Hey there people!

So exams are over! YAY! and apart from trying to reduce the horrific amount of debt i am in i have absolutely nothing to do for the next 3/4 months! Oh yeah!

So - what should i do to occupy myself? hmmm... i don't know... maybe mod some stuff?? Hell yeah!

This is the start of something that i have been planning for some months now... to the detriment of revision at times i must admit but you will have to bare with me as the major part of this project cannot begin until i move into my new place. Until then however i have some 'Pre-project projects' that i think will be a bit of fun

So... C.I.A.D. you ask? well... thats going to be kept as a little secret for now but suffice to say that the scale of what ive got planned is actually a little daunting so i hope that i haven't been a little premature in starting this worklog lol

But i haven't just started a worklog to tell you that i am going to be doing something... my (imitation) Dremel has been active so let me introduce you to;

Project C.I.A.D - Mouse mat

I've just plashed out on a decent mouse - the Genius Ergo 525. I'm fed up of my budget wireless piece of poo running out of battery, jumping all over the screen and refusing to even work unless there is direct line of sight between it and the base so im going back to USB. This mouse had some decent reviews and as i couldn't justify splashing out on a £50 mouse i snapped one up for £22 YAY! (Plus it will match my new keyboard ive got coming... )

So... my nice new mouse deserves a nice new surface on which to live wouldn't you agree?

My current solution is far from ideal - being my desk... so i took inspiration from this thread which i saw a few months ago and was mightily unimpressed with (Big there Defyant) and set about making my own.

First off the ingrediants...

This is where i think i may have been a little clever... clearly the most important part of a mat is the suface itself. So that was my main concern. I couldn't find anywhere that sold anything that seemed suitable ad was getting a little pi$$ed off that i wouldn't be able to make this mat. So... i did what anyone would do... went off to Woolworths (kinda 'Sells a bit of everything' shop in the UK) to buy crap loads of sweets! lol. Well.. just so happened the sweets were next to the cooking utensils and there, on the shelf was a Teflon baking tray!!!! Think about it... Its already an incredibly low friction surface, its got a flaky metallic surface (or at least the one i found does) so reflectivity should be good... it seems perfect!

Thats right.... one bag of pick 'n' mix and a baking tray please/1

So.. the ingredients;



1x Baking tray
1x Leftover sheet of aluminum
2 x Regular cloth, foam backed mouse mats
1x A4 2mm plexi
1x Bag of 1.8mm white LEDs
1x Bag of 56ohm resistors
1x USB phones charge cable
1x itty bitty sockets for said cable


Now i had to figure out a design. I'm not a fan of MASSIVE mouse mats, or square mouse mats so i came up with the following shape... if you dont like it then tough! lol It just about fills an A4 sheet so you can get an idea of scale.




Transferring that to the baking tray and a while later we have a mouse mat shaped hole in the tray. Thankfully he baking tray is just aluminum i think with the Teflon coating as a film applied. Made cutting it out fairly easy





Repeat the process with the aluminum twice and once with the plexi gives a nice collection of bits




Check that surface on the baking tray! It's just SCREAMING for a mouse! lol

The Aluminum and plexi had another appointment with my jigsaw and ended up looking like this a short while later...




This gives you an idea of what im aiming for... from the top; Baking tray, Al, Plexi, Al and then there will be mouse mat base to provide the friction needed. Bit rough and ready at the moment but nothing a bit (read: a LOT) of filing cant cure hehe




Over night the two layers of aluminum and the plexi were epoxied together. The next job was to create the internal lighting arrangement. My overall colour scheme for C.I.A.D. is going to be black, metallic (silver) and 99.99999% of the lighting is going to be white. Therefore white LEDs!

Arranged in a cluster to try and make as even a light as possible. 8 LEDs in parallel. They will be running off the USB 5V line.




And incase you have never seen an LED lit up before...





Now thats done i had to polish the inside edge of the plexi so the most light possible travels out to the edge. Out comes the mini files and the secret weapon... Brasso! Bit of elbow grease later and we have a very smooth and very shiny edge. Im sure the LEDs will LOVE it! lol





That's about it for now. The baking tray layer is currently being epoxied to the al,plexi, al sandwich. If you saw my Compression tower from Project Offspring then im sure you can imagine what that looks like! lol... Being the end of term there are some freshly purchased Fosters crates just perfect for weighing stuff down with lol.

Im hoping to finish this off tomorrow... not looking forward to the amount of filing Ive got to do but hopefully it will be worth it


Right - me done. Hope ive wet your taste buds a little


Mark


ADMIN: Could someone please change the title so its all in CAPS? i'm sure i typed it as C.I.A.D but seems to have come out as C.i.a.d.

