My name is Jeroenotje, you might already know, you might not. I come from the Netherlands, so if there's anything wrong with my English, you'll know why.

This is not my first worklog in English . There's one at Bit-tech.net and one at Gruntville.com. There are four dutch ones.
That's what you probably did NOT wanted to hear. What could be interesting is, we are going to have fun, HERE! Remember, a worklog is nothing without posting. So, here's the deal: I am going to copy one update a day from one of the other worklogs till it's all done. And you guys... Just reply and say what you think! Help is always welcome, that's what we are here for. That does also means, that if YOU have a problem with one of your projects.. Just let me know and I'll help you figuring out.

Here's a small discription of what's done before I started posted in English (I started the Dutch worklogs much earlier). That means, the first Update here. Enjoy!



So, it started out with a big Chieftec Full tower. I had to get that middleplate out. So, I used the Dremel.

That was one of my first Dremel tryouts. The other one was the PSU.

I wanted to use showerhoses for the powerlines. There are three of them, wich goes to a junction-box. The ATX-cable is just sleaved, wich goes directly to the motherboard. No big deal.

I also made a side panel for the 5,25" part of the case.

Satin black and a lot of polished metal, that would be cool. So, painted some parts.

So, here is the PSU assembled .

Backside also done:

And throwed it into the case.


Next part was the VGA-stealth. Currently an on-hold part of the project, I'll finish it later.

Yes, there is a 9800XT card in there. Cool huh?

After that, I decided to build a new PSU backplate, some holders for the PSU (wich are just foor the looks, not functional) and side shields for the PSU. All made out of alluminium (3mm). All taped off:

Made some details on it:

It all had to be polsihed up. Looks like crome, doesn't it?




After all that, I started with the sideshields for the harddisk racks.

Holders for all of these shields:

Sanded down and mounted (has to be polished up to).



So, enjoyed that part? Look what I am currently busy with. A 5" monochrome CRT screen, isn't that sweet ?

I am disassembling it now, does anyone has a trick to unmount the high-voltage from the tube?
Oh, yeah I am going to mount it in the front of the case, you'll see that later. And yes, it is working, however, the VGA-card does not detect it. So, I first have to plug in another screen to get a signal on the screen. I'll fix that later.


Replies are always welcome. Don't blame my bad English, if there are a lot of faults in it, just say it to me and I will fix it.

These are not all pictures of the work. If there are request for pictures, just say it to me and I'll post them. Don't be afraid to visit one of my dutch worklogs, I can always translate some things.
Let's start having fun !

No need. It's part of your character.

Looks real good so far!

To quote Eric Cartman "bad monkey , its bad, bad monkey *whilst beating a monkey with a stick*" I really think that what you are doing with the pieces of that CRT is really dangerous. If you can afford one, I suggest a 6" Alpine car LCD, it is ALOT safer. Now, as far as un-mounting the high voltage, no there is no really good way to do it. It needs the high voltage to power the tube (etc) thats why they have a beefy PSU, I love the capacitors from these things (I build rail guns ) otherwise, you are pretty much looking for trouble, charred parts and a one way ticket into the "Darwin Awards".

I tend to have to agree with ya there CD playing with that Extreme High Voltage. he may be the next episode of untold stories of the er. and the newest entry of the Darwin awards

I have never came across shower hoses being used as sleeving for power cables, but it looks very nice and is quite ingenious.

Thanks.
About that CRT, it's going to be shielded. You'll find out in my latest updates. I am not going to use a LCD in this project, I wanted this CRT, because it is so RETRO! So cool, I love this thing. Besides that, I never won anything.. So why not a Darwin Award? Lol. Oh, check out this lovely article .

Next Update. Hold on, here it comes .


Enjoy!

The original frame was crap! I had to disassemble it. This picture is made on a moment.. I was really scared. I could'nt get that suction-cup thing of, i was to scared, because of the high voltages. No toy for me I guess.

I was feeling like a.. Oh wel, I pulled that thing off . Fireworks, sparks, did my hair turned upwards? Nothing .
On the left you see the frame, wich you probably will not see back. In the middle, the PCB, on the right, the CRT.

Did I say nothing from the frame? Sorry, these holders from the CRT were just to hard to copy. Drilled them out and re-used them. Sorry.

Found a nice piece of scrap to make a plate to mount the tube onto. It's aluminium, 3mm thick.

Put it underneath it, draw it, saw, file it and..

Tapped some holes, mounted it all.

Just a beautifull picture:

Decided that this was the right place voor the cathode ray tube.

Got the dirty black layer of the metal. It was bad weather and the garage was full, so I couldn't use a sanding-machine to finish it.

CRT assembled, resting on an old piece. What a beauty! I love these old pieces of technic.

Quick fit! Fits perfect. How I am going to mount this thing? I was thinking about make a plate in front of it. Where the front of the CRT will pass thrue. The only problem was, how to mount that second plate? I'm working on that.

I am going to buy new optical drives (cd-drive is broken, and the dvd isn't fast enough), I already ripped of the fronts of these ones.

I am going to stealth all of it. There's going to be one big shiny sheet of aluminium where normaly the 5,25" drives fronts should be. A plate with some details, place for the CRT screen, small fronts for the sleds and buttons for the optical drives. And everything without screws on places you can see them. I want tou mount it behind the front panel. Sweet?! The 3,5" covers are going to be bondoed. Maybe I will place my USB ports there. Behind it I will have a space to put my inverters and electronics like that.
I am just thinking about a fancontroller or ledcontroller. Before I forget, the PCB from the CRT. I thought there would be more space uppon the optical drives. (It won't fit underneath them.) I think I am going to mount it underneath the upperside of the case.

Replies are more then welcome .

That crt looks great in the top. Nice entrance. The psu shields look good.

That is really awesome. It's really different and it's interesting how well it fits...like it was made to go there.

Welcome to the nation Jeroenotje. Ive been following this over at Bit-Tech, I must say I like the old CRT, I cant wait to see where you take Black Betty.

It IS made to go in there, LOL.


Thanks man! So do I! Time and money are currently the biggest problems. I will have time soon..kind of busy with school and stuff. But I hope I will get sponsored, someday...

I was going to make a sheet to mount the crt at the front of the case. That plate had to be mounted in front of the other plate. So the front of the crt should pass trough it. It had to fit exactly! That wasn't easy.

So here it is. Holes aren't tapped yet, and the big hole for the crt is not big enough.

After fixing these problems:

Oh yeah, I couldn't find four same size screws. Two should be perfect for a while.





Hm, doesnt seems to be much work done, however it costed me a lot of time. Wel, before is start going on, I have to clean my "workshop". To be honest, I need some help by mounting the crt frontplate onto the chassis of the case. This chassis is kind of weird. It has a lote of holes and pop rivets in it. Not so much space for screws to mount that plate. I think I am going to make some kind of a rail, where I can assemble the front plate onto. But how to mount that rail?

Casemodding has a lot of different sides. One of them is the workshop you are working in. For example, my working table broke down. I can't work on a table with only three legs. So, this is how I fixed it :
I putted the table upside down on the floor. Here's the leg:

An other leg, how it SHOULD be .

A part of the bolt is still in there. I'm going to drill all true the leg and I will put a bigger bolt just right true it. I guess that WILL fix it .

Done! Turned in a few small screws from the side for some extra stability.

Table back in place.



Meanwhile... I made a design for the shields behind the CRT. I came upwith something like this.


I had lot's of stuff to do. At the back of the front panel there are some notches. I filed down some holes at the plate of the CRT to make the front panel fit.



Mounting the plate was my next point. This is what I came up with:

Two small pieces of a angled profile. They are mounted by a big hole at the side, with a bolt an a nipple. Because the hole is to big, I can adjust the placing. I couldn't get a nice picture of it .

I finally had four same sized screws. I just wanted screws with flatted heads. I found some, so I flatted out the holes.

OMG! These screws didn't head the right bolt-tread. So stupid. And I couldn't find the right tap, to tap it down. So I putted the old screws back in.


Oh yeah, I needed that DVD-burner .

I do already have a design for the full front panel. You'll find out later.

Time for more small things at the case. I improved the holder for the junction box. I tapped all holes, and putted some bolts at the side, so that the holder can't move back or fore ward.


Now, the hardest part! I need to find the right place for the PCB of the CRT. Underneath the top of the case.


How about this?

Above it.

So, I am still not sure about it. You could say what you think is the best, if you would like.

Replies are again more then welcome!

I wanted to switch te mounting plates of the CRT. So, the little one before the big one.


That wasn't what I wanted. The front of the screen is to much forward.
The only solution was, to file down the big plate so that the front of the tube could pass more trough it. It fits perfect now!


Great moment, here's the sketch of the frontpanel! TAADAA!

This is what I had in my mind. I'm not 100% sure about the position of the buttons/small holes. It should be something like this.
I cutted a frontpanel out of cardboard. I'm going to make one out of alluminium .

Well, that's for later! First I have to buy a new DVD player, DVD burner and some plexi. Then we'll see .
Time for something.. I HAD to make! Well, REMAKE! So, what is it?

Cutted and drilled... What's laying next to it? Holder for the PSU.

I made a second one.. And I deanodised the back shield of the PSU. So what are these things? AHA! New holders for the PSU shields!
Ofcourse I need to bend them. So scratched some lines in the alluminium for that. Now I can see where I have to bend.

Ofcourse, My vise was to small for this. So this is what I came up with.

A piece of strong wood, the plate on it and a straight piece of strong steel clambed on it. So it can't move.

A hamer, a piece of wood and a lot of noise. With a beautiful holder as result!

Screwed the plate on it. I think I am going to use these screwes evereywhere in this project .

Second one!

In CASE!

From side:

Putted the PSU holders in there with some tape. This is the result I wanted to get! So much cooler then just two holders!


Progress shot, just for fun I guess .

So, these holders need to be polished up (shields to ) .

Remember, a worklogs get's boring without replies. What do you guys think of the new holders?

Looking real nice

Very interesting work so far.

Have you test fit a motherboard and video card to make sure those panels on the drive cages don't touch or interfere?