f13.net

He was going for the whole steampunk look, I think it came out pretty damn good for his first try.

The spigot knob on the front is the CPU fanspeed controller.

He's ordering some brass claw feet for it too.

Working on a keyboard next, and probably a few monitor casings.

Thoughts, comments, ideas, etc are all appreciated.

You dad's a nerd. :awesome_for_real:

Damn. Nice case. I might have gone with a red light instead of blue, but other than that, it's sleek. Make sure you post pics once the claw feet are on!

The light is either coming off or going green, we're trying to figure out if we can cut off the blue light on the power supply, too.
They were already there, fans or somesuch iirc, and we forgot about them.

Also, anyone know what the going rate is for cases like this?  Could use some extra cash for umm...textbooks..yeah...textbooks.

Most of the hand-made casemods seem to go for $300 to $500., from what I've seen.  Strangely, steampunk casemods seem to be very rare (eBay shows none at all, Google shows mostly a couple of examples, reported repeatedly).  My only suggestion would be a couple of analog needle gauges showing temps, or maybe just one for case ambient temp and another that flicks back and forth with HD access.  Most of the ones I found through Google seem way over-done, stuff stuck on to make them look more archaic but just making them look cluttered.

--Dave

If it is steampunk, shouldn't it be water-cooled?

Nah it should have a big pair of bellows, hissing ominously  :drill:

Nice case :)

How old is Cujo?

That's Bayer, he's probably 5 or 6, give or take 3 years.  Absolutely vicious too, his breath could strip paint, and he just loooves to get in your face.

Also about 20lbs if the picture makes him look bigger than he is, he's due for a haircut as well.

Hammered copper for the paneling would look good, along with, as was suggested earlier, analog gauges.

Your dad is adorable!  I want to scratch his tummy!

That is a sweet case! What kind of set up does he have to make them?

That case is shit hot.  :drill:

Suspending the case over 1/4 in. rectangular frame tubing might look cooler, since the claws may not go with the smooth look your Pop has created.

a saw and a drill?  probably has a tape measure too!

Please post a pic when those are intact.  That's just awesome.

I wish my dad's computer hobby resulted in things that looked that good - mine just orders cheap broken laptops off of eBay and rebuilds them into Frankenstein's monsters. I guess it keeps him out of my mom's way in his retirement, but I wish he'd stop bugging me to raid the company recycling room before I go visit them. :roll:

awesome.  That's a father to be proud of.  Truly well done.

Get him to make you the monitor and keyboard (http://steampunkworkshop.com/lcd.shtml) that go with it!

(http://steampunkworkshop.com/images/M19.jpg)

That Keyboard is awesome

I have a sudden urge to try to find an old typewriter and steal its keys.

Fuck that whole setup is awesome. I need it.

The keyboard is nice looking maybe as a novelty or a knick knack or something, but I can't imagine that it's all that nice to type on.

This steampunk case mod is on boingboing today: http://www.datamancer.net/archbishop/archbishop.htm


That keyboard is mentioned by a novelist on the above link: "I have one of Datamancer's steampunk keyboards at my office and it's just fantastic -- a clicky-clacky pleasure to write on."

I don't want to clickity clackity when I write.  I'm sure he's just forcing himself to enjoy it because it looks nice.  Although I would enjoy a good steampunk atmosphere in an MMO, or enjoy looking at steam punky thingies people make, I also don't want a bunch of steam punky looking stuff lying around my house.  I think I've mentioned it before but I'm not a very "collection" oriented person.  I keep my house as minimal as I can, with just a few treasures collected here and there.  Collections = Dust.

Clicky clicky is the only way to write.

Longhand ftw!

I miss the old 'clicky' IBM keyboards.  Those were awesome.

Oh wow, one of those steampunk keyboards is made out of Das Keyboard clicky switches.   :drill:

I used to clicky clicky to write, too, but that was olden days.  Keyboards are easier now.  Easier is better, in my opinion.  I don't want the olden days back.

