A Sneak Peek...............

[RoundEye]

...........here's a few pics of my next modded case. I've been working on this on and off since last December. It's a Lian Li case with a whole bunch of mods to the case and cd-rom.

The paint is what's been holding me up with the cold weather. The works, wet sanded, painted, clear coated, wet sanded, hand compounded and soon to be waxed. I hope to have it all finished within the next two weeks.

Check out how shiny it is. :D

http://members.cox.net/tallyho13/shiny.jpg


I even painted the inside with fleckstone.

http://members.cox.net/tallyho13/fleck.jpg


I pulled apart the cd-rom painted it and I have another secret little mod as well. :D

http://members.cox.net/tallyho13/apart.jpg

[Ken]

In Spanish you would call that "romper cabeza", or "head breaker"! That is how they refer to a puzzel! Which is what you have there, a jig saw puzzel!

That case is lookin' good! When did you say that you would be in Fla...? :D When you come be sure to bring your case mod tools! :eek: Good job bro! It is lookin' good!

[XSeaNX]

so you could help me paint the front bezels on my drives so it doesnt look amateur? cause that case looks like it CAME like that....definately a good job.

I want to match my brush aluminum case...but I dont know if I should coat the paint with some kind of protectant? or leave as is?

[RoundEye]

I've been to hell and back with this case. At first I was going to polish it. Well I had to sand off the anodizing first, and let me put it this way, it was HARD anodized. I bet I sanded for two weeks. Went through about 45 sheets of sand paper. Well I couldn't get the anodizing out of the little holes in the front bezel, so I decided to use oven cleaner. Easy Off is absolutly the best paint remover I have ever used and I've tried a lot of them, including aircraft stripper. Well the Easy Off took off the anodize BUT if left millions of pits in the aluminum. After that it was impossible to sand smooth again. Man was I ever pissed! :mad:
I had already polised the tops and sides, almost to mirror perfection.

I was going to buy another case, but after my wife mumbled something about "yeah, and I'll cuts your nuts off if you do" I decided it was best to keep the family jewels intact and buy some paint instead.

When I decided to paint it, I put some paper on the floor in the garage and started painting. Well I got the red on, went inside to wait for it to tack up for the second coat and when I came back out the wind had blown trash onto it from underneath the garage door.

Pissed off RoundEye Part II :mad:

So I sanded down the damn thing again! This time I put a small table in the garage and laid a piece of plywood on it. I put the case parts on top of the plywood, to get them off the ground. Then I wet the garage floor and outside of the garage with the garden hose. I'm still wondering what my neighboors were thinking when they seen me watering my yard and running in and out the garage with the hose at two in the morning. :D

just imagine, this was all done with spray cans and lots of Rum and coke. :2cool:

[RoundEye]

Originally posted by Ken
......In Spanish you would call that "romper cabeza", or "head breaker"!......

Ken, I'm curious, so does that make the old tv show Romper Room a secret code word for Head House?

[mvern2]

where did u get a mod kit like that? Me want one too!!

[BaLa]

that's sweet, when r u going to start selling some of your cases?

j/k...

would be hella expensive..

[RoundEye]

Originally posted by mvern2
where did u get a mod kit like that? Me want one too!!

Are you talking about the tools? That's not a kit, just some of my tools that I've aquired over the years.



Bala, thanks. I may actually try and sell this pc when I'm finished. Depends on how much money I can get for it.

[XSeaNX]

the exacto knife is the only thing there thats even remotely exotic...the rest are just regular tools (IE scissors, screw driver etc etc)

you can get the exacto knife at any hobbyist store or even a hardware store....really come in handy when you have something cut to PERFECTION.....sharpest blades Ive seen in a while :eek:

helps get inbetween stuff too or helps even out or remove paint or sharp edges...etc...

[RoundEye]

Originally posted by XSeaNX
.........the exacto knife is the only thing there thats even remotely exotic...the rest are just regular tools (IE scissors, screw driver etc etc).....

