Hey Pimps!

Well.. this is my first full case Mod so go easy on me

Meet the victim!




This used to be an Advent PC which i have had lying around for a while. It is going to be home to a Media Centre set-up ive got.

Ok... the plan!

The main aim is to produce something that can sit in a living room without being obtrusive at all whilst still having that "SWEET!" factor about it!

As you may have guessed my theme is going to be The Offspring as they have been my favourite band for EVER, have some neat images that should transfer nicely and also i havnt seen another case based on them.

Im going for a totally gloss black look with some nice little details here and there and on the side (and this is the main bit) is a cut-out of the Offspring Skull.

HOWEVER! my plan is to back the clear acrylic skull cutout with something black so that unless illuminated the skull kinda disappears. You get?

Anyways... i hope it will become clear as we go...

So, first problem.....



There is quite a lot of crappy detail on this side panel which would making a flat sie pretty tricky to achieve with out a lot of filler work (which i have never done so would probably be crappy...) So whats the answer??

Obvious really... make a new side panel

Et voila... all taped up and ready to cut!



So this might give a better idea... The whole thing is glossy black with just the white skull part to be cut away and backed with 10mm clear acrylic. The acrylic is then going to be backed with something black (yet to be determined what exactly...) so it all fades more or less into itself when not illuminated. Any clearer?

Well... On with the cutting...




I started off in good faith with my trusty Dremmel but soon realised it was going to take about a week to cut... so off to ebay and ive got a nice jigsaw coming which should speed things up somewhat!



I got the eyes and nose cut out though and gave them a bit of a smoothing off. These will get the gloss black treatment and be stuck back onto the acrylic.

So there we go... any comments and idea are more than welcome!

Oh... my apologies to any 56k-ers out there. How can i get linked pics to appear as thumbs??? or should i just use smaller pics?


Laters

Mark

Quote: Originally Posted by markwalker84 Oh... my apologies to any 56k-ers out there. How can i get linked pics to appear as thumbs??? or should i just use smaller pics?

When you are posting your thread scrool down from the window in which you type and you will fine the "Attach Files" Section click on the Manage Attachments and Viola! you dont have to use a hosting service anymore!

Good Luck, Sounds great so far, Uncle DoN wont let me see your pictures!

ive not got a lot of space left in my album hence the hosting service.... might do some space saving though and see what i can do :-)

Mark

P.S. Uncle DoN?

DoN : Department of the Navy... Uncle "sam"

and i am prety sure that the attached files dont effect your gallery at all

Ok...thanks for the heads up... ill give it a go on my next post :-)

Thanks

Mark

Hey man just posted my latest work. Not much really the paying work interfered today. Was just checking to see how you HTPC is coming along.

Cheers.

That is some ill s***t right there.

very nice idea man. offspring is gooood sh*t. over the summer i was thinking about doing a blink-182 tribute.. but im not gonna give out any ideas .. y do you need a dremel to finish the skull? cant you just use a cutoff disk?

an idea to use is a line or two of your favorite song or something an wrap it around the top of the case with some of the band's colors.. just an idea though. your choice if you wanna use it or not

keep up the work man. nice dremeling skills.. i dont see the need to file much.

aces

The Offspring changed my life!

Ahhh, I was a naive 12 year old when my cousin gave me SMASH... never been the same.

I guess id still be listening to Madonna, Kylie Minogue(sp?) and other cheesy pop if I hadn't heard that album.

That case is looking sweet at the mo bro, ill be keeping a close eye on this one.

Quote: Originally Posted by spades_n_aces very nice idea man. offspring is gooood sh*t. over the summer i was thinking about doing a blink-182 tribute.. but im not gonna give out any ideas .. y do you need a dremel to finish the skull? cant you just use a cutoff disk? an idea to use is a line or two of your favorite song or something an wrap it around the top of the case with some of the band's colors.. just an idea though. your choice if you wanna use it or not keep up the work man. nice dremeling skills.. i dont see the need to file much. aces

You read my mind!

Im gonna have one or two lines of lyrics in red on the other side of the case to the skull... havnt figured out which yet.

Playing around with some ideas...

Either we go down the poiniant route...

"Chances Thrown, nothing's free. Longing for, what used to be" - Kids arent alright
"All I want, all I need, Always lies just out of reach" - Race Against Myself
"Your bruises are reminders of niavity and trust." - The Noose
"You're only getting stronger 'cause your body's getting numb" - The Noose
"If we destory each other we might save a life or two" - Forever and a day
"Will the morning headlines even say that it's a shame?" - Jannifer lost the war
"Sorry if i don't feel like living the way you do" - Meaning of life


Or of course the slightly more light hearted route....

"I hate a lot of things i hate a lot of people that are lame" - Cool To Hate
"Stupid, Dumb****, Goddam, Mother****er!" - Bad Habit


lol... all advice and suggestions are welcome!


As for the cut out... started with the dremmel but is probably going to be a better idea to do the main cut with a jigsaw then finish it off with grinding stones and files. Ive got to do all my cutting outside (girlfriend is trying to get her dissertation done) and it is COLD in Durham so after 10 minuites i start to get the shakes! lol.

Going to do a bit of electronics stuff today so should get an update a bit later on

Later people!