Keyboard finished tonight, fully functional but I prefer my standard keyboard, just not used to the keys etc yet.

(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/86041/P1000869.JPG)
(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/86041/P1000868.JPG)

I would gut it and redo the "wood." I like the keys though.

The "Panic' key was a nice touch.

Did your dad do that or was it purchased?  Because that's a pretty sweet keyboard (aesthetics wise not functionality) and he could probably make some money selling those.

He made both the keyboard and the case, but that will be the last keyboard we do.  We could have done 20 cases or more in the time it took to knock out that one keyboard.

They're both for sale too, although it looks like one of the doctors my brother works for is going to snatch them both up.

This.  Also the keyboard is pretty awesome, what is the material below the keys?

A real thin vinyl IIRC

Next stop! Steampunk Laptops!

(http://www.geekologie.com/2006/10/13/streampunk-laptop.jpg)

This one looks softer:

(http://rootbg.net/assets/images/strange_laptop.jpg)

And less annoying to type on.

The old man finally threw the keyboard up on Ebay, heres the link if anyone wants to watch -

http://cgi.ebay.com/Steampunk-USB-Keyboard_W0QQitemZ120313056089QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120313056089&_trkparms=72:1205|39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 (http://cgi.ebay.com/Steampunk-USB-Keyboard_W0QQitemZ120313056089QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120313056089&_trkparms=72:1205|39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14)

I would love to buy it can you tell me something though how noisy are the keys? and do you accept ISK as payment??  :why_so_serious:

You realize that Moki won the space-lottery.  He's probably selling ISK for real life hookers and blow.

Yeh well when he's finished with the high life he'll come crawling you just mark my words.

The keys aren't much noisier than my Microsoft ergo curved one, it's built on an HP so you could hammer on one of those for a comparison.  The key stem itself never changed, the tops were just cut off and the new ones epoxied on.

[gratuitous self promotion]
Case #2 done and up on ebay.  The keyboard went for $168, which was a bit disappointing, but still made a few bucks on it.
Also, since I just got fired, I'm planning on cranking a few of these out per week, so make your Christmas orders now!   :drill:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Custom-Antec-300-ATX-Case_W0QQitemZ120325613024QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120325613024&_trkparms=72:1205|39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

[/gratuitous self promotion]

I like it  :awesome_for_real: can't afford it  :uhrr:

$475 wat?

Joke post, rite?

(http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/355/hedonismbotli1.png)

He was pissed that the keyboard went for under $200 and wanted to set a high minbid on the case, I figure $300-400 is probably what they're going to end up going for.

I don't argue with old people, so it got listed for $475

Riiiiiiise from the dead!


Still bored.. now I have a keyboard....
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/86041/dad/P1010143.JPG)
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/86041/dad/P1010144.JPG)
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/86041/dad/P1010141.JPG)
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/86041/dad/P1010140.JPG)

How do you type on that? I still can't justify spending more than $20 on a keyboard because of much abuse crap they collect.

It's an IBM model M, the damned thing will last forever.

Edit: All of the typewriter keycaps can come off as well, so the color/font of the keys can be changed (somewhat - photo paper+punching lots of circles) easily.

Speaking of Model Ms, finally broke one.

Aren't you one of those people who has like 4 replacements for it in the closet in case of nuclear attack though?

How the heck did you break a Model M?  Throwing it at a roommate?

I probably owe him an apology.

(http://forums.f13.net/Smileys/classic/18.gif)

Model M finally defeated by schild's forehead? Well, not too surprising  :why_so_serious:

Left shift spring gave out, tried to fix it in a really lazy way, and that's the end of one of my Model Ms. Not particularly exciting. It was just a regular blue label one. My server keyboards and black labels are still fine.

I'm wishing I had bought more 7903's when they were still making them.  The one I'm using now is 10-12 years old and still going strong, but I only have one replacement.  Newer "split" ergonomic keyboards all have curved surfaces and/or unremovable front shelves.

--Dave