[cured]

Originally Posted by Mr. Ali

congratulations, you jizzed all over your case!

BAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahaHAQHAhahhahahHhahahahahHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHHAhahahahahHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHA

FUCKING HILARIOUS! im sigging that

[WoodButcher]

Originally Posted by super_Chris

More airflow? It's got 2x120mm fans, a 92mm and an 80mm in the power supply. That's a a lot of case fans.
I don't understand how a wood case would keep in more heat than a metal case. I mean, a steal case doesn't actually radiate heat.
Keep the comments coming though. I'll take whatever input I can get.

I would have preferred 2 or 3x 120 intake in the front bottom and a 2x 120 exhaust top but thats for my rads. It may be worth your time to open the 92 to 120 and / or add a 120 in the bottom so you can force cool air in on the mobo and vid with those up top as low speed exhaust. Exhaust fans add more noise to the room as the intakes don't as much.
The mdf being an insulator does not come into play for the temps. It will hold heat but not with even moderate airflow. Be sure to paint and sand the interior as well as the out, it will make a big difference when it comes time to clean.
I was wondering what you were talking about when you said "edge banding".
If you use a "penetrating" finish as a primer it will make the corners more durable, I've used minwax "wood hardener" with some success but find if I thin old polyurethane it works as well (gets rid of the old shit in your garage too ), It will raise the grain or fuzz in the case of mdf and allow you to sand it nice and turns the compound into a rock hard surface that won't dent easily.

[super_Chris]

Originally Posted by WoodButcher

I would have preferred 2 or 3x 120 intake in the front bottom and a 2x 120 exhaust top but thats for my rads. It may be worth your time to open the 92 to 120 and / or add a 120 in the bottom so you can force cool air in on the mobo and vid with those up top as low speed exhaust. Exhaust fans add more noise to the room as the intakes don't as much.
The mdf being an insulator does not come into play for the temps. It will hold heat but not with even moderate airflow. Be sure to paint and sand the interior as well as the out, it will make a big difference when it comes time to clean.
I was wondering what you were talking about when you said "edge banding".
If you use a "penetrating" finish as a primer it will make the corners more durable, I've used minwax "wood hardener" with some success but find if I thin old polyurethane it works as well (gets rid of the old shit in your garage too ), It will raise the grain or fuzz in the case of mdf and allow you to sand it nice and turns the compound into a rock hard surface that won't dent easily.

I was going to put a 120 on the bottom intake, but I decided against it. The reason I decided against it was that I would have had to cut the metal case and the wood, screw that, I'm too lazy to do that. I'm not too worried about CPU/Vid temps. This is an 800mhz Duron with an ATI rage. It doesn't really get warm at all right now, but if it does I'll probably replace the CPU heatsink before I change out the front blow hole.

That edge banding did absolutly nothing. I don't remember where I read about it, but to anyone doing this, skip using joint compound, it's just a waste of time. Try using cheap wood glue that's been thinned 1:1 with water then sand.

I put a coat of Rustoleum white oil based enamel on. I thinned it 1:1 with mineral spirits and threw it in my paint gun. Remember folks, this is my first time using a car paint gun and my first time thinning paint, so take it easy on the death threats and whatnot.






My next course of action is: One more thin coat, sand, two more coats, rinse and repeat for every side and inside.

[WoodButcher]

Patience,,,, I don't think glue would sand well without burning into the mdf around it, I don't know, the few times I've finished the stuff I'd have sworn I was working w/ a sponge. Sand lightly w/ 220 or higher 320 maybe, any thing more will bring back the absorbsion factor!
I googled finishing mdf and taping compound was recommended. Thanks for the tip, I'll file it away for future reference.

[super_Chris]

Originally Posted by WoodButcher

Patience,,,, I don't think glue would sand well without burning into the mdf around it, I don't know, the few times I've finished the stuff I'd have sworn I was working w/ a sponge. Sand lightly w/ 220 or higher 320 maybe, any thing more will bring back the absorbsion factor!
I googled finishing mdf and taping compound was recommended. Thanks for the tip, I'll file it away for future reference.

You're probably right on the wood glue part. It really is like working with a sponge isn't it? Yeah, I'm only going to sand to take off any high spots/runs/particulate in the paint. I sanded most of the joint(taping) compound off on the edges. I left a decent amount behind in the blow holes, so I'll see how well it works in that area. But I've decided to just throw on as many coats as it needs/takes.

[mistawiskas]

MDF (medium density fibre) VS. metal.
MDF will not radiate heat
MDF will chip and scratch...harden those corners and use good and lot of paint= no problemo
MDF=heavy
MDF=sound proof
MDF=no strenth in the end-grain
metal acts as a heatsink....passes heat
metal, not as flexible and easy to work with
metal, easier to paint

There are pros and cons to either material. Can't wait to see how your case turns out.

