Storm'd!

[Defyant]

sorry for the lack of reg updates guys!

i have been modding a lil but evertime i sit down to post the updats i find my self playing WoW with the son

heres a qickky few updates



A qik fix for an eject button for the dvdrw , same idea as used on persplexed ..but more stelthier looking.


the crom rom door is marked and drilled with a countersunk hole

The mod is all made from small hollow and sold plex rod.. a tiny button is cut

Finger sanded smooth

checked for fit

The sanded shaft is check for lenght

a back "stopper ring" is cut and glued to the main shaft

The front button is glued on and the e3xcess off the back of the shaft is meausred and cut away

Simple but effective

[Defyant]

Next was to move onto installing the swiftech mpc 360 mini pump!


a custom stand or bracket was cut and drilled for the pump to mount to...

This now allows the pump to sit in a the cdrom bay

[Defyant]

With the crom pump and matrix LCD out of the way!


was time to move onto what will be the "Storm Tunnels"

The idea of the Storm tunnels will be to not only look cool but to help deliver clean air to the centre of the case.


Originall i was goin to use clear plex 80mm tubes! but had a couple of add "Baddong" cooling ducts and thought i'd give these a shot.

I also like the colour!

the first idea was to make some custom adaptors to bolt the tunnels onto the fan!
then i relised that the fans themselfs could be modded to accept the tunnels.

The solution was to trim away some of the fans mounts allowing the Storm Tunnels to slide over the left over edge.

a qick few shots to show how they will work.

With the front Storm Fans bolted in the Storm tunnels will sit more apart'

[Defyant]

A custom Rear back plate will be made to secure the Rear Storm Tunnel Fans


Made from a measured and cut peice of 3mm tinted plex

Again! to keep intheme and give the Mod a finished look! some more custom grills are cut , hammered into shape and fitted in.

A hole is cut for the cdrom and pump the paper removed and the whole panel is Edge flamed.


again Hex head bolts are used to hole the rear Storm fans in place.

[Defyant]

One of the ducts is not sittting 100% , i'll take some time thru the weeks to see if i can PU a new one as that one was used in a previouse mod and was bent a bit out of shape.


But for now you can pretty much see the full effect.

[Defyant]

CONCEPT! / light testing!!


From the start the original idea was to have lightening bolts, 2 on the sides and 2 smaller ones on the top of the case and one on the inside on the motherboard cover.


after making the original "plex flames" idea , i knew it was possible! but...... while making the "Bolt" i came up with a much much better idea! stay with me!


a few weeks back i made what will be the "STORM'D" logo and bolt for the "off side" of the case.

The letters are plain bold..i didn't want anything too fancy to take away from the "bolt" wich will be the main side feature.





The letters were simply printed out then traced onto clear 3.5mm plex.

The "bolt" was drawn "freehand" on some scrap plex.

Over to the bandsaw to cut it all out

The "bolt" was a slow process! i'm not looking forward to doing 5 of these!!!!

But with a some patience and steady hand! it come out uncraked!

With the tape pealed off and a qick "frosting" almost look good! ( a good idea for anyone else! would be to do the frosting before you cut the pattern!)

Spread out with the Logo and the bolt this is how it will look on the side of the case.....


NB!! This is not the main side, this is the "off side" mother board side of the case.

And you have to imagine that this will be over tinted plex! so the contrast will be alot more effective then over the brown paper.

[Defyant]

Next was a few very feeble and sorry looking attempts @ trying to light the bolt up with LED's!

this was never going to work ....... the light will just not flow evenly along the bolt.

after a day on the "think"! ....i came up wth this solution!



using some old scrap EL wire from my old "light tubes" days from HP2 i thought about "channeling" the EL wire along the back of the smoked plex panel
under the The Bolt.



USING YELLOW SO NOT TO WAIST my BLUE stock of EL.

a scrap peice of smoked 3.5mm plex

The Bolt is placed on top and with a scratchmarker traced so to give me a chanel to grove

The using a simple round engraving top on the trusty dremal i groved the chanel for the EL stip to sit in.

Next was to press and just for now! tape in the EL wire stip down...the end result will be "Glued" as a more permanent solution.

Flip the mod panel over

lay the bolt ontop!

some light action!

[Defyant]

like i said! this is all trial and error stuff atm! and after playing arouns some more! i decided to ditch the external PLEX Bolt altogther!!!!

and go with just the EL stip under the Tinted plex!!!

This give a much sharper clean lightening effect, and in "BLUE" i think will look stunning.

Not content with just a single bolt effect im practicing "splicing" and re-joining the EL wire!

This will take some more practice as i need to shorten the contact area to get rid of the "dead spot" in the effect! but im sure with some more practice
and using the BLUE EL i should pretty much get it looking ok!

The funny part is! EL is noise sensitive!!! so you can imagine Zak and myself sitting round and making "thunder" and "Crack" noises to watch our lightening bolt flash

[Defyant]

update!!!


ok! after much deliberation on my part! i decided to still run the EL wire...but not to join as seen before.


this time i will simply run 3 bolts! that originate from the single source.


and will use some freshly brought Blue EL this time.

Using the same technique shown above a groove or channel is engraved in the smoked overlay outer panel.

the channel is blown clean

and the first of the bolts is layed in the channel and is temporarily taped in before more permanat glueing is applied.

All three bolts are layed in connected to a common power and a thin beed of glue is applied and allow to dry.

The original plex panelis then drilled to allow the EL wire loom to feed thru and layed over the smked plex and bolted down.

A sandwich effect where the EL sits between the 2 panels.

A qick "lights out" test shows how well the wirie contrasts behind the tinted smked outer panel.

Last but no least is to (for now) temp glue down the "STORM'D" letters and fire it up again

the beuty is that the EL wire is sound controlled!!! and flashes like real lightening.


Here is a small 800k avi file showing how the lightening flashes.

Ejoy

http://www.goatlan.com/noozl/MVI_9009.AVI

[Defyant]

to help case cooling ive decided to add a mesh grill right above the HDD, this will allow the HDD to run cool and keep internal temps down.

hole is also cut in the orig plex panel and is routed to allow the edge of the mesh to "sit down" and allow the top shadow plex panel to remain flush.

The mesh will "blend in " better once the brown paper comes off.