Project Black Betty,
I started this worklog a long time ago, at a dutch forum. Since then I started to copy it to other forums I saw around. Enjoy :) .
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Project Black Betty,
I started this worklog a long time ago, at a dutch forum. Since then I started to copy it to other forums I saw around. Enjoy :) .
So, it started out with a big Chieftec Full tower. I had to get that middleplate out. So, I used the Dremel.
That was one of my first Dremel tryouts. The other one was the PSU.
I wanted to use showerhoses for the powerlines. There are three of them, wich goes to a junction-box. The ATX-cable is just sleaved, wich goes directly to the motherboard. No big deal.
I also made a side panel for the 5,25" part of the case.
Satin black and a lot of polished metal, that would be cool. So, painted some parts.
So, here is the PSU assembled :) .
Backside also done:
And throwed it into the case.
Next part was the VGA-stealth. Currently an on-hold part of the project, I'll finish it later.
Yes, there is a 9800XT card in there. Cool huh?
After that, I decided to build a new PSU backplate, some holders for the PSU (wich are just foor the looks, not functional) and side shields for the PSU. All made out of alluminium (3mm). All taped off:
Made some details on it:
It all had to be polsihed up. Looks like crome, doesn't it?
After all that, I started with the sideshields for the harddisk racks.
Holders for all of these shields:
Sanded down and mounted (has to be polished up to).
So, enjoyed that part? Look what I am currently busy with. A 5" monochrome CRT screen, isn't that sweet :) ?
I am disassembling it now, does anyone has a trick to unmount the high-voltage from the tube?
Oh, yeah I am going to mount it in the front of the case, you'll see that later. And yes, it is working, however, the VGA-card does not detect it. So, I first have to plug in another screen to get a signal on the screen. I'll fix that later.
Well, I guess almost ten percent of the work on this case is done. Maybe even less. Replies are always welcome. Don't blame my bad English, if there are a lot of faults in it, just say it to me and I will fix it.
These are not all pictures of the work. If there are request for pictures, just say it to me and I'll post them. Don't be afraid to visit one of my dutch worklogs, I can always translate some things.
Time to start updating and translating them for you guys. Oh, and please don't be afraid to post a reply.
Started working on the CRT screen mod. Enjoy!
The original frame was crap! I had to disassemble it. This picture is made on a moment.. I was really scared. I could'nt get that suction-cup thing of, i was to scared, because of the high voltages. No toy for me I guess.
I was feeling like a.. Oh wel, I pulled that thing off :) . Fireworks, sparks, did my hair turned upwards? Nothing :) .
On the left you see the frame, wich you probably will not see back. In the middle, the PCB, on the right, the CRT.
Did I say nothing from the frame? Sorry, these holders from the CRT were just to hard to copy. Drilled them out and re-used them. Sorry.
Found a nice piece of scrap to make a plate to mount the tube onto. It's aluminium, 3mm thick.
Put it underneath it, draw it, saw, file it and..
Tapped some holes, mounted it all.
Just a beautifull picture:
Decided that this was the right place voor the cathode ray tube.
Got the dirty black layer of the metal. It was bad weather and the garage was full, so I couldn't use a sanding-machine to finish it.
CRT assembled, resting on an old piece. What a beauty! I love these old pieces of technic.
Quick fit! Fits perfect. How I am going to mount this thing? I was thinking about make a plate in front of it. Where the front of the CRT will pass thrue. The only problem was, how to mount that second plate? I'm working on that.
I am going to buy new optical drives (cd-drive is broken, and the dvd isn't fast enough), I already ripped of the fronts of these ones.
I am going to stealth all of it. There's going to be one big shiny sheet of aluminium where normaly the 5,25" drives fronts should be. A plate with some details, place for the CRT screen, small fronts for the sleds and buttons for the optical drives. And everything without screws on places you can see them. I want tou mount it behind the front panel. Sweet?! The 3,5" covers are going to be bondoed. Maybe I will place my USB ports there. Behind it I will have a space to put my inverters and electronics like that.
I am just thinking about a fancontroller or ledcontroller. Before I forget, the PCB from the CRT. I thought there would be more space uppon the optical drives. (It won't fit underneath them.) I think I am going to mount it underneath the upperside of the case.
Woah!!! nasty!!! like the PSU :up:
+rep and welcome aboard
glad to see this project come here! ive been watchin this over on bit tech
i really like this case!
I was going to make a sheet to mount the crt at the front of the case. That plate had to be mounted in front of the other plate. So the front of the crt should pass trough it. It had to fit exactly! That wasn't easy.
So here it is. Holes aren't tapped yet, and the big hole for the crt is not big enough.