Much appreciated (I'm anal about stuff like that... lol)

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Looks awesome so far. Sounds like you have a lot of good ideas.

Man if youre putting this much into a mouse pad... i cant wait to see it really get into full swing! I'll be watching this one close for sure

Man that really is a great idea for a mouse bad one thing that would bring that whole thing together is you have to have and i mean have to is a perfectly smooth plexiglass finish and if you could do that you could sell that idea easy or atleast sell them good luck on your awesome next project

You mean around the edge? Yeah - im aiming for it to be totally smooth... gonna take a lot of filing and sanding though, but its not like ive got much else to do at the moment! lol

Thanks for the comments guys


Mark

Had a nightmare today...

I was grinding the edge of the mat down to begin the smoothing process when my dremel slipped and sliced a nice big groove right down the front of the baking tray surface... through the 3 layers of masking tape i had applied in case of just such an event. DOH!

So... not only did that mean that i had to rip apart the top layer (not an easy job i can tell you! epoxy glue does NOT want to unstick!) but i also noticed some crappy areas around the edge of the main sandwich section.

Short version is - i pulled the whole bloody lot apart, did some better prep sork on the sandwich part and have re stuck that. I think i gota better spread of the epoxy on the layers this time which should give a better finish at the edges.

Going to let that dry for a full 24 hours before sticking a second baking tray top layer to the mix. Need to pick another one of those up forst though! grrr...

Anyway... im not in the best of moods after that little event but i suppose its not real modding unless SOMETHING goes wrong... lol


Mark

AWW man! that sucks!

I've been waiting for another project from you dude - this looks like it's going to be a winner (you've also given me a GREAT idea - it'll be a while until I can put it into motion though, but that's cool )

Can't wait to see the full C.I.A.D. project

As always your enthusiasm is greatly appreciated there MasterP

Thanks for the kind words.

I'm also intrigued as to what this idea of yours is... care to share or is secrecy the name of the game? lol


Mark

Quote: Originally Posted by markwalker84 As always your enthusiasm is greatly appreciated there MasterP Thanks for the kind words. I'm also intrigued as to what this idea of yours is... care to share or is secrecy the name of the game? lol Mark

Well, I've been in need of a mouse mat for a while, but I'm also having issues with my desk setup...

Seriously, your project has only just given me the idea - I'll be planning it a bit more (as well as doing work on the PR tribute case, a review and a video project first) before doing anything else....


*sigh* I need more hours in the day and an extra couple of days in the weekend

Quote: Originally Posted by MasterP Well, I've been in need of a mouse mat for a while, but I'm also having issues with my desk setup... Seriously, your project has only just given me the idea - I'll be planning it a bit more (as well as doing work on the PR tribute case, a review and a video project first) before doing anything else.... *sigh* I need more hours in the day and an extra couple of days in the weekend

Know the feeling there...

Earlier this evening i was just saying to myself... so ill watch a bit more TV, do some dinner, have a bath then settle down for some more HardCore Hitman action...

Well i only just got out the bath and havn't had any dinner yet... its 11:30pm

Oooops!!!! lol

They REALLY should invent the 30 hour day... im sure i could be a lot more productive! lol

You mentioned PRTC etc... but whats going on with AEROSPACE dude? that was looking to be something a bit special... that just on the back burner for now? You had better be planning to finish that one off!


Mark


P.S. Just noticed.... 500 posts is approaching.... exciting stuff!

Quote: Originally Posted by markwalker84 Know the feeling there... Earlier this evening i was just saying to myself... so ill watch a bit more TV, do some dinner, have a bath then settle down for some more HardCore Hitman action... Well i only just got out the bath and havn't had any dinner yet... its 11:30pm Oooops!!!! lol They REALLY should invent the 30 hour day... im sure i could be a lot more productive! lol You mentioned PRTC etc... but whats going on with AEROSPACE dude? that was looking to be something a bit special... that just on the back burner for now? You had better be planning to finish that one off! Mark P.S. Just noticed.... 500 posts is approaching.... exciting stuff!

Hahaha - gotta love the student lifestyle!
Yup - Aerospace03 will be getting done too - I'm having issues getting materials at the moment - I also need some nice weather to make some progress (it's winter here and don't really have a workshop)
It'll happen... trust me

Anyways, enough of my babbling - looking forward to the update once the glue's all dry and you've been to woolies (get gnarly on the pick-and-mix too dude )

Ok... ive got a very serious message to give.

Don't ever... EVER... EVER try and use a jigsaw after a day on the booze in a lame attempt to impress your house mates with how uber-awsome your modding sKiLLz are! Horrfiic things happen...

