Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 28

Thread: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

  1. #1
    ATX Mental Case DeathCrush's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    42°07 23.90N 076°04 23.94W
    Posts
    104

    Default Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    Avast, me mateys! Tis' be about time that a pirate mod be made!

    Actually there may already be some out there, I just never looked very hard . Either or this past semester at college, my roommates and I really got ourselves into a pirate mood. Seriously, we were playing pirate music and pirate-based computer games for quite a while. Since the summer was coming up as well as the third and final installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (which by the way I saw opening night and thought was excellent ) I decided it would be time for a pirate computer mod to be done.

    Due to limited time this summer I had to do something small so I came up with the idea of a harddrive enclosure made out of a small pirate treasure chest to hold all of my pirate stuff I have (mainly my Monkey Island games as well as my piratey music - gotta love it). I found some cool treasure chests over at www.deadmentellnotales.com that looked like they would do the trick just fine (that and they were pretty low priced too )



    As you can see here, the treasure chest isn't very roomy inside so I have to mount the drive in at an angle although it is still upright itself so I shouldn't have a problem with the drive platter getting unbalanced resulting in I/O failures.

    Fortunately the guts I am using take their power straight from the 5V line from the USB to power everything which means less cutting holes but I still had the problem of where to conceal the actual USB connector.


    For that, my friend bought me a little POTC locket thing that would be perfect to hide a USB behind.


    Sorry Jack, but your picture had to come out


    I dremeled out a hole with the cutting wheel to fit the USB connector inside it. Took a while and ultimately had some non-straight edges but the USB connector covers it up pretty well.


    Next step was to cut the same hole into the chest and dremel the edges around it to compensate for the roundness of the locket.


    Here is the final result all Gorilla Glued into place.

    Unfortunately that is all I have right now as I have to wait for some other parts to come in the mail. Mainly the USB wire that goes from the drive to the side of the chest. Unfortunately again because of the small space I have to work with I had to "special order" a right angle USB adapter that would fit http://www.ntcdistributing.com/image...02-24large.jpg I'm going to have to trim away some of the plastic on the mounts where the screws are to get it to fit, however that shouldn't prove to be too hard.

    Also I plan on getting some gold mylar cable sleeving from cableorganizer.com. That will give the USB cable that is used to connect the drive to the back of my computer that "gold pirate treasure" feel to it.

    That's all that I have right now. It's not much, but I didn't feel like waiting until the end of this week to post everything ARR! Give me feedback on what you guys think so far!
    http://images.gruntville.com/casegallery/album299 Gort, it's built in an ammo box!
    http://www.x-mail.net/bigfoot/ <- my random stuff

  2. #2
    Austral Alien
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Newcastle, NSW, Australia
    Posts
    2,194

    Default Re: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    That looks cool!

    If you made a cover over the drive, you could still use the chest to store things in too.

    +rep
    Quote Originally Posted by Crimson Sky View Post
    hahaha..."Wacky"
    -Wackello Capello

  3. #3
    ATX Mental Case DeathCrush's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    42°07 23.90N 076°04 23.94W
    Posts
    104

    Default Re: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    I was actually thinking about that as well, at least use it to store the USB cable while traveling - still working on what to cover it with though. Anyone have any ideas? I suppose I could use something like a thin sheet of aluminium.
    http://images.gruntville.com/casegallery/album299 Gort, it's built in an ammo box!
    http://www.x-mail.net/bigfoot/ <- my random stuff

  4. #4
    Austral Alien
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Newcastle, NSW, Australia
    Posts
    2,194

    Default Re: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    I'd go with a small wooden drop in tray, similar to some jewellery boxes.
    Quote Originally Posted by Crimson Sky View Post
    hahaha..."Wacky"
    -Wackello Capello

  5. #5
    Dude...totally!
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Chico, CA
    Posts
    808

    Default Re: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    nice. makes me want to do something with my external drive. in fact, i looks like the IDE to USB converter in there is the same as mine, lol.

    +rep

  6. #6
    I come from a land down under. simon275's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    3,075

    Default Re: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    Remember hard drives generate heat so it will need some ventilation or some kind of heat sink in the box. Nice mod though I love the locket usb plug cover.

    +rep
    Need a sig

  7. #7
    SOB Fettler xmastree's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Burnley, Lancs. UK
    Posts
    1,704

    Default Re: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    Quote Originally Posted by DeathCrush View Post

    As you can see here, the treasure chest isn't very roomy inside so I have to mount the drive in at an angle
    That's with the interface already connected, right?
    It should be possible to use a short length (couple of inches or so) or 40 way IDE cable and mount the adaptor remotely. Then you could possible mount the drive flat leaving a lot more room for pieces of eight.

    You really ought to make it look like it's got treasure in it.

    Quote Originally Posted by aintnothang View Post
    Think of a way to simulate a real bullet hole, like shooting it.

  8. #8
    ATX Mental Case DeathCrush's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    42°07 23.90N 076°04 23.94W
    Posts
    104

    Default Re: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    I would, but unfortunately I'm using a 50pin laptop drive and so far I have not been able to find a 50pin IDE cable (not even sure it's possible to buy one) I would be willing to make my own from parts but I haven't even been able to find anything.
    http://images.gruntville.com/casegallery/album299 Gort, it's built in an ammo box!
    http://www.x-mail.net/bigfoot/ <- my random stuff

  9. #9
    ^ Soon to be one. Computer-Geek's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    New York
    Posts
    660

    Default Re: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    would u be able to use this ??
    - Computer-Geek


  10. #10
    ATX Mental Case DeathCrush's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    42°07 23.90N 076°04 23.94W
    Posts
    104

    Default Re: Arrr! External HDD enlosure pirate style!

    Quote Originally Posted by Computer-Geek View Post
    would u be able to use this ??
    That's actually for a laptop cdrom, although I did think about getting it and making my own cable. That may be a bit too much work however, I might just stick with my original idea.
    http://images.gruntville.com/casegallery/album299 Gort, it's built in an ammo box!
    http://www.x-mail.net/bigfoot/ <- my random stuff

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •