Project: Weathered

[Duffman]

+Ok, Ive decided to go on with building a case primaraly out of copper sheets and tubes, I hope I bring some new ideas to the table....

-The Case itself will be like 2 cubes connected by a cube of acrylic, It will be thin and of medium height, hopefully less than 8" on the width and 26" on the heigth. The acrylic box will be 1/4" thinner than the copper sides and open for airflow and style

-The Case is held together by 6 tubes (copper if strong enough, steel if not) holding both the 2 copper cubes together by screwing the ends with thumb screws. This should make the computer easy to take apart. The mobo is mounted to 2 thin sheets of steel and then mounted to 2 of the brass tubes with standoffs. I want 1 large copper tube in the middle, not for any structural purpos(sp), but to hide the majority of the wires in.

-HDD's cage is canabalized from another computer, holding 2 HDDs, Probley mounted to the lower right hand side of the case inverted.

-The fans will be glued directly to the copper with some silicone super glue stuff i have, I think this will eliminate ugly screws and clutter. The fan grills will be cut directly from the copper and will hopefully look like those sweet heatkiller ones.

+-3 problems I see will be:

-Finding a copper sheet that is 22" x 36", might be a problem, I think I can get one special ordered from our store. If thats not an option, I will order one from seattle sheetmetal....hopefully...

-Lighting, I dont really know what would look good with copper. At first red, but then if its gonna turn green i might want white. I just hate blue and green lights....so played out.

-Case Strength, from what Ive seen and what Ive been told, copper can get pretty heavy, and a case made from it might buckle...

[Duffman]

A picture from what I have been doing all day during my employee training class... 8 hours of boredom...

http://img136.exs.cx/img136/7896/img06161rw.jpg

[Starbuck3733T]

I'm looking forward to this... very forward. If you play your cards right with lighting colors, you might be able to yelllow/red/orange with filters and come out with rust brown. Might look neat with the green petina.

[Duffman]

Thats a beast of a thought, I dont know if you can see it in the picture but i was thinking yellow tubes above the acrylic cube, and yellow or orange colored fans.

I have 2 questions, or thoughts....whatever...

-Do you think I should bang the copper up to get a texture effect? I think if I have lights mounted on the top hole it will make for a cool like....shading? It should make it look like it has alot of depth?

-Copper is the metal you can heat up to weld together? Since im cutting from 1 big piece and folding the sides in there will be gaps. I have a MAAP (sp) torch, this should be hot enough right? I think it would look cool if i could get the heat marks on the corners and stuff, and then turn it green, thoughts?

[Duffman]

Arrg, I was not thinking clearly, backlighting wont work when the light wont shine on it. errrrr....duhhhhh....

A craft store just down the road stocks the supplys to make the copper green. That wont be a problem.

Mabey its getting too late....But this would be a cool power switch ^_^

http://img170.exs.cx/img170/7641/untitled2vm.png

[Starbuck3733T]

Thats a beast of a thought, I dont know if you can see it in the picture but i was thinking yellow tubes above the acrylic cube, and yellow or orange colored fans.

I have 2 questions, or thoughts....whatever...

-Do you think I should bang the copper up to get a texture effect? I think if I have lights mounted on the top hole it will make for a cool like....shading? It should make it look like it has alot of depth?

-Copper is the metal you can heat up to weld together? Since im cutting from 1 big piece and folding the sides in there will be gaps. I have a MAAP (sp) torch, this should be hot enough right? I think it would look cool if i could get the heat marks on the corners and stuff, and then turn it green, thoughts?

I'm sure its doable. you might be able to get UV orange plexi and age it with the faux rust stuff, so that the light being emitted from it looks like glowing rust. Kinda like piloux HL2 mods.

You don't weld copper (welding is the process in which two metals are fused together to make one big piece of metal with no interface medium). You solder it, and MAPP gas should be hot enough to take care of it, providing it isn't too thick. I had to use my stove to heat it up (but it on the electric burner for about 5 minutes) but that was 3/16" x 6" x 4", so a big thick piece. You'll get effects from the heat and the solderflux burning off, but I wouldn't call them heat marks. Solder dripping down in the joins might go along with the look you're going for.

[Duffman]

Hmm, thanks for the info, so some high lead solder is on the list.

I was wondering, since the whole case will be primaraly copper, the whole thing will be a big conductor right? I was told there might be sound interferance issues?

[Starbuck3733T]

You might get some EMI interference. AFAIK, shielding has to be ferrous in nature (iron/steel (Fe)) so you might want to see if you can get some shielding tape if you run into issues. I can't see it being much worse than an all acrylic case though.

[Knipex]

If your case is connected to the PSU housing it will be grounded so you shouldnt have any problems.

