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