Project: Lanmunition

[DeadP1xels]

Project: Lanmunition
Ghetto Edition
YouTube- Project Lanmunition- Early Stages

Hey guys i've been holding this off for a little while to get a few updates under my belt

This is my casemod worklog for Project Lanmunition loosely inspired by other projects this is an ever evolving project that will only get better this is what i've called my "Ghetto edition" what this means is 95% of the materials used in this project will be stuff i have the only money i will spend is £8.50 on the case and possibly money on spray paint.

A few disclaimers before is start

-Im a very poor photographer many of the pictures where taken quickly and a few will be out of focus i apologize in advance but i try my best
-Some of the project you will find similiar to other ammo case pc builds but its very difficult to get past some similiaritys im trying to make it as unique as i can
-It is a joint project my dad is helping because he is the one with all the tools  :biggrin_mini:

Update 1

So one day i was walking into my local town when i saw a army surplus store and thought "I wonder what they have in there!?" after looking around i saw something very cool a 25mm hard plastic ammo case it seemed perfect for a themed mod project the best part of it was it was only £8.50

Heres the victim 25mm hard plastic ammunition case



After some boring lessons at college i decided to scribble down some concepts for the design sadly my scanner sucks so i had to take a picture of them but you get the idea



Runing across the case i noticed alot of damage, rust, dirt and grime almost like it had been through a war (wait a second...) anyway this was the first port of call before anything! i new the rusty latches where first the paint was flaking of in large pieces revealing thick rust even underneith the paint  :scratch_one-s_head:



its was really bad i started to wonder if i could be salvaged but i could'nt give up it was time to get out the wire brush after a little scrubbing large amounts of it was coming of but still some was being a pain and not wanting to leave my plan was to get down to bare metal this seemed a little hard when i first saw that latches time for some paint stripper!


this was like one hundred times better than what they where like at the start but still in a big mess!


after some more wire brushing it was time to bring out the big guns the angle grinder and sander  :diablo_mini:






after a little work it was finally looking good there was still light orange rust underneith in the next pictures but eventually that was gone  :i_am_so_happy:



Thats all for now folks ALOT! more to come

NOTE: the arms in the picture are my dads btw just so you know we're doing this project together

[DeadP1xels]

Back with some more updates
Update 3

Since we got the main outline done it was time to see where are system was going to fit being onlye a 233mhz cyrix it was'nt crucial really how it went in but we needed to know for when we upgrade

after moving everything back and forth we finally came to the conclusion nothing fit  :scratch_one-s_head: well it kinda did but the power supply was just to big in an ideal world i would be using a microatx psu but since this is a ghetto project we had to improvise since i suck with electronics it was time for my dad to step in being an electrician and all after tussling with the powersupply we finally came to the conclusion the only way we could do this and carry on with the project was removing it from its case

[color="#FF0000"]DISCLAIMER: Removing your power supply from its case is NOT a good idea i did not do this by myself my dad is a trained electrician and even he said this really was'nt a clever thing to do so if you try redo any of this project get a microatx psu! [/color]

just needed to put that in there  :i_am_so_happy:

anywho so on to the psu mods

first was removing from the case





Now it is very important to ground the powersupply this particular one (not so sure about others) was grounded to the case then it went from the case to the outlet



since the case was a very tight squeeze we needed somewhere to mount it that would'nt be in contact with any vital components because of the small space of the bottom of the case we figured it was best mounting the powersupply upside down and having the sticker mean't we could drill and bolt through hiding it when reapplying the original sticker



here it is mounted on bolts and using nuts as standoffs to position it just right


sorry for my poor pictures


while he finished of and made sure this thing would'nt blow us sky high i began prepping for the install first port of call was the clean down this case was rather dirty and even though it added to the look it was hardly practical look what i walked out to!
RAIN!!


but did that stop me from modding? Hell no i just grabbed on my coat and started scrubbing



damn this thing turned out to be more dirty than i expected you can see the murky water in the nooks and crannys on the case ignore the white thats just the flash reflecting of the water on the surface




i was sitting on a soaking wet step i decided it was time to call it a day i was'nt happy with the amount of cleaning but i could'nt feel my hands by then end of it i will have to do some more when it stops =[ so i left it to dry out and went back in

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/8075/18400493.jpg

i was pondering over the idea of putting some sort of design in the square of the case so i made a post luckily Dragon Gamer and Photoshop wizard came to the rescue and knocked up some designs for me that where just what i was looking for! i decided to go with Photoshop Wizards but will still be using Dragon Gamers later on in the project



here it is since i had no access to any kind of sticker machine i had to go makeshift i needed something good quality waterproof and solid so i decided to print it on photo glossy paper laminate it but im still finding some sort of sticky backed adhesive to stick it down semi permanent so i gave it a god at printing i needed it 10.5x10.5 to fit the square with a little gap around the edge annoyingly my wireless printer started acting up and i could'nt control it by my pc  :scratch_one-s_head:

Trying to make do i used a sd card and put it on there then printed using the photo option annoyingly i could'nt get it to come out the right size and everytime it wanted to cut a piece of the design off..




