deathstarchris

CPU

Category

Case Fabrication

Status

Final Detailing

Deets

This was a milestone mod for me. It was being motivated by mods that I had seen and continue to see on the cover of this mag that pushed me into the medium itself.
Major props to the entire CPU crew and to their loyal modders as well.

Case Fabrication:
If there is one thing I can stress more than anything with complete fabrication is this, Planning, sketching, thinking, measuring, plotting equals 70% of the time.

Actual building is 30% You are not modding anymore Dorthy!
Finally figured that sprayed 2 part fiberglass urethane epoxy resin would work. Yeh, it was painful, but we finally figured it out. How much time you ask? The picture shows the 2 attempt. The first ate itself after 2 weeks of hardening. (Not thick enough)

I also found in the first attempt that sculpting two pound density foam was not going to work. I ended up using shoe box type cardboard and hot glue to build the model.

Then I had Travis at Forever Coatings spray his material on really thick. Gave it two weeks to harden, and then finally I had a place to start. After four weeks of sanding, I was ready for basic color base. Travis told me this stuff would become rock solid and believe me he was not joking.

I then started thinking about paint. I have been airbrushing for 18 years. Lately I have been painting realistic flames on everything. I needed a new twist. Spice it up. Fluorescent paint and black lights should really make this thing POP. Yeah that’s great for the outside of the case, but the inside too? Now we have something!

There were very minute changes that had to be made to the logo.
Side note, How many of you noticed the ‘P’ is the tallest letter in the logo? I had to stretch the logo vertically just enough to make the inner part of the ‘P’ to be a perfect circle so I could fit the “crowning jewel” the Logisys Stove Fan.

The fan arrived and I promptly took it apart to find out how it worked. Then came the shock, I can’t just slap this thing in there with transparent letters. You will see this square fan from a mile away. Ok, lets operate. Cutting was 1% of the time.
I will never do that again:)

Clean, came from wiring the fan and 5” fluorescent blacklight with custom made ribbon cable from and old Pioneer receiver I had blown up.

There are two acrylic tubes. One outer and one inner. The inner is attached to the back of the fan mount and a 5 inch black light bulb inserted into it. I needed to use a removable plug for the power to the fan and bulb, so I used a USB cable and modified the connector, so I can remove the entire letter assembly for easy access later. Had to have a cool bit of art, so a fluorescent circuit pattern was designed and painted on the outside of the tube.

Simple bent piece of acrylic made a nice stand and a place to attach the vinyl letters. I attached the vinyl to the rear surface of the material for wear.

PSU was a headache. I removed the can around the board and flipped it upside down where it hovers half an inch from the motherboard. Used direct attack from stove fan to cool psu. I really wanted it enclosed and not a separate power brick. Fluorescent bulb power supply and DC converter for that supply also attached to that mess. Main ATX power cable shortened to 2 inches. First gen Thermaltake dual fan heat sink added for nostalgia. These were great as if one fan died you had a back up.

Hard drive and DVD ROM fit perfectly! NO EXTRA ROOM, I’m not joking! Again a little more of that glowing circuit paint and that finished the look.