The DoomzPunk Project

[dotyer]

Okay so my Senior Project Modular Project is all done and has been graded. After displaying it for eight advisors and industry vets from IBM and Motorola I received and A grade. It couldn't have went better for the resources I had. Now it is time to move on to something fresh and a more artistic. I have been a big fan of the Steampunk culture for awhile now (cyberpunk just doesn't do it for me) and decided to incorporate that into my next rig.

I started this same thread on Sudhian's Forum a couple days ago, so this is going to be a large post to get caught up here. Before anyone says it, yes I have seen the Steampunk Workshop by Jake von Slatt, and Datamancer.net. I will be incorporating the design into my PC box, mouse, keyboard, and speakers. I do not know if I am going to mod my monitor yet as I do not want to ruin my 22" LCD.

It will be at least a couple months before I can start acquiring parts because I am poor, but I will definitely need the time to plan how I want to put it together.

Form Factor: mITX (Flex ATX or DTX if I really can’t afford it)
CPU: Core 2 Duo (Conroe or Merom)
RAM: 2GB minimum
Graphics: 8800GTS or 2900XT (Maybe externally if possible)
DVD: Slim Laptop Drive
HDD: 3.5” or 2.5” SATA HDD
PSU: I doubt any of those little mITX power supplies will have enough power for a gaming card, so I will have to jump up to a Shuttle PSU.

The design will be my own with influences stemming from many different sources. I want to maintain the slight sci-fi feel while using normal mechanical parts. Much of the decoration will be made to look practical even though it has nothing to do with the actual PC operation. I am trying to find many of the desing parts at Goodwills and Thrift shops. Below are a metal watering can that will be cut to form a chimney and a cool bowl that will serve as a fan grill. They will need to be chemically stained to have a patina appearance.

I also purchased an old Dell keyboard that has the nice "clicky" mechanical keys. I will be buying some typewriter keys soon to replace the normal keyboard keys.

If I end up using water cooling again, I will most likely incorporate some copper tubing into the loop with some windows to prove the flow.

I am also researching miniature model steam engines to give a more authentic feel to the case. It the models are too expensive (many are over $200) I may be forced to make everything by hand and appear to be a working engine. I've been researching individual parts like boilers and I don't think it would be very hard.

I think that was about everything I have been doing over the past few days. I hope this project is enjoyable for you to watch as it progresses. It will probably be a few months before it is completed, but design and preparation process is the most important at this point.

- Doomzilla aka dotyer

 

[DorianBrytestar]

Good luck! I am researching something similar at the moment myself. I'm sort of hung up on what the majority of the case will look like. I have come up with several great "accents" but the main body of the case still eludes me.

 

[freakdiablo]

I do not know if I am going to mod my monitor yet as I do not want to ruin my 22" LCD.

I bet you can build a case around the monitor out of aluminum or something and do the chemical staining thing on it. Just a thought. And as a mouse, why dont you get one of the older G5s? They look kinda rust-like which might tie into what you are doing.

 

[dotyer]

I bet you can build a case around the monitor out of aluminum or something and do the chemical staining thing on it. Just a thought. And as a mouse, why dont you get one of the older G5s? They look kinda rust-like which might tie into what you are doing.

I just might do that to the monitor, but I have so much other work to do right now I'm just going to hold off on that. Also, I am one of the few people that do not care for Logitech's mice. I've owned a couple and they just don't suit my play/work style. I have and R2 Mark II, so I am just going to purchase the Fatigued Copper top for it and replace my currently black one. It's pretty convenient that they sell a bunch of different parts that you can change on this thing.

I was thinking of using an actual steam engine replica on the case such as this:

I have the option of many different models, but they are pretty damn expensive. Many of them would cost more than my CPU. If I cannot find a decent model for cheap than I have two choices. I can build a fake one out of random parts which I have no doubt would look almost as cool or get a different type of engine model and paint it up in vintage metal paint and make it very unique (read: a vintage hemi ). There are some very amazing steam engine models out there, but they are just too expensive. My favorite model is a V-Twin Steam Engine model, but it is over $150 and its not even assembled yet.