[super_Chris]

The case now has three coats of paint. After playing around with thinning/thickening the paint, I think I got it down. It was way too thin on the first and second coats. You can see runs here and there, that's because I went nuts with the paint gun trying to get the cut edges to stop sucking up the paint. I ended up going over the edges again with a brush... about 70 times, and it still sucks it up!











I'll let it dry for a few days then sand it with 220 and get all the runs off. Then I'll install the 5 1/4 bays, which I had planned to do before painting. If the edges fill up and become finishable I think it'll only need two more coats to be perfect.

[WoodButcher]

that stuff's amazing isn't it? I never used anything that sucked so much paint. When you do the final coats spray a sponge for comparison, I'll bet it takes less, to paint the sponge!
Nice work.

[super_Chris]

Originally Posted by WoodButcher

that stuff's amazing isn't it? I never used anything that sucked so much paint. When you do the final coats spray a sponge for comparison, I'll bet it takes less, to paint the sponge!
Nice work.

It's ridiculous how much it took. I still can't think of a better material to use though, it's a necessary evil unfortunately.


I plan on rebuilding the whole computer, reinstalling the OS and tweaking it to get more performance than I'm currently getting.

I've already decided to use Fedora 8. I was wondering if anyone could send me some links on setting up a basic apache(sql/php) server, and more importantly any info on link bonding would be greatly appreciated. The network throughput of this thing is a big stumbling block at this point

[super_Chris]

I know I'm an Ubuntu guy, but I'm trying out CentOS 5 right now. It ain't bad. I'll decide on whether to use CentOS or Fedora after I give both a try for a week.

I sanded(with 120) all the runs, all the highspot and got everything perfectly smooth. Then shot one more coat of white on. I'll sand with 220 or higher tomorrow and then put the final one the next day. Hopefully the case will be done by the end of the week. I forgot to install the drive bays before painting... Again!








I painted outside this time so I wouldn't coat everything in the garage with a white dust/paint. Since it was slow drying oil based it actually left a slight speckly coat of paint on my motorcycle/everything .

[super_Chris]

I've had it with these motherfucking bugs, in my motherfucking paint!




Inside of door still needs one to two more coats.


I should have made the top and face wider. I forgot that you need a little big of room when you use hinges like these. I barely gave enough room for the door to fit, so when I popped the hinges on, it pushed it all out. Oh well, at least it wasn't someone's cabinets!








H4x! There's two runs, on the face, and one on the fixed side . I'll sand them out with something like 300 and then do one final coat. No I'm not going to sand with 1k, then polish. This has already gotten far out of hand.

[cured]

sexy. on/off? cd drive?

but very nice.

[WoodButcher]

Beautiful paint Chris, I'll bet if you had weighed that box before and after paint, you would find it gained a gallon!

[super_Chris]

Originally Posted by WoodButcher

Beautiful paint Chris, I'll bet if you had weighed that box before and after paint, you would find it gained a gallon!

Thanks man.

This whole project was just to play around and learn with whatever I had laying around. So far, I'm only $5 into this project, which is awesome. I'm still getting runs in the paint, I just get too eager, and lay the coat on too heavy. Hopefully I can get one decent coat that doesn't run or get a strong orange peel. Though, either way, I'm living with the next coat.

[cured]

BTW, take good care of it. Because it looks like it would show even the tiniest scratch

[gB dAvId x]

So whats the update?

[super_Chris]

Originally Posted by gB dAvId x

So whats the update?

Ask and ye shall receive. Several months late.

I got a new motherboard, more ram, new PSU, new operating system and a fat stencil on the side of the case. I kind of abandon the whole project until my old server blew up. Now I gots me a new one. When I have the fans on, this thing is loud. But I know that they can keep the HD's and most of the hardware at near room temperature, which should increase the life of this machine by a decade or two.

Athlon 64 2800+ (S754)
ECS 1337group mobo
GF5500 Video card(completely unnecessary seeing as it's a server)
2x 512 DDR 400
1x 20GB WD
2x 320GB Seagate
Antec 300W PSU
Fedora 8

I'm still in the process of recovering my old software raid. I need my pictures back. Pray to your various gods, hopefully it'll work.

[smirnoff]

Very cool. So was this mod just for looks (and fun) or was there another reason? Looks great.

[super_Chris]

Originally Posted by smirnoff

Very cool. So was this mod just for looks (and fun) or was there another reason? Looks great.

No real reason. Like I said at the begining of the thread, it's too much free time/tools. I needed a case for my server, and wanted it to have good airflow over the HDs. That's it really.