Project - CLOWNED!!

Alright, let's start over. This is Project - Clowned. This will be for my Mom. The specs are unknown. I have parts, but may change them all, I just don't know yet. I want to do a Clown Theme case, since my Mom collects them. I don't want an evil clown like from 'IT'. I'm still a bit unsure on the total color pattern or what the window will look like, but I have started anyway. I'm using this OLD Hewlett Packard that was once equipped with 32MB of SDO RAM! Here's the before pics.

I thought the case would look good with white, red and yellow. There may be some blue added later.

Here's the front panel.

I sanded off the writing.

I painted with a clean plastic primer to start.

Here's the two panels before. The one that will have a window will have to wait until I decide what I'm cutting and have done the work.

Here's the paint I'm using. Has anyone tried using this laytex H2O spray paint?

Here's the first primer coat of white. I'll be doing two coats of primer.

I painted the drive plate too, although I think I may not be needing it.

I painted the front with that laytex paint. This stuff is awesome. It comes out at about double the pressure as normal spray paint, but doesn't bubble up.

Then the right panel.

Then I let them dry.

And here's the front after two coats.

I flipped over the case and touched up the red.

Here's the floppy drive I'm using.

And here's the slot loading CD player with a coat of white primer. I'm ordering a new DVD player too. They'll both be painted red.

I added the project name to the case too.

This morning I set the slot loading drive into place.

Then I painted the top and side edges of the front red.

I put on my last coat of clear on the panel...

And on top.

The edging is finished

And the slot loader looks good.

I decided to use rivets instead of screws on the right panel. Nothing BIG.

Next, I did choose to go with the open clown mouth blow hole idea. Thanks everyone.

I'm NO artist, but I'll do my best. It's the thought that counts.

And the nose will be the Power button.

The face work is next.

I bought a Lite-On DVD drive. I painted it white with the primer.

Then red to match the other.

In she goes!

I'm gonna make a slight change in direction. My daughter wants to help me on this mod. She wants to help on Grandma's present. I let her pick the clown face to draw. Here's the first one that got pitched.

And then the one we went with. I let her do the coloring (in marker) then I applied a clear coat over that.

For the blow hole, I'm trying to see if the fan will fit between the case and the front bezel. Otherwise I'll have to mount it inside and then fill the gap with something....

Lastly, the front spring will need to be replaced. It lacks any "spring". When you push the button it stays down.

Here’s the front fan mounted and powered. I connected it to a test system to get it running.

The motherboard arrived yesterday. It's a FIC K7MNF-64 with nVidia N-Force 2. I'm not sure if I'm actually gonna be buying her a video card so for now there will be onboard video. The processor is the Athlon XP 2800+ which will come later.

Here's more of the components. Most of which I have yet to receive.

Athlon XP 2800+

PC2100 (2 x 256MB)

600 Watt PSU

Clown shoes (2 sets of 2 = 4 shoes/case feet)

Top hat

I added another clear coat to the top. I may do more coats.

Here's the window design I'm going with. It's a balloon dog. I'll cut it tonight.

I drew out the window image

And began cutting

Still too rough

More taken off. More will come off too.

Modding is dirty, boys and girls.

Oh, and I stripped the DVD drive. I'm gonna start that over again.

I've started painting the dog panel.

Alright, the Maxtor 80GB DiamondMax 16 arrived today. I also got the top hat. It's a lot BIGGER than I had expected, so I will NOT be using it.

And I finished the side panel. I still need to add the plexi/glass/mirror/mesh. I waiting till someone helps me decide what to go with.

I decided I wanted red thumb screws, so I'm painting them.

Since I'm not using the top hat, I'm thinking of going with a case handle. What do you think?

So I should mount a breadboard within the case?

No, the breadboard is jsut a testing circuit. How are you at soldering? If you can handle making a basic circuit on a standard Radio Shack blank board, you can get everything you need, from resistors to the IC, from online shops for cheap and make it yourself. The diagram there is a good example on how to do it, and we'll all be glad to give you a hand with it, if this is something you're interested in making.

If you wanted to use a breadboard, then by all means, but a better and more permanent solution would be to simply get a blank IC board, like this one:

...and just configure the circuit to fit that board. It's not tough, I basically walked through the process with a friend of mine and we taught ourselves using online tutorials and help from other members when I was working on my sound-reactive circuit for my arcade project.

I would drill small holes in the edges of the plexi to insert the LEDs into, the way that Defyant did on his HP-Rez 3 (I think that was the one) with the blue and red LEDs. It's really not tough work, just requires some patience, willingness to learn and fiddle with things, and a steady hand.