I was thinking that along with the case, keyboard, and speakers, I will turn my extra 2.5" and 1.8" HDDs into external drives. I will most likely put them into some sort of Automaton just for the coolness factor.

And one last note. I was thinking of using a mITX board with an MXM graphics adapter. Then I could use an 8700m GT in my case and it wouldn't take up much room, but the board, adapter, and MXM-II card would cost the same as if I had bought a plain mITX board, CPU, and top of the line PCI-Express x16 graphics. Unfortunately now that I chose to use a regular desktop solution I have to worry about cutting my case all to hell to be able to fit it.

 

[EmAn]

that looks like it is going to be a great project!!! but ya know you could make a fake steam engine and then were it looks like there should be berrings for the axle... make that an electric motor and then make a pump thing go on the end and have it power a water cooling system!!!

that would look awsome then... when people ask about the wires coming from there just say it is an rpm gague to make sure that it is functioning correctly!

 

[dotyer]

Hmm... I posted a reply, but it didn't post. Oh well.

Since the steam engine models cost $100 or more, I am going to make a fake one out of spare parts. Also, I'd like to have some sort of a window where you can look in and see working metal gears. Hopefully this project turns out as cool as I am imagining it.

 

[EmAn]

it will only turn out as cool as your budget is lol but definately i would love to see this all the way through!

 

[dotyer]

The wife and I went out to see the Animal Planet special event at the Seattle Center today. Since we were already at the center, I convinced her to go to the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. There was so much stuff at the Sci-fi museum that I wish I had a camera with me of because they had a lot of designs that I wanted to incorporate into the project.

Also, some guy contacted me from Craigslist with a bunch of free items that I can tear apart. Hooray! Going to go pick the items tomorrow. Apparently he has some old film projectors, mimeograph machine, and tons of other old mechanical joys that have gears and motors. *squeal* He is basically throwing it all to the recycle bin because most of it is broken, so he is letting me come in with my tools and just take whatever parts I want. His only request was that I send him a picture of the finished project. I’ll post some pics of what I find.

 

[EmAn]

cool!

 

[freakdiablo]

Also, some guy contacted me from Craigslist with a bunch of free items that I can tear apart. Hooray! Going to go pick the items tomorrow. Apparently he has some old film projectors, mimeograph machine, and tons of other old mechanical joys that have gears and motors. *squeal* He is basically throwing it all to the recycle bin because most of it is broken, so he is letting me come in with my tools and just take whatever parts I want. His only request was that I send him a picture of the finished project. I’ll post some pics of what I find.

/monster garage voice thing
FREEBIE!
/monster garage voice thing
If doing a modding project gets you free stuff I might have to start one

 

[Murdochs_mad]

This sounds like its gonna look uber industrial - good luck with the project.

Also, some guy contacted me from Craigslist with a bunch of free items that I can tear apart. Hooray! Going to go pick the items tomorrow. Apparently he has some old film projectors, mimeograph machine, and tons of other old mechanical joys that have gears and motors. *squeal* He is basically throwing it all to the recycle bin because most of it is broken, so he is letting me come in with my tools and just take whatever parts I want. His only request was that I send him a picture of the finished project. I’ll post some pics of what I find.

DorianBrytestar from these forums is also working on a 'moving gears' project, if theres plenty of free gears going around shoot him a PM as I think he had trouble finding decent gears

 

[dotyer]

All you have to do is go on Craigslist for your area (mine is Seattle-Tacoma) and post the an ad in the "wanted" and "computer" areas saying you are building something and could really use some help finding specific parts. Make sure you tell them what the project is and that you are not just going to resell the parts. You can just wait for people to contact you. Also, there is a free section where people just want to get rid of their own junk. I had a response within 6-hours of posting in the wanted area. I seem to have hit the jackpot as this guy has everything. I even called him on the phone and he asked me if there was anything else he should look for. So, I'm very excited to see what he has. Heading over to his house in a couple hours.

