Smaug v2.0

[ADay2Long]

Hello all! It's my first time doing a worklog, so bare with me!

So I'm back for the summer, looking for a job, so while I wait for the phone to ring, I said to myself "Let's do some modding!!!". So I dug up in the basement our old family computer, took it apart. Smaug v1.0 was born! But half way through painting I asked myself ... man this case is old, are new part gonna be able to fit in there? Answer, not really ... I mean, not cool new super duper good parts. Being the huge gamer that I am I was greatly disappointed. Decided to finish it just for the fun of it ... but I kinda rushed through painting and it was my first time doing it all!

Here is mighty Smaug (original flavor) :



As you can see, paint job is iffy, did my best trying to cut straight and round. Many rookie mistakes, but god it was fun to build! Sad that I now had no case for my new build, I was sad. The next day, my dad's computer dies. He asks me to build him a new one, and he won't be using his old case!! 2x So Smaug v2.0 was born! (For those of you who wonder, Smaug is the dragon in the book "The Hobbit")

I've decided to take this one notch further, make it better, make it awesome and more importantly, not rush through anything! I want that paint job to be jaw dropping!

So yesterday I emptied the case, decided where all my fans would go, made some drawings and got everything ready to be cut today.



Had lot's of problems with that front panel, so I decided to simply cut my fan holes and think about it. Same with the side panel, still not sure of what I am going to do.

Front fan intake hole being cut


Again


All cut, cleaned and fan screw holes are made


Drilled the holes for the top fans, fiou it fits! (Fiou : sound a french canadian makes when he's not sure if it's gonna work or not and ends up working)


All done cutting the top holes, took me 2 hours, wanted to make sure it was straight (well...round) because people are gonna see this part.


Cleaning up the holes to make sure it's all nice and smooth so no once cuts themselves (anymore...) on the sides....!


So there was nothing really that I liked with the front panel and it was bugging me, so after a little trip to Home Depot I decided to try and make it myself!


Everything is ready to be sanded and painted...except the old front panel of course!


So here's what's gonna make me swear, and the jigsaw, A LOT tomorrow...!


The plan is that I'll re-use the dragon logo front the top of Smaug v1.0 and try to make it as a "fan grill" for the front intake, still go to try and draw it again to see it if could work nicely. The floppy disk opening will be for a usb, firewire, audio ports and what not little adapter. Since the first top fan is close to the panel, the first slot I'll use it to write "Smaug" in big letters that I'll try to carve out. Then under, a DVD burner and probably a fan controller under that, dunno if I'll take a single or double slot one yet. The idea is the front panel will be sticking out a little bit so I can install the intake fan between the chassis and the front panel so I can easily install a HDD cage there.

Still trying to figure out how I'll do my Power, reset buttons and the LEDs.

I know this project is rather small compared to the other ones here, but it is my first "serious" mod and would like to share it with you guys.

Comments and suggestions greatly welcomed and appreciated!

Thx guys!

[misterlarry]

Looking forward to seeing the finished product. As dragons go, I always liked Smaug. Nice detail on the worklog so far.

[ADay2Long]

Thx misterlarry!
-----------------------------
Update

So I've decided to cut an excess piece of my main sheet of metal and see how easy it would be to work with. Jigsaw didn't like it much, but it was almost pain free to cut, gonna have to find a new "guide" to make sure everything is cut straight for the real thing!

Piece is cut, still gonna have to cut it again to size...


Dremel and couple minutes later, it's all ready to be bent!


So a hammer in one hand and the other hand got my fingers crossed...!


It works! Here with both sides bent.


Cuts and bents look pretty straight!


Now here's what I'm trying to accomplish :


So now that I know it works I'm relieved ... but I am aware that bending the full sheet will be a lot more trouble then a small piece that fitted all in the thing that bends (dunno the name in english )

**Couple I've encountered. Since Smaug is a dragon, I want to light the case in red. Now I'll have a front intake fan thats red and a rear exhaust thats red also. Top and bottom ones will be simple artic cooling ones. I want to use a fan controller ... but they're all blue (got the Kaze Master in mind right now) I dunno if there's a way for me to avoid this....!

Alright now for some more good stuff. I'll cut the front intake grill to look like this

Sexay!

And for the side window, I've decided to cut the window in the shape of a dragon head. Might as well go all out eh? I'll ask my sis to make me a sketch tonight when she gets home, she's better then me with that kinda stuff. It would be the profile view of a mix of these guys.



I really like the first one! The neck would be towards the HDD cage and the mouth towards the rear of the case. And I just thought about this, I'll most probably be getting an PII x4 955 and a 4890 ... haha it makes a dragon platform ... how ironic, wonder if I could get some sponsor from AMD !!!

So that's it for now. I'm gonna take lunch break then I'll do some testing for the paint. Still not sure if I'm making her all black inside and out or if I throw some red somewhere.

I should also have a first sketch of the front panel for tonight if all goes well!

Any suggestions welcomed!

Thx guys!

[ADay2Long]

So I've settled on a design for the side window ... gonna have some fun with the Dremel tomorrow!

[element291]

I'm excited to see what the results will be with the cutting on the side panel!

[phil3_66666]

nice work, can you post a pic of the tool you use to make hole in the case?(for 120mm fan)

[TopDogZero]

nice work, can you post a pic of the tool you use to make hole in the case?(for 120mm fan)

I think he used a Jigsaw and then the Dremel to clean it up.

Are you going to put a window or mesh behind the side panel with the dragon head.

[ADay2Long]

ADay2Long's guide to making perfect and nice round 120mm holes everytime!

What you'll need :
- patience
- patience
- patience
- a pen
- masking tape, gaffer tape, whichever you prefer
- these 3 Dremel bits


.... and the secret ingredient .... LOVE! ... or this


believe it or not, the size of that hole is exactly the size of the hole of a 120mm fan! Well actually, it might be a tiny bit smaller, but it's hard to tell.

So put some masking tape on where you want to cut. Make sure all is straight. Draw the circle.

Now take your Dremel with the disk. The secret is ... incline it a little, you'll see now that the cut it makes isn't a straight line anymore, but it's curved. Just cut from the inside, follow your line real slowly, make sure you get to about 1mm of the line without touching it. Now once you're done cutting the hole and the middle piece has fallen, you'll notice that the metal you've cut is at an angle. That's where the second bit comes into play, use it so make everything straight and smooth. Once it's all done and you're satisfied, take the sander, go slowly around, remember to do the interior, at an angle inside the case and outside to get all the sharp parts off and with all that grinding you should now be at the line you traced earlier making it the right size.

Took me about an hour per hole from beginning of cutting to being done.

Remember, go slow, patience is the key. Do the hole that people won't see, or won't see as much first and when you feel confident, go for the top or side one!

Hope it helps! Have fun!

[ADay2Long]

Originally Posted by TopDogZero

Are you going to put a window or mesh behind the side panel with the dragon head.

Window.

[TopDogZero]

Wow just used the Dremel, you have a lot of patience.
I would suggest if you have a jigsaw to try that on the dragon for the side window with a good metal cutting blade as this should speed up the rough cuts so you can then finish it with the Dremel. If you do use the Dremel you'll probably go through a lot of the cutting disk. I hope I don't come off like a know it all it's just that I work in a sheet metal shop.
Nice project can't way to see it done but getting there is most of the fun.