After fixing these problems:
Oh yeah, I couldn't find four same size screws. Two should be perfect for a while.
Hm, doesnt seems to be much work done, however it costed me a lot of time. Wel, before is start going on, I have to clean my "workshop". To be honest, I need some help by mounting the crt frontplate onto the chassis of the case. This chassis is kind of weird. It has a lote of holes and pop rivets in it. Not so much space for screws to mount that plate. I think I am going to make some kind of a rail, where I can assemble the front plate onto. But how to mount that rail?
Anyway, I made some designs for the shields that are going to cover the back of the CRT :) . You may find out next time.
Hey. It has been a while. To bad I didn't get a lot of reactions. Is it because my project is boring? Or because of my bad English? Please tell me. Writing my updates in English is a lot of work. When nobody reacts I get the feeling that it is useless to post in English. Oh, well. Just let's Update this worklog.
Casemodding has a lot of different sides. One of them is the workshop you are working in. For example, my working table broke down. I can't work on a table with only three legs. So, this is how I fixed it :) :
I putted the table upside down on the floor. Here's the leg:
An other leg, how it SHOULD be ;) .
A part of the bolt is still in there. I'm going to drill all true the leg and I will put a bigger bolt just right true it. I guess that WILL fix it :) .
Done! Turned in a few small screws from the side for some extra stability.
Table back in place.
Meanwhile... I made a design for the shields behind the CRT. I came upwith something like this.
I had lot's of stuff to do. At the back of the front panel there are some notches. I filed down some holes at the plate of the CRT to make the front panel fit.
Mounting the plate was my next point. This is what I came up with:
Two small pieces of a angled profile. They are mounted by a big hole at the side, with a bolt an a nipple. Because the hole is to big, I can adjust the placing. I couldn't get a nice picture of it :(.
I finally had four same sized screws. I just wanted screws with flatted heads. I found some, so I flatted out the holes.
OMG! These screws didn't head the right bolt-tread. So stupid. And I couldn't find the right tap, to tap it down. So I putted the old screws back in.
Oh yeah, I needed that DVD-burner ;) .
I do already have a design for the full front panel. You'll find out later.
Time for more small things at the case. I improved the holder for the junction box. I tapped all holes, and putted some bolts at the side, so that the holder can't move back or fore ward.
Now, the hardest part! I need to find the right place for the PCB of the CRT. Underneath the top of the case.
How about this?
Above it.
So, I am still not sure about it. You could say what you think is the best, if you would like.
Finally, holidays! However, I've been so damn busy, so much to do, so little time :( . Oh well, first thing: the screen. I wanted to switch te mounting plates of the CRT. So, the little one before the big one.
That wasn't what I wanted. The front of the screen is to much forward.
The only solution was, to file down the big plate so that the front of the tube could pass more trough it. It fits perfect now!
Great moment, here's the sketch of the frontpanel! TAADAA!
This is what I had in my mind. I'm not 100% sure about the position of the buttons/small holes. It should be something like this.
I cutted a frontpanel out of cardboard. I'm going to make one out of alluminium ;) .
Well, that's for later! First I have to buy a new DVD player, DVD burner and some plexi. Then we'll see :) .
Time for something.. I HAD to make! Well, REMAKE! So, what is it?
Cutted and drilled... What's laying next to it? Holder for the PSU.
I made a second one.. And I deanodised the back shield of the PSU. So what are these things? AHA! New holders for the PSU shields!
Ofcourse I need to bend them. So scratched some lines in the alluminium for that. Now I can see where I have to bend.
Ofcourse, My vise was to small for this. So this is what I came up with.
A piece of strong wood, the plate on it and a straight piece of strong steel clambed on it. So it can't move.
A hamer, a piece of wood and a lot of noise. With a beautiful holder as result!
Screwed the plate on it. I think I am going to use these screwes evereywhere in this project :) .
Second one!
In CASE!
From side:
Putted the PSU holders in there with some tape. This is the result I wanted to get! So much cooler then just two holders!
Progress shot, just for fun I guess :) .
So, these holders need to be polished up (shields to ;) ) . To be honest, I want to rebuild these holders. It sounds stupid, but because I was busy with where to bend, the holes aren't drilled excactly. And they became less beautifull as I wanted them to be. However, the bending went perfect :) !
It's just the fact that, I joined The Benelux Casemod League. It is pushing on me. I have to get the case finished in less then two months! I need to finish the case then!. And even when it is finished then.. I don't think I can call it finshed then! There's so much to build on this case. There are even other project I wan't to start with. After the TBCL I simply will go on modding with this case. TBCL seemed like a great target for me. Something to look forward to, something to work on! But when it's pushing me getting my case ugly or destroing my fun I'm having with this project, I simply have to cut with TBCL. I'll have to find something else then!
