Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
I'm more worried about running over it with my office chair ;)
Just a quick update while I wait for the city-link driver to actually find where I live this time :rant:
I've finished the 4th Undercoat layer, yep I'm not so much painting this PC more lackering it :mrgreen:
One thing to note here, if I had to do this over I would deffinately not use this redoxide primer again.
It's spirit based which is always a hassle cleaning up after, it's far too thick which lead to a stippled effect on the surface after each coat with the roller :( and the final surface is a little too plasticy for my likeing.
If I had too to use it again, I think thinning it down with white spirit would help improve it, although it has worked really well on the balconey railings.
While waiting for city-link yesterday, I did a couple of experiments on the front pannel, I mixed the copper acrylic with some red and yellow acrylic I had (1 part copper, 1 part red, 2 part yellow) and tried this mix out on the grill.
It went on the front ok as the surface is slightly rough, but on the smooth vanes of the gill it didn't (also colour was a little too yellow) :shocked2: so I got the drimmel out and had a play with some of the differnt heads to try and roughten it a bit.
The wire brush head seemed to take the smooth surface off without causeing too much damage but it wasn't easy and takeing too long. A soft sanding disk (it's bits of fine grade sand paper cut into circles, not the solid sanding disks) took the surface off ok but eat into the grill and couldn't easily get to the whole vane (they are angled)
It was all a bit tricky and fiddly (quick Bad ASCII art diagram)
back of grill > front of grill
_/l
_/l
_/l
if that sort of makes sense, the front has slots in it to form the grill, the vanes off the slots angle out from the front then strighten, makeing it almost impossible to get the drimmel head flat against the vane to tak off the surface.
I ended up doing it buy hand, with a bit of rolled up sand paper, while keeping an ear out for city-link
:censored:
I next tried a mix of 1 copper, 1 red and 1 yellow, this was a bit too red for my likeing but it covered the newly roughtened surfaces well so I stuck with it and once a couple of layers of stright copper paint have gone over it it'll be fine. :)
Well 5:30 rolled around and still no city-link :mad:
applogise for the bad mouthing, but they've really pissed me off, I wanted to sand down the case, but didn't want to risk going out onto the balconey incase I didn't hear the door I'm still mad as I find myself doing the same thing again today (and if you read any stories in the news about a driver who's had to have an AtoZ and satnav surgically removed you'll know what's happened today)
Back to the case
I ended up sanding down the case at 7pm :rolleyes: managed to get it all done before the sun set.
I've found that from my packet of sand paper I bought (actually emmory paper) the grain sizes are called number 2, number 1 and number 0/3
For sanding down this redoxide paint, the 2 is a bit too scratchy, the 1 worked better for smoothing off the stippling, followed buy the 0/3 to remove any scratches.
Even though I was useing my rubber sanding block I kept being too heavy at the edges (I had bear mettal peaking through after the sanding on the first 2 coats) so I used some masking tape to mask off the edges to stop me oversanding them.
Also found that the plasticy nature of the redoxide would clog the sandpaper very quickly, but used wet it gave far better resaults. :) Also produced a red paste as I worked so had to wipe down and add more water as I went.
After this fainal undercoat sand it's pritty smooth and I took the whole thing into the shower to give it a really thourgher wash and rinse (I wiped it down and rinced it with a bit of water after the other sands, but it would still leave a powedery coating to it (wipeing a finger across would show it on the finger), the shower worked well and I applied a quick thin coat of black Acrylic with a normal wide paintbrush (as both my roller heads are now cloged with redoxide) it's now matte black, patchy with streaks of redoxide showing through. but considering how thin and watered down a coat I used it's a very good resault from that paint.
A few more coats and it'll be a nice solid black :)
and it only takes 20-30min to dry unlike the 16hours of the redoxide coats. ;)
Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MrP
(was about 18" high, 18" long and 12" wide)
Reminds me of a episode of bottom :D
Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
nice!!
I think that is really a re badged compaq server case. I can tell you the old compaq server cases where VERY well made, shame about the stuff they put in them really.
Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
Well with the new bit arived I've been hacking up my case a bit more.
