2006 Cooler Master Mod Competition

lozza · 17 Oct 2006 at 12:35

Ok so paint stripper and white spirit are now my best friends - the panels are reclaimed

whats the best way to clean the panels? is hot soapy water enough or would meths or something else be requiered?

lozza · 17 Oct 2006 at 22:01

dark_shadow said:
Ichabod may drop out ¬.¬

Come on OcUK get your rears into gears!

He already said he was out, but with the extention hopefully he'll reconsider

lozza · 17 Oct 2006 at 23:23

R B CUSTOMS said:
eeek no !!

no white spirits mate !
use washign up liquid in warm water ( you meant to use 'pannel wipe' but you wont have any of that lol ) avoid white spirit, meths etc !!

RB

had to use white spirit it was the only way i could get the grey primer totally off.

I did have panel wipes which i got from halfords. but the last were used up today - i'll get some more on thursday.

So what should i do to make sure that all the white spirit is off and not left anything behind, i have washed the panel in warm soapy water

lozza · 18 Oct 2006 at 00:02

R B CUSTOMS said:
just giev it a good cleaning with soapy water. its the best you can do tbh.

pannel wipe and pannel wipeS are different. pannel WIPE is a liquid wax and grease remover. whilst pannel WIPES are probobly the halfords rip off for 'tack rags'

( unless ive gotten the wrong end of the stick )

Probably are a rip off but it does say:

Water based pre-saturated wipe. Ensures the surface area is free from all traces of dust, grease and other contaminates

Hmm 5ltr cans of "panel wipe" pre-paint wipe for £16 at auction

lozza · 18 Oct 2006 at 09:05

ichabod crane said:
ok well i had a dream last night, and ive come up with a resolving idea. so if i get started this weekend i could still be in the game

Fantastic! get going!

My anodised panels came back today and i'm well pleased, i'll get some pictures up later.

I've also just ordered some billet fan grills from the US after talking with Messiah khan last night

lozza · 18 Oct 2006 at 17:21

messiah khan said:
Good stuff. So the dodgy looking bits on the pics were just dirt i presume? So does it look spot on then? And those billet fan grills will look seriously nice against the blue, especially wit hre white leds etc.

i think maybe just flash or light as the panel is perfect on the front, on the rear there is a silver bit still, but thats no big deal it wont be seen.

The colour really looks good with the painted panels - they compliment each other very well i think.

Was going to order some extra billet fan grills but they only had 3 in stock.

Off out in a bit but promise i'll put some pictures up tonight!

lozza · 18 Oct 2006 at 23:45

gr1mey said:
Ive used that plastikote spray before, and it is soft, make sure you buy a couple cans of clear laquer and give it a nice few coats of that and it will seal the paint making it really quite durable.

I got plastikote clear, but as you say it's soft - so may get some other stuff but again worried about reactions.

Rick - Where would i get panel wipe, i.e what should i search yel.com for as i don't think i'll ever get through 5ltrs

lozza · 19 Oct 2006 at 21:43

The pictures of the anodised blue panel i promised:

Showing the colour next to the PSU case

Showing the colour next to the top panel, sorry about blury pic

Today i purchased some white LEDs as well so that will be my next step while i await better weather to spary the side panels again

lozza · 19 Oct 2006 at 23:20

R B CUSTOMS said:
kudos for the white LEDs im sick of seeing blue ones lol

Well i thought it would be too much over kill on blue lol - but hey guess what they aren't even white anyway they are bluedy bloooooooo

So another luch hour spent in some useless electronics store to get them change - but they will say we can't change tehm as we have no way of knowing if they work or not - good job i testet them before soldering

lozza · 25 Oct 2006 at 00:08

Small update - LEDS are swapped they are now a lovely bright white.

Billet grills arrived today - not quite what i was expecting on the looks front, i'll try and get some pictures up tomorrow, and too big to use on the dual 80mm fans

Tomorrow i'm going to start priming the side panels again hopefully :eek:

lozza · 25 Oct 2006 at 00:47

blooooooo - i don;t know i just asked for blue and thats what i got - i really like it

lozza · 25 Oct 2006 at 22:39

Progress report - Front panel has been sent off to get laser engraved.

- side panels have now been primed again - they will require a rub down before the colour goes on (fingers crossed)

- PSU and Top panel have been finished off and clear laquered. currently drying off

- Awaiting a quieter fan to put into the PSU before fixing it back together

- optical drive arrived that i wasn't expecting which is handy as i don't have to take one from my existing comp.

- about to order white led fans

I really need to start on the project log as well

lozza · 26 Oct 2006 at 19:09

The engraving has been done - it's silver, the natural Alu colour, i think

Teaser picture of the test engrave:

The image isn't that clear, but it has been done on the back and the finish of the Alu isn't as good on the back as it is on the front. I should have the panel back tomorrow (very quick turn around) so will do some more pictures

lozza · 26 Oct 2006 at 22:38

212 said:
What colour are you painting the panels?

See here

lozza · 27 Oct 2006 at 22:49

So more pictures to update on,

Firstly the billet fan grill - i got 3 of these with the plan to use one on the top blow hole and the other two on the rear, however, they are not quite big enough to fully cover the slots already in the top panel (as you'll see in the picture) and are slightly too large to fit together next to eachother on the back (i've already cut ut and drilled holes so can't change it now so that was a total waste of £30 getting them shipped over from the US - never mind!

The panel has been engraved and looks excellent - has come out a white colour, sorry for crap pictures but i was trying to get a close up:

lozza · 27 Oct 2006 at 23:01

messiah khan said:
You resprayed the side panel yet?

Nope only primed it, Will try and get over my dads at some point over the weekend to sand down, prime some more, sand down again and hopefully get a layer of colour on. Then maybe able to get the second coat of colour on on wednesday and a clear coat

lozza · 27 Oct 2006 at 23:15

Well the good thing about laser engraving is that it just burns away the anodising so if something did go wrong or there was a spelling mistake then i could just get it anodised again

lozza · 27 Oct 2006 at 23:29

212 said:
Are you going to mod a 120mm fan in the front? Like the TJ-03 cases?

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/tj03/interior/tj03.jpg

Check the front fan placement, they just cut out the HDD mounts.

Maybe a cut at the bottom for some extra air for the fan?

not sure what the point of a 120mm fan is if there is only an 80mm gap - as i wouldn't attempt to make the hole in the front of the case bigger.

There is already a cut in the bottom of the 201 as standard, so that's not really a mod - what you see here is just the stuff i can show without ideas getting copied for the mod comp, there are a couple of things i'm keeping under my hat, they will be revealed once my log has been submitted to CM

lozza · 28 Oct 2006 at 20:56

<De@thW!sh> said:
i would have thought IPA (Isopropyl alcohol) would have been a good cleaner, we go through barrels of the stuff at my place on all the equipment and i work in a microchip cleanroom wafer fab.

Leaves nothing behind.

yeah it's good stuff i use it at work too, but not sure if it's any good with paint though

lozza · 7 Nov 2006 at 19:05

gt_junkie said:
Any more progress Harib0?

gt

Actually yes, it was much milder today and so i have managed to get the side panels painted up, - just need to laquer them now i also received a shipment form Cooler Master NL yesterday which amoung other things had my new Light conduct lens' (the plastic bit that goes in the led holes onthe front panel) as i broke the other ones when trying to remove them for anodising.

Still awaiting my white led fans, should have had them last thurdsday but they sudenly went out of stock! still have the blue ones as a fall back.

I need to start doing the log now, so watch out a for a log!