Actually the Exacto knife is the most common, I got that from Wal Mart. The large green screw driver is a 75th anniversy Snap-On, which probably can't be found anywhere. The small dark blue screw driver I got from Sony of Japan, got that when I was working on cam corders, used to get those microscopic Philips screws out. The scissors are Fiskars, one hell of a pair of scissors. The hemostats and pick I got from a guy here in the French Quarter that sells surplus medical supplies.

[XSeaNX]

lol roundeye....you know what I mean....as in regular tools....most people have screw drivers scissors (I have those scissors) and everything...not a whole lot of people have an exacto knife kit...its different.

I just bought a nice 61 piece set toolkit from radioshack...bought it for a couple different reasons but the soldering iron was definately a plus....and it was only 10 dollars more than the 14 piece set.....and I got 10 more dollars off for the store I went to....great buy for me

[RoundEye]

Originally posted by XSeaNX
.....lol roundeye....you know what I mean.....

:D

[tHE_0ne]

nice color

make sure you can add fans in your case :D

[newbie1]

cool , never seen someone take apart a cd-rom like that and put it back together:D, i should try that some day

[RoundEye]

:D I'm getting closer :D




http://members.cox.net/tallyho13/pc1.jpg






http://members.cox.net/tallyho13/pc2.jpg





http://members.cox.net/tallyho13/pc3.jpg

[mvern2]

cool!!!! i like the window mod on the top so that u can see the inside of your CD-RW drive i think it is...way cool dude!!

[XSeaNX]

nice job...you guys are making me jealous...I think Ima have to deck my case out with cool mods...

any tips for cutting windows into an aluminum case? I have to cut a hole for the fan and possibly a top window...but Im afraid of nicking the metal...should I cut from the outside or the inside?

[RoundEye]

Sean, what I did to keep from scratching the case was I taped (masking tape) news paper on it where ever I had to make a cut.

Made my outline on the paper and cut it slowly. After the cut was made I went back over it with a flat file. If you don't want to make the edges of the hole square, don't cut all the way to the edge. After I made the outline that I was going to cut, I then used a dime to trace the round edges with. After I made my main cut and filed it, then I went back and rounded the ends with a Dremel.

I happy with the cuts, to me they look like a laser cut. :D

[DiskDoc]

Originally posted by RoundEye

Bala, thanks. I may actually try and sell this pc when I'm finished. Depends on how much money I can get for it.


Sell it to bala or yos, you might make a fortune outta this. LOL


by the way, case is looking awesome.. keep up the good work, if you need an extra hand, holla at me. I'll be right over to help you out.

[DiskDoc]

disregard the last sentense, i see that you're already done with it! argh...

[YARDofSTUF]

Originally posted by DiskDoc



Sell it bala or yos, you might make a fortune outta this. LOL



why would i want to buy a comp and nt build it?



besides i got enough lol... for this month lol

[BaLa]

If I could afford it I'd just take the modded case but labors and stuffs is expensive...
would be cool as heck though..

[DiskDoc]

Hey guys, I say we start working on something similar to that one. RoundEye is on the GO! way to go bud. Say.. where did you get the temp readers? I want those... Hook me up wit summin like that... Never saw those in the stores nearby.

I have this 100% aluminum case that looks just like the one round eye modified. might be just the right one for us to mod but we outta try a different one don't you think?

[RoundEye]

I wish I they had these Lian Li cd-rom bezels when I started making my case. I just happen to have the cd-roms that they make them for. This place is where I get my Lian Li stuff from (http://www.so-trickcomputers.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=S&Category_Code=LL).


Sony bezel

http://www.so-trickcomputers.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/li-li_cdrom_bezel_C2_lg.jpg

Pioneer dvd-rom bezel

http://www.so-trickcomputers.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/li-li_cdrom_bezel_C4_lg.jpg

[DiskDoc]

Great... thanx a lot.. will give that site a shot and see what i can get out of it.

[RoundEye]

:DWe almost there boys!:D

...oh, and did I forget to mention I put LED's in the CD-ROM?... :rotfl:

http://members.cox.net/tallyho13/cdrom.jpg

[DiskDoc]

looking good

[drdoug99]

Very impressive work Round Eye, as usual. :eek: you did all the paint work with normal spray paint?? Total quality work man...that's sweet.:)

I like that fleckstone paint on the inside...it really gives it a unique look..:cool: