Building Your Own Case - 2023 Edition

[BigAl01]

I'm looking for some new case design ideas for a build in the summer to fall of 2023.  I have a few ideas of items that could be used to house computer components, such as an old Klipsch subwoofer or perhaps an old cooler from the Boy Scout days of the 1990s.  I feel confident in modding an existing device, but not so much in constructing a new case out of wood or things of this nature.  I like the 'appliance' idea, but it would help to have lots of suggestions from fellow modders.  Below is that old subwoofer I mentioned, which would just barely be big enough to house a micro-ATX motherboard and a graphics card.  Where the woofer is currently located, I would probably apply a wire mesh to help with ventilation.

Do you have some ideas for me to consider?  Keep in mind that I have several months to think about this.  If there is an idea that sounds good to me but I don't have the item on hand, then it will take time to find it - that's one reason to start thinking about this now.

It would be a tight fit, but this subwoofer might work.

[petosiris]

I didn't knew we could attend the Steampunk competition, since we knew about it before it was announced and also voted for it.  Good luck anyway!

[BigAl01]

Well, we are not getting paid by AMD, being volunteers.  I asked about that when I agreed to become a volunteer moderator last year.  We are not part of the judging in any way.  Our submission is just like one coming from other Red Team members.  Our only advantage was hearing about it earlier, so technically we got a head start if we wanted to build to this theme.  But the contest does run until the end of September 2023 anyway, so an early start really won't make a difference.  

Today I was working on a vacuum tube clock, one that I had bought several years ago.  It's hard to read the display (no internal lighting in the tubes), so I need to supplement the lighting.  It was my wife Sandra that got it to program correctly - very confusing with the mode and set buttons.  Yes, I did replace the watch battery it runs on.  

One new watch battery and it powered up. I'm trying to find the ideal placement for this vacuum clock.

[petosiris]

It looks nice!

What are you going to have in the treasure chest / jewelry box, if anything?
And where did you get the screw stickers and other steampunk parts?

[BigAl01]

Nothing will be in the jewelry box except the USB cables from the two Pentode USB drives.  There isn't much room in there and it isn't accessible with the glass side panel on.

I've been experimenting with the gears I bought.  As for them and the stickers, I used mostly Etsy for the gears and stickers, although gears, the hat and other items came from Amazon.  

I'm looking at ways to mount the gears that won't damage the case glass.

[BigAl01]

Well, I am mistaken @petosiris !  There is a use for the small amount of room in that jewelry box after all.  I decided to add a blue LED (well, 3 blue LEDs in one package) light to illuminate the vacuum tube clock.  It helps a little bit but that clock will always be hard to see and that's why I had set it aside a few years ago.  However, the blue illumination does look kind of cool and I'm a sucker for LED lighting.  So I had to install another PSU cable, this one having the old Molex connectors on it.  You see, this LED light comes from a long ago procurement, maybe 10 to 15 years.  I have boxes of stuff I never used during my early modding days and I just can't throw the stuff out.  

Let's see what else I can stuff into this jewelry box... Ok, the blue LED light works. Back in place, it does provide more illumination for the vacuum tube clock. System picture. I like how 'Steampunk Lives' came up in the Matrix screensaver.

[BigAl01]

I'm having a difficult time with the small gears to enhance my Steampunk theme.  While they can look decent mounted to a thin sheet of clear plastic, I thought I could expand that and create an 'AMD' spelling with the gears.  I made an AMD template and put the plastic sheet over it before gluing down the gears.  Then I pulled away the template but it's kind of hard to make out the AMD letters.  

My first try doesn't look bad.... Here's the gears mounted to the plastic sheet on top of my template. But here is the plastic sheet without the template, hanging behind the glass above the video card.

[petosiris]

I like your idea of the AMD gear letters but, yes, it's a little hard to read.  Maybe you could use copper plates as background, just as the black lettes in the template (middle picture).

About the treasure chest, you could fill up the empty space inside with pirate gold coins?  Just so it doesn't look so empty I mean.  And it'll also hide the cables at the bottom.

About the blue LEDs, I think it'd look better if the cables where routed below the treasure chest and the LEDs rested  / were glued on the base of the clock.  As it is now, the power cables are too visible IMO.

[BigAl01]

I like the idea of the gold coins.  I was thinking, 'Yea, where am I going to find gold coins?", but your link to Amazon meant that I had them ordered in a minute.  They should arrive on Friday, 07 July 2023.  Now, the jewelry box needs to remain closed with the Pentode USB drives mounted in the top, but maybe I can have it cracked open a bit with some coins spilling out?

The wire is kind of short for that LED, but I can look into running it underneath the jewelry box.  That's a good idea.  As for the gears and copper plates, maybe what I need to do is find something else to glue the gears to and hang behind the tempered glass.  I'm trying to avoid damaging the tempered glass if I can.

[petosiris]

@BigAl01,

As for the gears and copper plates, maybe what I need to do is find something else to glue the gears to and hang behind the tempered glass.

The problem with the gears is that they make bad letters because they're big and full of see-though holes.  If they were smaller and you used more of them, it'd be easier to see the shape of the letters.  Also if you used something which were more solid, like the gold coins, it'd be easier to see the letters AMD.

But you still had to find a way to hang them up without gluing them to the glass.  Maybe you could glue the letter tops to the three keys and use thin and strong fish string and hang everything by the keys.  The problem with hanging glued things is that the glue might melt if the temp gets too high in the case, for instance if the sun shines on the glass.  It depends on the glue type how resistent it is to melting, I guess.

You could also put the gears into the treasure chest, together with the rest of the gold coins.  I think that'd look great in the chest.

[BigAl01]

I'm leaning towards your solution of putting gears and the pirate gold coins in the chest, having them spill out into the case.  The pirates gold coins arrive tomorrow so we'll see what I can come up with this weekend.  I need to submit my entry into that Steampunk contest soon....

I love prizes!