So, that was frustration for now! Haha. Now I'll go on making fun! Then we'll see if we can get the deadline of TBCL :) . I love having something to work forward to, but not if I can't have fun with that.
Finally an update, I am really sorry! I've been so damn busy. I can't mod daily. I hope to have some more time soon. I have enough spirit to mod now, the article at the front page was great! Let's stop talking and go to tge update itself :) .
Let's start with an intresting piece, selling new stuff! This time just a boring DVD player and a DVD burner, ghehe. They will be modded as soon as possible ;) .
They look great, they are smaller than the last ones!
Like I said, I was going to polish up the shields. Finishing this job is a dirty and timetaking job. I haven't done that part jet :( . However, I did the first part, the sanding part. It might be boring, but people who would like to polish parts up to could learn from this.
So, I started to make the shields as flat as possible, getting al big ugly things off. After grid 80, 120 and 280 wet:
After grid 400 wetsanding:
After grid 600 wetsanding:
I couldn't find grid 800 at any shop. So this is after grid 1000 wetsanding:
Close-up:
Grid 1200, almost done!:
Details, details ;) :
Some intresting things when you're planning to go wetsanding parts: When you're starting sanding with a higher grid, do that with an angle of 90 degrees from the last grid. So, another direction. You might see it on the pictures above. When doing this, You'll see what you've sanded and what not. And is simply does more :) .
I guess that was the polishing job, maybe more next time!
Time for a new part! Shields around the CRT! These are becoming small shields around the electron-cannon. It's difficult to explain how it's going to be, all the bending work still has to be done!
A picture says more then a thousand words. You'll find out ;) .
I took a 2mm piece of aluminium this time. 3mm would have been nice, but it's hard to bend and to big. So, less beautifull. Marked the edges:
First drawing for the holes. The crosses will be mounting holes (m4). The small rounds are just for the looks :) .
Holes drilled, I putted the small holes a bit closer to the big ones, seems nicer to me.
After some jigsawing and filing work:
Just a bad shot :) :
Maybe I am going to redo this whole thing, the holes are just not beautifull enough.
What you probably wanted to hear is how I am going to mount this thing!
It wil be mounted around the backside of the CRT. With the fore point putting backwards. I'll only bend this thing at the four points, the pieces between will stay straight! That's difficult, so I'll do that later. At the inside there will be an inner ring, which holds this piece together. That ring will be mounted around the CRT. Maybe there will be a great shield underneath it. And some UV-plexi. You'll find out!
So, that's it for now! After a long time of giving no updates reactions are again more then welcome!
Like I said, I hope to have some more time, soon! To give some updates :) .
Another Update, It's a small Update but it's.. okay, I think :).
That piece of scrap I mad last time.. Well, I bended it and that failed.. besides that, it was far to big. I failed.
So, it was time to make the perfect cardboard version. At least a piece of it. A new version of the last shield will return in it, only smaller. This carboard version is made out of three parts.
The round holes will be drilled ofcourse, but it is difficult to do that in cardboard. There got to be lines in the biggest shield, before I'll made them, I have to made the shield around the wiring. That one has to get the same lines.
I said: This cardboard version is made out of three parts. The smallest one is difficult to see, It is the two points at the bottom. These ones are only half as wide as the other four.
Maybe I am going to use some UV-plastics or showerhose(holders).
So far... Give your opinion! But most usefull are story's about how to bend. I'm not an expert at this level. I have a round piece of metal that has the right shape for the bendings. But it's difficult to use in the vise, because the vise is always there... Think about it, it's difficult to explain, but you'll know what I mean.
Any questions? :)
UPDATE! Huh?! Yeah, it has been awhile. I've been so damn busy. Sorry! My life was all school, school, sport and some other hobby's... I simply had no time for modding. How frustrating. I had no time and no inspiration. I've got some insiration again... and time.. We'll see. I'll explain later.
We're have we been? Ow yeah, the shielding for the CRT. I made some progress on it since my last update - I trashed it :) . Lol. Sort of. I figured out some small things with it. After that I still couldn't decide what the right design would be.
There are many other things to do at this project. So I decided to leave the shielding of the CRT for a while. Anyway, here is what I did so far.
This is some metal misabuse. It's that thingie I already made before. It's far from perfect now.
Like I said, there were so many things to do. One of them was polishing. Nothing but polishing aluminium. Like I said, I had no inspiration. And polishing just had to be done. So, why not? Bad choice, polishing so much stuff is boring and takes to much time! Never mind. Here are the shieldings of the hdd halfway:
The shields are still dirty because of the polishing compound. My workspace didn't became cleaner. Lol.