In theory anyway... :D

[Duffman]

OK, I figure Ill just gut an old ATX case for its mobo tray, creativly dremel it into almost nothing, and then it should help separate it a bit. Thanks for the replys so far!

[Starbuck3733T]

Don't worry about seperation. Your mobo plate is conductive too and doesn't offer much in the way of EMI shielding. Unless you're doing it to make life easy when it comes to mounting the board and the expansion cards, don't worry about it.

[Pug]

Mabey its getting too late....But this would be a cool power switch ^_^

http://img170.exs.cx/img170/7641/untitled2vm.png Hells yes! :D
/me looks forward too. B)

[Duffman]

Uhhhhg......

Im having second thoughts. Turns out the large pieces of copper I need will run about 60 bones a piece, COST. Thats not counting the tubes and the fittings, So im thinking about $280 just for materials, For that I could build it out of carbon fiber and chromed fittings.

Thoughts? Input?

[duhwht]

Have you thought about making the plexi square run all teh way around the case , and building the main frame out of plexi as well and fastening your copper to that?
I imagine that would save on weight and then you could also use smaller pieces which seem to be much cheaper everywhere i looked.
Or maybe thought about brass , dont imagine that would be much cheaper or give that corroded look you want though , Unless you like tarnish :unsure: .

[Pug]

Uhhhhg......

Im having second thoughts. Turns out the large pieces of copper I need will run about 60 bones a piece, COST. Thats not counting the tubes and the fittings, So im thinking about $280 just for materials, For that I could build it out of carbon fiber and chromed fittings.

Thoughts? Input?
Copper plating?

[Duffman]

The sheets i planned on buying where like .050, really thin to begin with, and those were expensive, Im looking for scrap metal around town and mabey different materials, I always wanted to make my own case, I dont want the dream to die! :p

[Duffman]

OK, this project has risen from the dead.

I just finished stripping the majority of the 20 layers of paint of this coolermaster. Whippin the bondo out in a bit and filling impuritys.

What I ended up finding was a copper spray paint. Dont remember the manufacture but ill post pics when i find it. Going for a Copper/Yellow/Orange theme. Pics soon.

[Starbuck3733T]

we'll be watching ;)

[Duffman]

Need some help.

Picked up some indicator lights from work, and I need to know what Ill need to do to make them work...

On the side, it says: 125V(max) 1/3W
So I can use a PSU cable for the 125V, but how many watts does it put out? Its been awile since I was in electric theory in hightschool...

In other news, I stripped the paint off using a combo of Jasco Paint Remover, sandpaper, and razor blades. Primered grey and curing in my garage for a couple days as im writing this.

I filled in the power button, reset switch, and HDD light with bondo, and made a costom 5 1/2 plate in the bay to house the power switch, power consumption meter, and reset switch.

Bought the copper and the red paint, the inside will be painted red as well as some accenting peices, the outside will be copper course.

Pics as soon as I find my camera

BTW, dont get Jasco on your arms, OWWW felt like the insides of my arms were on fire, after seeing how it bubbled the paint up like no problem Im kinda scared what will happen to my hands, lol.

[Starbuck3733T]

the wall outlet will supply how ever many watts the breaker is connected to will supply. typically, 20A (that's how i wired my house). so 120Vrms * 20A = 2400Wrms (RMS = root mean square). Anynway, it'd be stupid not to advise that you NOT use 120V indicators inside your case. Flat out dangerous.

[Pug]

BTW, dont get Jasco on your arms, OWWW felt like the insides of my arms were on fire, after seeing how it bubbled the paint up like no problem Im kinda scared what will happen to my hands, lol.
Yikes! If that's the equivalent of our "Nitromors"... try & wear overalls & heavy-duty gloves man... that stuff burns. :eek:

[Duffman]

the wall outlet will supply how ever many watts the breaker is connected to will supply. typically, 20A (that's how i wired my house). so 120Vrms * 20A = 2400Wrms (RMS = root mean square). Anynway, it'd be stupid not to advise that you NOT use 120V indicators inside your case. Flat out dangerous.
Very cool, thanks for the heads up, looks like i got some returns to do.

The inside is red and the top is the copperish color, its been sanded and polished and waxed, its not terrible, but theres some rough spots, I need more practice before I can perfect the mirror effect with can paint.

I ordered 4 red LED fans and a MSI 6600GT from the computer store today, will be there tomarow. Hopefully I can find my dang digi cam, arrrgggg

[Starbuck3733T]

I should clarify what I said. The wall outlet in my example will only supply 2400W if it is asked to do so. Plugging 120V indicators straight into 120V wall outlet will not fry them, and i may have given you that impression.

[Duffman]

Uhhh, I was just gonna run it from one of the wires on my PSU.

(Im really confused now)