The 600 Watt PSU came today. Wait till you see how I braid the wiring.

I bought some silly looking plastic sheets for braiding the PSU wiring.

Then I cut myself when cutting the plastic.

The ATX connector cable is done.

And the rest...of which I used a lighter to melt it to the cables.

I also finished the handle. I went with the longer chrome one, I didn't feel like messing up those black handles with paint.

I put the PSU in.

And put the Heatsink on the motherboard.

And I had to dremel the IO area because the hole for the plate was just a tad bit too small.

I finally got the case clown shoes a couple of days ago. They are designed to be used with dolls. The pic gives you an idea of how big they are.

First I filled them up with expanding foam and let them dry overnight.

Then I painted them with a clear plastic primer and then with yellow.

Next I taped off the shoes because I want to paint the toes RED.

I'm still waiting for them to dry.

The shoes are done.

I worked on the legs and feet. Here a thick threaded beam I used for the legs.

All four cut.

I widened the holes on the bottom so they'd fit.

The painted the legs yellow.

I attached them to the shoes and screwed them in.

I used EL Wire for the window. I don't want to have too much lighting in this case.

I got some spacers, nuts and washers for the legs. I will use hot glue to apply the plastic coloring to the spacers.

Here's after some glue. I applied the glue to the spacers, gave them a couple seconds to cool then stuck on the plastic. This method prevented the plastic from melting when the glue was applied.

I then slid them on the threaded legs.

Lastly for the night I sprayed the nuts and washers red to match the case and to avoid them from sticking out so bad.

I'll put it all together tomorrow.

I attached the shoes this morning. It came out better than I had hoped.

Thank you.

I decided to put all the components in the case. Partially because I have so much stuff in my work area and I'm running out of clean space and becauseI've been doing so much more on other projects and this one needs to be finished. I tried putting the motherboard in, but unfortunately it wouldn't fit; the bolt on one of the legs was too long and in the way.

So I trimmed it.

Then screwed it back into the bottom.

Before I put the motherboard in I had to take out the HD, because otherwise it wouldn't fit. But after I got the motherboard in, the HD wouldn't fit because the heatsink was in the way.

Now that I got that in, here's a question. Do you think this is a bad setup? I really don't have the room too do anything about it, but does it seem like the PSU and the heatsink are going to fight for air?

Next comes the cables and lights

The 12V was easy to reroute.

All other cables are in.

Now to the lights.The first I put along the bottom.

But the second won't fit where I want it to go, so I won't be using it.

Everything is in.

If my mom doesn't want all that light she'll be able to turn it off in the back. Also there's 6 USB ports and Onboard Video.

I shave off the end of the light.

And it fits.

I also started painting the converter box.

I painted the wiring on the bottom to camoflage it.

Then I dropped in the plexi glass.

AND YOU HAVE BEEN CLOWNED.

Time for the lights!

Here's in the dark with the EL Wire only.

And then with the two cathodes.

Here's the 15 inch Gateway CRT I'm giving my mom too. But I will not give her a plain old monitor. I will match it to the CLOWNED case.

I've decided to put in a window too. I may etch it. I'm looking into possible images.

I got around to doing a little with the monitor. I cleaned up the window hole and it's been prepped for painting. I'll go out tomorrow and get the red and yellow plastic paint.

And my mom's keyboard and mouse combo arrived.

I'm painting the monitor. I haven't yet decided what yellow/red scheme I'm aiming towards

Here's the speakers I got. I'm gonna paint the silver back part yellow.

I decided to leave the back part of the monitor just plain yellow and to paint the area surrounding the screen red. So first I covered everything critical up.

Then I sanded off the Gateway logo and model number.

Next I taped off the screen.

And here's the first coat.

I applied hot glue to hold the window in the place.

And then used space HD's to keep it down while it dried.

The monitor dried real nicely...

Next I painted the base.

Then put it all together

Still works too.

Lastly, the speakers,

I'll let the pics do the talking. :D

You're right, I never thought about McDonald's. Although he is a clown.

Well here's some of it all set up. I have to load the OS still. I'll soon have better pics of this set up soon.

I finally got around to fixing that scratch on the top of my mom's CLOWNED case. I bought this stuff called Magnum Steel at the local Auto supply store.

I then used a razor blade to fill in the scratch. After 24 hours I sanded it flat.

Then matched the paint and added primer (not pictured)

Then painted 2 coats.

....and let it dry. I'll still add another coat of red before I apply 3 coats of clear.

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