Project "Ovni"/UFO from Mexico (2009 Mod Entry)-COMPLETE

[PaPang]

As a modder from the late ´80s, I had to take a stab at a Scratch Mod and 2009 was the year. Being a sci-fi buff, all types of "space ships" came to mind, and were considered, but in the end, it boiled down to a flying saucer. I've seen very few mods on this concept so, with the invaluable help of a forum buddy of mine Oztap, we took a dive and he came up with this idea on Sketchup (we call him the Wizard of Oz because he is one the few who can conceptualize in 3D (round surfaces), as I cannot yet on Sketchup):



As all things which are invented/conceptualized on the fly, it has evolved up to now to this:



As I experiment with unusual materials, changes occur on almost a daily basis, thus forcing me to adjust the project. So in the end, your guess is as good as mine as to what it will look like. This up to a point, is the beauty of starting from zero! This entry is for the "unique" category of which I hope will have many more entrees. I also state that modding is my hobby and I dedicate only my free time to this "itch".

The CM parts to use are:
1) An Extreme Power 500 W power source which I bought last year.
2) A CM 80mm grill (yeah, they still sell them here & is sold by NewZiber)
3) A CM 5.25" aluminum bay cover (same as above)
4) A CM 80mm TLF-S82 blue led fan (on order from Newegg to be brought by my wife at the end of month).
5) A CM SLC-S41-U1 Copper Fan & Heatsinks(Newegg order)
6) A CM DK8-9GD4A-0L-GP 95mm CPU Cooler(Newegg order)

Note: This only a partial list. I am still on the hunt for more CM parts to use in my design.

The starting point, a stainless steel salad bowl lying around the house, to use as a mold for using fiberglass and polyester resin. I decided on this material as it is light and strong, and depending on your level of experience, a relatively fast and easy way to obtain a part.







the top half of the spherical part.







the bottom half and the led fan it will have.



A simple stress test. They will hold 22kg. each using just one layer of fiberglass reinforcement. More than enough for computing, for sure, maybe even as a frisbee!

Now for the center part that will house all of the components (for sizing purposes old components lying around were used so as not to ding and dent the ones that will end up in the hold). I chose to use expanded PVC board (epvc) as it is also very light, resistant and primarily, easy to work with (similar to working plywood or even easier). It is glued together with a common pvc tubing cement which fuses together the pieces, thus making it practically a single piece strength-wise, although several pieces were used.



Up to know, there are 3 parts to this "case", top, center and bottom. This can be appreciated a little better with these images:





The top part above.





The center part above. As can be seen, the space will fit a mAtx motherboard which means that I can use the latest processors and graphics cards and ram. How would a i7 975 Extreme, GF GTX 295-1792mb OC, and 6gb of DDR3 2133 memory look? I hope I can swing it by the end of the contest! Also, if you were paying attention to the layout, you will observe that the motherboard will be upside-down with the 25cm fan blowing air up into it. There will be no I/O plate so that exhaust hot air can leave the case.



Semi-assembled to get an idea of what I had.

As can be seen above, the first change was from a square center to a round one, and up till then, did not complicate or slow down the project. As of here, another idea was incorporated to make it look closer to a flying saucer-leading edges. This too was not too far-fetched, so a series of ribs and spars were invented in order to do so.






Above a view from the underside with the system cooling fan placed for reference. Good cooling, huh?

Now an opening for the front I/Os with a panel rescued from an older computer.



What it will look like before I foam it. Yes, plain and simple polyurethane expandible foam (pef) used for filling voids in construction.



Well, got to eat. Will post more later

[Icejon]

I am wondering where are your Cooler Master parts?

[PaPang]

The CM parts to use are:
1) An Extreme Power 500 W power source which I bought last year.
2) A CM 80mm grill (yeah, they still sell them here & is sold by NewZiber)
3) A CM 5.25" aluminum bay cover (same as above)
4) A CM 80mm TLF-S82 blue led fan (on order from Newegg to be brought by my wife at the end of month).
5) A CM SLC-S41-U1 Copper Fan & Heatsinks(Newegg order)
6) A CM DK8-9GD4A-0L-GP 95mm CPU Cooler(Newegg order)

I hope you understand that my entry will be a scratch mod for the "unique" category, the hardest category to compete in because I literally started from nothing-not even a hole to screw something into. This would be my 7th mod & it is just something I had to try to really call myself a "modder" (no guts, no glory). I have always been a Cooler Master user (had a Wavemaster with Aquagate) but this time I had something to prove & yes, the contest rules are very clear on "unique" entries. I will post a photo of my CM components to use as soon as they arrive by the end of the month as mentioned, although I have until Sep. 20 to do so. I suppose that if I do not comply, I will be eliminated & my post deleted for being untruthful & probably banned. Of course this is not my intention & really hope not to be the only "unique" entry of the contest.

