Le moddeur Jeffrey Staphenson, de son pseudo SlipperySkip, a accepté de faire pour le forum de Modding.fr un Ask Me Anything.

Expert du travail du bois et des esthétiques vintage, il nous parlera de son travail, et répondra à toutes vos questions.

Vous pouvez voir son site perso --> ICI <--


Quelques règles cependant :

- Cet AMA est ouvert à tous, tous les membres même très occasionnels sont encouragés à poser ici leurs questions !
- Vous pouvez poster en anglais et en français, je m'occuperai de la traduction.
- Dans les posts contenant une question, merci de mettre celle-ci en valeur (par exemple en la mettant en italique ou en gras)
- Les réponses seront peut être un peu noyées, merci de regarder si l'on a déjà répondu avant de poser une question.

Cet AMA sera ensuite transformé en une interview collective qui sera publiée sur le site de MFR. Etonnez nous par vos questions !

Some rules : This is an open AMA : all the forum members are warmly encouraged to ask Jeffrey about his work. You can either post in english or french, I'll translate. Please put your questions in italics or bold so they're easily seen. This AMA will then be transformed into some sort of collective interview and released on the website. Amaze us with your questions !

Bon jour. My name is Jeffrey Stephenson. I have been designing and building custom cases as a hobby since 2002. My work has always been more popular in Europe than in the US. I have great respect for French design and fashion and am always seeking constructive feedback. Here are some examples of my work:








Demande-moi n'importe quoi. (how was that?)

OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU ARE MY IDOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Wood and I love vintage. I have a project with a fifties radio. His name : [Projet] Projet 2 : ????? (I haven n't got a name and the radio ... )

But (because I haven't got the radio) I'm in a my thrid project : [Scrath Build] Projet 3 : l'ex tonneau

Hey Slip', welcome aboard

AM Modding a écrit :OH MY GOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU ARE MY IDOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Wood and I love vintage. I have a project with a fifties radio. His name : [Projet] Projet 2 : ????? (I haven n't got a name and the radio ... )

But (because I haven't got the radio) I'm in a my thrid project : [Scrath Build] Projet 3 : l'ex tonneau

Thanks! A lot of my designs have been inspired by 1930's radios. I won't modify an actual vintage radio because you can get into real trouble with radio collectors. They are fanatical. Clocks from that period are also a source of inspiration. A French Bayard clock was the inspiration for my Pico Bayard.

Thanks for posting!

Soo ! I'm starting ! Where are you from Jeffrey ? When did you take up modding ?
Btw Dang i like soo much your Mondrian Mod

What lead you to working on wooden PC cases ? Are you a carpenter maybe, or is it just two hobbies in one ?

I've read some of your worklogs when I began to be interested in modding some years ago ^^

Badidzetai a écrit :Soo ! I'm starting ! Where are you from Jeffrey ? When did you take up modding ?
Btw Dang i like soo much your Mondrian Mod

I'm not really "from" anywhere. My father was in the military and so was I so I've moved around a lot. I've lived in Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Omaha, San Diego, etc, etc. I'm currently living in the backwoods of north Florida near the Suwannee River.

Back in 2002 VIA invented the mini-ITX motherboard and I bought one right away. There weren't any cases available for it so I squeezed a system into a wooden desktop cigar humidor, like what an executive would have on their desk. VIA saw what I did and invited me to display it at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Everyone laughed at first at the "silly" thing but we all began to realize that having a stylish computer sitting on your fancy desk wasn't such a bad idea. VIA invited me back to CES five more times after that.

Mondrian was fun to build. I was experimenting with exposed heatsink case designs where the CPU heatsink has direct access to external air. For Mondrian I was using a low-profile Scythe Kozuti heatsink that had its fan mounted underneath the fins. I wanted to hide the exposed heatsink so I thought embedding it into a geometric grid design (like Piet Mondrian's art) would be kinda cool.

Tesla a écrit :What lead you to working on wooden PC cases ? Are you a carpenter maybe, or is it just two hobbies in one ?

I've read some of your worklogs when I began to be interested in modding some years ago ^^

At first I was purchasing wooden boxes to modify into computer cases. I was gaining skills from that and building up a tool collection. I eventually started designing and building my own boxes from scratch. I hate spray painting and the humid Florida climate makes it nearly impossible. Woodworking allows me to work year round by using brush-on finishes like lacquer and teak oil.

I'm not a carpenter or a real woodworker. I don't have a shop or power tools other than a Dremel and a cordless screwdriver. You might notice from my worklog photos that I work mainly from a folding table on my deck. I have close friends who are master cabinetmakers and I've managed to pick up some good info from them over the years.

