I would first like to mention that this worklog as well as all my other projects and reviews will be first updated on my website, so that will be the most up to date site on my project. Here is a link:
Power Packed PC

I have been debating with myself for a while, trying to decide what type of case I would like to do, a sort of theme to work off of, a central idea, etc.

Many of you may have seen my "IceCube V6" project. That was originally going to be my new case, and construction began on it. However, things were crude and my tools and skills weren't great.

I made a decent case, and it could house a computer, but it wouldn't be much greater than my case that I previously had, a Logisys UV Blue acrylic case. A nice case, certainly, but just not quite so unique as us modders always strive for.

So, I went back to the drawing boards. Car themed computer cases have been done before, and cars aren't honestly one of my passions. I have a passion for great performers and amazing circus feats, such as contortion, trapeze, juggling, tissue, etc. My favorite circus is Cirque du Soleil, which is translated to Circus of the Sun.

Many of you may have seen Cirque du Soleil before, whether it be in person or on television, I am sure you have been impressed. They are by far the most amazing group I have ever seen perform and I do indeed truly have a respect and passion for what they do. So, I decided on a Cirque du Soleil case.

I wanted this to be a dark and sort of mystical design, but I also wanted to make it completely transparent at the same time. I chose yellow acrylic with red cold cathode lights, provided kindly by Logisys Computer

I opened up SketchUp and began gathering a general idea of the case I wanted to build. Here is one of my original design drawings:





Now, with my design in place, I will need to begin mocking up components for the case to see how everything will fit and be laid out.

nice idea. Been to one of the shows in the Area. Amzing stuff they do. Cant wait to see what you do with this theme. Real excited and behind you all the way. Just ask if you need something. Theres always someone willing to help.

Welcome to PCApex!!!

That is a very unique idea. I would love to see what you have planned. Do you plan on implementing other aspects of the cirque in the case?

Sweet dude, very cool-looking mod. This should look great when it's finished

Welcome to pcApex.

I have seen Cirque du Soleil perform twice and was impressed each time.
This MOD should be intresting to watch unfold.

Very cool Idea bro!

I have always wanted to see one of their shows (as I only live a hour from one)

Can't wait to see some pics ::

WELCOME TO PC APEX!!!

Looks like you have a cool project in the works - looking forward to seeing it take shape!

Quote: Originally Posted by tybrenis I would first like to mention that this worklog as well as all my other projects and reviews will be first updated on my website, so that will be the most up to date site on my project. Here is a link: Power Packed PC I have been debating with myself for a while, trying to decide what type of case I would like to do, a sort of theme to work off of, a central idea, etc.

If you don't already know about this little thing called Folding@Home here is some info about it.


OUR GOAL
Understanding how proteins self-assemble ("protein folding") is a holy grail of modern molecular biophysics. What makes it such a great challenge is its complexity, which renders simulations of folding extremely computationally demanding, and difficult to understand. The Stanford group has developed a new way to simulate protein folding. However, this method is extremely computationally demanding and they need our help.
For more info about it stop by F@H's home page here.

With that in mind you should read up on our team Team PCApex linkage. It is a great way to help humanity and PCApec alike.

If you are the competitive type you might want to join up in one of PCApex's sub teams for more info on them check these links.

T2's Folding Army
Team Ups
Team Ator

Thanks for all the encouraging replies and feedback guys, I appreciate it all. If you haven't seen a Cirque du Soleil, I highly recomend it, they are quite good. I should mention that the case is about 3/4 finished by now, I am just posting this in chronological order.

As a side note, thanx for turning me on to SketchUp. It seems like a nice and relatively simple program to use. Now just to save up the cash for it $500.00 yikes!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by CheapToad As a side note, thanx for turning me on to SketchUp. It seems like a nice and relatively simple program to use. Now just to save up the cash for it $500.00 yikes!!!!

yes, SketchUp is a great program and there are all kinds of components and computer parts you can download for free for model use. I (didn't.....) steal SketchUp and certainly (did not....) get a serial number off of google.

Quote: Originally Posted by tybrenis yes, SketchUp is a great program and there are all kinds of components and computer parts you can download for free for model use. I (didn't.....) steal SketchUp and certainly (did not....) get a serial number off of google.

**Friendly warning** Be careful with your posts. People round here don't take too kindly to people who steal and flaunt it


CheapToad - check the trial download :
http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?title=download+page

Quote: Originally Posted by Masterp **Friendly warning** Be careful with your posts. People round here don't take too kindly to people who steal and flaunt it CheapToad - check the trial download : http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?title=download+page

No, I do not at all promote the illegal use of any applications, there is a free trial available that I highly recomend to beginners before they buy it.

