okay, this is the external HDD mod which i've done by using the IDE-USB converter....
currently i'm putting an 80Gb Maxtor inside as external HDD....the whole thing is built by using 3mm acrylic and will be black when it's done.....


so, the case will have these feature :

- 2x 40mm SUNON with blue LED running at 6V each ( like the ones in my signature )
- window mod to view the bottom part of the HDD ( so that you can look at the PCB and such )
- 13x white SMD LED shining onto the window part
- the other side which is the top of the HDD will have some UV yellow design lighted by blue SMD LED

overall, i want to have a bling bling external HDD casing




okay, lets start off with the layout.....
basically, this is the design that i've drawn using to precise dimension and i will print this layout onto a sticker and stick it onto the 3mm acrylic sheets.

the first two pieces are the top and bottom plate while the middle 2 pieces are the sides while the last 2 pieces are the front and rear plate of the external HDD...

if you can notice there, i've everything that is needed to be done on the layout itself, this will greatly improve the speed coz you dont need to spend time to measure and draw.....





here's the layout design on the A4 sticker which i'm gonna stick it on the acrylic sheet





because i'm gonna do some etching, i had to get a blade specifically for this purpose.
it's very useful coz it's really small and easier to handle as compared to a normal blade.





see that the blade is narrow and really ' thin ', thus you can cut curves on the sticker easily..





these are the acrylic plates which i've cut according to the layout.





this plate is the front plate and will fit 40mm SUNON fans.





while this is the rear plate, i've added a lot of holes which i will drill to 4mm each to allow air to pass thru.....i want to get something like the honeycomb design....

it's really challenging to drill all these holes coz i need to drill them accurately or else it will look fugly man





this is the side plate, it will have three 2mm stripes which will not be sprayed afterwards.





this is the top plate, notice that the sides will not be sticked onto this plate, but it will be sticked onto the bottom plate.
i'll add some etching to the the blank area in the middle later





this is the bottom plate which will have a window.



This post has been edited by AllnGap: Sep 15 2006, 01:29 AM

okay, after cutting the stripes on the side plates, i removed the sticker area which will be sprayed later





this is the most difficult part......which i've used a smaller drill bit to lessen the margin of error that might occur......this is just the guidance hole which i've made...

and it's 79 accurate holes !!!

l'll use a 4mm drill bit to make the holes





this is the top plate, which i will etch some design on it before spraying it to black.
i used the blade which i showed before for this task.
the shape is actually a Delta fan blade design which will have a UV yellow background lighted while the " AG DESIGN " will be a solid black. ( if you dont understand, then just fast forward to post #6 to get the real idea )





as you can see in this pics, the area which i want to be in yellow UV will be covered with the sticker, while the rest of the area is exposed so that it can be sprayed to black.

the yellow sticker is actually some buffing to the sticker coz the sticker got torn off a bit.....





these two plates are the ones holding the HDD in place and they will be glued together to the top of the external HDD.







okay, the white stripe on the acrylic sheet is from the layout that i've drawn.
i left it there to compare the accuracy as to reduce error in alignment.
However i will remove it (the white sticker) when i'm gonna stick it





this shot is taken once i've sticked the acrylic plate which sandwich the HDD onto the top plate.





basically, i've made : -
- 12 x 5mm holes
- 8 x 3.5mm holes
- 2 x 38mm holes
- 79 x 4mm holes
- cut the window mod on the bottom plate
- etch the design onto the top plate
- cut the stripes design on the side
- stick the acrylic holding the HDD



This post has been edited by AllnGap: Sep 13 2006, 02:32 PM

okay, this is the back plate which has got the honeycomb design but with round holes.....
altogether 79 holes.....

although some went off a bit, but i think it's still with acceptable range.....it was done with full concentration and focus and it's really stressful to make those holes







okay, this is the moment where all the plates will be joined nicely to make the external enclosure.
i left the external acrylic sticker intact so that the exterior will be in mirror finish when i removed them coz i only wanted the interior to be black.









This post has been edited by AllnGap: Sep 13 2006, 02:40 PM

okay, this is how it looks like when all the stickers have been removed










so i will stick the side to the bottom plate, which is the one with the window mod. (the white sticker is for the window mod.)





This post has been edited by AllnGap: Sep 13 2006, 02:48 PM

okay, so this is quite completed, but without the black background yet.
so these are going for a spray job.






so this is after the spray job.....sorry for the blur pics...









okay, to hold those two things together, i will need something like a stand, hence, 6 acrylic stands were made and they will be screwed from both the top and bottom plate.





as for the screws, i used 4mm stainless steel rounded allankey screws.
so this is the window mod which shows the bottom of the HDD....


This post has been edited by AllnGap: Sep 13 2006, 02:54 PM

i used the same screws for the 40mm fan as well......

the pic shows the top and front panel of the external HDD....
did you notice it's still missing the yellow UV which i mentioned before ?





okay, on the left is the white SMD LED which is going to light up the window side while 1 of the 3 sets of the blue SMD LED will be used to light up the yellow UV acrylic.





The yellow UV acrylic is added on the top panel and it will be lighted by using LEDs...






the LED that i'm holding will be running on 5V line while the blue LED on the 12V line.
it will be connected later





okay, basically, i want to make the UV yellow sheet glow, so how to do it ?

i will add LEDs to shine from the side of the acrylic,

but in order to obtain a uniform colour or brightness distribution, the light source must not be from a focus beam such as LEDs.
thats why you see in laptops, the screen is lighted up using CCFL because the light is more uniformly distributed.

but i just added a set of 4 SMD LEDs into it....dint bother so much.

to prevent light from escaping from the UV yellow acrylic, i used reflective sticker to cover every part of the acrylic, including the side.
The blue SMD LED is also covered in this layer so that all the light will shine outward only.





This post has been edited by AllnGap: Sep 13 2006, 03:06 PM

this is the top plate which is viewed from front





this is the bottom plate which is viewed from the rear.





okay, this is the bottom casing, as you can see there's a window there, and on the right there's an PCB which holds the 13x white SMD LED....
the 2x 40mm fan is blowing from the front and air will escape through the rear.





this is the molex power from the adapter that i've modified so that i can tap the 5V and 12V out of there.



This post has been edited by AllnGap: Sep 13 2006, 03:17 PM

I did this before but with glass, being in Sarawak, dunno where to purchase cheap acrlyic so went over to my friend's place (He cut's glass).

Bought a cheap PCB online, and also used 2x40MM fans. Maybe I'l ltake some pics later...

did it with glass? wont it break easily??

Yeah, i was about to ask the same question also...

woot? glass? u must be kidding me!

show us more pix, cant wait.

share some pic wif us liaw .

sama kampung with me

Cant wait to see AllnGap's crazy acrylic work. But I dont have a single idea wth he drew there.

Did u ever try to find at advertisement/signage shop or the shop that make car plate number? At Kuching, I found 1 shop selling this acrylic stuff in tranparent color, blue, red and so on. Just 4 info.

Allngap...will u be using your nazi led moded fans? that would be super cool!!!

okay, here are the final pics....


















This post has been edited by AllnGap: Sep 15 2006, 01:27 AM

reserved......will elaborate when i'm free....

i will update the nite shots tonite.....charging camera battery now......

i welcome any comments !!!

nice one there dude.
may i ask how u made the holes?
jiggysaw?

it's hole cutter....and go slowly or else it will rip the acrylic to pieces