Al compound is removed. I polished it up a bit more, so we are halfway! Shiny! :)
Just because everybody does. Having a cool object reflected in it.
The holders are polished to.
That was it for the dark paste. It became time for some lighter compound with a softer buffingwheel.
CHROME CHROME CHROME. Yes, only if I had the money and if I knew where to find a good chromer. But hey, I can live with this. What do you guys think?
Meanwhile, the workshop still doesn't turn out cleaner. Now you can see how I support the material. And I am using some tissue that is used in the kitchen. This stuff (like toiletpaper) doesn't scratch the surface at all! At least, less then let's say cotton.
Just a totalshot. One of the shields has a less shiny place. IRL you can watch yourself in it, it's just less shiny :(. I don't have a compund to buff afterwards. To make the shine complete. The shields are still a bit dirty anyway.
Some nice pictues, after all these ours of work I just HAD to post them.
Finally time to assemble it all. I've been looking forward to this. Enjoy!
With a HDD.
Finally. Our next victim :) . The PSU? Yes, it has to be done like the shields of the hdd. I'm probably going to make new holders. Maybe next update.
I hope the next update will be soon! Any questions? Again, all reactions are welcome!
UPDATE! It has been a month since last update :(. I've veen sick again, and I was to busy. Besides all that, my hdd crashed so I had no system and almost all pictures at high res. are gone. But you got to move on... This update is small, but I had a lot of work on this update. To explain what I did we need to go back in time. Does anyone remember this one?
Yes, I was really unsatisfied about this thing. Like I said in the last update, I want to get every detail at this project perfect. And the PSU is our victim this time. So what was a better place to start then.. this plate?
Two things had to change: the edges on the inside, and the scratches. Something like this:
After some filing and (wet)sanding:
Way better! :)
Finally it was time for some polishing then. The result: a big mess, do you see any workspace?
Better:
Today was a modproductive day! I just finished polishing. At that moment I found uit that the batteries of my digital camera where low. So I took the next picture with my cellphone. Well, I can live with this.
Well, no high qual. picture from before mounting this plate. I couldn't resist mounting the plate ;) . The batteries where loaded, so watch this:
Yes, this looks how I ment it to be. What do you guys think?
Next thing on the list of things that need to be done: Make new holders, these ones are screwed up (by me) and I wont post any pictures of that.
I already started wetsanding the shields:
I have made some designs for some shielding. The begin and end of this project where a bit lost I think. But that seems to be over now!
I would like to make some mockups, test them out and post them. Hopefully this weekend or next week. All kinds of reactions are welcome again ;).
Update! Yes, it isn't always taking months. This time it's time for some mockups! Like I said last time. Besides that, I collected some sketches, I found out that there were a lot. So, I came up with the idea to scan them onto the computer so I can put them online. So other people could use them. I need more webspace to do that. Let me know what you guys think. I guess I've talked enough now. Time for serieus sh*zZ@: UPDATE :) .
Shields for the front of the PSU! That's the keyword this time. They will give the PSU more body an they will finish the other shields. I might going to make more of these shields and use them for the back of the PSU and the back of the CD-roms. Here's a drawing:
New holders! Sketch:
Enough drawings, time for a cardboard mockup. After this, the fun is going to begin. It's all going to be made out of polished aluminium with some UV-green plexi behind it. We used some cardboard, a knife, a pencil and some other stuff do build this:
That's starting to look like... something :) . It contains two pieces, that are both going to be made out of aluminium.
In my opinion, it's a bit... stupid. So I saw a green marker laying around. And so I thought, Why not? These details are going to be cut out ;).
It's seems to be one part..
I drilled the holes with a 3mm drillbit in the DREMEL. After some screwing you'll get tapped M4 holes in the cardboard :) . That's how the back piece is mounted to the front shields.
The mockup is mounted with some tape, maybe it's time for some holders at the side?
But that isn't the only problem! How about this?
The side first! After some designin, cutting and gluwing (the edges) this is what I came up with:
There's enough space for led holders ore cable holders!
With shield on it:
The problem of the ATX-cable wa solved easily. I should have rounded the corners of this hole, but that came up in my mind at the moment I already cutted it. Thank god it's only a mockup. As you can see, the mounting of the shieldings with the side-holder isn't correct either. Measured something wrong.
The shielding are going to get the same rounding as the side-shields have. The roundings went a bit lost while I was busy with the cardboad. But that's all going to be allright. Aluminium keeps better in shape then cardboard ;) .
