Create the Illusion of H2O in your PC

[Volund]

With so many case mods out there, window kits, neon lights and the works there hasn't been any mod that has stuck out. One of our visitors has submitted his guide to making his case have the illusion of being submerged in water! Complete with materials and steps, easy enough for a novice, challenging enough for the intermediate case modder! Here are the materials needed for this mod:

• Two equally sized pieces of glass, lexan, or plexi-glass. Keep in mind that this material should be at least 1 inch larger in width and height than the finished hole in your case will be and need not be excessively thick.
• One tube of plumbers goop

• Window screen framing, just be sure that it is at least as long as the perimeter of one piece of glass. So for a 12 inch by 24 inch piece of glass, you need 6 feet of framing with no margin of error. I would recommend getting a little extra just in case.

• Spline, if you look at one of your screen doors, it’s that rubber cord that is holding your screen to the frame. Just make sure it is as long as the aluminum frame above.

• The syringe type thing you give children medicine with. This will be used to fill the tank once it is all together.

• Window screen frame joints.
• Something to cut the frame with. Tin snips, a hack saw, or a dremel should do fine.
• 3 feet of ¼ inch fish tank air tubing. You may need more or less for your application. I would recommend getting several feet then cutting it to length after it is installed in the case.
• A fish tank air pump. It really doesn’t need to be too powerful.
• Drill with a ¼ inch bit
• A small nail for puncturing the air tube.
• A black marker.
• A ton of PATIENCE.

By now you should have a good idea as to where you want your window or maybe you have a window you are thinking of upgrading. Wherever your window ends up just be sure that you have some extra clearance between the top of your cards and the side of your case. No more than an inch of clearance should be needed. Also you need to make sure that the window will not intrude with the function of removing the side panel. Oh, and the actual cut out will be smaller than the window glass. This will cover up any mistakes of getting overly excited with the goop. After you have decided where and how big your window will be, go down to your local hardware store and purchase the material.

THE FRAME
Construct a frame out of the aluminum framing and the frame joints slightly smaller than the glass is large. The glass should overlap the frame by about 1/8 of an inch on all sides when placed on top. You might want to trial fit all the pieces before you start gooping. When you are sure that the frame is perfect, put some goop on the plastic joints and put the frame together.

THE TUBING
After the goop has completely cured, drill a ¼ inch hole at the top of the frame. This hole is only so that the air pumped in has somewhere to go and will be vertical with the floor. Also drill a ¼ inch hole on the side of the frame at the bottom. The hole should open up flush with the bottom-inside of the tank, or at least as close as possible. This hole is for the tube to get into the tank and work its magic. This should be parallel with the floor. Note that you do not have much of a margin of error from side to side hear so you might want to practice first.

Now take some goop and run it around the side of the frame without the slot for the spline, and press the glass into the goop paying attention not to cover the areas that you drilled the holes. This needs only to be enough to hold the glass in place in order to get things lined up. It does not yet need to be able to hold water. Remember to first remove the protective film from the side if you are using plexi or lexan.

While that is curing, measure a section of the air tubing equal to the inside edge of the bottom of the frame, and mark it with your marker. BUT DON’T CUT IT. Mark a straight line down the side of the measured section of tubing so that you can be sure the holes will point up and not spiral around the tube.

Puncture this length of tubing on ONE side every so often (The more holes you make the more bubbles you get. The bigger the holes are the bigger the bubbles are. You be the judge.). When you are finished goop the end of the tube shut so that the air is forced through the holes you just made.

After all the above has cured, snake the tube through the ¼ inch hole in the frame then goop along the bottom inside edge of the tank. The holes you punctured in it should all face toward the top of the tank. Also snake a 6 inch piece of tubing through the top hole.

Goop around the tubing where it meets the frame. This is so that the tube won’t rub a hole in itself from the sharp corner and doesn’t need to be completely sealed. Also run a small bead of goop along the bottom of the tank to tack the air tube to. You don’t want the thing to move once it is all together.

Once you are happy with the way it looks (you cleaned up any stray goop before it dried right?), you must wait. Give the goop plenty of time to dry. It would suck if you came this far just to have the fumes of the goop fog your glass. Ok we are almost done. Promise. The hard part is completed.

Run spline around the frame, there should be a slot for it on the open side of the frame if you bought the right kind and followed the directions above. Just be sure that it doesn’t stick out of the frame anywhere, or it will be hard to get this thing sealed. I know it seems that this step is worthless and you are right. I found, though, that is much easier to fill this opening with spline than to fill it with goop.

Remove the protective film from one side of your glass and place it over the open side of the frame. Pull the plastic away from the edges on the other side. Goop that bad boy. Make certain that it is sealed. Goop around both air tubes and make certain that they too are sealed. Let this cure before attempting to seal the other piece of glass. If you were to flip it over to seal the other side you would risk misalignment of the glass on this side. Once cured, seal the other side and let it cure. Remove the protective film on both sides.

There we have it. Now just fill it through the top hole and let it sit. You may find that you sealed it properly the first time, but then again it is going into your computer.

Happy with the results? Go ahead and start cutting your computer. Make certain that the opening you cut is at least ½ inch smaller on all sides than the glass. This will make it so you can not see the frame from any angle and is the key to the illusion that the computer is filled with water. I won’t go into how-to on cutting your case, but will remind you to measure twice cut once. Connect the pump and amaze your friends.

from GideonTech.com Case Modification -

[Serverman]

You wanna fix the pictures?

[Volund]

I don't get it... they work fine for me...

go to the original site link for now, I'll work on em later.

[Serverman]

It says illigal hotlink, stop stealing bandwith
You have a link wich goes directly to the page?

[Volund]

yeah, it's showing up for me as a problem now... I'll fix it in a bit.

[Volund]

Images fixed.