Such as sawing straight through any mouse mat mod projects that might be on going as well as any nearby dining tables that said mouse mats might be resting on and also taking chunks out of nearby cordless phones that might decide to just be in the vacinity...

In short... ive had a nightmare! lol... The whole thing up to this point is now in the bin as i was sooooo pi$$ed off this morning i chucked the lot in a rage... so no death pic im afraid. It was not pretty though However... im not totally disheartened... i went straight out today and bought a new baking tray! and ive got a fresh piece of plexi just waiting to be cut up. I think i am going to change the design slightly and not have the aluminium in there if i can get away with it (Mainly because i dont actually have any left... but thats a minor detail! lol)

Anyway... thought i would share my stupidity with you. Feel free to laugh, point, abuse or whatever - i deserve it

Ill keep you updated with whats going on but until then the power tools are staying locked away whenever i go out drinking!


Mark

Damn dude this mod hasn't got off to the best start!

Looking forward to seeing some updates. I suggest you lock up your tools when finished with them!

Well you know what they say...

Things can only get better! lol


Mark

I can see it now.... Dremel is going to start making breathalyzer-enabled tools... all because of you, Mark! You should feel proud.

Quote: Originally Posted by FunkyStickman I can see it now.... Dremel is going to start making breathalyzer-enabled tools... all because of you, Mark! You should feel proud.

but seriously, that sux man. just means you have an opportunity to improve on your original design (if it could get any better). great idea, can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Awwww man.
Sorry to hear about that - at least you were boozy though

*thinks of my ton of sober modding screw-ups*

Well, heres' to CIAD rev 2.0

Wey Hey!

Well - sorry its taken so long to update but ive been kinda busy lately. Anyways... after the disastrous events that we wont talk about may i present...

C.I.A.D. - Mouse mat Rev 2.



Apologies for the crappy pics at first - having to use phone camera.

So... one thing that my mistake taught me was that it is far easier to stick layers together BEFORE cutting if you want a smooth edge... so...

Step 1. Stick together Perspex and Aluminum
Step 2. Cut out internal lighting section
Step 3. Polish internal edge
Step 4. Stick on baking tray

And then you get something that looks that that.

Next step is to cut out the main mouse mat shape and then polish the edge of that... LOTS OF POLISH!!!

The steps for polishing i used were;

60 grit wet and dry
180 grit
400 grit
800 grit
Polish

I use Brasso style metal polish which comes on a rag-in-a-tin... tear a bit off and rub... As you can see i used quite a lot of it!



Next job was to fix both the LED cluster that i managed to save from Rev. 1 and the power socket into place. Once that was done i used double sided tape to fix on a layer of thin high density foam which would act as a base layer. This shot also give you an idea of the final shape - i cleverly forgot to take a pic after cutting that out.



So the next pic is of the base of the mat. I thought the foam alone would provide enough friction but it wasn't quite good enough so i searched round the house and found some non-slip mats... you know that kind of thing that? Can just place one on your dash board and then put your phone on it and it will stay there... no matter how bad the road is! lol...

Well any way... cut one of those up and stick in place... this mouse mat isn't going anywhere!



And so she is finished!

quite a brief account of how it was made but im sure you get the idea... not rocket science after all

Enjoy some pics!



Check that edge.... I swear my arms are twice the size after the amount of polishing i did! lol



The surface is beautiful for gaming on! Ive actually had to turn the sensitivity down a bit as the mouse just glides effortlessly over! Its really smooth and quiet... love it P.S.... thats my sexy new mouse aswell... Genius Ergo 525. 2000dpi Laser mouse, really good buy! I'd recommend to anyone looking for a new gaming mouse (The drivers are excellent aswell!)

So... enough of the boring pics... plug the cable into the mat and the other end into USB and away we go!







My only slight complaint i have is that because the perspex is SO clear every slight imperfection in the surfaces are amplified by the light... also... the glue pattern is visible along the horizontal, flat surface, where the perspex has been stuck to the aluminium... If i were to make another one of these mats i would make sure i used a perfectly clear drying glue, or even better - a more liquid based adhesive rather than epoxy. However, it still looks pretty cool and almost give the perspex a bubble look - which is pretty cool! so not all bad at all

I would also consider frosting the edge of the perspex to give a different look - i nearly did but i like the smooth perspex contrasted against the shiny polished metal... looks rather even if i do say so myself

And finally - sitting in place at my desk




So - thats stage 1 out the way...

But hold onto your hats boys and girls as this project has only just started!

I am moving house 2 weeks today and after that (As soon as i get my first £££ from my summer job) C.I.A.D stage 2 will begin


Mark

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That looks really sweet Nice skills there, mark!

Well done dude!
That looks FAN-TASTIC!