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Thread: Project - Air Cube v2

  1. #81
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    Didn't get anything done from tuesday to friday, here's why.
    To keep this bit light hearted I'll just say my bro messed up badly again, I needed some time to brighten up after this latest do, seems he'll never learn that legal highs are just plain bad for him, I'm losing count how many times he has come close to death now & they could be & probably are laced with toxic crap. It's been hard keeping bright when he plays up like this, but spring is definately helping with some nice blue skys & sunshine, long grey winters make you really appreciate a nice blue sky & some warmth .
    I have come to a firm conclusion that many people who say they are bored should rephrase it to I'm a boring person, time to change lol .

    Right, now my excuse for no updates is out of the way, onwards with the project woo hoo .

    Thanks Jase, yeah it's nearly double height lol.

    I have tried out the upgraded cooling on the 360 without the casings though within that time, main 2 fans blowing on the components, rear fan pulling air out, played some gta iv for 10 minutes, turned off put my hand on the gpu heatsink, was nice & cool , did same on cpu & it was very hot to touch.
    So I flipped the cpu fan over to take air away from it & had the rear fan blowing in, both gpu & cpu run nice & cool to the touch after half an hour of gta iv mayhem so I'll make a duct to guide air out of the side & put an easy to remove & clean dust filter on the back to minimise the need for clean outs.

    So it's looking like a very good anti rrod fix so far , concernig the cooling layout it's a good thing I had a little downtime else it would have been done wrong, I'll take the 2 temperature sensors from my 1st 360 mod & place them on this new mod so I will be able to see if the fans start failing + it might make it look a little better .

    I would do a cooling mod on my new ps3 but it is still under warranty so that is why I'm just doing a ventalation mod outside of it which I hope will be enough for it's longevity, it does get pretty warm sat on a desk but a good flow of air passing above & below it should help.

    Here's what I got done over the weekend, should be back on track with regular progress from now .

    The 360 is coming along ok .




    Whilst I was without a dremel, I started drilling, filing & sawing to get things done, silly me I tried the same technique for the air cube right side panel & ended up putting it aside until my cutting discs with the correct 1/16" hole in the middle arrived.

    Well, got the cutting discs , I cut along the lines I marked out perfectly, filed & sanded all the edges, thought jobs a gooden, pulled all the masking tape off & the drill holes left a bit of a mess on the psu grill, yes it could have been patched up with body filler but I prefer not to use it so I filed away settling for some wonky lines instead, I'll mask around the grill & give it a quick spray of matisse blue & spray some into a pot & use a fine brush to do all the bare edges.










    The other window will be removed so I can get the white double sided mounting tape cleaned off & replaced with clear mounting tape.

    Thats all for now, more soon .

  2. #82
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    Ahh, think I'm coming together again, a few said I should do a scratch build 360 case, I had pretty firm plans on just modding the 360 with scraps I had lying around to keep it's original functionality & to cost nothing other than the fans, the last week I just didn't know how to carry on (head was scrambled) so kept putting it off, so I sat down & started designing a completely custom 360 case, kept my mind busy for hours & it seems to have done the trick to get me back in the mood for continuing, had to get some new body filler (the activator had burst out of it's tube & become useless while in storage), wanted to carry on for hours more but had to call it a day though because of noisy filing, don't want to irritate any neighbors in the evening with my hobby .

    The back side is coming together, cut out the internal mesh, used little pieces of sheet aluminium held on the inside of the exterior mesh & filled over the holes & sanded down, have made the filler strip template but can't do it until tomorrow (the air dremel is noisy) & had some more filing to do on the internal metal chassis which resonates a loud racket, so I hope to get all the body work & air ducts done tomorrow, then I can put it aside until I paint it & can continue with the stack, woo hoo I found my mojo baby, yeahh lol.





    I'm feeling good again so more soon .

  3. #83
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    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 .

  4. #84
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    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 .

  5. #85
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    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 .

  6. #86
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    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.

  7. #87
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    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 .

  8. #88
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    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 .

  9. #89
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    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.

  10. #90
    Now making cases for the heck of it =) Waynio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Project - Air Cube v2

    Quote Originally Posted by StormRider View Post
    better? they're impressive now! ^__^
    Thanks StormRider .

    Quote Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz View Post
    The fans look so much better now that they are painted. So so much better.
    Thanks Jase.

    This is how how my pc has been the past few days while I've been painting, had it functioning purely for media & internet.



    Spent a bit of time sanding all the work on the back panel & it's all nice & smooth now, painted both sides too.





    The front panel needed the countersinks to be a little deeper so the bolts sit flush, painted the rear of the panel too.





    Painted the back expansion/io piece.



    Here is a better shot of the hdd cage I made, the ssd can slip in the top space just perfect .



    The blue gigabyte motherboard goes really well with the fans & back panel & the braided cables you can see are extensions (got them for pcie, 8 pin atx, main atx, I would rather buy them like that than void my warranty, especially with a decent psu (they cost too much to void them), the sata cables could do with being swapped out or even braided, I would love to shorten the psu cables because they are way too long but I can tidy them into the front right corner just about, got rid of the rounded ide cable, it is supposed to be clear but it had turned nicoteenish lol, the flat ide cable routes better anyway.





    withgpu






























    I think the back looks better than the front now lol .

    Everything is done on the front, back & insides, I'm going to come up with an alternative for the right side grill, either make the bars slimmer or get another sheet, then all thats needed is the left window removing to clean up the white mounting tape & replace with clear mounting tape, then the air cube v2 is complete, still waiting for my drill bits to arrive before I can do anything else on the xbox & the stack, so I'm having a few days off from it .

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