It think this is the final design for these backshields. As soon as I have time I'm going to build them. What do you guyz think of it? The cardboard mockup is a bit crappy. I can't wait to build this out of aluminium! But I don't what to do anything to hurry, I simply don't want to make any mistakes. Reacties are welcome again ;) .
Update! I started working on the holders for the PSU shields. I don't know what to think about them. All details worked out as I wanted them, but you are not going to see a lot of it (actually nothing) when the shields are on. Ah, I had a good time building it :) . I'll post everything here so you can learn from it. Just watch it and let me know what YOU think about the final result.
So, we needed a piece of aluminium to cut the holders from. This stuff is perfect, thin and soft. Easy to hande. So I took the mockup and a pencil to make sure everything would fit.
We don't need black aluminium. This thing needed the orbital sander.
Taped in.
Drawn out.
Rough cut with the jigsaw.
To make sure what worked out good or bad, I did the front holder first. After some filing and sanding:
I used a knife to remove the tape from the areas with material that needed to be removed. I don't have a scrollsaw :( . A good handsaw neither. So, It's all removed with some good old filing. By hand.
The small pieces in the middel are removed by drilling and filing away all the material that left. Cool? Again, no scrollsaw is used.
The rest needed to be done to.
Need some holes...
I did not drilled all the holes here. I wanted to this in the end. To make sure everything would fit. You'll find out later what I mean. Holes aren't threathed, to make sure there won't came any dirt in the holes.
Time to remove some tape and finish some stuff.
This one is missing four mounting holes. The edges needed some cleanup.
After some sanding and polishing this is how it looks, halfway polishing:
Like I said, I do not have a scrollsaw. Everything is done by filing by hand. Took this picture while cleaning up, LOL:
It was such a nice wheather. So, I decided to go to the backyard and do some orbital sanding there. Even the higher grids went fine with the machine. I did also sanded down the side shields, they need to be perfect to.
That's halfway polishing. I made a very stupid mistake. That has cost me a lot of time to remove. To mark the area's that needed to be cut I used a knife. At one holder I drawed long lines, all over the shields. Almost unremovable scratches were made at the good areas. Argh. But after a lot of orbital sanding, they are gone :).
Anyway, after some polishing:
LOL, next.
I think the polishing looks, kind of blurry. Don't know what went wrong. I'll polish it up by hand later.
For safety, I taped of the shields. This one does have my copyright. GHEHE.
Drilling holes, taping them. And three of the six holes are.. a bit.. completely f*cked up. They are of! BAH. You'll see I am not going to like this part. You'll find out that it is not wide enough. Anyway, it fits. I'll make a new one if it looks worse with the shields on. Take a look yourself:
It all fits:
Everything needs to be bend. Here's the first. Nice or what?
We use some, tape to tape it of, a piece of steel, a wooden block, a hamer and some clambs. Like this one, only the edge isn't taped of:
Done?
This is one holder. I cutted the bending marge away.
There you go:
I couldn't find a second piece of steel. So I took a big piece of aluminium. It worked out anyway. Only the edges don't look really good.
Know what funny is? I made these thing to big. I included a bending marge and the width of the side of the case and the backplate of the PSU. So it should be one bending marge to long. Right? And it does! Nothing more, nothing less. So if I took of that piece, it will fit. You know what gets most ugly when polishing? The edges :), so let's take it of.
Used a knife to remove tape from the areas that are going to be removed.
This line is perfectly straight. So the edge doesn't. It's only getting better.
Sanding and filing. Now you can see how much is going of.
The other one to:
Drilling holes and it fits!
Perfectly! :)
Some other holes to. (all holes are tapped)
Tadaa!
To bad you aren't going to see a lot of it. These holders are providing enough space to build some LED covers in. A piece of plexi, drilling some holes and I can mount a LED wherever I want :) .
I think I'll need some spacers between the front holder and the other two. And how about some spacers between the shields and the holders?
So, what's next?
Polishing up the shields, holders at the underside of the PSU, shield for the front of the PSU, shield with holders at the back of the PSU, shields fot the HDD trays and many, many, many more.
And I'm going to put UV-green plexi behind all shields. I was thinking about 5mm or 3mm A.C.ryan UV-panel. What do you guys think, 5mm or 3mm?
All reactions are welcome again! Everybody that is going to make his/her final exams.. Good luck! I'm out of time, because I need to spend a lot of time learning. Tomorow is the first exam, dutch. So, I don't know who else is going to pass his/her final exams this year but, good luck!
Small UPDATE!
This case had lots of imperfections. Those are irritating me. I started to remove those things. What material does Chieftec make these things of, it's hard stuff and difficult to remove. Next project will never be a Chieftec or so.
Imperfection number one where the edges at the holders of the hdd trays. Because of that the holders of the shields didn't fit perfect. Crap.
