Okay, a long time ago i posted a thread about painting flat ide cables an i mentioned i was planning a teardropped shaped case. Long story short i got into airsoft and that took all my money so i couldnt go ahead with my plan. Skip forward to know and im a few hundred quid in the black so i decided to resume the project. Orignally i was going to use carbon fibre but the price of it has quadrupled since i first posted so instead im going to use cotton and give it a nice coat of satin black.

So! onto the design.


Sorry for this poor drawing but it looks better on the drawings on paper i have. Anyway as you can see the top is a teardrop shape, the red line is 10cm long which is the width of the PCI slot on the back of my computer. The small circle is where wires will be fed into the computer to be plugged into the ports (not all that practical but this case is primarily about design) and that window will be covered with white mesh to contrast with the black of the case.

If anyone can see any problems please dont hesitate to mention them, ive picked up some foam and some adhesive today so ill glu that tonight ready to start sculpting it tomorrow into a mold for the case.

Interesting, so from the side it'll look "normal" and boxy but from the top it'll look like a tear drop? That's quite a concept. Eager to see how you fit the components in and get all the IO in order without compromising thosee curves. Good luck with it.

Wow... ambitious!

Always good to see someone thinking "outside the box" quite literally in this "case" (Yes... i am truely the pun-master!!)

Good luck!


Mark

Short update:

Heres some pictures of me gluing together the ceiling tiles to make one big block.






The tiles were glued together with the adehsive thats supposed to be used to stick them to the ceiling, didnt have to use much of it as the block is eventually going to be covered in papermache and that should add to the strength. Tomorrow im off in search of a hot wire tool to cut the big block and the materials i need to papermache it.

I've "toyed" a lot with "papermache" in the past... mostly to make Carnival projects...I honestly don't
see how you are going to pull this off... have you thought of EMI shielding issues??
Materials like fiberglass & epoxy sound more appropriate....

But... you've got 'balls...and I like that... who knows.. you might suprise us! I really hope you pull this off!

Good Luck!!!

TDR

I would use it to make a mold or just the starting of a Fiberglass structure.... Not sure what you are going to do with a Papermache case... But hey... Its your vision...... good luck.. I will be watching this one.

Peace

Quote: Originally Posted by The Dragon Reborn see how you are going to pull this off... have you thought of EMI shielding issues??

They sell plenty of acrylic cases...

Quote: Originally Posted by Twizted I would use it to make a mold or just the starting of a Fiberglass structure.... Not sure what you are going to do with a Papermache case... But hey... Its your vision...... good luck.. I will be watching this one. Peace

Thats what i am doing. On mashies y2k bug worklog he uses the same process to make the body of it.

Keep up the great work..........

Cut out the foam today, im really pleased with how it turned out as i was worried i wasnt going to get a decent shape from the block. One problem though, i used far too little adhesive and so it started to fall apart when i cut it. This was remidied with gaffer tape around the mould, worked well. To finish off the shape and get the curves i wanted i used some coarse sandpaper which gave the foam a pretty decent shape. First layer of papermache is drying so i may or may not have the mold finished today!

Dude, that's awesome, I've never seen that done before! Looks like you did an excellent job on the shape too! I've not read the y2k bug worklog, but i just might now. I am wondering though, why the paper mache? I've never worked with fiberglass, but I'd guess it was so the fiberglass doesn't stick to the foam of the tile?

Quote: Originally Posted by Silent Rabid Dude, that's awesome, I've never seen that done before! Looks like you did an excellent job on the shape too! I've not read the y2k bug worklog, but i just might now. I am wondering though, why the paper mache? I've never worked with fiberglass, but I'd guess it was so the fiberglass doesn't stick to the foam of the tile?

If you look at the pictures of the tiles glued together they have lots of gaps between the tiles. The paper mache will make it smoother and im most likely going to coat it in some special paint my mum recommended to me to give it near perfect smoothness. I could have used putty of some sort but it probably would have taken more time and been more costly (newspaper, pva and water costs almost nothing).

I love it when a project goes from "so what exactly is this guy planning to do...."

and with one or two pictures its like... BLAM! "AHHH... now i get it! "

Awsome work here! +rep for something i havent seen before!

Loving it


Mark

Just to say i havent forgotten about this but ive suddenly be loaded with work and i have to fly out to germany on the weekend for a funeral. I will get round to this again soon though