A quick "Control Panel" mod i did

[DAE_JA_VOO]

So, a few days ago i converted one of the rooms in our house to a modding room for myself. In this conversion, i added a PC, an amp, and some speakers so that i can watch a movie or listen to music while i mod. The PC was placed under one of the tables, right in the corner. This was a problem for me because that meant that i needed to get on the ground and under the table to turn on the PC or eject the DVD RW. That can only mean one thing. Modding time.

I wanted to make a little "Control Panel" to put onto one of the tables. This panel would have a Power Switch, a Reset switch, and an eject switch for the DVD-RW. My plan was to make this, but just 3 switches would look to plain, so i decided to chuck a 120mm fan in there too, just to look cool. So here's the project:

First thing i did was some sketching. I did this in class on wednesday:

Then i was time to start bringing the sketches to life. A piece of plexi nicely marked up and ready for some work:

After i had cut and sanded it to the right size, i marked the hole for the 120mm fan:

Unfortunately i haven't gotten myself a 114mm holesaw yet, so i had to make the hole using my scroll saw and lots of sanding. Even after all the that hole still wasn't perfect. No problem though, nobody will ever see the hole:

Then i made the holes for the three switches:

Here's the fan i'll be using:

Wanna know why i chose this one? Let me show you:

That's right, it's a Thermaltake fan. I wouldn't trust that fan to cool anything, so now i'll use it in a mod where it doesn't actually have to fulfill it's purpose (not that it could even if i wanted it to).

Then i added one of the sexiest fan grilles i've ever seen in my life:

That fan grille was sent to me by one of my sponsors, MNPCTech. It's THIS grille. That is such a nice grille holey moley. I have no use for it anytime soon though, because i've already decided what i'll be using for grille's in my mod anyway, so i'm using the grille in this little mod. No point in the grille going to waste

So, here's a test fit of everything in the plexi:

Then it was time to sand the plexi and polish the edges. I owned my finger though while i was cutting the excess masking tape off the plexi:

Anyway, SANDING TIME!!

Sanding and polishing done. I also rounded the corners:

Now all i needed to do was bend the plexi. Once that was done, i mounted everything. I also added all the wiring involved, after i had sleeved it. So here are some final pics:

Looks great in my opinion. The third switch is just there for redundancy. The PC i'm using in this room doesn't have a reset button, but only two switches in the plexi looked horrible, so i'll find a use for the third switch in the future sometime.

So, when the PC is turned on, that fan will spin. I'll be feeding the fan only 5V though, i dont want to give it 12V like i should and have it fail on me in a week. I also dont want any unnecessary noise.

All i need to do now is the PC side of things, wiring the additional switches and so on. That's no biggie though.

Here are some pics of the unit running:

And here, my friends, is a VIDEO of it. Just a clip of me switching it on, you can see the fan spin up, and you'll hear the PC start up.

VIDEO LINKAGE



GREAT SUCCESS!!

[b4i7]

now that is just pure bad ass...

[calumc]

thats pretty sexy, shame thats not a led fan tho, and that would probably light up the plexi too

[SgtM]

Kewlio! +rep

[lukeisthecoolest]

how did u make those acrylic edges so clean and smooth? wats ur secret!

[Indybird]

Very cool little device. The fan is completely useless but I love it there none-the-less. I wish I could think of stuff like that...

-Indybird

+rep for fresh ideas

[SgtM]

how did u make those acrylic edges so clean and smooth? wats ur secret!

Sanding and polishing. Start with 400 grit sand paper, work up to about 1000. From there, you can quit, or use a buffing/polishing compound to get the edges s00per smooth.

You can also repair scratches that way.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Art and engineering make such good bedfellows. This is both a simple and clever example of that at work. +rep

[The boy 4rm oz]

You are a MOD GOD!!!!!

[D1337]

May not be very useful but it sure as hell looks sexy