Case stripped down, time for some Dremeling, Filing and other heavy duty stuff!
Upper one done.
Lower one to, sanded down.
That was cool. Time for number two. The holes for the intake fans. Crap made by Chieftec, just some Dremeling by me. Time to fix them. Here you can see they are not strait and sharp.
Close but not there:
Better.
That's how it should be.
Time for something different. Interesting stuff. A holder fot the shields at the backside of the PSU.
This holder is the same size as the holder at the front of the PSU. Only differinces are that this one will hold two shields instead of three and this one contains a beam in the middle (kind of an H-shape). How easy is that, right?
Holders for the holders are simple to, those wil hold the side-shield either.
For the people who have NO idea what I am talking about:
Here's what the shape is for. Say goodbye ugly vol-selector :) .
Making holes into cardboard is difficult, that's why everything became kind of crappy.
I guess this is how it should be. I'll have to make it out ot alu, same old story (see last update). I wanted to take more pictures but the batteries of the camera didn't like that. The lefside of the holder is not exactly what I wanted, I think I might going to change that. Aluminium version will follow soon.
All kind of reactions are welcome again.
Hoi piepeloi!
Update!
This is goign to start real good. But at the end of the update you'll see it's far from that. So it will probably be redone. Bet there is good news! Let me introduce to you, the latest member of the casemod community. Ollie. He has been a great help!
Allright, today we are going to make a little holder that is going to fit underneath the PSU. I had thick and thin aluminium. I took some thin stuff, it's just a bit thinner than the other holders. It's easy to handle :) .
Used an orbital sander to sand it down:
Drawn out...
Holes drilled
Ollie, what's the right tool?
Not bad, for a first time. And for an elephant. Would he have talent?
I did not need help while filing and sanding.
Halfway polishing...
Holes tapped and drilled up.
As good as polished up.. It's kind of blurry. Don't know why that is. I tought the fibers of the polishing wheel started to stick together. But after toturing the wheel with a steel brush the result didn't turned out better, maybe worse. Crap.
Taped down. Made some small grooves and filed some edges under an angle. Why that is? And for the people who couldn't figure out what this was going to be... Time for some bending work.
Tape removed. Looks cool, right? Wait until you see this...
It's far of! This happened while bending, at the last moment. The left side is.. screwed up. Damn.
I am not satisfied with that. There are two things I could do. Bend, sand and polish up this holder. Or.... Make myself a new one which is perfect. I could make a smaller one next time, so I could put a piece of UV-green acrylic at the back, while it is still in one line with the outer two :) .
I think I am going to do that. Maybe tomorrow, or I could start cutting acrylic for the shields. What do you guys think, 3mm or 5mm acrylic?
All kinds of reactions are welcome again :) !
Update!
Not every part came out as I hoped it would.. So I'll tweak it a bit.. And I will be making the front holder again.. and tweak it. What's done so far:
Acrylic! I've bought three sheets. ACRyan stuff. 3mm clear, 3mm UV green, 5mm Uv green.
I will be using this stuff a lot, the edges are lightning up at daylight. Notice the difference between 3mm and 5mm.
To checkout the plexi with some UV light I decided to buy a.. gadget. I wanted something with LED's. A flashlight with 5 LED's or so. But I wasn't able to get one in Holland here.. (And they are 50 dollar or so outside the country.) So I bought this thingie at a poststampcollectorsshop.
Did I show you the bending work? Probably not.
To bad I didn't take pictures of the bending itself. I couldn't figure out a good way. What I did was, bending it around a pipe. Clambed the shield onto it and smashed it around the pipe with a block of wood and a hammer.
Back to the acrylic. A strip of 3mm thick UV green, taped down. I't's wider than the shields.. Hmmmmmmm......
Cut down...
Here's the tricky part. Tape down the front of the shield. Put it down, heat up the acrylic and clamb it down with a piece of wood. Push it down, let it cool down.., That's the way I did, worked perfect. The heating is done with a .. paint burning thingie.. err. I have no idea how people call these things, lol.
Drilled the holes, tapped them and bolted them. One by one. After that it was just a matter of filing and sanding the plastic to size. One is already done.
Just a cool picture.
I putted this thing I my vise as it says.. CRACK! Right.. on top, there's the crack. Not a big problem, just made a new one.
All done.
Errrr....?
See what I want? I thought it might be beautifull to let everything came forward.
What a mess.. And everythings smells like.. Burned plastic.
Yay!
The edges are not polished or whatever. Just sanded down. I don't know what to do with them. Just sand everything down, or polish them up. What do you guys think? I think I'll try to polish them up and checkout how it looks.
