Project - Air Cube v2

[Waynio]

Lol, I thought I'd get all the xbox body work done today , but only got the front gap between the metal cover & xbox filled & sanded & made the gap cover at the back, still, it's steady progress , it looks like there is a gap still but that is just perm marker from a guide I made on the filler to form a nice smooth edge, used 60 grit, 240, 600 sand paper.

Needed a bit more filler.

I don't know when the body work will be fully done on this xbox, could be tomorrow or the day after if I keep at it like the past couple of days.

I'll just keep posting at the end of the day when any progress happens .

[Waynio]

Only done the face plate today (started too late), I trimmed the original dvd bezel so it was 1 or 2mm thick, placed maksking tape over the front of the face plate, lay the trimmed bezel in place & slapped some body filler over it, sanded, then flipped it over & covered the gaps for the bezel & sanded smooth.

The top piece is going to need a bit of work on it before it looks a bit nicer but it'll come together, just had a slack day lol .

More soon .

[Waynio]

Xbox 360
Filled & sanded the inside & outside corners of the top piece.
Made a quick & simple air duct to blow out of the side, still undecided if the rear fan will bring air in or out.

The back could do with some filler so it all sits nice & flat all around, I'll get that done tomorrow, I'll also trim the flat bars out of the way of the side hole.

It's getting very close to being ready for painting .

Air cube
LOL, the temps are better with the exterior panels on rather than off , just thought I'd take a pic of the air cube with the new panel on , the onboard led lights only come on when starting up the pc & are quite subtle but good looking, I like them, there is a green, orange & red light which has given me an idea to use some leds on both sides of the case to be different colours, the 5870 pretty much splits the case into 2 halves so I think it'll look quite decent if placed in the right spots.

More soon .

[The boy 4rm oz]

The work on the Xbox is comming along nicely. I like the disk drive relocation.

[Waynio]

Sure is Jase, the dvd cables just about reach , nearly got this xbox done now, phew .

Put a good layer of filler on the back & smoothed out, the top piece is laid flat now & cut the flat bars lower to be unseen.

Decided ac ryan meshx is the right stuff for the side duct hole, it's very unrestrictive so would be perfect for it, thought about doing my own grill but the meshx would be better, once I have a mesh sorted for the hole it should be ready for painting & then I can move on with the stack, after a couple of days for a break .

Doing the xbox the way I have has given me more appreciation for case mods, scratch builds are more straight forward because you are the one who designed it so you know exactly how it should all go together, it requires a lot of adapting with a ready made case so I believe it can take just as much effort to do a good looking mod, case mod appreciation +10 .

The ps3 is going to look too normal amongst the 360 & air cube, I'd love to at least give it a paint job but that warranty is stopping me, for now .

More soon, Can't do nothing more on the xbox until tuesday but I could make a start on the levels of the stack if I feel up for it.

[Xtrykr]

Wow, that's some awesome metal work! Everything all snuggly fit. Good job, can't wait till this is done!

[The boy 4rm oz]

I think the AC Ryan MeshX will go very well with the mod. I have used the stuff before and must saw it is very easy to work with, you can cut the stuff quite easily with tin snips and it bends like a dream.

[Waynio]

Thank you Xtrykr, just waiting for the mesh, should have it tomorrow, then fix it to the 360, then clean, then paint .

I should have some tin snips but never got around to buying some, I'm friends with the air dremel again now I have the correct fitting discs lol , still got to order the paint for the xbox.

The stack.
The makeshift table was not flat enough for putting a jig on & getting this stack made, luckily my dad had a kitchen work top doing nothing, so we took the clamping piece off the rough makeshift table & put it on the kitchen top, so now I have a nice table to work on .

Made a square jig, I cut the wood to precise sizes of the angle bars so I needed 4 hands to make it 100% square, my dad helped me on this, it would have taken ages to do on my own & might not have been 100% square, anyway the jig is perfect so I'll be able to do my marking spot on when I start on this stack.

This is the bottom level piece, it's the chunkiest level of them all, I wanted it to be well grounded .

More soon .

[Waynio]

Decided to do the part I was dreading the most, removing the air cubes feet which I stuck on with araldite.

I removed the araldite by using my heat gun on all the exposed bits for a few seconds & then scraped it off, then heated the whole bar & levered it off, it all went nice & smoothly .

Polished up the original polish so it looks all fresh again .

With the old feet taken off the sides & top fit perfect.

cut, filed & polished some new ones from solid square aluminium bar & decided to use mounting tape to attach the new feet.

With the new feet on the sides & top fit perfect, so glad .

Looks pretty sweet .

Finally cleared up the garage so it isn't like a game of twister any more, it was getting ridiculas lol .

Got the ac ryan meshx, got it installed on the xbox (used my glue gun), where the rivets are hanging out I want to tap the holes so it is properly secured in place & so it can be disassembled easy, once I get that done it is time for painting it.

More soon .

[Waynio]

Time to sort the ugly brown & green fans out, the fan blades pop off easily.

I looked around the house for something that could quickly cover the fans motors & found spice jar covers to be a perfect fit .

Primer

Shot to show the spice covers doing their job .

I cut a load of circles from card board & stuck the sharp end of a rivet through the centre & popped them onto the fan blade.

The fan blade colour was not as light as I was hoping, originally wanted a close to white ice blue so this is way off that plan but I'll settle for it, not putting more paint on the blades, anyway, much better than brown/green, got the frame colour exactly how I wanted it at least.

Now, I need to make my mind up if I'm going to paint the internal panels or not, & if I am what colour, so I'll put that bit off until I'm sure.

I'll take some better pictures of the fans when I have some good daylight.