Quote: Originally Posted by tybrenis No, I do not at all promote the illegal use of any applications, there is a free trial available that I highly recomend to beginners before they buy it.

Oh wow! That does seem like a really cool program. I will definitely have to try it out +rep to you and Masterp for the links and info!

Quote: Originally Posted by tybrenis No, I do not at all promote the illegal use of any applications, there is a free trial available that I highly recomend to beginners before they buy it.

Sweet as Ty, just thought I'd give you a heads up
Oh, where's the next update?? Wanna see how you've got on with this!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by Masterp Sweet as Ty, just thought I'd give you a heads up Oh, where's the next update?? Wanna see how you've got on with this!!!

Right here!!



I would like to thank everyone for the great support and feedback for this project, it is time for our next update.

In this episode, I will be mocking up the components using cardboard pieces and glue. It is quite simple to do, and if you are scratch building, this step is almost required. This just gives me a general idea of how big the case will be, what it will look like in the end, and where I should place the components come the real deal.

Here are our supplies that we will need:


1.) Hot glue



2.) Hot glue gun (Optional: Can be old and disgusting as shown in picture)



3.) Cardboard, not too thick to cut easily, not too flimsy that it won't be able to support itself easily.





4.) Decent, atleast vaguely comfortable, sharp scissors

5.) Components that you can use to size up your case - old cd rom drive, hard drive, motherboard, case parts, etc.

6.) Newspaper to protect your parts and work area (optional)

7.) Snacks

8.) Lots and lots of patience and free time

Okay, here are all of our parts and my current computer rig set up laid out on top of my ping pong table covered pool table in the basement.




Here are all of our supplies laid out:



Now, I dis-assembled my current case for parts to be used.






I removed the back panel from my computer case to be used to make a tracing so we will know where to cut for our PCI and AGP slots and place our motherboard I/O shield plate.




Next, I taped two pieces of paper together to make one continuous sheet to fit the back panel piece. Then I traced it and all the features of it.




Then, I cut out the insides of the sheet of paper and glued it to a piece of cardboard. The cardboard will later be cut out with an exacto knife, giving us an easily template to follow when tracing onto our acrylic to cut.




Next, I took my CD Rom drive and traced around the outsides to get the dimensions for my cardboard mock up. I cut out the pieces and glued my cardboard drive together.



Next, I followed the same procedure for my 3.5" drives, hard drives, motherboard, and power supply. Here are a few drives that have been finished, laid out.






By this point, things are starting to get a little messy. My table is covered in components, glue, and cardboard scraps, and my hand is covered in the little spiderweb-like glue.




Now, with my components all constructed, it is time for building the case itself. I should mention that this case layout is my original design for the case, it was eventually changed a bit. Nonetheless, the concept is still the same. Here I am gluing along a seem of the cardboard.



If you want to make circles or rings, it is actually quite simple. Here is our cardboard laid out for making the desired rings.



In order to bend the carboard for the rings, I simply rolled them along a pool stick. Yes, it is a little odd, but isn't that just the beauty of modding? You can use virtually anything. Remember to roll the cardboard nice and tight for a round effect, otherwise it will be square and blocky.



Then, simply glue the rings to fit the diameters desired. Here are our six rings, laid out.




Next update: building the components out of acrylic.

hmm as simple and kinda obvious as that sounds... i cant believe i never thought of trying that. gonna steal..i mean borrow that idea.

Alright, time for an update, finally. If you don't have time for this, read ahead until you see a big ***ACTUAL MODDING STARTS HERE:*** sign. With that said: I figure I had ought to tell the story that kind of goes along with the case, and pay my tributes. I have always had an interest in acrylics, and I have made small things with them in the past, but nothing too big. I always wanted to build an acrylic case, so I designed one, and questioned myself "why not"?

So, I purchased the necessary parts and components, the sheet acrylic, as well as some decent tools and accessories for working with acrylics. It wasn't anything amazing, but it was a decent concept executed in a decent way. My case was almost complete when I miscut some important pieces and everything pretty much fell apart.

After much debate and evaluation, I decided I was ready to start again. This time, I wouldn't ruin it. My dad has decent workshop experience and always seems to think things out a bit more thoroughly than I. So, I consulted him. What did I know, he does tons of business with a large, professional acrylics manufacturer and fabricator all the time.

So, he gave them a call asking if they had some scrap acrylic we could purchase. They offered to do a little more than that. Okay, a LOT more than that. MUCH, MUCH more than that. They made us an amazing offer, allowing me to come into their workshop for a day and fabricate a professional grade, high quality computer case using pretty much any tool, technique, or material on the market. I was thrilled, to say the least.

