HTPC First mod of hundreds :)

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Well here it is, I've been planing on doing something like this for a while but never had the time or the drive and i suppose if I'm completely honest a little intimidated by the level of workmanship in these forums and weather a mod of my own creation would stand up to it.
But I'm jumping in head first and a little audacious as well, my first real mod and its a complete custom build so bare with me and if it looks like I'm doing something wrong don't hesitate on jumping in and telling me, I'm not to proud to take advice.
I know how you guys like your updates (i know i do) so ill try to keep them regular and detailed for you to get ya teeth sunk in wish me luck!


Parts.
Well this morning i got a delivery, it was my mesh from acryan an antec tri cool fan (on special for £2.50) and my sand paper so im still waiting for my file/drill bits/rivets and a few other bits.
A friend has lent me quite a few supplies until i get my own as well so thank you Bill much appreciated!

Aluminum.
Got a nice surprise a few hours after my delivery, got a phone call from the aluminum place they had my pieces in ready for me to pick up so again my mate bill flew me down and i was quite pleased with the bits considering they were from the scrap bin
The angle was from a well known D.I.Y store here in the UK costs me £11.50 30mmx30mmx2000mm not bad if i do say so my self

next my plans I'm no good with the sketch program, I like it by hand the good old fashioned way here they are if you can make them out.
the panel in beside the center face plate are either going to be aluminum plate or mesh I'm not sure yet and the corners I'm not sure how i want to do these all i know is i want to try and keep rivets off of the face to keep a clean look all the aluminum will be brushed as well by me.

but first of all and most important i have to clear this to make room for the work any one fancy jumping on a plane over to give me a hand
its a good job the missus is being bannister's from the room she would have me tidying up everything and leaving the room bare.

well thats all for now, be back soon when the real work starts next update ill be brushing the aluminum, clear coating it and measuring up for the cuts.

bye for now

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I got up this morning ready to go and this is the result


*****TADAA**** WORKSPACE

I fitted my emry paper to the rig i had made for brushing my aluminum, I had found a tutorial over on the bit-tech forums thanks to of the-gnu so thanks to him.

I set about work and straight off of the bat i new it was going to be far more challenging than i had thought, the aluminum sheet was larger than the sand paper sheets so it was a little challenging trying to avoid a defined line in the middle of the aluminum and i new this was going to be a learning curve for me.

Then about half an hour in DISASTER one of the nails holding the sandpaper in place came loose arghhhhh.... needless to say i was furious with my self and a few choice words were delivered in timely fashion

so!......

i managed to make it look a bit more presentable finished up the brushing and then this, how do you cut your self on sand paper lol!

enter the ghetto plaster

well this is it finished up ready for its clear coat, i tried my damdest (is that a word?) to get rid of the lines but for the life of me they would not budge

the pieces are all done waiting to be clear coated tommorow so ill be back then with some more updates

[Ouch!]

It's not a real mod, until you spill some blood on it!

Congratulations!

Ouch!

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your telling me i don't seem to be able to put my hands insides a pc case without cutting at least one finger on something.
im either really clumsy or it's a sign i should quit messing with cheap cases

***Update***

Today i got to an early start, this is the clear coat im using i got it from a auto parts shop at a reasonable price.

heres a quick shot of the aluminum after its been clear coated sorry there are not more/better pictures the memory card was full and before i remembered to snap some more shots id taped them up ready for marking.
The clear coat seems to give the brushed effect a more unified look and it seems to work as a mild concealer as well, it makes the metal a lot more forgiving to inconsistency's.

Then wouldn't you know it the battery's dies on the camera so i had to switch over to the phone so sorry for the lack of quality.
Heres the paper template i made so that i could cut the angles into the top brace section i was making.
Looks crude but i did not have anything to measure angles so the needs must

Here is the cut, looks like its spot on

its off! not much but enough to tell by sight all though it shouldn't make any difference to the angle of the bend
once both cuts are made in this way i went about making the bend.
Its amazing how useful old roms are

even the xbox rom is getting in on the act

time for some lunch this fr you guys

watered and fead i set to the task of cutting all the main posts for each corner and the strut bar i plan to use to help mount the psu.
I like to use the reinforced cutting discs as grinding discs its really good at removing material evenly

after some sanding with 100 grit and then 220 grit this is the result its a nice smooth edge, believe it or not mine is the one on the left
the one on, the right is the retail cut on the end of the piece of angle.

well that me done for the day, time to sit with the girlfriend,show her i know she still lives here lol!
not bad for a days work ill probably spend an hour tomorrow making sure the ends are nice and smooth and then move onto cutting in detail like mounting gaps for the psu and fans. then its on to cutting the mesh to size and working out the best way to mount.

on a side note our postman are on strike and im still waiting for supply's this could become a problem as there are supposed to be real bad back logs

[b4i7]

or both!


looks like a good project!

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need a little info if any one who looks in can help.
what the diamiter if a vandal switch the one with the lit surround around the button.

[b4i7]

straight from mnpctech

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thanks man now i can measure up and drill the copper

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ok update on the project.

Today i set about the task of cutting the mesh which turned out to be a bigger job than i had first thought, and now i realize just how soft aluminum is bloody stainless steel

this is what was left of the cheapo cutting discs at this point as you can see the pile is a lot smaller than the plastic tub which was full at the start.
It worked out i was getting roughly an inch a disc

as you can expect this was very depressing having to change the discs every minute or two.
so i cheated :o and bent it till it snapped but it was nothing a quick go over with the sand wheel on the old rotary tool didn't solve

so im up to this point and i decided to have a dry fit of the parts to see were i am work out were certain cuts need to be and just have a look at the overall progress and just what its gonna look like.

bad idea this is going to change the whole project ill explain

i used some masking tape and started to build the dry fit, the missus was sitting next to me watching and waiting in anticipation, i finish up and here she is.(keep in mind it is a rough fit and there are cuts needed to get rid of gaps and make things flush)

i looked at my girlfriend, looked at the case, and said "well what do you think"
she looked at the case looked at me and replied "i think it would look better on its side"

yes you can imagine i was not pleased lol! but i entertained the idea and up hinged it onto its side

well thing is i sorta think she is right grrrrrrrrrr , i have been looking it over and its not to hard to pull off with a little modification it isnt to far off the desighn cosmetically it will look the same as the picture just would need modified to mountings inside the case,

help me out guys i need some advice what do you think?

[crenn]

I think on the side looks better. But that's just me.