I cut two holes for the usb connectors in bothe the plastic and metal mesh.
Another hole in both for the Sharkoon Light tube power switch
and two holes in the mesh for the light tubes so they are not restricted.
It now looks like this
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...se_front02.jpg
With power
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...se_front03.jpg
Closed with power
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...se_front04.jpg
currently the girll is just painted with my orange/copper mix, I'm hopeing that with layers of pure copper paint it should be far more reflective and the light should shine through better.
I did originally plan on haveing the light tubes at the edges of the grill, but I cannot put the left one there as the hard drive cage is riveted to the front there.
I didn't expect the Sharkoon to come with a power switch but I discovered it fit just nicely once I'd hacked a hole in the plastic frontage. :D
I'm sure I ment to order a 4 led coolermaster fan but I think I ordered the Xcilo 4led fan by mistake.
Well that the one on my order and I received. never mind, it still works and glows better than the 1led fan I had before.
However just like the 1led Xcilo fan it vibrates it's frame something rotten when it's on, which causes a really annoying buzz.
However as can bee seen it the first pic, I've cut up a couple of hairbands and used the to tie it on tight, also use some of my rubber speaker feet I mentioned a couple of posts back, so the fan is held off the case by the feet and held on tightly by the hair bands.
It worked a treat, I could barely hear it over the 80mm fan in the PSU I hooked up to test these bits. :D and that's running at it's max speed.
Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
My eyes!
looking good mate :)
Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
Ta all. :D
Another quick update.
Because I think just a plain black box looks a little boring I'm adding some detail to break it up a bit.
I've used some thin Patern card, it's stuff you get in big rolls for makeing clothes paterns, I used it as my girl friend had a load of off cuts so it was to hand. ;)
This is what the final detail patern looks like. (also added a 2nd thin coat of black)
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...e_detail01.jpg
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...e_detail02.jpg
After a couple more coats of black, I'll paint the raised detail strips in copper.
Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
All it needs now is wings!
z
Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
Finally very very almost finished :D
all the case painting is done, (I've only roughly backed out some of the case internals (left drive cages grey) 2 more coats of black and coppered every thing that should be copper :)
Here's how thr front pannel looks, I'm holding it up to the light which reflects off the copper well.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...se_front05.jpg
Just to clarify the light is directly behind the pannel and is reflecting through the angled grills ;)
Now I started putting it all back together again.
I've used a Glue gun to mount the rear sharkoon, it worked so well I didn't need to bother with any screws which was great as the holes didn't line up quite correctly. :embarrassed:
after that I thought I'd try the glue gun on the side pannel Xcilo, it worked a treat.
However, yes there had to be one, even though I'd used my foam feet on the fan and glue gunned around the edge the glue is carring the fan frame vibration onto the side pannel, so I'd got buzzing again and I could feel the vibrations in the side pannel quite well with my hand :(
So I had to remove the side fan, which proved harder than I expected (that glue gun works very well :) ) Once off and all the glue pealed away, I mounted it with elastic hair bands, same as the front xcilo.
Still a very slight buzz when connected directly to a psu (ie full 12v) I should be able to tweak the buzz away once it's hooked up to my fan controller. ;)
I also glue gunned in the motherboard tray and the 2 front lights.
This is how it's finally looking (just got to put all the components back in and extend the wires of the power switch, pwr & hd lights and USB connectors)
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...e_finish02.jpg
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...e_finish01.jpg
Sorry about the bad photos, this camera really don't not like the matte black finish of the paint. :(
EDIT: Also got to sort out the Akasa Pax mate sonud proffing.
Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
hey mate,
GOOD JOB bud, just want you to know how interesting it is to read about your project. keep on the good work. I wished I had the time and space for it.
Cheers
Re: What do you think of this case? (project)
Thanks MightyMouse :D
And just for thoes intrested, here's the inside of the case.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...e_inside01.jpg
I've stuck the Pax mate on the side pannel, bottom, top of main area, also the top and other side on the top area. (ie above and behind the PSU in that pic)
I've still got one large sheet of pax mate, which I'll probably cut up and stick on any flat surface I can ;)