Sorry I cannot use a V-10 in my project but I had to keep the size down & choose to use a SFF like a HTPC or it won't fit a desk top, no offense meant but no red-line overclocks here. But the proc. & vidcard (full size), etc wil be quite capable for any game today (no final specs yet, still lining up).

[Icejon]

The CM parts to use are:
1) An Extreme Power 500 W power source which I bought last year.
2) A CM 80mm grill (yeah, they still sell them here & is sold by NewZiber)
3) A CM 5.25" aluminum bay cover (same as above)
4) A CM 80mm TLF-S82 blue led fan (on order from Newegg to be brought by my wife at the end of month).
5) A CM SLC-S41-U1 Copper Fan & Heatsinks(Newegg order)
6) A CM DK8-9GD4A-0L-GP 95mm CPU Cooler(Newegg order)

I hope you understand that my entry will be a scratch mod for the "unique" category, the hardest category to compete in because I literally started from nothing-not even a hole to screw something into. This would be my 7th mod & it is just something I had to try to really call myself a "modder" (no guts, no glory). I have always been a Cooler Master user (had a Wavemaster with Aquagate) but this time I had something to prove & yes, the contest rules are very clear on "unique" entries. I will post a photo of my CM components to use as soon as they arrive by the end of the month as mentioned, although I have until Sep. 20 to do so. I suppose that if I do not comply, I will be eliminated & my post deleted for being untruthful & probably banned. Of course this is not my intention & really hope not to be the only "unique" entry of the contest.

This mod is so cool man, I was just curious. I was just curious to see a photo of the parts that will fit in in that very compact and cute space.

[PaPang]

Foaming time!



As the intent is to cover the leading edge with fiberglass (albeit a lighter type), a filler has to be used in order to have a base on which to work on. Also this type of foam is resistant to catalyzed resin and will not deform or shrink. This foam supposedly expands up to 40X its original size so, although there is quite a lot of space to cover, the can should do the trick. I do not recommend any particular brand, just the cheapest as from what I have seen, they all just about yield the same. I suggest buying the cheapest available.

The foam after about a minute:



About 30 minutes:



After an hour, no more expansion. Now just to wait for it to cure about 6 hours (highly recommended or you´ll be sorry).



I had previously made a template out of epvc so as to measure how much to cut, as the ribs are not visible to guide the shaving process:



As I planned to fill the leading edge outer ring with sequentially blinking leds, I had to leave the bottom area free for the wiring. I used some old Styrofoam as a filler so that the expandible foam would not cover that area. The Styrofoam will later be removed with a few drops of mineral spirits which literally melts it and while I was working that part, I made a floor (ring) to protect the wiring.





The shaving process:



What a waste of foam! I should have used about 30-40% less as was witnessed by all the excess shavings.

Sanding to size.



Well, time to sleep. Will post more tomorrow.

[PaPang]

Remember the sequentially lighting leds for the leading edge rim? Instead of busting my head designing a kit, I bought this one locally for about $9usd plus additional leds for another $10usd. When I reach the final stages of the build, in they go!:



The "instruction" sheet is a bad translation to english/spanish texts and was then shrunk to a common 8" X 10" sheet size. Besides being overly crowded, I could not distinguish the + or - polarities because of the small size of the sheet! It was not until I scanned the instruction sheet that, upon expanding it, I could see the polarities and other small unreadable gibberish. I will not mention the name of the chain-store so as not to embarrass them.

Back to the body, here the use of the template to measure the evenness of the contour of the foam.



To fill voids in the foam (unexpected) I chose a common filler similar to that used for spackleing plasterboard in construction.



Another anal template, the step has to be even and perfect (or as close to it)



One of the "new" things I found out was that the pef will contract and expand like crazy once the outer harder shell is sanded. As it was in an outside atmosphere (fumes) exposed to changing atmospheric conditions, I ended up spackling the entire foam area. Yeah, only to find out that even with this covering, the surfaces would still move!