i gave up any of you guys now how i could print the design the right size without cutting stuff off??

after i gave up for the time being i noticed the rain stopped and went back to cleaning after it was time to put the pc on the bench and test if it was working we kinda expected it to fail because of all are moving around of the components but it worked fine  :i_am_so_happy:



for some reason the network card was having trouble under windows 98 (yeh i said windows 98) so we gave installing 2000 a go and worked fine obviously this is a temporary machine the whole project only costing £10.50 it was only designed to be a little project that could potentially evolve into something usable and powerful  :biggrin_mini:

one day im hoping to get a phenom 2 machine in here that will be the "Lanning Edition"

Not very inttresting but i'll leave you at that for now guys

[DeadP1xels]

Well time for an update i guess not much of an update though last thing i managed to get done is mount the powersupply in the case test the system and clean it next step was mounting inside the case and more work to the front panel

i figured it would be a smart idea to actually mount the fan in the test panel to see if it would be hitting anything inside


im still working on the front panel it needs alot of work im thinking of spraying it matte black when im done but still not sure this mod is generally improvised as i go through anyway back on topic

i went ahead and mounted the psu on the top of the case ready to insert the rest and test when i remebered the front panel


heres where the motherboard would fit i still need to create a back panel for the i/o and power supply connector but that will come a little later in the mod

good job i checked out that fan placement because trying to place it in i realized the friggen thing did'nt fit!

it was about 2 mm in the way of the psu and instead of budging it over that 2mm i decided to put it to the left this will leave room for my 7" psone lcd i will be adding later as soon as i get a new system with 2 outputs



from this angle it almost looks like the powersupply is touching the mobo but it is'nt its got plenty of room so don't worry about that im hoping to stick a secret weapon in the back also to kick the heat from these things into shape



Big fan =D this is a fan from a fan assited oven its brand new that my dad got for free this thing pulls alot of air and will keep this entire system as cool as a cucumber pulling cool air in from the front with the small 80mm and pulling all the hot air out from the rear uhhhhhhh 160mm? i may be wrong im pretty sure its bigger than 120mm the outer casing of it is aluminium so its pretty heavy duty



this will be the new position of the fan ignorantly i placed it on the wrong side image it underneith the keyswitch and the lack of hole in the center good job i made this mockup panel

Thats all for now i guess been busy with college but im getting some great ideas for this project in the process i'll keep you posted

[DeadP1xels]

Well been busy lately and have'nt got to much done but i think im going to a little more today but heres where got so far

motherboard has been mounted aswell as psu on bolts and some plastic spacers i made to stop the board warping when being moved



so themotherboard is mounted and psu next was the harddrive and it was going to be the same mounting method working with tight space and wanting to keep the i/o panel there was only one place to mount it and that included drilling holes in the top of my case



even though i was'nt so happy we managed to get it under the place a design was being placed but still.. it worked out great there was a good space between each component and they where placed securely with no risk of breaking falling or damage.



made a back panel to use the i/o panel and it worked out better than i expected little rough here and there but looked great and it was really deep the case because of how everything was mounted i could'nt beleive what had been squeeze between such a small space the case is pretty damn small by itself let along squeeze it into a smaller space



if you remeber right the front panel went a little wrong and did'nt fit because of the fan well that was fixed by moving the fan to the left so after doing we went ahead and done it to the front panel i think it turned out pretty darn good



last thing we done was cut a hole for the power plug this was important because we did'nt want this thing popping out nobody wants to be playing with mains voltages



the gaps around the edge will be sealed up to clean it up so does'nt look so rough

all i got for now but should be alot more to come need to wire up the front panel make sure the inside is all connected and working paint and some more cosmetics including Photoshop Wizards design also considering modding some spare peripherals to sit along next to it

[DeadP1xels]

Yay printed the design and it came out good not great but good just how i wanted it im going to test a few text colour schemes before i finally print it but i think yellow works best seeming the rest of the case has yellow text

Before

 
After






not stuck down because im still working on it =] i may fill in some of the gaps on the square so it sits flatter not sure

i want to fill the top part of the case with some form of sticker aswell to eat up that large blank space weres a few images i thought would sorta work feel free to post some more or make some if you feel up to it



Heres some images







Still need to carry on with rear panel paint the panels wire the panels and some extra bits then i can work on abit of aesthetics more to come i guess  :biggrin_mini:

[DeadP1xels]

Still nothing much done probebly get down there this weekend but heres some ideas i want you guys to help me with went back to the army surplus and picked up what i thought was a grenade carrier turned out to be ammo box carrier which makes more sense like what i went to look at last tinme but got the wooden one

anyway heres my idea seeming the whole system will be rather easily transported the rest is not im thinking of modding this for the lcd and peripherals top half mount the lcd in or have it on and be able to flip up bottom half line with foam and put mouse games etc then use the bars on the side to mount the keyboard