I have authored 14 project logs since 2006. Instead of posting them everywhere I post to three modding sites; one in Europe, one in the US and one in Australia. I also have them posted to a private forum I keep for backup purposes.

Yeah, the backup forum idea's great !

Where do you take inspiration from ? What/who are your influences ?

Badidzetai a écrit :Yeah, the backup forum idea's great !

Where do you take inspiration from ? What/who are your influences ?

I had worklogs scattered over 7 forums. No place had all 14 logs so I decided to gather them up in one place. Now I don't have worry if a site goes out of business or bans me.

At first I would search "art deco" and "machine age" on eBay for inspiration. I admire designers from The Great Depression era. You would think that they would be more conservative during hard times but instead they took huge risks and made some amazing things. Radios were the perfect size for a mini-ITX system so those designs translated well. My first scratch build was inspired by a Silvertone radio from 1938.





That was built in 2004. A more recent example was Addison based on a Canadian radio design.





I have in recent years started using Pinterest to seek inspiration. I have a specific folder named Inspirations where I park photos of things I find interesting.

https://www.pinterest.com/slipperyskip/inspirations/

I like building my own original designs but just like being in a band you have to learn first by doing covers.

Years after years, still on Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/fkim45hj ... ey-stephe/

Tesla a écrit :Years after years, still on Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/fkim45hj ... ey-stephe/

Thanks. I have equipment sponsors and this is the sort of thing you wish for in order to make that relationship work. Corsair gave me a H5 SF water cooler. I made something compelling with it. Forbes mentions the water cooler in the article. Everybody wins. I get free stuff, Corsair gets media attention and Forbes gets interesting content. Rinse. Repeat. Been doing this for 14 years. I get to spend my money on expensive high quality building materials instead of computer equipment that I don't really need. My agreement with sponsors is that I never sell their donations. I still have everything ever given to me.

What are your plans for the future Jeffrey ?
Edit : one more question,

Why wood afterall ? What are the constraints it brings up when talking about PC cases, what about heat dissipaton and resistance ?

Hi slipperyskip,

Great to meet u, many members of this forum talk about ur work and effectively it's very impressive and awesome !
I saw u use many type of wood and maybe u got one favorite ? (Mine is pine because it's esay to work it and a great strenth).
Actualy I work on a project with this wood and three of my planks get curved, maybe u have a advice for amator ?
Else, I live in Corsica (the island in south of France) and wood here was during centuries a material used for make many tools, some of them look like art (seach "ancien outil corse en bois" and "ancien outil corse" for some example maybe on these tools u go found a inspiration ?

Thanks for reading and again, it's nice to meet u !
Best ringards, Skalex

I would not have thought about that thin but it's fitting our needs. Thanks for the advice, I stay tuned on this topic !

Cat121 a écrit :I would not have thought about that thin but it's fitting our needs. Thanks for the advice, I stay tuned on this topic !

There's nothing gained from using thick pieces of wood unless you plan to use your case as a step ladder.

Do you have any "Special treatment" you put on your pieces of wood ? (ex to protect them from humidity, decolouring, etc.)

+1

Badidzetai a écrit :Do you have any "Special treatment" you put on your pieces of wood ? (ex to protect them from humidity, decolouring, etc.)

I paint the interiors with a thick coat of water-based latex paint to seal the wood against humidity and to provide some sound deadening. Here is the interior of my latest...

Because I''m using thin woods there is always the possibility that I'm building a guitar body instead of a computer case. I try not to do that. The thick latex paint helps minimize noise amplification.

For the exterior I like to use semi-gloss brush-on lacquer but sometimes I use a teak oil finish. Tropical woods like mahogany and sapele can look pretty good with an oil finish.

hello
I need your help. I would like to protect wood but are keeping crude appearance and matte color. I do not know what the wood but you can see there http://www.modding.fr/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1&start=60.
You would know a product that works ?
Thank you

AM Modding a écrit :hello
I need your help. I would like to protect wood but are keeping crude appearance and matte color. I do not know what the wood but you can see there http://www.modding.fr/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1&start=60.
You would know a product that works ?
Thank you

Protect the wood from what? Guessing from the photos I would say it some kind of cedar which is best left unfinished.

Protect from humidity mainly

AM Modding a écrit :Protect from humidity mainly

Cedar doesn't need to be protected from humidity...or anything. I use it to build outdoor furniture.

Ah it's great I did not know ! Thank you very much !

AM Modding a écrit :Ah it's great I did not know ! Thank you very much !

You can tell if it's cedar by the aroma. You might have to lightly sand a piece to get a good whiff.

When I sanded it is true that generated a very characteristic smell but I can not tell if it was the smell of cedar (for I do not know )

Well, this might help you :



Even if I am not sure about the accurate fragrance