After a light sanding, I suppose due to all the movement in the foam, pieces of the filler would fall off, I had to mend areas at least a couple of times and found out that dust in the foam pores will impede the filler from grabbing on. A bad area being air blown




Solution: respackle, sand and prime as quickly as possible and lay the fiberglass immediately! But first, the fiberglass reinforcement to use. It is called "velo" in Spanish or veil (as in Bridal?) because of its lightness and transparency














Got it! I went to sleep around 2 A.M. but I got the fiberglass layed down after loosing a long while figuring out what to do, almost a week. Like I said, pushing the envelope on how to use materials will cause unexpected results and force you to rethink your approach putting your experience, knowledge and imagination to the edge.

Well, this is as far as I have gotten in pics. I am still working out several details that if not, will demerit its final look. No less than perfect for any hardy modder who deems to call himself such.

As I carry a time card for the time invested of hands-on man-hours and a control of monetary investments/expense, as of these lasts pics, I have:

Accumulated Man-hours: 124 hours (of direct work on the project, not the planning or investigation or dreaming. This would triple the hours easily)

Accumulated Expense: $1,222.80 Mexican Pesos or at the present exchange rate of $13mp/1usd=$94.06 usd
Note: I am only costing the "case".

You see, we in Mexico are "poh folks" like they say in Louisiana (USA), so cost savings are primordial. Will post again when I finish this stage. Next.... the bottom part of the sphere. Hmmm... what can be done here additionally?
Later

[PaPang]

As I mentioned in a comment today to my fellow contestant Mpovh, at the forum to which I belong, we try to adhere to a "division" of types of mods, as dictated by the philosophy of Troy Fryfogle in "The Triad of Modding".

If you have not heard of it, it is a good, short read so that you can see where you stand as a modder in the grand scheme of things and know more clearly (it opened my eyes) where you can shoot to become a better and more advanced modder which I suppose everyone here is aiming for: http://www.casemodgod.com/Articles/modding_triad.htm

Note: This is only a philosophical promotion as I still think Cooler Master makes great stuff!

Greets

[mstjuan]

coming nice compliments mate.

[Icejon]

I love how you use the fiberglass resin. How toxic are all those materials since it looks like you are working inside. I can't even use tack cloth and industrial cleaner inside without getting a bad smell in my nose. Props to your mod, its really fantastic and coming along well.

[PaPang]

Pretty toxic. The reason that I work inside is because I live on a second floor of a condo with no real outside porch. Well there were 2 outside porches but I had to semi-block (hurricanes which destroy or sweep way anything left on the porches) and screen (a lot of mosquitoes) them. I open all windows and have fans blowing through what you must surmise as the kitchen area. I don´t hang around once the resin is applied and wait till fumes are no longer smellable. Fortunately, at worst, I only get a little heady but I don´t apply fiberglass to the point I would get emphysema, he-he, only on special projects such as this.

It is a lot like working bondo, but much lighter and flexible. It is just applied in a different way but no biggie for any average Joe. Oh, and did I mention that it is really cheap? I don´t plan on using over $15 usd in fiberglass products!

Cheers

[PaPang]

Now for the bottom sphere. I had always thought about giving the bottom part the same treatment as the top, so I start cutting my ribs from epvc:







Ready to start gluing to the bottom sphere with epoxy:



Now for the mock up with hardware in the hold:





Hmm..looks a little chunky for my taste but to keep it compact, it will have to stay as it it.

And what about the "landing gear"? Well I pulled up my provisionals to get an idea and I get this.



which I had to visualize doing this:



My, my, it does look lanky leg-wise. Well, I still have time to do something, let´s see what!

[PaPang]

I was not sure if it is proper for a forum such as Cooler Masters, but I posted this in my forum and its title was "Grown Men Sometimes Cry with Their Mods". During contest worklogs everything is posted as if it came out as planned without a hitch of any kind. Since modding is only a hobby to me, I´m not afraid to say that the last two days were one screw-up, after another.

Firstly, I had planned to place a fiberglass ring to hold the ribs for the bottom sphere together so, I waxed my surface, brushed on a liquid demolding agent, cut my fiberglass webbing and applied my resin:









Disaster no. 1. The exothermic reaction caused the heavy polyethylene sheets underneath to warp because of the collateral heat produced by the chemical reaction of the catalyzed resin. This also caused the fiberglass piece to warp when I needed it to be perfectly flat. Out goes a bunch of time and wasted material.

