Comments on: Shiny!

Shiny!

Mitheral — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:38:18 -0800

Like shiny things? Bill Owen has a step by step tutorial on getting a mirror paint finish on objects with paint and wax.

By: sixswitch

sixswitch — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:48:39 -0800

Nice find. Unfortunately it seems to take about two months start to finish...wouldn't it be easier to actually use a mirror?

By: DU

DU — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:51:21 -0800

Yeah, this seems like a lot of work. Why not use, say, a piece of acrylic mirror? Also: s/objects/flat metal/g;

By: bizwank

bizwank — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:53:40 -0800

Case modding is not about doing things the easy way. Any schmuck could stick a mirror on there, and then it'd look like a PC with a mirror stuck to it.

By: DU

DU — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:59:30 -0800

Right, sorry. What I meant to say was: "Pretty cool--now I just need a way to gold plate the screws and I have the perfect machine."

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:03:39 -0800

Two months making your computer case look shiny, but a lifetime of annoyance at the fingerprints and grease smudges it subsequently shows.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:05:27 -0800

DU writes "Why not use, say, a piece of acrylic mirror?" Your object isn't always flat, like say the front of the case on this mod. It's essentially impossible to apply a mirror to anything with a compound curve.

By: sotonohito

sotonohito — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:06:44 -0800

I always like looking at cool casemods, but I'm too utilitarian to want to spend the time or money to actually do any. Still, its amazing to see how *MUCH* time and effort this guy put into it. Its quite impressive.

By: atrazine

atrazine — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:15:47 -0800

Quarter size drop (size of CPU chip) ... I like how he explains the size of a quarter using a cpu chip as a reference.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:29:35 -0800

but is his carnuba wax bespoke?

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:33:09 -0800

As a guy who spent $10,000 for a really tricked out 486 back in the day, I feel for these guys 18 months from now, when their whole computing platform has been obsoleted.

By: backseatpilot

backseatpilot — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:37:13 -0800

I feel for these guys 18 months from now, when their whole computing platform has been obsoleted. Aluminum sheet metal has the advantage of not following Moore's Law.

By: Kiwi

Kiwi — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:37:49 -0800

There seems to be a fair bit of polishing about this week....

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:42:09 -0800

That's nothing. I put my computer under the desk and it looks totally invisible!

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:44:56 -0800

That's really incredible. The amount of work (and surprisingly necessary attention to detail considering it's a flat finish) that he put into it is impressive. He's basically demonstrated how to make your box even shinier than an auto finish, which is sweet as hell. It's nice to see that people can make boxes as nice as the VoodooPC ones for a tenth the cost.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:45:28 -0800

> It's essentially impossible to apply a mirror to anything with a compound curve. I don't know about that. There aren't any steps in that process that you couldn't do without power tools -- it would just take a lot longer. Just remember that a lot of thin coats are better than a thick coat.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:51:17 -0800

Aluminum sheet metal has the advantage of not following Moore's Law. Yeah, but the new motherboards don't fit the old format. (Maybe today's the day to throw out that stack of black anodized rack-mounted cases with 5" floppy bays.)

By: substrate

substrate — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:51:42 -0800

It'd be a cool thing to do with a guitar body, never mind case modding.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:54:37 -0800

ATX cases are probably the PC component that's changed least over the years. You could still take most cases from 1998 and build a modern PC inside. So a "riced out" case isn't such a fruitless endeavour. My own PC is basically a pile of junk hanging out of a half-busted case, but that's the æsthetic I was going for...

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:26:56 -0800

As a guy who spent two weeks last winter obsessively polishing his cranks (insert joke here) I appreciate his dedication. Even if it's not my cup of Kool-Aid.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:37:12 -0800

"a mirror paint finish on objects" Caution: does not work on turds.

By: yort

yort — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:38:07 -0800

ATX cases are probably the PC component that's changed least over the years. Intel tried to change things with the BTX, but its big-ass integrated fan design proved unnecessary once it ditched the Netburst architecture direction and went with the present stuff. Hmm, it's been six months since my last system upgrade (I cannablized a pico BTX board-based system into a regular ATX desktop Lian Li case) . . . . wonder what's out there now.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:46:55 -0800

It's essentially impossible to apply a mirror to anything with a compound curve. You can use polished stainless steel though, which is close enough.

By: billyfleetwood

billyfleetwood — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:56:22 -0800

As a guy who spent two weeks last winter obsessively polishing his cranks (insert joke here) I appreciate his dedication. Even if it's not my cup of Kool-Aid. My roommate recently took on the project of cleaning a vintage bike frame he picked up in Japan. He had an allergic reaction to one of the polishes, broke out in a full body rash. When he woke up the next day, his eyes had swollen shut and he had to go to the hospital. None of which would have happened if instead of nasty chemicals, he had polished the bike with a glass of Chimay.

By: danb

danb — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:56:59 -0800

Yet further proof that there is no correlation between impracticality and awesomeness.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:19:33 -0800

...if instead of nasty chemicals, he had polished the bike with a glass of Chimay. Only Chimay blue may be used for this purpose, avoid red or white.

By: Lou Stuells

Lou Stuells — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:47:17 -0800

I think I shall do this to my car.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:29:51 -0800

ardgedee writes "I don't know about that. There aren't any steps in that process that you couldn't do without power tools -- it would just take a lot longer. Just remember that a lot of thin coats are better than a thick coat." I guess I phrased that wrong. What I meant is it's essentially impossible to take a sheet of acrylic mirror and cut it to fit a compound curve. You can sort of do it with a bunch of small pieces but you'd have dozens of seams that would look like smeg. Lou Stuells having cut polished a few cars over the years I hope you have lots of time. And then please post pics.

By: sneebler

sneebler — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:17:52 -0800

I would have thought that after all that obsession to detail there'd be fewer spelling mistakes. cf. turds above.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:02:12 -0800

Caution: does not work on turds. hikaru dorodango.

By: milkrate

milkrate — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:11:06 -0800

I think I shall do this to my car. Chrome it!

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:36:24 -0800

He is probably just compensating for his tiny video card.

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:48:53 -0800

I think I shall do this to my car. Chrome it! My friend got to drive this car at a performance shop in Scottsdale. He said it was really unnerving. So many people were gawking at the car that they were slamming on the brakes and swerving all over the road. He came back right away because he thought he was going to get into an accident.

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:01:14 -0800

Shit. This car.

By: Lou Stuells

Lou Stuells — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:04:06 -0800

I suppose that could be problematic. Sure would make a 98 S70 volvo sedan look spiffy, though!

By: Mnpctech.com

Mnpctech.com — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:59:46 -0800

More of my case mods on YouTube @ StickyCarpet, Don't feel sorry for me. Case Modding has been an established hobby for several years now. It continues to grow and adapt to whatever the current hardware platforms will be regardless of size. I was asked by the pc modding community to write this tutorial. Theres many kids out there without the proper tools and paint equipment, so I broke the tutorial down to the simplest solution to accommodate everyone. remember, this was enamel paint which has longer cure time, not like lacquer. You can speed up the cure time if you have the proper paint curing equipment. Mnpctech.com Case Mods Thank you for the plug Metafilter, Bill Owen