***ACTUAL MODDING STARTS HERE:***

With that said, I would like to thoroughly thank everyone at Trinity LLC (http://www.trinityinstore.com/) for the immense amount of time, effort, skill, and patience they put into this case for me. You couldn't meet a friendlier group of guys.

I would also like to thoroughly thank Steven Lin and Logisys Computer (http://www.logisyscomputer.com/) for providing parts for this mod as well as sponsoring some cold cathodes for lighting up our final product.

So, now, let's get down to business. We have our design down (for the most part, atleats we have a general idea), and the components have been mocked up with cardboard. All of our main problems have been worked out, and most the details are set. It is now time for building the actual case.

I arrived at Trinity early in the morning with my box of components and supplies. I spread everything out on my own *special desk* for the project.

I quickly laid everything that I needed out on the table.

My design drawings:



The case modder's bible (for good luck), Paul Capello's "Extreme PC Mods" book:


Now for the components. My motherboard:



My Drives (One DVD R, two hard disks, and one Logisys Digital Fan Controller)



Of course, the power supply unit, also a Logisys product:



Originally, I was going to fabricate the case using some pre-made parts. Once I got there, however, I realized that they could really make anything, so the pre-fab parts weren't necessary after all. None the less, I thank Logisys for providing them, they will definately be utilized.

Our drive bay collumns:



The acrylic corner pieces and the screws to go along with them:



And some basic items that you should never be without in a workshop: a tape measure, and a nice pair of Harley-Davidson work glasses, both provided kindly by Trinity:



A closeup of our eye protection:

With all of our parts and tools set out, it's time for the fun part: building it!

First, I took some time to get aquainted with my work area, though. Tim, the experienced professional I had the opportunity to work with the whole time first gave me a tour of the facility there. Three companies work together there in a joint operation consisting of Trinity, C & K Plastics, and Valley Extrusions.

As you can see by the next pics, they had plastics coming out of their ears:




In the far left of those pics, you can see my soon to be acrylic, covered in brown masking. First, we rough cut it on our massive table saw:



I was just too curious to resist. I took a piece of our scrap and peeled back the film to reveal our vivid color:



Once the dimensions were rough cut, we marked out our dimensions for placement of the motherboard, PSU, and drive cage:



Then, we cut out the stand-offs for the motherboard out of some scrap PVC:



Then, we got a measurement of the height of the motherboard with the standoffs installed, after being drilled and tapped:



Next, Tim records the dimensions of the front half of the case for bending:



Then, Tim brought over one of the heat benders he built and allowed me to snap some pics:



The left contact on the bender:



The right side of the bender:



The concept behind these benders is very simple, this is how they work:

A strand of nickel chromium (sometimes called nichromium wire) wire is tensions on a spring between two points. You run electricity through the unit and the wire heats up very quickly to a very high temperature. A wooden box is built around this wire with an aluminum channel immediately around it. This channel forces the heat to go through it, heating your plastic above. Here is a picture of the channel:



So, we marked our acrylic on the edges where we wanted the bend. Then, we just set the acrylic over the wire and lined up the wire with the two marks on our acrylic for the bend. Then, we put a weight down on it to ensure it didn't move. We turned on our hot wire, and allowed it to sit for a couple of minutes. The 1/4" acrylic heated in about 5-7 minutes.



We then proceeded to take the acrylic and clamp it into the angle we wanted, which in this case, was just a right angle. Tim already had a right angle bend built out of wood, so we just clamped it to that.



Then, we waited a little bit and allowed it to cool. Once it was cooled, we could then proceed with the next bend, or gluing it, drilling it, whatever.

Okay, we now have both of our pieces of acrylic (the front and the back), and we can begin routing out the back and front panels, and get started on our drive cage and PSU shelf.

Here is our motherboard mocked up with the back piece.



Now, our pieces will be routed, so we use some masking to cover the surface of the acrylic so it isn't scratched. We had to remove the previous masking for bending, otherwise the paper would have caught fire.



When we put our back piece and the front piece that we had bent together, they didn't line up perfectly. This is just because the front piece didn't bend quite all the way into a right angle, but this is okay. We put some vinyl tape around it, and that held it in the position we needed it. Then we finished masking the acrylic.



Now, we will begin creating a guide for the routing bit using acrylic scrap. First, Tim used a disc sander to round a corner to fit the aluminum back panel piece we will be using for our PCI slots and motherboard I/O shield.



We used double sided tape to stick the guideline piece of acrylic to our case. We used a few other pieces of scrap to continue our guide.



Finished!



Our case is now ready for routing. First, however, we look to the shrunken head for some inspiration.





Now, a hole is drilled into our area to be routed and the routing bit is inserted into the hole. Routing commences!



Scraps cleaned up:



A perfect fit!