This front holder is driving me nuts! The holes aren't lined up, so the shields aren't either. The shields theirselfs are perfect! The holder in the holder are not :( . I should have remake this thing already. This is why the shields aren't lined up perfectly.. More next time :) !
Update!
First, special thanks to Jeroen Zelle . He is providing me webspace for the pictures :) .
The backside of the PSU.
The holder, taped of and cutted away what needs to be filed away.
LOL.
Done, the upper one is the cardboard mockup..
The holders for the side, drawn out on a piece of aluminium..
Tadaa!
How to make sure they get identical?
To make the grooves to bend, I used a hammer and.. that thingie you see on the pic. Worked fine :) . You can see that the alu already starts to bend at the groove :) .
Bending..
Cool !
Meanwhile.. I turned 18 yesterday. I had so much fun at my birthday :) . I didn't get a scrollsaw... But I'll have my first driving lesson wednesday. Friends of my decided to gave me a car. Ollie was the person to test it... This pic was taken last night, around one o clock. After all my friends figured out what sounds this car made, lol. I just had to show you guys this picture. So much fun!
Cool. Holders.
Fits :) .
As you can see, I've made some cardboard mockups for the side shields.
What I think looks cool:
That was cool. The shields still dó not fit perfect. I think that the holder on the inside would look better with some UV green behind it, to. Just like the holder at the back. What do you guys think?
Working at the PSU starts to irritate me. I want to finish it ASAP, I think I'll do the polishing later on. I'd like to start working on the CRT, the frontpanel and the harddisks. I'd love to build in the hardware ASAP. I already designed a lot of stuff. More, probably this week. All kinds of reactions are welcome again :) !
Update!
To start with the.. UV-green acrylic behind the front holder. Make sense?
Piece cut to size. Holes tapped and drilled. Then cut away what needs to go. That's one of the ways you could do...
Tadaa!
Cool, until I was drilling the holes.
Would have been cool, so let's make a new one.
Drilling the holes before doing any filing didn't turned out good either.
S*&^@*&(*Q#!
Something completely different..
Not completely useless... Because,
Side shields for the back. Made them out of alu either. Same story as seen before I guess? I forgot to take pics of... Backside of the PSU is almost done, just needs to be sanded an polished...
Still frustrated from the broken acrylic I decided to start with something completely different :) .
Scrap.. (alu ;) )
Sanded down.
Errrrrrrrr.... The upperside of the case.. right?
Ahaah!
I needed something for that.. Something. Smart. And I didn't know where to mount it .. more in the front, or in the back. So:
Figure saw and some filing work was needed..
Tadaa!
Front:
Back:
Middle:
The PCB for the CRT wil be covered by a housing/shielding. That will provent the rest of the case from radiation and high voltages. But most of all it's just for fun, looks and to hold cables. Same style as the PSY ofcourse ;) . I will mount some acrylic between the alu and the PCB. Yeah, more next time ;) .
All reactions arre welcome again ;) .
Stop! Hammer time!
All updates are copied :) . Enjoy the rest of my worklog.
Welcome to TBCS! Been following your work over at BT for a while. GREAT Stuff. Looking forward to your next update.
@ slytherock, b4i7 and OvRiDe: Thanks guys :) .
That's some nice work there!
I look forward to the rest of this build. +rep
I have to admit, this is top notch work. Good worklog style too!
-Dave
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyummmmmm!!!!! Awesome work man! Welcome to TBCS. +rep.
Great work! welcome to TBCS and +rep
Thats some nice work you did so far ! Keep it up :)
Amazing work bro, keep the work logs coming!!
Thanks guys :) . I appreciate those reactions :) . Here's a fresh update for you. Let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Update! Kind of....
So... I made some kind of a suspention for the PCB for the CRT screen. That thing needed to be shielded. So I started out with a mockup for it.
Does A.C.Ryan sells material for mockups? Ehmmm... Well, the carboard that comes with you mesh and acrylic panels is ideal for making mockups. It's kind of thin, but it works fine :) .
One side..
Two..
Upperside ;) .
Kind of how it should be. The holders needs to get tweaked a bit.. I've been thinking about making one shield on top, instead of smaller ones and one holder. What I think is cool: This fits.. Soo tight, so perfect:
These potmeters are directly accesable from the side :) . And the underside of the pcb is shielded! So nice. But.. (ghehe) I wanted to make a sheet of plastic between the pcb and the bottomplate.. Stupid me. That will make the pcb come up, so I need to make that holder bigger to. Whatever.
NEVER, throw anything away. This sheet of.. crap.. is cool stuff :) .
I think it's PVC, atleast it's plastic. It has some nice features.. One one side it's flat. But it's like a mirror on the other side!
