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howdy
short introduction, my name is joey, im 20, i live in indiana, im a computer
technician, i have always been into computer mods but i never actually did a
complete project my self
long story short, i was in the shop one day and ran across an old gateway (dont
remember the model name), the lady didnt want it anymore, and no one in the shop
wanted, but i decided to take it just for the heck of it. (all the hardware was
surge damaged so the only worthwhile thing was the computer case). i decided this
was a great oppurtunity to use the case to do my first mod!
check out the peice of junk here:
i thought about it for a while and came up with what i wanted to do. build my
girlfriend a kick ass computer! and yeah this was the perfect time, her birthday is
coming up in october.
i decided to build a love machine. the kinda computer that would last >.<
here's the work log so far:
here's the front panel of the gateway, im sorry but the cow box has got to go
tape it up
and i did the dumb thing, took a round sanding bit to it, haha, then i filed it
down
then sanded it down, i know i messed up, but i made up for my stupidity later on
bought a sanding block and sanded the crap out of those pits, wee! after this
picture, i cleaned up the sanding with some 1000 grit and lots of elbow grease
moving to the craptastical front panel, i decided it needed a new look. i didnt
take a second to think about it, vinyl dye to save the day.
my first time dying
didnt know what to do with the button, but i taped it up and painted it anyways. i
figured if im going to use it in the final deal, might as well be black, because
the front panel that attaches to this panel was going to be pink.
paint dat button black
and everyone else too
they all came out looking really great!
now its time to work on the attachment panel. i wanted it to be pink, and couldnt
for the life of me find any pink vinyl dye. i was going to make it red, but i
figured that would just throw off the uniqueness of this project.
so lets primer this thing, its gonna be painted anyways
primer primer primer, i did 4 coats of primer, and sanded with 220/320 in between
coats. each coat was allowed 2 hours to dry. this was the first time i ever layed
my hands on a can of paint.
troubled by how i was going to do pink, i complained to my best friend how would i
ever find pink plastic paint... he brought to my attention how model cars are made
of plastic, and model car paint comes in tons of colors. unluckily i live in
connersville, a small ass town with very little selection of ANYTHING. perfect
logic told me white and red made pink, so i went to walmart and bought a model car
spray paint kit. i was in luck, this was going to work.
ok so here's the colors i used to make my own pink.
next it was time to choose what to cut into the case. i've never used a dremel
before, and didnt know how complex it would be. but i knew i wanted a heart shape.
i went looking on the internet to find what i could possibly put on the side. i
ended up finding a cool looking tattoo logo. i modified it a bit and then
photoshopped it at 300 dpi on a 8 x 10. the 8 x 10 took up almost all the surface
area of the case so this was the perfect application. printed it out and started
cutting out with an exacto knife to make a stencil. here's a pic of the logo
after cutting it out, i had to find the perfect placement. after finding where it
would work best, i taped it on the case and proceeded to trace the stencil directly
onto the case.
reading tons and tons of tutorials, i found that you really needed to mask down the
parts of the case that were not going to be cut. the best way i could do this with
such a complicated pattern was to just tape over it all, and once again cut out the
patterns outlines with an exacto knife.
she's all taped up and ready to go.
meanwhile, mr. attachment panel was recieving its first coats of pink.
lookin good
ok so here came the daunting task of using a dremel for the first time, and using
it on metal. man, i learned a lot doing all of this. but here's me starting to cut.
so far so good
i used lots of discs, cuz i think i have the wrong ones. but i must have used at
least 60 of these discs with this dremel
so i finally finished cutting out all the holes 3 days later. it was a lot of work.
dont forget to wear a painters mask while doing this. the metal flakes form into a
powder cloud in the air, and if you breath it in, its not a good ffeeling. luckily
i don't know this from experience, because i did it the safe way!
the cut out, finished. my first dremel job >.< (sanding and filling later!)
after 4 light coats of finisher, the panel is done. and it came out with the
perfect texture like i wanted. not too glossy, and not too flat. yay!
another good shot of the cuts
and...
the panel assembly (finished)
more to come soon, thanks for looking.
