast and then...

Bondo time.

The switches and lights are gonna get moved also. I know where I'm putting the HD usage light, just need to get some idea as to where the power switch needs to go.

And I also have to tear the frame down to barebones so I can cut away on it as well.

And clean up the living room. Looks like someone, well let's just not go there:p.