(March 30, 2010)
Hehehehe... the snow on the ground was the 21st.... my frikken birthday! "YAY ME!"
20th was stunning.... 21st was a blizzard, go figure!
Hey there all!
Ok, first off, I want to share a neat trick that I did this weekend. Some of you may have done this, but I did not know about this. I was talking to my neighbor across the alley, and was explaining my plight of needing to go into all of those small holes that I drilled for the LEDs, and file them all down. He just looked at me and very matter of factly said, "You need a 1/2" drill bit or something significantly larger than the hole, then just use that and deburr those edges off."
*blink.... blink*
Two or three turns was all it took! I had ALL of the holes on the panel deburred in less than 5 minutes!!!! If you are drilling a lot of holes, save yourself filing time, and cut those edges down using a larger drill bit! Wow! Saved me a TON of time and frustration!
Now... on with the updates!
Back panel. It had this massive, extruded metal grate that was pushed out about a 1/4 inch from the back of the frame... that had to go!
My trusty Craftsman rotary with the flexi-shaft attachment.... just waiting to bring tha' pain!
Cutting this off was blissfully easy. Simple little straight cuts....
After filing it down and removing the slight humps left over from the cut steel
I primed it (scuffed this piece prior to priming for a little extra durability):
2-3 coats of flat enamel later...
Went to work on the top and bottom pieces the next morning. A couple of different looks of the masking that I put in place. The inside of the case will be a matte black enamel. The outside will be a matte black, but it will be rubberized.... so it will have a different appearance. And we ALL know, *nothing* stands out worse than 2 shades of black side by side!
So, this was my attempt at keeping the inside black separate from the outside black:
Painting on the tops with the aerosol Plasti-Dip... ooooooo!
The case has 2 major plastic pieces, the front bezel frame and the top sculpted "hood" that covers the fans. Ths fan covers are plastic reinforced across the fan holes... with a speaker type metal mesh grille that is overlayed. Well.... anyone that knows me knows for a fact that those crosses of plastic are outta here!
The speaker grille type metal was tabbed in place, with through tabs that were bent to secure the grilles. Bend up the tabs, and slide out the mesh.... tadaa!
Here you can see the mesh removed, and the vacated holes that the mesh tabs would have fit through.
After the preliminary cutting work on the center cross supports, you can see the 4 corner parts that need to be filed down on each circle.
Break out the wide, rounded hand file. Right one was done for comparison purposes.
Closeups of the non finished hole:
and the finished hole:
The front bezel needed disassembly and I brought it inside while I made a glass of tea. In the pic, you can see all of the front bay covers removed. each bay cover has a foam filter insert.
I then started masking out the bezel. Here I am using line tape. This thin masking tape can be found at autobody paint shops or online. It just so happened to fit almost perfectly, the narrow width of the light rod space. There was no way to remove the light rods without possibly breaking them, so I needed to mask them:
This picture likely better shows why I am doing what I am doing. I lit the LED's to show you what I am trying to cover up and keep from getting any kind of paint on.
After getting this piece all masked off, I went to work on the window frame panel. The window needed to come out in order to allow for the Plasti-Dip to be sprayed. This window was tab locked in place:
Bending the tabs up, allows for the removal of the installed window:
A lot of painting later:
And I let everything start drying.
On Sunday I came out and started putting the frame together and here is where I stopped:
and
I am not putting the top on yet so that I can have unfettered access into the case while I work on the component placement later!
I had painted the front bezel with the masking, and I knew it was going to be tricky. Remember, effectively, I am painting with rubber paint. I cannot let this stuff sit too long, else the rubber will start forming and the masking pull will be wrecked. Well... I waited too long on the first attempt! I have not had a chance to reshoot the front bezel, but I will this weekend hopefully!! I also need to cut the slots out of the top to allow for the light pipes to protrude.
I also came up with a really cool idea for a hard drive cage... but will need to sketch it out to show you the plans!
More as I have it!
-=TD
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