That's me and the camera I'm using ;) .
Kind of.. Stuck. I don't know what to do for the shields.
I can't make something i'm not satisfied with. So I needed to start something else. The frontpanel?
To hold the plate that is holding the CRT, I made some holder thingies. Why did I made that crap? It's crap, it useless. So, I drilled some holes directly into the chassis and tapped them.
New design, kind of crap to.
Better:
Removed the fronts of my new dvd-player and dvd-burner.
(To many pics ---->)
These ones need to go back a bit. But the Chieftec click system isn't made for that ;) .
Here's the solution.
I was already using the last hole. But this stuff.. Drilling these holes was like.. A JOB FROM H#LL! Damn, this plastic is soft. But those steel things of whatever those clicking things are made of where so hard! And the friction of the drill made the plastic melt.
Oh, well, it worked. I'm a bad fotographer, but I think you are all able to see that the lower one is sitting more back now.
Done. Now the frontpanel itself. This is going to be a 5mm thickness UV-green sheet of acrylic with on top of it a sheet of aluminium, where every bit will be cut out that you are now able to see on the cardboard. At the sleds of the dvd-drives will be some uv-green acrylic to and some of the details will become eject buttons. I'll mount this thing on top op the edge that normally mounts the baycovers. How I'm going to mount it.. Will remain a secret ;) .
The with/lenght idea of the hole for this crt screen is.. Isn't correct. I'll fix that ;) . Everthing is still in the design/thinking fase. I'm not begging you guys for how to do this or letting you guys between some options. But a little feedback at this moment would be nice ;) . Update will follow soon :) .
This looks great. I see you have taken inspiration from Tribaloverkill's work. That T.V looks so retro, I love it haha.
just wondering, how did you hook the crt up?:neutral:
Update! Actualy it's to late, a day or so. I had zero time. I'm sorry ;) .
I'll kickoff with the holders for the frontpanel.
Some cheapass 5mm scrap plastic.
What glue? Hm.. I decided to take the 'EXPERT plastic kleber', LOL, the blue one.
Secured with a piece of tape, so they won't come of when the glue is drying.
It Verks!
Meanwhile... My workshop.. Why am I collecting to much.. scrap?
Decided to move all the plate material. Instead of the left side of the table, I moved it to the wall at the other side of the room.
Yay, just like Ollie's car :) . It looks like a lot of aluminium. Most of it is just.. useless to me. It's anodized, to thick or to thin :( . In that box are two 120mm rads I bought :) . Not sure what I'm going to do with those two things... In front is a 17" CRT, anyone willig to buy it? It's for sale.
Anyway, I have more space for important stuff now:
Gabrage.
Might be cool to post the view from my workshop. Our drivelane and the route.
Interesting stuff!! The frontpanel.
Construction while filing.
This edge was just 2mm to thick. I figured out this to late.. I was already wondering why it couldn't fit :blush: .
This was solved easy with a knifa and my DREMEL :) . Hmm..
The blocks came of. The glue couldnt hold it. Maybe I should have sanded it better before. Hm, redone it with superglue this time. And I putted some glue at the piece I removed, so I can smooth it out.
Meanwhile I bought some stuff. Went to the store for some sawblades..
I came back with a "I have no idea how to call it in english instrument but I bet you guys can tell me" and a sanding block. No sawblades, I'm such an asshole.
Tadaa!
Tadaa!
This thing fits soooo tight :) . It's clambed, so tight. I realy did not wanted to do anything wrong, that would have costed me to much material and time this time.... Time for polishing and sawing now? Not exactly, I made I tiny little mistake.. I'll work on it today. And I need to drill holes for screws, that's what the blocks are for ;) .
Ehh.. not sure what you are asking, but I think the answer should be right here? http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...54&postcount=3Quote:
Originally Posted by Juan
no Im wondering how you converted the singnals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeroenotje
Ah, that's a trick question. Long time ago I was working on that. First thing I had to do was figuring out the pinout of this screen.. I was kind of able to do that. I had a copy of a piece of the old manual and I found something on the internet. Next step was figuring out what kind of signals this thing needed. I was lucky, this thing was using the same kind of signals as a normal VGA connector :) . So, I just had to solder the right cables at the right place. Nothing really diffucult actualy :) . Everybody can do that with an old screen, just make sure you have both pinouts and the right signals. Use powerstrip or something to tweak the image on the screen ;) .Quote:
Originally Posted by Juan
But... Nowadays, there are no drivers for 640x480 monochrome NTSC screens.. and the second outpout of a nowadays Graphics card needs to detect a screen before it wil come up with a signal. And my screen is to old for an autodetect ;) . I'll fix that later.