Mark

Ok... just a quickie

A normal HHD activity led is boring so im planning something alittle more interesting... with more LEDs :-)






The 4N25 optocoupler takes the HDD activity from the mobo and switches on / off the 5V line that will run through to power my LEDs.

Lovely stuff!

Right... off to work now

Later peeps

Mark

Now this is looking interesting, I wanna see the result of the lights portion of this project. May want to borrow the idea for future mods.

Minor update... havn't been able to do a lot to day as im waiting on a few pretty importan parts to be delivered (alcrylic, body filler, metal jigsaw blade...)

Fitted a couple of switches to control lights... if this thing is going to be a media centre i want the option of turning all lights off so not to distract from DVDs etc

Also shows a cut out i did today which is going to be my HDD activity. 10mm acrylic fronted with 8 or so LEDs embedded around the edge should light the text up nicely :-)

More soon! (acrylic and other goodies should arrive tomorrow! fingers crossed!)


Mark

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This Pimpster has some interesting ideas!!!Jo ps,I dig the scene and the Offspring

Sweet work dude!
I especially like the optocoupler - I'm using one on my current rig and have a nice little 4N27 one here for my current project

Excellent cutting too - love the precision - keep up the good work!

Oh - have some rep too

Quote: Originally Posted by Masterp Sweet work dude! I especially like the optocoupler - I'm using one on my current rig and have a nice little 4N27 one here for my current project Excellent cutting too - love the precision - keep up the good work! Oh - have some rep too

Muchos Gracias for the +ve comments!

Doing an electronic engineering degree so thought i had better use something a little bit clever

Have had a nightmare trying to get an LED pulsing circuit (think Apple G4 power led) to work though reckon i got a crapped up chip or something as it just refuses to work... either that or the schematic im following isnt right...


Anyways... Thanks again!

Mark

Well good news! My acrylic arrived today! YEAH!

And it is one BIG pit of plastic...




500mm x 500mm x 10mm




Apologies for the contrast issues!


Ok... so half an hour later that large sheet became a 240mm circle with 20 segments. This is marking the positoin of the LEDs




LEDs need holes to live in so out comes the 3mm drill bit and away we go...




The holes were polished as best i could with some Brasso wadding on the end of a miniture screwdriver followed by a wad of cotton wool and the same trusty mini screwdriver... In case you are wondering why i went with 3mm LEDs instead of 5mm.... im not sure is the honest answer... could easily have fit 5s in the edge of the acrylic but never mind :-)

I didnt spend much time polishing the side of the disc as i dont want any light to escape anyway. A quick sanding down and then the LEDs were all installed through a strip of aluminium foil. The hope is that this will increase brightness by reflecting light trying to escap out the sides. Not sure if it makes a lot of difference but looks quite cool




Trimmed off the excess...





I know what your are probably thinking... aluminium foil... LEDs... gotta be a short circuit waiting to happen?!?!

Well... thats when my good friend Black Tape comes to the rescue!



There we go... LEDs nice and snug and secure, as well as properly insulated! Job well done! thank you Black Tape!

So... onwards with the wiring and quite a lot of soldering

First the resistors...




Half the LEDs are red and the other 10 are amber / yellow. Each set of 10 is effectively 5 "series resistor pairs" in parallel....

Does that make sense?

Any ways... once everything is wired up we have something that lokos like this...






And now... the so called money shot!!! MWOOOHAHAHA!





Gotta admit im feeling rather smug right now as this looks even better than i could have hoped for! The yellow is slightly bolder in real life but the camera hasnt quite done it justice. I was expecting a dark patch in the middle but the whole thing lights up like a beauty! cant wait to see it with the protective wrapping and tape off... but worried it will get scratched so that stays on for now!

Now i got a question... ive got the kit coming tomorrow to (hopefully) make a pulsing circuit which i was going to have for the power LED... but the girlfriend suggested i have this whole window pulsing aswell? what do you guys reckon? Im not convinced as im worried the different rating of the two LED types might not fade at the same rate and so may look a bit odd...

Anyways - Thats me done for tonight i think.


Adios!


Mark

NIIICE!!!

Great work on the window!
In regards to having the window pulse - I'd say "why not? - DO IT! "
Maybe incorporate a switch in to turn the pulsing off if required (epileptics in the room will thank you for it )

Keep up the good work dude!

Just remembered...

I was so excited by my acrylic arriving this morning i forgot to open another box that arrived at my door this morning.

Say hello to the Scythe NCU-1000 Heatlane Zen passive CPU radiator!




Sorry about the crappy image quality... having to use phone camera as digi cam batteries decided to die earlier today.

This thing is BIG!




Here it is dwarfing a stock P4 cooler...




Seeing as im only running a 1.7 celeron and its only a media PC setup in this system i reckon i should be just about ok! lol.

Also in the box was an Aerocool X-Static 80mm fan which im gonna stick in the PSU in place of the stock fan. Im playing with the idea of having that as the only fan in the machine... with this beast of a heatsink stuck on the proc. and just the slightest of air currents it should be ok... if not then onto Plan B...

and Plan B goes by the name of...


"Thermaltake A2330!"




but mounting that thing in the case im using might be a little tricky.... we shall see


Watch this space!


Mark

That windows really looks cool, and WOW, that heatsink is big