Project : BossFX-57

[Tech-Daddy]

A few days passed after I made the above post... then this little gem popped into my log...


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"I am glad I am slow....."



Gave me time to mull over my drive bay creation problem, and came up with a solution. What I *dont* like about the Coolermaster drive bays are those dang tooless sliders. So, to keep my dimensions right and tight on the 5.25 and 3.5 areas, I'm sticking with the original framework of the drive bays (why reinvent the wheel, eh?) but stripping off the plastic tooless sliders and springs that annoy me to no end. By doing this, it will allow me to keep the original Coolermaster steel that already fits all of the rivet holes, the front bezel mount holes, etc. So, I strip those off, and pull off the supporting steel work that acted as the slider guides, and that will give me the 5.25 bay that I can *then* wrap my acrylic acround and then a bent and painted piece of alu over that to sandwich in all that color!

Much easier!

I Had been beating my head against paper mock ups trying to get my drive spacing, hole allignment, depth and length, etc to all come out right.... then it hit me (kinds like one of those Outback steakhouse boomerangs, but I didn't leave to go eat after the inspiration!) and I went to town on my bays!

Pics are boring... use your imagination!

[Tech-Daddy]

Press fast forward 2 more days...


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Hacked holes this weekend, side window, top blow hole. Forgot to upload the pics, will get to them tonight.


Looking for a local powder coater for the frame (gloss black)... want to sneak this into another run so that there is little to no additional prep work for whomever it is that provides the service.

Lots of wrap up filing to make the beastie as smooth as possible, with finished holes.

The connectors that I spoke of earlier in another thread are going to look SO sweet with this!

Going to build a black acrylic bracket to mount the recepticles in to, and then I'll cut the power transmission lines to size, and solder them onto the plugs. Then using the other side of the attachment, I'll put the power lines, PCI-e power, and SATA power through those adaptors!



(que muzik)
"Come togethaaa!! ... riiiight now.... "

[Tech-Daddy]

Guess what?? I found a powder coater that would do my frame!! Loved how this came out... uber sexy!

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Yummy frame shots!


We're all family here, so I can talk like that...

The 3.5 bay that resides directly below the 5.25 bay area. This frame actually has 2 sets of these, however I chose to pull the bottom most one in favor of airflow (it blocked the fan, and I was not going to have a drive down that far anyway...)

This is an outter shot with the mobo tray in the forground. All of these pieces are clean. Any white "spots" you see are not dust flecks or the like... they are pin sized reflections coming off of the smooth and glossy surface.

I'm going to get a better pic of this, but this was to show just how smooth it went into all of the little nooks. cranys and bends of the case... this is the power supply area, and, specifically, the rear exhaust point of hte case. Look in the corner that frames the exhaust fan. I *always* have had problems getting this section even... no worries on this one!

Check out the reflection off the base section of the case!!!

The 5.25 bays:

Another shot of the frame....

You may notice some holes in the framework of the 3.5 and the 5.25 sections of the case. I cut out sections of steel that were standing too tall and would interfere with this next section of modding... you'll see shortly!


This weekend is going to be a big time push for me so be looking for some pretty serious updates from my side tomorrow and Sunday!

[Tech-Daddy]

Riveted it all back toghether! (except for the top pieces and the skins... MMmmmmmmm.....

[Tech-Daddy]

I'm building my back grill for the rear exhaust on the case. But it will be a mirror of this one, from a construction standpoint.


Cut the acrylic to size, tap the holes in the corners:

Add on a vinyl covering that makes it look like carbon fiber:

And then bolt it into the PSU cover with stanoffs under it to give enough space between the mag and the center of the fan:

more later after I finish the rear exhaust!

[Tech-Daddy]

Case fan grill pics.
I screwed up when I bought my nuts and bolts tonight... both of my packages of nuts were supposed to be lock nuts with nylon inserts... only one was...

So, these pics are the grill, spacers, and fan (sans lock nuts) so that you can see what is in store!


More later!

[Tech-Daddy]

it is a bit of a pain to find someone willing to do small jobs, but it is possible.

*note* - This happens shortly after Turkey day, so set that timeline in your head. From here forward, happens in the span from Thanksgiving to December 11th.
*pant* *pant*
-TD
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I'm back from turkey day binge... (ugh, that hurt) and am back on my modding wheels...

The pics you are about to see are *only* the rough out of the sheet aluminium template for the hood scoop.

I plan on taking this rough shape, covering it with "Great Stuff" foam, and shaving and sanding that down to the desired shape. Then I'll use fiberglass to lay over it and sand it down to the shape I want. After sanding, I'll prime it, and commence to painting the outside of the case!!!!

Here are the prelim scoop shots:

Looking from the side, front of the case is to the left:

Looking down the scoop from the leading edge:

From the side:

And after I unfolded the pieces and took off the tape, I'm thinking that this should be just about the perfect sheet shape to bend and attach it all together:

These are just so you will get the idea of where it is headed.

The sheetmetal cutouts will actually have bottom tabs cut so that they extend off of the bottom attaching walls of the scoop. I'll then cut slits in the top of the case roof for these tabs to fit through, then I'll bend them and JB Weld them into the roof (underside of the top) of the case.

Then start up the foam treatment!!

I saw a guy do this for his rig for some body work he was doing. This looked like such a cool way to get the desired form, I applied it to the hood scoop!

[Tech-Daddy]

prototype built out of alum with the bending station that I built earlier:

Here is the cut sheet loaded into the bender:

After bending it into submission:

I also disected a UV meteor light. Removed the acrylic tube and the acrylic cube ends, so that I only have the little LED strip. I plan on using this in the machine, but it will actually be burried in the side next to the 5.25 bays, but firing out into some UV reactive acrylic that I plan on having a little light show with...

[Tech-Daddy]

Wondering "Why?" I would want to pull out the guts of a metor light?

This is why....
Active lighting
More Active lighting...

I plan on embedding this effect next to the 5.25 bays, long ways down the side. The UV LED's will be firing into the side of the Orange acrylic and the effect will be seen on the inside of the case!!! And I have not even polished the edges yet! This is the straight acrylic and the effect is much more noticable in my garage than in the capture of the camera.



To quote Stimpy... "Joooyyyyyeeeeeee!!!"

[Tech-Daddy]

Too tired to post pics, but here is what I did tonight:
1) Foamed the hood scoop. tomorrow I'll cut it down and add in more foam in the low places.
2) Took my CoolDrive3 that I bought (older model drive cooler, and it looks kida retro too!), removed the blue LED's and replaced them with White. Now there is a nice even white glow that matches the fans, that emenates to the edges from the front center.
3) repainted the fan exhaust port on the mobo. Remember it used to be a optic green arcylic. Now, it is a gloss black, and the power lead is sleeved.

Foam is drying, and my eyes are trying to close...