A twist on computer naming!

[Celeron_Phreak]

A twist on computer naming! :::COMPLETE:::

Since about a year and a half ago my main computer's name has been HAXOR. I upgraded last year to a new computer, but my old one only had the name for about 5 or 6 months. I decided to keep the name with the new computer and my old setup now goes by the name of Haxor-Jr. Otherwise, I do a name change for computers when a new case is brought into the upgrades.

Given the fact I plan to keep this Lian-Li V1000B for another year or two, I decided to give this case some character and brand it.

With a logo designed by shard, I went to work with Photoshop and a couple pictures of my case to get an idea of how it might look. After trying out several locations where I could have placed the logo and a few different experiments of "glass" types for the cut, a couple hours yielded me this result as a winner:

The next step was to figure out a way to transfer this logo to my side panel, preserving the straight lines. The answer to this problem… A stencil! I printed this up so it was the width of a printed document on an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper, then taped it to a sheet of thin cardboard. Following up by cutting it out with a steel ruler and an Exacto knife, this is the end result:

After stenciling it to the backside of the side panel using a #2 graphite pencil...

I used some of that blue painter's 2" masking tape to cover one side of the panel to avoid damaging the black anodized finish.

After about six (6) hours of a little Dremel work, drilling (See post 4) A LOT of filing and some 600 grit sandpaper to clean up the edges, I received this:

Now that the cut was finished, I used some 1/8" non-glare lexan for the window. I plan to scruff up the backside of this to make it frosty. To secure the lexan to the case, I used some double-sided foam scotch tape.

And now the fruits of my labor.....

It's just what I was wishing for! I can't wait to get the window sanded down a bit for the frosty look I'm going for and then find a white LED light bar or a 4" white CCFL to finish it all up. Updates to come when more work is done!

 

[Yamiyanazz]

that looks excellent! I like the way you designed it and the way it was executed. Sweet mod...but six hours? I wish I had that much spare time....

 

[Sleepy_Steve]

Nice work there... Ive never had to dremel for six hours though - thats some endurance

initialy the photoshop pic fooled me about what you were trying to do... so at first i was like "what the hell?! why is he tracing?" - moments latter - "OOHHH, he wasnt just painting on some letters... wow that looks nice. Good dremel'age happening there."

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

Well, it wasn't all dremling. I only did about 30 minutes of dremling. I forgot to add that I used a cordless 18V drill as well, to "perforate" the letters. I used the dremel to cut the bridges between the holes and then filed all the letters out. Five and a half hours of filing....Yes, my fingers are sore, but I found it worth the effort.

I have done four hours straight of Dremeling though. I made some custom fan grills for Haxor-Jr. out of some aluminum sheet metal. The smell of Dremeled aluminum always reminds me of that summer day.

 

[shard]

WOW! Just wow, I am completely amazed at the quality that came out with. I realy look forward to seeing it in person in a few weeks. I definatly feel proud that I did the design, a true peice of art.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

Heheh. Glad it is up to your expectations.

Yes, you'll get to initial it to!

 

[Thumdar]

Nice work, very clean.

 

[SolidxSnake]

wow, very nice. That's great work on the filing and sanding, musta been hell to cut

 

[Fushyuguru]

Looks great, near watercut.

You can tell a good cutout on Lian-Li cases, the thickness of the Al makes the features POP if the cuts are squared.

Round out the depth of the cut and it looks fuzzy, even more in pictures where contrast in lighting is huge.

Good tip with the drill/dremel.

 

[flamerail]

Thats purty...

 

[SolidxSnake]

btw, what size drill bit did you use?

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

Wow. Getting a good compliment from Fushyuguru is really something I'm proud of. Matt is the one who got me into the whole modding scene two years ago when I followed his Fush Zero project. It motivated me to dive into modding with full force. Since then I can't get enough of the modding scene and I'm always looking for things to mod on one of my computers. Thanks Matt.

I believe I used a 5/32 spiral bit for the pre-drilling. That left me a little less than 1mm (I want to say .75mm: according to my digital caliper) away from the stencil lines. So nearly 1mm of material was filed down on each side of each letter, after drilling and cutting the bridges with the Dremel.

EDIT: I just pressed the edit button for the first time since the forum upgrade and WOW. I love the quick edit feature, something I've always wanted but never though of.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

Here's a teaser picture of it lighted up. I just held it about 2 feet away from my school desk fluorescent lamp and snapped a quick picture. It's originally upside down but I rotated it to be a little more readable.

I've got some 4" CCFLs and a sheet of 1/16" black ABS plastic on the way. I'll be building a box for the CCFL light(s) so it doesn't leak out the front of the case perforations. I know some of you would like me to light the entire case with white lighting but I like it dark in my room and the only time I'd be using the CCFLs would be if I move my computer to a more visible area of the room or when I'm at a LAN to show some bling bling. My computer's mods are all done around it's sleek looks and quiet cooling while still maintaining performance.

 

[Sjaak]

Looks damn' sweet.

 

[johan851]

That's pretty cool. I'm impressed.

 

[X0d1@k]

Great work! Just another reason I need to buy me a dremel. Just been to lazy i guess.

 

[infinitevalence]

Seeing as you have the plexi on the back of the case you could "float" the letters if you wanted to. By that i mean remove the last bit of metal holding the center of the A, O and, R in place and use the double sided tape to secure them to the plexi.

 

[flamerail]

Thats sick!

 

[Adragontattoo]

Can you post a link to a bigger copy of the lighted Haxor please?? That would look nice as the background for my Linux desktop..


Looks awesome. I dont have the patience to do that much filing etc I think.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

I thought about it but it seemed a bit to ghetto. I like it how it all comes together to all be part of hte existing side panel without any tricks. I did the letter floating for a few parts on my Wolf ET mod I did a year or two ago, which came out okay I guess. I'll see if I can nab a pic of it since it's my little bro's case now.