I'm trying very hard to make it into a type of robot/machine without going too sci-fi. I want it to look like an actual steam-powered machine pulled directly out of the days when copper and steam were cool. I'm thinking of running the liquid cooling loop through some parts of the case. Hopefully, if all goes well, there will be copper pipes on the outside of the case that are actually part of the loop. It will actually help in dissipating some of the heat. There may even be a piece of glass pipe in their somewhere so you can see the liquid moving through. Obviously I will not be able to use the bright green coolant as it will not match. Maybe some dark purple.

My shopping list currently: chemicals for metal patina, sheets of copper, copper piping, glass pipe, typewriter keys, old speakers, 80mm radiator (or build one), pressure gauge, mITX case, flywheels, and many other random items that I don't know I need yet.

Two other ideas I was tossing around included using some old vacuum tubes and lighting them with very small LEDs. The other idea was building a small bullhorn speaker and having it play random little quotes like "Brilliant!", "Welcome to the future", "Do not fear me fleshlings". Of course the voice would have a very sarcastic British accent.

 

[EmAn]

Brilliant!

and i wish people around here had parts like that

 

[Murdochs_mad]

Sorry I did not know how craiglist worked, thank you for the info.

You say about glass pipe, how about getting some small bore glass pipe and running it inside a piece of copper pipe (or better still brass) snugish fit like, and cut an oblong window with rounded corners in the side of the copper, say a couple of inches long. It would look like a water level guage for a steam engine boiler.

 

[Roofles]

If you are looking at doing some pretty cool steampunk themed stuff I recommend checking out this guy's site. http://steampunkworkshop.com/ He did a pretty sweet job with his keyboard and monitor.

 

[EmAn]

If you are looking at doing some pretty cool steampunk themed stuff I recommend checking out this guy's site. http://steampunkworkshop.com/ He did a pretty sweet job with his keyboard and monitor.

that is where he got his idea if you read the thread

 

[dotyer]

You say about glass pipe, how about getting some small bore glass pipe and running it inside a piece of copper pipe (or better still brass) snugish fit like, and cut an oblong window with rounded corners in the side of the copper, say a couple of inches long. It would look like a water level guage for a steam engine boiler.

Awesome idea! Thank you for the suggestion. If I can get that put together correctly I will definitely incorporate that into my design.

As for Steampunk Workshop, yeah I know. I have already checked out Jake von Slatt's SteampunkWorkshop.com and his friend Datamancer's website (who also makes the Von Slatt Steampunk Keyboard for a commission). I've done a ton of research and my keyboard will actually resemble his a bit. I even talked with Von Slatt through email recently asking for some advice. He seems like a really great guy. His interpretation of Steampunk is very victorian based which looks great, but my interpretation is just a bit more sci-fi/industrial.

Here's a pic of the items I grabbed off of that guys old equipment:

I especially like the spaceship that is on the crank handle. Not sure if I am going to use it, but it was too cool to just leave there. I didn’t want to grab too many items, but I think I grabbed enough gears and wheels to get started on my design. I grabbed the board because I liked the little fat capacitors. They might look good through a window.

 

[freakdiablo]

I think you should use the gears towards the right side since they already have that aged look (atleast I think, using a laptop which doesnt have the best screen ever).

 

[Roofles]

that is where he got his idea if you read the thread

Ah right... reading is hard. I missed that part without the website

 

[DorianBrytestar]

Murdochs_mad, thanks for thinkin of me =) Yeah, still looking for some "good" gears, I think I have a better idea of what I am going to do with the case. Also my Sister came by and told me that I wouldn't be able to do what I explained, so now I HAVE to do it!

@dotyer

Have you decided what to do with the rest of your case? I am still getting ideas on what to fill up the majority of my case with but I hit on a style at least that I can loog into and maybe it will help you.

For all the "normal" parts of the case that would just be "boring", maybe this effect...