What I needed was a perfectly flat, resistant surface such as plywood, metal sheeting or glass as a base. Since my wife is out of town, I pulled back the tablecloth to expose my dinning room table glass top (1.6 m. diameter x 19mm thick) which I understand cost a small fortune to replace. My wife would have screamed "bloody murder" if she had caught me doing fiberglass on the glass top, but as they say in Mexico, "eyes that don´t see, heart that does not feel". So again wash, rinse and dry:





Got it again, perfectly flat with the assembly firmly attached to it! I pried it off the glass & except for a few knife scratch marks on the glass, I picked up the mess and put the table cloth back on.

I let the resin cure for a couple of hours, so foaming time again. I sprayed the foam on, as usual but the can ran out still lacking two openings to fill. Damn I said, another can just for 2 openings! Since it was late again, I went to sleep cussing about the foam.

The next day, disaster no. 2. The foam did not only not rise what it should,plus two alien mutants grew out on each side of the foam!



What I surmised was that the foam formed its hard outer shell too fast which did not let it rise to its full extent. It forced itself through whatever opening it could and continued expanding on its own free will. Since the weather was cooperating, the culprit could only be the foam (I do not recommend this godforsaken brand).

Since we are in the "Want Not, Waste Not" times/era, I did not go for the other can of foam which I would have used maybe 1/4 of it and the rest would have hardened if not used within 30-45 days after opening. This was also the last part to foam. So what did I do? I grabbed a tube of Mexican Liquid Nails and started pasting in shavings to fill the gaps.



I know this will take me a long time, but economy will have been served and hopefully, not make me miss the deadline.
So you see, this is a part of a real worklog and yes, grown men do cry.

Man-Hours Invested: 10 hours
$ Invested: $50.50 mp
------------------
Accumulated Man Hours: 147 hours
Accumulated Expense: $1,323.50 mp= $101.80 usd

Fitfully Yours and thanks for dropping by,

Me

[PaPang]

What is it like to be a Texas A&M "Aggie"? Well besides having a very good academic level, I would say what would shade/colour our personalities about this university is that it teaches you "true grit" (not the movie). You have to have it otherwise you would suffer endless, painful trauma from always getting trounced in sports. Powerhouse Univ. of Texas is our worst enemy (sports-wise) and other universities are copying it, pushing us and our pride to new lower levels. So "true grit" is the only thing that enabled us to attend our school's sports events even though we had that sinking feeling that our butts were going to get kicked. Inspite of getting our teeth kicked in a lot, we just came back looking for more or if lucky, a break and a win.

With that in mind, I continued on with the lower end, I shaved the foam, applied my plaster filler to fill voids, primed it to find more defects, cut my fiberglass, and applied resin:













Hey-hey. so far, so good! Now to even out the finish:








Hmmm..I could've sworn it was smooth after sanding and patching several times, but primed, evenly colored surfaces don't lie. I am supposing that the glued pieces were contracting and expanding faster than the in-place foam of the first attempt, especially against hard surfaces. Another thing learned.

A buddy of mine JYMMY4, from, in our forum in Mexico, had seen the "lanky leg" situation of my project, so he suggested this:



So I immediately made my mock up to see what it would look like:





Well, I'll be.. not that bad! Now to see if it would hold up the weight of the rest. I decided to go for a 3 leg landing gear instead of 4 legs as I see that the setup is strong enough for it-- good I saved some on materials!



Yesiree! I'm on a roll again! Now do you remember the section I left open? It occurred to me that no red-blooded, true-blue modder would leave his modded case without atleast a small window to its innards, so...







Tada, a window. If you crouch down a little, from the front you can see the heat sink+fan, video card and part of the mobo, all lit up for the occasion (I hadn't thought about that at the beginning but what the heck, more lights!). So there you have it, the mainframe ready for a prissy, paint, leds and finally legs. Still about 40% left of the project to do time-wise, I figure.



So much for now. I got a couple of ideas to do in acrylic/plexi/lexan to enhance the bling. Will let you know as soon as I land the ideas.

Man Hours Used: 28 hours
$ Invested: -0-
----------------------------
Accumulated Man Hours:
Accumulated Expense:

Thanks for looking & have a great day.

[nicky_82uk]

5.4.3.2.1 lets get ready for take off lol looking good man best of luck

[PaPang]

Thanks bud, lucky I won't be going up against you, he-he, but I'm figuring that your going to give some people a run for their money!



Cheers