and just for your information, my girlfriend knows nothing about this project. so
yeah, this is a suprise at the moment! >.<
short introduction, my name is joey, im 20, i live in indiana, im a computer
technician, i have always been into computer mods but i never actually did a
complete project my self
long story short, i was in the shop one day and ran across an old gateway (dont
remember the model name), the lady didnt want it anymore, and no one in the shop
wanted, but i decided to take it just for the heck of it. (all the hardware was
surge damaged so the only worthwhile thing was the computer case). i decided this
was a great oppurtunity to use the case to do my first mod!
check out the peice of junk here:
i thought about it for a while and came up with what i wanted to do. build my
girlfriend a kick ass computer! and yeah this was the perfect time, her birthday is
coming up in october.
i decided to build a love machine. the kinda computer that would last >.<
here's the work log so far:
here's the front panel of the gateway, im sorry but the cow box has got to go
tape it up
and i did the dumb thing, took a round sanding bit to it, haha, then i filed it
down
then sanded it down, i know i messed up, but i made up for my stupidity later on
bought a sanding block and sanded the crap out of those pits, wee! after this
picture, i cleaned up the sanding with some 1000 grit and lots of elbow grease
moving to the craptastical front panel, i decided it needed a new look. i didnt
take a second to think about it, vinyl dye to save the day.
my first time dying
didnt know what to do with the button, but i taped it up and painted it anyways. i
figured if im going to use it in the final deal, might as well be black, because
the front panel that attaches to this panel was going to be pink.
paint dat button black
and everyone else too
they all came out looking really great!
now its time to work on the attachment panel. i wanted it to be pink, and couldnt
for the life of me find any pink vinyl dye. i was going to make it red, but i
figured that would just throw off the uniqueness of this project.
so lets primer this thing, its gonna be painted anyways
primer primer primer, i did 4 coats of primer, and sanded with 220/320 in between
coats. each coat was allowed 2 hours to dry. this was the first time i ever layed
my hands on a can of paint.
troubled by how i was going to do pink, i complained to my best friend how would i
ever find pink plastic paint... he brought to my attention how model cars are made
of plastic, and model car paint comes in tons of colors. unluckily i live in
connersville, a small ass town with very little selection of ANYTHING. perfect
logic told me white and red made pink, so i went to walmart and bought a model car
spray paint kit. i was in luck, this was going to work.
ok so here's the colors i used to make my own pink.
next it was time to choose what to cut into the case. i've never used a dremel
before, and didnt know how complex it would be. but i knew i wanted a heart shape.
i went looking on the internet to find what i could possibly put on the side. i
ended up finding a cool looking tattoo logo. i modified it a bit and then
photoshopped it at 300 dpi on a 8 x 10. the 8 x 10 took up almost all the surface
area of the case so this was the perfect application. printed it out and started
cutting out with an exacto knife to make a stencil. here's a pic of the logo
after cutting it out, i had to find the perfect placement. after finding where it
would work best, i taped it on the case and proceeded to trace the stencil directly
onto the case.
reading tons and tons of tutorials, i found that you really needed to mask down the
parts of the case that were not going to be cut. the best way i could do this with
such a complicated pattern was to just tape over it all, and once again cut out the
patterns outlines with an exacto knife.
she's all taped up and ready to go.
meanwhile, mr. attachment panel was recieving its first coats of pink.
lookin good
ok so here came the daunting task of using a dremel for the first time, and using
it on metal. man, i learned a lot doing all of this. but here's me starting to cut.
so far so good
i used lots of discs, cuz i think i have the wrong ones. but i must have used at
least 60 of these discs with this dremel
so i finally finished cutting out all the holes 3 days later. it was a lot of work.
dont forget to wear a painters mask while doing this. the metal flakes form into a
powder cloud in the air, and if you breath it in, its not a good ffeeling. luckily
i don't know this from experience, because i did it the safe way!
the cut out, finished. my first dremel job >.< (sanding and filling later!)
after 4 light coats of finisher, the panel is done. and it came out with the
perfect texture like i wanted. not too glossy, and not too flat. yay!
another good shot of the cuts
and...
the panel assembly (finished)
more to come soon, thanks for looking.
and just for your information, my girlfriend knows nothing about this project. so
yeah, this is a suprise at the moment! >.<