The paint is rather battered so im considering using the angle grinder down to bare metal and respraying matte black to match the case seeming it has no real histroical value





both pieces together



both pieces apart



and together the problem with this thing is it easily falls apart when put down on the ground so it needs to be held at all times to stay together if there was a ammo box in there it would probebly stay in one piece because its being supported



if my plan goes well i'll use this lcd

but i think it may be a little too big so i will have to mod the bezel the reason im using this one is because its insanely light meaning won't fall off and make the box any heavier than it already is!!

if not i will use this 17" its alot better res but alot heavier at that


with this camo i've had since the very beginning

draped and glued onto the bezel with maybe some form of sticker

i'll also be using this keyboard and mouse set not sure what i plan on doing to this maybe nothing we'll see

[DeadP1xels]

Monitor Mods 2

Done some work on the monitor today while i had some time got some emery cloth so went ahead and scuffed and prepped the metal for matte black

sanded a little



top and bottom done a little bit

and some more


then took a cloth thats a little damp and cleaned the dust off if you do this only have it a little bit damp else it will just wet it instead of picking up the dust

while i left them outside to dry i went and started prepping the monitor

completely forgot about cutting holes for cables so had to make sure it was all working first

ahh..

considered removing the mains power board but without any proper insulation underneith it would'nt work

cable management to get it all working right

much better

the power and reset needed to be mounted internally and with a spare rocker switch i could just extend them but before it needed to be properlly insulated with proffesional equipment

what is this wonderess material i speak of?

plastic insulation posistioned

pro tape job (temporary)

New switch

need a slot for the vga and a hole for the new switch here

and a hole for power here

by the time i got this done my neice was falling asleep with her head on the carpet so no drilling for me tonight


More to come i will probebly be painting tommorow and drilling so we should get the basics done.

[DeadP1xels]

Woops forgot to post monitor mods 1 !


Monitor Mods
Concept stages

Hey guys so you know i got the ammo carrier for a potential monitor mod well today i decided to put my concept to the test first was seeing if the monitor would fit with the bezel it was roughly the same size but when put together the bezel increase it a little too much so i decided to go into the undergrowth and take it apart i've tryed this once before and i cou;d'nt get it open to si thought i would end up having to cut the bezel off! lucky i managed to find a successful technique of prying it off with flat head scredrivers without damaging anything.



Heres the monitor with its rear off just disconnecting the not needed headphone and audio from the foot of the monitor and proceeded to take the rest of the screws out to get to the lovely lovely lcd underneith  :biggrin_mini2:



will have to find a new place inside the case and extent the power cables to turn the thing on else this will be quite pointless  :scratch_one-s_head:






could'nt beleive the fit the lcd is literally a millimetre smaller than the base sadly it will have to go into the base instead of the top but thats not problem theres a few features on the base that make this even better the top will still probebly be peripherals but they will have to go into another small box or something industrial velcroed to the top not sure yet we'll see.


could'nt sit perfect in the base because of the vga cable needs a little dremel work to make that sit nice but not to much trouble (i hope)


you see its pushed up one side but with a little work it will fit nice


CHECK IT OUT! Monitor stand! not as stable as i would hope but i can fix that with a little metal work should work perfect


bit to much of a tilt for my liking but nothing a makshift support won't fix im sure


EESH! BRIGHT! sorry but without it its impossible to see so heres the stand from the rear i plan on adding some rubber feel and weight support to the back to keep it steady but not so its taking away the look of the whole project




Concept of the design beleive me it will look 20x better when its done


more bending and dremel work to be done to this to make it sit inside like i want it


also here


once its done i'll be using this camo (like i always say) to drape around the bezel of the monitor using some form of temporary glue nice and tight so it does'nt block my viewing




Yeh i know its kinda crappy looking at the moment but ALOT of work needs to be done to it


finally the base with the top

List of things to be done
Test concept: [color="#00FF00"]DONE[/color]
Grind all paint from steel case: [color="#FF0000"]PENDING[/color]
dremel away cable holes / mounting areas: [color="#FF0000"]PENDING[/color]
paint matte black + yellow details for writing: [color="#FF0000"]PENDING[/color]
fix monitor bezel (paint/cover): [color="#FF0000"]PENDING[/color]
install monitor mounting: [color="#FF0000"]PENDING[/color]
finishing aestehtic touchs: [color="#FF0000"]PENDING[/color]

[DeadP1xels]

Sponsors
Im delighted to introduce my first sponsor to this project, Mnpctech.com! They will be sponsoring me with the following




Modder's Mesh
a sheet of 12" x 12" Round hole modders mesh


Mnpctech U channel Moulding
6ft of Mnpctech U channel moulding


"Overkill" 120mm Fan Grills
An "Overkill" Sniper fan grill

Big thanks to Bill for this!

[DeadP1xels]

Mini Update to all forums i have this on

The package from Bill turned up sadly i was out when it did and now its been sent back to the office.

luckily thats only a 5minute walk but i have to wait till monday now as i need to give them 24 hours for it to be sorted again will post a video on a very first unboxing of the stuff.

Just trying to keep this alive as i know i've been slacking ALOT! since around christmas time